Communication HIP 143: The Psychology of the Filmic Text

Fall Quarter 1997
Doug Williams
Communication Dept. Office MCC 124 C
Office Hours: 12:00-1:00 Tues; 12:00-1:00 Wed; and by appointment
Lecture 8:00-9:20 Center 222

Course Description and Goals:

In this class we will discover what we already know: How to understand films. The purpose of this course will be to teach you to be conscious of what you have learned to do in order to understand a film or television program. How we make sense out of cinema is a mixture of physiology, spatial body-experience and cultural construction. We will explore how these different levels of experience and socialization construct our understanding of the cinematic image. By the end of the course, you will be expected to be able to analyze both the formal structure and the psychological implications of cinematic images.

Required Texts

(available at Groundworks Books):

Stefan Sharff, The Elements of Cinema

Sergei Eisenstein, The Film Sense

Course Reader Available from Soft Reserves.

Recommended Texts

(particularly if you have not taken CoCu 125, "How to Read A Film", or another film course):

Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen, Leo Braudy, Film Theory and Criticism.
This book offers a general overview of film theory. This will be particularly helpful for those students who haven't had a film course.

David Bordwell and Noel Carroll, Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies.
This book introduces recent psycho-social theories of film, many of which I strongly disagree with, but others which may be of interest, especially for those students who wish to pursue this subject further.

Grading

There will be a short test on terminology early in the term; a group project in which two-person teams will analyze sequences of Notorious, shot by shot; and a final exam, which will test your knowledge of the course materials, and your ability to analyze a film sequence. The weighting of grades for these are:

Students will on several occasions be expected to go to the video playback center in the Undergraduate Library to watch films that will be discussed in class. Do not neglect to do this, as class discussions and readings will make very little sense to you otherwise. Notorious will be available for viewing at the video playback center for the group project. Partners in the Group Project will be expected to have their presentations ready on the date that they are due to analyze their section of Notorious in class.

Note: Readings are due on the class date, unless otherwise noted. Listed page numbers are from the original article; the reader page numbers will be different. This syllabus is subject to change as necessary.

Week 1: Film Basics: Types of Film

Thurs Sept. 25 Introduction to the class. Queen Elizabeth (1912) excerpt, contrasted with Madonna, Like a Prayer video (1989)

Week 2: Film Basics: representation and referentiality

Tues Sept. 29 Bernstein, Film Production pp. 167-174; Malkiewicz, Film Lighting pp. 83-98; Sharff, pp. 5-35. Class demonstration: Video camera & monitor, light kit.

Thurs Oct. 2. Siegfried Kracauer, "Basic Concepts," Mast & Cohen, Film Theory & Criticism, pp. 9-20; Brian Henderson, "Two Types of Film Theory", A Critique of Film Theory, pp. 16-31. Sanderson, "Film Composition", A Historical Study pp. 149-176.

Week 3: Translation of feeling and thought to Image

Tues Oct. 7 Vygotsky, Mind in Society, "mastery of memory & thinking", pp 38-51; Eisenstein, Film Sense, pp. 3-51. Discussion: reproduced vs. edited world; Reality vs. reconstructed reality; Kracauer v. Eisenstein.

Thurs Oct. 9 Review film terms (illustrated with clips); further discussion of Vygotsky and Eisenstein. Vygotsky, Thought and Language, pp. 136-145.

Week 4: Translation of feeling and thought to Image

Tues. Oct. 14: Test on Basic Film Terms: 20%

Thurs Oct 16 Class to be made up at date to be announced. Class: Assignment: Watch Notorious at playback center (or rent it), and read Joseph Anderson and Barbara Anderson, "The Case for an Ecological Metatheory, Post Theory pp. 347-367; John Black, Terrence Turner, and Gordon Bower, "Point of View in Narrative Comprehension, Memory and Production", Journal of Verbal Learning and Behavior 13 (1979), pp. 187-99

Week 5: Translation of feeling and thought to Image

Tues Oct. 21 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, pp. 3-40; 56-68. Discussion: Visual perception/categorization (metonymic) and Narrative time (syntagmatic). Eisenstein vs. Kracauer revisited.

Thurs. Oct. 23 Eisenstein, "Beyond the Shot", S. M. Eisenstein, Collected Works Vol. 1, pp. 138-150; Trevor Whittock, Metaphor and Film , pp. 108-118.

Week 6 Translation of feeling and thought to Image

Tues Oct. 28. Sharff, 37-58. Eisenstein, "Problems of Film Direction," excerpt, Notes of a Film Director, pp. 59-61. (IN CLASS: Potemkin Odessa steps). Discussion: Spatial imagery, camera as emotion-invoker.

Thurs. Oct 30 Sharff, pp. 59-75; David Bordwell, "Convention, Construction, and Cinematic Vision," Post Theory pp. 107. Class: Grand Illusion, playback center. Class discussion on film.

Class: Watch Alexander Nevsky at the playback Center over the weekend.

Week 7 Social construction of Image

Tues Nov. 4 Sharff, pp. 85-106; Eisenstein, pp. 69-98. Discussion of Nevsky. In Class: Compare Alexander Nevsky Teutonic Knights with Darth Vader of Star Wars; discuss Sharff (parallel action), Eisenstein (montage of elements to unified image)

***Choose Groups and sections of Film for Notorious project*** 40%

Thurs Nov 6 Viacheslav Ivanov, "M. M. Bakhtin and Modern Semiotics", Semiotics and Structuralism pp. 310-367. Discussion: Notorious , dialogism, and doubling.

Class: Watch over the weekend at Playback Center: Wagonmaster; Thelma and Louise

Week 8 Social construction of image

Tues Nov 11 Doug Williams, "Pilgrims and the Promised Land: A Geneology of the Western"; Yvonne Tasker, "Action Heroines in the 1980's", Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre, and the Action Cinema., pp. 132-166. Discussion: Genres as evolving activity systems.

Thurs. Nov 13 B. Ruby Rich, "Never a Victim: Jodie Foster, a new kind of Female Hero", in Pam Cook and Phillip Dodd, Women and Film: A Sight and Sound Reader pp. 50-61; Tanya Modleski, "The Woman Who Was Known Too Much: Notorious", Women Who Knew Too Much, pp. 57-71; V. V. Ivanov, "The Categories of Film Language," Film Criticism V. VII, No. 2, pp. 3-19.

***Note.... Class: watch Touch of Evil over the weekend (available at the playback center)***

Week 9 Notorious Project

Tues. Nov. 18. Notorious Project. Groups to present projects in class. Sharff, 107-173.

(WED PM?)***Make-Up Class: Touch of Evil: Deep Focus, montage, and Point of View. Discussion: Master shot and multi-angularity; Multiangularity in deep focus tracking shot; Kracauer and Eisenstein combined.

Thurs. Nov. 20 Notorious Project. Reading: Eisenstein, pp. 157-216.

Week 10: Notorious Project

Tues. Nov. 25 Notorious Project

Thurs. Nov. 27 (Thanksgiving Break--no class)

Week 11: Notorious Project

Tues. Dec. 2 Notorious Project

(WED PM?)***Make-Up Class (if needed) to complete Notorious project

Thurs. Dec. 4 Recap and Review

Final Monday Dec. 8, 8:00-11:00 AM 40%

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