FILM: For Instructors: Sample Assignment Ideas

Sample Assignment Ideas

Mike Frank of Bentley College assigns the following research paper in his Introduction to Cinema Studies class:

The Research Paper

THE FINAL PAPER:
The final paper will provide an opportunity to explore in detail one aspect of cinema, and one brief example of it.

REQUIREMENTS:
The paper is to be a combination original essay and research paper, as explained below. It should be about 3,000 words long (roughly 12 to 15 typed, double-spaced pages), and follow normal research paper standards, including formal style, notes, and bibliography. (The paper is by far the single most important part of the course in showing what you've learned and in determining your grade. It's important, therefore, that you try to make it as successful as possible.)

SUBJECT:
The paper should consider a group of films arranged either by genre (type) or by maker (director, producer, or studio). Here are some examples of suitable topics: the films of Billy Wilder; the Hollywood musical in the 1930s; slasher movies; Warner Brothers films during the period of the studio system; teenage exploitation films; French New Wave cinema; feminist films; silent comedy; pornography; science fiction. Virtually any group or class of films that you can define either in terms of their formal characteristics, their subject matter, or their production history will serve nicely.

PROCEDURES:
You should first do as much research on your subject as possible, developing a real familiarity with it. One part of your paper (roughly 40 to 60 percent, though not necessarily the first 40 to 60 percent) should present what you have found to be the most interesting and important aspects of your subject. The remainder of your paper, growing out of the first, should be your own original analysis of one brief segment (3 to 5 minutes long) of a film that represents the type you're dealing with. This analysis should be based on careful multiple viewings of the film; you should probably screen the films you intend to analyze at least three or four times, and the segment you are analyzing dozens of times. The paper should reveal a general knowledge of your subject, a mastery of the film you're working on, and an ability to apply to the segment of the film you are examining the various analytic tools discussed in the textbook and in class. (Small groups of students who want to work together on the same research topic may do so -- and in fact are strongly encouraged to do so. But each paper should be written separately and should analyze a different film sequence.)

THE FORMAL PROPOSAL:
For two reasons, it's important that you begin working on the research paper as soon as possible, certainly no later than one month into the semester. First, many useful reference materials are not in our library and will have to be acquired through interlibrary loan, which can take a few weeks. Second, and more important, a successful research paper is the result of careful reading, thinking, writing, and revising. To ensure that enough time is given to the paper, a formal proposal and preliminary bibliography will be due on _____________.