Terri Meyer Boake BES BArch MArch LEED AP
Associate Professor _ Associate Director _ Undergraduate Academic Officer
 

Arch 443/646: Architecture and Film
Fall 2008: Course Home Page

Renaissance 2054

 

"...it's a very very mad world..."

 

Wednesdays 10:00 to 2:00, Cambridge, Main Floor Lecture Hall ARC 1001
Please note: With the exception of the first class/film, the class will begin at 10 a.m. with discussion/responses to the previous week's film. The film listed for the week will start around 11 a.m. "Visitors" will always be welcome to the class.

Course Description:
This course explores the relationship between Architecture and the development of early and modern films. Students will look at the source and portrayal of architectural expression in film: precedents for imagery, its relationship to the development of early modern architecture, and its vision of the urban future.

it's a very very mad world...
This year's theme will begin to combine ideas of the relationship of the use of architectural and urban elements in film with respect to dystopia and the uncanny. How this is architecturally evidenced in the various films will reveal itself as the term progresses. The films have been loosely ordered in sequence so that a series of relationships can be developed between them. It is therefore important that you attend and see all of the films - whether or not you have seen them before. You will be responding to a specific pre-assigned question each week. Some of the questions will tie two or more films together.


 

We will be using FinalCutPro to make our films. The films will be required to manipulate their environments to attempt to modify the direct use of architectural environments in the films to reflect the theme of the term. How the effects are achieved is completely up to you.

The undergraduate and graduate work will also require the creation of a website using Dreamweaver. Masters student will prepare more "advanced" text intensive research related websites. Tutorials in both of these softwares will be provided. The website will create distinct topics related to the theme of "faking it". A reflective piece will be published in a similar mode to the "Zero Gravity Environments" (2005), "Dystopia" (2006) and "How Uncanny" (2007).

Students wishing to explore some of these ideas using iMovie, are recommended to look at some additional plug-ins that are available at http://www.imovieplugins.com/ that enable rotation of movies and adjustment of image height (when it goes sideways...). This is not meant as an endorsement of the product. It just works and the plug-ins are relatively inexpensive.... invert clip, angle clip

Pedagogic Objectives:
The course is intended to develop a critical perspective of the use of architecture in film. Students will learn to examine both the medium of film and the form and style of architecture as they relates to the development of both film media and culture. Students will engage in research to understand the choices and expression of architecture used in film, as well as the relationship between the idea of the future city and its relationship to both built and natural environments.

Completion Requirements:
The course will be run in a seminar format. Each week we will view a film, discuss its relevance to architecture, culture, environments, and the perception of all three. The discussions will take place in a “for credit” mode. Attendance is mandatory. Two missed classes will constitute failure of the course.

IMPORTANT: IF YOU MISS SEEING A FILM
Many of these films are not in Musagetes. If you miss seeing a film in class, please arrange to see it. I am not lending out my personal copies.

LINK TO THE WEB ASSIGNMENT!

last updated Sunday, November 16, 2008 8:33 AM

 

Schedule of Classes and Films:
Please note: With the exception of the first class/film, the class will begin at 10 a.m. with responses to the previous week's film. The film listed for the week will start around 11 a.m. "Visitors" will always be welcome to the class.
Date Film Name and Details Reviews and Links
 

Recommended background reading: A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World

September 10
First half of class

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 1920 | 72 minutes

The film that forged the dark, ominous cinematic movement known as German Expressionism - and influenced vanguard filmmakers for generations. Werner Krauss stars as a deranged hypnotist who spreads death through the countryside from a ramshackle traveling carnival. In making the film Robert Wiene and designers combined techniques of painting, theatre and film to conjure a nightmare world of splintered reality ... boldly creating a visual representation of insanity .. taking the art of cinema a lengthy stride into unexplored stylistic and psychological terrain, hinting at the terrifying power the medium might possess.

http://www.film.u-net.com/Movies/Reviews/
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/
http://www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/
http://victorian.fortunecity.com/
http://www.plume-noire.com/movies/cult/caligari.html
http://www.filmmonthly.com/Silents/Articles/Caligari/
http://www.german-cinema.de/app/filmarchive/

please read short article in "Metropolis to Blade Runner" p. 50-57

September 10
Second half of class

Un Chien Andalou 1929 | 16 minutes

Acclaimed as a surrealist masterpiece, Un Chien andalou aggressively disconnects itself from narrative flow. The creators of this short film. Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, fully intended there to be no links between successive scenes. Fortunately this didn't inhibit their dreaming up of some of the most striking moments ever to be projected upon the silver screen. The opening focuses on a man (Luis Buñuel) stropping his cut-throat razor, honing it to a perfect edge.

+ some other shorts from the Avant-Garde Collection

Un Chien Andalou:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_chien_andalou
http://www.film.u-net.com/Movies/Reviews/
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/bunuel6.html

http://www.aracnet.com/~jester/clockdva/delivery.html

http://www.ubu.com/film/ray.html

Night and Fog:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/03/26/
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare/

Ballet Mecanique:
http://www.antheil.org/film.html
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/fnf96n3.html
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/ballet-mechanique/

   




Sept 17

discussion questions

Batman 1989 | 126 minutes

Fifty years after Batman's debut as a comic strip in 1939, Warner Bros. turned the theme into a major motion picture with a $27M budget. The film was produced at the Pinewood Studios outside London, which provided spacious soundstages and a 95 acre backlot for the creation of an ambitiously complex city set. Eventually the 400 m long set became the most expensive outdoor set built in Europe since Cleopatra. Created in an astonishingly short time it is also one of the most compelling urban visions in the history of filmmaking.

I am counting on everyone having seen the recent film The Dark Knight as well.

We will also be viewing as much of the series of animated shorts, Gotham Knight, as we can fit in.

 
   

CANCELLED! THIS IS OPEN DOORS CAMBRIDGE AND WE WOULD BE CONSTANTLY INTERRUPTED. THIS WILL BE RESCHEDULED. TBA.

SATURDAY
October 25
10:30 am to 1 pm

Dreamweaver Tutorial
All registered students are required to submit a website as part of this course. This tutorial will address the use of Dreamweaver to create your site. ALL STUDENTS ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND.

RESCHEDULED!

I have to be in on this Saturday as I am attending convocation in the afternoon and the grad reception following.

Introduction to Dreamweaver Tutorial link

Excellent tutorial:
http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/webdesign/

   


Sept 24
discussion questions

A Clockwork Orange 1972 | 137 minutes

Stanley Kubrick's striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess's famous novel is a masterpiece. Malcolm McDowell delivers a clever, tongue-in-cheek performance as Alex, the leader of a quartet of droogs, a vicious group of young hoodlums who spend their nights stealing cars, fighting rival gangs, breaking into people's homes, and raping women. We watch Alex transform from a free-roaming miscreant into a convict used in a government experiment that attempts to reform criminals through an unorthodox new medical treatment. The catch, of course, is that this therapy may be nothing better than a quick cure-all for a society plagued by rampant crime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange
http://www.filmsite.org/cloc.html
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/clockwork_orange/
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/clockworkorange/
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0051.html
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0051.html
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9145/aco.htm
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/clockworkorange/
http://www.screentalk.biz/moviescripts/
http://www.tabula-rasa.info/Horror/ClockworkOrangeFiles.html
http://cinemaspace.berkeley.edu/Cinema_Beyond/
http://www.ludovicotechnique.com/ludovicohome.html

 

   

October 1
FinalCutPro Tutorial
Use of this software is not mandatory to produce your movies but it will be "supported". The video lab at the school is set up with computers for exclusive FCP use by students. Students may also use iMovie as the regular lab computers are all equipped with iMovie/iDVD.
extra notes

Excellent tutorial:
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/multimedia/tutorials/finalcut/

These also look like great help sites:
http://users.design.ucla.edu/
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/
http://www.atomiclearning.com/finalcutprox.shtml
http://www.sjmclib.umn.edu/viscomm/finalcutpro/
http://www.lafcpug.org/tutorials.html

   


Oct 8

discussion questions

A Zed and Two Noughts 1985 | 116 minutes

Oliver Deuce, a successful doctor, is shattered when his wife is killed in a freak car accident involving the car being driven by Alba Bewick colliding with a very large rare bird. His twin brother Oswald is researching how carcasses decay at the local zoo. Alba survives the accident although she loses one leg. Oswald and Oliver become involved in a menage a trois with Alba, and uncover very dubious trafficking in zoo property. But ultimately their only goal is to try and understand their mortal condition.

WE WILL SHOW UN CHIEN ANDALOU ON THIS DAY AS WELL.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090366/plotsummary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Zed_&_Two_Noughts
http://petergreenaway.org.uk/zoo.htm
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/18/zoo.html
http://seikilos.com.ar/seikilos/2008/06/vermeer-en-zoo-a-zed-and-two-noughts-de-peter-greenaway/
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1213201
http://petergreenaway.org.uk/bio.htm

http://www.cinematographers.nl/GreatDoPh/vierny.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacha_Vierny

PLEASE NOTE! WE WILL VIEW CHIEN ANDALOU FIRST, THEN A ZED AND TWO NOUGHTS, THEN TAKE UP A CLOCKWORK ORANGE QUESTIONS.

   


October 15


True Stories 1986 | 89 minutes

Truly quirky, this mock documentary is part musical, part farce, and completely, oddly innocent. This is a one-man-band job for David Byrne (lead singer of the Talking Heads), who writes, stars, and directs, It's ostensibly about the sesquicentennial celebration of a small Texas town, but it's really about strange characters and strange attitudes. Byrne is our guide, driving us around and giving tour information about Texas in an innocuous patter, frequently running into Louis Fyne (John Goodman), a lonely man looking for love. At various times, and with little provocation, the film swoons into a Talking Heads number with preachers and bar patrons belting out tunes.

http://www.talking-heads.net/truestories.html
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/true_stories/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Stories_(film)
http://www.davidbyrne.com/music/david_byrne_music_bio.php
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/t/talking+heads/biography.html

...more true stories links to come...


The Belly of an Architect1990 |119 minutes

Stourley Kracklite, played by Brian Dennehy, is a man with a prodigious ego, lust for life and may seem initially to be less than a sympathetic protagonist. He is an architect, an artist with a vision and a mission.From the beginning, his passion for his intellectual mentor,a fictional 18th century French architect, Etienne-Louis Boullee, and the scientist Sir Isaac Newton, provokes thinly veiled ridicule and skepticism from his Italian colleagues. Even when faced with a young and ruthless nemesis, Kracklite remains indomitable. His belly, the center of gravity, becomes a metaphor for his frailty, his humility and his humanity.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092637/
http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/belly_of_an_architect/
http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/0/

Student Reviews:

Anne-Marie Armstrong
Julia Farkas

   

.

SATURDAY
October 25
10:30 am to 1 pm

Dreamweaver Tutorial
All registered students are required to submit a website as part of this course. This tutorial will address the use of Dreamweaver to create your site. ALL STUDENTS ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND.

RESCHEDULED!

I have to be in on this Saturday as I am attending convocation in the afternoon and the grad reception following.

Introduction to Dreamweaver Tutorial link

Excellent tutorial:
http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/webdesign/

   


Oct 22

discussion questions

Terry Gilliam’s Brazil 1985 | 2 hours 30 minutes

Brazil is a surrealistic nightmare vision of a "perfect" future where technology reigns supreme. Everyone is monitored by a secret government agency that forbids love to interfere with efficiency. Johathan Pryce and Robert De Niro star with Michael Palin in this chilling black comedy directed by former Monty Python member Terry Gilliam. When a daydreaming bureaucrat becomes unwittingly involved with an underground superhero and a beautiful mystery woman, he becomes the tragic victim of his own romantic illusions.

http://www.mrqe.com/lookup?^Brazil+(1985) http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/
http://www.trond.com/brazil/ http://www.smart.co.uk/dreams/ http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue06/features/brazil.htm http://members.aol.com/morgands1/closeup/indices/gillindx.htm http://membres.lycos.fr/brazil/GB/indexgb.htm
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/movies/brazil-faq/
   

Alphaville 1965 | 99 minutes

A cockeyed fusion of science fiction, pulp characters, and surrealist poetry, Jean Luc Godard's irreverent journey to the mysterious Alphaville remains one of the least conventional films of all time. Eddie Constantine stars as intergalactic hero Lemmy Caution, on a mission to kill the inventor of fascist computer Alpha 60.

http://www.faithfulandtrue.de/GODARD.HTM
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/
http://www.pifmagazine.com/SID/638/
http://www.coldbacon.com/movies/
http://www.lafn.org/~cymbala/alphavil.html
http://michaelbenedikt.tripod.com/godard.html
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/eluard.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphaville
http://www.cinematicreflections.com/Alphaville.html
http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/godard.html

   

Nov 5

discussion questions

Equilibrium 2002 | 107 minutes

In a futuristic world, a strict regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions: books, art and music are strictly forbidden and feeling is a crime punishable by death. Cleric John Preston (Bale) is a top ranking government agent responsible for destroying those who resist the rules. Whe he misses a dose of Prozium, a mind-altering drug that hinders emotion, Preston, who has been trained to enforce the strict laws of the new regime, suddenly becomes the only person capable of overthrowing it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238380/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrium_(film)

http://www.moviebodycounts.com/charts.htm

   


November 12

discussion questions

 


Renaissance 2006 | 105 minutes

In 2054, Paris is a labyrinth where all movement is monitored and recorded. Casting a shadow over everything is the city's largest company, Avalon, which insinuates itself into evry aspect of contemporary life to sell its primary export, youth and beauty.

This French film was only shown briefly in the US. It features the extensive use of motion capture as the basis for the animation of the people in the film as well as the layering of recognizable architecture of Paris with that of 2054.

http://www.renaissance-lefilm.com/accueil.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_(film)
http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/movie/upcoming

   


November 19

+ a short tutorial on iDVD

Paprika 2006 | 90 minutes

Three scientists at the Foundation for Psychiatric Research fail to secure a device they've invented, the D.C. Mini, which allows people to record and watch their dreams. A thief uses the device to enter people's minds, when awake, and distract them with their own dreams and those of others. Chaos ensues. The trio - Chiba, Tokita, and Shima - assisted by a police inspector and by a sprite named Paprika must try to identify the thief as they ward off the thief's attacks on their own psyches. Dreams, reality, and the movies merge, while characters question the limits of science and the wisdom of Big Brother.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0851578/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paprika_(2006_film)
http://www.sonyclassics.com/paprika/

 

   
Nov 26

Final Student Film Presentations!!!

All students must be prepared to have their final films ready for showing on this date. Please be sure that they are burned to a DVD-R format disk! (or they won't work on a regular DVD player).
EVERYONE AND ANYONE IS INVITED!

   
 

Undergraduate Requirements:
Weekly Comments 20%:
Each week I will distribute a series of "questions" regarding the film viewed. The answers will be submitted and discussed at the beginning of the next class. The answers will be posted on this webpage.

Assignment #1: The Website 30%
A web style review or exploration of the terms' films based on the use of architecture in the film. There should be a minimum of 1500 words of paragraph style text included in the web site that relates to the discussion of the link between madness, architecture and film. The web sites should include links to external references, a bibliography, and give credit for included images and information. The reviews will be posted on the course webpage. The reviews are due TBA at 9 a.m.. You may use the Mac lab at the school to create your project. Be aware that the lab is shut down as of the morning of due date for its rebuild. Please refer to the website generated by the Fall 2005 class to see what we are going to do! link
Link to introduction to Dreamweaver Tutorial link

Assignment #2: (HBAS)The Video 50%
The major work will be the creation of a Music/Architecture 'video' taking a piece of music of choice and create a visual/animated/video piece that relates selected architecture to the music. The project exposes students to a scaled down version of the process of selecting/designing the architectural set for film. The requirements and media will be left quite open. You may work in teams of up to 2 students or alone. You may select your own piece of music (minimum 3 minutes in length, maximum 10 minutes). You are to create a “video” that uses architecture and architectural images in such a way as to support the music, and vice versa.

Graduate Requirements:
Weekly Comments 20%:
Each week I will distribute a series of "questions" regarding the film viewed. The answers will be submitted and discussed at the beginning of the next class. The topics of the weekly questions given to the class at large will be designed to feed into the research/website/essay requirement. The answers will be posted on this webpage. To see what is involved, please visit the web page from Arch 646 Fall 2006. Look under "discussions" at each week's film entry. link

Assignment #1: The Video 40%
The major work will be the creation of a Music/Architecture 'video' taking a piece of music of choice and create a visual/animated/video piece that relates selected architecture to the music. The project exposes students to a scaled down version of the process of selecting/designing the architectural set for film. The requirements and media will be left quite open. You may work in teams of up to 2 students or alone. You may select your own piece of music (minimum 3 minutes in length, maximum 10 minutes). You are to create a “video” that uses architecture and architectural images in such a way as to support the music, and vice versa.

Assignment #3: Advanced Web Site/Research "Piece" 40%
M.Arch. Students will be responsible for a 3,000 word research paper that is contained within a web site interface. The research will address a series of topics that will attempt to identify and connect different themes in the development of the use of architecture and urbanism in modern film. Such topics will include: representation of the metropolis, environmental change, transportation, methods of presenting architecture (sets, backdrops, live shoots, digital media), cinematic devices, shooting angles and positions, light and darkness, etc -- or anything else that reflects the content of this course or which may be relevant to your thesis. Full bibliographic references (and links to such if possible) are required to be posted on the webpage(s). If not, plagiarism can be charged. Please refer to the website generated by the Fall 2005 class to see what we are going to do! link

References:

Required:
Deitrich Neumann, editor. Film Architecture from Metropolis to Blade Runner. Prestel, 1999. (only available now through amazon.com, in their used books area link1, link2. Or try www.alibris.com as they have some and a good selection of other used books.) This is a simply amazing book that is now out of print.

complete list from my film library

More recommended texts coming... This is a carry over list from last year. Some of these are out of print. There will be new listings coming that are more in line with the topic of this year's course.

Recommended:
Mark Lamster, editor. Architecture and Film. Princeton Architectural Press, 2000.

Donald Albrecht. Designing Dreams: Modern Architecture in the Movies. Hennessey + Ingalls, Santa Monica, 2000.

Maggie Toy, editor. A.D. Architectural Design Profile no. 112. Architecture and Film. Academy Group Ltd. 1994.

Maggie Toy, editor. A.D. Architectural Design Profile no. 150. Architecture + Animation. Wiley-Academy. 2001.

Francois Penz, editor. Cinema & Architecture: Melies, Mallet-Stevens, Multimedia. British Film Institute, 1997.

Thomas Hine. Movie Houses. Architectural Record. 04.02.

Terry Smith, editor. Impossible Presence: Surface and Screen in the Photographic Era. University of Chicago Press, 2001.

 

Other miscellaneous, but helpful links:

http://www.albany.edu/faculty/gz580/histdocfilms/
great film course on the making of documentary films and their history

http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~sparks/sffilm/indexsff.html

(fantastic sci-fi film course homepage from Clemson University -- great links and reading references for a wide range of films)

http://www.mrqe.com/
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/2976/SF_FilmResources.HTML

The Cinematic City: The City and Architecture in Motion Pictures
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/cinematiccity.html
http://shipofdreams.net/sfmovies/movielinks.htm
http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/film/films/

http://www.scifimoviepage.com/index.html

Filming Locations used in Many Movies:
http://www.movie-locations.com/

 

Avoidance of Academic Offenses
Academic Integrity: To create and promote a culture of academic integrity, the behaviour of all members of the University of Waterloo is based on honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy70.htm

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offenses, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offense, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offenses (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under Policy 71 – Student Discipline. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy71.htm

Appeals: A student may appeal the finding and/or penalty in a decision made under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than regarding a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline if a ground for an appeal can be established. Read Policy 72 - Student Appeals, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy72.htm

Note for students with disabilities: The Office for Persons with Disabilities (OPD), located in Needles Hall, Room 1132, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the OPD at the beginning of each academic term. Once registered with OPD, please meet with the professor, in confidence, during my office hours to discuss your needs.
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last updated November 16, 2008