film analysis help

Final Project Poster Assignment

Project description: As you would with a traditional research paper, you will construct a thesis that is grounded in 1 or 2 of the films screened in class, and engages the textbook through at least 3 direct citations.

Your ideas will be organized both visually and textually in the form of a poster.

DUE Wednesday 5/17: Final Project Proposal (300 words) The proposal should include the film(s) you will focus on and the primary questions you want to explore. I don’t expect you to have a fully fleshed out thesis, but since the projects are fairly open I want to see that you are working towards a critical point-of-view.

Proposals should include: 1) The main film or films you’ll focus on 2) Your proposed thesis (the topic of your poster + why it matters)

DUE Monday 6/5: Final Project Poster Session

Posters should include the following content: • Project title • Description of your topic and the primary source(s) (e.g. movies) you examined • Explanation of issues or questions for analysis: What did you hope to learn about your topic? • Connection to course readings: How do selected course readings help you to understand your observations? What elements of your project are not addressed by our readings? • Claim: What are the stakes of your observations? Why should we care?

Poster guidelines: • How you organize the above information is up to you. • The size and format of your poster is also up to you, as long as the information is legible.

o However, you must turn in a physical product. We only have 1 screen, so electronic submissions cannot be accepted (because you won’t be able to display it) except under extreme circumstances.

• Please look at the examples from past years • You need not use complete sentences throughout your poster. Remember that you will be

there to summarize your work and answer questions. A mixture of full sentences and bullet point phrases will allow viewers to quickly read your content.

Poster Presentation Session:

Our final MONDAY class meeting will be a poster session during which you’ll have an opportunity to talk about your project and see your classmates’ work.

These are not formal presentations, and you won’t need to stand in front of the class. It will be more like our small group discussions. But you should be prepared to talk about your work, and to ask questions about your classmates’ projects. Participation in the poster session is part of the grade.

Written summary DUE Wednesday, March 22 @ 10:15 (via D2L dropbox):

(Page numbers are a minimum)

1. 1 pg describing your project, goals/questions, and method.

2. 1 pg summarizing the analysis, interpretation, conclusions.

3. 1 pg. describing relevance of project to course, how you applied the course material, or how it informed your work. Sections 2 and 3 should include direct citations from course reading and a bibliography.

4. 1 pg. Reflection on the process and the course as a whole. How did the poster and poster session add or distract from your understanding/application of the material? What was the most interesting/productive part of the project and/or course as a whole? Are there still unresolved questions? Will it influence the way you think about your other academic work or your own life? (You don't have to answer all of these questions. These are suggestions for the kinds of things you can reflect on).

Grading: Your project will be evaluated based on the following: • Focus: The project offers a well-articulated topic, issues or questions for analysis, and claim. All information included on the poster relates to the presenter’s topic, research question, and main argument. • Organization: The poster has a logical structure, with information grouped under appropriate headings. Each element of the poster has an obvious relation to the other elements. • Development/Support: The poster incorporates all required information. The discussion of observations and applicable course readings support the presenter’s claim. • Design: All aspects of the poster are readable; the poster is not cluttered, and all visuals serve a specific purpose. • Participation: The presenter actively participates in both discussing her/his work and the work of her/his classmates

Topics:

The more interesting a topic is to you, the more interesting it will be to everyone. You can do a close reading of a single film or focus more closely on a theme we discussed in class.

And try to have fun ☺ There are many “right” ways to do this! If you get stuck, talk to me! I’m pretty good at helping people figure out a topic!