1. 235-00 Introduction to Film Studies (2012/2013 Semester 1)
Plagiarism (抄襲): Properly document all sources when you are quoting, paraphrasing or
borrowing ideas from books, articles, papers, webpages or whatsoever (cite right after where you
have used them, i.e. in-text citation). Plagiarism means stealing someone’s intellectual
property and is a form of CHEATING. I am very straight on this and I will FAIL YOU and refer
the case to the College if you cheat:
(1) Buying, reusing or sharing a paper;
(2) Paying someone to write your paper;
(3) Copying from the web or other sources without citing;
(4) Paraphrasing someone’s ideas without citing;
(5) Building on someone’s ideas without citing.
Visit http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html on how to do citation in
Chicago style. You may also use MLA if this is what you’ve learned in your English class.
Instructions:
(1) Put this information box on the top end of your paper and fill in the details. Start your paper
right after this box, do not copy the topic to your paper; no cover page/College assignment
form is needed.
TO: Lisa Lam Course: Introduction to Film Studies
Name: SID:
Class Code: Topic no.: Number of words:
Declaration: This assignment is my own work, and has never been submitted for assessment for any
other course. Proper references have been made to all sources: published or unpublished works, and the
ideas of other persons.
You must turn in your paper via Turnitin (www.turnitin.com), a program employed by HKU to
check papers for proper citation and potential plagiarism. I shall post the course code and password
of your class to SOUL once I have them:
(a) Allow sufficient time to upload the paper. Do not wait till the last minute. There had been
cases in which students tried to upload their papers at the very last minute and problems arose.
When Turnitin indicates you are late, I count it as late.
(b) You are only allowed to upload your paper ONCE. No resubmission is allowed. Please
check everything before you upload your paper.
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2. (c) Late paper will be penalized – deduction of marks and no comment will be given.
(2) Length of paper:
Minimum number of words: NIL
Maximum number of words: 1500 (excluding footnotes/endnotes and bibliography). To ensure
fairness, marks will be severely deducted if your paper exceeds the word limit.
(3) General format:
(a) Write your paper in prose form; no colloquial English or point-form will be accepted;
(b) All Chinese terms must be translated into English (followed by Chinese in brackets);
(c) Use Times New Roman size 12;
(d) Italicize all film titles;
(e) Double-line spacing;
(f) Number your pages.
(4) You may discuss with me the main argument or the general organization of your paper.
However, I do NOT read draft papers, and please do NOT “verify” every single point with me
as the aim of your paper is to demonstrate your understanding of the course materials.
(5) Marks will be based on:
Excellent Very Good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Poor
Application of theoretical tools
Vigor and depth of arguments
Organization and development
Creativity and originality
Comprehension of the film
Comprehension of the reading(s)
Format (including citation format)
Language & clarity of arguments
Free of careless mistakes
Overall Effectiveness
(6) Marks will be deducted:
Not included / No
Inclusion of information box -5
Number of words -3
Double-line spacing -3
-5
In-text citation (內文引註) where appropriate
Submitted work on time 5 marks for 1 day (weekends are two days)
Non-English terms/lines translated -5
Citing others without acknowledgement -5 -10 -15 -20 Failure
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3. Topic for Assignment
I expect you to base your writing on the notes and required readings of the course. To score well, you need
to demonstrate your understanding of the approach and concepts that we covered in class. Make use
of all lecture materials and readings, cite them as support or counter-arguments and study the film carefully.
It is not a must for you to turn to other reference materials for this assignment; if you do, refer to academic
books (e.g., books in the KEC library) rather than webpages.
What I wish to know is how well you understand the lectures and theoretical tools. The topic is designed in
such a way that you will need to develop your ideas BASED ON our class discussions, lectures and the
readings. The paper aims to help you link up what we covered in our past few lectures such that, with
practice, you will have a firmer grasp of the fundamental tools and of what we meant by film as social
practice. Once you achieve this you will be well equipped to move on to a more sophisticated analysis of film
texts in your group presentation, examination and future studies.
Our last few lectures highlighted the process of meaning production in films, especially how
filmmakers could control or even manipulate audiences’ responses through different aspects of
films. Choose one film below and discuss how its structural elements of narrative, and its visual
and/or audio elements, work together to position audience to take sides with ONE CHARACTER
(i.e., audience identification). Also, briefly discuss how such positioning may reinforce or subvert
dominant beliefs of our culture. You must make use of ALL these three aspects in your analysis:
(1) Structural elements of narrative: use either Tzvetan Todorov or Claude Lévi-Strauss’s ideas
about narrative; and
(2) Mise-en-scène: choose two to work on – setting, character, costume, make-up, props or
lighting; and
(3) Cinematography (choose one to work on – distance of framing, camera angles or POVs) OR
editing OR sounds/music
Film (choose one):
(a) You’ve Got Mail (Nora Ephron, 1998)
(b) Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991)
(c) Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
(d) Chungking Express (Wong Ka-wai, 1994)
(e) Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
(f) Infernal Affairs (Andrew Lau (劉偉強) and Alan Mak (麥兆輝), «無間道», 2002)
(g) A Simple Life (《桃姐》, Ann Hui (許鞍華), 2012)
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4. (h) Love in the Buff (《春嬌與志明》, Pang Ho-cheung (彭浩翔), 2012)
(i) You Are the Apple of My Eye (《那些年，我們一起追的女孩》, Giddens Ko (九把刀), 2011)
Audiences are asked to identify with more than one character in all these films. Due to the length
of the paper, please choose only ONE CHARACTER to work on.
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