Assignments/Projects

Participation (10%)

  • full attention to lectures, screenings and discussions
  • involvement and preparedness in class discussions and exercises (do the reading!)

Blogging (20%)

I will provide blogging prompts and/or exercises to help you think critically and creatively about the themes each week. Blog posts should be approximately 250-500 words , demonstrate a solid understanding of the readings/screenings and the ongoing themes in the course, be crafted as mini-essays with proper grammar and spelling and include relevant links, media inserts, “featured image” and metadata (tagging, categories).

You will also be posting all video assignments and projects (embedded from your youtube or vimeo accounts) to your blog, along with a text introduction and proper metadata.

As upper-level university students at a Tier 1 research institution, your writing proficiency should reflect that status. We will discuss what makes good blog writing throughout the course.

A:
-posts are a proper and timely response to the week’s reading(s) and prompt
-posts are developed arguments with (if required) supporting evidence (quotes, embedded videos, images etc.)
-posts are around 250-500 words
-posts are formatted with a featured image,  blockquotes, external links (where appropriate), categories, tags
-you make 5-10 comments on classmates’ (in your group) blog posts (during the semester)

B:  significantly deficient in any one of the above areas

C:  significantly deficient in any two of the above areas

D-F:  significantly deficient in all 3 of the above areas

One Day in 30 seconds (5%):

Using your smartphone in HORIZONTAL mode, record your experience of one day in short 2 to 6-second shots.

  • Try to capture various types of images and sounds, in various shots positions (close-up, medium, long-shot) and in various locations (in your home, with friends, commute, job, errands, campus)
  • Take lots of shots throughout the day and be willing to put only 30% these into the final video.
  • See if you can make visual, auditory or even metaphorical connections from shot to shot. In other words, consider what your are framing in each shot. A coffee cup on a table? A shot of a sunset or sunrise? Moving quickly down a busy and crowded hall? A close-up of the screen showing a video game?
  • With Premiere, edit shots into a 30 to 60-second video. Export with Format setting of .H264 and a preset of Youtube or Vimeo at 720p. Upload to YouTube or Vimeo and post to the blog.

This is an assignment to use a variety of framed shots (close-up, medium and long) to create a montage of one day in your life – morning to night – this week. You may use text if you like, but no music or voice over. Use only the sound you capture in the shot. Also, this is to be “first person” shooting, what you see around you, where you are. So no selfies, please. You can show parts of yourself, just no direct shots you of you staring at the camera.

* Please shoot all videos in this class in landscape or horizontal mode (like Youtube), NOT portrait/vertical mode (like Tik Tok)

** In Adobe Premiere, export your videos to .H264 format with a preset at 720p for YouTube or Vimeo. If you don’t know what that means, I will go over this in class and you can upload then. But do export your 30 sec video in a format that you can bring to class! 

Make Space (5%)

Shoot and edit a 30-60 second video that uses continuity rules to connect shots taking place in in one continuous space. For example, someone making toast in the kitchen, etc.  Or you can use uses continuity rules to connect discontinuous spaces into an imaginary whole. For example, a character leaves a bedroom and walks into a parking lot, etc. 

Break Space (5%)

Create a 30-60 second video (on any subject) that uses at least one of Eisenstein’s montage editing methods (any of these can be combined with the Rhythmic method which is similar to continuity editing):

  1. Metric – editing follows a specific number of frames, duration of shot
  2. Tonal – editing follows visual correspondences/associations for emotional effect, graphic match
  3. Overtonal – combines metric, rhythmic and tonal (a chase scene, any intense action/motion)
  4. Intellectual – editing to create abstract, non-representational ideas

Suggested topics:

  • a city, town or neighborhood symphony
  • a dream sequence
  • a montage about a complex emotional state: joy, anxiety, calm, paranoia, boredom
  • a montage of the natural world: rain
  • a montage about dawn or dusk
  • a surrealist montage
  • a spatial montage
  • a chaos/continuity scene

Loop Series (5%):

no more than 10 seconds per loop
Shoot and edit 3 video loops (6-10 second mini-narratives) that depict or evoke different subjective experiences of time: cyclic, slow, timeless, frantic, rhythmic. In one loop try to incorporate continuity editing – POV shot, match on action, etc – to maintain unity. In another, try out a more discontinuous/montage style by contrasting edited shots – dark/light, fast/slow, close-up/long-shot. In the third, attempt a perfect/infinite loop or a mini-narrative loop.  Create a variety of shot durations for emphasis. A 4-second shot sandwiched between 2-second shots, will seem to stretch time.

The best way to show the loop is to repeat (times 3-5) the edited loop in the video track before uploading to YouTube or Vimeo.

AI Cinema (5%)

In this assignment, you are to create a captivating 30 to 60-second video, using Generative AI video and audio or blending these AI-generated visuals and sounds with footage you capture yourself. This project is an exploration into the vast possibilities of AI cinema, allowing you to experiment with new forms of video production. Whether you choose to tell a story or compile a thematic montage, the core of your project should revolve around a unifying theme or a central idea that resonates throughout the sequence. The challenge is to harness the power of AI to make a video that reflects your unique creative vision.

Project Requirements:

  • Generative AI (and Original Footage): Your video should primarily feature content created using Generative AI tools like Runway ML, optionally supplemented with your own filmed footage to add a personal touch.
  • Unified Theme or Story: Maintain a clear and consistent theme or narrative thread throughout your video, ensuring each clip contributes to the overall concept or story arc.
  • Visual and Thematic Consistency: Keep a consistent visual quality, style, and thematic approach across all elements of your video to ensure a cohesive viewing experience.
  • Sound and Music: Incorporate sound or music that complements the visual elements of your video, enhancing the atmosphere and emotional impact of your narrative or theme.
  • Format and Quality: Adhere to a single video format (preferably 16:9, 720p) to maintain quality and consistency throughout your project.
  • Presentation: Upload your completed video to  YouTube or Vimeo, ensuring it’s accessible for viewing and evaluation. Include a direct link to your video in any submissions or presentations.

Video Essay (15%):

Project Overview:
In this project, you are to create a 1-2 minute video essay on a subject of your choosing. This task encourages you to blend a variety of visual storytelling techniques learned throughout the course, such as continuity editing, montage, temporal manipulation, loops, compositing, and special effects. Your video essay should be a reflection of your personal insights and style, that may incorporate a mix of your own captured video, existing video clips, AI generated video/audio, screen captures, graphics, and still images. Use text overlays and/or voice-over narration to add depth to your visual narrative. While it’s possible to craft a video essay without spoken language, this assignment requires the inclusion of written text and/or voice-over to enhance the communication of your ideas.

Project Development:

  • Subject Identification: Identify a central theme, subject, idea, or argument for your video essay. This may emerge through the creative process, but once identified, articulate it concisely to guide your project. A video or film essay is “allowed” to be divergent, it is good to have a central theme to work from.
  • Visual and Textual Material: Collect and create visual evidence and textual content that supports your essay’s argument or narrative. All visual elements should serve a purpose beyond mere illustration, acting as integral parts of your argument or story.
  • Essay Form and Pace: Decide on the structure of your essay (voice-over, text with image, or purely visual narrative) and the pacing (fast or slow). Draw inspiration from various examples of video essays to inform your decision.
  • Editing: Assemble your clips and text in Premiere to explore the structure of your essay. Adjust and refine your narrative as your project evolves.
  • Supplementary Media Collection: Gather or generate with AI additional materials such as graphics, sound, and music files, considering copyright limitations and fair use guidelines. Remember to cite all sources appropriately in your credits.
  • Drafting and Refinement: Draft your textual content, allowing for a free-flowing exploration of ideas. Later, refine this draft based on the edited visuals and audio, aiming for a tone that’s more conversational than formal writing.
  • Audio and Visual Finalization: Record and fine-tune your voice-over or apply text overlays, focusing on achieving the right tone, pacing, and clarity.
  • Final Touches: Incorporate titles, credits, and sound mixing to complete your video essay, ensuring a polished final product.

Evaluation Criteria:

  • Innovation and Creativity: The originality of your subject choice and the creativity of your narrative and visual storytelling.
  • Technical Proficiency: Your ability to effectively utilize various video editing techniques and integrate multiple media forms.
  • Narrative Coherence: The clarity and impact of your central theme, subject, or argument, and how well it’s communicated through your video essay.

 

HTML Cinema Project (10%)

Project Overview:

Bring together video and interactive design to explore complex ideas, emotions, or stories, creating a space where differences and similarities among clips enrich the overall narrative or thematic impact. With this project you are to create an interactive website that is made of short video or loops, each ranging from 10 to 60 seconds. This project is an opportunity to integrate HTML/CSS and basic JavaScript with video. You may start from provided HTML templates or you can use  ChatGPT for coding assistance to build out your own idea.

Your project can be an interactive visual essay, a branching short fiction work, or experimental montage centered around a theme, idea, or passion that is meaningful to you. Consider this a short project that can be expanded for the Final Project.

The core challenge lies in integrating separate videos or video loops, with text and design, to form a cohesive narrative or thematic exploration, using the unique properties of web interactivity to engage viewers in a multilinear storytelling experience. What connects the separate videos? How does the user interact with the videos ? How do the differences and similarities in the videos to create echos and networks of meaning? The idea with this project is to show multiple views or perspectives on a single subject. The micro-narratives can add up to one overall narrative or remain discrete fragments that are in association with the others for a montage or poetic effect.

Project Objectives:

  • Interactivity and Engagement: Design a user interface that encourages viewers to interact with the video content in meaningful ways, enhancing their understanding and appreciation of the underlying theme or story.
  • Video: Create a series of videos that, when viewed together, convey a unified narrative or thematic concept, exploring different facets of a single idea or passion.
  • Media Integration: Use HTML, CSS and JavaScript to create a web environment that integrates video loops, text, sound and/or graphic elements offering a smooth and intuitive user experience. Use ChatGPT to help you.

Steps to Completion:

  1. Theme or Narrative Development: Begin by identifying the central idea, passion, or story you wish to explore through your user interface. Sketch it out and consult with ChatGPT. This concept will guide the selection and creation of your video content.
  2. Video Curation and Creation: Create short video loops that reflect different perspectives or facets of your chosen theme. Each video should stand on its own while also contributing to the overall narrative or thematic framework.
  3. Web Page Design: Using either the provided HTML templates or custom code assisted by ChatGPT, design a website or single page that effectively showcases your videos. Focus on creating a user-friendly interface that encourages exploration and interaction.
  4. Interactivity Implementation: Incorporate interactive elements that enhance the viewing experience, such as clickable links that alter video playback, navigation controls that reveal thematic connections, or dynamic layouts that change based on user interaction.
  5. Narrative and Thematic Integration: Carefully arrange your videos, interactive and design elements, text and other media, to highlight the connections between them.

Evaluation Criteria:

  • Innovation and Creativity: The originality of your theme or narrative concept and the creative use of video and web technologies to explore it.
  • Technical Proficiency: Your ability to effectively use HTML and JavaScript to create a functional, engaging web page.
  • Video/Audio Creation: Work at the framing, pacing, camera movements. Use montage, continuity and looping for effect. Work at the sound. You may use AI Tools!
  • User Engagement: The effectiveness of your design in encouraging user interaction and exploration, enhancing the overall impact of your narrative or thematic presentation.

Final Project Overview (20%)

Project Description:

This final project is a culmination of your exploration into digital cinema throughout this course. Drawing upon the knowledge gained from assignments, readings, screenings, and class discussions, you are to create a comprehensive project that investigates at least two facets of digital cinema. This exploration can include, but is not limited to, looped video, AI video, composited video, networked video, hyperlinked video, database video and the video essay.

Project Options:

You have the freedom to choose the format of your project, which can range from a fictional narrative, a non-fictional documentary, to an abstract or experimental piece. Regardless of the chosen format, the following criteria must be met:

  • Medium: The project should primarily be made of video (moving digital images originally captured as video) as its medium.
  • Cinema Language: Incorporate elements of cinema language, such as thoughtful continuity editing and/or montage, to tell your story or present your concept effectively.
  • Conceptual Engagement: Your project should reflect a deep engagement with the ideas and themes discussed in class, demonstrating how these concepts have influenced the conception and execution of your work.

Evaluation Criteria:

Your grade will be determined by both the creative quality and effort evident in your work, as well as the depth of its conceptual underpinnings. Projects will be assessed based on their originality, technical execution, and the extent to which they engage with and reflect class discussions and readings.

Suggested Project Ideas:

  • A mini-documentary exploring a significant topic or issue.
  • A detailed profile of an individual, company, product, or institution.
  • A fictional short video that tells a compelling story.
  • A video essay that presents a critical analysis of a particular subject.
  • A series of video loops that explore thematic or conceptual ideas.
  • A work of database or hypercinema utilizing HTML5 to create an interactive experience.
  • An experimental video that employs hybrid spaces through composting, spatial montage, and other effects.