Media Studies Film Unit Assignment

DIRECTOR SEMINAREMS30

Teacher: Mr. Patterson

Focus

This assignment is about understanding the art of filmmaking. Your job will be to research a body of films by a specific director. You will study several works by the same director (a minimum of 3) to gain an understanding of the craft of film production. To do this, you will need to familiarize yourself with the language of film and sharpen your analytical skills.

The Seminar

Your seminar presentation will focus on the films of a specific director of your choosing. Each director can only be presented once per class, no repeats. Directors will be chosen on a first come/first serve basis. If, however, the same director is picked on the same day, there will be a draw to determine who gets him/her. Mr. Patterson will gladly help you through the decision making process behind choosing your director but, ultimately, you should pick somebody whose films you enjoy.

To help you decide what information you need to get across in your seminar, Mr. Patterson will provide you guidance throughout this unit and specific advice regarding your director. While some of your presentation can focus on the director’s personal history, the bulk of it should be out his or her films. You will share what qualities this director’s films have in common. You will be looking into areas like film technique, casting, script, location, and recurring themes/concepts/ideas.

For a director to qualify as ‘seminar worthy’ he or she should have directed at least 3 films. Try to steer clear of the minimum as best you can. The more prolific the director, the easier it will be to prepare your seminar. During the course of your presentation, you should show images and clips from your director’s films to reinforce your points, including one specific clip for deep viewing. This being said, try to limit your clips to a reasonable amount (2 or 3) so they don’t take up too much of your presentation time of approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

There will also be a process meeting a week before presentations. This is a meeting that will happen with Mr. Patterson. By then my expectation is that you have completed your research and know what you are planning to say about your director. Be prepared to discuss your findings in some degree of detail with Mr. Patterson.

Your seminar should be about 15 minutes in length. If it helps, think of it as three 5 minute sections:

1. History/Personal Information

Let the class know how this person found their way into the director’s chair. Are they formally trained or self-taught? Is there anything from their past that informs their films? Have they produced short films, commercials, music videos or anything else besides their major body of work? Please note: I don’t need to know the street they grew up on or how many kids they have, just information that informs their movies.

2. Popular films, themes and techniques

This is where you explain what particular themes and techniques define your director. Does your director work exclusively in one genre such as sci-fi, action or fantasy? Does your director make use of certain techniques more often than others like camera movement, use of specific colours or weird framing? Do they always focus on the same themes such as the struggle for identity or loss of family? This will be the most difficult part of your project because it involves a close study of his or her films.

3. A scene breakdown

This is something you should be familiar with from our time in class. You will pick a short clip from one of your director’s films (2 minutes approx.), show it to the class and then explain techniques the director used to make it effective. Essentially, you will do exactly what we did for the clip from THE DEPARTED. Note: You do not need to cover every technique we studied in class, but I think at least 5 or 6 should be easy enough to spot.

Make use of clips and images throughout your presentation.

Self-Reflection Journal

Your final piece of work comes after your seminar. This will take the form of 2 journal entries. Each should be standard journal length.

1st Entry (Write after your presentation) -> How do you think it went? What did you learn about this director you did not know before you started? Would you have done anything differently is you did this project again? Did you and your partner share the work equally? Has this project changed the way you see films?

2nd Entry (Write during the presentation process) -> Which presentation was your favourite? What was the most interesting thing you learned during the presentation? Did the presentation inspire you to watch any films? Is there anything about this presentation process that needs changing?

Evaluation Summary

1. Seminar Presentation /40

2. Reflection Journal /10

TOTAL MARK / 50

TIMELINE:

Given out: November 21st

Research Day: November 27th in the library

Process Meeting: December 6th

Presentation Begin: December 12th