WORKING SEPARATELY

Basic description

Based on verbal instructions I give after JES02, each student, working in the "blind" to his or her partner, locates two films that are possible candidates for the JES.

Note: Some students misunderstand this step. In order to reduce the number of movies each student must find (the search process is time intensive), I divide the work between the two students. But of course whatever films are eventually selected for the full JES become the two films / two countries that both students will work on for the rest of the term. This step generates four film possibilities (two from each student); the next step will narrow it down to the final two.

What to do

Preliminary work:

• Note DEADLINE.
• Review General Instructions on JES Top Page
• Download and look over the form. It has special requirements that you should know before you begin looking for films.

Then do these things:

Teammates work entirely "blind" to each other with these two exceptions:

Exception One: Stated verbally by me in class. (Summer 2012: Sent via email.)

Exception Two: You may at any time during this step check with your partner about sex and violence if you feel a film you are considering might be borderline acceptable from the perspective of your partner.

1. Student A and Student B each select two films (so the team is selecting four possible films—they will narrow it down to two later) based on verbal instructions I give to the class (Summer 2012: by email). The films must meet the below requirements. You must view at least 15 minutes of the films you select, know something about the film's director, and so on. That is, you can't just select a film based on a summary or your memory of a film.

Absolute requirements:

1) Films must stay within the parameters reported on JES02

2) The films must be tolerable to both individuals. If, in the process of your search, you think you have a borderline film from your partner's perspective, contact him or her and sort it out. Remember to work in the "blind" as much as possible for this! If necessary, review your limits on what you are willing to watch in terms of sex and violence.

3) Films must be easily accessible so they can be viewed more than once.

Why (if interested): Almost all students now use online streaming sources for their films or illegally download. Please confirm with each other that the streaming sources are always functional, that the film is not at risk of suddenly being pulled from the site (this is not an excuse for not completing your assignments and, as I think you know, if happens fairly often on YouTube for example), and that both partners have the convenient access that they want and need to broadband networks.

4) The versions of the films you access absolutely must have English subtitles. No exceptions. Don’t submit to me a film that doesn’t. You will be penalized in your grade. (This happens every semester. Don't assume anything—confirm with your own two eyes.)

5) They must be movies that were released in theaters to the public (not made-for TV movies or TV dramas).

6) They must be more or less “of” the country you are responsible for. They can have multiple languages and multiple settings and even multiple funding sources but you can still say that more or less, yeah, this movie is Chinese and intended for a Chinese audience (even if also intended to be released overseas).

2. Student A and Student B both download the newest version of Form-JES03 and each student completes it. EACH OF YOU WILL EMAIL IT TWICE, AS BELOW—PLEASE FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY, THEY ARE A BIT CONFUSING:

3. Student A and Student B each attach the form to a single email, and send the report:

• on time (late penalties are sometimes individual and sometimes shared by the team)
• ONLY TO ME (keep your partner uninformed for now)
• using this subject line (note the "-towallace" portion):

EA105_JES03-towallace_groupletterstudent number_LASTNAME_classname

example:

EA105_JES03-towallace_04B_HEADE_Roomi

4. Summer 2012: Both students watch carefully for an ACCEPTED from me within 12 hours after the deadline (usually much sooner). Open and read the email because there might be content. Also, please note that ACCEPTED means I have received your email and you have completed the form correctly. It is NOT a comment about whether your films are appropriate—that is the responsibility of you (and eventually, your partner). If the submission was rejected for some reason, respond immediately. Slow response might incur late penalties.

5. Student A and Student B resend the completed Form-JES03 (no changes!):

• ASAP if I have said in my ACCEPTED email that your partner has already submitted but not before (so your partner does not know your choices until after he or she has reported to me his or her choices) OR automatically, 5 minutes after the JES03 deadline has passed. (In other words, I want you to know your partner's choice as soon as possible so if you submit early and your partner does as well, you complete this step early and are OKed to move on. If you submit right at the deadline the assumption is that your partner has also submitted so the two of you can not send film options to each other without hearing from me. Of course you MUST meet the deadline for the process to work.
• to me and your partner
• using this subject line (note the "-toteam" portion):

EA105_JES03-toteam_groupletterstudent number_LASTNAME_classname

example:

EA105_JES03-toteam_04B_HEADE_Roomi

4. Both students watch for an ACCEPTED from me within 48 hours (sooner in the summer). If the submission was rejected for some reason, respond promptly. Slow response might incur late penalties.

Grading rubric

This is graded individually, not as a team.

Basically if you follow directions and submit on time you receive credit.

The worst thing you could do is accidentally email your partner when you email me. Probably the next worse thing is selecting films that obviously seem rushed in terms of a choice. (I am protecting your partner from having to deal with your hurried choice.)

Advice based on past JES submissions:

Comments by me:

• Try to find a movie that has some integrity to it in its message and isn’t just switching around in values to be good entertainment. One way to do this is to work with well established directors, or highly regarded movies. You can read about the director or film and get a fairly good idea as to whether the critical film community or academic community considers the film to have substance. This is faster than viewing the film and deciding on your own. Also, it helps with ICE writing.
• Think “Yeah, I could write about that within the themes of this class” not “Yeah, that would be fun to watch” when selecting films. Fun films are probably what you should worry most about, since they are probably switching around values a lot to satisfy lots of different sorts of people. You can use them, but you have to explicitly signal to me that you understand how mult-valued the film is.
• Check out the film suggestions / films used text files that are on bSpace in the JES folder.
• Here is my eBrary folder: Cinema (All Asia)
• Keep "boundaries" to a minimum. That is, you want the cultural / national / linguistic boundary of, say, Japan and China because that is what you are to analyze. But you confuse things if you compare a drama to a comedy, a 1950s film to a 2010 film (unless you want to claim that values have not changed since 1950), an artsy film with a please the masses film and so on. When you toss in these variables it fogs up the picture as lots of things because to change. So, settle on below parameters, yes, but keep these other things in mind, too.
• Get started soon! This takes longer than you think (trust me) and a low grade film grabbed because you are running out of time will be a huge time drag later as you struggle to turn it into a shape you can use, and will continually threaten your grade through its fuzziness and off-topic-ness and whatever else is messy about it.
• Once you report your film choices, you cannot add to or alter the list. Think before you leap :-)
• Oh, and a stress comment: Yes, the JES is going to be hard to succeed at doing but, no, it is not going to be hard to score well at if you give it your best effort. I know only too well that we are taking on difficult topics with nearly impossible tasks. So measure yourself by effort and keep to the rules and deadlines and you should be OK.

Comments by students

• (Summer 2012): Here's our advice when picking out films for your JES: (1) Start researching films early because the films you choose will stick with you to the end of the JES project. Hence, if you pick a poor quality film to analyze because you didn't have enough time, it will pull you down in the JES. (2) Don't pick cheesy love films for good entertainment or comfort. It is better to have a good subtle film that you can explore on and learn from, which will help with analyzing premodern core values in the films. (3) Pick film with depth and meaning to it. The values shown doesn't necessary have to be values that you identify with; rather, show interest in these "differences" and see how you can interpret it which the concepts of the class. Hence, it is also a good idea to research of films with good audience reception especially with high international critics. These films tend to be more complex and thoughtful. (4) Limit your film list down to 4-5 and watch all of these film in most of its parts. I watched the films in its entirety before my partner and I chose them and am grateful that it paid off after because it allowed me to understand the "better" one of the films to use and draw connections when my partner and I had to choose films after.