Film Projects

This assignment is at the heart of this course, providing practical experience in filmmaking. It is divided into stages, and will include short essays to accompany the films. Students will also write self-evaluations of their work.

Pitches and project producers. At least three students need to 'pitch' projects to the rest of the class. Pitches should be posted to the class blog by Friday 10/02 at 11:59 pm. I will open a thread for posting and discussions of pitches on the class weblog.

Pitches should:

• Identify a social science research topic or question to address, meaning topics or questions that address how people relate to each other and to the larger, non-human world. Questions may deal with how people relate to place, landscape, the natural or built environment, and to animals, or to issues of social justice, identity and difference, and/or the exercise of power and resistance.
• Provide a brief explanation as to why you want to research and explore this topic or question.
• Preliminary plan for how to address the topic or question. Questions to consider: Will you need to interview people, and if so, who? Will you need to shoot in certain locations? Will you need archival material? What kind of background research will you need to do? However, this is a course that deals primarily in visual communication. Films should not be designed around presenting a series of talking heads explaining a particular problem.

  Projects may be self-contained films or hybrids of film/video and other media.

  Projects must be workable within the ten week term.

Students not pitching ideas to the rest of the class should read what others propose and rank order the proposals by preference. We will discuss these rankings and assign people to projects based on preference in class on M 10/05. If there are more than five pitches, the four to five most preferred projects will be put into production. You may post questions and comments to the proposals on the class blog.

If your proposal is put into production, you will become a project producer. Producers are responsible for organizing a production and bear primary responsibility for successful completion of the film. Producers will earn additional points towards their grade in the class. These will be used as 'make-up points' otherwise lost on other assignments, and/or applied as 'extra credit' for attendance and participation. I will discuss these points with producers at the end of the term.

A note on individual projects. If you wish to propose a project to work on by yourself, you must talk to me about your idea by R 10/01 at 4:00. If you cannot make it to any of my regularly scheduled office hours, make an appointment, and remember that I am available on IM during office hours. You may also make an appointment for a conference on IM. If you want to work individually, you should be prepared to explain why you wish to do that.

Participation in this part of the project is worth three (3) points. If you miss class on M 10/05, you can still earn those points by giving me your preferences before 2:00 on M 10/05. If you do not contact me about your preferences before class on M 10/05, you will be assigned to a project of my choosing, and will not earn the available points towards your grade.

Pre-production. In pre-production you should:

• Assign roles (remember, roles can be shared and individuals can do more than one thing).
• Conduct background research.
• Plan the production: when, where, who and what do you need to shoot, make appropriate contacts, decide what permissions you will need, determine if you will need to do an additional IRB application, determine what special equipment needs will you have, make a shooting schedule. (Note: your final film should have a running time of approximately 10-30 minutes, but this should not affect the length of your shoot, or how many hours you record to tape).

On M 10/12 (week 3), I will have a pre-production conference with each group. At that time, the project producer should provide a concise summary of pre-production. The summary should include:

• A list of personnel and what roles they have been assigned
• A summary of research activities, including a list of sources read and consulted.
• An outline of the plan for the shoot.

These summaries can be informal, but should be carefully written and edited, and relatively short (use one to two pages as a guideline).

The summaries are not contracts. If plans need to change during the course of production, that's fine. However, you should begin on firm footing. That is the purpose for pre-production.

Participation in these conferences is worth five (5) points towards your grade in the class. If you miss or will miss class on M 10/12, you should contact me no later than the start of class on W 10/14 to make alternate arrangements for full credit. You should also contact your project producer. If you miss that deadline, we may still make alternate arrangements, but only for partial credit. No extensions will be granted after 5:00 pm on F 10/16.

Production.

There is no grade attached to the production phase of the project. However, it is expected that you will participate on your project as agreed to during pre-production.

Project producers are responsible for keeping everyone on task. I am available for problem solving and mediation, but teams should be as self-managing as possible.

The focus of the production stage is gathering the footage you need for your film. Pre-production planning should provide a starting point and framework for principal photography.

Social Science Division equipment can be booked through me. There is also equipment available through the Technology Resource Center. You may use your own equipment, too. We will have an orientation to Social Science Division equipment on M 10/19. You may talk to me individually before then.

Production ends on or around M 11/09 (week 7).

Post-production.

The post-production phase is primarily about editing.

One recommended first step before downloading footage to a computer is to create a "tape log", or record of each shot or interview segment on every minute of tape you shot. An outline for a tape log is found here (pdf).

If you have not already selected an editing platform, you should do so within the next week or so. If you do not have one available, you can use Jaycut.

We will discuss the editing process in class.

Part of editing/post-production is also refining your sound and creating a soundtrack, including additions like music. You may also make adjustments to your images at this point, adjusting for consistency, 'fixing' select qualities of certain shots. None of these adjustments is required, but they are part of the post-production process. Different editing programs, or "suites" will offer different tools for adjusting sound and images. I will consult with teams on an as needed and desired basis about these kinds of changes. Editing programs should allow output to a format compatible with the requirments at blip.tv.

You may also see the need for additional footage or reshoots at this time.

Post-production is worth ten (10) points towards your grade in the class. You will earn these points by attending and participating in the presentation of the rough cuts and revised rough cuts in class on M 11/23 and M 11/30. Your score will be based in your participation in the discussion of the rough cuts and not on the 'quality' of the film itself. You should be prepared to answer any and all questions about the choices made in the making of the film.

Rough cuts should be uploaded to the class page on blip.tv by 1:00 pm on M 11/23. Revised rough cuts should be uploaded by 1:00 pm on M 11/30. Versions should be clearly identified on blip as "Rough" or "Revised Rough".

If you miss one of the rough cut reviews, you can still earn full credit for pre-production by contacting me no later than the end of class on the W following the screening and discussion of your film to arrange an alternate review. If you wait until after this deadline, you will not be able to earn full credit for this part of the assignment.

Accompanying essays.

Each team should produce a one to two (1-2) page essay that explains your film, its subject, its purpose or point of view, and that highlights your artistic choices. Project producers are responsible for ensuring that the essays are written and turned in on time, but they need not be the only or primary author.

Draft essays are due W 11/25. These may be partially in outline form, and are worth seven (7) points. Prose can be unpolished, but should be relatively free of basic and recurring problems with style and mechanics.

Final essays may be single-spaced, but should have reasonably sized fonts and margins. They should be carefully composed and edited, and free of persistent problems with style and mechanics.

Final essays are due on W 12/09 with the final cut of your film. They are worth ten (10) points towards your grade in the class. Points are shared by members of each group.

For both drafts and final essays, you may ask for an extension for full credit by F at 5:00 pm of the week in which each document is due. If you miss that deadline, I may not accept your essay for full credit.

Self-evaluation.

Each student in the class is required to write an assessment of their participation in their project and what they think they contributed to the success of the film.

At a minimum, you should:

• list the tasks or jobs you did for the project.
• write about which tasks or jobs you think you performed best and which you performed less well.
• write about what you learned from the jobs you did.
• point to the aspect of filmmaking you are most interested in improving or learning more about after this experience.

Self-evaluations are due on W 12/02. They can be single-spaced, but should have reasonably sized fonts and margins. They may be informal, but should be carefully composed and edited. There are no page count requirements, but one to two (1-2) seems like a good guideline, especially if single-spaced.

Self-evaluations are worth five (5) points towards your grade in the class.

If you miss the W 12/02 deadline, you will have until 5:00 pm on F 12/04 to arrange an extension for full credit. If you miss that cut-off, I may not accept your evaluation for full credit.

Remixes.

Between M 11/30 and W 12/02 each team will remix another team's film.

Remix means to recut, reorder, and redo the elements of another person's work. During this process you may do whatever you want so long as you retain the original film as the foundation of the new work. You can change the soundtrack, modify images, and reorder shots, scenes, and other images.

You may ask the team for additional footage that went unused in the revised rough cut. However, additional footage may not constitute more than 10% of the total running time of the remix.

To create your remix, download the revised rough cut from blip.tv and import it into an editing program. Proceed as you would with any other video project. Upload the final product by 1:00 pm on W 12/02. We will view and discuss the remixes in class on W.

The remixes are worth five (5) points towards your grade in the class. You will earn these points by attending and participating in the screening and discussion on W 12/02. If you miss that class session, you may still earn credit for the remix by arranging an alternate screening with me no later than R 12/03 at 4:00 pm. If you miss that deadline for scheduling a make-up, you may lose any opportunity at the credit for this part of the assignment.

Final cuts.

The final cuts of your films should be uploaded to blip.tv by 4:00 pm on W 12/09 (see note below).

The final versions of your films will be assessed according to how well you accomplish your intended purpose (which should be clearly communicated in the accompanying essay, in addition to being communicated by the film itself). I will also take into account the gradual improvement and evolution of your work from pre-production planning through the revised rough cut and to the final product. Finally, I should be able to understand the purpose of your artistic and expressive choices, which I will be assessing independent of their 'success'. I will take into account comments made during screenings and discussions when considering the reasons for different choices.

Final cuts should have a clear copyright notice attached.

If the class can reach consensus on doing so, we may hold a special, final screening at 2:00 pm on W 12/09 in Todd 347. This will give you a final chance to offer comment on your film before grading as well as an opportunity to see everyone's final work together. However, all of the films will be available for viewing on blip.tv.

Final cuts are worth fifteen (15) points towards your grade in the class. These points will be shared equally by team members.

If you miss the deadline for posting your film to blip.tv, you will have until 11:59 pm that day to contact me regarding an extension for full credit. If you miss that cut-off, I may not accept your final film for full credit. All work must be in by 5:00 pm on Friday 12/11 regardless of circumstance.

Credit for Project Producers.

Project producers should meet with me by the end of the term, which is 5:00 pm on F 12/11 to discuss their 'make-up points' for the term.