Great Films and How to Teach Them (Chapters 1-4)

Although I do love movies, I'll admit I felt this reading assignment was very dry. The first chapter was the hardest for me to get through. This is because so many movies, such as The Innocents, on page 11 were discussed. I have not seen many movies from that time period, so I was lost through a lot of the examples.

Although it is untrue, I did find Alain Resnais' comment comparing a reheated meal to a movie based a book funny (page10). The basis of the first chapter was to compare movies to books and explain how movies can sometimes be better. There was an emphasis on using a book for a movie, but also adding new elements to make a good movie.

Chapter two was like taking linguistics class all over again. The terms signified, signifier, and sign were heavily discussed in movie terms.

I was most interested in the first section of the second chapter. It stated, "How do we learn that when the image of an eye fills the screen, it means we're watching a close-up rather than a giant eyeball? How do we learn that when the screen gradually grows black, a scene has ended? When do we learn that when a row of houses glides across the screen, what is really moving is the camera, not the houses?" (page 16). I found this to be interesting because I always have taken for granted my knowledge of film. This is something that I have learned over time. There are examples later in the book that describe people from Iran who thought a close-in on a bug represented its actual size. Now, wouldn't that be scary?!?

Chapter three went over what is involved in making a film. I found the pages on sound to be the most interesting. It is cool to know that many different sounds are used at one time in the movies in order to give viewers the feel of really being where the actors are (page 31). I also learned about the 4 stages major movies go through::: development, preproduction, production, and postproduction (creative names huh?) on pages 33 to 39.

This week in my Media, Power, and Culture class we learned about the history of filmmaking. Chapter four was a complete review of the quiz I just took on the material. I think there were a lot of interesting things the chapter left out, such as why filmmakers moved to California.