Theory/ideology
Last Monday you turned in your theory/ideology paper. Use this blog as a forum for discussing that assignment. Possible questions to write about include: Is there something that you would change about the assignment? How did the assingment change your movie viewing experience? Do you have any advice for other members of the class about the assignment? Why did you choose either the creative or traditional possibility?
posted by cmartin at 4/06/2006 12:17:00 PM
25 Comments:
I thought this assignment was fun also. I really like how you gave the option of doing a creative or traditional assignment. i dont know if this is a good idea, but mabye next year the assignment could be one big group that makes a film together. maybe split up the class into smaller groups...one for writing the script, one for shooting the film, one for editing. everyone might not agree on that but i think it would be a fun idea and really get the whole class involved in making a film.
I liked the assignment because it gave me the chance to express a lot of my personal views. It is uncommon that you get a topic which you are actually excited to start writing. I was with this one cause it was personal to me. Much better than your standard issue workbook prompt assignment one is generally accustomed to receiving. I don't think there is anything I would actually change about it.
sam - i actually don't think that would work out too well, one group leaves room for too many ideas not getting used.
Bobby,
yea i agree, one group project is enough i suppose
As you guys all know, Dan, Ryan and I teamed up to do a short film for the theory and ideology assignment. I am really happy that we chose to do the creative option, because it was a lot of fun! It has been so cool to show all of my friends something that I did in class that they actually want to see. Making a film was definitely a learning experience for all of us. It took a long time to write the script, shoot the scenes and edit, but it was much more enjoyable than writing a paper. I think that Sam’s idea about having the whole class team up to make a film is a good idea. With a class as small as 17 students, I think it is definitely a feasible idea. Students could chose what part of the film they would like to work on, since not everyone would want to be an actor. It would definitely be an interesting thing to try in a future film class.
I enjoyed making a film for this project, and I agree that providing a choice between a paper and a film is really good for this assignment. It so happened that I had a ten page paper due on the day this assignment was due, and I would have been very distraught (to say the least) if I had another on top of that. I’ve already made a couple of films, but with each one I seem to discover new things that the program I use can do (I’m gonna read the manual one day, seriously… probably not, but it could happen). Editing short films always remind you of just how much work goes into editing feature length films.
Sam, I like where you're going with this big group thing. I don't think it could work simply because there are just too many ideas and interpretations and no good way to decide on things. However, I think it would be really cool to have like a class brainstorm on possible script ideas. And then instead of deciding on one, there could be quite a few where each person simply decides which group and on which script/film they want to work on. That probably wouldn't work either, but seventeen people talking about script ideas could produce some pretty cool film ideas.
The assignment was rather interesting. I enjoyed learning about genres in film and how much they have evolved today. I feel this assignment gives an insight to not only the history of film but our culture's influences as well. I also believe this assignment will be beneficial to future classes, they will have a better understanding on the importance of film as well. After doing the assignment, I had a better understanding about the approaches a movie a take towards the audience. I chose the writing assignment because I fell that I had a better chance in expressing my ideas about theories. After the assignment I was able to recognize the importance of a film's message in a better way. It was very interesting.
Sam and Bobby,
I really liked your idea on the class project being one big assignment with mini groups. However, I agree with Bobby on the fact that some groups may be limited to ideas and the project would probably be a little complicated because of the various ideas from students.
I enjoyed working on this project. I was glad that you were able to choose a creative option. Making the video was fun and I got to learn how to use video editing programs. Going into the project I wasnt aware how abstract we were going to make the video. I did not think I would like it because it owuld be to weird but I ended up real liking the ifnal product. I think you should keep the project the same for next year
I dont think all class would be able to come up with a script together. thought there would be good ideas, there would be to many different people wanting to do different things. It would be chaos.
I'm definately glad I took the creative alternative to the paper. Granted, it was more work than merely writing a paper, but I learned a lot in the process and felt pretty good about the outcome. This project allowed me to learn how to use iMovie, which is the program we use to edit our video. There's a lot to learn about it, but i got lots of experience. It was a blast filming too. It's definately good idea to offer this creative alternative to future classes. This has been my favorite thing so far, along with the vampire comicbook and the newspaper website. I just want to see 'G-ville 911', sorry i missed it, hope it went well.
sam, you're on my couch now as we're working on our presentation tomorrow, so i'm just gonna let you know that's a horrible idea. hah
I liked this project overall… Like most of you, I liked having the option of choosing between a traditional paper and a creative project. However, in my case, once I decided on doing a creative project, I spent too much in the brainstorming phase and not enough in the actual production phase. I liked the final outcome, but I felt rushed towards the end. Perhaps if Cathlena added another rough draft checkpoint onto the syllabus, slackers like me might do a better job. Once again I really like the freedom that this project allows for and I think future ENG2300ers would like it as well.
bobby - yeah, one group project is enough...
sam - maybe your idea could work. Perhaps, if the class was split into groups, each group could produce a section of the overall short film and then all the segments could be combined into one... Like the film "Four Rooms" where different directors directed their own segments... just an idea though...
This wasn't my favorite assignment this semester but that's probably because I just wrote a paper. I think making a film looks like a lot of fun and I really enjoyed watching the two films. I think both groups did a great job on their films. In hindsight, I wish I had chosen the creative option. I think it might be a good idea for next semester to make it mandatory that this assignment or one of the other ones be creative. That way everyone can get to experience the filmmaking process first hand.
Sam-
I like the idea of having everyone work on a film but I think one large group might not work out so well. Maybe a few smaller groups would be better.
This project was very interesting. I chose to do the traditional paper on governmental control and censorship. I used the films Minority Report and V for Vendetta. I really liked the idea of the project as a way to look at an in-depth aspect of a film, as opposed to the filmmaking styles used. I don't think it ruined my film viewing experience at all, as I consider some ideologies and theories in a film in-depth after watching them. My only suggestion would maybe to have a little more time to work on it, as it seemed a little rushed and seemed to really come up fast.
Sam - I really like your idea of a class movie project. The whole time while we were watching the film I was thinking to myself how awesome it would've been if there were cameos by other classmates in the movie.
ray -
I think the four rooms idea is really cool. It would be a good way to let groups of students with different interests come together to do a big project.
I liked this assignment a lot. I chose the traditional paper because of time constraints and I had a lot of work in other classes. If I didnt I would have done a creative option. I liked examining how an ideology was used in a certain movie and what message the director was trying to send to the audience. I liked that you had the choice for the creative option to be a group project. I definedtly wished I had made a short film after watching everyone's in class. I thought they did an awesome job!!
Sam- I dont think that one big group will work well either... Its hard enought getting 4 or 5 people agreeing and on the same page than getting an entire class to work well together.
thanks john...way to boost my friggen confidence.
"it was all you were good for"
I chose to do the traditional assignment because writing is what I do for my major anyways. I liked the assignment because it got me to look at a film in a way that really relates to society. It kinda proves the saying true that "art imitates life" (or is it the other way around?) The only thing I would suggest is to have the directions a little more clearcut. There was a long list of things we could talk about, but I didn't understand some of the stuff. Like how we could relate our theory readings to the film. I found that my subject didn't relate to any of our theory readings. Other than that, it was an interesting project!
I liked watching the class creative films...I just wish I didn't have motion sickness, because watching those home movies makes me sick!
Post a Comment
<< Home