Comp Lit 301--Autumn 2003
Take-Home Final

Due: December 17, 2003

Choose ten items from the following list. Write approximately a page (double spaced) explaining and discussing each item you choose. Answers will be graded for thoroughness as well as accuracy and clarity of explanation. You may cite and make use of material from the textbook and from the classroom lectures, in addition to looking closely at the films we have seen throughout the quarter. This exam should be an opportunity for you to think through, and synthesize, the work we have done in the course of the quarter.

  1. Fantasy, reality, and filmviewing in Sherlock Junior
  2. "Realism" and believability in Plan 9 From Outer Space
  3. Lighting: hard vs soft, high-key vs low-key
  4. The three-point lighting system (when it is used, how it works)
  5. Mise-en-scene in von Sternberg's Scarlet Empress
  6. Lighting, costumes, and set design in Blade Runner
  7. Aspect ratios
  8. Camera distance and framing
  9. Pan, tilt, tracking shot, crane shot
  10. The first-person camera
  11. The sequence shot
  12. Action editing in John Woo's The Killer
  13. Action editing in the films of Michael Bay
  14. The Odessa Steps sequence in Potemkin
  15. Eisenstein's theory of montage
  16. Diegetic vs. non-diegetic sound
  17. The use of sound in the shower scene of Psycho
  18. Sound and image in Jacques Tati
  19. Sound and image in Robert Bresson
  20. Continuity editing: the 180° rule
  21. Continuity editing: eyeline matches and shot/reverse shot
  22. Continuity editing: overall effects of the system
  23. Alternatives to continuity editing
  24. "Realism" according to Andre Bazin
  25. La chienne vs. Scarlet Street
  26. Voyeurism and scoptophilia in the cinema
  27. Laura Mulvey on men, women, and the gaze
  28. The auteur theory
  29. Howard Hawks as auteur
  30. The theory of film genre
  31. Film noir
  32. Storytelling and film form in Pierrot Le Fou