Video Essay on Film

To be fully complete, the first version of the video essay you submit will have these components:

1. It will include a completed video essay submission sheet that documents all of the following elements. (The link to the submission sheet takes you to a template file. If you open it, you should be able to fill it out and save your own copy. Let me know if you have any trouble.)
2. It will consist of three to four minutes of tightly edited commentary about one of the films from our film unit, including these components:
   • a title shot that conveys basic heading information: a title, your name, my name, and the course (English 120)
   • at least eight still images or brief clips from the film
   • an opening section that uses a still image or clip from the film to set up the issue or question you want to explore
   • a second section that expands your analysis by connecting the initial image or clip to other images or clips that form a pattern of evidence
   • a final section that helps the viewer understand your analysis by explaining the importance of seeing all of your visual evidence together
   • a final shot with citations in a Chicago style bibliography of the film and any other sources you use, along with acknowledgements of any assistance you received in creating your video essay.
   • The video essay will use at least two secondary or contextual sources to situate its argument. Find your sources using the library's search resources, and use only sources published in 1990 or later. If you have a reason to use a source of another kind, check with me first. I am always happy to answer questions about the appropriateness of sources for a given assignment.
   • At least one of those sources will be a reference source that comes from the library’s print reference section or the Reference Resources page of the library’s English subject guide.
   • Recommended starting point: within the Reference Resources page, Oxford Reference Online is a good place to go if you don’t see a more specific source related to your research.
   • Important note: take care with your quotations and sources! Citing a non-existent source or a quotation that you cannot trace is a violation of the College's policies on academic honesty and will require me, by College policy, to refer your assignment to the Committee on Academic Standing.

If any of these basic elements of the paper are not complete, I will let you know, and you will then have one week to complete the initial assignment.

You do not need to execute all of those elements perfectly. On the contrary, our process of consultation and revision assumes that, as is true of all analysis of complex topics, the first version of the video essay will benefit from revision.

In our conference about the video essay, we will identify two elements for you to concentrate on if you choose to do the extra version of the assignment.