English 468: Film Studies
(Movies about Movies)

download film viewing worksheet

Summer 2, 2002
MTWRF: 12:30 - 2:30 PM

Final Exam

Course Description and Goals:

This class will focus on the films ABOUT films. We will examine themes and stylistic conventions and innovations associated with the "meta-movie."

Course Policies:

• Attendance: Each class day is equivalent to 2/3 of a week in a regular semester. After three absences, you will have missed the equivalent of two full weeks of a regular semester, so your final grade will be dropped one letter for each additional absence. It doesn't matter if your absences are excused or not, so please budget carefully and don't ask me to excuse you for family emergencies, court appearances, car accidents, illnesses, or anything else. Extreme or extensive tardiness could count as an absence. If you are absent on the day you are assigned minutes or are making a presentation, you should arrange for a substitute to avoid losing credit for that assignment.
  When will I mark you absent?
  • When you aren't here, no matter what your excuse is
  • When you are significantly tardy at least twice
  • When you leave before class is over
  • When I ask you to leave because you are disrupting class
    
• TARDINESS: DON'T BE LATE (especially on the days on which we screen films in class)! See the section on "viewing etiquette" (below).
• ACTIVE VIEWING and VIEWING ETIQUETTE: A number of films will be screened in class. You will not only need to be an active viewer, devoting "unusual attention" to (and noting) what you see, but you will need to be courteous to your classmates and professor. Nothing mars a viewing experience as much as unnecessary distractions (for example, talking and whispering; "heckling" and unwarranted comments; eating noisily; walking around; entering or leaving the classroom once a film has started). You will lose participation points if you distract others or don't pay close attention.
• Missed assignments. I hold you responsible for assignments made in class whether you are here or not. Ask classmates for the assignments. I will never consider "I didn't know" a valid excuse.
• Academic Dishonesty is defined as: An intentional act of deception in which a student seeks to claim credit for the work or effort of another person or uses unauthorized materials or fabricated information in any academic work. Students are expected to be honest and ethical in their academic work. Academic dishonesty includes:
  • CHEATING- use or attempted use of unauthorized materials, information or study aids OR an act of deceit by which a student attempts to misrepresent mastery of academic effort or information. This includes unauthorized copying or collaboration on a test or assignment or using prohibited materials and texts.
  • FABRICATION- falsification or invention of any information (including falsifying research, inventing or exaggerating data and listing incorrect or fictitious references.
  • ASSISTING- helping another commit an act of academic dishonesty. This includes paying or bribing someone to acquire a test or assignment, changing someone's grades or academic records, or taking a test/doing an assignment for someone else (or allowing someone to do these things for you).
  • TAMPERING- altering or interfering with evaluation instruments and documents.
  • PLAGIARISM- representing the words or ideas of another person as one's own OR presenting someone else's words, ideas, artistry or data as one's own. This includes copying another person's work (including unpublished material) without appropriate referencing, presenting someone else's opinions and theories as one's own, or working jointly on a project, then submitting it as one's own.
• Penalties for Academic dishonesty: Automatic failure on the assignment and possible failure for the course

• Books:
  • Rental: Film Studies Reader (won't use much)
  • Purchase: Theories of Cinema, Francesco Casetti.
  • Purchase: Movies about the Movies, by Christopher Ames.

Grade Breakdown:

• Assignment breakdown:
  • Viewing sheets (20%)
  • Paper (30%). This paper will apply one of the film theories to two of the films we have watched.
  • Midterm (10%). This short exam will be about cinematic terminology. You’ll be asked to explain various terms and give examples of them from the films we’ve read.
  • Film Presentation (20%). Each student will do a 15-20 minute presentation—illustrated with selections--on one film we did not see in class (but which you were to view outside of class). Your emphasis should be on how cinematic effects help emphasize thematic content.
  • Final Exam (20%). This two-hour exam will be a combination of short answer and essay. I may ask you about terms, directors, titles, quotes, etc. We’ll make up the study guide together.

Final examinations during class, on the last day (August 6)

Does Participation Count? Participation counts for 10% of your grade. In addition, those who consistently prepare for class and participate in discussion will get credit if they are on the border between two grades. Those who aren't prepared when I call on them or haven't done the reading will receive 1/2 absence. Those who don't have the book in class will be asked to leave and marked absent.

Computer Policies:

• Because I will use your WCU email address to contact you, make sure it is active. If you use another account, forward your WCU email to that account (consult the computer center in basement of Forsythe with questions). I will hold you responsible for information contained in my emails.
• We will use the online syllabus. Check it frequentlly for changes. Remember to always hit reload. You must have access to the online syllabus to do your journal entries.