TextsBordwell, David. The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
ISBN-13: 978-0520246225. Pb or Kindle. Rose, Frank. The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories, Reprint edition (2012) New York: W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN - 13: 9780393341256 • Pb, Kindle or Kobo. |
Schedule |
Week One
(Sept 11): Introduction. Hollywood, The Blockbuster, and Beyond
What is the Blockbuster? The decline of filmmaking or the rise of global spectacle? Is Hollywood betraying its roots by moving from film to digital? What exists beyond the Blockbuster? Watch In-class: Side by Side (Reeves, 2002) Read: Prince, Stephen. "Introduction: world filmmaking and the Hollywood blockbuster." World Literature Today 77.3-4 (2003): 3-7. (handout) Corona, Alice. "Through the Gender Lens: 100 Years of Cinema History": http://bit.ly/1NHHeHh Week Two (Sept 18): Shaking up the Screen: Changing Times, Changing Technologies (No F2F class; see Blackboard) Watch: Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981) “Premakes”: Raiders of the Lost Ark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUPDuQq9GsM Read: Bordwell, “Introduction: Beyond the Blockbuster”, pp. 1-18, Part II: A Stylish Style, “Introduction”, “1. Intensified Continuity: Four Dimensions”, “Closer and Closer”, and “The Prowling Camera”, pp. 115-120 and 121-138 Week Three (Sept 25): Writing the Screenplay, Writing the Story Watch: The Matrix (The Wachowskis, 1999) Read: Bordwell: “Part i: a real story”, pp. 19-26; “1. Continuing Tradition, by Any Means Necessary” pp. 27-50 Week Four (Oct 02): Storyworlds Watch: The first blockbuster, Star Wars: A New Hope (Lucas, 1977) Read: Bordwell, “2. Pushing the Premises" pp. 51-62, and Bordwell, "4. A Certain Amount of Plot", pp. 104-114 Week Five (Oct 09); Narrative Complexity and Nonlinear Telling Watch: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004) Read: Bordwell, "3. Subjective Stories and Network Narratives", pp. 72-103 October 12-16: Reading Week, No Classes Week Six (Oct 23): Pervasive Gaming and Immersive Environments Play: Zombies, Run! (Free app for iPhone or Android) Read: Rose, The Art of Immersion, pp. 1-38, and "6. Open Worlds", pp. 121-143 Week Seven (Oct 30): Pervasive Narrative and Alternate Realities Watch: The Game (Fincher, 1997) Read: Douglas Brown & Tanya Krzywinska. “Movie-Games and Game-Movies Towards An Aesthetics of Transmediality.” Pp. 86-94 (only) Week Eight (Nov 06): The Game Gets Out Watch: The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008) Read: Steen Christensen, Hyper Attention Blockbusters Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy (PDF) Week Nine (Nov 13): The Otaku and Fan Culture Watch: Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lawrence, 2013) Rose, pp. 38-45 and Chpt 4. 77-102 Week Ten (Nov 20): Participatory Cinema and Global Audiences Watch: Snowpiercer (Bong, 2013) Watch in-class: Everything is a Remix (Ferguson, 2011), Parts 1-4:
Week Eleven (Nov 27): Participatory Politics Read: Henry Jenkins. “Fan Activism as Participatory Politics: The Case of the Harry Potter Alliance.” DIY Citizenship. Eds. Matt Ratto and Megan Boler. Cambridge: MIT, 2015. Pp. 65-73. (on reserve) Ramon Rodriguez-Amat and Katherine Sarikakis, “The Fandom Menace or the Phantom Author? On Sharecropping, crossmedia and copyright”, Crossmedia Innovations: Texts, Markets, Institutions, pp. 129-145 (PDF) Week Twelve (Dec 04): DIY and DIWO Read: Mandy Rose. “Making Publics: Documentary as Do-it-with-Others Citizenship.” DIY Citizenship. Pp. 201-212. (on reserve) Watch: Nathan Penlington, Choose Your Own Documentary: http://nathanpenlington.com/ChooseYourOwnDocumentary **Readings subject to change.** |
For more information, contact Dr Carolyn Guertin at cguertin [at] wlu [dot] ca