Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Arts and Humanities

Filmmaking

Key Concepts

• Frame: A single image of a movie.
• Film Editing: The process by which an editor compiles shots into scenes and a film.
• Montage: Combining shots into a rapid sequence to portray a single event through multiple views (e.g., Rocky).
• Shot: An uninterrupted run of a film camera; shots are compiled into scenes, then into movies.
• Cinematography: The art of photography and camerawork in filmmaking.

Technical Details

• Movies are primarily shot at 24 frames per second (24fps).

Influential Figures

• Walt Disney: Filmmaker who built an animation legacy, starting in Kansas City. His first and last animated movies before his death in 1966 were Snow White and The Jungle Book.
• Orson Welles: Director of Citizen Kane.

Animation

• Traditional (2D) Animation:

The Unreliability of Carlito as an Omniscient Narrator in "Carlito's Way"

Carlito's Way (Brian De Palma, 1993) is a crime film that tells the story of Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino), a Puerto Rican criminal who desperately wants to escape the world that led to his incarceration. The purpose of this analysis is to examine Carlito's role as the narrator in the film and how his unreliability affects the audience. We will analyze his narrative function both in a specific scene and in the movie as a whole, explaining how this narration is used to create suspense and mislead the spectator.

Analyzing the First Narrative Intervention

To analyze this phenomenon, we focus on the first narrative intervention of the film. This is the moment when we first see... Continue reading "De Palma's Carlito's Way: Analyzing Narrative Deception and Suspense" »

Establishment of American Literature

The creation of secure public value for literary works was crucial. In the 1850s, popular fiction written by women, such as Mrs. Southworth, Caroline Lee Hentz, and Mary Jane Holmes, saw unprecedented sales. These bestsellers succeeded because they spoke directly to the evolving world of women and family life, reflecting new middle-class norms of domestic propriety. They also helped organize domestic leisure into a marketable commodity. Two factors shaped this era: women's writing and a middle-class domestic audience. This crystallized the readership and reading habits that would define literary consumption in late 19th-century America. The rise of mass journalism (the "penny-press") in the 1840s, which published... Continue reading "American Literary Movements: From Domesticity to Southern Renaissance" »

Egalitarian

(noun) The doctrine of the equality of mankind and the desirability of political, economic, and social equality.

Dictatorship

A form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution, laws, opposition, etc.).

Governors

Democracy

The political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives.

Assembly

• (noun) A group of machine parts that fit together to form a self-contained unit.
• (noun) The act of constructing something (as a piece of machinery).
• (noun) A public facility to meet for open discussion.
• (noun) A group of persons who are gathered together for a common purpose.

Matter

• (noun) A vaguely specified concern.
• (noun) Some situation or event that is thought

Juan Rulfo: Life and Literary Context

Juan Rulfo was a Mexican writer who set all his work in his home country. His father was murdered when he was six years old, leading to a childhood and adolescence defined by loneliness and a melancholic mood. Later in life, he was paralyzed by his own success, struggling to write while battling alcoholism.

General Features of His Work

• Creation Process: Carefully thought-out, proceeding by elimination and condensation.
• Narrative Renewal: A deep renewal regarding realistic narrative, environment, and social intention. He treated these issues with a fresh perspective through a deep focus and the incorporation of innovative techniques.
• Themes: Pain, broken dreams, loneliness, and death.
• Magic Realism: Transcends

Vocabulary Listening True False

• 1. Up: The way 1. Tradition 1. True
• 2. Pro: Increase 2. Earning 2. False: The Indigenous are upset with Disney
• 3. Retain: Keep 3. Unfair 3. False: Deep and white people don't give a job in...
• 4. Ill: Unable 4. Were camp 4. True
• 5. Refer: Avid 5. Theme 1. There were...
• 6. Seize: Take 6. Had to lie 2. Appropriation
• 7. Cue: A hint 7. The athletes 3. Trying
• 8. Olympics were 4. Unrealistic

The Need for Native American Representation

Disney doesn't give roles to Indigenous people; for this reason, they should create an industry. Indigenous people should create organizations for their rights since Disney gives roles only to white people. The Indigenous should work with independent filmmakers due to the fact that Disney prefers... Continue reading "Disney and Native American Representation in Film" »

Religious Interpretations in Waiting for Godot

Does the play warrant a religious reading? Can Godot be considered a Christ figure or simply a religious figure? If so, what is implied by his failure to appear? What about Estragon's attempts to equate himself with Christ? Consider also the many biblical allusions throughout the play, such as the mention of Cain and Abel and the discussion of the story of the two thieves.

Beckett's apparent wariness of religion (or perhaps because he wishes to make folly of it), the question of faith appears frequently in Waiting for Godot. Most obviously, the metaphor stems from the eternal waiting that the Christian faces in his belief that Christ will return but at an unknown time. The play first addresses this... Continue reading "Faith, Action, and Repetition in Waiting for Godot" »

Feminist Perspectives on Class and Power

Michelene Wandor discusses the limitations of non-socialist feminism:

“And because bourgeois feminism accepts the status quo (with a bit more power for women) it also—like radical feminism—has no interest in a class analysis, and certainly no interest whatsoever in socialism or the labour movement.”

Wandor contrasts this with the scope of socialist feminism:

“Socialist feminism ... proposes changes both in the position of women as women, and in the power relations of the very basis of society itself—its industrial production, and its political relations. Thus while radical and bourgeois feminism can account for certain kinds of reform change for women, only socialist feminism can offer an analysis

Social Transformation

The social changes affected the nobility and the bourgeoisie. The old nobility lost its military function. The bourgeoisie was enriched by its work and was considered a useful group that unjustly lacked social recognition and political influence.

Enlightened society criticized the estate system. It questioned the nobility for enjoying privileges while not performing socially useful functions. It criticized the clergy because they were numerous and wealthy, which was seen as unproductive. Enlightenment thinkers advocated the creation of a new society based on social value and personal worth.

Cultural Transformations

Public education was fostered by the Enlightenment to avoid ignorance and to reduce ideological control by the... Continue reading "Enlightenment Social Change, Rococo and Neoclassical Art" »

Key Differences Between Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

The major development was Impressionism's claim to a specificity of pictorial language, which placed painting on a plane totally different from the production of other images.

The Impact of Photography on Traditional Painting

It is important to remember that in those years, the birth of photography had made available a tool for the reproduction of reality that was totally natural. Photography records optical vision with a fidelity and speed that no painter could ever reach. Consequently, photography forcibly occupied the specific field for which painting was originally born: to reproduce reality. Competing with photography in terms of naturalism would be a losing and useless battle;... Continue reading "Impressionism vs Post-Impressionism: Artistic Evolution" »