We Welcome you to Cinema Studies Land
This passing Thursday (03/03/16) I attended my very first seminar for Introduction to Cinema Studies.
Cinema studies is my contextual strand combined with my core Media 1, and my elective Literary Realism to Post Modernism. These three classes amalgamate to create, both, a creative and analytical outlet for me within an educational setting. I have enjoyed my first week of university thoroughly, meeting new people with similar interest to me which originate from, not only cities and states all over Australia, but the world, has been an exhilarating experience.
In conjunction with this, I thought I would discuss my first Seminar for Introduction Cinema studies in detail, elaborating on what I learnt and what I aim to gain from this class throughout the following semester.
The seminar began like any other first class; Introductions. I have never been good at introductions. The usual exercise of having to state my name and one interesting fact about myself (Which is usually “I have 2 dogs and one cat” super intriguing) is probably one of my least favourite things in the world. However, the unenjoyable experience was slightly tweaked this time, the simple act of stating your name remained, though this time we had to succeed with indicating our favourite film.
Oh no.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have a favourite film, or that I had watched too many films to even comprehend how many favourite films I actually have. It was that my favourite film was a tie between: The overplayed, family favourite, holiday masterpiece, Elf (2003), and Gremlins (1984), an 80’s comedy horror about evil goblins that shouldn’t be fed after midnight. Both as embarrassing as each other, I was a media student with a love for films I could laugh both at and with. Oh well, at least I didn’t say Rio 2.
After Introductions had ceased, and we gone over what the word film made us think of. We continued on in the class to observe a screening of Georges Melies’ A Trip to the Moon (1902), also known as Le Voyage dans la Lune (in French). The silent film inspired by Jules Vernes’ novels From Earth to the Moon, and Around the Moon, details the adventure of a group of astronomers who journey to the moon in a rocket-like capsule, in order to explore the moon’s surface and discover strange alien inhabitants.
The film was projected on a rather small screen and since I did not bring my glasses (Good one Amber), I was subjected to squinting at a bunch of black and white blobs moving around in a rather theatrical manner. One thing I was able to note though, from my insanely terrible glance of the film, was the amazing use of special effects for that time period, and the odd interpretation of what the moons surface would have looked like; a fellow peer in my class noted the submarine or sub-aquatic nature of the set, describing how odd it was that their were ladies in swim suits, and seaweed like vegetation.
Ensuing the early film was then a discussion regarding the Tuesday/Wednesday screening of The Wizard of OZ (1939). We were first asked about our general thoughts on the film; most people in the class noting the visual spectacle it was being presented on a “the big screen”. Other comments included the phenomenal set which was Munchkin Land, the questionable “good” witch Glinda, as well as the general creepy-ness some of the scenes evoked.
The discourse then sparked a task, which was to be completed in pairs or groups of three, to map out the storyline of the film, and also the emotional engagement (levels) the audience felt from the opening scene to the denouement. After some heated debate with my partner concerning when and where Dorothy sings Over the Rainbow, we were asked to present our emotional graphs to the class on the whiteboard. Most loosely followed Freytag’s pyramid, while others (mine) were a mess.
Upon the dismissal of class we were asked to reflect upon the day’s seminar in our blogs (which I am doing right now, woah meta).
Thanks for reading!
-Amber