Friday, October 29
Mr. P announced a quiz on Tuesday over early Soviet film, including Battleship Potemkin, The Man with a Movie Camera, and all associated handouts.
We examined the nature of montage in Man with a Movie Camera with reference to a specific sequence (34:19 ff.) juxtaposing shots over different sorts of work. Is this montage of association or montage of contrast? We then watched the sequence again with Yuri Tsivian's commentary. His analysis involved both association and contrast.
HW due Tuesday:
Reread handouts in preparation for quiz.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, October 28
Students received a two-sided handout on Dziga Vertov.
Students took notes (both of what they understood to be important points and of what they didn't understand) while we rewatched the first few minutes of The Man with a Movie Camera, this time with a commentary by film scholar and critic Yuri Tsivian. Afterwards we discussed the points Tsivian was making about the ordering of shots in the first reel to depict the city waking up and how this motif was connected with the film's project of waking people up to "things as they are," a central goal of the Kinoks collective. We also noted Tsivian's analysis of the film as a manifesto of the Kinok's group and an attack on mainstream fiction film, both Hollywood film and film as created by other Russians, Eisenstein included.
HW due Friday:
Read the handout on Vertov and come to class prepared to answer questions about it.
Students received a two-sided handout on Dziga Vertov.
Students took notes (both of what they understood to be important points and of what they didn't understand) while we rewatched the first few minutes of The Man with a Movie Camera, this time with a commentary by film scholar and critic Yuri Tsivian. Afterwards we discussed the points Tsivian was making about the ordering of shots in the first reel to depict the city waking up and how this motif was connected with the film's project of waking people up to "things as they are," a central goal of the Kinoks collective. We also noted Tsivian's analysis of the film as a manifesto of the Kinok's group and an attack on mainstream fiction film, both Hollywood film and film as created by other Russians, Eisenstein included.
HW due Friday:
Read the handout on Vertov and come to class prepared to answer questions about it.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Wednesday, October 27
We finished watching The Man with a Movie Camera, after which students split up into small groups and prepared and presented statements about what this unique film seems to be about. Students emphasized the upbeat chronicle of post-revolutionary Russians at work and at play, the positive presentation of modern technology, and the cinematic virtuosity of the film itself.
We finished watching The Man with a Movie Camera, after which students split up into small groups and prepared and presented statements about what this unique film seems to be about. Students emphasized the upbeat chronicle of post-revolutionary Russians at work and at play, the positive presentation of modern technology, and the cinematic virtuosity of the film itself.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 25
We completed our formal analysis of the Odessa Steps sequence, then examined Russian Constructivist art in its European context by looking at images onscreen. Students took notes and turned them in at the end of class.
HW due Tuesday:
Single-scene outside viewing analysis (see Documents page).
We completed our formal analysis of the Odessa Steps sequence, then examined Russian Constructivist art in its European context by looking at images onscreen. Students took notes and turned them in at the end of class.
HW due Tuesday:
Single-scene outside viewing analysis (see Documents page).
Friday, October 22, 2010
Friday, October 22
Picking up with the small group activity begun yesterday, we watchd the segment of the Odessa Steps scene from Battleship Potemkin once again, and students regrouped in their small groups to prepare their presentations to the class as a whole. We then heard analyses of camera angles and movement, subjective use of the camera, pictorial composition, visual motifs, and juxtaposition and pacing of shots (montage).
HW due Tuesday:
Single-scene analysis essay.
Picking up with the small group activity begun yesterday, we watchd the segment of the Odessa Steps scene from Battleship Potemkin once again, and students regrouped in their small groups to prepare their presentations to the class as a whole. We then heard analyses of camera angles and movement, subjective use of the camera, pictorial composition, visual motifs, and juxtaposition and pacing of shots (montage).
HW due Tuesday:
Single-scene analysis essay.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Thursday, October 21
We reviewed the requirements for the outside viewing essay due Tuesday, after which we began to analyze a section of the Odessa Stairs scene from Battleship Potemkin as a model for the formal analysis required in the essay. Students were assigned to small groups and each group was assigned a single element of filmcraft (pictorial composition, film editing, motifs and symbols, etc.) to focus on.
We reviewed the requirements for the outside viewing essay due Tuesday, after which we began to analyze a section of the Odessa Stairs scene from Battleship Potemkin as a model for the formal analysis required in the essay. Students were assigned to small groups and each group was assigned a single element of filmcraft (pictorial composition, film editing, motifs and symbols, etc.) to focus on.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Wednesday, October 20
Students took a five-question quizlet over yesterday's handouts; we pitched the quizzes (due to students' self-proclaimed poor performance), but reviewed the questions and through them the handouts.
Next we viewed part of an instructional film from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences featuring a drag-racing scene (with a locomotive thrown in for extra excitement) and begn to compare the scene with the Odessa Steps scene in Battleship Potemkin.
HW due next Tuesday:
Single-scene analysis essay.
Students took a five-question quizlet over yesterday's handouts; we pitched the quizzes (due to students' self-proclaimed poor performance), but reviewed the questions and through them the handouts.
Next we viewed part of an instructional film from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences featuring a drag-racing scene (with a locomotive thrown in for extra excitement) and begn to compare the scene with the Odessa Steps scene in Battleship Potemkin.
HW due next Tuesday:
Single-scene analysis essay.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Tuesday, October 19
Students received two handouts, and we read from one, which discussed Eisenstein's adaptation of the Marxist dialectical method of thesis, antithesis and synthesis to montage, in which two images are juxtaposed in a way that their collision produces a "tertium quid," a third thing, which exists as meaning in the minds of the audience. We proceeded to examine examples of such "intellectual montage" from Battleship Potemkin.
HW due Wednesday:
Read the two handouts. Quizlet thereover.
Students received two handouts, and we read from one, which discussed Eisenstein's adaptation of the Marxist dialectical method of thesis, antithesis and synthesis to montage, in which two images are juxtaposed in a way that their collision produces a "tertium quid," a third thing, which exists as meaning in the minds of the audience. We proceeded to examine examples of such "intellectual montage" from Battleship Potemkin.
HW due Wednesday:
Read the two handouts. Quizlet thereover.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Friday, October 15
Students received a handout with two documents: excerpts from Eisenstein discussing D.W. Griffith and an excerpt from Gerald Mast on Soviet montage.
Students continued signing out or signing up for films for the first outside viewing essay.
We watched the last two acts of Battleship Potemkin, the famous "Odessa Staircase" and the "Rendezvous with the Squadron."
HW due Monday:
Read both parts of the handout and prepare to be quizzed over them.
Students received a handout with two documents: excerpts from Eisenstein discussing D.W. Griffith and an excerpt from Gerald Mast on Soviet montage.
Students continued signing out or signing up for films for the first outside viewing essay.
We watched the last two acts of Battleship Potemkin, the famous "Odessa Staircase" and the "Rendezvous with the Squadron."
HW due Monday:
Read both parts of the handout and prepare to be quizzed over them.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Thursday, October 14
Students received back their graded online reviews of their favorite films along with plastic pages containing copies of Mr. P's "Editing and Proofreading Marks" and the "No Excuses Conventions" sheet, which they are to keep at hand throughout the semester.
We watched the first three acts of Battleship Potemkin with an eye out especially for Eisenstein's editing techniques, including the juxtaposition of images and the pacing of cuts.
Students received back their graded online reviews of their favorite films along with plastic pages containing copies of Mr. P's "Editing and Proofreading Marks" and the "No Excuses Conventions" sheet, which they are to keep at hand throughout the semester.
We watched the first three acts of Battleship Potemkin with an eye out especially for Eisenstein's editing techniques, including the juxtaposition of images and the pacing of cuts.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Tuesday, October 12
Students took a thirty-question quiz over The Birth of a Nation and Reconstruction.
Mr. P briefly traced the great influence which the counter-revolutionary Griffith had on the young post-revolutionary Soviet filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein in the 1920s. (The next two films we will watch are Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin and Dziga Vertov's Man With a Movie Camera.) Of all the techniques pioneered or extended by Griffith, it was film editing, and especially parallel editing or cross-cutting which the Soviets seized on most eagerly, devoping it further into a theory and practice of montage, in which the juxtaposition of images is central filmic principle.
We resumed our viewing of The Cutting Edge documentary with the section entitled "The Russians Are Coming!"
Mr. P briefly traced the great influence which the counter-revolutionary Griffith had on the young post-revolutionary Soviet filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein in the 1920s. (The next two films we will watch are Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin and Dziga Vertov's Man With a Movie Camera.) Of all the techniques pioneered or extended by Griffith, it was film editing, and especially parallel editing or cross-cutting which the Soviets seized on most eagerly, devoping it further into a theory and practice of montage, in which the juxtaposition of images is central filmic principle.
We resumed our viewing of The Cutting Edge documentary with the section entitled "The Russians Are Coming!"
Monday, October 11, 2010
Monday, October 11
We watched more of our second film interpretation of Reconstruction, the PBS documentary of that name, then discussed briefly how it compares not only to Birth of a Nation but also to the mainstream interpretation of Reconstruction throughout the twentieth century.
HW due Tuesday:
There will be a quiz covering:
* Birth of a Nation
* the historical handout on Reconstruction from Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States.
* the parts we watched from the documentary film Reconstruction
We watched more of our second film interpretation of Reconstruction, the PBS documentary of that name, then discussed briefly how it compares not only to Birth of a Nation but also to the mainstream interpretation of Reconstruction throughout the twentieth century.
HW due Tuesday:
There will be a quiz covering:
* Birth of a Nation
* the historical handout on Reconstruction from Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States.
* the parts we watched from the documentary film Reconstruction
Friday, October 8, 2010
Friday, October 8
Students received a historical handout on the Reconstruction period as an alternative interpretation to that of Birth of a Nation. They should read it over the weekend; it will be included in the material covered on a quiz to be given Tuesday.
We watched short sections from Reconstruction, a PBS documentary, to provide historical information and -- once again -- a different perspective from Griffith's on Reconstruction in the South.
Coming up Tuesday:
Quiz over Birth and Reconstruction.
Students received a historical handout on the Reconstruction period as an alternative interpretation to that of Birth of a Nation. They should read it over the weekend; it will be included in the material covered on a quiz to be given Tuesday.
We watched short sections from Reconstruction, a PBS documentary, to provide historical information and -- once again -- a different perspective from Griffith's on Reconstruction in the South.
Coming up Tuesday:
Quiz over Birth and Reconstruction.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Thursday, October 7
We continued to address questions raised in students' minds by Birth of a Nation. Discussion of the strange spectacle of whites in blackface playing blacks led to an examination of the film's use of the spectre of miscegenation as the ultimate bete noire (so to speak). We traced the history of anti-miscegenation laws and the "one-drop rule" in the post-slavery U.S.
We continued to address questions raised in students' minds by Birth of a Nation. Discussion of the strange spectacle of whites in blackface playing blacks led to an examination of the film's use of the spectre of miscegenation as the ultimate bete noire (so to speak). We traced the history of anti-miscegenation laws and the "one-drop rule" in the post-slavery U.S.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Wednesday, October 6
Mr. P shared information about the impact of Birth of a Nation on its contemporary audience and about its central role in the revival of the KKK in the 1920's.
Students worked in groups of four to identify questions they have about the film's message, and we began to answer some of those questions, starting with the use of white actors to play the lead black roles. To put that matter in context, we looked at several images of blackface performers from the 19th and early 20th century.
Mr. P shared information about the impact of Birth of a Nation on its contemporary audience and about its central role in the revival of the KKK in the 1920's.
Students worked in groups of four to identify questions they have about the film's message, and we began to answer some of those questions, starting with the use of white actors to play the lead black roles. To put that matter in context, we looked at several images of blackface performers from the 19th and early 20th century.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
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