GENRES: Cocoon (1985)

I know that all of you thought this was the best film you've ever seen. I know that Carlos, in particular, thought it was the greatest thing he'd ever seen ;)

The reason I showed Cocoon, as I said in class, was to help you think about what sort of things can be in sci-fi with limited special effects. Don't get me wrong, Cocoon does have glowing aliens and a space ship and what not but the core of the story is about human emotions related to age and love and lose and mortality.

So, in your comment on this post, please think about the use of special effects in this film by (1) making a list of all the elements in this film that you feel high school students could not reasonably produce and then (2) suggest how you might rewrite the film to get around those things while still keeping the core of the story intact.

Then, please think about how one of the purposes of many sci-fi stories is to ask questions about society and technology and humanity. What questions does this film explore about the human experience? In what ways does the film act as a cautionary tale regarding the course of human society?

GENRES: Planet of the Apes (1968) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

In the book Alternative Scriptwriting: Successfully Breaking the Rules, Ken Dancyger and Jeff Rush devote four chapters to genre. They do not believe in formulas but do believe that every screenwriter needs to understand the characteristics of specific genres and take advantage of them to anticipate, build on, and defy (in a positive way) audience expectations. According to them, most Science Fiction genre films have the following characteristics:

1. "The central character is an innocent bystander who is victimized by a technological accident or an unnatural phenomenon of another world.
2. "The central character may or may not overcome the challenge of the antagonist." If he or she fails to, he or she is still a victim at the end.
3. "The existence of relationships promises respite and perhaps an element of hope in light of the daunting scale of the struggle.
4. "The antagonist may be a scientist or the product of science and nature. The scale of the antagonist is so great (the ants in the Naked Jungle), that the central character is reminded not only of her mortality, but also of how very human she is.
5. "The outcome in the science fiction film story is often more hopeful than are the outcomes in either the film noir or the horror film.
6. "There is a certain nobility that devolves to the central character based on her attempt to overcome her struggle with the supernatural (Aliens).
7. "The environment can be urban or rural, earthboard or otherwordly. In any case, the environment is a benign, but necessary, host for the antagonist. The presence of earth and how the environment [earth or space] is presented reminds us of our place in the natural order.
8. "The story line of the science fiction film is often plot intensive and presents a specific threat to the natural order. The plot outlines the central character's response to the threat."

Now, what I want to do for this response is to write about how each of the two films we watched last week (Planet of the Apes and Close Encounters) does or does not conform to each of the eight points written above. For each point, give examples that prove your argument. This blog response is worth 20 points and should be QUITE long (you have to write about how two different points do or do not conform to eight different points and give examples).

Then, after doing the above, write more paragraph where you answer the following questions:

• How has writing about these two movies helped you understand the Sci-fi genre better? How has it prepared you to write your Sci-fi script?

FILM HISTORY: Early Sound Films and The Great Depression

This week we studied a sad period of American history, a trying time, a devastating time.  The Great Depression.  For a quick review of this period of history, click on this link of the timeline.  People were destitute, they could barely afford to live.  Once with roofs over their heads, many many Americans ended up sleeping in parks, in tents, wondering day to day how they were going to eat.

Yet, people still came to the movies.  They still found a way to find enough money for a ticket, and they still went to see stories told on the big screen.  Movies helped people during the Great Depression, and the Great Depression influenced the kind of movies made.

This was also the dawn of sound films.  What a inconvenient time for movies to develop a new, huge technology, no?  So, people were going through immense financial strain, and film studios were making talkies.

We watched a rang of films from this first decade of sound films - a musical, an epic adventure, and a monster film.

Gold Diggers of 1933 talked about the Depression straight up.  It was not only an early sound film, it was an early musical.  Why were the first musicals about people putting on stage musicals?  What did you think of the songs, different from the kind of music today - did you like them?  Why or why not?  What did you think of Busby Berkeley's choreography?  Why do you think such fantastical dancing was so important to audiences of this time period?  Did the dance numbers work for you?  Why or why not?  Berkeley is considered by many a genius when it comes to creating dance choreography, do you agree?  Why or why not?  How can song and dance help during hard and troubling times?


King Kong, also from 1933, was the first to do so many things.  We watched some compelling documentaries about this film, as well.  Did you like King Kong, why or why not?  How did learning about all that went into creating the special effects for King Kong influence your opinion of the movie?  Was learning about how it was made beneficial?  What are some things that you saw in King Kong, or in the "behind the scenes" documentary, that truly impressed you?  And, how did knowing about what was going in the Nation with the Great Depression influence your experience with watching this movie?

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) is a classic example of the style and stories used by Universal Studio for its monster movie releases.  Man, Universal went nuts and made a bunch of these, getting started right after sound came out.  Why do you think the invention of sound film sparked in Universal the desire to make monster movie after monster movie after monster movie?  This film is considered a masterpiece - intentionally goofy and witty at times, touching at other times, and scary at others.  James Whale, the director, intentionally combined horror with humor.  Did that work for you?   This piece of science fiction horror also had things to say, messages and themes about death, life, prejudice, hatred, judgement, and trying to play God, along with many other messages.  What is the main message you got from the film?   As always, I want to know if you liked the movie, and why or why not?

The Artist (2011)

THE ARTIST: a farewell to the silent film era...

Did you like this movie?  Why or why not?

Do think you would've liked it as much if you hadn't studied the silent film era?

Why is it important to study the silent film era?

Are you grateful, personally, to have studied silent films?  Why or why not?

AMERICAN SILENT DRAMAS - Sunrise (1927) and The Big Parade (1925)

High Silent Cinema!  By 1927, they had perfected telling stories visually, using the camera beautifully as brush in their filmmaking masterpiece paint kit.  Sunrise may be the finest example of this high art.

• What camera moves stuck out to you from this film?  Use some specific examples of moments that were made more powerful because of the camera work.  

Also, cool thing - the filmmaker of this American film is German filmmaker F. W. Murnau, who five years before made the German Expressionist film Nosferatu.

• Did you notice any Expressionistic moments in this film?  Which moments?
• To you, what was the message of this film?  Did you like this movie?  Why or why not?

And, now...

The Big Parade... wow... I love this war film.  So much.  

Yes, it just might be my favorite war film of all time.  I love how we spend time idling with the characters as they, very realistic to history, spent their time after being shipped over, not seeing combat, not knowing what is in store, but bonding deeply with their comrades.  Almost enjoying this "european vacation", still naive.  We, too, spending this time with them, grow to care about them deeply.  When everything is torn apart, and the mighty and awful battle begins, we hurt because of the turmoil these young men we care about are violently thrown into, and we mourn separation of James and Melisande (I tell you what, that scene when they are pulled away from each other and she is left alone in the street might be one of the most heartbreaking separation scenes I have ever experienced.  We care about these two because we've seen them grow in love for each other, we've spent time with them as they spent time with each other).


The battle is painful to watch, and yet it has moments of beautiful humanity.  The scene where James chooses not to kill the wounded German soldier and shares a cigarette with him is human, complex, and beautiful.

• What was your experience watching this film knowing that the real World War I had only ended a handful of years before?
• You know my feelings about it, but I want to hear your own opinion, one I will totally respect no matter what.  Did you like this movie, why or why not?

It is amazing to think that in the 40s when the idea of going to war was once again looking over our nation that theaters played this, a SILENT film shown well into the sound era, as a cautionary tale of how difficult war can be on people, and people went to see it.  A silent film shown twenty years after sound had come out, and lots of people attended.  This movie means a lot to us humans...

GENRE STUDIES: Silent Film at Home

By Friday, April 18, you need to watch a silent film at home you've never seen before which we did not watch in class. Then, comment below and answer two of the following questions:

• Was the film you watched better or worse than most the films we watched in class? Why?
• Was the film funny? Why or why not?
• What did you learn by watching the film that helps you be a better writer? Explain.
• Would you recommend this film to the other members of our class? Why or why not?

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM - Metropolis (1927) & Nosferatu (1922)

German Expressionism is an interesting artistic style.  Just looking at it alone, without any knowledge of the period it came from or why it came, is fascinating enough.  But, learn a little bit of the history of the style (click that there link to learn a little bit about it), the country it came from, why it came to be, and that adds a major wealth of fascinatingness to it all.

We watched some pretty historically important films this class, one of the first science fiction feature length epics and the most expensive movie made ever at the time - seriously, Metropolis was the Star Wars of the '20s, and one of the very first feature length horror films, Nosferatu was the very first vampire movie ever made.  

Which one did you like more?  Why? 

What did you like about each of these german expressionistic films we watched in class?  What didn't you like?  And why?