Assignments for Feb. 8th

Imagen y sentido
Textos:
Capitulos 6 y 7 del libro de David Bordwell y Kristin Thompson
- The Shot: Cinematography (pg 193 – 248)
- The Shot: Mise-en-Scene (pg 156 – 192)

** Read both texts and write a structured synopsis according to your last name. (Baraya – Hernandez (Cinematography) & Jara – Zafra (Mise en Scene).

All texts available here.

Ficha 4

Oral presentations

Please look for the program here and pick a reading to present orally in class. Write your names and the text you chose here (as comments) so the rest of the class can learn what readings are taken.

Classroom swap

As of Friday Feb 1st, classes will be held in room 303D.

Articles on The Royal Tenenbaums

A. O. Scott – New York Times
J. Hoberman – The Village Voice
Philip French – The Guardian
Roger Ebert – Roger Ebert.com

Assignments for Feb. 1st

Capítulos 1 y 4 del libro de David Bordwell, La narración en el cine de ficción
- Some Theories of Narration
- Principles of Narration

Película: Rushmore, Wes Anderson, 1998

** Read both texts and write a structured synopsis according to your last name. (Baraya – Hernandez (Some Theories of Narration) & Jara – Zafra (Principles of Narration) ).

Texts available here.

Ficha 3

Narrative as a Formal System

“Narrative”, as stated by Bordwell and Thompson (B&T), is the “way that humans make sense of the world”. We understand narrative situations, or “chain of events” as cause-effect relationships occurring in time and space.

In our daily life we might refer to narrative as “story”, however a difference between both terms must be made in order to avoid confusions. According to B&T, as viewers we are able to infer information that might not be explicitly presented, and in order to describe how we are able to make such connections they suggest an examination of the terms plot and story.

Plot is then the term used to describe all that is present in the film, both visible and audible. It includes, all the story events that are depicted in a direct manner and all material that is extraneous to the story world.

In order to make their point B&T introduce the term diegesis, which is a term used originally in literary theory and encompasses the world in which the story takes place. The term is important to recognize, as we need to understand that there are certain elements that appear in the films’ plot that are sometimes external to the diegesis. We call such elements non-diegetic.

Assignments for January 25th

Readings:

Chapters 2 & 3 of David Bordwell & Kristin Thompson’s Film Art: an Introduction.
- The Significance of Film Form (pg 39-58)
- Narrative as a Formal System (pg 59 – 92)

Write a structured synopsis of the second reading (Narrative as a Formal System) and a structured synopsis of the movie.

You can download the readings here.

Ficha 1 & 2