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inmyriadbitsGoddamn it.
One thing. I just had to do one thing today--write my fucking paper--and I can't even do that. And now the media center is closed, so the only movie I have to work with is my copy of Singin' In The Rain, which means I can only do two of the prompts (if I even end up writing tonight, which isn't looking good, considering that I'm feeling that urge to curl up around my laptop and watch TV coming on), neither of which particularly grabs me.
And I feel stupid about everything I've said to people today, online and off, and I never called my sister back because I'm a bad person, and I feel stupid moping about when things aren't really that bad. I don't even seem to have enough aspiration to be really depressed and angsty about things, I'm just...mopey.
Film paper prompts:
1. Often a director will choose to tightly control the pacing of a film in very calculated, often abrupt ways. The 72 cuts of the shower scene in PSYCHO are followed by the "cleaning-up scene," during which time nearly grinds to a halt. Find other examples of abrupt transitions and prepare a close analysis of the pacing on either side of these changes. Discuss how they are constructed (not just in terms of cuts) and how these particular examples fit in with the film's over-all storytelling design. Choose one of the following: THE BIG SLEEP, ON THE WATERFRONT, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, PSYCHO, SOME LIKE IT HOT, PATHS OF GLORY.
2. CLOSE ANALYSIS: Select a scene lasting no more than 5 minutes from a film screened in class, and do a close analysis of how it expresses meaning through cinematic language (for example, the dinner scene between Norman and Marion in PSYCHO). Use your analysis to draw conclusions about the relationship of the scene to the rest of the film, and cite readings where appropriate.
One thing. I just had to do one thing today--write my fucking paper--and I can't even do that. And now the media center is closed, so the only movie I have to work with is my copy of Singin' In The Rain, which means I can only do two of the prompts (if I even end up writing tonight, which isn't looking good, considering that I'm feeling that urge to curl up around my laptop and watch TV coming on), neither of which particularly grabs me.
And I feel stupid about everything I've said to people today, online and off, and I never called my sister back because I'm a bad person, and I feel stupid moping about when things aren't really that bad. I don't even seem to have enough aspiration to be really depressed and angsty about things, I'm just...mopey.
Film paper prompts:
1. Often a director will choose to tightly control the pacing of a film in very calculated, often abrupt ways. The 72 cuts of the shower scene in PSYCHO are followed by the "cleaning-up scene," during which time nearly grinds to a halt. Find other examples of abrupt transitions and prepare a close analysis of the pacing on either side of these changes. Discuss how they are constructed (not just in terms of cuts) and how these particular examples fit in with the film's over-all storytelling design. Choose one of the following: THE BIG SLEEP, ON THE WATERFRONT, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, PSYCHO, SOME LIKE IT HOT, PATHS OF GLORY.
2. CLOSE ANALYSIS: Select a scene lasting no more than 5 minutes from a film screened in class, and do a close analysis of how it expresses meaning through cinematic language (for example, the dinner scene between Norman and Marion in PSYCHO). Use your analysis to draw conclusions about the relationship of the scene to the rest of the film, and cite readings where appropriate.
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Date: 2007-04-30 03:58 am (UTC)For the first prompt - I tried to find a copy of Psycho on the network, and I am deeply disappointed in my school's film nerds now. But YouTube had some clips I used to prod my memory. You could talk about the ending sequence (there's an altered version here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RbgcvrNCDQ), music only, and the final monologue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri64k4Y0gHA)). Faster cutting during the suspenseful sequence, long dolly in on the monologue. For Psycho, you could say the rapid changes in pace emphasize the horror/normal dicotomy in the movie (along with the other dicotomies: the two sisters, Norman/Mother, I'm sure there's some others you can fudge).
Not sure how long you need, but you could probably say something about point-of-view: in the suspenseful scenes, you want to limit what the audience sees (less knowledge=more scary), so there's POV shooting when the sister turns around Mother's corpse, when she approaches the door, etc. In contrast, the final scene has some wide exterior establishing shots, then the long shot of Norman that slowly becomes a closeup as the monologue progresses.
For the second, um. There's so many possibilities. One of the songs in Singin' in the Rain? Color, shot length, angles, costuming, lighting (not really sure what "cinematic language" entails - mise-en-scene or cinematography?). You can totally make shit up.