Video And Annotation assignment

Need at least 7 annotations.

This assignment will support (and help evaluate) your progress on our first two Course Learning Objectives:

1. Explain basic concepts of cinema’s development as an industrialized art form.
2. Historically and nationally contextualize motion pictures made between 1894-1930 in terms of technology, aesthetics and cultural history.

Beginning of the continuity system

“With the continuity system, the film could do what the eye does naturally: select and focus on the quintessential drama. This practice spelt economy in attention, vividness of effect, and dramatic intensity.” – actor Milton Sills in 1928

For this assignment, you will be provided with a short film circa 1909 to analyze how it reflects the issues of ‘narrative clarity.’ Your task will be to use the web-based video annotation too, VideoAnt, to annotate the film, that is, create small text comments alongside the film to demonstrate your ideas and understanding of the film and relevant readings. The platform requires you to enroll using either an existing Facebook or Gmail account. If you do not have one of these accounts, or are for whatever reason unwilling to use your personal account, contact me for access information from a generic gmail account created for the course.

The goal for these annotations is to present analysis, evidence and argumentation, not simply opinion or initial reactions.

Website: https://ant.umn.edu/welcome (Links to an external site.)

Tutorial: Link (Links to an external site.)
Minimize Video

I am available for troubleshooting and help, but you are responsible for learning how to utilize the tool to create your annotated video, and you should expect that you will need to give yourself adequate time to become proficient in the technology.

Grading Parameters: Grades are based on both quantity of annotations AND, more importantly, quality.

Quantity:

• To achieve in the A-range: a minimum of 7 but no more than 9 annotations

Quality:

• Each annotation should be a short paragraph in length.
• Demonstrate careful thought about the aesthetics and production of meaning in the film and how the use of a particular element or device supports the film’s narrative clarity.
• Provide synthesis and application of concepts and ideas presented in readings and lecture.
• Include direct references and quotes from readings or class lectures to support your observations.
• If you use additional research outside of your textbooks or lectures make sure to cite your source clearly within the annotation.
• Proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.

Film A Corner In Wheat (1909 D.W. Griffith)
Video link: A Corner in Wheat (1909) Best Quality (Links to an external site.)

For this twelve-minute film, create a set of annotations that examine how the filmmaker and film address the challenge of telling a story that is comprehensible to its audience, i.e.:

First you should review your notes and (re)read the section of Film History focused on “The Problem of Narrative Clarity”. Second, review the list of terms below that come from the textbook and readings. If you do not know any of the terms, utilize:

Online Glossary of Film Studies Terms (Links to an external site.)

Third, watch the film a couple of times and find places, scenes, or moments in the film that highlight how these various techniques, elements, or devices are working (or maybe not working) to provide narrative clarity for the film’s assumed audience. Fourth, write your annotations using the terms to structure your analysis. Label each annotation with the specific term(s) you are using for your analysis.

Technical note: Make sure to hit “SAVE” every time you make a new annotation. The “SAVE” button can be found at the bottom right of each annotation.

Terms:

Establishing shot

Match on action (Match cut)

Long shot

Medium long shot

Extreme long shot

Closeup

Tableau shot

Intertitle

On screen textual information i.e. signs, letters, etc.

Intercutting (parallel editing or crosscutting)

Mise-en-scène (for narrative clarity)

Lighting (for narrative clarity)

Still photography (as present in the film)

Shot-reverse-shot

Wipe

Fade Out

Analytical editing

Contiguity editing

Point-of-view shot

180-degree system

Eyeline match

Frame Depth

Point of View

General questions to consider: How do the film’s techniques of editing, camerawork, acting and mise-en-scene clarify and/or provide continuity for what is narratively happening in the film?

How does the film use certain techniques to help the spectator grasp the causal, spatial and temporal relations in the film?

How does the film make visible to its audience a chain of narrative cause and effect? How might we be made aware of any character psychology that affects the narrative?

Are there any places or use of cinematic devices where the film seems to break with conventions of narrative clarity or continuity that we (audiences in 2016) have come to expect/understand? Consider these questions and observations you come to on your own.

Submission process:

Once you are completely finished with the project (make sure to proofread just like you would/should for a regular paper), click on the “settings” icon under the video (it looks like a little gear). The “ANT SETTINGS” window will open, select “SHARE” and make sure that under “Shared With…” you have selected “VIEW” from the pull down menu. Copy the “Share URL” that is provided that links to your VideoAnt.

Rubric