Future Cinema

Course Site for Future Cinema 1 (and sometimes Future Cinema 2: Applied Theory) at York University, Canada

Evaluation + Assignments

Evaluation

I have often used a contract grading system in the Future Cinema courses rather than engage in traditional grading exercises. This class opted for a contract grading system last time and it was a great success. You can find some of the rationale for my motivation here:
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/05/03/no-grading-more-learning
I am considering contract grading for this class and we will discuss this at the first meeting.

Here is the standard evaluation rubric for this class:

Participation: Ongoing evaluation, 20%
Being part of an intellectual community means attending class regularly and punctually, preparing thoughtfully in advance and involving yourself in class discussions in a way that enables you and other students to learn. Participation also includes a pass/fail show and tell. As the name suggests – at the beginning of each class at least one of you is invited to share a work that resonates with the course – an emerging technology to support future cinema, a film or game that you admire, an installation you saw, technology in the news that we should all see, cool interactive or hybrid work – discussing your own future cinema-related work is definitely encouraged! Also, in addition to being responsible for making a larger effort at least once, and committing to a day to do so, please feel free to share this kind information at any time!

Assignment 1: Short screens paper, 10%
a. Produce a quick conceptual model of a screen *or workflow* for future cinema – this should take you no more than a couple of days to prepare. You can produce a page of writing, a sketch, or a model OR pick an existing screen for cinema beyond a screen for single-channel cinema that you are interested in exploring creatively (XR? phone?) . (How) does the screen itself affect audience? Would it support different kinds of narratives/experiments? (in other words, what would this new screen/wrokflow enable?).
b. What kind of story does it inspire you to tell? Give me a short idea of what you have in mind – elevator pitch length is fine.
Be prepared to discuss your work. Due week 2

Assignment 2:  Research/Research-Creation Proposal, 10%.
Students are required to submit a research/research-crestion proposal with bibliography for both traditional papers and creative projects – tell me about the context in which you are working and thinking and who is there inspiring you, challenging you and thinking alongside you. This will be presented orally in class on Week 5 (pass/fail) to the class for feedback.
Final written proposal due Week 6.

Assignment 3:  Oral presentation of one of the assigned readings/experiences/video lectures and written (or video) summary due at least two days before oral presentation, posted to eclass 20%.
These will be assigned the second week of classes. You will be required to summarize the major points or themes of the text, compare and contrast the viewpoints expressed in the piece with those of other authors and critically assess the work and its relationships to the broader themes, issues and practices considered in the course.  You are asked to prepare three to four questions from the text to facilitate class discussion and extend the ideas expressed in the reading/experience/video lecture etc. with at least one future cinema example.  Students are evaluated on the quality of ideas and material presented and the ability to generate stimulating conversation. Consider a novel presentation form.

Each student must summarize the above in written form or video presentation and distribute it to the class in advance of the discussion, via eclass. The contents of the summary should not be more than four double-spaced pages or equivalent. The oral presentation of your text should not exceed 20-30 minutes in length, followed by 20 minutes of discussion.

Assignment 5:  Paper or Research-Creation Project 40%.
Students undertake a research essay or an individual or collaborative research-creation project directly pertaining to the theoretical and creative work discussed in this class. An artist statement and bibliography must accompany creative work. Please note that while many kinds of creative projects might be acceptable, equipment and lab time and instruction in the use of specific technologies is not provided part of this studies course – so maquettes, paper prototypes, online multi-modal works etc. might be good choices (though of course if you have access to software. equipment or would like the challenge of learning new skills, go for it! It would be ideal to know what you might need by proposal presentation day so we can work as a class to assist you). Final projects and paper topics must be approved by the professor. Due Week 12 – last day of class. Students should also be prepared to present their final papers or projects to the class. Generally I like to make this a bit of a party + mini conference/exhibition.