Assignment F1

• See either one pre-1950 feature film directed by Charlie Chaplin (such as CITY LIGHTS, MODERN TIMES, THE GOLD RUSH) or one pre-1950 feature film directed by Buster Keaton (such as THE GENERAL) . Do not see A WOMAN OF PARIS (which was directed by Chaplin but in which he doesn’t appear), and do not see CHAPLIN (a biopic which is very interesting but neither directed by nor starring Chaplin himself) or THE BUSTER KEATON STORY (which wasn't made by Keaton and is in fact almost completely inaccurate).

• You're better off watching these films on the largest possible screen and at the highest possible resolution. If you have access to Netflix, you can rent Chaplin's City Lights, Modern Times, or The Circus, and either rent or stream Chaplin's The Gold Rush or Keaton's The General, The Navigator, or Seven Chances. If you don't have Netflix, you might want to consider signing up for a free two-week trial membership and then paying for one month, which will get you through the rest of our semester. You can sign up here. Otherwise, you can find links to Keaton downloads and streams here, but be sure you watch a feature-length film, not a short, and be prepared for iffy screen resolution.

• At the top of your assignment, put your name and the number 1 (for page 1). Under that, put the sentence, "I watched all of __________________," substituting the name of the film you watched for the blank line. Don't put this statement unless you have in fact watched all of the film(s). (Remember that film titles must appear IN CAPITAL LETTERS. Don't put quotations marks around the titles of films, but type the title of the film ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS.) Viewing the complete film(s) and putting the "I watched" statement will earn you 5 points.

• You may now earn up to an additional 15 points (for a possible total of 20) by writing about Chaplin or Keaton and his work. Don't summarize any plots — you should assume that I've already seen the film(s). Instead of telling me what it is (or they are) about, tell me what you thought about Chaplin or Keaton and his work. For example, did you like Charlie or Buster as a comedian? As a film-maker? Why, or why not? Whether or not you liked the filmmaker and his work, did you think that what you saw was good? Again, why or why not?

• Be sure to comment on Chaplin or Keaton both as a comedian and as a film-maker, and on the material you viewed both as comedy and as film. For the purposes of this assignment, you should consider that the film(s) you saw are representative of Chaplin's or Keaton's overall body of work — even though they might in fact not be. Remember, this is not a research paper. I'm interested in what you have to say, not in what you can learn by reading up on the filmmaker.

• Important Cautionary Note: If you see a film or made before 1928, it's likely that there will be a musical soundtrack and possibly some sound effects. You'll probably have a more enjoyable viewing experience if you leave the volume up, but you should be aware that the sound was added later, and that Chaplin or Keaton almost certainly had nothing to do with its creation. When you write about the film, don't comment on the music and/or sound effects. That would be sort of like watching a movie on broadcast television today and then writing about the commercials!

• On a separate page, put your name and a page number and the heading "My Criteria for Quality in Film." Under that heading, use your comments about this film as guidelines towards proposing two general statements indicative of your personal taste in movies. These statements should be numbered (1) and (2), and they should be written as complete sentences. It might be useful to introduce each statement with such language as "Excellent movies feature," or "A movie is more likely to be good if," or "A characteristic of high-quality cinema is." (For example, if you commented in the body of your essay that you liked the acting because it was realistic and you liked the script because it had a happy ending, you could propose these two statements as criteria for quality: "(1) Excellent movies feature realistic acting. (2) A movie is more likely to be good if it ends happily." Don't just put something like "Good movies feature good acting." The point here is for you to think about — and then explain to me — what such quality words as "good," "excellent" and "effective" actually mean. Be sure to put your name and a page number at the top of your "My Criteria" page, and number the page as part of your F01 assignment. (In other words, if you write three pages in response to the F01 prompts, then your "My Criteria" page will be page 4 of the F01 assignment.) Save your "My Criteria" page to your hard drive — you'll be adding more items to this list and resubmitting it every week for the remainder of the semester.

• Your film assignments are to be typed or wordprocessed. Handwritten assignments will not be accepted. Use a 12-point font. Double space, and leave 1" margins at the left, right, top and bottom of every page. Do not justify your right margins. Put your name and a page number at the top of every page (including the "My Criteria" page).

• Putting these assignments off until the last possible moment probably won’t work very well. Each of them requires you to view an additional film or films outside of class time, so you should be sure to leave yourself enough time to view the necessary films, think about them, write a first draft, and then edit and revise. That may be more work than some of you are going to want to do — but it’s the way to get a good grade in this course! (And remember that you are in fact going to be doing significantly less work in this final offering of ARTH 334 than former students have been required to do!)

• Be sure to spell the names of directors, actors, screenwriters and other people correctly. Always CAPITALIZE the titles of films.

• There is no set length requirement for these assignments. However, know that I rarely give full credit to someone who turns in less than three double-spaced typewritten pages plus the "My Criteria" page.

• As I grade your papers, I will be looking for the following elements: evidence that you are paying attention in class, references and comparisons to other films you have seen (in or out of class), use of the film vocabulary introduced in class, clear presentation of your opinions, reasonable explanations and justifications to support those opinions, and college-level writing skills (spelling, punctuation and grammar).

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