Student Assignment Draft

Description:

For this assignment, we would develop a scene or two in the noir-style and shoot the scenes (either downstairs in the theater or elsewhere), trying to get an understanding of what the directors of these movies are thinking. In these scenes, we would make sure to include traditional noir elements, such as the hard-boiled protagonist or specific lighting techniques and camera angles.

The students would have to take on different responsibilities in order for this to work. Unless we pull in other students, a couple could be actors, someone would have to write the scene, someone would need to work the camera and adjust the setup of the scene/work with the lighting, and someone needs to edit the scenes. Depending on peoples’ interest, we could assign duties based on who wanted to do what.

Evaluation Criteria:

This assignment would be evaluated based upon the effectiveness of the noir-style of the clips/scenes produced and by the creativity, execution, and how thoroughly planned out the scenes were.

Schedule/Due Dates:

Week 5: Rough proposal of a scene idea is due in class. On the Thursday class, a more refined idea is due.

Week 6: The writer(s) of the scenes submit a rough draft. On Thursday, a more refined draft is due.

Week 7:

Writer(s) submit a final draft. The class as a whole works on what shots and techniques to use.

Week 8:

The scenes are shot and editor(s) work on editing it together.

Week 9:

Final drafts of scenes are due that Thursday.

Weighting:

This project would be maybe 20% of the final grade?

(Thinking about this idea more in depth, I realized it would be a considerable amount of work, so maybe it would be better to do this a bit later in the semester after we get a better understanding of noir??)