Now that we've viewed Hitchcock's Psycho, read the article entitled "Alfred Hitchcock Goes Psycho." As you read your copy of the article, annotate it: underline or highlight interesting or compelling facts and ideas, and write in the margin questions that the article raises. That's step one. You will be graded on the thoroughness and thoughtfulness of your annotations. You may not be allowed to move one to step two if you have not completed step one. So ANNOTATE.

Step two: In the comments section below, post a perspective/reaction you have not just to the film, but to the article. Your post should be thoughtful and thorough, and grammar and spelling counts. Once you've posted your comment, you're ready for step three: extra credit. You may comment on your peers' responses as much as you'd like. Feel free to agree, disagree, build, re-direct, etc. Just keep it friendly.

Once again, we are conducting a discussion here. Ask questions. Respond to others. Respond to people who have responded to you. Etc.

Satire or Real?

Satire or real?

Scenic Routes - Psycho

Let's start the semester off with some extra credit.

The media critique site The AV Club has an ongoing series of essays entitled "Scenic Routes." Here an overview of what the essay series sets out to accomplish:

 "Asked to explain what makes a movie work, Howard Hawks reportedly defined the formula as “three good scenes, no bad scenes.” Or at least that’s the catchy sound-bite version—the citation for that remark on his Wikipedia page leads to an interview in which he actually says, “If I can make about five good scenes and not annoy the audience, it’s an awfully good picture.” In truth, the precise ratio of awesome to rancid doesn’t really matter, so long as we give Hawks credit for recognizing, long before the advent of home-video made random access possible, that we don’t experience most movies as irreducible entities, but as a series of discrete moments. Whether the film as a whole succeeds or fails can be almost immaterial. I’m sure Nicholas Ray’s 1951 film Flying Leathernecks is a better movie than the 1990 Jeff Goldblum thriller Mister Frost, for example, but I once completely forgot that I’d seen the former, whereas the latter, which I’m pretty sure kind of sucked, will stay with me ’til death on the basis of a single casually chilling conversation: the opening scene, as I recall. So welcome to Scenic Routes, which will be an ongoing exploration of cinema’s most memorable individual sequences: the sublime, the exasperating, the iconic, the ineffable."

One of the essay's I'd like you to read focuses on Psycho.  You can find it here. Give it a read. Afterwards, participate in an online discussion in the comments below. Follow the rules for online discussion - thoughtful, honest, kind, curious, etc. Check back multiple times to give yourself to react to the reactions of your peers.

Catnip: Egress to Oblivion is a parody of the 60's anti-drug films they used to show in school. Here's an example of an actual anti-drug film you might have seen in health class in the 60's.

Here are some clips from three Kong movies. Watch what you want and comment below for extra credit.

Log scene comparison. 

Log scene 1933 colorized.

1933 T-rex battle




   
1933 climbing scene

Welcome to Film Studies

Welcome to film studies. To start things off, we're going to look at a few short films. All of the shorts below are currently playing at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

From Wikipedia: "The Sundance Film Festival, a program of the Sundance Institute, is an American film festival that takes place annually in Utah. With 46,731 attendees in 2012, it is one of the largest independent film festivals in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers."

Your task is to watch at least two of the following films and post a response in the "comment section" below. Be sure to include your name to get credit for your contribution. What are we looking for in our online discussions? Observations, questions, opinions, interpretations, etc. The more specific, the better. This means you should respond to SPECIFIC moments of the films as well as to the films overall. Feel free to respond to your peers. Remember, our goal here is to have robust, thoughtful, challenging discussions. Also keep in mind that this online component is part of the CLASS EXPECTATIONS. That means that everything you enter on this blog needs to be CLASS APPROPRIATE. The more you contribute, the better your grade. The more thoughtful and curious your contributions, the better your grade.

We're probably not going to have as much formal homework as some of your other classes, so your online participation will certainly impact your grade. Plus, it's fun and interesting and it's about movies. And that's why we're all in the class, right?

Okay. Have at it...