Fantasy Films

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Arthurian Legends and Medievalism

Here are some links to inform our work on this topic:

Filed in General October 21st, 2008 by Leonardo Flores

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Films for Next Week

The following film clips will be available until Thursday, October 30:

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Filed in General October 21st, 2008 by Leonardo Flores

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Analysis of Alexander Ptushko as Auteur

For this posting, you must analyze Alexander Ptushko as an auteur, judging from the two films we’ve seen: Sadko and Ilya Muromets. Your discussion should touch on aspects of style as well as on how he expresses his ideology through these films. The following articles should provide some context for your discussion: “Alexandr Ptushko,” “Imperial Fatigue 2: The Films of Alexandr Ptushko,” including the short articles to three of his films in the page.

Your posting should be about 300 words in length, and is due before class on Tuesday, October 14. A 50-word response to a classmate’s posting is due before class on Thursday, October 16.

Filed in General October 9th, 2008 by Leonardo Flores

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Analysis of Acting in La Belle et la Bete

For this posting, you must analyze an aspect of acting in this film. You can focus on a specific performance or group of performance and what it/they contribute to the film, or you can analyze how another cinematic element works hand in hand with acting to achieve an effect in one or more scenes. You can also use the chart at the end of the chapter on Acting to guide you in an analysis of a performance. Don’t just describe the acting: speculate as to what is its goal and analyze how the performance contributes to achieving that purpose.

Your posting must be approximately 250 words in length and is due before class on Thursday, September 18. You must then read a classmate’s posting and reply to it, engaging, questioning, or elaborating its ideas in a brief (about 50 words) posting before class on the following Tuesday.

Filed in General September 15th, 2008 by Leonardo Flores

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Essay #1: Formal Analysis of a Fantasy Film

This assignment has several steps:

1. Select a fantasy film for your essay and view it, the film can be one we have seen in class. E-mail me (flores@uprm.edu) the title of your chosen film for approval and/or suggestions no later than Thursday, September 18.

2. Analyze the film in terms of formal elements: mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, sound, and acting. This may require abundant prewriting and re-viewing of the film.

3. Based on your analyses, formulate a thesis that can be supported by analyses of formal elements of the film. You can focus on an idea or a group of ideas that are expressed cinematically, an aspect of style or genre, a pattern in the use or combined use of cinematic elements, an interpretation of a film, and so on.

4. Write your essay, supporting your points with your analyses of the elements of film.

5. Print out the final draft and turn it in during class on Thursday, September 25.

The essay should be about 1000 words in length, 3-4 pages in MLA Format (typed, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 point font).

Filed in General September 15th, 2008 by Leonardo Flores

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La Belle et la Bete

Here’s the movie with subtitles: http://academic.uprm.edu/flores/files/L4B3LL337L4B373C0C734U.wmv

I have encountered an interesting technical challenge with exporting and making the film available to you: subtitles. While I work on this, here’s an imperfect solution:

1. Download the file: http://academic.uprm.edu/flores/files/CocteauBelleetBete.wmv

2. Download the captions file: http://academic.uprm.edu/flores/files/BBcaptions.srt

3. Download and install the VLC Player: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

4. To watch film with subtitles:

Open VLC Player
Under File menu, select Open File.
Select the movie file.
Click on “use subtitles file” and select subtitles file.
Enjoy the film.

Alternatively, you can practice your French.

I shouldn’t have as many problems with some of the other films, because they either have no subtitles or I will have ironed out some bugs I’m dealing with over here.

Filed in General September 15th, 2008 by Leonardo Flores

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Analysis of Sound in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

For this posting, you must select a scene or group of related scenes in which sound plays an important role and develop an analysis of how the sound contributes to the goal(s) of the scene(s).

This 200-word posting is due before class on Thursday, September 11 and the 50-word reply is due before class on Tuesday, September 16.

I will make the film available off campus at the following link until Thursday afternoon only.

Here’s the link: http://academic.uprm.edu/flores/files/The_Wizard_of_Oz_web.wmv

Filed in General September 9th, 2008 by Leonardo Flores

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New instructions and deadline for Editing and Cinematography Posting.

For now, we have to accept the fact that we cannot access the movie outside of the Colegio. This leaves the Colegio, both wirelessly and through computer labs as our access points for viewing the films, which is MUCH more convenient than Filmoteca alone. You have longer hours and more access points. So for the time being, we don’t have the convenience of watching this at home and while I hope we can work this out with Computos, we’re going to have to adapt to the current circumstances.

So here are the new deadlines:

The analysis of Cinematography and Editing in The Thief of Bagdad (1940) is due before class on Tuesday, September 9. The reply to a classmate’s posting by Friday, September 12.
I will show The Thief of Bagdad on Monday, September 8 at 3:00 pm in CH-326.
The analysis of sound in The Wizard of Oz is due before class on Thursday, September 11. The reply to a classmate’s posting is due before class on Tuesday, September 16.
I will screen The Wizard of Oz on Wednesday, September 10 at 3:30 pm in Filmoteca.

I know this sets a fairly ambitious amount of work for next week, but it is the only way we can get back on track with our course work schedule. Please make whatever arrangements in your weekly planning to make time for this coursework. (You do plan your week, don’t you?)

Have a good weekend.

Filed in General September 6th, 2008 by Leonardo Flores

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