Film Studies Update Week 18

Good morning and welcome to week 18!

The end of the year seems to approach so quickly from Thanksgiving to Christmas, I can’t believe the first semester is almost over.

This past week we discussed blurring the lines between reality and fantasy when telling a story. We watched Tim Burton’s Big Fish and tried to identify aspects like forced perspective, camera and lighting techniques, and the multiple narrators with a primarily unreliable narrator. We did worksheets that break down framing, angles, camera movement; editing choices; soundtrack; color and lighting; and theatrical choices.

With this in mind I also assigned their final, which is an essay. The broad goal is for the students to describe how specific cinematic techniques are used to create a response or feeling from the audience. Students can choose to focus on one technique and how different films use that technique, they could focus on a director and how they use specific techniques across multiple films. I’ve encouraged them to make the essay as long as they want but should be at least 600 words and use examples of several films from what we’ve viewed in class as well as films they’ve seen outside of class.

What’s new with Mr. Dudek?
Another busy weekend for the Dudek Family: Peter had soccer in Tempe, Myla had dance in Queen Creek. I probably set some sort of record getting from one to the other. The staff Christmas party at the Sippel’s was Saturday as well so we dropped the kids off at a sitters. Raelynn was not happy but eventually settled down. Child-free evenings are so rare.

Have a great week roadrunners!
Mr. Dudek
pdudek@santancs.com