Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Accompanying
Student Assignments are available under For teachers/student handouts]
* NOTE: This syllabus is ideal for a seminar-style class for 12-15 students. In a larger
group, the class discussions can be designed for small groups, with faculty feedback
delivered more individually in email and written responses to student work rather than in
class.
Ongoing Assignments:
Observational Notebook Students are encouraged to keep a small notebook or
sketchbook with them at all times and write down notes and create word and/or image
sketches. They are also encouraged to take still photographs of things they see around
them that interest them and try to write at least a short paragraph every day in which they
describe something they saw that day, and how they responded to it. They will select
certain entries for their email journal.
Ask them to use the following categories to stimulate what they seek out to observe, and
to help them organize what they find:
Senses
Locations
Objects
Characters
Dialogue
Situations
Acts
Titles
Themes
Questions
The goals of this exercise are for students to become better watchers and listeners; to
develop sharper insights into human nature, behavior and relationships; to develop a habit
of observing life and taking note of it; to become more attuned to their own distinctive
interests and responses; and to have a storehouse of observations to draw on when
creating stories, characters and dramatic or comic situations. (Original idea of the
categories originated with Michael Rabiger in his textbook Developing Story Ideas.)
Weekly Email Journal Every week before class, students will be required to email a
brief Email Journal to the instructor (no attachments, please). Their journal is read only
by the instructor and has two parts: Part I: a selection from their Observational
Notebook (outlined above); Part II: a short discussion of whatever feels most relevant
that week in the assigned text reading and their experience of their creative
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
development in general. A lot of their most important learning will happen experientially
outside the classroom, and these journals are a way to be more conscious of all aspects of
this process, more mindful and more self-aware.
Clipping File Students are encouraged to read a daily newspaper, and at least one
weekly or monthly magazine that includes current events or human interest stories. They
should clip and save articles, photographs and artwork that interests them as well as try to
let new material surprise them. (Needed for the Documentary Homework Assignment in
Week 11.)
Dream Journal Throughout the semester, students should jot down separate, private
notes of dreams they have. See page152 in the text for helpful tips on remembering
dreams. The Journal will be consulted for the Dream Sequence Homework Assignment
Weeks 7 and 8.)
Written Assignments All outside-of-class assignments must be computer-printed or
typed and spell-checked. In addition, students should come to class prepared for in-class
written exercises.
Reading Assignments There will be occasional handouts in class that will be required
reading. The required text is Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out: 5 Keys to the
Art of Making Inspired Movies and Television by Dannenbaum, Hodge & Mayer. Two
suggested texts are Gabriele Lusser Ricos Writing the Natural Way and Michael
Rabigers Developing Story Ideas.
Preparation for Final Assignment: Fifteen Triggers The final assignment will be a list
of brief descriptions of fifteen of each students best story ideas or triggers for short
film projects. It is important for them to keep track of these ideas as they make
observations, collect news clippings and dreams and do class assignments.
GRADING CRITERIA
Weekly assignments (in-class, homework)
Class participation
Ongoing assignments (Email journal, notebook, news clippings)
40%
30%
30%
Creative work is always a challenge to grade. In this class assignments will be evaluated
both on the quality of the work as measured by commitment, energy, personal
investment and self-reflection as well as the ability to meet deadlines. Class participation
includes full involvement in and contribution to all class discussions, as well as reading
(in advance at times) the assignments of the other students and offering thoughtful,
constructive comments. Class attendance is mandatory, and includes being on time to
class (otherwise, the students who present their material first are short-changed).
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
story. Discuss these embedded values and the depth they can add to developing
characters and situations.
Screenings:
Use clips or shorts that celebrate other art forms or fields of knowledge such as
Cullodon, a BBC docudrama of the Scottish/English war; Pollock (Jackson), PI
(mathematics), The English Patient (cathedral ceiling paintings scene), Errol Morris A
Brief History of Time (cosmologist Stephen Hawkings).
In-class exercise:
1. Intellectual Inspiration: Limbering, p.68.
Ask students to list three worlds (kayaking, Catholic mass, woodworking) or areas of
study that they know something about (not media) and write about one of them, capturing
a sense of the texture, detail and characters of this world. They should be specific and use
vivid details rather than choose American History, ask them to try for something
more personal to their own interest like the seeming hap-hazard nature of the beginnings
of this country. Then have them choose one of these worlds and jot down ideas for
an imaginary scene or character in a film that would allow them to draw on this specific
interest or knowledge that they have. Discuss.
Homework Assignments:
1. Observation Notebook: Ask students to read over their written observations in each
of the ten categories listed and choose one from each category as the raw material for a
fictional short story. The categories are Senses, Locations, Objects, Characters, Dialogue,
Situations, Acts, Titles, Themes and Questions. If certain categories are underrepresented in their Notebooks, urge students to pay attention to building them up. As
they fictionalize, they may veer from the reality of the actual elements in order to serve
the story. The idea is to benefit from the rich specificity of real people.
2. Artistic Nurturing: Limbering, p.69.
Ask students to attend a type of cultural event that they are drawn to but have not yet
experienced and write a brief report that captures their observations and a sense of the
textures and details of this world. Students might try anything from samba dancing or
poetry readings to classic car conventions. They have 2 weeks to do this assignment.
(Due Week Six).
3. Read Inquiry: Getting Out of the Car: Observation of the World.
Screenings: Look for film clips and student shorts that rely on close and skilled
observation of real life such as Fred Wisemans cinema verite films, acting roles that
require a specific body language as in Daniel Day-Lewis rendering of physical disability
in My Left Foot or the production design required to recreate the Washington Post
newsroom in All the Presidents Men.
In-class exercises:
1. Getting out of the car Send students out of the classroom to find a public place
on campus where they can easily observe people as they interact with each other, enter
and exit buildings, order or eat food, etc. They should observe the environment for ten
minutes without writing, then take notes about all that their senses are aware of the
location itself, the quality of the light, the exchanges between people, the noises, the
smells, etc. They want to gather as many observable facts as possible but they do not
need to hear what people are saying. Remind them of the categories Senses, Locations,
Objects, Characters, Dialogue, Situations, Acts, Titles, Themes and Questions. They
many discover other categories that are appropriate. Give them 20 minutes outside the
classroom before they return and discuss their observations.
2. Interviewing
a. Screen: Interviews with Interviewers- About Interviewing (1985, 51:35), which
includes interviews with Studs Terkel and Susan Stamberg. The documentary is by
filmmaker Skip Blumberg and available from Electronic Arts Intermix on the web at
http://www.eai.org. Also consider any film or television programs that contain skillful
questioning such as Bill Moyers work on PBS. Discuss the elements of a good interview,
the skills needed by the interviewer.
b. Partner Interviews: Divide the students into partnerships. Ask each partner to identify
and discuss an area in which they have some expertise or experience. (not movies or
filmmaking). They may want to take notes as they will be summarizing their
partner/subjects experiences and knowledge to the rest of the class. (Give them 8-12
minutes for each interview.)
c. Summaries and Reflections: After each interviewer summarizes the results of their
interview, ask them to reflect on which questions brought out the fullest responses open-ended ones, those that extended the subjects own responses? Which ones had
limited results and why? What questions did they realize later that they could have asked
or followed up with? How do they go deeper? Keep on track? When did they rely on their
own intuition and decide which question to go to next? Did they pick up on their
subjects body language?
Homework Assignments:
Photographing the Character of a Location
a. Ask students to photograph (stills) a room that is well inhabited by a person that had
everything to do with how that room looks. It could be an eccentric dorm room, an
artists studio, a handymans garage, a chefs home kitchen, etc. and it should be
photographed in a way that reflects the character/personality of that person. They should
not photograph the individualjust their surroundings. Urge them to consider the traits
and values reflected in the physical surroundings and to think of unusual places to capture
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
10
11
beginning of the term until now and think about what they learn from reading all the
entries as a group. What are they struck by when the entries are considered all together?
Next, they should choose one dream that intrigues them, and that they wouldnt mind
others hearing, and bring it to class.
2. Altered State Clips Students need to select a 3 minute (or less) clip from a film that
embodies an altered state cinematically and bring the tape in, cued to their scene for
screening in class next week.
3. Read Intuition The Dreamer: Connecting to the Nonconscious Mind.
12
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
13
Screenings:
1. Sound Design - Show clips from films with complex sound design such as PunchDrunk Love, Apocalypse Now, All That Jazz (rehearsal scene with near silence, magnified
effects) and The English Patient.
2. Adaptations Show clips of films that are adaptations of other material - books, short
stories, plays, etc. The Minority Report DVD has a discussion on track two of the initial
response of both the director (Spielberg) and the lead actor (Cruise) to Phillip K. Dicks
original short story Minority Report.
3. Parallel versions: Compare two versions of the same scene- such as the ending of A
bout de souffl (1960, Godard) and Breathless (1983, Jim McBride).
Or a parallel scenes from both Lubitschs 1943 Heaven Can Wait and Beatty/Henrys
1978 version. Discuss how each version reflects the values and perspective of the
director/adaptor.
Homework assignment:
1. Adaptation: Have students choose a non-filmic work they would like to adapt. It
could be a play, novel, short story, fairytale, poem, song, comic book anything other
than a television program, video game, movie or other motion picture story. It should also
be something that hasnt been adapted before. If the original source is long or complex,
urge them to find a moment or piece of the whole that they most respond to. We
encourage students to find ideas that are short and producible (5-10 minutes), suitable for
their next production class.
a. Write: They should write concise descriptions of (1)what it is about the original work
that interests them, (2) their personal angle; (3) a three-sentence description of their
adaptation (beginning, middle, end); (4) a brief paragraph on what, at this point, they feel
is the storys spine (or theme, or idea, or what the story is really about, etc.), (5) its
central conflict or dramatic tension, and (6) the emotions they want the audience to
experience at the end (they should be careful to describe this in terms of what they want
the audience to feel, not what them want them to think). Encourage them to continue to
pay attention to vivid visual and aural imagery. One to two page maximum.
b. Email: The entire assignment should be no more than one page total, and should be
emailed to the rest of the class in time to be read by everyone before the next class.
2. Read Interaction: Plenty of Rope: The Fluid Collaboration
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
14
In-class exercises:
1. Ground Rules: Use the Ground Rules Limbering on p.115 of the text. Ask students
to do this in partnerships, with the final product being a joint collaborative list. Students
then share their lists with the entire class and discuss the process of effective
collaboration.
2. Observed Moments in Photographs Lay out a variety of candid photos (perhaps
selected from photography books, and then reproduced as high quality photocopies) that
contain provocative Observed Moments. Each student chooses one photograph to write
about. They should imagine that this photograph is a single frame within a very short film
that consists of one scene with one principal dramatic moment (1-5 minutes or less in
length), and then imagine what happened just before and just after the moment in the
photograph. They should write a brief two-paragraph synopsis for that film. The first
paragraph should focus on potential images (visual and aural), motifs and themes in the
film. The second paragraph should be three sentences one each for the beginning, the
middle and the end of the story.
Feedback: Divide the class into smaller groups, and have each writer show their chosen
photo in turn and read their two paragraphs to their group. Then the writer leads a fiveminute discussion, asking for feedback on their story: what intrigues the group about the
story and its key image? How do they connect with it in terms of character, theme, tone,
etc.? Ask the responding students to assume they each have specific roles
(cinematographer, production designer, sound, etc.) as they participate and give feedback.
Screening: Show the special feature on the L.A. Confidential DVD that has director
Curtis Hansons photo presentation of his vision of the film project that he showed to the
prospective producer, production designer and cinematographer.
* From the main menu, click Hush-Hush Headliners; then Extra! Extra! Reel
Shocking Evidence!, then The Photo Pitch.
Homework assignment:
1. Fictional Narrative: Each student now develops the idea for the short one-scene film
they initiated in class with the photograph they selected. They should go through their
image and clippings files or books, search online and any other sources they can find for
images that will allow them to make a five-minute visual presentation in the next class in
the style of Curtis Hansen on the L.A. Confidential DVD. They should prepare to talk
about such questions as: 1) What will the film be about? 2) What will the film really be
about? (thematic subtext, their point of view); 3) What will be up on the screen? What
will the audience actually see and hear? 4) What will the style of the film be? What will
make it cinematic? Students will email a written version of their answers to these
questions to the instructor as part of the homework assignment. The instructor can email
comments back if necessary, that help the writer clarify their intent. Students should
bring their presentation to class along with their written answers to the above questions.
2. Read Interaction Arguments Worth Having: Responding to Creative Differences.
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
15
16
or more questions they have, the research theyve done, their approach and theme for this
documentary. Remind students to bring in the five news clippings also as part of their
presentations at the next class. Ask them to email a copy of their summary to classmates
two days before the next class. Students are responsible for reading each others email
summaries.
2. Read: Interaction Everyone telling the story: Establishing a creative
environment
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
17
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
18
19
Syllabus at creativefilmmaking.com
20