Students will identify 3 film directors who would be suited for a Film Festival on Winthrop's campus, with 3 of the director's films playing for audiences.
Present the following in a 10-inch wide by 8-inch high PDF, for display in the Rutledge 220 classroom's smart podium. RGB and 72dpi is fine for your images. Be sure to size any typography in your slides large enough for everyone to view, especially those in the back of the room.
- Choose 3 directors.
- Have 3 films for each director to be shown in your film series, with the films being somehow related: genre, aesthetic, theme, message, mood, and/or tone, etc.
- You will need to pitch each director and their films, making a case for why people would attend that director's film series, to see all of the movies.
- On one slide, show your 1st director and posters of her 3 films (single theme) for your film festival. On slide 2, show your 2nd director and her 3 films (different theme) for the second, and optional film festival. On slide 3, show your 3rd director and her 3 films (a third, and different theme), for the third and final film festival. The posters you show should be of the original movie posters released to promote those movies when they came out. You do not need to design your own posters at this time.
- Each film series needs its own topical and visual theme that is different from the others you present.
- State the theme verbally using action words, adjectives, or other descriptive language.
- Based on your presentation and pitch, one director's film series shall be chosen and you will design promotion material during Project 2.
- International
- Non-English speaking, subtitled movies
- Silent films, old films
- Contemporary, modern day films
- Future-forward films
- Art films
- any film that has debuted already, as recent as 2016 or as far back as the 20th or 19th century
- in other words, this is very very open
Superhero movies, especially those in the mainstream Marvel and/or DC comics universe(s) such as The Avengers or Superman, aka tentpole movies, are not permitted. Nor are other high-budget, high-return movies that are part of a series or trilogy with the intention of earning huge profits at the box office. Stay away from Harry Potter, Jack Reacher, Mission Impossible, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.
The films you choose should have a cultural component, and could, in theory, qualify as an art event along the lines of what Winthrop calls Cultural Events.
Examples:
Akira Kurosawa: Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Yojimbo (samurai warlords, honor and code, Japan)
Kathryn Ann Bigelow: The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, Point Break (war, good versus evil, inner and external conflict, the war on crime the war on terror)
Nora Ephron: You've Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, This Is My Life (romance, love, identity, family, changes in self, friends, and family)
Pedro Almodóvar: The Skin I Live In, Volver, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (brotherhood, sisterhood, love, romance, conflict, the power of family)
Sergio Leone: A Fistful of Dollars, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (western theme, cowboys and criminals, the lonely gunman)
Sophia Coppola: The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Somewhere (youth, finding one's identity, finding relationships in the world, relationships with a parent or parent-figure, parenting styles)
Students are not permitted to use any of the aforementioned examples of directors and/or films for their own Exercise 2 pitch.
Exercise 2: Worth 30 points
Assessment, maximum points:
- 3 - identifying three directors for your festival
- 9 - identifying 3 films for each director
- 6 - identifying a topical and visual theme for each series
- 5 - craft/composition of slide layout
- 3 - following directions and professionalism
- 2 - strength of pitch, argument made
- 2 - spelling, grammar
