Principles of Film Form

read chapter 2, view the short film DEATH TO THE TINMAN and then answer the following 5 questions.

Chapter 2 Questions:

1. How and why do we differentiate between form and content in a movie, and why are they relevant to one another?
2. In what ways do movies use patterns to convey meaning? How do they create meaning by breaking an established pattern?
3. How do movies create the illusion of movement?
4. Why, or not, is verisimilitude important to the makers of the film DEATH TO THE TINMAN? Do its references to the classic film help or hinder the film’s acceptance by the viewer?
5. What is meant by cinematic language? Why is it important to the ways that movies communicate with viewers?

Chapter 3: Types of Films

read chapter 3 and view the short film THE BIG CHARADE and then answer the following 5 questions.

Chapter 3 Questions:
1. What are the four basic approaches to documentary cinema? How are these approaches blended and reinterpreted by contemporary documentary filmmakers?
2. What are Fred Camper’s six characteristics that most experimental films share?
3. What is a hybrid movie? What are some of the ways that documentary, narrative, and experimental movies intersect?
4. What are the six sets of conventions used to define and classify movie genres? Provide examples of each convention by citing specific examples from one genre.

5. What genre does the short film THE BIG CHARADE attempt to satirize? What elements of this “trailer” match up with the elements of a specific genre? How might it differ?