Assignments

Examinations

There will be a midterm and a final exam, which includes the contents of the whole course. Exams will cover the material you can find in the learning units of this Web-site. There will be no make-up exams (except for well documented medical emergencies).

The exams are a combination of true/false and multiple choice items and short essay questions. You will have 3 hours to complete each one of them. Time starts running when you begin the test. If you interrupt it or close Blackboard Learn, BE AWARE THAT TIME KEEPS RUNNING.

If you have any technical issue during the completion of the exam, please contact immediately the help desk to report the incident (860 832 1720).

Written Assignments

In each paper, you will have to analyze an aspect of filmic narrative in one particular movie. Every individual paper cannot exceed 800 words. The written assignments must be delivered through the corresponding in page in Blackboard Learn.

1st Witten Assignment

You have to discuss the following narrative elements in the movie Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976):

1 – Function and character of the narrator

2 – Narrative authority

3 – Range and depth of the story information

To properly write this assignment, you would need to watch the whole film.

You can perfectly address the three items in around 800 words. Please, attach your assignment as a PDF or Word document and submit it though the Blackboard Learn submission page.  I can open both file formats. If you submit a file format I cannot open, I will not grade your assignment.

2nd Witten Assignment

The film Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau, was released in 1922 (1929 in the U.S.). It represents a milestone in the development of the cinematographic language because of the exquisite use of its mise-en-scène. Analyze how the filmmaker applies the four elements that constitute the mise-en-scène to create meaning.

1. Settings
2. Costumes and Make-up
3. Lighting
4. Staging and Performance

If you follow this link, you can watch the whole movie.

You can perfectly address the four items in around 800 words. Please, attach your assignment as a PDF or Word document and submit it though the Blackboard Learn submission page.  I can open both file formats. If you submit a file format I cannot open, I will not grade your assignment.

3rd Witten Assignment

Filmmakers have a variety of techniques to create and describe fictional characters. The way those characters act on the screen, the way they speak or dress gives the audience accurate information about them. Their normal environment can also be used to convey significant features of the characters.

In this paper, you have to identify and describe the narrative techniques to shape the three main characters in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979).

Cap. Benjamin L. Willard

Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore

Colonel Walter E. Kurtz