...Film Theory and Approaches to Criticism, or, What did that movie mean? by Christopher P. Jacobs Movies are entertainment. Movies are documents of their time and place. Movies are artistic forms of self-expression. Movies we see at theatres, on television, or home video are typically narrative films. They tell stories about characters going through experiences. But what are they really about? What is the content of a film? DIGGING DEEPER: FOUR LEVELS OF MEANING Recounting the plot of a movie, telling what happens, is the simplest way to explain it to someone else. But this is neither a film review nor a film analysis. It’s merely a synopsis that anyone else who sees or has seen the movie will likely agree with. This level of content may be called the referential content, since it refers directly to things that happen in the plot and possibly to some aspects of the story that are merely implied by the plot. In John Boorman’s Deliverance (1972), four men from the city go on a weekend canoe trip that unexpectedly becomes a life or death struggle for survival of man against man and man against nature. Some characters survive, others don’t. Most films can be analyzed more thoroughly to reveal deeper levels of meaning. A review (perhaps 400-1200 words) typically includes personal impressions and evaluations of a movie’s content and techniques. A good review may be subjective, yet still touch superficially on topics that might be explored in more detail in a longer...
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...reality known as the Matrix. As a rebel against the machines, Neo must return to the Matrix and confront the agents: super-powerful computer programs devoted to snuffing out Neo and the entire human rebellion. The telephone call initiated by Morpheus prompts the police to visit Mr. Anderson’s home with the offer of deliverance and the awakening. Morpheus is known to the government as a legendary computer hacker and a terrorist. Morpheus meets up with Mr. Anderson and offers him a choice of a blue pill or a red pill. The choice that is offered will afford Mr. Anderson to either wake up in a world beyond his imagination or to continue to exist in his current state existence. The “real world” * 2. Analysis of The conversation between Morpheus and Smith, The Battle between the humans and the machines. “Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet Cross cutting with Neo and Trinity trying to save Morpheus, testing Neo‟s powers and the length he will go to save Morpheus. * 3. Semiotic Analysis * 4. Semiotics and Structuralism• The war between man and machines.• Humans compared to a virus.• The five...
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...to transform experience and ideas into texts demonstrating control of language. 12. A student reflects on own processes of responding and composing. 13. A student reflects on own processes of learning. ------------------------------------------------- Task ------------------------------------------------- You must have the following tasks to include in your Discovery Portfolio of Work. It should be a reflection of your developing understanding of this concept and your skills in responding to and composing texts. ------------------------------------------------- You will have class time to complete many of these tasks, but will be required to spend time at home working on your portfolio. ------------------------------------------------- Tick off each task as you complete it. Timeline for completion of the task Aspects of this timeline may change to accommodate things which arise during the term. Please be prepared on the correct days so that you can actively participate in the stated tasks. Week&Task Number | 5Task One | 6Task Two | 7Tasks Three | 8Tasks Four & Five | 9Task Six | 10Task Seven | Suggested Due Dates | 4th November You will be given half the period to complete.Marked by Kang | 10th NovemberYou will be given half the period to complete.Marked by Tweedie | 17th NovemberTask ThreeYou will be given half the period to complete.Marked by Dossetor | 25th NovemberTask FourYou will need this be ready to hand in at the beginning of the class...
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...r6 ko 8/24/09 7:41 AM Page 2 Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to ✔ appreciate the difference between passively watching movies and actively looking at movies. ✔ understand the defining characteristics that distinguish movies from other forms of art. ✔ understand how and why most of the formal mechanisms of a movie remain invisible to casual viewers. ✔ understand the relationship between viewers’ expectations and filmmakers’ decisions about the form and style of their movies. ✔ explain how shared belief systems contribute to hidden movie meaning. ✔ explain the difference between implicit and explicit meaning, and understand how the different levels of movie meaning contribute to interpretive analysis. medium. With so much experience, no one could blame you for wondering why you need a course or this book to tell you how to look at movies. After all, you might say, “It’s just a movie.” For most of us most of the time, movies are a break from our daily obligations—a form of escape, entertainment, and pleasure. Motion pictures had been popular for fifty years before even most filmmakers, much less scholars, considered movies worthy of serious study. But motion pictures are much more than entertainment. The movies we see shape the way we view the world around us and our place in that world. What’s more, a close analysis of any particular movie can tell us a great deal about the artist, society, or industry...
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...APPENDIX Writing a Film Analysis Films are made to be seen and heard, to appeal to our visual and aural senses. Like any art form, however, films are also meant to be felt and understood, to appeal to our emotions and minds. One of the best ways to determine whether a film has succeeded in any or all of these goals is to analyze the elements that make up the whole work. To write an analysis of a film, you must study the film carefully. Your critical analysis should be derived from your personal encounter with the film, not from published criticism. Access to a videocassette recorder or DVD player is essential if you are going to perform a critical analysis of any depth. It is not enough to like or dislike the movie; you must determine why it succeeds or fails in reaching out and encompassing the viewer. The first step is to view the film in its entirety. From this viewing you can get an initial reaction to the many parts of the film that you will have to explore in more depth. When you first view the film, it is best not to try to take notes or separate the parts of the film; you should be familiar with the textbook in order to know what to look for. After you have formulated a thesis and have begun the process of supporting that thesis, you should view the film at least once more in its entirety and two or three times in segments in order to review scenes of major importance. The thesis statement is the element around which to structure your analysis. Because the theme or...
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...A TEACHER’S GUIDE TO THE SIGNET CLASSICS EDITION OF G EORG E B E R N A R D S HAW ’S PYGMALION By LAURA REIS MAYER BUNCOMBE COUNTY SCHOOLS, ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA S E R I E S E D I T O R S JEANNE M. MCGLINN, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Asheville and W. GEIGER ELLIS, Ed.D., University of Georgia, Professor Emeritus 2 A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion TABLE OF CONTENTS An Introduction .......................................................................................3 Synopsis of the Play .................................................................................3 Prereading Activities .................................................................................6 During Reading Activities ......................................................................13 After Reading Activities .........................................................................21 About the Author of this Guide .............................................................29 About the Editors of this Guide .............................................................29 Full List of Free Teacher's Guides...........................................................30 Click on a Classic ..................................................................................31 Copyright © 2007 by Penguin Group (USA) For additional teacher’s manuals, catalogs, or descriptive brochures, please email academic@penguin.com or write...
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...LACAN AND CONTEMPORARY FILM EDITED BY TODD McGOWAN and SHEILA KUNKLE OTHER Other Press New York Copyright © 2004 Todd McGowan and Sheila Kunkle Production Editor: Robert D. Hack This book was set in 11 pt. Berkeley by Alpha Graphics, Pittsfield, N.H. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Allrightsreserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Other Press LLC, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. For information write to Other Press LLC, 307 Seventh Avenue, Suite 1807, New York, NY 10001. Or visit our website: www.otherpress.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McGowan, Todd. Lacan and contemporary film / by Todd McGowan & Sheila Kunkle. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-59051-084-4 (pbk : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures-Psychological aspects. 2. Psychoanalysis and motion pictures. 3. Lacan, Jacques, 1901- I. Kunkle, Sheila. II. Title. PN1995 .M379 2004 791.43'01 '9-dc22 2003020952 Contributors Paul Eisenstein teaches literature and film in the English department at Otterbein College, Columbus, Ohio, and is the author of Traumatic Encounters: Holocaust Representation and the Hegelian Subject (SUNY Press, 2003). Anna Kornbluh...
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...MGT603 Assignment Case study one 1. What behaviors are involved in online grocery shopping? The online grocery shopping consists of various types of behaviors; such as information contact, funds access, store contact, product contact and transaction behaviors. Information contact behavior is mostly a part of online grocery shopping, where consumers used to search their required products and order through online processes. The fund access behavior is also used in online grocery shopping while purchasing products through online by using their credit/debit cards or net banking. Sometime, customers used to order through online but visit the nearest stores to bring the product after inspecting; such as fresh vegetables, milk products and meat or animal proteins etc. therefore, they must search for the nearest store and product and contact them to bring those pre-ordered products. There are several behaviors involved in online grocery shopping. For peapod grocery, the order were filled at affiliated stores and delivered to the customer’s home in a ninety minute time period; this save the customers time and reduced the stress that grocery shopping often causes due to lack of time and overcrowding. For these conveniences, the consumers were willing to pay a monthly fee as well as a fee per order that included the services of packaging, transporting, and delivering. Most of the items available for this service are brand name goods, which caused little risk in the consumers mind in...
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...Integrating Classroom Learning and Independent Learning 3.2.2 Maximizing Learning Opportunities 3.2.3 Cross-curricular Planning 3.2.4 Building a Learning Community through Flexible Class Organization 3.3 Collaboration within the English Language Education KLA and Cross KLA Links 3.4 Time Allocation 3.5 Progression of Studies 3.6 Managing the Curriculum – Role of Curriculum Leaders Chapter 4 1 2 2 3 3 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 21 Learning and Teaching 4.1 Approaches to Learning and Teaching 4.1.1 Introductory Comments 4.1.2 Prose Fiction 4.1.3 Poetry i 21 21 23 32 SECOND DRAFT 4.1.4 Drama 4.1.5 Films 4.1.6 Literary Appreciation 4.1.7 Schools of Literary Criticism 4.2 Catering for Learner Diversity 4.3 Meaningful Homework 4.4 Role of Learners Chapter 5 41 45 52 69 71 72 73 74 Assessment 5.1 Guiding Principles 5.2 Internal Assessment 5.2.1 Formative Assessment 5.2.2 Summative Assessment 5.3 Public Assessment 5.3.1 Standards-referenced Assessment 5.3.2 Modes of Public Assessment 74 74 74 75 77 77 77 Quality Learning and Teaching Resources 104 6.1 Use of Set Texts 6.2 Use of Other Learning and Teaching Resources 104 108 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 109 Supporting Measures 7.1 Learning and Teaching Resource Materials 7.2 Professional Development 109 109 Appendix 1 Examples of Poetry Analysis 110 Appendix 2 Examples of...
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...later elaborate on and analyze in the reflection section. In class discussion of the assigned reading (To Kill a Mocking Bird) o After each assigned reading for the day they are given TKAM study questions, which they would have to answer in essay format. Vocabulary exercises o Find Your Partner Students are given vocabulary words to define weekly. And by the end of the week instead of taking a spelling/vocab quiz they’d play a game called “Find Your Partner.” One student would have the vocab word,...
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...English-E11-12 7/27/07 2:24 PM Page 1 Ministry of Education The Ontario Curriculum Grades 11 and 12 English Printed on recycled paper 07-003 ISBN 978-1-4249-4741-6 (Print) ISBN 978-1-4249-4742-3 (PDF) ISBN 978-1-4249-4743-0 (TXT) © Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 2007 2007 REVISED CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 Secondary Schools for the Twenty-first Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Importance of Literacy, Language, and the English Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Principles Underlying the English Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Roles and Responsibilities in English Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH 3 3 4 5 9 Overview of the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Curriculum Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Strands in the English Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT Basic Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . ....
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...The Hunger Games: Action-film feminism is catching fire Lisa Schwarzbaum Burning up Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen is both strong and vulnerable – a new kind of action heroine who has powered The Hunger Games: Catching fire to a $158m US debut. (Lionsgate) Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen is a new type of female action film icon, and moviegoers should be very excited about that, writes Lisa Schwarzbaum. As Catching Fire ignites on movie screens around the world, this is what we know about the 21st Century heroine called Katniss Everdeen: she is strong but also soft. She is brave but she has doubts. She is a phenomenal fictional creation, yet is real enough that moviegoers can draw inspiration from her values, her resourcefulness, and her very human inner conflicts. And she is played by Jennifer Lawrence, who appears not only to be handling her current duties as Hollywood’s finest model of well-adjusted millennial female stardom but doing so with charm. Everdeen and Lawrence: golden girls both. Personified in Lawrence’s lithe movements and cool, focused gaze, Katniss is a brave, resourceful and independent-minded fighter; but she is also a troubled and vulnerably guilt-ridden human being. Nina Jacobson, the producer of the Hunger Games film franchise, puts it this way: “She is a singular heroine in that the burden of survival weighs on her. She has a ton of survivor’s guilt. And she keeps surviving.” Girl on fire It is strange that behaving like a well-adjusted...
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...Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank to accompany A First Look at Communication Theory Sixth Edition Em Griffin Wheaton College prepared by Glen McClish San Diego State University and Emily J. Langan Wheaton College Published by McGrawHill, an imprint of The McGrawHill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright Ó 2006, 2003, 2000, 1997, 1994, 1991 by The McGrawHill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may be reproduced in print form solely for classroom use with A First Look At Communication Theory provided such reproductions bear copyright notice, but may not be reproduced in any other form or for any other purpose without the prior written consent of The McGrawHill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. PREFACE Rationale We agreed to produce the instructor’s manual for the sixth edition of A First Look at Communication Theory because it’s a first-rate book and because we enjoy talking and writing about pedagogy. Yet when we recall the discussions we’ve had with colleagues about instructor’s manuals over the years, two unnerving comments stick with us: “I don’t find them much help”; and (even worse) “I never look at them.” And, if the truth be told, we were often the people making such points! With these statements in mind, we have done some serious soul-searching about the texts that so many teachers—ourselves...
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...Matt Williams Splitting Hairs in Disney’s film Tangled Cinderella tells us that a dream is a wish that your heart makes, and following suit dreams play a large part in the newest Disney princess film, Tangled. In the end of the film Rapunzel holds Flynn and they admit their deep secret that they had become each other’s dream, and an “awww” moment ensues. The question to ask is “Where do these dreams come from?” and “What do these dreams mean?” Taking this second question, the implications of Rapunzel and Flynn’s dream impact more than just the world of the film. The Disney Princess films have been studied within an inch of their lives by a great number of scholars in a great number of fields. One common study takes the ideas of gender development and combines them with the Disney Princess films. However, the implications of gender do not stop here as gender identity can still be impacted as the viewers age. Interpretation of the princess films has been a huge aspect of their scholarly application as the behavior of the princesses, and princes, can be interpreted and compared with gender stereotypes and norms to assess the impact their portrayals can have on the viewing audience. The film Tangled is often seen as Disney’s take on a modern princess, and Rapunzel and Flynn have a great deal to contribute to both gender development study and media interpretation of gender. Gender development is a field of study which has been impacted in a number of ways by modern theorists...
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...Professor Timothy Leary is a person who in the 1960’s displayed intellectual bravery while telling the rest of the world to “think for yourself, and question authority”(How to Operate Your Brain). President Nixon even called him “the most dangerous man in America”. Timothy Leary is largely famous for his sacramental use of LSD. However, Leary would first conduct experiments at Harvard University[->0] under the Harvard Psilocybin Project[->1] before being fired because of the controversy surrounding his research. Despite the negative reaction by mainstream America, Leary continued to pursue his research and experimentation with psycho- active compounds, writing several books including Exo-Psychology in 1977. Leary says “Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities, the political, the religious, the educational authorities who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing, forming in our minds their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open- mindedness; chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself” (How to Operate Your Brain). Famous for his...
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