Winter 2017

 

Assignment #3: Sequence Analysis (250 points)
LENGTH: 3-4 pages (please do not exceed 5 pages)
–Please see the syllabus for detailed grading and assignment policies. –Feel free to email me with general questions about the assignment, but I cannot provide any specific answers to the questions or details about the film. –Always make backup copies of your work.
Assignment #3 uses a similar format to assignment #2, but in addition to mise-en-scene and cinematography you will also analyze the use of editing and, to a limited extent, sound. This assignment is based on the textbook material, lectures and class discussions. In order to receive full credit, your answers must:
• use appropriate cinematic terms as presented in class and in the textbook.• follow the format below.• demonstrate competency in basic language and mechanical skills including complete sentences and paragraphs.• be organized, focused, and coherent.  • be complete. You must complete the entire assignment in order to revise it.• be your own original work. Answers copied from another student will result in both students receiving a zero.If any outside sources are used to answer these questions, the assignment will receive a zero.
FORMAT• name, date and course in upper left-hand corner• MLA format for layout: 10-12 point standard font, double spaced with one inch margins• no introduction or conclusion is needed• use a direct, analytical prose style (see example)• do not use first person (I, we, us)• use present tense to describe films (he walks to the door)• seek assistance from the Student Success Center as needed
PLEASE NOTE: you are strongly urged to view the assigned scenes again rather than trying to rely only on notes or your memory. All films are on reserve at the CCS library. 1) Analysis: Explain why the editingand othersignificant stylistic elements (mise-en-scene, editing, cinematography, and sound) are important in constructing the following sequence: Norman standing in the doorway of the parlor through Norman seated at the kitchen table in the Bates house.  –How does the editing (along with the other stylistic elements) help tomaintain the narrativefiction of two people living in the Bates house, create suspense, and/or establish audience identification with Norman Bates?–Themes and motifs should also be identified and analyzed. –The analysis must use appropriate editing terms.
2) Organization:Number each segment in the sequence as follows. Do not copy this text.1) Norman standing in the doorway between the office and the parlor(after Marion returns to her room), looking at the guest register in the office, and returning to the parlor. 2) Norman walking through the parlor, removing the painting, and peeping at Marion.3) Norman re-hanging the painting and returning to the house.4) Norman entering and walking through the Bates house.5) Norman sitting at the kitchen table in the Bates house.
3) Content: Use the list below to help keep track of your notes and to make sure you have included all of the most significant details. Do NOT write separate analyses of each element–the point of the assignment is to describe how all of the elements worktogether to create meaning.
EDITINGShot transitionsContinuity editing techniquesAlternatives to continuity editing
MISE-EN-SCENESetting, Props, Lighting, Costume, Acting
CINEMATOGRAPHYPhotographic QualitiesStatic and Mobile FramingDuration
SOUNDHow does it relate to the editing of the sequence?
THEMES AND MOTIFSVoyeurism/EyesPredator-Prey/Birds

 

SAMPLE EDITING ANALYSIS FROM PSYCHO (Partial response)
(Norman takes Mrs. Bates to the cellar)1) The scene begins in the parlor behind the office after Norman receives a call from Sheriff Chambers. The phone and Norman’s hand are shown in a CU. The low key lighting casts eerie shadows around the room, throwing outsized shadows of the stuffed birds into sharp relief. Then the camera dollies back as Norman walks quickly across the room. He turns off the light switch. A match on action is used as he opens the parlor door, exits, and closes the door behind him….
2) This is followed by a cut to Norman walking up the stairs towards the house, where Mrs. Bates’ bedroom windows are brightly lit. A cut takes the viewer inside the house facing the door as Norman’s shadow is seen approaching through the curtain.  He enters the house and then walks slowly and deliberately up the stairs while the camera remains in a low angle shotbehind him. He turns left at the top of the stairs and enters a room, and the sound of two separate voices is heard offscreen as Norman and his mother begin to quarrel over his insistence that she must hide in the fruit cellar. The crane-mounted camera then rises up and over the hallway railing and moves towards the bedroom door. The predatory camera continues to rise and turn until it reaches a voyeuristic bird’s-eye-view of the landing…
3) Norman then exits the bedroom carrying Mrs. Bates in his arms. Because of the camera angle (BEV) and distance (approximately MLS) neither character’s face can be seen. Mrs. Bates appears to be a small, gray-haired, elderly woman wearing an old-fashioned print dress, heavy stockings and “old lady” shoes. Her frailty and passivity in this scene seem curiously at odds with her violently energetic behavior during the two murders. Mrs. Bates’ angry protests can be heard again as Norman carries her down the stairs and the scene fades to black. This scene continues the fiction that two people, Norman Bates and his mother, live in the Bates house. It also makes Norman seem sympathetic as his mother verbally abuses him for trying to protect her…