Assignment F3

• See SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN. You may have seen this one before. See it again!

• 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 SINGIN' IN THE RAIN." Don't put this statement unless you have in fact watched all of the film. Viewing the complete film 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 the film you saw. Don't summarize the plot — I've seen this film at least 25 times! Instead of telling me what it's about, tell me what you thought about it. For example, did you like SINGIN' IN THE RAIN? Why, or why not? Whether or not you liked it, did you think that it was a good movie? Again, why or why not? As always, comment on at least three of the five areas we're focusing our attention on: acting, script, cinematography, editing and directing.

• Part 2: Okay, now assume that SINGIN' IN THE RAIN presents an accurate picture of the transition Hollywood made from what we call the "silent" era to what we call the "sound" era. (In fact, it does!) From your viewing of the film, identify several (at least three) specific problems caused by the switchover to sound technology, and explain what Hollywood did in order to resolve those problems.

• Now go back to your "My Criteria for Quality in Film" page. Based on your viewing of this week's film, add two new general conclusions. These statements should be numbered (5) and (6). (Be sure to print the entire page, including all of your previous criteria statements — which you may edit, if you'd care to.) Don't forget to save this page to your hard drive for later use.

• 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. Be sure to put your name and a page number at the top of every page (including your "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 outside of class time, so you should be sure to leave yourself enough time to view the film, think about it, write a first draft, and then edit and revise. That’s 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!

• 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, and remember that I will expect each week’s assignment to be at least somewhat longer than the previous week’s assignment.

• 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) and especially to films you have previously written about, 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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