Film and media

of 5 CINE 288A Final Paper / Video Essay Fall 2024 Dates and Particulars Due: Sunday, December 8th by 11:59pm Length: 5-6 pages Format: .doc; .docx; or PDF Submission: Upload document to Brightspace via Turnitin [go to the “Assignments” tab and then click on “Final Paper”] Note: You’re welcome to make a video essay in place of your final paper, though it’ll need to be accompanied by a short paper that explains your approach to the video essay and how it ties in with concerns of the course. You must receive approval from the professor—by the end of October at the latest—in order to select this option, and specific requirements will be discussed at that time. Assignment Overview Option A In an essay that refers to at least five written sources, including at least three readings from this course, develop an in-depth, formal analysis of a key scene (or two) from one of the following films: • He Who Gets Slapped (dir. Victor Sjöström, 1924) • Un Chien Andalou (dir. Luis Buñuel, 1929) • The Mask of Fu Manchu (dir. Charles Brabin, 1932) • The Invisible Man (dir. James Whale, 1933) • Dreams That Money Can Buy (dir. Hans Richter, 1947) • Venom and Eternity (dir. Isidore Isou, 1951) • Howls for Sade (dir. Guy Debord, 1952) • The Day of the Triffids (dir. Steve Sekely and Freddie Francis, 1967) • The Castle of Purity (dir. Arturo Ripstein, 1972) • A Clockwork Orange (dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1972) • The Spook Who Sat by the Door (dir. Ivan Dixon, 1973) • Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975) • The Lorry (dir. Marguerite Duras, 1977) • Manhattan (dir. Woody Allen, 1979) • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (dir. Steven Spielberg, 1984) • Singapore Sling: The Man Who Loved a Corpse (dir. Nikos Nikolaidis, 1990) • Ghost Dad (dir. Sidney Poitier, 1990) • Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (dir. Roger Spottiswoode, 1992) • The Night (dir. Mohammad Malas, 1992) • Little Indian, Big City (dir. Hervé Palud, 1994) • Josh Kirby... Time Warrior! Chap. 2: The Human Pets (dir. Frank Arnold, 1995) • The Thin Red Line (dir. Terrence Malick, 1998) • The Idiots (dir. Lars von Trier, 1998) • Smart House (dir. LeVar Burton, 1999) • Timecode (dir. Mike Figgis, 2000) • Glitter (dir. Vondie Curtis-Hall, 2001) • Trouble Every Day (dir. Claire Denis, 2001) • Gerry (dir. Gus Van Sant, 2002) • The Cat in the Hat (dir. Bo Welch, 2003) • Turtles Can Fly (dir. Bahman Ghobadi, 2004) • The Wayward Cloud (dir. Tsai Ming-liang, 2005) • Grizzly Man (dir. Werner Herzog, 2005) • The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (dir. Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn, 2006) • Jackass Number Two (dir. Jeff Tremaine, 2006) • The Missing Picture (dir. Rithy Panh, 2013) • Angel Falls Christmas (dir. Jerry Ciccoritti, 2021) • Nope (dir. Jordan Peele, 2022) These films have not been (and will not be) screened in class. Should you elect for Option A, you’ll be responsible for finding a way to view your chosen film outside of class. You may write on any scene (or two) from the film that you choose, but your analysis should demonstrate, above all, how the film’s formal structure helps to convey its overall thematic concern(s). The analysis should be presented as an essay—not as notes or as a list. The essay itself should be coherent, incisive, and sensitive, with its insights following directly from a close reading of the text (i.e., film) in question. Since this is a close reading of a text, you should rely primarily on your own faculties of observation, though you should also bolster your observations with auxiliary material (“at least five written sources, including at least three readings from this course”). This assignment challenges you to exhibit command over matters of film form: visual design; composition; editing; sound design; etc. If the film wants to communicate an idea, how does its formal structure allow that idea to register more clearly with audiences than if it had been presented in some other way? Your argument should do more than simply list and describe multiple elements of film form—it should consider and articulate how those elements have been marshaled to achieve a particular effect. This means that your essay should include a strong, specific, and unique thesis that finds subsequent and robust support as the argument unfolds. Rather than using this thesis to make a broad, sweeping claim (either about cinematic history or society more broadly) you should use it to make a more localized and idiosyncratic argument about how a film’s formal structure affects or expresses its thematic concern(s). This is an analysis, not a film review. As such, you should avoid plot summary. Assume that your reader has seen the film and knows its particulars, and while a brief encapsulation of your chosen scene(s) may be useful, such an encapsulation should be woven into your analysis rather than detached from it. This is, ultimately, a short essay that will permit only so much elaboration. As a consequence, each of your sentences will need to do a lot of work, advancing the argument rather than filling up space. The same goes for the scene details that you choose to include. Be descriptive but discerning when selecting evidence to support your claims. Well-chosen evidence will make your essay look pristine and efficient; poorly chosen evidence will make it look crude and slipshod. Some simple questions to ask yourself, if you’re feeling stuck or incapable of going beyond plot summary (these questions are representative, not exhaustive): To what extent does the mise-en-scène seem to be motivating our attention, and to what end? What kind of lighting scheme has been used here? Is the lighting direction or intensity helping to convey a particular mood? In what ways might the film’s compositional style be distinct or notable in this scene? Does the scene’s sound design seem radically different from the sound design in other scenes? To what extent does the editing adhere to vs. diverge from established rhythms? Why might those editing rhythms have been sustained or deviated from? How are the performers relating to the setting, or interacting with the ensemble? Are they delivering dialogue way before or behind the beat? Which camera movements seem to be repeated for emphasis? Which shot scales or angles tend to be suppressed? Option B With support from at least one film and five written sources, including at least three readings from this course, produce an essay that responds to—or riffs on—any or all of the following prompts: • “The history of the living world can be summarized as the elaboration of ever more perfect eyes within a cosmos in which there is always something more to be seen.” • “The escape from madness is not a result of seeing the light, but rather of groping our way through the darkness without the smugness of those who see.” • “There is no vision without the screen. But what if there is something not to see?” • “What kind of image, when it is wanted, disappears?” • “Would the things around us look different if we carried our eyes in our hands, just as some animals have their visual organs at the end of long tentacles?” Option C In an essay that refers to at least one film and five written sources, including at least three readings from this course, research any course-related topic, determined in consultation with the professor. You must receive approval from the professor—by the end of October at the latest—in order to select this option. Requirements • You must submit your essay through Brightspace by the deadline. Prepare accordingly, as the deadline is firm and excuses will not be entertained. If you do not submit an essay by the deadline, you risk automatically failing the course. • Proofread your essay and format it neatly. Consistent grammatical/syntactical errors will weaken the efficacy of your argument; they will consequently lower the essay’s overall grade. • At the end of your essay, note the final word count. • Include an original title and your name. Number your pages. • Use a legible, 12 pt. font. • Use double-spacing. Additional Notes • Quick, logistical questions about this assignment can be addressed over e-mail. More substantive, essay-specific matters should be discussed during office hours. • E-mails sent within 48 hours of the due date may not receive responses. Plan accordingly. • I don’t read rough drafts or copy-edit your work-in-progress, but I’m always happy to talk through ideas, provide structural guidance, recommend rhetorical approaches, and kindle fruitful intuitions. In our discussions, the focus will be on process rather than on product. • Consider checking out the Writing Center: a free resource available to all Binghamton students (and to writers at every level). Visit the Writing Center website to consult its resources or schedule an appointment with a tutor: https://www(dot)binghamton(dot)edu/writing/writing- center/index.html Grading Overview Typically, an essay will fall into one of the following grade ranges: • A-range = the essay makes an intellectually provocative, rigorously analytical argument; it presents to the reader as well-wrought rhetorically, not to mention free from grammatical/syntactical errors; it evinces creativity, independent- thinking, and perhaps even a level of wonder or inquisitiveness; it demonstrates unimpeachable command over course concepts/readings, and it deftly weaves those concepts/readings into a forensic examination of its chosen subject matter. • B-range = the essay offers a compelling and scrupulous argument, though without always expressing that argument lucidly; it selects evidence judiciously, though without always integrating that evidence into a seamless and effective rhetorical structure; it wields course concepts/readings in productive ways, though without always activating their full potential as tools of analysis. • C-range = the essay attempts to make a cohesive argument, but it does so incompetently or with unimpressive rhetorical panache; it includes some evidence, but the evidence may be poorly chosen—or insufficiently connected to the claims it seeks to upholster; it makes an effort to reference course concepts/readings, but they may be perplexingly or superficially deployed; it obfuscates its own argument with unclear language. • D-range or lower = the essay lacks any argument whatsoever, or at least its grammatical-syntactical errors so obfuscate the argument that none can be surmised; it makes little to no effort to integrate evidence or engage with course concepts/readings; it reads as if little to no attention has been paid to the importance of clear language. Academic Integrity • Mutual integrity and trust are at the core of Harpur College’s and Binghamton University’s educational mission. The Academic Honesty Code (which can be found at https://www(dot)binghamton(dot)edu/academics/provost/faculty- resources/honesty.html) establishes guidelines for academic integrity on our campus. All students are expected to adhere to the Academic Honesty Code. Incidents of academic dishonesty—which may include the use of generative AI tools for the completion of assignments—will be reported in writing and will result in serious disciplinary action.