Film in the composition classroom

1
Film in the composition classroom

• Goals
• Reduce student resistance to analyzing film
• Demonstrate ways to prepare students for film
  analysis
• Make in-class discussions of film more specific
  and more textually-based
• Recommend basic film concepts to use with our
  students
• Provide independent exercises for analyzing the
  moving image

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Film in the composition classroom

• Film has been used as a pedagogical tool in
  many writing classes, but little has been written
  about actual classroom practice or about the
  theories underlying its use. As a result, most
  English teachers dont know much about how other
  teachers use film. The professional conversation
  about films place in the writing class generally
  stops at the level of the classrooms themselves
  and the hallways outside of them.
• --Johanna Schmertz, Filmcomp
  Reframing Writing Pedagogy through Film
• Question What positive experiences have you had
  with film in the composition classroom? What are
  the negatives or challenges that you have
  experienced?

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Film in the composition classroom

• Issue Film is first and foremost a pleasurable
  experience (just entertainment), and analysis
  disrupts the affective experience of viewing.
• Solution The affective response to film is a
  type of theoretical response, but it needs to be
  theorized.
• - Move out of like/dislike and into
  more analytical terrain such as (for
  instance) identification/distance.
• Give students access to cinematic language that
  will allow them to theorize their affective
  responses to film.
• - disorienting / sentimental (camera
  angles? music? editing? perspective? cinematic
  space?)

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Preparing students to screen films

• Theory readings
• - Opportunity to analyze primary and secondary
  texts together
• - Gives students a lens through which to
  view the film
• Places to look MLA, Humanities Abstracts,
  Academic Search Premier, J-STOR

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Preparing students to screen films

• Reviews/Critical Reception
• - In the absence of theory readings, reviews can
  give students a sense of the public reception of
  a film and potentially locate critical issues to
  explore
• Places to look Academic Search Premier,
  LexisNexis, imdb.com, film criticism databases
  (Journalism Library)

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Preparing students to screen films
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Preparing students to screen films

• Focus your students attention on key issues
  before the screening.
• ex., Dave handout

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Leading Film Discussion

• Issue Discussion of film tends to be general,
  plot-based, and relies upon our students
  memories of the previous screening day.
• Solution 1 Give the film a referential presence
  in your classroom by requiring students to take
  notes during the film screening.
• Use the language of WA Identify
  visual/aural/textual repetitions, strands,
  binaries and anomalies in your notes.
• Model this practice yourself!

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Leading Film Discussion

• Solution 2 Make the film a referential presence
  in the classroom (i.e., bring it back into the
  classroom on discussion day).
• Review key scenes (practice close reading
  strategies)
• Have students identify scenes that would serve as
  evidence for a particular claim, and analyze
  those sequences
• Model how students might notice and focus on
  particular elements to write a specific and
  detailed final paper.

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Leading Film Discussion

• Solution 3 Use screenshot capture technology to
  create PowerPoint slides that can navigate
  students through scenes.
• Several programs available online (most with
  trial periods).
• - Google search on screen capture program
  will turn up several examples.
• - Recommended www.any-capture.com
• ex., Andy PowerPoint

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Independent Film Analysis

• What film analysis skills can be distilled and
  transferred to our students for their analysis?
• Perspective/P.O.V
• Though whose eyes am I seeing?
• Is it objective (not linked to a character) or
  subjective (limited by a characters
  perspective)?
• With whom am I asked to identify? With whom am I
  asked to not identify?
• Where would I imagine the camera to be in these
  shots?
• Is it ever above or below the subject of the
  shot? Tilted?
• Is the motion of the camera steady, or is it
  unstable?

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Independent Film Analysis

• Mise-en-scene
• How would I describe the setting of the scene?
  What elements give this setting a feel, or a
  sense of place?
• What props or set pieces are present in this
  sequence? Are they significant?
• How would I describe the costuming in this
  sequence?
• What can I see in the frame of the picture?
• Is my interest drawn to any visual element?
• Can I see elements in the background, or are they
  blurry?
• How far back can I see in the frame (depth of
  field)?
• Are any colors or textures repeated visually?

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Independent Film Analysis

• Sound
• What is the role of music in this film? How does
  it make me feel? What associations does it create
  in my mind?
• Is there a melodic line in the music, or does it
  feel more disjointed?
• Are there any sequences that emphasize silence,
  or absence of sound or music?
• Does the music match up with what I see on the
  screen?
• How are sound effects utilized in this film? Are
  any sounds repeated?
• Is the dialogue steady? Overlapping? Is all of
  the dialogue taking place on the screen? Does any
  take place off screen?

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Independent Film Analysis

• Editing
• How long in duration are most of the shots?
• At what points are the shots, or takes longer
  than others? How does this make a difference?
• Is the editing rhythmic, or in tune with music?
• Does the editing make me comfortable or confused?
  
• Does the editing follow a logical progression, or
  does it feel like some spaces in time are left
  out?
• Are the transitions between scenes a simple
  cut, or are there dissolves, or black outs?

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Independent Film Analysis

• Film Analysis Exercise 1
• Theorizing identification/distance
• Stop the film in the middle and ask students to
  describe where their allegiances lie, with what
  character or situation have them enumerate the
  evidence that sways them. Repeat the exercise at
  the end of the film, but this time have the
  students also determine how and why the new
  evidence shapes the final outcome. This initial
  exercise can further develop into a piece that
  analyzes types of evidence and their impact on
  positionality, voice and point of view.
• --from Dulce Cruz, Mapping the Use of
  Feature Films in Composition Classes

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Independent Film Analysis

• Film Analysis Exercise 2
• Reading texts in layers (sound/visual)
• Step 1, Sound Play a selected scene with the
  picture turned off. Ask your students to pay
  attention to the use of sound (music, sound
  effects, dialogue) in this sequence. Discuss.
• Step 2, Visual Play the scene again with the
  sound turned off. Ask your students to pay
  attention to the visual elements (mise-en-scene,
  camera angles, editing)
• Step 3, Integration Play the scene again with
  both elements. Discuss how sound and visual work
  together (or in dissonance) to achieve a
  particular experience.

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Independent Film Analysis

• Film Analysis Exercise 3
• Isolating cinematic elements
• Divide your class into four groups, and assign
  each a particular element (perspective/p.o.v.,
  mise-en-scene, sound, editing) to focus upon when
  viewing the film scene.
• After viewing the scene, have the groups each
  develop a claim based on the cinematic element
  that they have been assigned.
• As a class, discuss each claim and try to pull
  together a broader claim that integrates elements
  of each individual claim.