CineDIVER USE SCENARIO:

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CineDIVER USE SCENARIO
An application of DIVER by film studies
professors and students for developing skills in
film analysis.
Eric Bailey, Peter Worth ED 229 C Seminar in
Learning, Design and Technology Stanford
University School of Education February, 4 2004
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Martin is disappointed after receiving his Intro
to Film Studies midterm back. His instructor,
Professor Lang, wrote that his paper lacked
depth. He knows it isnt perfect. He was supposed
to have created an interpretation of Double
Indemnity based on his analysis of one of the
scenes. He re-watched the film on video in the
library, and even took notes, but he had to agree
that his paper was little more than a plot
summary spiced up with some interesting
observations about camera angles, Femme Fatales,
and Venetian blinds. And if he is honest with
himself, he has to admit that he isnt really
sure how to form an interpretation.
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At class the next week, however, Professor Lang
tries something different. I was disappointed in
your midterms, she says. Being able to tell
what you saw is a step toward analysis, but it is
not analysis in and of itself. She turns down
the lights and shows her laptop screen through
the LCD projector. On the screen is the DIVER
interface loaded with a clip from The Big Sleep.
Lang has pre-selected marks and clips to
illustrate her lecture. Each image has annotation
to the side. Modeling the process that she would
like her students to use, Lang reads her
annotations to the students and engages them in
discussion about how she noticed those particular
elements
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She points out how her comments are divided
between two categories examples and ideas. The
examples are comments about what she actually
sees represented in the shot.
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She uses the guided noticing rectangle to show
the students how, in one scene between Bogart and
Bacall, the two characters have distinctly
different backgrounds and lighting. She comments
on this in the examples section.
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Then she asks, what do think about that? Why
would Hawks put Bacall in front of all of that
soft silk and satin, while Bogart is framed by
shadows, rain, and Venetian blinds?
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Martin raises his hand. Because he is a
dangerous detective and she is a wealthy
socialite? Professor Lang says, Okay. Lina
responds, Yeah, but hes actually the good guy,
and later she tricks him and almost gets him
killed. Professor Lang Okay, youre both
correct about what happens in the story, but why
did Hawks choose to shoot the scene in this way?
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Ingmar suggests, Maybe he wanted us to think
that she was all good and nice, and that he was a
tough guy so that its more of a surprise when
she tricks him, and he we find out that hes not
so bad after all.
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There. Do you see the difference? Ingmar took
examples from the film to come to a new idea
about the directors intent. She writes Ingmars
idea in the ideas section. Thats a
start. Now what I want you to do for next week
is log onto the CineDIVE site and do the Rebel
Without a Cause activity. Then your paper on the
film is due the following week.
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Martin is encouraged. He can see that there is a
difference between what he did and how Ingmar was
thinking, but he wants to take it further. He
goes home that night and logs on to CineDIVE. As
instructed, he clicks on the course link and
opens the Rebel Without a Cause
assignment. Prof. Lang has written Develop an
interpretation of some element of Rebel based on
your viewing of the film in class and a close
analysis in CineDIVE. Use at least two scenes to
illustrate your analysis.
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Martin is not sure what kind of interpretation he
can come up with. He starts by using the visual
timeline to quickly scan the film. He soon comes
to the scene in the characters home, where Dean
says to his father, Youre tearing us apart! He
puts a bookmark there. Because of the dramatic
camera angles and dialogue, he thinks it may be
worth another look. He scrolls through the rest
of the film. He notices that Prof. Lang has
already bookmarked and even captured a few stills
from the scene of Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal
Mineo in the Observatory. Hes not sure why, but
knows that it should be part of his analysis.
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He starts with Langs work. She has selected a
short clip of Wood pulling up the blanket to
cover a sleeping Mineo, and a still of Dean,
Wood, and Mineo all cozily placed in a medium
shot. He goes back to review the scene
full-screen. He uses the rectangle to look
closely at the composition of the shot. He begins
to jot down some notes in the annotation column.
He describes the shots, as well as the action and
sound taking place. Everyone looks so peaceful,
he writes.
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He then goes back to the earlier scene of Dean
and his parents. He highlights the stark use of
high and low-angle camera work. He comments on
how unhappy they seem. Martin remembers another
scene of Wood with her family. He quickly goes to
it and captures clips and stills displaying an
unhappy home, with parents who are, at best,
ineffectual, and at worst, suspicious and
unsympathetic to their children.
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So what do I have? Martin thinks. He pulls up
all three scenes and examines his annotations. In
the ideas section, he begins to write some
notes about the comparisons between the two
families, and how the three teens had to escape
that life for independence. He begins to write
about how confined they were in their homes, and
how they are free away from their parents, that
family life had failed them, and that they were
now on their own. He copies some of his stills
into the ideas column to illustrate his point.
But something is wrong.
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He looks again at the image of Mineo, Dean, and
Wood. This is meant to be freedom? This is the
teens breaking away from their awful families to
live on their own? He zooms in on the three
teens. If Mineo were a little younger, or Dean
and Wood a little older, the three of them would
look like their own family. Its like they ran
away from one family only to join another. Hey,
maybe thats my interpretation. He continues
organizing his thoughts in the ideas section
before copying them into the writing section and
revising them into a more clear analysis. He
saves his work.
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The next morning, Martin receives an email from
Prof. Lang. She has examined his CineDIVE and is
impressed with the results. She comments on the
improvement Martin has made in forming opinions
and supporting them with examples from the
cinematic text. She challenges him to go further
in his paper. What does it mean that the teens
leave one family to join another? Why would
Nicholas Ray give you that idea? What is he
saying?
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Martin knows that it will be a challenge, but he
goes back to the text. He scours the film for
references to family, and selects and annotates
them. Then he goes back to the final scene, where
Mineo is shot and killed by the police in front
of the observatory. He looks at his work. He
reorders and reviews it, including the clips, the
images, the annotations, the idea notes, and the
feedback from Prof. Lang.
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He sees the broken relationships in the real
world of the film, the blissful return to
simplicity, acceptance, and harmony within the
confines of the observatory, and then the cruel
destruction of that when they reencounter the
outside world. Okay, he says. And he begins to
write his paper.
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FIN
Eric Bailey, Peter Worth ED 229 C Seminar in
Learning, Design and Technology Stanford
University School of Education February, 4 2004