FS105 Home Page

Welcome to FILM STUDIES 105. Make sure to read this page carefully. It contains very important information you will need to know for the course. Do not skip or skim this page. 

After reading through this page, click on the MODULES tab to your left and get started on a great cinematic adventures (ok, maybe not that great but hopefully you'll have some fun and learn a few things).

In this course we will be covering the early years of American Cinema (from approximately 1930 to 1970). Over the course of the quarter, you will watch about 25 films covering a broad range of themes, styles, and social issues. While you will have some readings, the emphasis in this class will be on viewing and analyzing films. Overall, readings will be kept to a minimum (usually no more than 10-15 pages per week available on the internet). 

Each week, there will be a set of lectures for you to watch. These lectures are to be complements to the week's film viewings as well as the readings. The lectures, as well as the readings and the film viewings, are all required assignments. This is NOT a difficult course unless you skip the assignments ... then the course may give you nightmares. 

There are no books to buy for this course; however, you must have a NETFLIX Links to an external site. subscription. You should get the subscription that includes STREAMING and the TWO DVD OPTION. It's very important that you get this subscription as soon as possible and order the required films. You can look through the course modules and see all the films that you need for the quarter. Put these films in your Netflix Queue so that you get them each week on time to watch them carefully and prepare for the weekly quizzes.

Please keep in mind that we will be discussing and reading material that you may find offensive or unpalatable. You are in no way expected to agree with me or any of the material we discuss. You are, however, expected to be respectful of opinions and ideas that may differ greatly from your own. If you feel you may have problems with any of the material please come talk to me.

Grading: The grading in this course is relatively straightforward:

Quizzes: Almost every week, you will have a quiz (due by 11:59 PM, every Sunday night). There will be a total of EIGHT quizzes and I will drop the lowest grade.  These quizzes cannot be made up unless arrangements are made in advance. If you miss a quiz, that will count as your lowest score. All the quizzes are timed so that you must take them in one sitting (the length for each quiz will vary from 30 to 50 minutes). Most of the questions for each quiz wil be basic objective questions based on the readings and the films. Simply put, if you completed all the assignments, you should have no problems getting at least 80% of these questions correct. A smaller part of each quiz will ask for paragraph-long responses. These are a little more analytical. Because these quizzes are online, I have no problems with your looking up answers (although if you do that too many times, you will never finish the exam); however, you cannot copy and paste your answers. If you are caught doing that, you will receive an automatic zero for the entire quiz.

Discussion Board: There will be four discussion board assignments. Discussion Board assignments consist of two parts. For each assignment, one fourth of you will be required to respond to a question by Sunday night. These responses will be approximately 300 words (one page, double-spaced). The rest of the class then will be required to respond to your postings the following Thursday evening. All Discussion Board assignments must be done on time. Failure to do this work in a timely manner will result in an automatic zero.

Essay: You will be required to turn in three short essay assignments. These essays should follow the criteria for standard academic writing: they must be grammatically clear, have a strong thesis, be well organized, have proper formatting, etc. If you are not familiar with the rules of academic writing, please let me know and I will direct you to an appropriate resource. Essays can be turned in as late as one week after the due date; however, late papers (whether one day late or one week late) will receive a 10% penalty. In addition, you will receive no feedback for late papers. After one week, you can still turn in a paper but you will receive only half credit.

Final Project: You will be given a choice of films and must create a running commentary that covers the first thirty minutes of the movie. In other words, you are going to prepare and record a DVD commentary. For those who are not able to do voice recordings, an optional paper assignment will be given.

Grading Criteria: A "C" grade (2.0) designates satisfactory work that fulfills all of the requirements. Simply put, a "C" should be considered a good grade as it means you have done everything that was asked of you. In order to obtain an "A" grade (3.5 or higher), the work must be exceptional: fully thought-out, containing only a few minor mechanical problems, and exhibiting a sophisticated as well as nuanced understanding of the material. Below is the grading scale for the course:

Plagiarism: The worst academic offenses in the U.S. are cheating and plagiarism. For this class, that means 1) Don't turn in an assignment someone else wrote; 2) Don't let someone else (your best friend, your mom, etc.) do a lot of rewriting or proofreading for you, although it's certainly acceptable to get general feedback; and 3) Don't copy phrases or sentences from books, articles or the Internet into your papers. If I discover you have copied phrases or sentences from another source, you will earn a 0, with no possibilities for revision.

This is also true for your quizzes and exams. Each quarter, several people receive a zero on an entire quiz because they plagiarized answers. I understand that in an online course, it's perfectly acceptable to use the internet to look up answers. I have no problem with that; however, it's more that you be able to show you understand an answer. This means that you must be able to put the answer in your own words. Simply copying an answer or just changing a few words is not enough. If you look up something, think about the answer and then write it down without looking back at the website you just searched.

The first time you are caught plagiarizing on a quiz, you will lose the number of points for that question. For example, if a question is worth 5 points and you are caught plagiarizing your answer. You will receive A NEGATIVE 5 points for the quiz (yes, MINUS 5, as in less than zero). After that, any other instance of plagiarism will result in an automatic zero for the quiz.

We'll talk about how to use sources ethically; if you find yourself wanting to use a source before we cover it in class, come talk to me.

Special Needs: If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability; if you have emergency medical information to share with me; or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please provide me with the Letter of Accommodations you have received from the Office of Access Services. Access Services is located in Building 6 in the Student Development Center.

Writing Center: I highly recommend visiting the Writing Center for an appointment with a consultant at least once during the quarter. The center is a valuable campus resource where students can get assistance and additional feedback on their written work. This will be particularly crucial in this course since we will not be discussing paper writing in any great detail. The center is located in Building 26, 319.