Singin' in the Rain

Singin' in the Rain has been temporarily uploaded for viewing, but here is a collection of scenes from the movie with a special surprise homage from Stanley Kubrick at the end (you can use the NEXT button to fast forward).  For a pretty detailed overview of the film and music, see AMC's Filmsite page for Singin' in the Rain.


Next Monday will be spent covering sound and then the whole shebang of putting it all together. On Wednesday, I will be giving feedback on your drafts, but if you have yet to give feedback to ALL of your peers, then you need to do so before class next week to avoid a zero in homework. If you have added more to your proposal since the initial post, please update it. You SHOULD have a full draft done by next Wednesday.

The Old Studio System

Pre-Production, Production, & The Player

Reminder to watch Robert Altman's The Player in the The Screening Room and/or Lost in LaMancha on NetFlix; then try to identify as many professions or "roles" in the various phases of filmmaking, from pre-production (the primary "players" in the movie) through production (lots of cameos point to at least one group) and finally to post-production, if feasible.  To help you identify the various jobs, in addition to Chapter 11, read the Film Crew booklet by Kodak as well as So You Wanna Work in Movies? by DP Oliver Stapleton, BSC.

When you are finished, post your response in the Pre-Production, Production, and The Player discussion forum.

Reaction to Dziga Vertov's 1929 Man with the Camera

theYou should have read Chapter 2, focusing on the relationship between form and content (If you are looking to get ahead, we will start on production next Wednesday, so read Chapter 11).   To prepare for the week's discussion, recall Louis Giannetti's diagram below that I have previously mentioned in class:

Two of the earliest films in cinematic history help demonstrate the spectrum that film established almost from its origin--from the realistic to the fantastic, from a medium concerned with content versus one focused on form, from one that represents without interpretation to one that interprets without representation. The Lumière Brothers' Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1895) does not contain any manipulation beyond placement of the camera, whereas Méliès A Trip to the Moon (1902) quickly demonstrates manipulation of the shot can alter perception. In both cases, it is relatively easy to see where they fall in the above spectrum.

The Lumière Brothers' Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1895)


Méliès A Trip to the Moon (1902)


But what about Dziga Vertov's 1929 Man with the Camera? Where does it fit within the spectrum? After watching the film below (chose the soundtrack of your choice), prepare a response for discussion in class next Monday (and to avoid having to do a more formal post on line, remember that silence is deadly--no pun intended).

(better visuals but music less synchronized and not starting until the film's film starts @ 3:40; for a challenge, watch them together)

On a side note, consider that seven years later, this might have been Charlie Chaplin's cinematic reply to Vertov.  Though not necessarily a film about film, note that the cogs of the machine in the scene @ 13:30 look a lot like the cogs of a projector.

Two Discussions Up

I have posted both this week's chapter/film analysis React to The Purple Rose of Cairo and Chapter One, along with this week's Movie Review #1, the first of twelve 100-Word Weekly Movie Reviews in the discussion forums. The discussion will be due next Monday and the movie review due on Wednesday.  Future analyses will be assigned as we cover topics in class (sometimes online, sometime for class), but you will be expected to post one review per every week following.  Here is the criteria as stated in the first post:

You will need to "publish" your review on the external website of the Internet Movie Database (IMDB--see below), so include the link with your review (or embed your review as I demonstrate below in someone's review of the short film "Spamku," which is included in your textbook DVD.)  I have chosen IMDB as the site for reviews because it has the largest catalog of films.  If you found it somewhere, it is likely noted on IMDB (If not, you can add it).  You need to register with IMDB before posting reviews, but it is short and free.

If you are struggling with what to write, read this simple guideline, read some professional reviews (Rotten Tomatoes is one of the best places to find multiple critics , like Roger Ebert,  A.O. Scott and Bob Mondello, from various publications), or simply look to your peers at IMDB for comparison.  Although there is no specific criteria other than the word count for your reviews, see this as an avenue to practice your newfound cinematic language.

You can access these discussions in various locations, including the "Course" main page, the respective "Lesson" folder where the discussion appears, as well as the "Communicate" page.

Also be thinking about what you might consider to be your "Favorite Movie" for an upcoming assignment.