ES 322: Fall 2018

STORYBOARD DUE DATES:

 The Cheat (1915): Monday 10/8
 The Toll of the Sea (1922): Wed 10/10
 Shanghai Express (1932): Monday 10/15

PORTFOLIO & ANALYSIS DUE: Monday 10/22

STORYBOARD REQUIREMENTS
For each film, you will storyboard a short scene or
part of a scene. Choose a scene that you would want
to discuss in class or write an analysis of. For tips on
how to create a storyboard, as well as some film
terms and shot techniques to pay attention to, see:
http://bit.ly/2fQ6Sik

Please include captions that explain the elements of

the shot and scene. This could include:
 Mise-en-scène (what appears in the film, e.g.,
setting, costume/make-up, lighting, figure expression and movement)
 Cinematography (photographic aspects of the shot (exposure, film stock, filters, depth of
field or focus), framing or duration of the shot (long take), special effects, camera position
(angle, level, height, distance) and movement (pan, tilt, tracking shot, crane shot, hand-
held))
 Editing, or relationship between shots (can be graphic, rhythmic, spatial, temporal)
 Sound (if relevant)

When describing the elements of the scene, use relevant film terms. For each storyboard, you
will need to include FIVE different film terms. Here’s a handy list of terms you can use, though
it’s not comprehensive: http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~dtjohnson/filmterms.htm

PORTFOLIO & ANALYSIS REQUIREMENTS

Please turn in your final versions of the 3 storyboards (one for each film) along with an analysis
of ONE of the storyboarded scenes.

For the analysis, make an argument about how the film, and in particular the scene, is
symptomatic of a wider set of values or concerns (e.g., about race and gender) characteristic of
U.S. society at the time. Thus, to support your argument, you will need to include relevant
context as well as close reading analysis of the scene’s details.

GRADING RUBRIC:
5% for each storyboard
___/5 Captions describe the scene well
___/5 Five terms used appropriately
9% for short analysis of one film scene
___/5 Close reading analysis of details
___/5 Application of assigned reading
___/5 Relevant context provides better
understanding of scene details
___/5 Persuasive argument given
___/5 Writing mechanics
ES 322: Fall 2018

continuity editing (a system of cutting to maintain continuous and clear narrative action and a
dominant style in Western film): 180-degree system, axis of action and screen direction,
establishing shot, shot/reverse-shot, reestablishing shot, cut-in, eyeline match, crosscutting or
intercutting, match on action

lighting: highlights/shadows, frontal lighting, sidelight, backlighting, underlighting, top lighting,

key light, fill light

LEVELS OF MEANING (Wizard of Oz as example, Bordwell & Thompson 49)

 Referential plot summary, “what” happens: “In the Depression, a cyclone takes a girl from
her family’s Kansas farm to the mythical land of Oz. After a series of adventures, she returns
home.”
 Explicit meaning film’s message: “A girl dreams of leaving home to escape her troubles.
Only after she leaves does she realize how much her home means to her.”
 Implied meaning interpretation: “An adolescent who must soon face the adult world yearns
for a return to the simple world of childhood, but she eventually accepts the demands of
adulthood.”
 Symptomatic meaning Explicit/implied meaning as manifestation of wider set of values
characteristic of a whole society, and the set of values that get revealed can be considered
to be a social ideology (52): “In a society where human worth is measured by money, home
and family may seem to be the last refuge of human values. This belief is especially strong
in times of economic crisis, such as that in the US in the 1930s.”

Timeline:
1826 Photography invented
1878 Eadweard Muybridge’s running horse
1889 Kodak introduces celluloid film

Early cinema (1893-1903)

1891 Edison’s Kinetoscope prototype
1895 Lumière brothers’ cinematograph
1902 George Méliès A Trip to the Moon

Classical Hollywood Cinema (1908-1927)

1908 D.W. Griffith begins directing
1911 first Sax Rohmer Fu Manchu film
1915 Cecil B. DeMille’s The Cheat
1915 D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation
1919 D.W. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms
1922 The Toll of the Sea
1927 Sound introduced with Warner Bros. The Jazz Singer

French impressionism in film (1918-1928): represents inner action rather than external behavior.
Use of irises, masks, or superimpositions to show character’s thoughts or feelings.

1932 Shanghai Express