The 5-7 page final paper is due by 3 p.m. on December 8 in my mailbox at the Film department. I will gladly give comments to drafts, outlines, or first paragraphs that you give me in office hours or through e-mail. Because the grades are due shortly after that date, I cannot give extensions except for VERY special circumstances. If you expect a conflict, contact me as soon as possible.

In general here is what you should do to get started:

1. Start by taking notes on the film or films you want to work on. You should limit your reseacrh to one or two films so that you have enough space to develop your argument in 5-7 pages.

2. Think about the film or films again. What is it about them that makes you want to work on them? It could be something that stayed with you after you saw the films, or it may be a scene that you find fascinating. It may also be that a completely unrelated connection or idea (from your friend's film project or your biology class for example) suddenly came to mind when watching or thinking about these films. Remember these connections: they signal to you how to approach building a topic from your responses to the films.

3. This initial approach to the films is usually very general, but you should trust your feeling about what film or films to work on. There are no easy or difficult films. The argument you develop depends on the level of your research, not on the type of film you choose to work on.

4. However, this initial connection is not actually a topic. It may be a hunch or a general idea. To make it into a topic you should follow up with a more analytical approach. Think about the films again and then take notes about the following:

---What scene or scenes involve this idea?
---What does it do in the films?
---How is this issue or idea represented?
---What visual metaphors or references does its representation involve?
---What is the impact of this representation?

By asking such questions you can start developing your general idea into a topic.

5. These questions allow you to focus your perspective and develop the guidelines for an argument. At this point you should watch the film or films again. Take notes now specifically in relation to the list of questions you are developing.

6. These notes are the beginning of your research. However, you don't have an argument yet. To develop an argument you have to focus, clarify and restructure your notes.

7. By doing this research you now have a more specific hunch, and some research notes. The details you gathered from watching the films again have now complicated and clarified your initial approach. You have an argument when you can get to the "Why/how does this matter" part.

8. At this point you should start making an outline.

9. An outline allows you to organize your ideas, structure your argument, and clarify your thinking. If your notes before were loose and general, if they included a wide ramge of obsevrations and cool points, this is the time to infuse them with structure. This is not because they were not in order before. They were, but that order was more intuitive to you, and perhaps more personal. Even if they look chaotic, your notes tell you how you got from one thing to the next. But it would be impossible for someone else to understand this process and the journey of your thinking without some more guidance.

10. This other person who will have to understand your thoughts is your reader. It is a good idea to think about your reader at this point, because it will allow you to see the task at hand. Your writing should be motivated by the need to give some guidance to your reader: the reader wants to understand your point of view, and wants to learn from you how to see the film in a new way. The clearer you can make your points and your transitions the better.

11. At the end of this process you would have an outline and a focus: you'd know what element you are working on, in which scenes, and why. You'd know what noticing this element contibutes to our understnading of the film as a whole. You would also know what the challenges of your topic are, and how you will respond to them in order to allow your reader to follow your argument.

12. Don't start writing until you know all this. If you do, you may be working on a very general or diffuse topic, and in a very general and diffuse way. In the end if you don't work hard to develop an argument, you will have no argument, just a series of observations.

An Example

For example, if I wanted to work on The Truman Show, and I was fascinated by landscape, I would have to ask things like this:

--Is it all landscape that I find important? If not, what parts of the landscape am I realy thinking about?

--Is it the gardens? The city spaces? The sky? The sea front? The offices? The inside of his house? His bathroom? The basement? The billboards? The advertisements? The way people move in this space? The way people talk about the space? The way people drive? The cameras in the landscape?

Let's say I decide I want to focus on the sea. After I make this choice, I can start thinking, and ask more specific questions again. For example I would ask:

What is important about the sea?
How is it represented?
What is its function in the narrative?
How is it filmed?
Which scenes should I focus on?
What is going on in these scenes?
What do I notice when I look at the film again focusing on these scenes?

These things that I notice and focus on will create my argument. At the end of this process I should be able to articulate what the IMPACT of these scenes is, and what I find important about the sea as a visual and narrative element in the film.

In this example, imagine that what I noticed in the way the sea is filmed is that it changes color as the film progresses, and that Truman's emotional state is linked to the color of the sea. If all goes well in my research and the development of my argument, by the end of the paper I would be able to say something like this:

"By noticing that the representation of the sea changes depending on Truman's mood, we can see not only that the whole world of the show has been designed around Truman, but also that he physically affects that world. We already know that the space was designed as a showcase for him. It is apparent from the beginning that he lives in a fabricated landscape and that the landscape iself seems to be looking in on him. But we can complicate this initial idea that emphasizes his lack of control, by focusing on the sea and its function in the film. I propose that Truman's mood has an effect on the landscape. This is a subtle process and it does not seem controlled by the director of the show. Even though this "feedback" is implicit, it shows us that Truman is not just a captive in this world, he is also controlling and even generating parts of this world with no help from the televising process."

This is a big claim, with perhaps five or six supporting claims that I have to prove in and about the film. But you can see that I am not just providing the reader with an observation such as "The sea matters," or with a partial argument such as "It matters because Truman seems very connected to it." Both of these statements could be plot related and very limited, and they would develop into a tautological argument. My reader could then say, "Sure it matters, everything matters, so what?"

The element that differentiates this bigger claim depends on the quality of my research, and the way I structure my writing. I know I notice a special connection, but how do I prove it to someone else? What do I have to take into consideration in order to persuade them? How can I show how important this is?

Obviously, this argument "stands" only if it is supported by the very detailed and meticulous groundwork that I must do in the body of the paper. I have to prove this connection between Truman and the sea, not on the level of plot but in terms of the filming and the implicit interaction between them. I have to also prove that it is not something that anyone else can control, so that my point that Truman's energy extends to encompass this world will work. I have to also figure out if this connection is directed towards the implied viewers of "The Truman Show" in the film (the people who watch the TV show) or to the implied viewers of the film The Truman Show (and that includes me). I can't claim these things without the research, but I also can't present my reader with a whole bunch of research without a larger claim.

So in this example, it is the work I do to strengthen the supporting arguments that will make the difference. I can probably prove that the sea changes color right away, but this would not solve anything. I have to constantly remember that my reader could say "It's the director's trick" or "It was designed that way" or "It changes color, but this may be a visual mistake and probably has no significancce." If I don't prove the significance of this issue, my argument fails.

Find out more about how to start and structure your research

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