ALISO NIGUEL HIGH

Film Studies is a year-long elective which meets the A-G Fine Arts requirement for UC approval. Storytelling is the most common way that we communicate to one another. Stories told with film have a tremendous influence on our attitudes and perceptions of the world around us.  In fact, films may be one of the most powerful tools in modern culture for shaping values and conveying information.  By viewing, studying, discussing and writing about film, students develop and demonstrate skills in technological, cultural, and media literacy, as well as critical thinking and problem solving - skills that will serve them well in the real world.  

 

Key Concepts: Precursors, early photography, persistence of vision, critical inventions, Thomas Edison’s role, public reaction, inter-titles, continuity, Charlie Chaplin, landmark silent films, actors and directors.

Film Examples: Lumiere Brothers’ First Films, A Trip to the Moon, The Gold Rush, The Kid, City Lights, Sherlock Jr., Nosferatu.

Time Frame:  Weeks 1-3

 

Key Concepts: Important inventions, competing formats, public acceptance, newsreels, Broadway’s influence, changes in the musical genre over the years, landmark musical films, actors, and directors. 

Film Examples:  Singin’ in the Rain, On the Town, The Wizard of Oz, West Side Story, The Beatles: Help!.                                        

Time Frame:  Weeks 4-7

 

Key Concepts: Public concerns, MPPDA, The Production Code, The Hays Commission, the rating system, landmark comedies, societal influences, effects of constraints on art, landmark comedy films, actors, writers and directors. 

 

Time Frame:  Weeks 8-11

 

Key Concepts: The Big Eight Studios, vertical integration, art as a business, landmark westerns, landscapes as characters, mythological heroes, landmark western films, actors, writers and directors. 

Film Examples:  Stagecoach, True Grit, The Searchers, Shane, High Noon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Time Frame:  Weeks 12-14

 

Key Concepts: McCarthyism, Hollywood blacklist, House on Un-American Activities, First Amendment, Hollywood’s role in the war, war bonds, propaganda vs. patriotism, landmark war films, actors and directors.

Film Examples: Bataan, The Sands of Iwo Jima, Stalag 17, Paths of Glory, Battleground.

Time Frame:  Weeks 15-18 (End of Semester One)

 

Key Concepts: Bias, first person accounts, journalistic versus editorial, history films, Cinema Verite, docudramas, biopics, re-enactments, propaganda, objectivity, landmark documentary films, artists, studios and directors. 

Time Frame: Weeks 1-4

 

Key Concepts: The cinematographer as an artist, the rule of thirds, lighting concepts and terminology, techniques of focusing, negative space, shadowing, landmark noir films, actors, writers and directors.

Time Frame: Weeks 5-8

 

Key Concepts: The grammar of film editing, editing terminology, montage, cross-cutting, landmark suspense films, Alfred Hitchcock, other suspense actors and directors.

Time Frame: Weeks 9-11

 

Key Concepts: The evolution of the director’s job, the role of the director, producer vs. director, the auteur theory, the final cut, Orson Welles, David Lean, John Huston, landmark drama films and directors.

Time Frame: Weeks 12-15

 

Key Concepts: Low-budget filmmaking, B-movies, location shooting, product tie-ins, conglomerate takeovers, landmark 1970s films, artists, and directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg.

Time Frame: Weeks 15-18