Welcome to Film Study! 
 Latest Posts 
 Archive 

Subscribe to this blog's feed
Sunday, 05 September 2010
Back to school?
Pleasantville (1998)
by Gary Ross.
Shooting script.
FADE IN:
INT. HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM. DAY.
A college counselor stands at the Podium lecturing the high school seniors about their future.
COLLEGE COUNSELOR
...For those of you going on to college next year, the chance of finding a  good job will actually decrease by the time you graduate. The available number of entry level jobs will drop thirty-one percent over the next four years. Median income for those jobs will go down as well...
There is some rustling in the audience.
COLLEGE COUNSELOR
Obviously, my friends, it's a competitive world and good grades are your only ticket through. In fact, by the year 2000.
INT. HIGH SCHOOL. HEALTH CLASS.
A different teacher lectures a different class of students.
HEALTH TEACHER
...The chance of contracting HIV from a non-monogamous lifestyle will climb to one in one hundred and fifty. The odds of dying in an auto accident are only one in twenty-five hundred.
(beat)
Now this marks a drastic increase...
INT. HIGH SCHOOL. SCIENCE CLASS.
Same angle. Different teacher.
SCIENCE TEACHER
...From just four years ago when ozone depletion was at ten percent of its current level. By the time you are twenty years old, average global temperature will have risen two and a half degrees, causing such catastrophic consequences as typhoons, floods, widespread drought and famine.
REVERSE ANGLE. STUDENTS.
They stare back in stunned silence. One of them, DAVID WAGNER, sits in the front row with a pencil in his mouth. Nobody moves...
SCIENCE TEACHER
(chipper "classroom" tone)
Okay. Who can tell me what famine is?
POSTED BY: Evan Brees AT 02:24 am   |  Permalink   |  0 Comments  |  E-mail this
Thursday, 15 March 2007
Syllabus
Goals
  1. Increase self-awareness of students and develop a global perspective
  2. Motivate students to reject apathy in favor of hope
  3. Provide students with a contextual basis for appreciating cultural and biological diversity
  4. Use film as a catalyst for personal growth and change
 
Objectives/Rationale
  1. Critically read and evaluate film as a medium of cultural expression
  2. Identify and objectively discuss themes and issues presented in film
  3. Examine the relationships between characters' assumptions, motivations and decisions
  4. Consider multiple perspectives, evaluating alternate points of view on controversial topics
  5. Explore themes and issues through research and selected readings
  6. Participate in informal discussion and writing activities
  7. Engage in personal reflection by maintaining a film viewing log
 
Background
I conceived the concept of film study while teaching social studies to juveniles incarcerated as adults at Clallam. Despite the diversity of the students, a striking lack of empathy for others presented as a universal trait. In an effort to instill a basic sense of compassion for people from different backgrounds and points of view, I began introducing films that featured material to serve as a catalyst for confronting antisocial thought patterns and challenging assumptions about life. Bay Corrections Center
Film is a medium unique in its ability to captivate an audience, and thus has an amazing potential to reach students while their affective filter is low. This provides the opportunity to redirect negative or unhealthy assumptions and rigid thinking and to replace these with a more flexible, inclusive worldview. The mission of this course is to build empathy and respect for others.
 
Film Selection
Films are presented in thematic series, with a different theme introduced each term. I carefully research potential films using an array of print and Internet sources until I am confident that my selections represent the best opportunity to explore a vital facet of the featured theme. A word on controversial material: In accord with the goals and intent of the course, I seek out films that confront important social issues and problems. These often provide the best opportunity to sensitize an increasingly desensitized audience and change antisocial or otherwise unhealthy assumptions and thinking. Because of my personal experience observing changes in homophobic, racist, and other antisocial behavior as a direct result of films I have shown and discussed, I embrace controversy for the powerful catalyst that it can be for personal change.
 
Assessment
50%    Production or Performance
50%    Film viewing log & Discussion notes
POSTED BY: Evan Brees AT 07:33 pm   |  Permalink   |  0 Comments  |  E-mail this
Thursday, 15 March 2007
Favorite movie quotes
Dewey's thoughts: Everyone likes you better than your brothers. Someday, you're going to be the president of Idaho, and anyone taller than you will be fed to the wolves.
~Malcolm in the Middle 
 
Kitty Farmer: [Tearfully to Rose Darko] Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
~Donnie Darko
 
D-Qwon: Welcome to D-Qwon's dance grooves, are you ready to get your groove on?
D-Qwon: All right then, let's get started!
~Napoleon Dynamite
 
Buck Russell: I don't think I want to know a six-year-old who isn't a dreamer, or a sillyheart. And I sure don't want to know one who takes their student career seriously. I don't have a college degree. I don't even have a job. But I know a good kid when I see one. Because they're ALL good kids, until dried-out, brain-dead skags like you drag them down and convince them they're no good.
~Uncle Buck
 
Sam: I think there has to be a door between where you cook and where you crap. Even in the bush - tribal people, you know, they have a place for both. Probably it's like a law. God! It's probably in the Bible. It's at least a building code violation.
~Life as a House
 
Sean: So what do you really want to do?
Will: I wanna be a shepherd.
Sean: Really.
Will: I wanna move up to Nashua, get a nice little spread, get some sheep and tend to them.
Sean: Maybe you should go do that.
~Good Will Hunting
 
RoboCop: Excuse me, I have to go. Somewhere there is a crime happening.
~Robocop
 
Juror #3: You're talking about a matter of seconds. Nobody can be that accurate.
Juror #8: Well I think that testimony that can put a boy into the electric chair SHOULD be that accurate.
~Twelve Angry Men
 
Trevor: Were you just being nice?
Eugene: About what?
Trevor: About my idea. Do you think it's good, or were you just being teachery?
Eugene: "Teachery"?
Trevor: Bullshitting.
Eugene: Do I strike you as someone falsely nice?
Trevor: No. You're not even really all that nice.
~Pay It Forward
POSTED BY: Evan Brees AT 02:35 pm   |  Permalink   |  0 Comments  |  E-mail this
Bookmark and Share