FMS 85A: Introduction to Visual Media

Mondays, 3:00-5:50/Wednesdays, 3:00-4:20

100 HIB

Teaching Staff

Kristen Hatch, Instructor
KHatch@uci.edu
2120 Humanities Gateway Building
Office Hours: Mondays, 1:30-2:30 and by appointment

Samantha Close, Teaching Assistant
SClose@uci.edu
A1: Fridays, 9:00-9:50 HOB2 131
A2: Fridays, 10:00-10:50 HOB2 131

Kristen Galvin, Teaching Assistant
KGalvin@uci.edu
A9: Fridays, 12:00-12:50 HH 156
A10: Fridays, 1:00-1:50 HH 105

Racquel Gonzalez, Teaching Assistant
RacquelG@uci.edu
A7: Fridays, 11:00-11:50 HH 118
A8: Fridays, 12:00-12:50 HH 242

Bizzy Hemphill, Teaching Assistant
EHemphil@uci.edu
A3: Fridays, 1:00-1:50 HH 242
A4: Fridays, 2:00-2:50 HH 242

Laura Imoaka, Teaching Assistant
LImoaka@uci.edu
A5: Fridays, 9:00-9:50 HH 112
A6: Fridays, 10:00-10:50, HH 118

Erik Watschke, Teaching Assistant
EWatschk@uci.edu
A 11: Fridays, 2:00-2:50, HH 232
A 12: Fridays, 3:00-3:50 HH 242


If you have any questions about the course or individual assignments, please post them to the
class message board on eee rather than e-mailing the instructor or your TA. Please consider
subscribing to the board so that you will receive e-mails whenever a question or answer is posted
to the message board. Anonymous posts will permitted on the board provided the discussion
remains courteous.

Course Description: This course offers an introduction to film analysis by providing you with
the tools to understand how films produce meaning and emotional effect through moving images
and sound. Popular, narrative films often rely on techniques that encourage viewers to become
absorbed in a film, to forget they are watching a movie. In this course, you will learn to
recognize these techniques and to appreciate the manner in which filmmakers have departed
from and embellished this style of filmmaking. In the process, you will learn to recognize how
mise-en-scne, cinematography, editing, and narrative can be used to produce varying meanings
and responses.





Readings:

Film Art: An Introduction (9
th
edition) by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson (NY: McGraw
Hill, 2010) is available at the UCI Bookstore and on reserve at Langson Library. The textbook is
identified below as BT.

Additional readings are posted on the course web site (https://eee.uci.edu/11f/26000) and the
class drop box, which you can access through eee. These readings are identified below as pdf.

Screenings:

It is important that you attend the class screenings. Viewing a projected film amongst other
people is very different and often more enjoyable than viewing a film alone on a monitor.
Nonetheless, I have placed the following films on reserve at the MRC (on the first floor in
Langson Library) because they are discussed at length in your text book. I encourage you to
watch these films with friends:

Breathless (Jean Luc Godard, 1959)
Chungking Express (Wong Kar Wai,
1994)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee,
1989)
His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks,
1940)
Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga
Vertov, 1929)
Meet Me In St. Louis (Vincente
Minnelli, 1944)
North by Northwest (Alfred
Hitchcock, 1959)
Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred
Hitchcock, 1943)
The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris,
1988)
Tokyo Story (Yasujir Ozu, 1953)
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming,
1939)

Assignments and Evaluation:

Assignment Date Due Weight
Weekly Quizzes Before 3:00 each Monday, On-line 30%
Midterm October 26 30%
Section participation Weekly 10%
Final Exam Monday, Dec. 5, 4:00-6:00 30%


Weekly Quizzes: Each week you will take an on-line quiz composed of multiple-choice and
short-answer questions. You will have 20 minutes to complete each quiz. Your quiz responses
will demonstrate that you have actively engaged with the lectures, readings, and films and that
you are able to use the concepts and vocabulary we cover to analyze specific film clips. Each
quiz is worth three points. Your lowest quiz grade will be dropped.

In week 7, you will complete a Plot Segmentation I in addition to the on-line portion of the quiz.
More information on the Plot Segmentation will be given in week 5. The plot segmentation is
worth 6 points.

Section Participation: Section participation is required. Each week you will be given an essay
prompt to discuss. In section, you will focus on developing an interpretive claim in response to
the prompt and supporting your claim through the analysis of the film or films you discuss. You
will need to answer one or more of these essay prompts in the midterm and final, so be sure to
take good notes from your discussions. Your grade for section participation will be based on
your attendance and the level of your contribution to class discussion. One absence is permitted.

Midterm: The midterm will include multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay questions. Your
answers should demonstrate your ability to accurately identify various cinematic techniques and
to analyze how these techniques produce meanings and emotional effects. During the exam, you
may refer to one 3x5 card with notes printed on both sides of the card. Please bring a Blue Book.

Final Exam: The final exam will include multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay questions.
Your answers should demonstrate your ability to accurately identify various cinematic
techniques and to analyze how these techniques produce meanings and effects. During the exam,
you may refer to one 3x5 card with notes printed on both sides of the card. Please bring a Blue
Book.

Attendance: We will not be taking attendance during lectures and screenings. Nonetheless, it is
important that you arrive on time and refrain from leaving during a film in order to avoid
distracting other students. If you must surf the internet, send text messages, speak on your cell
phone, listen to music, or snore during class time, please do so outside the lecture hall so that you
do not interfere with other students ability to concentrate on lectures and films. If you disrupt
other students ability to concentrate on the lecture or film, you will be asked to leave the room
and your course grade will be docked a letter grade (A B); if you are asked to leave more than
once your course grade will be docked to an F.

The use of electronic devices is prohibited during lectures and screening. If you must use an
electronic device to take notes or record lectures, you may apply for permission to do so. To
apply, please send Professor Hatch an e-mail explaining why you require an exception. If your
request is approved, you will be asked to sign a users agreement and to sit in a designated area
of the lecture hall.

Please do not enter or leave the lecture hall during a film screening or push the wheelchair access
button if you are able to walk without aid; doing so sheds light on the screen. If you cannot
avoid being late to a screening or must leave early, plan to watch the film independently on a dvd
rather than distract from other students engagement with the film.

Grading: Students who truly excel on assignments, demonstrating a nuanced understanding of
the material and surpassing the expectations of the assignment, will earn A-range grades.
Students who do above-average work that clearly achieves the goals of the assignments in an
accurate and thorough fashion will earn B-range grades. C-range grades will be earned by
students who have completed satisfactory work. Students whose work does not meet the
requirements and expectations of an assignment will earn a D or an F.

Once grades have been submitted to the registrar at the end of the quarter, they cannot be
changed. Please be sure to discuss any concerns you have about your grade with your TA by
December 6.

Dates Screening Reading
September 26 & 28

1. Introduction




Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)


BT, Ch. 2: The Significance of
Film Form
Arnheim Film and Reality
(pdf)

October 3 & 5

2. Mise-en-scne




Fallen Angels (Wong Kar Wai,
1995)



BT, Ch. 4: The Shot: Mise-en-
Scne
BT, Ch. 8: Style as a Formal
System

October 10 & 12

3. Mise-en-scne


Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk,
1959)


Dyer, Introduction to Heavenly
Bodies (pdf)
Hayward, excerpt from Cinema
Studies: The Key Concepts
Willeman, Distanciation and
Douglas Sirk (pdf)

October 17 & 19

4. Cinematography &
the Long Take



Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)


BT, Ch. 5: The Shot:
Cinematography
Bazin, The Evolution of the
Language of Cinema (pdf)

October 24 & 26
Midterm
5. Framing and
Camera Movement



Elephant (Gus Van Sant, 2003)


Henderson, Toward a Non-
Bourgeoius Camera Style
(pdf)
Deleuze, from Cinema 2: The
Time-Image


October 31 &
November 2

9. Sound





Band of Outsiders (Jean Luc
Godard, 1964)




BT, Ch. 7: Sound in the Cinema
Chion, Projections of Sound on
Image (pdf)

November 7 & 9
Veterans Day

7. Narrative





Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino,
1994)




BT, Ch. 3: Narrative as a Formal
System
Thompson, The Concept of
Cinematic Excess (pdf)
Sconce, Trashing the
Academy

November 14 & 16

8. Editing



Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946)


BT, Ch. 6: The Relation of Shot
to Shot
Bordwell, An Excessively
Obvious Cinema (pdf)

November 21 & 23
Thanksgiving
9. Editing




Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese,
1980)




Eisenstein, A Dialectic
Approach to Film Form
(pdf)
--- The Cinematic Principle and
the Ideogram (pdf)

November 28 & 30

10. Review


Boogie Nights (P. T. Anderson,
1997)



BT, Ch. 11: Film Criticism:
Critical Analysis