Movie Scene Presentation and the Final Project

A.  On  Tuesday, May 8th, you will be presenting the first scene of your movie, detailed in the last post, to the class for a grade on the criteria explained in the assignment.  Project Grade.

Today, write this scene in class for a progress grade.

B.  Final Project
On the 14th - the 16th of May, each student will present their work, from their final portfolio, to the class.  The presentation will factor into the final project grade for the course- 25%.  On the day that you present your work, you will turn in your portfolio to be graded  for your final project.

Here is the calendar of our classes leading up to the presentations as well as the presentation days themselves:

        May 9: choose at least 3 pieces of work completed during the course to present as well as the other work you would like to include in your portfolio.


        May 10: typing and arranging work into one document, named Portfolio.

        May 11:  adding visuals to your document and finishing document.  On this day, students sign up for presentation days for the last three days- May 14, 15 or 16.

        May 14, 15 and 16:  Students will present their work for a minimum of five minutes.  After presenting, each student will turn in their portfolio.

* each of these days will be graded on the basis of your progress: a grade for each day will factor into your quarterly grade.

Your Movie!!!

At this point, your movie analysis should have been handed in.  Now it is time to create your own movie "vision".  For this to happen, you must begin with the idea, create characters, diagram the plot, decide on camera angles and perspective and write the first scene.

You will be presenting your idea and the first scene to the class for a grade.

A.  Today- In an e mail or an attachment to an e mail, explain your idea, describe at least three characters in your film and diagram the plot (sequence of events) for at least the first half of the film.
              1. Idea
              2. Three Characters
              3. Plot Diagram

*  Your grade for the e mail plan depends on how much information you develop on your film.

B.  First Scene- Camera Angles, Sound, Color and other visual aspects.
Once you have completed A, above, work from your ideas and plans to create a scene that has at least a three minute run time.  Explain how the scene opens and what the viewer sees and hears in this first scene.  This written explanation should be specific about the positioning and movement of the camera, including the focus.  Include sound and what happens in the first scene.  Explain each part of the scene vividly, describing with senses.  Ultimately, the scene should communicate something about the movie as a whole or at least create a starting point for the future action and drama.
     1.  Three minute run time- at least two and a half typed pages, double spaced.
     2.  Camera angles
     3.  Vivid description
     4.  Relevance to the movie as a whole

Writing Issues in Movies Project

The Usual Suspects

Memento

Fight Club

There are a number of approaches that you might use.  The task, however, is to take two of the assignments below and transform them into your own polished creative pieces.

1.      Take any one of the movies from above and write about the movie as a whole, in the terms of its presentation (i.e. narrative technique, point of view) and its deeper meaning.  You may make this into a poem or any other genre, including a formal essay, but you must demonstrate your mastery of not only the movie but your own artistic expression.

2.      Fantasy/Reality.  Write a poem or any other genre, including the essay form, on any two of the film’s handling of this issue.

3.      The Narrative Technique.  Write a poem or any other genre, including the essay form, on any two of the film’s handling of this issue.

4.      Social Commentary.  Write a poem or any other genre, including the essay form, on any two of the film’s handling of this issue.

This project is due a day after we have finished our last film.

Poem on Memento and the Fight Club Question

A. Memento

Why is closure so important for the main character?  How is the main character’s approach to memory similar to the writing process?  What are the linear chain of events?  What narrative technique is the story told in?  Overall, what does the movie as a whole imply about memory and truth?

*You have answered these question above.  Now, write a ten line poem about this movie and send it to me in an e mail.

B.  Fight Club

The first rule of fight club is: there is no fight club.  This film is textbook psychodrama but more than that a tale told from the inside of our narrator.

In addition to its psychological wanderings, the film takes up a number of artful story-telling techniques.  Our narrator fabricates as well as changes the starting points of the narration as a whole.  If you choose to write about the narrative strategy of this film, take note of the inconsistencies in the actual tale and some of the clues, either verbal or visual, that the viewer must catch to understand the full nature of the multiple meanings examined.  

What is the narrative sequence?  

What is hallucination and what is real?  Explain why- what proof.  

Remember, the art of story telling is essentially telling a lie to tell the truth.  What are the lies we are told?  What is the truth?  

How is this style of narration a mirror of how the human mind comprehends the truth and creates it as well. 

*Send your responses to these questions in an e mail as well- due one day after we are finished with the film.

Drawing and Imagination

Create a plot plan for a short story or complete a poem from one of the visuals above.

Beginning Poetry

Try each of theses activities below.  After you have completed these, take a look at the work you have done and create at least two poems to send to my e mail.

Imagery

Construct a five line poem, consisting of at least three different types of sensory details(ie- sight, sound, touch, smell, taste) from a moment from your experience, in the space below.

Simile

Select a simile that is an appropriate comparison for any type of emotion and continue to define that emotion in a five line poem below.

Extended Metaphor/ Metaphor

Take the abstract idea of Nature or Spirituality and construct an apt metaphor for the idea.  Be sure that this metaphor makes use of the principle of comparison in such a way that defines the abstract idea specifically.

Personification

Create a monster for any emotion of your choosing.  Explain what it looks like, how it moves, what it sounds like, smells etc.  Be sure that this emotion is described and depicted fully.  You may use any form you choose.

Literary Form- Cinquain

Construct a Cinquain about any subject of your choosing.  Apply the form:

1.      Title noun

2.      Description of the noun

3.      Action

4.      Feeling or effect

5.      Synonym of the initial noun

Theme Poem Combination

Take one of the following themes of: Politics, Media, Society, Technology or War and decide specifically what comment you would like to make on the subject. Then, use ,at least, three literary techniques from above to express this comment in a poem below.  The poem must consist of at least 10 lines.

Short Story Beginning Example

You have all been developing your short stories from the activities on character development and setting.  Here is an example of something that a student of mine put together.  This is for a work that is a bit larger than a short story, but functions as a pretty good beginning to establish characterization and setting.

Let's see if you can't figure out what kind of character Owen is and what the particular setting is.   Hey, if you find any editing mistakes, lrt me know.  Have fun.

 

ELECTRIC MOON

Searching

He could feel that his clothes were soaked through.  It wasn’t just wet.  His socks were drenched.  But Owen was at the point where the wet was becoming less irritating.  It wasn’t cold enough to do any harm.  He could still move his fingers and toes and he was close to the deer he had been following. 

His dark hair was thick and longish now.  For years now, he cut his own hair when it was burden.  He couldn’t remember the last time he had actually sat down and let someone else do it.  That event always seemed like an awkward fifteen minutes of trust.  A complete stranger- stranger-to-stranger, searching for meaningless small talk.  This moment was a substantial part of society in a smaller more concentrated form.  He had made this comparison for at least four years before he finally decided to leave Atlanta. 

It would be dark soon, half an hour. 

Luckily, there hadn’t been any long stretches of open space for it to make progress in evading him.  And he had been so silent.  His stealth was embarrassing; like a secret he had never shared.  Owen could move through the forest more silently than most animals half his size.

Something moved in the brush up the incline from Owen.  It was too close to be his prey; perhaps it was a bear or a bobcat. 

Owen knew that he had to be careful in woods such as these.  This was a territory where loggers were missing frequently.  Perhaps, they were just transients who picked up and left.  Tourists fantasized that bears were the culprits.  A body could disappear a long time in some of the caves around the mountains. 

A bear would have made more noise.  It was too loud to be a bobcat. 

Maybe another hunter?

He made an ascent to the right.  He decided to flank the straight way up. He would find a way up to the cliff above, for a view of whatever it was.  If he could move fast and quietly enough, he would assume the advantage.  This was not a place where ownership and wealth dictated the winners; mostly it was the opposite.  The smaller animals had to be fierce.  But this was not the pit of a ghetto.  If you were hungry, you would go out and get what you needed.  Everything was simplified into survival’s basic form. 

But where had the deer gone?  It was this unassuming creature he was counting on.  There were only so many shrubs and potatoes he could eat.  He was starting to feel lighter.  He thought about the Native American shamans who starved themselves for enlightenment. 

From the cliff, he might be able to see both, his prey and the other.

As he moved up, he could hear whatever it was- definitely not a bear- move up and to the right.  This was going to make it much more difficult.  He would have to make a larger arc around to the cliff, and faster.

He moved, glided from flat rock to flat rock. 

Within a few short minutes, crouching, he perched on the corner of the cliff with sincere interest. 

He wasn’t an excessively large man but dense and compact. Owen had wide shoulders and corded, defined muscle.  He had been an athlete.  Throughout law school, Owen worked as a carpenter.  His build was meant for and created by an evasive aspect of strength, controlled movement.  At just under 200 lbs, he was an agile 6’. 1”.  Even the barroom brawlers didn’t usually choose a physical confrontation with him because of the perceptibly even balance of physicality and demeanor.  His expressions were considerate without being overly sensitive, analytical without awkwardness.  His eyes were gray and alert.

Despite his status as a rapidly advancing trial lawyer, Owen had given up the days of suits and clean-shaven sophistry for the life of a recluse.  He was almost thirty, living off of savings, killing and curing deer for survival.  Living in this manner was more of an act of principle than actual necessity.  It seemed to Owen that most people lived in irresponsibility, rooting from a lack of awareness.  Most of his friends thought he had gone mad and feared for their own sanity.  He had an inward satisfaction; he knew that he had surpassed debt, secured his comfortable liberty and escaped social slavery.  The money he had made at Law was enough to last him a modest lifetime in consideration of the compounding interest.  He made money while he existed in this state of self-sufficiency.  Maybe someday he would return; but not today. 

The deer that he had been tracking stepped out of the foliage, across the grassy landing.  Unwittingly, he had been forced closer to his prey by finding this vantage point.  He was somewhat concealed from the deer and above the path of his second query.  He could hear it getting closer.  Definitely not a bear.  Man size- no shoes; it wasn’t kicking rocks around like your typical hiker either. 

His first priority was food.  He remained very still, even as he slid an arrow from his quiver and brought the compound bow off of his shoulder.  The arrows head was wide (two flat surfaces intersecting each other) with four razor edges.  This arrow could accomplish the predatory necessity he had been pursuing for half a day.  It came down to this, not going through banal motions each and every day.  Weighty consequences were decided in unforgiving instants. 

The deer took two steps into the clearing.  It bent down for grass.  That was the complicated part.  To get a clean shot at the heart, their head had to be up which meant that it could be aware, looking in his direction.  Luckily, he wasn’t off to the side. 

On the path below, he could hear it getting closer.  Now, it was a matter of seconds before the deer would be aware, not of Owen but the traveler on the lower trail.  He started to feel sweat, mixed in with the rainwater.  The shot would have to be timed perfectly; as soon as the deer’s head was up, paying attention to the sound on the lower trail, he would have to release the arrow. 

No, he had to let it go before that. Owen would anticipate the animal’s reaction.

For the first time, he got a full view of the deer.  As he had guessed, from the hoof prints, a bit over 200 pounds.  The muscles in its shoulders and back gleamed electric gray.  Its eyes, he imagined, were a yellowish brown.  Owen knew which leg the deer would lead off on and which back leg it would push itself to the side with.  The shot had to be timed perfectly. 

Owen pulled the bowstring back slowly, an inch each second.  Finally, the feathers of the arrow were almost touching his ear. Stability.  He had to keep every muscle still.  The stillness would make him invisible, but not for long.  He was fully aware that he was a kind of gray reverie, an assassin, a shadow barely breathing.

It got closer on the trail below.  Owen inhaled.  He was a sensory machine, taking in each small piece of sound and smell.

Dusk lingered as the clearing darkened. The moon was up and full in the sky.

An eerie feline hiss issued from the lower trail.  Owen exhaled and let the arrow fly.  Now, he had done everything he possibly could for the shot.  He would not have another.  After the shaft left his fingers, he turned to peer down the cliff face.

What Owen saw was something he would have a difficult time explaining to someone else.  And it was directly underneath him, scaling the rock face by grasping small trees, growing from the crevices and spaces.  It was apelike but with hands that were a cross between a hand and a paw.  The nails were thick claws.  As it peered up, it snarled with a doglike maw.  Its eyes were oddly human-bluish green.  Its nostrils flared as it hissed and got ten feet closer; no time to wonder.  Owen had to act.  He could feel the adrenalin begin to course through his arms and chest.  He would have two to three shots before it reached him, depending on how accurate the first two were.

            Automatic, analytically, he placed the arrow into its left shoulder.  An unnerving half hiss half snarl spat from its snout.  Owen felt like running.  He knew, however, that this thing would make it to the top and he would have to kill it.  It was fast; it would catch him. 

He shot again; this time, at its head.  The arrow pierced through its snout into the lower jaw.  It was still coming.  This shot was only to target its left eye. 

After he released the shaft, he pulled the hatchet from his pack and dropped the bow.  He had to keep it from getting onto the landing. 

A clawed hand clutched the top of the cliff.  Owen brought the hatchet down, almost cutting the paw-ish hand in half.  He didn’t dare to peer over.

Silence.

He waited.  Breathing deeply.

Then, he could hear it growling in what sounded like human anger, like the tone of a curse.  The adrenalin was all throughout his body.

Now, both paws pulled and then pushed the thing’s torso and large head above the surface of the cliff face. 

They were face to face.  Its doggish lips snarled and twitched, showing its large canine teeth.  An arrow protruded from its left eye.  Another arrow stuck out of the left side of its snout.

Owen brought the hatchet down onto the side of its head, hard with most of his body weight; he felt nervously strong as it sunk into its skull.  The hatchet was buried only a couple of inches from where it connected with the handle.  The creature’s right hand went instinctively to the hatchet but clutched the arrow that happened to be in the way.  As the right side of its body began to fall, the only thing that was holding it on the cliff was its attachment to the hatchet, as Owen tried to pull the weapon back out of its skull.  Now, both paw hands were at its eye and left side of its head.

Owen let go of the hatchet.  He thought about trying to pull it out for another strike, but more than anything wanted this thing away from him.  It tumbled down the cliff face and back to the ground, still clutching its head, as it ran off into the woods.

He sat with his back against the tree.  Breathing.  Confused.  After he had stopped shaking and began breathing more evenly, he remembered the deer. He also noticed that it would be dark very soon. 

Picking up his bow, he looked across the clearing to see that his shot had indeed done what was intended.  A bit more than twelve feet into the foliage, the rather large deer lie dead with one razor backed arrow buried in its heart.

The light was almost completely gone.

Putting It All Together

10 Settings, 8 Characters and 4 Conflicts

Short Story- Integration

Creative Writing

Assignment- below are three categories that you have been working on this week.  As you have picked one from each, begin a short story in the first person.  Be conscious of the way a personality tells a story; think about how they will portray themselves, their actions, and the details they will include.  Be sure that they, the character, give the reader a full explanation of their setting.  Choose the kind of conflict that this character in the particular setting will have and make something happen; create action in the story.  

The short story will be evaluated on the development of the character, use of setting and the presence of significant conflict and plot(sequence of events).

Create a word file or written piece to e mail or give to me by the end of the period, so that I may measure your progress- yes, this is a grade.

Have fun!!!!

From Previous Classes

Settings Explored

The Old West/Wild West etc- a town anywhere during that time before the civil war.  Everyone is armed to the teeth.  There are no drug or alcohol laws and very few laws besides.

The Future After a Nuclear Holocaust.  You must decide what is still running but the world must be very different from the present.  You must also give some feasible reasons why some things still exist and others don’t.

The Ancient World Anywhere B.C.  Choose the culture that you would prefer to use all the way from the Babylonians to the Romans.  It will be helpful to select something you are somewhat familiar with.

South America During the Spanish Conquest.  This setting comes complete with Mayans, Aztecs, Incans and, of course, European conquistadors. 

The Napoleanic Wars.  Napolean was a little man with a lot of influence and a big appetite, not only for chicken but the rest of the world.  Put yourself, your character that is, in this world of upheaval and imagine the drama.

The Ultra Technological Future.  What is it like? You tell me.  Make sure that your decisions are feasible.  What is transportation like?  What is school like? Etc.

The Alaskan Wilderness.  It’s cold.  It’s desolate.  There are animals that think you’re delicious and, much like the Old West, wild and dangerous.

Present Day Europe.  Choose anywhere in Europe.  Take into account the political and economic systems as well as the society at large.

The Roman Conquest.  The Romans are taking over the world.  You may choose to write from the perspective of the conquerors or the people that they are invading.

California, Present.  The West Coast is quite a different place.  Put yourself there and create a drama in Hollywood, the Mexican border or even the beach.

Characters Developed

Sneaky thief

Strong-willed survivor.

Cruel villainous.

Deceptive and manipulative.

Pessimistic.

Coward.

Intelligent and self sufficient.

Needy, helpless and weak.

To Decide Upon-

Possible Conflicts

Human v. Themselves

Human v. Society

Human v. Nature

Human v. Human

Writing Short Stories- March 5th

I.  Theory (Idea) on Short Story Form

Length- usually over three pages

Development- primary character and up to two secondary characters

Literary Elements:  Narration and Description

                Setting

                Plot

                Point of View

                Character

                Conflict

                Theme  

 Strategy?

A.  Scene Creation

1.  The Idea, comes in a flash- what makes the experience significant to you.

2.  Decide on an angle-  what is the importance of the experience.

3.  Outline your scenes- map and plan scenes: what happens and why?

4.  Write the first scene.

 B.  Character Generation

1. Character(s)

2. Setting

3. Main Problem

4. Begin the story with dialogue or action.

 

II. Activity

Take each of the strategies of character generation and scene creation to create two different stories.  For character, create the personality and focus on that, as it will be the driving force behind the story.  For scene, focus on the idea and how it plays itself out through the action of the scenes. 

A. Scene Construction

1. Theme or idea and its importance-

2. Outline of Scenes

3. First Scene

B. Character Construction

1.  Main character’s personality etc- Create them as fully as possible.

Physical qualities-

Name-

Occupation-

Likes and Dislikes-

Background-

2. Put the character in a time and place.  You may just create a mood with setting.  Be as descriptive as possible.

3. What is the main conflict?  Explain.

4.  Write the first paragraph, beginning with action and/or dialogue.

III. Complete A, B or Both in a word file and send this work to my e mail.

Project 1- due February 17

All projects must conform to the definitions of the various explanations of literary creations.  You have used the ideas from your journal writing and assignment completed in the first two weeks;  this is a great use of this work.

You are all working on changing genres, fantasy novels and short stories, poetry collections and thoroughly impressive work.

These works should all be handed in and completed by this Friday's class.

Description Activities February 7 and (8?)

Description is one of the most powerful tools in creative writing because of the dimension that it adds to characters, settings and more.  The most important thing to remember about the use of this skill is to appeal to the senses of your reader.  When you go about describing a certain character, setting or even an object, think about the sense of smell, vision, sound, touch and sometimes taste.  Below are two activities that will exercise your ability to “show” your reader what you mean.  Complete at least two of each different activity and turn them in by e mail or on loose leaf.  Have Fun.

1.  Convey an emotion or impression from the second group about a thing in the first group.  You may do as many of these as you’d like but the degree with which you show me the emotion or impression without telling me will dictate your success.

Things

A Car

A Dentist’s Drill

A Musical Instrument

A Painting or Photograph

A Season of the Year

A Landscape from Memory

A Dog

Emotions

Angry

Sad

Nervous

Fearful

Inspired

Happy

Apathetic

2.  Describe a place listed below in two different ways.  Imbue this place with positive qualities and then negative qualities.  You may choose two different locations but you must have both a place with a negative impression and a place with a positive.  Each of the selections below can go either way.  Do not tell me what impression you wish to create, show me.

Sunrise or Sunset

Fire

Night-time

A Tunnel

A Forest

A Door

A Wave

A Window

A Snowy Landscape

An Old House