module
03
weeks 10-15
this I believe
The information below will give you some sense of
the reading, writing, and creative work you will be engaged with during
this portion of the semester. There will be variations among each
individual course section, so see your instructor for detailed daily
schedule, activities, deadlines, etc.
learning goals ::
activities
Manifestos. Self-reflection and self-knowledge. Transforming
the personal into the social. Using your values as a compass to identify
a subject. Engaging the world, and ideas that matter. Becoming a
sophisticated media author: using everything you've learned about
video to make a visual argument that is clear, compelling, and memorable.
Becoming a sophisticated media consumer: reflecting on, and analyzing
how, we read and digest media everyday.
readings :: electronic
reserves
"Crystalizing Public Opinion", Edward
Bernays
"Everything is an Argument", Andrea Lunsdford
"On Photography", Susan Sontag
"Social Documentary", William Stott
"The Two Persuasions", William Stott
electronic journals
Entries during this module will focus on self-reflection
about personal beliefs and values. Students will engage in
a series of directed writing prompts, including writing
personal manifestos. This pre-production work will be utilized to
conceptualize a topic for the video project.
video project
Putting it all together; rehearsing all that's been
learned so far; making something with real polish.
this I believe
5 - 8 minutes
Values and beliefs, self-knowledge, personal
expression and persuasion.
process
Section instructors will assign a series of directed writings that
will encourage students to explore and articulate their personal
beliefs and values. Video screenings and class discussions will support
this process.
Students will create, present, and discuss
personal manifestos.
Building on this groundwork,
students will identify a social issue with strong ties to their values
and manifestos. After identifying a subject, they will use all the
methods previously learned and rehearsed — the creative inquiry
model embodied in the four-stage video production process — to
create their most ambitous and polished effort of the semester. The
concepts of rehearsal and improvisation — rough cuts, multiple
drafts, feedback on work-in-progress, successive and incremental
refinement — will
be encouraged and, in fact, required.
Finished projects
will be shared and discussed. Students will receive specifics on
due dates and other details from their section instructor.
assessment
:: grading rubric
Here is the grading
rubric template for this module. As usual, students should consult with their
section instructor for specific details, and the assigned grade will reflect
an assessment of all components of coursework: electronic journal, finished
videos, and classroom participation (including personal skills).
reminder :: final grade assessment
In addition to refering to the completed grading
rubrics for each of the three course modules, section instructors
will also utilize the master
rubric in determining final grades
for each student.
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Propaganda
resembles argument when it offers claims and reasons, but propagandists
don’t care whether their reasons are any good, only whether they
work, usually by exploiting the emotions of their audience. Nor do
they care what others think, except to know what beliefs they have
to defeat. Least of all do they care whether another point of view
should change their own. In an honest argument, you must be open to
the possibility that opposing claims and reasons might change your
mind.
Williams, et al. The Craft of Argument
Social documentary deals with
facts that are alterable. It has an intellectual dimension to make
clear what the facts are, why they came about, and ho they can be
changed for the better. Its more important dimension, however, is
usually the emotional: feeling the fact may move the audience to
wish to change it. “You can right a lot
of wrongs with ‘pitiless publicity,’” Franklin Roosevelt
said, and he advocated such “publicity” (though he avoided
the tainted name “propaganda”) because he knew that social
change “is a difficult thing in our civilization unless you have
sentiment."
William Stott, Documentary Expression and Thirties America
I treat [the treatment] sort
of like airplane evacuation instructions. When all hell’s breaking loose and you’re out on location
and you’re sick with malaria and half your crew has mutinied,
you can glance at this treatment and figure out this fail-safe way
of making the film. You hope that you’ll find something vastly
better, but the original treatment is a way of ensuring that you get
the film started on the screen, and most important, that you can figure
out some sort of ending.
[. . .]
On films about events which unfold as you film, it’s nearly impossible
to write a treatment; that’s one of the reasons they’re
so hard to fund. What you can and must do is to write a document, a
quasi-treatment that clearly lays out who the film is about and what
the conceptual underpinning of the film is. If it’s a film about
a baseball team, are you there because you care about the mathematics
of baseball, or do you care about the profit the owner makes? Do you
care about the relationship between the players and fans? . . . Why
are you there?
Jon Else, interview in Documentary Storytelling for Film and Videomakers |