Critically compare their similarities or differences in their overt or covert attempts to reflect the reality of their respective societies on cinema.(Rashomon and Tokyo Story).
Choose two films from the list above and critically compare their similarities or differences in their overt or covert attempts to reflect the reality of their respective societies on cinema.(Rashomon and Tokyo Story) Expectation: Please indicate in the beginning of your essay which question you are responding to. However, questions should not be included in your essay. Your essay should stand as an independent text while answering the question. Come up with a creative title and subtitle that illuminate the theme of your essay. Paper’s titles and subtitles are often there for other scholars to find your paper. Include film or director’s names in the title/subtitle. Your essays should reflect your own original thoughts, required readings, class memos, and class discussions even if they are not used in your essays as sources. A 5-6-page essay is very short. You need to keep your focus narrow enough to present your views solidly. David Bordwell’s “Doing Film History” lists the types of angles one can take in studying films. You have been reading a variety of texts and are familiar with various angles that authors can take in analyzing films. Unless you are answering Question (D) and are analyzing only one film, I suggest that you choose one or two category/ies from Bordwell’s list below and organize your thoughts accordingly. Biographical history: focusing on an individual’s life history Industrial or economic history: focusing on business practices Aesthetic history: focusing on film art (form, style, genre) Technological history: focusing on the materials and machines of film Social/cultural/political history: focusing on the role of cinema in the larger society I expect papers with strong and original theses backed up by crystallized arguments and right sources, rather than the ones that merely provide background info of the films or filmmakers. Try to avoid listing what you can learn from provided readings. Determine what information is relevant and absolutely necessary to support your arguments. Your essay should be a contribution to the intellectual dialogues among scholars, and should not feel like a film review in popular magazines. In general, don’t try to introduce the films or filmmakers to your readers. Instead, introduce your ideas and go straight to your findings and arguments. Even if you choose a biographical history angle, use only the relevant biographical info. Please use your paper to investigate, persuade, or analyze, not to reach a hasty conclusion or judgment. Effective use of scene-by-scene analyses is strongly encouraged, which is a very important analytic tool in the media studies field. Refer to your viewing notes or re-watch the films when describing the scenes. There is no extension except emergency (serious illness, injury, death in family, etc). Papers should be double-spaced with margins, and about Times 12 pt. type size, MLA style, please. Minimum Requirement for Scholarly Sources: The minimum source requirement means the items that would be included in your “Works Cited” page. The “Works Cited” page should be placed as a separate page at the end of your essay, and SHOULD ONLY CONTAINS WHAT YOU ACTUALLY USED IN YOUR PAPER (no items should be entered unless they are used at least once in your essay as either a direct quote or paraphrase accompanied by in-text citations.) If you want to list the sources that you read but not used, you may include another page under “bibliography,” but it’s not required. Your works cited page should at least include: 1. Two (2) articles or book chapters from the required reading materials for the course (even if they are not academic sources), and 2. One (1) additional scholarly/academic source*. You can find this from the recommended folders on NYU Classes (Resources tab), or find on your own using the search functions of your library site. And, 3. The film(s) you have viewed and analyzed in your paper. Use the MLA citation guides below to properly cite the items: https://style.mla.org/works-cited-a-quick-guide/ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_f ormatting_and_style_guide.html *Note: Academic sources usually mean articles or chapters from scholarly journals or books – generally the ones with proper footnotes for sources used. There are some scholarly web journals such as jumpcut, or you can often find articles through the authors’ websites, but 90% of what you can find via google search is not considered scholarly sources. Very importantly, wikipedia, dictionaries, newspapers, popular magazines, websites for fans or general information are NOT scholarly sources. This doesn’t mean you cannot use them, it’s just that they are non-academic sources and your writing should show that you’re aware of that.