SCHEDULE
Here’s what we’ll spend our time doing this Summer quarter. The schedule will evolve as we proceed. Watch regularly for more details, added activities, and stuff might change or move around as our conversation does. You can use justwatch.com to find where any of the films we'll be watching are streaming or available for rent. And keep doesthedogdie.com handy, in case you're feeling squeamish about any of the films. I'm always happy to suggest alternatives if the themes of a film make you feel uncomfortable for whatever reason.
Week 1: June 23-27
For this first week, I've broken the activities into individual days to give you a sense for how you might spread the work throughout the week. I won't do that for subsequent weeks. In short, you'll watch two movies each week, do some reading, engage with your peers, and complete a writing assignment. You are welcome to spread this work throughout the week however makes most sense to you.
Monday, June 23
Get oriented to the class. Read the syllabus. Read through this schedule. Watch a movie. Any movie.
Tuesday, June 24
First, watch:
Leigh Whannell, The Invisible Man (2020) (Amazon Prime for rent)
Then, do some stuff:
1) Sign up for our Discord server, which I'll add to Canvas and e-mail to you before our first day. Here's a quick getting started guide for Discord, if you haven't used it. Discord will be an extension of our classroom and where you'll be sharing your work for the course and engaging with the work of your peers.
2) Jump into the #invisible-man channel on Discord. I'll be creating channels for each of the films so that you can share thoughts as you're watching the films.
Wednesday, June 25
First, read:
The Beat, "7 Standard Filmmaking Shots Every Cinematographer Must Know"
Then, do some stuff:
1) Make a short (less than a minute) video introducing yourself to us. This can be super simple (shot on your phone, no editing, etc.). Share your video in the #who-are-we channel in Discord.
- Don’t tell us your major, unless you have a story about it
- Don’t tell us what you did over the holiday break, unless it involves giant snakes, parachuting, a unicorn, or it will be documented in a viral video
- Don’t tell us where you grew up, unless you’re going to show pictures
- Do tell us what moves you, what you care most about
- Do tell us what you hope to get from taking this course, but only if you can do so in a limerick
- Do tell us where you are
- Do give us random facts we can come to know you by
- Do click here and answer the first would you rather question that catches your eye
To share a video in Discord, upload to YouTube (or any other site where videos live) and share with a link. Or click the little + to the left of the message box in Discord, select a video file you created, and add a title or hello in the message.
2) Watch some of the videos of your peers, respond, add reaction emojis, etc.
3) You'll need a space online to share your work for this course. A couple options: (a) Use your own personal site or blog, if you have one; (b) Sign up for a free account on Medium; (c) Prepare to publish anywhere else (Google Drive, WordPress, Tumblr, etc.), as long as you can post regularly and share your work with the class via hyperlinks. Feel free to leave your full name off of your site (or use a psuedonym).
Thursday, June 26
First, Watch:
Jordan Peele, Get Out (2017) (Amazon Prime for rent)
Then, do some stuff:
1) Choose a single frame from either Invisible Man or Get Out that you'd like to think about further. By the end of the week (June 29), you'll submit a short essay (of 500–1500 words) analyzing that frame. I recommend pausing on the frame and writing with it on screen. (As an alternative, you could consider a single cut, the juxtaposition of two frames next to one another in the film.)
2) Consider framing, lighting, camera angle or technique, props, performance, setting, sound, dialogue, symbolism, etc. Start with basic elements of the frame: what's on the right, what's on the left, what's large in the frame, what's small? Is this a closed frame or an open frame (is the image self-contained, or does it point to a world beyond its edges)? What meaning can you draw from the shot or scene? Why is it so important to the film? How do specific elements of the shot/frame support or complicate your answers to these questions?
3) There is no right way to do this work. The key is to keep looking and keep writing about what you notice. This isn't a formal essay, so you don't need a thesis, but you might end up with one. At this point, you're dumping the LEGO pieces out, sifting through them, and seeing how they fit together, but not necessarily building anything yet.
Friday, June 27
First, read:
"Excerpt from Get Out: The Complete Annotated Screenplay" (spoiler alert, if you haven't watched Get Out yet)
Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: "Chapter 3"
Then, do some stuff:
Continue work on your short analytical essay, which is due by the end of the day on Sunday, June 29.
Sunday, June 29
Share Short Analytical Essay:
1) Before the end of the day, publish your post wherever you will be doing the work for this course (a blog, Medium, Google Drive, somewhere else). If you're working publicly, tag your post with #writinghorror. Share a link to your work in the #our-work channel on discord. Make sure your work is viewable by anyone with the link.
2) Find posts by a few of your peers and add comments. Respond to comments.
Week 2: June 30 - July 6
Starting this week, I'll just list the major activities you'll finish during the week. Feel free to tackle these in whatever order makes most sense to you.
Watch:
John Carpenter, Halloween (1978) (Amazon Prime for rent)
Ridley Scott, Alien (1979) (Amazon Prime for rent)
Read:
Haiyang Yang and Kuangjie Zhang, "The Psychology Behind Why We Love (or Hate) Horror"
(Optional): Jesse Stommel, "Why Horror?"
(Optional): Jesse Stommel, "Pity Poor Flesh: Terrible Bodies in the Films of Carpenter, Cronenberg, and Romero."
Do some stuff:
1) Write a short essay (500–1500 word) responding to either the piece by Yang and Zhang or the ones by me wherever you're doing your work for this course. Consider the question "why horror?": Why, as a culture, do we watch horror films? Why is the genre so intensely popular? Why do otherwise seemingly normal people make these films in the first place? Why doyou watch horror films? Why did you sign up for a class about horror? What about our current historical moment is impacting the kind of horror being released and becoming popular? What does talking about the horror genre have to do with writing? Share a link to your response and highlights in the #our-work channel on discord.
2) Respond to the work of your peers in the #our work channel.
3) Write your midterm self-reflection (click here). Read some or all of this stuff, as you think about your self-reflection: Nancy Chick's “Metacognition”, Alfie Kohn's “The Case Against Grades”, and/or Audrey Watters's “The Web We Need to Give Students”.
4) We'll be working on creative non-fiction pieces next week. Skip ahead, if you want more info. Start by writing a 6-word horror story. Here's the gist. Share your story in the #six-word-stories channel on Discord.
Week 3: July 7 - July 13
Watch:
Sam Esmail, Leave the World Behind (2023) (Netflix)
Gerard Johnstone, M3gan (2023) (Amazon Prime for rent)
Read:
Four entries from Writing Commons: "Rhetorical Situation," "Ethos," "Pathos," "Logos"
Joseph Williams, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace: "Understanding Style" and "Correctness"
Do Some Stuff:
1) Write a creative non-fiction essay. You'll be working on this for the next couple weeks. The finished essay should be around 1000–1500 words. (I leave the word count range really broad on purpose, because I want you to find your own way into this work. This is a guide only – I certainly don't want you to add words just to meet a word count.)
According to creativenonfiction.org, the creative non-fiction genre is "true stories, well told." There's lots more to read there. One of the things that distinguishes creative non-fiction from other sorts of narrative writing is that you're not only telling a story but also reflecting upon it in some significant way. Your story can be about you, or about someone else. It can be about factual truths, emotional truths, historical truths, personal truths, etc. How you get at those "truths" is up to you. You can use just prose, a mixture of prose and images, a branching choose your own adventure style narrative, or whatever else feels right. At the point that you begin playing with form, word count may become irrelevant.
Think carefully about your first sentence and how you're working from the very first words to draw in your reader. Here are some examples of first sentences from literature with a bit about what they're doing and how they're doing it.
And, one more thing: since this is a horror class, whatever you do, make it scary.
2) Share your Creative Non-fiction essay in the #our-work channel. and respond to the work of at least several of your peers.
3) You'll be submitting a longer writing assignment next week. Feel free to jump ahead to get your bearings.
Week 4: July 14 - July 20
Either, watch:
These are some horror films that I particularly recommend. Choose one of these and watch at some point this week.
Candyman (2021), The Invitation (2015), The Thing (1982), Donnie Darko (2001), Night of the Living Dead (1968), A Quiet Place(2018), The Birds (1963), Monsters (2010), The Beach House (2019), Hereditary (2018), Us (2019), Annihilation (2018), 10 Cloverfield Lane(2016), Shaun of the Dead (2004), Scream (1996), King Kong (1933), Psycho (1960), Smile (2022), Evil Dead Rise (2023), M3gan 2 (2025)
Or:
Play LIMBO for at least an hour (it’s on multiple platforms for $4 to $10)
Kevin Wong, “The Most Depressing Theories On What Limbo Means” (lots of spoilers, so you may want to play the whole game first)
Do some stuff:
1) Write an Illustrated Argumentative Essay. This project will be the culmination of everything you've done in class thus far. The goal of this project is to investigate one of the important subjects of this course. You will start by choosing a specific issues or topic that has arisen for you during the semester. You are welcome to incorporate literary analysis and personal anecdotes into this piece, but you are invited to move beyond that by incorporating research about your subject as well. Both your written and visual elements will clearly support and contribute to an argument, whatever that might be.
The visual component can take any of a number of forms, including but not limited to graphic art, video, photography, interactive narrative, a web page, etc. The other component of the final project will be an argumentative paper. The length of this paper depends, to some degree, on the nature of your visual work. You are encouraged to think outside the box in how you approach this paper, and feel free to weave your written and visual components together
You can develop your final project from one of the other papers or responses you complete during the term, broadening its scope or reinventing it in some way. You may also collaborate on this project.
Finish and share your illustrated argumentative essay by the end of the week in the #our-work channel.
2) The Writing Program asks all students in WRIT 1122 to complete a brief portfolio. Click here for the full instructions. The gist: Cut and paste into a single file (DOCX, RTF, or PDF) two samples from the work you did for WRIT 1122. (No need to revise further.) These can be major or minor assignments, whatever you think represents you best as a writer. Then, write a short introduction that describes your work and how it uses rhetorical strategies to meet your goals. You can use links in the document at will to multimedia components. The instructions ask you to e-mail me your single file, but I'd prefer you send it to me via a DM in Discord.