Sean Lawrence

( Due: Oct 3 Status: Not Completed) Major Film Theories Today 1. Watch SAC Film Theories.mov under the Assets. 2. Watch Keynote 1.5.3 Keynote QT under the Assets. 3. Watch Shen Nu aka The Goddess , a 1934 Chinese Film from writer/director Yonggang Wu. The film is broken into 8 parts, I’d like you to watch all 8, so that you can see the film in its entirety. 4. I’ve selected the Goddess for a number of reasons: first, I want to point out that while America might hold prominence in the film industry, other nations had strong national cinema’s that rivaled our own and contributed to the language of film. Secondly, notice how this example of another national cinema utilized the same components and elements of storytelling to build a strong narrative. 5. Read the critical essay by Rothman, Chapter 6 on The Goddess (pages 55-66). 6. Consider the following concepts: • As you’re reading the Rothman essay, take a closer look at the summary he writes on the film. Not...

( Due: Nov 20 Status: Not Completed) 1.2 Professionalism • This assignment is a reminder of the Global Professionalism Standards (GPS) that was explained to you in orientation. • If necessary, review the GPS policy in the student manual. • Comply with Full Sail policies and GPS throughout the course. • Post all assignments on time. • Practice proper online etiquette. • Use business format for emails to faculty and staff. • Ensure that emails are free of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

( Due: Nov 20 Status: Not Completed) 1.8 New and Alternative Genres 1. Computer and video games are a young medium in a media continuing to undergo rapid technological change. Atari’s home Pong System was released in 1975, and the Apple II home computer in 1977. About 35 years. Movies had been around for at least thirty years by the time of The Jazz Singer (the first widely successful sound film), and it would be about another decade before Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and The Wizard of Oz, two definitive early color movies. 2. Sound film was around before The Jazz Singer, and color film had been around for over twenty years by the time of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and The Wizard of Oz. In short, it often takes a while for people to take full advantage of new technology. So, even if computer technology comes grinding to a halt tomorrow, people will probably keep coming up with new things to do with it for centuries – at least. 3. Changes in how people use com...

( Due: Sep 19 Status: Not Completed) 1. Watch the “More than Diversity” video. 2. Consider: a. What was the last action or adventure movie you watched, game you played, comic or novel you read? Was the hero “white, male, straight, and probably Christian”? What about the antagonist(s) or villain(s) of the story? b. What about in the last romance or comedy you came across? The last serious drama? Were there “ethnic” characters, but only in supporting roles? c. Good writing and meaningful diversity has more to do with presenting people from different backgrounds in an informed and honest way than anything else. Think of a work you’ve encountered with a diverse cast and/or an atypical protagonist where the characters were flat or even stereotypical. Does this kind of “diversity” accomplish anything? d. Depending on the context you are writing in, the race, creed, color and gender of the characters may be handed to you, along with their roles in the narrative. Wha...

( Due: Sep 19 Status: Not Completed) 1. We’re going to engage in a bit of improvised acting, or “role-playing” as a technique to develop character. The point of this exercise is to take a character you think you know (your protagonist) and putting them in an unfamiliar situation. You will be chatting “in-character” as your protagonist with the rest of your class, each of whom will be role-playing their protagonist. 2. If you want to role-play as someone other than your protagonist, you need to contact me at least 24 hours in advance. 3. The In-Character Chat will be in a silly setting: the improbable and outlandish Restaurant at the End of the Universe (also known as Milliways), from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. Milliways is a space station situated at the end of time and the known Universe (in a frozen moment right before everything ends). Eat, drink, and admire the ultimate end of everything, then time-travel back to you own present day and tim...

( Due: Sep 12 Status: Not Completed) Goal: This assignment will familiarize you with the Myers-Briggs personality types, give you the experience of having your personality assessed for you, and aid you in the use of the Myers-Briggs and other psychological typologies and assessments for character development. Instructions: 1. Take the unofficial Myers-Briggs assessment at: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp Be sure to write down your four-letter personality code! 2. If you haven’t already, read the section on MBTI personality types and traits on the Myers-Briggs Foundation website: http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/ Be sure to follow the links for each of the “letters” in the test code – such as “Sensing (S) or Intuition (N),” the link to the “16 type desciptions.” 3. Determine your MBTI type based on the test and compare it to the other types. Consider whether you feel that this is a good impression of who (an...

( Due: Dec 5 Status: Not Completed) 2.6 Art and Sound 1. Game art and sound are incredibly important to storytelling, but they are also elements that will generally be largely or completely out of your control as a writer. You need to understand the basics, but you also need to be able to let go when, for example, a character you’d written as interesting and independent gets animated with a D-cup and a 30 inch waist, stuffed into a chain mail bikini. 2. There are a few different kinds of game art, defined by how they are created by artists and presented to the player, and a nearly infinite range of different styles can be applied to each kind of art. a. Pixel/Sprite Art: for a long time, the maximum resolution supported by computers and game systems was less then the resolution of the eye: thus, everything appeared more-or-less pixilated, made up of discrete dots or, mainly, rectangles of color. “Sprites” are 2d images made up of collections of pixels, normally designed...