Communications Video Dicussion Questions Homework Students May Skip Past The How Realistic

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VIDEO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

INTRODUCTION: STUDYING FILM: CULTURE AND EXPERIENCE

FILM IN FOCUS: The 400 Blows

In the final sequence of The 400 Blows, an extraordinarily long tracking shot of Antoine on the run concludes with a

celebrated freeze frame.

1. The length and simplicity of this sequence makes it surprisingly difficult to interpret. How does it elicit moments

of identification? How does it cognitively challenge us to make sense of it in terms of other films we have seen?

Students might choose to answer this question by talking not about cognition at first but about their bodily

2. The final freeze frame of Antoine staring into the camera was highly unusual at the time. What does the freezing

of the frame achieve? How do you read or interpret the expression on his face?

If students are frustrated about the seeming lack of closure, encourage them to consider how infrequently in

their own lives they are able to recognize a turning point as it’s happening. Freeze the freeze frame and ask

NEW FORM IN ACTION: Whiplash

In this clip from Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014), an aspiring jazz drummer (Miles Teller) is intimated by a

brutal instructor (J.K. Simmons).

1. How does the tone of this scene differ from other music dramas you may have seen?

Presumably some students will notice that this scene is more grueling and scarier than a lot of music dramas,

2. How do camera placement and editing ratchet up this scene’s intensity?

Students might focus on any number of elements, such as the movie’s use of close-ups on the actors faces

FORM IN ACTION: Juno

In this bold clip from Juno (Jason Reitman, 2007), the main character (Ellen Page), a sardonic teenager who has just

had sex with her best friend, receives the news that sets the plot in motion.

1. How do camera placement and editing establish intimacy and identification with Juno?

The close-up is an obvious place to start. Ask students how it conforms to traditional Hollywood ideas about

2. What do we learn about Juno from the fact that she reads her test in the presence of the store clerk played by

Rainn Wilson. What other aspects of the clip create a particular understanding of her character?

pregnancy test. She doesn’t go home or somewhere secret to take the test; she heads straight for the store

CHAPTER 1 ENCOUNTERING FILM: FROM PREPRODUCTION TO EXHIBITION

NEW FORM IN ACTION: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) is the film version of an irreverent mash-up between horror tropes and Jane

Austen.

1. How does this trailer relate to other advertisements for more traditional zombie movies, or more traditional

literary adaptations? How does it depart from these conventions?

The beginning of the trailer very much mimics an advertisement for a classy literary adaptation, as it slowly

focusing on fighting zombies, not just being terrorized by them.

2. Do you find this trailer effective in convincing you to see the movie it’s advertising? Why or why not?

Responses will vary even more than usual here, but the idea is to get the students talking about what the

NEW VIEWING CUE: Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad is a 2016 comic-book adaptation set in the DC Comics movie universe. Its release was preceded by a

series of trailers that often used popular music to introduce its group of new characters.

1. What kind of messages does this trailer send about the film and its tone? What does it seem like the studio

considers most marketable about the film?

2. How might this trailer accurately reflect what watching Suicide Squad is actually like – and how might it be

misleading?

This may depend on whether or not students have seen the film. If they have, they might note that the movie

is scored with similarly familiar pop songs throughout, but also a movie that’s far more uneven and less

VIEWING CUE: Man of Steel

Zack Snyder’s retelling of the myth of Superman, Man of Steel (2012), combines familiar icons with fresh effects. In

this clip from a climactic battle scene, General Zod appears invincible.

1. How is attention drawn to Superman and the star who plays him? Does the scene attempt to transcend action film

clichés?

2. Look at “trailer 1” for Man of Steel on IMDB or another source and explain how the scene you’ve watched fits in

to the story that the trailer tells. What elements besides action elements seem important to the trailer? Do those

appear in the battle scene?

Superman may seem all-American, but he’s originally from somewhere else, one of many attributes that

prevent him from fitting in. Ask students about the message, “You Are Not Alone,” seen in the trailer: Is it

FILM IN FOCUS: Killer of Sheep

Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep (1979) is a realist depiction of the everyday challenges faced by a working class

father in the impoverished Watts district of Los Angeles. The dance between Stan (Henry G. Sanders) and his wife

(Kaycee Moore) enacts the strains on their relationship.

1. Killer of Sheep was not widely distributed until all the music rights were cleared thirty years after it was finished.

Describe the effects of Dinah Washington singing Clyde Otis’s “This Bitter Earth” in this scene.

Ask students how they reconciled Dinah Washington’s electrifying voice with the lyrics of the song she’s

2. The production values make it clear that this is a low-budget film. How does the scene make meaning from its

limited means?

Students might focus on the long take or how the light from the window behind the dancers literally

FILM IN FOCUS: Citizen Kane

Toward the conclusion of Citizen Kane, Kane and his wife Susan Alexander have isolated themselves in the palatial

Xanadu, surrounded by magnificent spaces and cut off from the world.

1. Focusing on this sequence, consider how its details and actions might be seen (and perhaps understood)

differently in different exhibition contexts, such as on a large screen versus a computer monitor. Which details might

look similar across different exhibitions? Which might look different?

Students might choose to answer this prompt by talking about fireplaces, forced persective, and jigsaw

puzzles, but what about the physical figure of Charles Foster Kane himself. Perhaps contrast this clip with

2. How might the exhibition history of Citizen Kane inflect or alter how this sequence is perceived? How might

audiences in 1941 have understood it differently than audiences today?

If students struggle with time traveling back to Kane’s compromised premiere, ask them to think about a

FILM IN FOCUS: The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project (Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick 1999) is an influential, low-budget example of what

would become known as transmedia storytelling, with the story told in the film framed and supplemented by online

marketing, a comic book, and other media.

1. In this clip, how is the emblem of the film’s marketing campaign—the stick figure—introduced to the filmmakers

within the film in a manner that underscores the different levels of narration?

Students will probably be reminded of other viral, is-it-real-or-fake media moments like Catfish

2. How does the film’s use of low-budget amateur formats attempt to authenticate its marketing story and its claims

to novelty?

The handheld cinematography and the poor image quality will likely dominate students’ answers. Some other

FORM IN ACTION: Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze, 2009) builds on audience familiarity with the Maurice Sendak’s classic

picture book and curiosity about its adaptation to a feature-length film. In this clip Max has journeyed to the land of

the wild things and found that he hasn’t escaped the challenges of everyday life.

1. What themes are present in the clip? What does the scene say about Jonze’s interpretation of the book? What

pictorial choices characterize this adaptation and establish its mood and point of view?

Students may have fond memories of Maurice Sendak’s book and spend time talking about the look of the

2. Watch “trailer 1” for Where the Wild Things Are on IMDB or iTunes (link:

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/wherethewildthingsare/). How does the trailer use music to give it continuity and

to indicate the film’s sensibility? Does the trailer seem aimed at a child audience? Watch “trailer 2.” How is the

child’s perspective highlighted in this trailer? Does the trailer portray the land of the wild things as preferable to life

at home?

Students can talk about how the face of Max is the first thing we see in trailer 1, and even though his eyes are

CHAPTER 2 HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD AND BEYOND

VIEWING CUE: Gilda and Rome Open City

The end of World War II marked a distinct change in world film history. In 1946, when Gilda (Charles Vidor) was

released, movie attendance reached its highest level in the US, with more than 90 million weekly admissions, only to

drop off sharply with the coming of television and other challenges to the studio system. In Italy in 1945, the vast

movie studio complex Cinecitta was occupied by refugees, and Roberto Rossellini filmed Rome Open City on

location.

1. Compare and contrast the depiction of gender in these two films, both in terms of the styling of the female star

and in terms of the idea of gendered spaces.

2. Gilda is an example of film noir, which introduced dark themes to studio era Hollywood, and Rome, Open City is

an example of neo-realism, which would influence later filmmaking worldwide. Give examples of stylistic

differences in the clips. Are there any similarities due to the films being made at the same time?

Lighting may be the most obvious difference between the two clips, while students may be able to draw

NEW VIEWING CUE: Beyond the Lights

Beyond the Lights is a 2014 romantic drama about the music business and the toll it takes on a talented young singer.

The film was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, a black woman in a largely white-male-dominated industry.

1. How do dialogue and form position the black woman protagonist? How do you think this relates to the unique

perspective of a black woman director behind the camera?

Students may find that the scene, on its surface, has relatively traditional construction, alternating shots of

the female and male leads as they have a conversation. But Prince-Bythewood subtly gives more attention to

which still have lamentably few black female lead characters.

2. In what ways does this clip represent a traditional Hollywood film? In what ways does it represent something less

traditional and more uncommon?

The content of the dialogue between the two characters is not especially new or memorablethey’re talking

NEW VIEWING CUE: Moonlight

Moonlight is a 2016 film that looks at its main character, Chiron, at three points in his life: as a pre-teen, a teenager,

and an adult. In all three sections, he struggles with his identity as a gay black man. This landmark film, directed by

Barry Jenkins, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

1. How is Chiron’s sense of cultural identity affirmed in this sequence?

Students may not know this without the context of the full movie, but the Chiron character has been growing

up without a father, and with an unreliable, drug-addicted mother; that may need to be clarified before they

2. In what ways does this scene reflect on black masculinity? How might this be different from depictions of black

masculinity in films from earlier points in history?

This scene is so quiet, and while Juan has been shown earlier in the film as a “tough” character, he shows a

FILM IN FOCUS: Taxi Driver

In this scene from Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976), Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) practices pulling his gun in

front of a mirror.

1. How do elements of film form create a sense of malaise that then comes to seem characteristic of post-Vietnam

War urban America?

2. What aspects of Robert De Niro’s performance bring the viewer too close for comfort to his unbalanced

character?

FILM IN FOCUS: Within Our Gates

A dramatic flashback within Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates (1920) shows the history of violence against

African Americans in a powerful antidote to the distortions of D.W. Griffith’s much more famous The Birth of a

Nation (1915). Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer) has escaped from the lynch mob that has killed her uncle and aunt only

to be threatened with sexual violence. Micheaux’s film uses melodrama as effectively as Griffith’s—Sylvia will be

spared.

1. What is your response to the unfamiliarity of this film’s images—its historical form and its subject matter? Why

might the film have seemed dangerous? Do you think it would have made a difference in film history if the film had

not been lost?

Students may be reluctant to speak about this clip at first, particularly because it ends without us finding out

2. How does cross-cutting, a mode of editing mastered by Griffith, contribute to the scene’s effect?

Most of the comments may be about Sylvia’s daylight struggle and the temporal confusion caused by the

CHAPTER 3 MISE-EN-SCÈNE: EXPLORING A MATERIAL WORLD

VIEWING CUE: Life of Pi

In Life of Pi (Ang Lee, 2012), a young man survives a disastrous shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean, adrift with a

Bengal tiger through a series of fantastical episodes.

1. This sequence contrasts two spaces within its mise-en-scene, the small lifeboat and the vast ocean surrounding it.

How does the sequence use these two spaces to generate its dramatic tensions and energies?

One likely subject for student responses will be the color schemes. The boat is visually divided into human

2. Would you describe this mise-en-scene, including its use of the tiger and the remarkable explosion of fish, as

realistic in some ways? If so, how and why does it push the notion of realism in new directions?

Students may skip past the how realistic is it that a human and a tiger can share a small boat and straight to

NEW FORM IN ACTION: Hugo

In this early scene from Hugo (2011, Martin Scorsese), the audience is taken on a tour of the title character’s world

inside a Paris train station. The movie is set around the dawn of cinema and has its fictional characters intersect with

some real ones.

1. As discussed in Chapter 3, there are a variety of elements to mise-en-scène, including lighting, costumes, props,

actors, make-up, and more. Which elements of mise-en-scène are most immediately noticeable in this clip from

Hugo? Watch the clip again. Which elements are present, but perhaps not as noticeable upon first viewing?

The set design is probably one of the most immediately noticeable elements, with an intricate combination of

2. This scene from Hugo comes very early in the film. What does its mise-en-scène establish about the movie you’re

about to watch? How does it affect the viewer?

It establishes the world of the movie, which is a mix of the historical and the fantastical, and also a tone of

wonderment with some degree of grit (the sights Hugo is seeing are often amazing, but may not seem that way

FILM IN FOCUS: Do the Right Thing

In this climactic sequence from Do the Right Thing, the mise-en-scene of Sal’s pizzeria explodes with significance.

1. Which are the key features—props, costumes, lighting, or some other element—of this sequence, and why are

they important?

Likely student responses will focus on Radio Raheem’s boombox, and the wall of fame but what about the

2. Consider the significance of the photos on the “wall of fame.” How would you describe their material relationship

to Radio Raheem’s boom box? How does the showdown between the two utilize very different conceptions of

space?

Students might discuss the static nature of the photographs versus the kinetic energy of the Public Enemy

FILM IN FOCUS: Bicycle Thieves

In this clip from Vittorio DeSica’s Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette, 1948), Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani)

tries to recover his stolen bicycle, accompanied by his friends and his son Bruno (Enzo Staiola).

1. Describe elements of the naturalistic mise-en-scene of post-war Rome in this clip. What are some of the effects of

shooting on location in the crowded marketplace?

2. How do editing and the score contribute to the emotional resonance of the objects onscreen?

FORM IN ACTION: Fantastic Mr. Fox

In Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) the animals living underground are under siege by a group of farmers.

1. How do characters and objects complement each other in the mise-en-scene? Are there aspects of the setting that

tell the story?

An opossum not only plays the piano (“Night and Day,” with flourishes), he also wears piano key suspenders.

2. How do other elements of film language like editing and camerawork work to foreground mise-en-scene in this

clip?

Again, students will definitely pick up on Anderson’s signature long-take tracking shot. Ask them about how

CHAPTER 4 CINEMATOGRAPHY: FRAMING WHAT WE SEE

VIEWING CUE: Touch of Evil

In the concluding sequence of Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) the partner of corrupt cop Quinlan (Welles) is

wearing a wire to collect evidence for honest cop Vargas (Charlton Heston).

1. While much of the film uses tracking shots, this sequence uses editing to show the difficulty of tracking Quinlan.

Make sketches of two sets of more juxtaposed shots. How are angles and compositional elements used to relate

frame to frame?

2. The name film noir was given to a cycle of postwar films whose themes were as dark as their lighting schemes.

Comment on cinematographer Russell Metty’s use of darkness in this scene.

VIEWING CUE: Rear Window

With the exception of a single shot, the entirety of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) is filmed from the

apartment window of L.B. Jeffries (Jimmy Stewart). By this point in the film Jeffries is convinced that he has

witnessed a murder across the courtyard and is looking for clues within the hubbub of everyday life.

1. Describe the moving camera in this shot. Is camera movement “motivated”? Is it “invisible”?

Students will focus on the final shot of the clip as a way to answer this question. Have we been sharing Stella’s

2. Describe how the view could be shown with several different shots. Would the effect of cutting change the way

we experience the film’s primary theme of looking?

viewing cue: Battle of Algiers

A fiction film with a documentary look, The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966) describes the war between

the French and the Algerian resistance during the 1950s, recreating an important episode in that struggle. This scene

immediately follows a devastating French attack on the casbah. In it, three Algerian women prepare to serve the

revolutionary cause by carrying explosives into the French quarter.

1. How does black-and-white cinematography contribute to the authenticity of the film?

Some students may have never seen a black-and-white film before, but they’ve seen cable news footage. Ask

2. How does lighting contribute to the drama of transformation?

Students may be surprised when a scene of feminine primping is revealed to be in the service not of vanity but

FILM IN FOCUS: Vertigo

In this wordless scene from Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958), private eye Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) follows his

college friend’s wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) on her mysterious wanderings.

1. Explain in as much detail as possible how the framing shapes the meaning of this sequence. What does it say

about Scottie’s point of view and Madeleine’s position as object of that point of view?

Poor Scottie. We know he is a private detective, but students might still invoke concepts like “stalking,” no

2. Towards the conclusion of the sequence, the image contains a remarkable “double image.” Why is this shot so

disconcerting and complicated?

Students may be upset with Hitchcock for implicating them in the stalking-style gaze, even though they share

Scottie’s desire to see Madeleine. Get them to talk about how startling it is to have Madeleine centered in the

FILM IN FOCUS: M

We learn in the first few minutes of Fritz Lang’s M (1931) that a child murderer is terrorizing Berlin. As the opening

sequence unfolds, we return to the flat where Elsie Beckman’s mother is expecting her daughter’s return.

1. M was made early in the development of the sound film. How does cinematography play off sound and silence in

this scene to enhance the mood?

Ask students to characterize the tone of the mother calling “Elsie!” against the ominous silence of the

subsequent shots. Students should have no problem identifying the horror in the domestic space that is

2. What point of view does the camera assume, especially in shots without people in them?

FORM IN ACTION: The Master

The unsettling moods of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films are established through expressive cinematography. Shot

primarily on large format, highly color sensitive 65mm film, The Master (2012) tells the story of unstable World

War II veteran Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) who drifts from place to place before falling in with the Cause, led

by the charismatic Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). This sequence starts with Quell being chased off a

farm after poisoning another migrant worker with his moonshine and ends with his stumbling across Dodd’s yacht.

The surreal passage is conveyed without words by cinematographer Mihai Mălaimare, Jr.

1. A radical change in setting occurs between two scenes shot primarily in darkness. How is the greater image area

allowed by 65mm utilized to convey the impact of the transition between settings though different values of light?

Students will likely focus on the unremitting geometry of the furrows relative to Freddie’s constantly re-

2. The filmmakers did not use a digital intermediate in the postproduction process to adjust color values and other

aspects of the image, taking care to capture depth and clarity in shooting and then faithfully render the

photochemical process onscreen. Describe the expressionist use of color in this scene. How does the quality of the

image convey Quell’s subjective experience?

It should be pretty easy for students to talk about the color shifts from darkness to blue barren field. How

CHAPTER 5 EDITING: RELATING IMAGES

VIEWING CUE: Chinatown

Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974) is a tribute to the way the filmic language of 1940s film noir conveyed urban

menace and corruption. A twisted chain of events is set off when Mrs. Mulwray (Diane Ladd) enters the office of

detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicolson).

1. Do a shot-by-shot breakdown of this scene by counting the number of shots and noting the subject, camera

distance and camera movement in each. How is the spatial relationship between shots established by editing?

2. What is the motivation behind each cut? If you notice a change in the pattern of cutting, what do you think it

signifies?

VIEWING CUE: The General

The dynamism of Buster Keaton’s silent-film comedy arises from the coordination of physical movement with the

spatial and temporal manipulation of editing. The plot of The General (Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman,1926) is

set in motion when Union soldiers steal his steam engine, the General.

1. Count and then time the shots in the sequence. How does the rhythm of the editing in the sequence contribute to

the film’s mood or meaning?

2. How is the gag set up by editing?

Much of the gag’s effectiveness relies on audience anticipation. Ask students to explain which shots make

NEW VIEWING CUE: Tangerine

Tangerine is a 2015 indie film directed by Sean Baker about a transgender woman searching for her cheating

boyfriend.

1. Tangerine was shot on an iPhone. How does the editing in this sequence follow continuity style for

conversations? For movement? How does it diverge?

Some of the back-and-forth dialogue is shot in relatively traditional shot/reverse-shot style, or in single takes

2. How is this sequence’s meaning and mood enhanced by editing?

Students may point out the sense of immediacy that comes through in either the relatively quick cutting or

FORM IN ACTION: Moulin Rouge!

Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann 2001) is a postmodern musical: it combines the plot of the opera La Boheme with

pop music and Bollywood production numbers. Early in the film Christian (Ewan McGregor) is ushered into the

world of the Moulin Rouge nightclub presided over by impresario Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent).

1. How does the editing of the film exemplify the idea of postmodernism as a pastiche of styles, periods, and genres?

Ask students to clap at each cut, and then talk about how they laughed after their claps quickly became a wall

2. How does the pace of the editing support the physicality of dance and the visceral involvement of the viewer?

FILM IN FOCUS: Bonnie and Clyde

In this renowned and horrifying conclusion to Bonnie and Clyde, the editing is both subtle and complex.

1. Watch the sequence several times, concentrating on the patterns of shot/reverse shot editing. How do these

patterns complicate and enrich the meaning of the sequence?

Ask students to talk about the eyeline matches between each of the three characters and the startled flock of

2. How does the editing rhythm of the sequence make this more than simply the description of an ambush and a

killing?

FILM IN FOCUS: Battleship Potemkin

Describing the violent repression of the Czarist troops, the Odessa steps sequence from Battleship Potemkin is

perhaps the most famous sequence in the history of film editing. In it, the bystanders who have come to cheer on the

sailors aboard the ship are brutally massacred by Cossacks.

1. Why is the pacing of the editing and the movement within shots critical to the meaning of the sequence? How are

our perceptions of space and time shaped and altered by editing in the sequence? Pay attention to variations in angle

and shot length.

Students will likely remark on you the percussion, strings, and brass ratchet up their anxiety along with the

2. How is this the quintessential example of what Eisenstein calls “dialectical montage”?

One way to get students talking is by pausing on the opening close-up reaction shots of the woman (subtitled

CHAPTER 6 FILM SOUND: LISTENING TO THE CINEMA

VIEWING CUE: Winter’s Bone

Set in an impoverished region of the Ozark mountains, Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone (2010) recounts the quest of

17-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) as she searches for her missing father, apparently a victim of his

involvement with the local manufacturing of crystal meth.

1. In what appears to be a dream sequence, two dominant sounds are orchestrated, one diegetic, the other non-

diegetic. What is their relationship and how does the distinctive soundscape of this sequence reflect it?

Students’ answers may vary depending on whether they have seen this film’s ending. For those who have, the

2. How do the montage of images—the squirrel, the trees, the buzzards—and the soundtrack that connects them

interact? Does this interaction allow you to understand or interpret the dream in a specific way?

For some students who haven’t seen Winter’s Bone, the final image of the clip may be the most telling, when

VIEWING CUE: The Thin Red Line

Focused on the World War II battle in Guadalcanal, The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998) moves between the

horrors of war and, most importantly, the poetic and philosophical meditations of various soldiers about nature, love,

and family.

1. In this sequence, can you identify the five different registers of sound? Consider how they interact to create a

specific effect, atmosphere, or meaning.

Ask students to write down their answers to this prompt individually. Encourage the use of appropriate