Talking Points: Honors Comedy

Honors Comedy

When you come to our final class on Monday (12/3), please be prepared to talk about your final paper for about five minutes and to answer these questions:
1) Which films did you write about?
2) What is your paper's theme?
3) Why did you choose those films and that theme?
4) What is something, large or small, that you learned in the course of researching and writing your final paper?

Composition: Final Papers

Composition

The next class is our final class of the semester. Please remember to bring in your final paper and be prepared to talk about it.

Expository Writing: Final Papers

Expository Writing

The next class is our final class of the semester. Please remember to bring in your final paper and be prepared to talk about it.

Criticism: Final Papers

Cinema Criticism Writing

The next class is our final class of the semester. Remember to bring in your final paper and be prepared to talk about it.

Election: Talking Points

Honors Comedy





We had an awesome, self-funded pizza party last time, but now it's back to work. This week, there are just two questions for you to think about:
In your personal opinion, which of the main characters in Election is the best person? Why?

Schedule for Monday Night

Honors Comedy

NOV. 19

6-7 p.m. Final Paper Conferences in my office.
7-8 p.m. Pizza Party in our classroom, COMM 145
8-8:50 p.m. More Final Paper Conferences in my office.

Talking Points: Rear Window

Composition

1) Jeff sees several apartments by looking out of his rear window. What do the stories of most of the people in those apartments have in common?
2) How does Hitchcock use his camera to help tell the story of this movie?
3) Do you like Rear Window?
4) What does the ending of the movie involving Lisa (see photo here) tell us?

Talking Points: Lost in Translation

Expository Writing

1) Basically, what is this movie about?
2) Would you call it a comedy?
3) Did you like it?
4) Did anything in it make you feel uncomfortable?
5) What special challenges does it present, in terms of writing about it?
6) Where do you see the theme of alienation in it?

Blogging as Teaching

At the request of UCF's Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, I wrote an article about using this blog as a teaching tool. It appears in the current issue of Faculty Focus. Here's a link to the electronic version. Just scroll down to Page 3:
 http://www.fctl.ucf.edu/Publications/FacultyFocus/content/2012/2012_october.pdf
 

Critical Concerns

Cinema Criticism Writing


This week, I started with a big question: What is art? That got the class' attention (and laughter). Then, quickly, I narrowed the question slightly to: "How do you know when a film is a work of art?" The answers were really interesting, especially because they were so different from each other and touched on so many film- and art-related issues. (Someone even brought up the Mona Lisa.) For a while, we talked about the case of films whose artistic merit is generally apparent only years after the films are made. We also spoke about how very subjective any question about art must be. We covered a lot of ground in a short time. I couldn't offer a definitive answer to my own question, but I could, at least, suggest some rules of thumb. Not quite sure what the students thought of those. They may be mulling them over. 

Veterans Day

Honors Comedy


 Veterans Day (observed)

Monday, November 12th

No Class

On the Lookout

Composition

James Stewart, on the lookout in Rear Window

Well, we're well into our study of Alfred Hitchcock. Last week we saw his Strangers on a Train, and I got the feeling that a lot of students were noticing how he used visual techniques to explore the film's themes. Can't wait to see what they came up with! This week we'll be watching Rear Window, a film ABOUT watching.

Glad I Tweaked

Expository Writing

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation

I think this past week was a really important class. We covered a lot, including an exercise about writing descriptively, a detailed discussion of A Night at the Opera, an examination of assigned readings in our text, an exercise on self-editing, and a further explanation of the final paper assignment, to name just a few things we got into. I got the feeling that all this lowered student anxieties about a lot of things, and I'm glad I tweaked the class schedule to allow for all this. Sometimes you have to adjust a bit! Coming up this week is our screening of Lost in Translation. I'm looking forward to that. An unusual role for Bill Murray... 

Talking Points: The Purple Rose of Cairo

Cinema Criticism Writing

Talking Points:

1) What does this film have to say about illusion and reality?
2) Which set or costume details tell us something important?
3) Does the occasional use of black-and-white enhance or distract from the story?
4) What are the special challenges for the critic in reviewing this film?

Talking Points: Beetlejuice

Honors Comedy

1) If you've seen this film before, did you see it differently this time?

2) Is it subversive?

3) Why does the title refer to a supporting character?

4) What does this movie have to say about death?

ALSO: BRING $3 TO CLASS THIS WEEK FOR OUR PIZZA PARTY 
(WHICH WILL BE ON 11/19)!!!!