Regarding the presentations Cinema III and Cinema IV:
(please respond after viewing those presentations)
A) Do you pay attention to the music in movies?
B) What musical moments have made an impression on you
in your own experience?
(Your responses do not have to only include film clips in my presentation, but whether they do or not,
name them, please.)
C) In real life, there is only music if we play it or turn it on, yet in movies, we hear it almost anywhere. It’s a “movie thing.”
Does it make any difference to you if the music source makes sense, i. e. if you know where the sounds are coming from (diegetic)?
D) Students often avoid black-and-white (B&W) movies. Many film buffs would much rather watch a beautifully photographed B&W film than a run-of-the-mill color one. It certainly seems connected to age groups. Baby Boomers, everyone in the USA born between 1946 and 1964, grew up with many B&W movies in theaters, when movie-going was a weekly treat, and mostly B&W TV programs. When TV programs were in color, it was considered a big deal, and there would be alerts showing a peacock, saying “This program is brought to you in living color.” There used to be an actual question people asked: “Do you dream in color or B&W?” which now seems passe. (You might ask your parents and grandparents if they know that sentence.)
Anyway, when color is used well in films, it can be very special.
D) Where do you stand? How do you feel about B&W? Have your perceptions been in any way affected by the films we watched and the clips about the use of color that I showed?
One more thing: There are many classic B&W movies that have been colorized to appeal to younger audiences, who usually have a disdain for B&W (and frankly might still not watch them because they are “old). I could have uploaded a colorized version of It’s a Wonderful Life, but chose to show it to you as it was originally created.
E) Did you like or dislike any of our films because of their being in color or in B&W or was that not an issue?
