ENG 1021: Viewer Response of Sci-fi Film
Before beginning, you should research several films at Internet Movie Database and Amazon.com by reading reviews of the movies, user feedback, etc., to determine if this might be a film that interests you. As I have mentioned before, the most important step of the writing process is choosing your topic. Find a film whose ideas you find engaging, whose perspective you find unique, and whose content you find emotionally satisfying. If the film doesn't excite you now, it certainly won't after working with it for several weeks and watching it multiple times.
Choose your topic wisely.
After choosing your film, sit down and watch it without distraction, no cell phones, no exploring the internet, etc. Give the movie your complete and total focus.
As you watch, take notes of what you see as important events in the film and why and notice how the director makes use of the film elements (camera shots, lighting, sound, editing, set design, costume design, special effects, acting) to create a particular tone or emotional aura.
Do not watch passively without critically analyzing and making notes about the important moments and scenes.
After the film is over, free write a response to each of the following questions. You should write for 4-5 minutes about each one:
1) What impact does the film have on you? Does it bring you joy, sadness, make you anxious, or confused? What do you see as the overall message of this film? What was it that the director wants you to understand? Can you reduce this idea down to one word? This is your theme.
2) Which scenes in the film best communicate this theme? Of these scenes, which single scene best communicates this message and why? Does the scene show us something that we have not seen before? Is it a scene integral to narrative development? Is it relevatory in some way?
3) Of the film elements listed above, which three elements play the biggest role in communicating the theme in the scene you have identified and why? Discuss at least one specific example in the scene for each element.
4) What role does symbolism and foreshadowing play in this scene and why? Are these symbols connected to your theme in anyway? To the scene's emotional impact?
All of your freewrites combined should be a minimum of 3 FULL pages total (although you may write more). You should include the notes that you took as you watched the film, but they do not count toward the min. 3 pages for the freewrites.
When you freewrite, do not edit yourself or concern yourself with what is a "good" idea or a "bad" one. It's not important at this point. Also, do not worry about grammar, spelling, or punctuation. These also are not important at this point. If you begin to hear your internal critic criticize or question what you write about, you are writing too slowly. Speed up! Write as quickly as possible without stopping.
You may find it helpful to time yourself with the stopwatch function of the clock on your smartphone. Allow yourself 8-10 minutes of writing for questions 1-4 above.
Please complete all of your freewrites as ONE MW Word document and upload this to Ulearn by class time on the due date.
