Marker: Final Blog

5 Things I Learned About Film:

1. How to use Mise en Scene analysis!
2. The use of rhyming elements and/or bookends often express a prominent theme of the film.
3. In each scene, sometimes seemingly unimportant aspects of the scene are highly significant to the message of the film. The director designs each frame with purpose and all aspects are intentional.
4. I learned about different genres of film, such as the docu-drama.
5. I learned about sub-plots and underlying messages that are present in film.


5 Things I Learned About Politics

1. From Bowling for Columbine I learned more about the concept of fear throughout America. The movie emphasizes the idea that Americans are frequently driven fear and how the media overemphasizes that which Americans are afraid of, often, instead of what's important.
2. Through Good Night and Good Luck I learned more about the Red Scare and how it affected Americans, politicians and the media.
3. Stop-Loss exposed me to the practice of stop-loss in the military. I was not aware that such a policy was in place before we watched the film.
4. The media has a profound effect on politics. Both Good Night, and Good Luck as well as State of Play emphsized this idea. In both films the media exposed certain political issues and heavily influenced the public's opinion of such issues.
5. Social controls are prevalent throughout American politics. Many of the films we watched address the idea of how social issues and social acceptance is important throughout America and American politics.
6. WE HAVE NO PRIVACY!


I learned that through fiction and entertainment a film can portray a political message. The things I learned in this class, especially Mise en Scene, have truly affected how I watch movies. Instead of viewing movies simply as entertainment I now try to see more of the message or intent of the film. I have also noticed that after learning about Mise en Scene analysis, I now implement that analysis on all the movies I watch.