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Film ClipExercise Assignment:

(A) Description; (B) Shot by Shot Analysis and

Annotation; and (c) Close Reading

You can get help here at the Yale film analysis

website

I will ask you to choose a clip totally from 15-20

shots from any of the films we have seen in class

thus far (and only those films). You may chooseto discuss any self-contained part of the film (a

scene or sequence) as a clip except for those

parts we have already discussed in class. If we

have looked at a scene or sequence in class and

talked about it, in other words, don't do your

assignment on it.

Please read the following explanation carefully to the end of this webpage.

Choosing the scene or sequence is up to you andis part of the assignment (your paper will beevaluated partly on the basis of the clipyou

choose).

I recommend that you do NOT chose ascene in which little or nothing is happeningformally. For example, a scene at a dinner tablewith lots of shot-reverse-shots will probably notgive you much to discuss.You'll want to chose a clip ofscene or sequence that is long enough to form a significant unit and short

enough to read it closely in itself and also in relation to the film as a whole.

That means your clip should be no less than fifteen shots but no more

than twenty shots.

Please put your last name in the title of all word documentsyou email me.

Be sure also to put your name in any attached documents and please
http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/

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number the pages. Finally, please make sure that the document may beprinted out correctly before sending it. Please email me your completedfilm clip analysis and close reading to [email protected] send itvia pando.com.

For part three, please consult the paper guidelines.

This exercise should take you around 4-6 hours to do. If you don't know

the difference between a scene and a sequence, you are probably in the

wrong class. In any case, here are the definitions provided on the Yale

film analysis website:

SCENE / SEQUENCE

A scene is a segment of a narrative film that usually takes place in a single time and place, often

with the same characters. Sometimes a single scene may contain two lines of action, occurring

in different spaces or even different times, that are related by means of crosscutting. Scene and

sequence can usually be used interchangeably, though the latter term can also refer to a longersegment of film that does not obey the spatial and temporal unities of a single scene. For

example, a montage sequence that showsin a few shots a process that occurs over a period of

time.

For an example of the final product (I did this one for a class on

Renaissance-related films), click here.This clip is longer than what you

need to use. For excellent film clip assignments by former students, click

hereand here. For a poor clip assignment, click here.

A few notes:

When first mentioning a film, give the title first, then director and year of

releases in parentheses as follows: Run, Lola, Run (dir. Tom Tykwer,

1996). Also, refer to characters by name with the correct spelling and the

actor's name in parantheses--as in Veronica Franco (Catherine

McCormack)--when you first mention them. You can find this and other

information at the internet movie database, www.imdb.com.

Email me your film clip analysis to [email protected]. If the file is too

large to send me by email, sent it to me by pando (you can get pando for

fre atwww.pando.com). Please put your name in your word document title

as well as in the subject heading of your message. Be sure to put your

name in the attached document. Please send your attached document as

a microsoft worddoc.

TheFilm Clipexercise is in three parts.Please do allthree parts separately (don't mix up descriptions of scenes with

annotations on scenes and analysis of them), read the assignment

carefully and closely. All three parts must be completed for you to receive
http://www.pando.com/?source=google&gclid=CKH6t-7GgogCFTZxOAodOBOVHAmailto:[email protected]://www.imdb.com/http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/burt/filmclipexercise/poor.dochttp://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/burt/filmclipexercise/moser.dochttp://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/burt/filmclipexercise/stiner.dochttp://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/burt/filmclipexercise/retourfilmexample.htmlhttp://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/http://www.clas.ufl.edu/~burt/paper.htmlmailto:[email protected]

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credit. For an example of the final product, click here. This clip is longer

(includes more shots) than what you need to use. For clips by students,

click hereand here.

Part One. Brief Description of Film Clip

Write your name on your paper. Choose a film clip from one of the films wehve viewed thus far, name the film, and describe the clip briefly (a few

sentences). If possible, please use a DVD and give the time your clip

begins and the time it ends. On your DVD player, you'll see that the

chapter number, hour, minutes, and seconds. It looks like 00:00 at the

beginning.

Part Two. Analysis/ Shot by Shot Description

You must capture a image from the DVD of each shot and insert it into

your text. I require screen captures because they actually help you "read" the film

as well as give your reader more information. It's like writing about a poem from

memory without being able to quote any lines versus having the poem in front of

you and being able to quote lines from it.

If you don't already know how to do this, you'll have to learn how to do it or get a

friend to do it for you. I don't offer technical assistance on this exercise, so

please do not contact me to help you with technical issues.On most pcs withWindows XP, you can hit "p" when playing a DVD and a screen capture will be taken. Thecapture will show up in your "My Pictures" folder as a jpeg image. you can insert into a word

document and hit left click on the image to resize it (you'll usually want to reduce the size). When

the foramt picture box opens, click on "size" and then reduce the number in the height box until

you get the size you want (usually "2" does it).

You'll need a computer with a DVD player or media player that plays DVDs.

Here is a website with directions for windows media player.

http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/11/capture-still-images-from-windows.html

If you google "DVD image capture," numerous links will show up for websites with commercial

and free DVD image capture or screen capture programs.

For example,

http://www.free-screen-capture.com/free-screen-capture/screen-capture-program/dvd-image-

capture.html

WARNING: I have no idea if this particular program works or is virus free.

On macs, you can use snap 'n dragto capture images. You can drag and drop the capured

images to your desktop. It's free. You may download it here:
http://yellowmug.com/snapndrag/http://www.free-screen-capture.com/free-screen-capture/screen-capture-program/dvd-image-capture.htmlhttp://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/11/capture-still-images-from-windows.htmlhttp://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/burt/filmclipexercise/moser.dochttp://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/burt/filmclipexercise/stiner.dochttp://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/burt/filmclipexercise/retourfilmexample.html

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http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/SnapNDrag-Download-6469.html

Give the following information ABOUT EACH SHOT. (Don'tjust give the name of the

shot--as in long shot, close up, etc.) If you don't know what a shot

is, you are probably in the wrong class. In any case, here is the

definition provided on the Yale film analysis website:

SHOT

A single stream of images, uninterrupted by editing. The shot can use a static or a mobile

framing, a standard or a non-standard frame rate, but it must be continuous. The shot is one of

the basic units of cinema yet has always been subject to manipulation, for example stop-motion

cinematography or superimposition. In contemporary cinema, with the use of computer graphics

and sequences built-up from a series of still frames (eg. The Matrix), the boundaries of the shot

are increasingly being challenged.

Use a table with columns and rows with a list of categories including thetime of the movie each shot begins and ends, the length of the shot (how

long it lasts), a description of the shot, and an annotation (comment,

explanation, information) on the shot. For an example of the final product,

click here. Or use a list with the same categories.

In the description column, describe in detail the mis-en-scene (who and /

or what is in the shot). Give the length of each shot in seconds, camera

angle, lighting, focus (shallow? deep?), and state whether the cameramoves (if so, in what direction or directions and how quickly) or remains

stationary.

Describe special effects, if any.

Descibe film stock: Black and white ? Color? Change from one film stock

to another? Celluloid? Digital? CGI?

Describe sound track: (silent, music [diegetic or extra-diagetic], ambientnoise, voice-over, etc). DON"T FORGET ABOUT SOUND!

In the annotations column, comment critically on how the shot is working,

what it is doing. Don't summarize the plot or quote dialogue.

Part Three. Analytical Essay

Give a 3-5 page close reading of your film clip. This is an essay, so have a

thesis and avoid plot summary here. The idea is to write a short essay onthis film clip in itself and in relation to the film as a whole. Your thesis

should address the clip in its primarily in its entirety but also in how it

relates to the film. Please do not discuss each shot in succession (that
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/burt/filmclipexercise/retourfilmexample.htmlhttp://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/SnapNDrag-Download-6469.html

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