Casablanca on the Big Screen
In June, The Michigan Theater (in Ann Arbor, MI) kicked off its 2010 Summer Classic Film Series with John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and it ends next week with Fritz Lang’s newly restored Metropolis, which will feature a live organ accompaniment of the 1927 original score. …
Why I Use Tweetdeck (and You Should Too)
Disclaimer: I’m writing this post primarily with my film students in mind, but I would argue the same for non-students.
From what I can tell, most of my film students — who are required to use Twitter this semester — are turning to the Web to tweet. Since this is where …
Teaching 200 Students How to Tweet: The Challenges
For three semesters I have attempted to incorporate Twitter into the college classroom, even once relying on the service to arrange a win-a-free-textbook contest for my Film Noir students. But overall, these attempts have failed miserably as the majority of college students — at this point in time anyway — …
Everybody Loves Raymond and Seinfeld
Regular followers of Unmuzzled Thoughts have heard me blabbing that one day I’m going to publish an essay explaining why those who loved the sitcom Seinfeld should theoretically also love the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. Well, that day has come. I finally gathered my thoughts, supported them with evidence (sifting …
The Thrill of the Long Shot
Over the weekend, The Film Dr. tagged me in a blog meme begun by Stephen Russell-Gebbett who blogs over at (the interestingly titled) Checking on My Sausages and MovieMan0283 who blogs at The Dancing Image. According to the guys, the person tagged is to submit a gallery of images that …
Students in my traditional and online Introduction to Film courses take three exams, each of which includes at least four types of questions — clip, multiple choice, short answer, and identification — all designed to target the various learning styles that my 200+ students possess (e.g., visual, aural, kinesthetic, reading-writing). …
Generally within the first two weeks of the semester, my film students learn that I do not see many movies with animals in them. They also learn early on that I cannot handle Renee Zellwegger except in Bridget Jones’s Diary. I make an exception because of the delicious Colin Firth! …
A few weeks ago, I sat down for an interview with Toledo’s PBS affiliate (WGTE) about my classroom experiences with Facebook and Twitter. “Why do I use the social networking media,” the interviewer asked. “How do students take to it, and will I continue to use it in the future?” …
Last week’s film classes were devoted to the subject of race. My students and I considered how African Americans are depicted in early and classical Hollywood cinema. To do this, we sifted through clips from The Birth of a Nation, The Pirate, and Bamboozled, the latter of which features a …
Most of the national nightly news programs now end with a positive segment. For instance, CBS has “The American Spirit,” ABC “Person of the Week,” and NBC “Making a Difference.” They do this, I’m guessing, to soften the blow of the 20 minutes of horrendous headlines that they have just …
For almost six years now, my students have learned about the elements of mise-en-scene from screening Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1988). And for nearly six years now, they have reacted to Mookie’s trashcan-tossing in much the same way: most students of color feel that Lee’s character “did the …
