Thursday, September 30

Students reviewed a checklist of important techniques in Birth of a Nation.  We reviewed the list, identified certain terms in parts of the film we watched yesterday, and students documented techniques as we watched more of the film.  We stopped at the point when Ben Cameron shows up in the same hospital ward where Elsie Stoneman is working as a nurse.

Wednesday, September 29

Students took a ten-question quiz over Tuesday's handouts on Birth of a Nation, and we went over the answers, after which we watched the beginning of the film, with assorted commentary.

Tuesday, September 28

Students received two handouts concerning D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation.

We reviewed the early history and principles of cinematography and film editing by watching the beginnings of two documentary films, Visions of Light (cinematography) and The Cutting Edge (film editing).

HW due Wednesday:
Read today's two handouts and prepare for a quiz over them in class Wednesday.

Monday, September 27

We finished our analysis of motifs in Shadow of a Doubt with a final look at young Charlie's descent of the staircase with Uncle Charlie's ring on her hand.

Mr. P introduced D.W. Griffith (whom we met earlier as director of The Girl and Her Trust), and stressed his unique influence upon practically every director who followed him.  We watched the famous scenes in the storm and on the ice floes from Way Down East, and analyzed briefly the three-component cross-cutting which gives the ice floe scene its power.

Friday, September 24

We continued to examine motifs in Shadow of a Doubt, focusing especially on the ways in which stairs and associated high and low angle shots are used to express the power struggle between the two Charlies, and on the use of shadows.

Thursday, September 23

Starting from the library scene in Shadow of a Doubt, we examined the use of extreme high and low camera angles in the film, most often associated with the motif of stairs and the tense jockeying for position between the two Charlies.  We especially stressed the ironic high-angle shot in which Uncle Charlie pauses as he springs up the stairs, and turns around to look at the terrifying spectre of innocent young Charlie suffused by sunlight in her girlish Sunday dress.

Wednesday, September 22

We watched "Beyond Doubt," a short documentary about the making of Shadow of a Doubt. Students took notes on the important points in this admittedly rather uneven film and put them in the tray on the way out of class.

Tuesday, September 21

We picked up where we left off Monday and assembled a short list of central motifs in Shadow of a Doubt: doublings, windows, smoke, shadows, and stairs. Then we began to look at specific examples of each.

Monday, September 20

Students turned in their movie reviews and Nick Rodewald demonstrated the procedure for uploading reviews to imdb.com. Students have until Tuesday to upload their reviews.

Students took notes as Mr. P continued with his lecture on the concept of artistic motifs, illustrating musical motifs from Beethoven (motifs without associated meaning) and Wagner and Prokoviev (Leitmotiven carrying associated meanings). We then passed from musical motifs (in Shadow of a Doubt preeminently the Merry Widow Waltz) to visual motifs in Hitchcock's film.

HW due Tuesday:
Copy and paste your review into imdb.com if you have not already done so.

Friday, September 17

We identified the main musical themes in Shadow of a Doubt, then learned something about the composer, Dmitri Tiomkin. From there we proceeded to discuss motifs, both musical and visual.

HW due Monday:
400-word online review of your favorite film (see Documents page).

Thursday, September 16

Mr P announced that due to the dislocation in the school caused by Cody Botten's tragic death, the due date for the assigned online review will be postponed from Friday to Monday.

We discussed different ways of looking at films, including critical analysis and naive immersion, and established that we will be doing both throughout the semester.

We watched the last twenty minutes of Shadow of a Doubt, then briefly discussed the final scene in the film's context of the United States' recent entry into the new world war. How dark is the film? How tacked-on is the ending?

HW due Monday (postponed from Friday):
Online (IMDb) review, both posted and submitted in hard copy. See Documents page.

Wednesday, September 15

We continued watching Shadow of a Doubt up through the romantic scene in the garage between young Charlie and the detective. Students continued to attend to patterns of repeated detail.

HW due Friday:
Online 400-word review of your favorite movie, See Tuesday's entry and Documents page.

Tuesday, September 14



Students received an assignment sheet detailing requirements for online reviews of their favorite films (see Documents page).



We resumed watching Shadow of a Doubt after reviewing a few pertinent details from the part we had already seen. Students were counseled to be alert not only to matters plot and character development but also to patterns of detail both visual and auditory.

HW due Friday:
400-word online film review (see Documents page).

Monday, September 13

We reviewed the answers to last Thursday's quiz, then illustrated several film techniques from the quiz (especially different kinds of visual matches) with examples from Shadow of a Doubt and Citizen Kane.

Friday, September 10

We discussed he beginning of the packet which students were quizzed on yesterday ("Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style"), looking at two major points: the character-driven nature of classic-era cinema and its adherence to the principle of "economy" in use of details.

Next we watched the introductory scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, which the autors of the packet describe in detail, and made the barest start in discussing it.

Thursday, September 9

Students took the quiz over "Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style", after which we brainstormed icons from the classic Hollywood era, apropos of the newly-announced Homecoming theme: "Hollywood Then and Now."

Wednesday, September 8

We looked over the "Classical Hollywood Cinema" packet briefly, paying closest attention to the section on film editing.

We watched D.W. Griffith's The Girl and her Trust and discussed how the film's editing (among other things) are used in service of a compelling narrative.

HW due Thursday:
Quiz in class over the packet.

Tuesday, September 7

In light of the poor results of the first quiz (average score 60, passing rate 50%), given evidence of how few students had read the packet over the long weekend, and not wanting to see the class start the semester in a deep hole, Mr. P -- from the infinite mercy of his benevolent heart -- postponed the quiz over "Classical Hollwood Cinema: Style" from Wednesday to Thursday.

We watched three famous early films, Melies' Journey to the Moon, Porter's The Great Train Robbery, and the Hepworth Studio's immortal Rescued by Rover. We noted the increasing sophistication of film editing in service of telling a suspenseful story.

HW due Thursday:
Read the packet distributed Friday and be ready for a quiz over it.

Friday, September 3

Students received the closest thing to a textbook we will have in the course: a packet entitled "Classical Hollywood Cinema: Style," which explains fundamental techniques of filmcraft in the classic era of American film.

We watched three amusing short films: a 1906 special effects masterpiece "The Dream of a Rarebit Fiend," based on a comic strip by Winsor McCay; a film of Winsor McCay himself demonstrating the making of an early animated film; and "Onesime the Clockmaker," a French film from 1912 showing life in fast forward.

HW due Wednesday:
Read (if you're wise, well before Tuesday night) today's packet and come to class prepared to take a quiz over it.

Thursday, September 2

Students took an "open packet" quiz over Tuesday's handout on early cinema, after which we graded it together.

Nest we watched "Reve and Realite," a short comic clip whose title ("Dream and Reality") sums up the two major vectors of early film: photographic journalistic realism and pure fantasy. As a further example of the latter we ended the period by watching part of "The Dream of Aladdin," a pre-Disney (1907) rendition of the classic Arabian tale.

Wednesday, September 1

We reviewed the syllabus briefly together, and Mr. P responded to student questions.

Afterward, Mr. P lectured very briefly about the fundamentals of film technology, and how "persistence of vision" and frame-by-frame construction allows for all the wonders of film editing.

Next we watched the sizzling "May Irwin-John C. Rice Kiss," Sandow the Strong Man some of Eadweard Muybridge's series photographs (on the cusp of cinema) and one or two other early films, including the beautifully colorized "Golden Beetle."

HW due Thursday:
Read the packet on early cinema you received yesterday in preparation for a quiz thereover.