Introductory Topics in Cinematic Expression
Writing Assignments

 

"I think that these ideas about control and chaos stem from
my upbringing, which was unbelievably lax."
Lars von Trier, interview w/ Christian Braad Thomsen (1996)

general guidelines

Path 1: impassioned pleas / responses to existing pleas / screenshot analyses

Path 2: path 2 groups / term paper outlines & feedback / term paper

General Composition Guidelines for All Writing Assignments

• employ the same format: use a Times New Roman, 12-point font; double-space your text and alter all four margins to 1" [irrelevant to online posts]
  
• deliver a structured argument: text should be tightly organized, with main points logically ordered.
• evince creativity: writing within the humanities is all about effective, persuasive argumentation, and not at all about giving the instructor the easiest, most obvious answer.
• pursue a narrowly argued, debatable thesis: your arguments should move in a very specific direction; do not attempt to touch on all tangentially related ideas, and make sure to forward a debatable position.
• provide adequate evidence: support your argument using your own observations, closely reasoned points, and textual evidence. Whether I happen to agree with your thesis or not matters not at all--just ensure that it is sufficiently supported and logically, persuasively rendered.
• citation: Use MLA-style citation format. When citing a specific scene from a film, indicate the hours, minutes, and seconds of the scene in parentheses. For example, (1:32:30-35) [which means 1 hr, 32 minutes, seconds 30-35].
• demonstrate familiarity with assigned texts: your essays should indicate intimate, comprehensive awareness of any films involved in your argument.
• evince polish: essays should show signs of careful revision.
• Marchbanks' Pet Peeves
  • when recounting events from a story, please use the present (not past) verb tense to bring the events to life; definitely do not switch back and forth between present and past verb tenses without good reason
  • avoid such vague, nondescript adjectives as the following, since they add nothing specific to your claim: "interesting," "unique," "incredible," "fascinating," "amazing," etc.
  • avoid references to yourself (no first-person singular or plural pronouns) except when generating impassioned pleas or plea responses; allow your claims to sell themselves to the reader
  • the titles of films should be italicized, and you should include the year of release in parentheses the first time you provide the film's title
  • place the period following a quoted passage after the page citation in parentheses, not before the parentheses. By the same token, never place a comma at the end of a quoted passage unless the structure of the sentence demands one.
  • spell correctly all names (characters, screenwriters, directors, authors, artists, etc.).
  • use "who" instead of "that" or "which" when referring to people
  • employ a hyphen between two adjectives working together as a single modifier of a noun, unless the first of the two ends in -ly.
• Go here for assistance deciphering Dr. M's color-coded comments on returned writing assignments.

Path 1 Impassioned Pleas (10 pts each, 40 pts total)

Students will post four separate, 100-125 word reflections (no more, no less) at my free, non-monetized YouTube channel, Digging in the Dirt.

These impassioned pleas will wrestle with ideas included in the appropriate introductory videos posted at Digging in the Dirt this quarter. (These include introductory videos for Dance, Girl, Dance; Wild Strawberries, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Gran Turino). These pleas should tackle some specific idea in my video. My entries make observations about topics as wide-ranging as cinema, literature, painting, dance, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and faith en route to preparing viewers to watch the film in question. Write something quite specific which extracts an idea I've raised and engages it by way of other relevant stories you've encountered in film, television, or literature; personal anecdotes from your own experience; or other relevant, specific observations about technology, the social sciences, art, culture, and/or the film itself. Add something new and specific to the conversation. Do NOT list the word count in your post.

When assigning grades to students' brief responses, I will consider voice and tone as well as content and grammar, so try to evoke feeling in your audience by writing with passion (pathos). You can earnestly plead, humorously regale, or angrily castigate, but take hold of some idea raised in my video and express a decided opinion.

You may refer to yourself using first-person pronouns only for Impassioned Pleas and Responses to Existing Impassioned Pleas.

Note: This is the single most difficult type of writing assignment in this course, as it requires students to accomplish a number of things without going over the word limit. Do not be deceived by its brevity into thinking the task easy. These entries will be scored according to the rubric below.

• grade A: such a plea addresses one or more specific ideas in Dr. M's video, and expresses a clear and cogent opinion using: 1) grammatically correct prose, 2) precise diction, and 3) lively language enriched by figures of speech (e.g. metaphor, hyperbole, etc.) and/or powerful modifiers (i.e. adjectives, adverbs).
• grade B: this plea covers all requirements of an A, but its structure could be tighter and its creativity edgier. Its diction could be more precise, and its phrasing more spare and exacting.
• grade C: this plea conveys a particular opinion about Dr. M's video, but retains notable problems with expression (grammar, diction, etc.).
• grades D and F: this plea does not include all elements identified by the guidelines above. Whether it barely passes will depend on the writer's skill.

Path 1 Response to Existing Comments (10 pts each, 20 pts total)

Students will post two separate, 100-125 word responses (no more, no less) to already existing comments (impasioned pleas) at my free, non-monetized YouTube channel, Digging in the Dirt.

These responses to existing impassioned pleas will tackle a comment with which you disagree and provide an impassioned response of your own backed by evidence from the film in question or other thematically relevnat films. (These include responses to comments present at my introductory videos for Freaks and Women Talking. Write something quite specific which demonstrates your familiarity with the film. Add something new and specific to the conversation. Do NOT list the word count in your post.

When assigning grades to students' brief responses, I will consider voice and tone as well as content and grammar, so try to evoke feeling in your audience by writing with passion (pathos). Be sure to avoid reproducing observations I have made in either the intro. video itself or the accompanying lecture video.

You may refer to yourself using first-person pronouns only for Impassioned Pleas and Responses to Existing Impassioned Pleas.

Note: As with the impassioned pleas, writing a compelling response to an existing plea/comment without going over the 100-125 word limit is challenging. These entries will be scored according to the rubric below.

• grade A: such a response addresses a specific idea in the comment to which you respond, and expresses a clear and cogent opinion using: 1) grammatically correct prose, 2) precise diction, and 3) lively language enriched by figures of speech (e.g. metaphor, hyperbole, etc.) and/or powerful modifiers (i.e. adjectives, adverbs).
• grade B: this response covers all requirements of an A, but its structure could be tighter and its creativity edgier. Its diction could be more precise, and its phrasing more spare and exacting.
• grade C: this response conveys a particular opinion about the post you've tackled, but retains notable problems with expression (grammar, diction, etc.).
• grades D and F: these responses do not include all elements identified by the guidelines above. Whether it barely passes will depend on the writer's skill.

Path 2 Screenshot Analyses (40 pts, 20 pts each)

Students will write a pair of 75-125 word screenshot analyses (150-250 words total) for two of our assigned films (Please make sure the paragraph you generate and the image to which it refers are on the same page of your Word doc.

If you only rent the film--instead of choosing to purchase it--be sure to create many professional-looking screen captures of pivotal scenes before you close the film! Do not use your cell phone to create screen captures. Watch films using Firefox if Safari or Chrome don't allow screen capturing. If you wish to use Chrome and it's not working, try these instructions for disabling hardware acceleration:

• open Chrome
• click the horizontal ellipsis menu button in the top-right corner and click on "Settings"
• click on the three horizontal bars to the left
• click on "System"
• turn off "Use hardware acceleration when available" toggle switch
• click the "Relaunch" button

Screenshot Analyses should be written after you have--in this order: 1) watched my intro. video on Digging in the Dirt, 2) looked over my Points for Reflection for the film (linked from the Path 1 calendar), 3) watched the film itself, and 4) watched my video lecture about the film (linked from the Path 1 calendar). Do not reproduce analyses I have provided in either my YouTube video or my lecture, so view both carefully. Repeating what I already said will lead to a failing grade. You are invited, however, to pull ideas from the study questions (i.e. "Points for Reflection") that I have generated.

For each screenshot analysis assignment, students will provide a pair of technical analyses which each include a screenshot. One analysis should pull from the first half of the film, and the second analysis from the second half of the film. Identify each scene with the appropriate parenthetical citation. Example: (1:23:04-15).

Please ensure that each paragraph you generate and the image to which it refers appear on the same, separate page of your Word doc. (It helps to wrap text around each image: in Word, right-click on the image, click on "wrap text," and select "square.") Make the image(s) as large as possible without spilling onto the next page. Each screenshot analysis assignment should be two pages long.

You may mention other criteria in passing, but each of your original analyses should focus on a different, single technical element you have chosen to discuss for a given segment of the film. Identify the topical focus of each page's paragraph with an appropriate heading. Draw from the following options, and do not focus on any element twice in the same assignment. Please notice that analyzing camera movement, editing cuts, or transitions requires 2-3 screenshots instead of only one.

• lighting and/or color [1 screenshot]
• framing & composition [1 screenshot]
• camera movement [ 2-3 screenshots]
• camera angle [1 screenshot]
• focus & depth [1 screenshot]
• editing cut [2-3 screenshots]
• transition [2-3 screenshots]
• sound design [1 screenshot]

Provide original analysis without drawing on generative A.I. or any secondary sources (online or otherwise), and be sure to avoid reproducing any analysis I provided in my intro. to the film on Digging in the Dirt. Refrain from referring to yourself: let the power of your structured, well-reasoned analysis carry your argument. Concision is key! In addition to analyzing your content, I will focus on ensuring you have expressed each idea in as few words as possible.

These assignments will be turned in as a Word doc (not a PDF) via email by midnight on Tuesday, July 9 (Le Bonheur) and Tuesday, July 16 (Dancer in the Dark). Late assignments will lose 2 points/day (of 25 total).

• grade A: this set of analyses follow all guidelines above. Each paragraph boasts expert phrasing, grammar, and diction.
• grade B: this pair of original analyses includes minor missteps in grammar and/or diction.
• grade C: this pair of original analyses struggles to be specific, clear, and/or compelling in its assertions.
• grades D and F: these analyses appear incomplete--they do not incorporate all the elements required by the assignment, and may draw upon observations either made by Dr. M, generative A.I., or others online.

Looking over a few sample, graded screenshot analysis assignments should help you calibrate your efforts. Strong example #1, strong example #2, strong example #3, weak example #1.

Path 2 Term Paper Outline, Feedback, & Final Draft (30 + 20 + 40 = 90 pts)

Purpose: to determine whether the two films in question reach similar or disparate conclusions concerning a similar topic or theme
Audience: readers and viewers familiar with the works you consider
Writing foci: organization at the paragraph and essay level; convincing reasoning and evidence; appropriate diction

This assignment requires each student to consider the ways in which your assigned Path 2 film and one of our Path 1 films engage one shared topic or theme, a discussion which will be enriched by your comparison of differences in technique. Do the two films' individual approaches constitute a meeting of the minds, or do they differ widely in their agendas and conclusions? Find some creative way of weaving these films together into a tightly organized, narrowly defined, debatable position--one which concludes that the two works either converge or diverge.

Focus your argument around close analysis of two screenshots per film. Each screenshot should be:

1. three inches wide, regardless of the aspect ratio (that's around 750 pixels wide at 150 resolution)
2. identified with a time stamp (as parenthetical citation) in the prose describing it
3. embedded in the paper itself next to the prose analyzing it
4. surrounded by wrapped text (In Word, right-click on the image, click on "wrap text," and select "square.")

I encourage you to incorporate, briefly, other Path 1 films studied this quarter: referencing additional works might help you set up your argument, create a powerful conclusion, or clarify various claims made throughout the essay. The essay should, however, focus most of its attention on your assigned Path 2 film and the Path 1 film with which you have paired it.

Essays should be 4-5 pages in length, and follow MLA guidelines for formatting and creating appropriate citation entries in a separate Works Cited page. Send to Dr. M as attachment and url via email. All films discussed within the essay should appear in your Works Cited page. Films should appear in alphabetical order by title. Entries should also include--separated by commas--the director's name, the film studio or distributor, and the release year. For example:

Women Talking. Directed by Sarah Polley, performances by Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Ben Whishaw, Universal Pictures, 2022.

You may employ secondary sources from other fields (psychology, sociology, history, etc.) if you wish, though this is neither requested nor expected.

Term Paper Outline & Video Explanation (25 pts): Students will generate single-spaced, two-page, individual outlines for their term papers--before writing the paper itself, obviously--that include the following elements:

1. a clearly stated, debatable thesis statement (1 of these)
2. every supporting claim that will tie back to the thesis--think of these as the topic sentences that appear near the beginning of each supporting, body paragraph of your essay (3-5 of these)
3. the pieces of evidence you will use to support each claim, including your analysis (3-7 per claim)
4. a third page with the the 2-4 screen captures you're analyzing (1-2 per film) so that your Path 2 groupmates and I can reference them. (In the term paper itself, you will embed these images in your essay: for the outline assignment, keep screenshots on a separate, third page.)

Students will then guide me and their Path 2 groupmates through the outline in a 2-3 minute video which you upload somewhere (YouTube works well) before sending us the url so we can view it while looking over your outline (also send via email).

Some term paper outlines for one of my other film courses--these samples do not include screenshots on a second page (this is a new requirement of mine): grade A, grade A-, grade B, grade B-, grade C

Term Paper Feedback (20 pts): Path 2 group members will provide two, separate 2-3 minute video responses, one for each of their two Path 2 group members' term paper outlines, and send the url for these video responses to both Dr. M and the student author of the outline simultaneously. Please comment on clarity of thesis, organization, and evidence. As you will be familiar with the same Path 2 film, suggest alternative pieces of evidence they might consider using.

Final Draft of Term Paper (40 pts): Due by midnight on Tuesday, July 23. (Late term papers will lose 2 pts per day.)

The Highway (1977)
Poul Anker Bech

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu