Assignment:
In six-to-eight pages-minimum six full pages of text-double-spaced, 12-point font (like Times or Calibri, but not Courier), in MLA format with separate Works Cited page, analyze any feature film, television series, or group of three theatrical shorts that center on the African American experience. You may choose works made in any year. Your paper will have four parts.
Section One-maximum one half-page
Write a short biographical sketch of the director(s). Cite your source in the text and at the end of the paper, in MLA style. Anytime you take words or ideas from an outside source, you must cite that source in the text Here is an example of citing in the text. My source in this case is a book:
Keaton's films received "very little critical attention," even at their peak of popularity (Da rdis 121).
If you are citing a website in your text, these have no page numbers, of course. You can put just the author of the web page-if the name is available-or you can include the most basic form of the website name, like (filmreference.com) or (nytimes.com). Do not use wikipedia or imdb.com as sources, though you can use wikipedia to find other sources, listed at the bottom of each entry.
Section Two- maximum one full page
Summarize an article about the film. Find your article using the NYFA library databases Through a service called EBSCO, we subscribe to OmniFile Full Text Select, and Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text. To log in and explore the two EBSCO databases, click here.
Another service we subscribe to is JSTOR, which includes many film journals. To explore JSTOR, you access it through the NYFA hub, here. It may be necessary for you to log in first. If you have trouble accessing the databases, contact library staff for help at [email protected].
In Section Two of your paper, describe the importance of the film you have chosen, according to this article. Follow the same rules about citing in-text as you did in Section One. You must make an attempt to locate your article in the databases before going to a basic web search.
Section Three-minimum four full pages, maximum six
Engage with the work of art, to analyze how the filmmakers use technique to communicate meaning in the film. Hone in on techniques like the arrangement of objects and characters in the frame, the use of light and shadow, color, editing, camera movement, music, writing, or performance. (Choose a few-don't try to cover them all.) Be specific. Avoid retelling the plot. Focus on analysis. Describe key scenes, and explain why they are successful at creating a response in the audience (you). If you choose a work more notable for its cultural or historical value than its artistic qualities-such as an early race film-you may emphasize these qualities in your analysis.
Build your discussion in such a way that, in the concluding paragraph of your paper, you arrive at what you see as the essential theme-or meaning-of the artwork as a whole. In other words, what is the clear and simple idea at the heart of the story? Here is an example: "Viridiana (1961) is about the impossibility of living Christ-like in a corrupt world." It is not enough to say that Rocky (1976) is about boxing, or that Apocalypse Now (1979) is about war. Go beyond the surface.
You may draw on (and cite) additional outside sources for Section Three if you wish, but be careful-I want you to do the mental labor of taking apart the artwork and describing how the artists create meaning through technique. Your thoughts are what interest me.
Your finished paper should reflect college-level writing. Proofread your work before you turn it in. Remember to italicize film titles, and include the year the first time you mention it-for example, Harlem Rides the Range (1939). To learn more about MLA format, click here.
Section Four-the Works Cited page
You will need a separate page at the paper's end-sample below-listing all your sources, including the artwork(s) under discussion. For more on the MLA Works Cited page, click here.
Works Cited
Ebert, Roger. "An Inconvenient Truth." Rev. of An Inconvenient Truth, dir. Davis Guggenheim. rogerebert.corn. Sun-Times News Group, 2 June 2006. Web. 24 May 2009.
Spite Marriage. Dir. Buster Keaton. Perf. Buster Keaton, Dorothy Sebastian. MGM, 1929. DVD.
Also, your article from the database needs to be cited in a special way, which includes many things in a precise order. Here is an example:
Preminger, Aner. "Francois Truffaut Rewrites Alfred Hitchcock: A Pygmalion Trilogy." Literature/Film Quarterly 35.3 (2007): 170-180. OmniFile Full Text Select. web. 1 Apr. 2018.