ENGLISH 4950: Cool Old Movies

Spring 2019

Final assignment options (10%)

Option 1: Due 5/8/19

Interview the two oldest people you know about their earliest film-going memories. (75 and older would be best—that would likely put those early memories at the end of the studio era—but your options will be what they will be.) Where and when did they first go to the movies? What do they remember about the experience: particular films or scenes? Stars or songs? The setting, or the refreshments, or the price, or the company they kept?

Prepare a summary or a transcript of your interview. Then read Annette Kuhn’s essay “What to do with Cinema Memory?” on Canvas, which provides three categories for classifying film memory, and describe in a page or so how those categories are relevant to the memories you have captured.

If your subjects can remember specific theater names, you might be able to find out more about them at http://cinematreasures.org/. I’ll post my own interview with my parents, and a couple of anonymous students ones, on Canvas as examples.

Option 2: due 5/7/19

Make a set of clips to represent an award category for our class Academy Awards ceremony (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor/Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor/Actress). We’ll show some or all of these mini-films on the last day of class, before the winners are announced.

You can check out the 2015 Oscars here and the 2017 Oscars here to get a sense of what the clips look like. Acting category clips should run about 2:30 (and typically use only portions of single scenes); Best Picture clips can run 4:00 (and typically splice together multiple scenes—often drawn from trailers). Titles/names should be incorporated.

A final list of nominees will be available by Wednesday, 4/24; note that if there are overlapping choices I might do some reassigning to guarantee complete coverage. I can show you a multi-step process for clip construction using Canvas/Kaltura and either Windows 10 Photo or iMovie, though you are welcome to use your own mad millennial skills.

Option 3: due 5/13/19

Complete a take-home final examination. I will post three essay questions on Sunday, May 12—the day before the official class final exam date--and you will have 24 hours to respond to two of them in essays of at least 600 words. Submission will take place through Canvas. Note: this option will be graded, so it is possible to get less than the full 10% credit.