English 117B Summer 2015 Film Comparison/Analysis & Presentations
Overview: Working alone or with one of your classmates, you will make a presentation about a
film/play/story/or novel that will expand our understanding of global cultures. It might be a work
that relates to something on the syllabus, or it might break new ground. Your goal is to help
illuminate several aspects of your chosen work for the class and to stimulate class discussion.
Then you will deepen your analysis with research and write a final paper for your portfolio.
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Components: A topic proposal before the presentation, an oral presentation, and
individually written reports of your portion of the presentation (1400 words) as part of
your portfolio. The final (written) draft will incorporate research and a works cited page.
Topics: Your choice, but all should have something to do with cultural identity and/or
cultural transformation.
Presentation Duration: You will have about 10-15 minutes, depending partly on how
many people are in the group and partly on the film clips you might show or passages
you might read.
Planning: Groups will meet with the prof the week before presenting to discuss ideas.
Written portion: I will need just an outline of your presentation when you present.
However, these should be well thought-out and informative, not improvised.
Feedback: The professor and the class will respond to and evaluate your oral
presentation. The professor will conference with each student on the rough draft to offer
advice before the final draft is due.
Due dates: Topic proposals: 6/19 presentations: 7/12 conferences: 7/27-31 final draft 8/3
Book Presentation: For a novel/play/story you choose, you will do the following tasks in any
order that works best for your presentation. Your goal is to give us interesting insights into the
book or film:
1. Give us background about the writer: Summarize key biographical details (from reputable
sources, please!). Find interviews (in print, on You Tube, etc.) and cull interesting quotes and
other information to share. Feel free to include key quotes and/or excerpts of video clips of
interviews or talks. Don’t let the clips take over your presentation, though. If you are discussing
a writer we’ve been working with, avoid repeating information already given in class.
2. Identify 2-3 key passages from the book and read them to us (so we can hear the language),
explaining how they illuminate any of the above themes. You can incorporate these passages into
the discussion of themes or treat them separately. Make sure you are ANALYZING the
significance of the passages, not just summarizing the plot. You can also address the writing
style (e.g., what makes it unique, interesting, compelling, vivid, difficult, irritating, or whatever.)
3. Discuss how a key theme or conflict develops in the work and explain why it matters, both to
the writer and to us now. Discuss how the life experiences of the characters tell us something
significant about the human experience. Consider how they face the challenges in their lives in
relation to the power dynamics in their societies and their families. Consider how their identity
and their choices are affected by their race, class, gender, religion, sexuality, region of origin,
and the social norms of their communities. Relates your work to the issues and themes we have
been discussing as a class, if at all possible.
4. Adaptation: If this were to be made into a film, what assets and/or challenges might it present
to a screenwriter and director? What images and sounds (key features of film) would you
highlight in an adaptation of this book? Of course, if the book has already been adapted, you can
discuss that as a topic in itself.
5. Share what you appreciated about the book and/or struggled with as you read it. You can talk
about likes, dislikes, personal connections, ways your reactions varied, etc. Be specific. Keep
this section brief, though! One paragraph. Opinion is easy; analysis is the more important part.
Film Presentation: For the given film, you will address everything listed above for the
novel/play/story presentations except you will substitute the items below for items 1 and 2
above:
1.Writer/director: Sometimes one person both writes and directs a film, but often it is a
collaboration. Discuss whoever was responsible for the story and direction, providing basic
background information on their life and works.
2. Cinematic Analysis: Using clips from the film to illustrate your points, discuss some of the
film’s formal elements (see list below), whichever ones are worth discussing in this particular
film. You can be guided in this at least partly by what the professional critics cite as interesting
or effective in this particular film, and maybe by what awards it won. Be sure you properly CITE
the critics whose words or ideas you use in your own presentation. (Plagiarism could lead to
failure in the class.)
Topics for Comparison/Analysis Papers
1. Stories from Irish myth & folklore (Deirdre of the Sorrows, Cu Chulainn, the Silke, Oisin, etc.)
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(Films: Ondine, Secret of Roan Innish, Song of the Sea. Plays: there are two about Deirdre that I
know of, one by Yeats, one by Synge)
Stories of the Irish revolution (Films: Michael Collins, The Wind that Shakes the Barley)
Other representations of famine or epidemic in literature—Ireland’s or others.
Stories of The Troubles (films: The Boxer, Five Minutes of Heaven, Omagh, Bloody Sunday,
The Crying Game, In the Name of the Father,)
Stories of Irish history, documentary or otherwise (e.g. Firgal Keenan’s Story of Ireland, Out of
Ireland, Ned Kelly)
James Joyce’s Dublin, and others (Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments, updates of Joyce’s
Dubliners stories, film version of The Dead, Nora, Ulysses)
Plays to film (Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man, Pygmalion, My Fair Lady, Caesar and
Cleopatra, etc)
Stories of Americans in Ireland (The Quiet Man, This is my Father, The Field, The Nephew)
Stories of Irish music or other artists (Once, The Commitments, Frank, Death of a Superhero)
Stories about the role of the Church in Ireland (films: Calvary, The Magdalene Sisters,
Breakfast on Pluto)
Representations of Pagan Ireland (Confessions of a Pagan Nun)
12. Stories investigating race and racism in Irish culture (films: The Guard, The Nephew, Roddy
Doyle’s story “Home to Harlem”)
13. Slavery and the Irish (victims or perpetrators): (short novel: Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl,
stories of St. Patrick)
14. Stories of cross-cultural sports (Wondrous Oblivion, Lagaan)
15. Stories of prominent Irish women (Veronica Guerin, autobiography of Bernadette Devlin
McAlisky)
16. Celtic Tiger boom and bust, ties with Silicon Valley (The Tiger’s Tail)
17. You Choose! If there is another topic you want, make a pitch for it, but tell me what story or film
you want to use, too
Formal Elements of Literary Analysis (Including Film)
Formal Elements Unique to Film (except those shared by live theater)
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Cinematography: Camera Placement and Movement, Lighting, Color, Focus, Frame
Composition, etc.
Sound: Varies between realistic vs. expressive; simple vs. multi-layered, within the story
vs. external (e.g. the sound of a train as it passes vs. a voice-over commentary on the
train)
Music: from a soundtrack or a source within the story (e.g. a fiddler at a dance)
Editing: Cutting for Continuity; Cutting Within a Scene; Cross-Cutting (Parallel Editing)
Decor/Costume/Make-up: Visual ways to convey character, historical and socioeconomic context
Acting: styles differ: realistic vs. stylized/symbolic
Direction: Comparable to the author’s control of all the elements; varies in style between
a more autocratic, singular vision and a range of collaboration with others involved in the
production (usually the writer(s) and/or actors).
Formal Elements shared by Film and Other forms of Literature
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Character (Complexity, Development, Believability)
Plot (What happens, ordering of incidents, unity of action or subplots)
Theme(s) (Issues explored, lesson(s) offered)
Setting/context (Geographical, Historical, Social Milieu)
Symbol/Allusion/Imagery (Devices to convey meaning indirectly)
Conflict (man vs. man, man vs. society, man vs. nature, man vs. himself)
Point of View (first person, second person, third person, omniscient, etc.)
Tone (conveyed by word choice and/or tone of voice)
Mood/atmosphere (conveyed by scene description, imagery, pace, allusion)
Pace (controlled by the director in performing arts, controlled by plot choices and amount
of description in other forms of literature)
Narrative Structure (Straightforward vs. Complex, with complex involving flashbacks,
foreshadowing, dream sequences, multiple retellings with variations—as in Rashomon)
Genre (Western, noir, Sci-fi, romantic comedy, tragedy, detective story, etc.)