Monday, October 13

Students watched three sections of The Cutting Edge, a documentary about film editing. The sections partly concerned editing techniques in the films of D.W. Griffith and of the early Soviet filmmakers, including Eisenstein.

We next read a handout on "Soviet Montage" excerpted from A Short History of the Movies by Gerald Mast, and began to illustrate it with parts of Battleship Potemkin.

Thursday, October 9

We watched the last part of Battleship Potemkin, then made a list on the board of some of the film's most memorable images. Mr. Potratz talked very briefly about Eisenstein's theory and practice of montage, the creation of meaning through the artful juxtaposition of images.

HW due Monday:
Compare and contrast The Birth of a Nation and Battleship Potemkin in an essay including at least five body-paragraph "chunks," and an introductory and/or a concluding paragraph. You may discuss both form and content. 'Form' may include any of the film techniques we have looked at, such as camera agles and movement, lighting, film editing, etc. Typed, double-spaced, 12 pt. Times Roman.

Wednesday, October 8

Mr. Potratz was out sick. Students watched the first four "acts" of Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin.

Tuesday, October 7

Students turned in the checklist of techniques from Birth of a Nation, and we discussed both form and content in the film, especially focusing on Griffith's sophisticated and powerful use of crosscutting in the final reel of the film.

Mr. Potratz announced that the next film will be Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, explaining that Griffith had a strong influence on the early Soviet filmmakers.

Monday, October 6

Students took a 10-question quiz over the excerpt on Reconstruction from Howard Zinn's Peoples's History of the United States, after which we watched the final 50 minutes of Birth of a Nation.

Friday, October 3

In the context of the controversy over the cancelled "blackout" at tonight's football game, we looked briefly at the history of blackface in American culture (we watched Al Jolson singinging "Mammy" in The Jazz Singer), and read an online article about a confrontation over racial caricatures.


Thursday, October 2

Senior class meeting. No Film Studies class today.

Wednesday, October 1

We watched Birth of a Nation from Silas Lynch's departure for Piedmont to the death of Flora.

Students received a handout of an excerpt about Reconstruction from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States with a very different view of that period from that of D.W. Griffith.

HW due Friday: Quiz over the handout.