Film Sound Assignment

Read Assigned Articles for Film Sound Topic:

(1) The Timeline of Film Sound
(2) Sound in Film by Alberto Cavalcanti
(3) Moving Pictures That Talk - The early History of Film Sound by Mark Ulano
(4) The Art of Sound Effects by Ray Brunelle

I found two good articles related to our sessions on "Editing Film".  Please read the following articles on Montage. Of course I assume that you have read already the previous articles especially Laura Mulvey's article "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema."

Soviet Montage

Five Principles of Editing

By the way, this week (Fist Week of September) will the 13th week of the semester. There are 18 weeks in a semester. Looking forward, our final examinations will be scheduled on the following dates:


Thursday Class: 10 October 2013

Saturday Class: 12 October 2013

See you in the next class.

For those who have watched "Swimming Pool", kindly read this before you write your review: The Secrets of Swimming Pool. Spoiler's Alert: Please do not read this if you have not yet watched it.

Assigned Article

Please read the article for the next session (August 17):


Download and read the article in PDF here: The Art of Editing

Online reading: http://eliab.tripod.com/film/artofediting.html

Next Meetings: July 27 and August 1 Meetings

I may send back your papers (film reviews) with their corresponding marks which you submitted online this week. Check you mailbox from time to time.

For our next class scheduled on July 27 (Sat) and August 1, 2013 (Th):

Continue browsing through the following articles:
The History of the Discovery of Cinematography
Film History by Decade

The Gaze

The following are assigned articles for the next meeting. I will conduct oral recitations in the next classes based on the these articles:

(1) Movie Pleasure and the Spectator's Experience: Toward a Cognitive Approach (Click to download)
Some of the topics here were already discussed previously, this will be part of the midterm examinations.

(2) Notes on "The Gaze" by Daniel Chandler (Click to download)
You must read also the original text "The Gaze" written by Laura Mulvey, she is a British feminist film theorist. You can look for the Ms. Mulvey's article here.

• What is "the gaze" exactly?  -- describes the act of looking; began as the study of the objectification of women in visual texts.
• How does it impact women in particular?
• What are some of the issues involved in discussing "the gaze"?
• the objectification of women-- seen as objects
• the commonality of female nudity -- display implies subordination
• internalization of the gaze, changes women's perceptions of themselves and makes them think of themselves as objects
• shift to objectification as a source of pleasure (for both the looker and the looked-at)
• men as the dominant group have been the looker (the subjects; women the objects)
• ties back to another aspect of the feminist critique of Freud-- the degree to which Freudian theory is based on visual dynamics

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Outline of Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

I. INTRODUCTION

a) A Political Use of Psychoanalysis

• Film reflects the language of patriarchy by being bound up in the same story of sexual difference that all patriarchy is founded on.  In film women is seen as Other, as an object not a subject.  In a way she represents the unconscious of the male because she is always the object he is looking at and never is able to speak for herself.

• Phallocentrism -- a world view which sees the penis (symbolic and otherwise) as the defining center of meaning.  In other words-- there is a central, stable meaning to things; that meaning is defined largely by men who associate their power to name and define and control reality with their masculinity.

• Symbolic Order -- the realm of meaning controlled by the Law of the Father  (in Lacan's theorizing): the language of patriarchy.  As opposed  (by Kristeva) to the Imaginary -- the primal language of connection associated with pre-Oedipal bonding with the mother.

b) Destruction of Pleasure as a Radical Weapon

• Hollywood film reflects the dominant ideology of their culture.  We get our pleasure from films from this presentation of the erotic.  If we learn to make films which do not encode these ideologies, a lot of people will lose their pleasure in looking at film.

• Mise-en-scene means staging an action. It is historically to do with directing plays, and became later to do with film to express how the material in the frame is directed.

II. PLEASURE IN LOOKING/ FASCINATION WITH THE HUMAN FORM

• a) Film satisfies this primal pleasure we all get from looking at other people. 

            scopophilia - - the pleasure we get from looking, in seeing other people as objects. We get a sense of power from being able to do this.  With John Berger she believes the one who looks has the power. 

Voyeuristic scopophilia -- 

• b) Narcissistic scopophilia is looking at other people as seeing them as surrogates for yourself.  We also identify with people in movies.   So there is a tension here between the sense of power we get from observing others as separate from ourselves and the pleasure we get in imagining that we are the people we are looking at. 

           the mirror stage: 

• c) tension between these impulses-- to see others as separate and to identify with them

 III. WOMAN AS IMAGE, MAN AS BEARER OF THE LOOK

a) Split between male, active gaze which looks and female passivity which is looked upon. Women are always on display in film.  Seen as objects of sexual desire; this is transformed into exhibitionism.  Visual presence of female tends to stop the story line to dwell on the image. 

diegesis -- "In a narrative film, the world of the film's story. The diegesis includes events that are presumed to have occurred and actions and spaces not shown onscreen. "

Why are so many women in film showgirls, strippers, etc. 

b) Gender split carries over into narrative of film--men carry the story, make things happen, while woman remains the icon.

c1) Problems with woman as icon: 

    c1a) voyeurism -- sadistic desire to punish woman for her lack 

    c1b) fetishistic scopophilia -- builds up beauty of woman in order to compensate for anxiety 

C2) Examples: Sternberg's Dietrich films show fetishism.  Hitchcock--

SUMMARY
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No Class on July 25, 2013 (Thursday) for Hum 3: Film Appreciation

For the Thursday Hum 3 class, we will not have our class on 25 July 2013. See attached memo from the Office of the President.

I will discuss with you in the next meeting on 1 August 2013 (Thursday) if we can still hold a make-up class for the missed meeting.

For July 11 and 13, 2013 Sessions

Assignment for July 11 and 13, 2013 Class

Read the following articles:

(1) Movie Pleasure and the Spectator's Experience: Toward a Cognitive Approach
(2) The History of the Discovery of Cinematography
(3) Film History by Decade



The History of the Discovery of Cinematography is long but interesting online resource. It may take you weeks to finish reading the chapters of this resource. So I urge you to read this as early as possible so by August, you have finished reading the chapters.

The Film History by Decade is another reference material that you should be familiar with as mass communication students. Bookmark this site, you will need this for your film reviews as reference.

For the Saturday class, we may have a make-up class on 13 July 2013, 9am-12nn at F513. I will confirm this during our class this Saturday.

No Class on 29 June 2013, Saturday - Sorry :(

For my Saturday class, please take note of this:

I will try to schedule a make-up class for the lost day. I will consult you on 6 July 2013, Saturday. DDL.

Assignments for the Next Meeting

A. Assignment for the next meeting (June 27 and June 29, 2013)

Read the following articles:

                 Movie Theater Etiquette

                 The Basic Visual Units of Film


B. On the assigned Film Review: 

Submit your reviews of the films we watched two days before our next class to jseliab@addu.edu.ph using the following requirements:

(1) It must be a one (1) page Film Review. You can follow this format as guide: http://eliab.tripod.com/film/papers.html. However, you can make your own review provided that you organize your essay to include "Elements of Film."

(2) Use font size 12, Times Roman or Bookman Antiqua.

(3) If submitted as a document, please convert it to PDF (portable document format). If you do not have a facility to convert your .doc or .docx file into a PDF, see here: http://www.freepdfconvert.com/

(4) The paper should contain your name, time and day of class, and of course, your astute review.

(5) Use the following information in your email heading:

TO: jseliab@addu.edu.ph
FROM: [youremail]@addu.edu.ph [use your official ADDU e-mail address]
SUBJECT: Hum3/ [Day of Class] [Time of Class]/ [Title of Movie]

See Sample Heading with a PDF attachment:

My mail system is using filters. If you send your reviews using a non-ADDU account, the probability of me not receiving them will be 99% since they usually go to "Junk Mail" folder or get deleted by the system. Second, the ADDU mail system sanitizes all incoming emails from viruses and other malwares. So, if you and I are using our official University e-mail addresses, we minimize the probability of infecting each other's computers. Third, the "Subject" heading is important because it redirects your email to a proper folder that keeps the reviews so I can read them when I have time on the fly.

Now, there are others who do not have computers and printers, I accept typewritten Film Reviews. If you have a functioning typewriter, use it! Just submit the paper two days before the class. I seldom accept handwritten papers since I have a hard time deciphering words, especially those creative strokes that only the writer can read and understand. So, unless prior approval is sought, do not hand over handwritten film reviews.

For those who were absent during the first day of class, please read this: http://hum3.blogspot.com/2013/06/introductory-notes-for-first-semester.html. I expect those who are late or absent in class to be responsible to know what happened in the class when they are not around. Absence or tardiness is not an excuse to renege adult learner responsibility.

If you have other queries, just email me.

How to Access Your ADDU Email Address

For Film Reviews, you are required to use your official ADDU email address to send your reviews. Please read the following information from the University Information Technology Office (UITO):

University Email Accounts for Students
by Fr. Denny Toledo, S.J., UITO Director on MAY 16, 2012 · (from http://uito.addu.edu.ph/wordpress/university-email-accounts-for-students/)
In line with the UITO’s program to

- simplify access to various University Information Technology resources,
- improve bandwidth and
- improve communication among University faculty, administrators, non-teaching staff and students,

the UITO has also issued addu.edu.ph email accounts to ALL currently enrolled students at the following Ateneo de Davao University who are:

Graduate Students
Law School
Incoming 2nd year – Senior Year Undergraduates
Incoming 4th – 2nd year High School Students
Grade School (Grades 1 – 6) Students

These new email addresses have been activated as of midnight May 15, 2012. They can be accessed online through a web browser through http://blueknights.addu.edu.ph. Your default password is your ID bar code number.

For students who wish to set up their mail clients in their own computers, iPads, Notepads, or PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant), the following info is necessary:

Server name = blueknights.addu.edu.ph

Email Inbound options

email client protocol – Inbound = POP3 (STARTTLS) port 110 (This option automatically downloads mail to the client and erases it from the server.)

email client protocol – Inbound = IMAP (SSL/TLS) port 993 (This option automatically erases the local copy at the user’s computer if the server copy is erased. To keep a local copy, transfer it to a local archives. Once an email is transferred to a local archives, its copy at the server is automatically erased.)

Email client protocol – Outbound = SMTP (STARTTLS or SSL/TLS) port 587

The email addresses of new students will be activated after the new students’ names are passed on to the Technical Support Office (TSO).

For additional details related to how your student email address will look, please refer to the more detailed explanation at http://uito.addu.edu.ph/wordpress/?p=329.

To know the email addresses of faculty members, administrators and non-teaching staff, please refer to http://uito.addu.edu.ph/wordpress/?p=344.

Please address your concerns and inquiries to Ms. Rona Divinagracia of TSO. Tel. No. (82) 221.2411 local 8206 email address will be rudivinagracia@addu.edu.ph.

Introductory Notes for First Semester, 2013-2014 (Hum 3: Film Appreciation)

For Hum 3 students in the First Semester, 2013-2014, kindly download the Introductory Notes, Course Description and Overview, Course Requirements, Grading Standards, Course Policies for the Hum 3 - Film Appreciation Class (Codes: 6-316 and 6-234):

Click Here to Download.

Hum 3 students are expected to be familiar with the all class policies and others.

For the first assignments, kindly read the following articles:

(1) Elements of Film
(2) Mimetic Element: The Nature of the Film Language

See you in the next class.

Bong S. Eliab
Email jseliab@addu.edu.ph
Twitter: @BongEliab
Facebook: facebook.com/eliab