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TEXTS & OTHER CLASS REQUIREMENTS:
Bordwell & Carroll, eds., Post Theory
Mamer, Film Production Techniques
You are required to:
1. Have a valid email account (WAM or other on-campus account preferred but not required)
2. Check your email regularly.
WEB SITE & EMAIL REFLECTOR
In addition to providing the syllabus, schedule and other kinds of conventional class information, the site will also make available clips from films which are under study, animated definitions of film terms, links to other relevant sites, and so on.
I recommend that you bookmark the URL for the site.
In conjunction with the site, email will function as an integral part of the course. It will be used to convey general information concerning assignments and so on, but it will also serve as a forum where script problems may be discussed as they might be on a chat site. Take advantage of this. Script writing, like film making, is a collective effort. Input and commentary from your colleagues is not only helpful, but part of the process.
A few ground rules:
1. Confine your postings to class-related materials or questions. The email reflector is an extension of the class, not a place to let off steam or publish irrelevant stuff. Remember, everything you post on the reflector will be read by everyone in the class, including the instructor.
2. If you wish to respond individually to a message, rather than sending one to the entire reflector, do not, repeat, do not hit the reply button on your browser. If you do, you won't be replying individually, but you will be addressing the entire class and cluttering a lot of mailboxes needlessly. Send your reply to the individual's email address.
SUBJECT AND OBJECT OF THE COURSE
A screenplay has been described as a menu card for a production. While this doesn’t tell the whole story, the description calls attention to the fact that the principal audience for a screenplay isn’t the audience sitting in the cinema, but the production team, initially the producer and director, who will actually make the film.
In addition to formal considerations such as character, rhythm, dramatic conflict and so on, a screenwriter must therefore have some fundamental knowledge of the issues and problems that will confront the production team. This is particularly important now that DV is making the distinction between screenwriter and filmmaker even more blurry than it has been in the past.
This course is intended to provide an introduction to basic film techniques as these relate to the problems faced by screenwriters. Covered will be such topics as editing, lighting, cinematography, audio, and so on. The class will proceed by forming into a production team which will proceed to stage and shoot short scenes written by the class members. Each member of the class will at some time during the semester function as the ‘director’ of the productions. Details of how the rota system will function are provided in the class schedule.
Beyond this more or less pedestrian set of goals, however, stands another, more intellectually challenging one. We all know of the hype surrounding the maturation of DV, Web streaming, the microcinema movement and so on. The word “revolution” is much bandied about these days, usually by advertisers, but I believe that we are in the throes of a significant revolution in the way films are made and consumed. It is the intended purpose of the course to be part of this revolution.
THEORY AND PRACTICE
It should be obvious to all that contemporary fashion in the Humanities has us all drowning in more theories than can possibly have any significant function other than providing fodder for acceptable publication. It is the view of the instructor of this course that any so-called theory which cannot be tested and its predicted results duplicated is no theory at all but mere assertion. This is especially true of much of what passes for ‘Film Theory’ today, with its attendant train of assertions about male gazes, the social construction of reality, and other such speculations. We will therefore—and mercifully—not consider any of this pseudo-theorizing as having any particular relevance to our work.
But we do need to ground our practice in some methodology or else it becomes mere technological tinkering. Consider this quote from the work of one of the most important scientists now working on the problem of consciousness:
“The naturalness of wordless storytelling is natural. The imagetic representation of sequences of brain events, which occurs in brains simpler than ours, is the stuff of which stories are made. A natural preverbal occurrence of storytelling may well be the reason why we ended up creating drama and eventually books, and why a good part of humanity is currently hooked on movie theaters and television screens. Movies are the closest external representation of the prevailing storytelling that goes on in our minds. What goes on within each shot, the different framing of a subject that the movement of the camera can accomplish, what goes on in the transition of shots achieved by editing, and what goes on in the narrative constructed by a particular juxtaposition of shots is comparable in some respects to what is going on in the mind, thanks to the machinery in charge of making visual and auditory images, and to devices such as the many levels of attention and working memory.” (Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens, p. 188. Italics mine).
There are of course significant implications in this paragraph, significant not only for theoreticians of consciousness, but for film students and makers as well, because if consciousness is really so closely tied to narration, and especially to visual narration, then what film makers make in effect simulates the very process of conscious thought. Thus, as the class goes about its business of learning the craft of contemporary film construction, it will simultaneously consider some of the inferences of the manner in which the cognitive perception of film images “doubles” or “tracks” the narrative processes of the mind as Damasio suggests.
PROCEDURES
The class schedule will give precise information as to due dates and so on. Here will be described the nature and scope of the assignments and class procedures.
As mentioned, the class is to consider itself a production team, with members rotating their function and role as the semester progresses. However, each student in the class will initially write an original four to five page scene which will be rendered in conventional screenplay format. (As a reminder, a scene is a self-contained set of dramatic actions.) The scenes may call for live shooting or they may use computer-generated imagery, or they may combine both. In any case, however, they must be sufficiently simple that they can be produced with the means at our disposal.
This does not mean that the material has to be dramatically simple. On the contrary, it must be as rich as possible in dramatic and narrative possibility. It is the logistics of the scene that must be simple, assuring that production can be successful given the means—including the human means--at our disposal.
Depending on the final number of students enrolled in the course, two or three of the submitted scenes will be chosen for production and be produced sequentially. All production will take place outside of the regular class hour. The class time will, as the schedule makes clear, be devoted to learning the use and capabilities of the tools to be used, for critiques of ongoing projects, for problem solving, and for discussion of the relationship between the theoretical readings and the work in progress. In short, the class will function very much as an advanced science research project does, with experimentation, open discussion and examination of on-going work and with the highest degree of collaborative effort.
But while we will be much concerned with technical and theoretical issues, the work has to be grounded on some fairly conventional and familiar attributes: creativity, imagination, curiosity, wit, commitment.
GRADING
Ideally, in a course such as this one should not have to issue grades. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world, least of all where university administrations are involved. So grades will have to be earned and recorded. They will be earned on the following basis:
Details of the individual assignments are given in the class schedule.
LAST WORD: This is a writing class. You will, therefore, be expected to use correct spelling and proper grammatical and rhetorical construction. This does not mean that you cannot write colloquial dialogue. It does mean that you have to pay attention to basics.
SCREENPLAY FORMAT
The question of screenplay format need not detain us unduly. At the first class session I will hand out some sample pages from a screenplay. We will discuss format briefly at that time. Other samples will be available on our web site [Format]. Simply reproduce the format used in the pages of script you will receive and/or consult.
OFFICE HOURS
My office hours are noted below. At all times you are encouraged to come and see me at any stage of the writing process, for whatever class-related reason. If you can't make it during the regular hours, see me before or after class or send me an email message and we'll set up an alternative time. Email is a much more efficient way of contacting me than voice mail.
- Tues & Thurs 1:15-2:30 or by appointment
- MITH
- 2M100E McKeldin Library
- Phone: 5-8927
- email: ml26@umail.umd.edu
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DISABLED STUDENTS
Any student with a documented disability is requested to contact the instructor at the earliest opportunity in order that appropriate accommodations be made.
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