Final Paper / Project
For this assignment, you have two choices:
1. Write an academic research paper on 2-3 fantasy films, in which you employ one or more of the following critical perspectives:
- Auteur theory (focusing on a particular director, producer, or animator)
- Genre theory (historical approach, or focusing on a subgenre of fantasy)
- Technological approach (focusing on a particular special effects or animation technology and the types of films it produced)
- Archetypal theory (applying C. G. Jung’s model of the psyche, the use of archetypes, and/or Joseph Campbell’s notion of the monomyth)
- Other approaches must be approved by your professor.
Remember that no matter the critical perspective you have chosen, the essay must prove something beyond simply applying the terminology or reporting on information researched. And don’t forget to use your film terminology (mise-en-scene, cinematography, etc.) in your analyses. The essay must be about 4-6 pages long (1000-1500 words) in MLA Format (typed, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 point font).
2. You may produce (individually or collaboratively) a 10-15 minute film that incorporates some element of fantasy and submit (individually) a 2-3 page (500-750 words) essay where you discuss your contribution and how your work is an engagement of the cinematic elements, theories, and genre discussed in class.
E-mail me a proposal in which you specify the films chosen for the essay and the critical perspective you will focus on by Thursday, November 20.