Pop Culture: Film Trailers & Film Culture & Project Interviews

Hi folks,

We are going to pack today full of film culture goodness as we explore and discuss the beautiful thing that IS the film trailer.  You may want to create a film trailer for your film culture product due next Thursday.  We're going to watch and talk and review.  A lot.

Here are three great resources to help us get started.  All of these can be found on our Pinterest board.

Resource 1.  9 Short Storytelling Tips.
Fantastic storytelling tips that can be applied well beyond film trailer designing.

Resource 2. The Golden Trailer Awards.
The Awards for Best Film Trailers.   (There are lots. Lots and lots.)

Resource 3.  Trailer Fatigue.
History and Current State of Affairs of Film Trailers.

You'll divide up into teams of 1, 2 or 3 to tackle this work today.  Pick your crew and get to work.

We'll start with the 9 Short Storytelling Tips.  In the space of 10 minutes, do the math for I will be cruising at breakneck keep-it-tight speed, I will give you both a sketchnote and a brief explanation of each tip.

Then!  In your teams, you will get to work looking for examples of those 9 short storytelling tips in either the Golden Trailer Awards nominees and winners OR Trailer Addict.com or a movie trailer source of  your liking.  Avoid the general YouTube search.  It can be cumbersome.  There's better curated sources out there.

Meanwhile, as you do that work, I will be conferencing with folks about their music culture products and write ups, giving feedback and putting you in a position to revise before next Friday if you so choose.

For the FILM CULTURE project, you will be able to choose if you want it to count on 1st Quarter or the 2nd, but not before it is assessed.  You know what the strength of your work will be.  You know the depth of your understanding.  Where do you want your evidence?

Also, the rubric for the FILM CULTURE product is exactly the same as the MUSIC CULTURE product.  Just insert FILM everywhere it says, "MUSIC."

SHOW YOUR LEARNING.

2 Req'd Blog Posts. This Week.

Last Week of Blogging for the Quarter.

Blog: 3+ Posts

Req'd Post 1:  Film Review.
A.  Read through the four reviews of the first Hunger Games films linked here.Roger Ebert hereLisa Schwarzbaum herePeter Travers hereIMDB.com User emptygravity here
B.  Choose a film you feel worthy of your time to write about.  It may be because you want to tear it apart and it may be because you want to sing its praises.  It may be a little bit of both.
C.  Write a 2-3 paragraph film review in which you attempt to copy the style of one the above reviewers by using the same techniques in your own review.


You might consider which of the above reviewers use the following:

• References to other films in which the actors have appeared
• References to other films the director has made
• References to the source material for the film (in this case, a novel)
• Summary of the plot
• Spoilers and/or spoiler warnings
• Spoiler-free discussion
• Vivid and descriptive language
• Casual and general langugage
• Use of 1st Person "I"
• Some form of review coding system: numbers, stars, thumbs, etc.

D.  In a final paragraph, explain which reviewer's style you were trying to adopt for your review.  
To what extent has this influenced how you watch films?

Req'd Post 2.  Pinterest Curation.

You've collected a series of articles for the class Pinterest boards.  In a three paragraph discussion, discuss which article you find most entertaining and why, which you 'd most likely replace and why, and which you think would be most important for me to use with other students and why.

DUE.  Friday 10.23.15

Revise. Music Culture Project.
Due. Friday. 10.30.15

Design.  Film Culture Project.
Due. Thursday. 10.29.15