Music and Film Requirements, Fall 2008

1. Weekly Presentations [30%].  We will divide the seminar into four teams of five students each to make class presentations, two teams presenting on each designated seminar day.  Each team will have thirty minutes to set up, present their film excerpts, and discuss how the music contributes to the selected scenes.  Teams will have assigned films, but may chose which scenes they wish to discuss.  I will average the grades of your presentations.  My evaluation of team presentations will consider two important questions.
a. How well have you used your thirty minutes?  That is, have you thought through your presentation?  Do you have an agenda or are you attempting to improvise?  Have you carefully prepared your comments?
b. Have you worked as a team?  How have you divided up the tasks?  Has everyone contributed?
2. Biweekly Essays [30 %].  You may write about any topic discussed in class during the previous two weeks.  Your essay will be no longer than 550 words and no shorter than 450 words.  Post your papers no later than 3:00 PM on designated Saturdays by opening the class’s essay page, typing your name and the week into the appropriate boxes, pasting your essay into the essay box, and clicking on the submit button at the bottom of the page.  Your final essay grade will be an average of your essay grades. 
  Essay submission page
3. Semester Paper.  Find a topic related to music and film and develop a thesis about how music contributes to our understanding of images.
a. Oral Presentation [10%].  You will prepare a fifteen-minute presentation which will include an essay you will read (not improvise) in class and any film scenes you wish to discuss.
b. Written Essay [20%].  You will prepare a version of your class presentation that can be read and understood as a paper.  In other words, any film scenes to which you refer you will need to describe in the paper rather than rely on a media presentation.
4. Résumés [5%].  You will prepare two résumés for class:
a. A one-page summary of your career and
b. A multi-page summary of your career along with a cover letter stating your career goals and philosophy of work written as though to a potential employer or graduate school admissions office.
5. Attitude [5%].  A combination of your individual participation in class presentations and discussions, your preparation, and over-all involvement in the seminar.  A subjective parameter at best and yours to lose rather than gain.
Essay and Presentation Grading Guidelines
Webedit 23-Sep-2008