INDIVIDUAL WORK (working in the "blind", separated away from all team members) & report to me — finding two possible films

Each team member locates two films that meet the requirements below.

Each student writes "brief film summaries" (see the definition for this) of both films and emails them to me and ONLY me because you are working in the blind (use keyword flmsum) BEFORE the face-to-face meeting of the next step.

The email will have the film summaries typed directly into the email (not an attachment) AND will include one legal link to a trailer or very representative segment of the film (not my first choice and the beginning of the film is usually not representative), for each film. Cut-and-paste this form:

Group Letter:

Parameters (countries, mood-genre, theme):

First of your two films—listed as "English title" (country, year):

Summary for first of your two films:

Why you think this is a good choice:

Trailer or other link for first of your two films:

Second of your two films—listed as "English title" (country, year):

Summary for second of your two films:

Why you think this is a good choice:

Trailer or other link for second of your two films:

The student prints out enough copies of the summary so that, when the face-to-face meeting begins, all team members have their own copy to read. This printing is done BEFORE the meeting but the information is not shared until the meeting (since you are working in the blind).

Absolute requirements for the films:

1) Films must stay within the parameters (countries, mood-genre) reported via email earlier.

2) Films must be tolerable to all team members, so keep this in mind when locating your films. If, in the process of your search, you think you have a borderline film from a team member's perspective, bring to the meeting a third film—do not contact team members on this point at this time.

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 all team members 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 incur a grade penalty. (This happens every semester. Don't assume anything—confirm with your own two eyes, do not believe your team members.)

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).

Film-finding advice based on past JES (now called TCP: Spring 2013) 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 TCP folder.
• Here is my eBrary folder: Cinema (All Asia)
• Be aware of how some differences just confuse the comparative work you will do rather than help in generating cultural comparisons. 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.
• (Added Spring 2013): Instinctively I feel that you will do better if, when you meet, you don't simply cave to someone else's idea of a great movie. Give all films serious consideration and, if possible, avoid accepting both films from the same individual (the comparisons will go more smoothly if there is some tension between the films, rather than harmony).

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.

 

INDIVIDUAL WORK (working in the "blind", separated away from all team members) — viewing the films

View both of your films in full at least once. If, for access reasons, you want to view the film at the same time as other team members, you can do so as long as you do not in any way discuss the film. You do not need to do any planning yet on what you might want to do with the film, since that will hinder your ability to write a good, open-ended, neutral, useful-to-all-team-members NDT. Instead you should just know you films well in terms of what happened, and so on.

INDIVIDUAL WORK (working in the "blind", separated away from all team members) & report to me — Writing a possible NDT, to bring to the team meeting

Reread the NDT definition and write the best NDT you can, without consulting anyone whatsoever. Doing so will be considered as academic dishonesty.

As with the film summaries in the earlier step —

Each student emails me and ONLY me because you are working in the blind the NDT that s/he has composed (use keyword individualndt) BEFORE the face-to-face meeting of the next step. Type the NDT directly into the email; no attachments please. Copy-and-paste this form:

Group Letter:

Parameters (countries, mood-genre, theme):

The NDT you have developed entirely on your own and will bring to the meeting:

The student prints out enough copies of his or her NDT so that, when the face-to-face meeting begins, all team members have their own copy to read. This printing is done BEFORE the meeting but the information is not shared until the meeting (since you are working in the blind).