The ten elements of film which are featured in Louis Giannetti's Understanding Movies are listed below. The names of the elements are hot linked to a short film that exemplifies some aspect of the element.

• Photography
  Film: Lovefield [5:29]

• Mise en Scene
  Film: The Anatomy of a Story [2:30]

• Movement
  Film: Oktapodi [2:26]

• Editing
  Film: The Great Train Robbery [9:43]

• Sound
  Film: West Bank [21:13]

• Acting
  Film: Daddy's Boy [8:22]

• Drama
  Film: Black Button [7:06]

• Story
  Film: My Name is Lisa [6:27]

• Writing
  Film: Cinderella [5:44]

• Ideology
  Film: Offside [5:99]

I will be working on this page until 15 January 2012. Please let me know what else you might want to see on the page. Also, please feel free to comment on aspects of navigation and so forth.

ENG 200
Film

Given the nature of the course, film is the most structured class I teach. However, students will still have a significant role to play in the success of the course.

Student Contributions

We will investigate ten aspects of film (e.g. sound, acting, and so forth) based on the chapters of Louis Giannetti's Understanding Movies. A team of two or three students will be responsible for selecting short films that can be used to illustrate the concepts discussed in the chapter of Giannetti for which they are responsible.

Students will also be responsible for teaching the second part of the course based on their research interests.

Berg's Contribution

I will select some of the longer films that we will watch in the course. However, some of those will be chosen in consultation with students in the course.

I will also supplement student work with movies and mini-lectures inspired by class discussions.

As students have taken on a larger role in selecting films, I have found that I have developed a reputation for "only" choosing odd films; something that my father has been sighing about for years. Don't worry, I won't make you watch Santa Clause Conquers the Martians (1964) which is one of the films I inflicted on my father. However Santo el Enmascarado de Plata vs. La invasion de los marcianos [Santos vs. the Martian Invasion] (1967) is still on the list of possible films I might select.

Special Note Concerning Course Textbook

Louis Giannetti's Understanding Movies is the textbook for the course. Please note that you do not need the purchase the 12^th edition which is listed as the official text. I know that the 9^th, 10^th, and 11^th editions and later will work, but earlier editions are fine also as long as all they include chapters for each of the elements of film listed to the left.