Re: tips for teaching? (2 responses)

From: "Frank, Michael" <[email protected]>

i congratulate leo on getting the screening facilities he - and our field - require, and share his anxieties [see below] about the way our students "watch" moving images [if not movies] today . . .

but i find myself wondering whether, or to what extent, an ability to focus on one thing for two hours is a necessary or important ingredient in the mix we call education . . . perhaps ADD is just considered a "disorder" because it contradicts a peculiar cultural habit developed in the western world in the 19th century . . .  did shakespeare's rowdy audience's focus on those plays without distraction? . . . we know that in beethoven's time audiences applauded between movements of symphonies, and that mozart's MAGIC FLUTE was conceived as something like a vaudeville  . . . did homer's audiences pay apt attention for hours as he recounted his epic tales or did they keep going to the lobby to pee and buy pop-corn, or the ancient greek equivalent . . . in short, is it possible that extended attention [which, as a lover of wagner's operas, i myself value highly] is itself simply a little blip in cultural history and one that we need not feel is sacrosanct??

mike

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From: "Jackson, Tony" <[email protected]>

Hi Amanda, here are a couple of thoughts, not so different than what others have already said. 

Personally, I never show entire films during a class period. I know that the communal experience of a big screen is the ideal. but the fact is that so many students have so many easy ways to see film now, that I just won't fight that battle. On the other hand you may want to come up with a system of verifying that they've seen/studied the film on the day it's first discussed, so some kind of quiz format can be useful. 

since it's an intro course, the titles you use will matter. i myself don't focus much on history. i always show citizen kane and vertigo or rear window, and that's about it for older films. in my experience a significant number of contemporary students just don't consider black and white worth  dealing with (it's like buying a used car when you can easily buy new/color) , so you may want to address that head on. otherwise i for the most part show films that are fairly recent and that i know can appeal to a *wide* and in my case english-speaking audience. this wide audience appeal can *really* make a difference. for this reason i'd say beware of showing your personal film-scholar favorites. for instance i'm a big jim jarmusch fan, especially stranger than paradise, down by law, night on earth, but i wouldn't put any of them on an intro syllabus. i can and do teach most intro film ideas using Jaws.

you'll need to decide about a textbook. i have used them, but over time have stopped because they're so expensive and i just don't use them enough to justify the expense. so i have my own printable batch of film terms that are required learning, and that i spend the first couple of weeks illustrating with clips in class.

it's also really useful to get the students to think about specific elements of specific films *before* they watch them. So i have a set of 'pre-viewing' notes for each film. these direct the students in very specific ways to pay attention to specific elements as they watch. this of course diminishes the first-time through 'raw' experience, but to me that's a price to be paid for a class like this.

the *best* thing you can do is enjoy teaching your chosen films. be as enthusiastic about them (negatively and/or positively) in front of the class as you are when you see them with friends. really. 

however *don't* expect them to share your enthusiasm for a given film. it's art, and everybody has their own taste. your (our) tastes may be more informed, but i don't see how they're somehow in general superior to everybody else's. if you scorn certain films or certain kinds of films, you'll end up unintentionally scorning some of your students. academic types are very prone to do this, without thinking much thinking about it. worse, often academics scorn films that are the most popular with the most people. this is worth thinking about, and not just from some established, professional-theoretical position. academic film studies are famously more involved with theory than many other fields. there are various things to say about this, but it matters to be aware of the ways in which a theoretical investment is determining, not just what you teach, but *how* you teach. 

sometimes academics can't see the human forest for the theoretical trees.

jeez, that went on way longer than i had intended.

tony e. jackson

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