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

AP Lit: Prufrock Remixes, Process, Woolf, and More

This week will feature more Prose 15 on Monday and Tuesday.  I've been enjoying our digging into Jane Eyre and "The Things They Carried."  I'm going to find a shorter excerpt, however, for Monday and Tuesday.  It is taking us almost as long to read it as it is to think about it.  Hopefully this next, from one Virginia Woolf, will allow us more space to discuss.

Then we will examine the results of last week's remixes and map and chart how our thinking is evolving and growing.  Our goal in this?  To become more and more keenly aware of both our creative and analytical processes.  In fact, that would make for a remarkably good third blog post for this week.

Your creative and analytical processes, as you see them now.   Monday and Tuesday in class will give you an opportunity to discuss.  Wednesday and Thursday classes will give you an opportunity to put them in practice as I'm giving you folks the all-too-uncommon-in-AP-land time to work.

There will be expectations for documenting your work on those days.  

Then Friday's class will begin our transition into Cunningham's The Hours and our move into less holistic, more precision focused literary analysis.   We'll be using The Hours to explore the relationship between character, point of view and plot and uncovering Cunningham's design.

Of course, as I type this, I'm thinking we may start delving into Joyce's Dubliners instead.   Hrmm . . . well!  We'll just have to see what Friday brings, won't we?  In that case we'd be looking at the relationship between character and setting and point of view.  See a trend emerging?

If you have a preference?  Holler!  Let's customize as much as we can.

Show Your Learning.

Blog. 3+ Posts.

(Last Week of Blogging for the Quarter)

Req'd Critical Creativity.  Finished Prufrockian Remix.

After having read & re-read the poem, sketchnoted & remixed the poem, design an original Prufrockian remix that employs Eliot's poetic device strategy and sensibility while offering something new.

Due. Friday. 10.23.15

Close Read.   Eliot Academic Articles.

Close read these articles then choose two to annotate and/or sketchnote.

Then discuss the extent to which the articles' content informs your understanding of Prufrock and any influence it may have on your remix design.

Blog your work.

Due. Friday. 10.23.15

Revisions.  Synthesis Essays.

Due. ASAP.  Final day for Revisions.  10.27.15.

Indie Book Projects.

Read & Design.  Due 11.4& 5.