Phase 1 Project: Web-based Handbook for Cinema Studies
Applicant: Jeffrey Pence, Assistant Professor
Library Liaison: Allison Gould
Technology Liaison: Albert Borroni
Proposed Schedule: August 2002-January 2003
Phase 2 Project: Vertical Integration of Handbook for Cinema Studies into Curriculum
Co-applicants: William Patrick Day, Professor; Elizabeth Hamilton, Assistant Professor;
Jennifer Horne, Visiting Assistant Professor; Jeffrey Pence, Assistant Professor; Geoff Pingree,
Assistant Professor
Library Liaisons: Allison Gould, Jessica Grim
Proposed Schedule: February 2003-May 2003
Cinema Studies at Oberlin is committed to media literacy. Obviously, media literacy demands or implies information literacy, so that what we think about photography, print, celluloid film and digital video is grounded in technological, critical and historical evidence. Perhaps less obviously, information literacy requires media awareness. In this sense, information literacy is more than a set of neutral or interchangeable methods for accessing independent and unvarying kinds of content. Instead, information literacy demands an awareness of how such content is accessed, the role of the templates of access in guiding our estimation of such content, and the possible effects of our processing of this content-always in another medium of our own choosing-on its future assessment by others.
The Cinema Studies Program at Oberlin College is a new, interdisciplinary unit formed to teach students to think critically about and through modern media in all their contexts. Although conceived as a text-based humanities major in a liberal arts context, there are certain features that distinguish Cinema Studies from more traditional disciplines, presenting students, faculty, and library personnel with specific challenges and opportunities. First, Cinema Studies' reach is global: currently, we cross-list courses with the Russian, German, English, East Asian Studies, French, Hispanic Studies, African-American Studies, Theater and Art departments. While cinema or media is the variable thread that connects these course offerings, the Program depends upon the modes of inquiry specific to each field; cumulatively, they may produce for our students an experience of the focussed but highly variable field of cinema and media studies itself. Instilling information literacy in our curriculum depends crucially on working closely with library personnel, who can bring a familiarity with the breadth of research tools available for such an expansive field of study. Second, Cinema Studies focuses on the history and future of technological development, including technologies for managing and presenting information. We see our charge as more than directing students towards something called knowledge about film and media; rather, we seek to emphasize the constant importance of the forms and processes by which knowledge is accessed and presented. For us, media literacy is information literacy is media awareness. Third, Cinema Studies crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries: film is an art and a science, as well as a social phenomenon, and rewards approaches derived from, and experiences guided by, the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities. Again, our ability to produce a sophisticated respect for the interdisciplinary nature of cinema and media in our students pivots on the involvement of library professionals in conceptualizing, organizing and bringing to pedagogical usability an array of resources that might otherwise overwhelm even a specialist in the field. Since cinema is part of the fabric of popular culture worldwide, students tend to assume a level of authority about how to gain access to and assess information about cinema. However, learning to negotiate the great variety of film-related resources available with self-reflection and sophistication is a difficult and on-going process. This grant application represents our two-part response to these challenges. First, Jeffrey Pence requests an Ohio Five Information Literacy Grant to develop a web-based handbook tentatively titled "How to Study Film." This handbook will introduce students to print and electronic resources on film history, criticism and theory and model for them effective strategies for using these resources. Second, the Cinema Studies faculty collectively requests support for the project of integrating the handbook into our curriculum.
Although our introductory course will expose a wide array of students to the basics of film analysis and research, no single course on methods could reflect the variety of possible approaches to film and media subjects. Such a course could also have the effect of signaling to students that self-awareness about media and information is more important in one part of our curriculum than another. For these reasons, the core faculty of Cinema Studies have made a curricular decision to have no single stand-alone methods course. Instead, attention to method will be paid intentionally throughout the curriculum in ways relevant to the particular level and concentration of a course (for instance, whether devoted to a cinematic mode, national tradition or other topic at the 200 or 300 level). Based on our guarantee to ourselves that we are committed to a more distributed approach to method, we have also decided to require a capstone experience for our seniors (Honors, seminar, production and/or curatorial projects) that will require significant independent research. The research handbook will be designed to support and enrich the focus on method in our courses at all levels. While Jeffrey Pence will assume responsibility for its production, the core faculty of Cinema Studies will review and approve the handbook and collaborate in its integration into our course sequence. This grant application, therefore, seeks support for formalizing and coordinating information literacy throughout the new Cinema Studies major.
During Phase 1 of the project, Jeffrey Pence will work with Allison Gould, the librarian for Cinema Studies, from August 1 to December 20, 2002, gathering, assessing and organizing relevant resources. These will include electronic sources (ranging from fan sites to industry sites to popular and critical journals), print sources (dictionaries, biographical guides, filmographies, bibliographies, OBIS and OhioLink, indexes, monographs, scripts, articles and more), and film and video sources (archives, images, rental outlets and more). Jeffrey Pence will also consult with the other Cinema Studies faculty about planning and designing the web site, which will appear on the Program's homepage. Albert Borroni, Director of OCTET, has offered to help coordinate the technical preparation of the web site. He will include a small group of students in OCTET's planned half-credit Winter Term course training individuals in html, Flash and other relevant software skills. This group will then receive another half-credit for Winter Term by producing the site in the second half of Winter Term, as planned by Jeffrey Pence with input from Allison Gould and the Cinema Studies faculty. We hope to premier the web site on the Cinema Studies homepage at the beginning of the spring term, 2003.
Phase 2 of the project commences upon the completion of a working version of the web site, with the understanding that the handbook is open to on-going revision. With consultation from Allison Gould and Jessica Grim, the Cinema Studies faculty will, collectively and individually, work during spring term, 2003, developing ideas for creating student experiences that will increase their awareness of the resources available and their sophistication and self-reflection in working with them. The skills we will be looking to instill at the 100 and 200 levels begin with understanding basics: how to work with search tools; how to distinguish between primary and secondary materials; how to use field-specific reference sources (histories, directories, contemporary reviews, production histories, and so forth); how to evaluate and make decisions among multiple sources; how to understand intellectual property, copyright and plagiarism.
Without forecasting the precise decisions the faculty might make in incorporating the handbook into distinct courses, some general concerns can be suggested. Students will need to learn how to gauge the reception of a film by the public. Relative commercial success, the penetration of a film's style or content into other aspects of popular culture or even assessing the voluntary reactions of fans' (via imdb.com, say), could be useful in this regard. Journalistic reviews offer one view of critical reception, depending upon the nature of the outlet (e.g., The New York Times or Variety) and author. Other journalistic sources are useful when films, or their subjects, are touchstones for civic debate, as with Schindler's List. Assessing specialized periodicals (e.g. American Cinematographer, Cineaste or Frauen und Film) and book sources requires exposing students to their variety and their appropriateness for particular projects. Even before these questions are explored, however, students will need to determine the character of their object of study, given its particular format.
Primary sources in film studies typically, although not universally, are celluloid prints and screenplays. Students will generally have more reliable access to VHS, DVD, televised or internet-based versions of the original film (which may or may not have an authoritative version, as with The Magnificent Ambersons). While useful, indispensable and here to stay, these alternative formats must be used with caution, given their inevitable variance from the theatrical release. Original color or black and white may wash out. Black and white films may be colorized. Screen ratios may change or be compensated for by pan and scan techniques. Sound's contribution to the film experience will change, even with the best systems currently available. Televised films may be altered-either through new edits or through compression of less dramatic sequences-and the rhythms of advertising shape experiences as well. A trend toward releasing video or DVD versions of films explicitly different from the movies experienced by previous viewers also affects researchers: an "uncut" or "director's cut" version, a wholesale reedit (e.g. the chronological version of The Godfather cycle), or even the additional material often included on discs present researchers with other questions (directors' commentary may lead to questions of plagiarism, for example). Web-based formats look pixelated and have radically thin soundtracks; they may also reflect interventions by the viewing public in cinema that were heretofore unimaginable, as with the notorious fan's cut Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Edit. Published screenplays may present only dialogue or a retrospective transcription of the directions found in the finished product. Shooting scripts, more rarely available, provide very different insights into the evolution of a film. Some important filmmakers work without any scripts.
At the 300 and 400 levels, the skills and experiences will become more demanding and more individualized: how to construct, refine and pursue independent research questions across a variety of sources; how to navigate primary sources in increasingly independent ways; how to work with multiple discourses around a given topic (say, aesthetics, national cinema traditions, and the popular reception of mass entertainment); how to become productively aware of one's own role as both a synthesizer and producer of knowledge. Again, without speculating too much, it can be imagined that the information and media literacy issues that students are introduced to in lower level courses will be revisited with an eye on mastery in upper level courses. Students will be familiar with the handbook and can be expected and required to utilize it-perhaps even contribute to its ongoing revision-in individually customized ways.
Jeffrey Pence seeks a stipend to support his work on Phase 1 of this project. Given the range of fields and resources to cover, and the complexity of planning a reference guide to be used as a teaching tool for such an array of courses, estimating how much work will be involved is difficult. A minimal estimation is that he will average 6-8 hours a week during the 20 weeks of preparation, or between 120-160 hours. During the Winter Term, a considerably larger commitment will be required to plan, supervise and see to completion the design process-perhaps another 40-50 hours. A final, although still speculative, estimate, is thus in the range of 160-210 hours.
William Patrick Day, Elizabeth Hamilton, Jennifer Horne, Jeffrey Pence and Geoff Pingree seek stipends to support individual and collaborative work on Phase 2 of this project. The Cinema Studies faculty will work independently, in consultation with Allison Gould and Jessica Grim, and together to customize uses of the handbook in their course offerings. We propose three full meetings of faculty and library liaisons: in February, to establish common yet flexible goals and strategies; at mid-term, to check in on the progress of implementing these goals and strategies and to perhaps revise them; in May, to finalize and coordinate the work of individual instructors. Around these meetings, faculty will develop their own exercise and workshop ideas. Between the first and second and between the second and third full meeting, the faculty will also meet as a unit to share our progress and questions. Tentatively, we estimate a time commitment of 24 hours over the course of the term.