Final Exam

For your film exam essay, you will need to use the film terms and your viewing experiences to discuss the films that we watch this semester. You will reflect on your development as a critical film viewer this semester, and part of discussing your progress is being able to identify particular elements in the films that challenged you to elevate your receptivity and intellectual response. These elements include camera work, editing, etc., all of the film work you've been learning and writing about. You must spend at least an hour but no more than two hours writing this essay, starting from the moment you begin typing in your Google Drive document. In order to be finished by the end of the day of the final exam, you must begin typing this essay no later than 10:00 PM that night and be finished no later than midnight. However, if you start your essay earlier, you must be careful not to spend more than two hours on it. Also, once you start typing your essay in Google Drive, your timer begins and you must work continuously until your time is up (no time breaks!). If don't want to take the full two hours, that is okay, but you must spend at least one continuous hour typing and revising your essay. This is meant to be a minimum, so avoid trying to spend as little time as possible--this could backfire if your total time is less than the minimum. Google Drive has a revision history, so I will check to make sure that you devoted sufficient effort on this composition.

Here is how the essay works:

You will write about at least THREE films (no more than FOUR) we watched this semester (one paragraph each) to explain how you became a more observant, thoughtful, and intelligent viewer. You will need to give examples of particular film-making techniques and artistic choices to demonstrate your progress. You should not make general statements or summarize the films. Your focus should be on explaining how each film broke the mold of your previous film-watching strategies, and each paragraph must feature numerous details to make your point.

You will also write a final follow-up paragraph to explain where you are now as a film viewer and the value of your progress for you. What do you take the point of it all to be? What have you learned about the value of critical film viewing? What will you do with your new skills, your new awareness?

Use Google Drive to compose your essay. Make a document “Lastname.Firstname.Final.Exam.S20” and place it in your writing folder so that it is shared with me. This step is paramount.

You have two hours to write the essay, and you must spend those two hours composing in Google Drive from the time you start until the time you finish, just as if you were sitting in the classroom during a final exam. You may start any time the day of the final or on a day before it, but when you start is when the timer starts, and you must start no later than 10:00 pm the night of the final exam day, finishing no more than two hours later. Do not copy and paste into the Google document; instead, make sure that you type directly into your Google document the whole time.

To make your essay effective, go into detail and elaborate with plentiful examples (nothing superficial, please). This essay is NOT your typical course paper, so you don't need an introduction or conclusion. In fact, I don't want you to write an introduction or conclusion. You need one paragraph for each film and one paragraph about the value of your progress. Also, make sure there is a link between the paragraphs you write on each film; choose your THREE (or FOUR) films carefully and thoughtfully, not randomly, so that they work together in your reflection. Please take at least an hour to compose it, but if your course grade is in danger, you should not stop working on your essay until you have used up your two hours! You might also consider extending your essay to include FOUR films (in this case, one paragraph per film, plus the final paragraph, for a total of five).

To earn a "quality effort" on the essay,

• Write details, not generalizations. This fits with there being no introduction. When you start, jump right into the first film you are discussing.
• Do not summarize the story in the film--you could do that when the semester started. Doing so on the final does not show progress!
• Dig deep instead of being superficial
• Write/revise for at least one hour, no more than two, continuously
• Revise for grammar and style (grammar problems and vagueness will lead to deductions)

For it to count as complete and on time, you must meet the deadline for the essay and write for the required amount of time.