VISU S-194 CINEMA KOREA: ENGAGING KOREAN CULTURE
THROUGH FILM
Seoul, Korea
2012
Instructors:
David Chung,
University of Michigan
Haden Guest,
Harvard University
David McCann,
Harvard University
Bertrand
Laurence, Technical Advisor
Yubi Kwon,
Teaching Assistant
Class time and location:
10am – 12noon, Monday through Thursday except as
indicated
Ewha University, IEB Building Room 1002 except as
indicated
This course
combines a critical and practical introduction to filmmaking, using historical
Korean theatre scripts as subject and inspiration. Students will study a range
of different theoretical and historical approaches to filmmaking, guided by
weekly screenings and close discussion of key examples of different styles and
approaches to cinematic engagements with historical literature, cultural
traditions and myth- from period costume dramas to investigative documentaries
to avant-garde and experimental interpretations of the past. At the same time,
students will also learn the basics of digital filmmaking through weekly
instructional sessions focused on the basics of camera operation, editing,
sound and post-production. This
‘practical learning’ will then be applied to a study of stories from a 13th
century Korean compilation known as Remnants
of the Three Kingdoms; in Korean, Samguk
Yusa.
For one
week the class will travel down to the city of Ulsan, famous now as the
location of the Hyundai shipyard and automobile manufacturing plants, but
historically a key region of interactions with the worlds beyond Korea’s
shores. Students will apply their new
skills and knowledge through video assignments, experimenting with different
approaches to engaging and interpreting historical drama, theatre, and music as
ways to explore Korean culture and history while also registering their
present-day resonances. Far more than
practical or technical exercises, this extended "field trip" project
will engage a series of questions which will be debated and discussed throughout
the class. What are the possibilities and limits of the cinema as a way to
interpret and understand the complexities and contradictions of 21st century
Korea? How has film traditionally grappled with capturing not only the readily
visible dimensions, but also the “invisible” experiential dimensions of
cultural life? How did historical texts
such as the Samguk Yusa seek to
accomplish similar objectives? How, finally, can the 13th
century scripts and such 21st century cultural phenomena as the
Korean Wave be made to illuminate each other?
Course requirements and goals:
Your first
requirement is attendance at all weekly screenings (TBA) and discussion
seminars, production workshops and weekly film production group assignments
which will involve field recording sessions (outside the classroom). Any unexcused
absence from any of these will count against your grade. If you have a legitimate emergency of some sort that requires you
to miss a class or screening, please be in touch with either David Chung or the
class Teaching Assistant before the
start of class and please provide a clear explanation. Being too overwhelmed
with work for another class is not a
valid excuse. Any health or medical excuse must be accompanied by a message
from your doctor.
The weekly
screenings are mandatory. Since each screening will be accompanied by a
extended introduction of the weekly films and will often include in person
appearances by celebrated Korean filmmakers, simply watching the films by
yourself is not the same. You are encouraged, however, to view the films more than
one time, if you are interested and for this purpose screening copies of all
the films will be on reserve at the library.
In addition to active participation
in the discussion seminars in which we will discuss the films viewed and their
relationship to your film projects, you will also be required to keep a weekly viewing journal, reflecting on
the films you have seen in class. All of you have learned the
importance of taking careful notes as you read course texts, underlining and
jotting down questions and relevant ideas. It is equally important to take
notes as you watch the films that constitute the primary texts of this course.
With this in mind, you are required to keep a weekly viewing journal, writing
down your observations and questions about each
of the films you have seen and providing no less than 300 words per title. Hard
copies of the viewing journal, which should be lose leaf paper (rather than a
bound notebook), must be turned in at the
start of each discussion seminar.
The film
production half of the course is comprised of hands-on workshops in
digital video production and editing in a professional environment.
Students will learn how to operate a video camera, manually adjust white
balance, shutter speed, aperture and focus. Shooting techniques and frame
composition will also be explored, such as close-ups, wide shots, point of view
and shots where the camera is moving. The special lighting needs of the
video cameras as well proper sound and voice recording will be demonstrated and
taught. Subsequently students are shown how to capture the film, log and
transcribe the footage. After the footage has been captured, students will
learn basic digital video editing and additional post-production techniques
such as mixing sound and creating titles.
Throughout the course, core concepts in
filmmaking methodology will be introduced, with different modes of
storytelling, using a scripted narrative as well as experimental methods of
documenting, explored through individual and group assignment. Students
will work in groups to develop a story idea, plan the shoot and see the project
to completion.
Some examples of film production assignments and
exercises which will be included in the course are:
· The
Video Portrait with Text (2
minutes). In this assignment students create a video portrait of a selected
person or classmate to learn methods of describing a concept through filmic
techniques. After the initial interview, cutaway or B-roll shots are
taken to edit with the core footage.
· Shooting
for Editing: Cause and Effect (2
minutes). One of the central ideas of working in a time-based medium is
keeping the viewer engaged through a sequence of images and developing a film
vocabulary. Through an exercise in shooting a series of images students
learn how one image affects the next one in the sequence and how the viewer
might anticipate the chain of events. This is referred to as montage (or film
editing).
The main project is an approximately ten minute
film that will be divided into three sections. In the first section students
will research and develop a story idea of their own choosing. Each group
will then plan their shooting schedules and gather the necessary still
image, sound and footage files. In the final section the groups will produce
their films using the techniques learned during the course.
On the third week of the summer session, the
entire class will participate in an excursion to visit important historical and
cultural sites in Korea. All the travel
arrangements will be made for you. A detailed itinerary and trip guidelines
will be made available. We will be visiting the southern port city of Ulsan,
the former capital city and cultural center of Gyeongju and the historical city
of Andong. Travel will be made by chartered bus and lodging at hotels and inns.
The faculty and staff will be present during the trip. Video shooting and sound
recording assignments will be made in relation to course content during this
excursion.
Preliminary
Schedule
All
classes meet in Room 1002 unless otherwise indicated. The schedule is subject
to change, any changes will be announced as soon as information is available.
This schedule pertains to the Cinema Korea course. Please refer to your other schedules for
language classes, excursions and outside activities.
WEEK 1. JUNE 25 - 29.
Introduction to filmmaking
methodology and the equipment
TUESDAY, JUNE 26 – 10 am to 12pm
• Introduction to the course and filmmaking
- from idea to production
- how to layout a project
- types of projects
• Framing a shot, composition
• Readings
in Early Korean Literature, Selections
and Introductions
First Round, to be
completed by Monday July 2
Reading: EKL Preface, xi-xiii; A Brief
History of Korean Literature to the Nineteenth Century, 1-10; Samguk Sagi, Samguk Yusa, 13-24; EKL
Part 2, Negotiations in Korean Literature, and Ch’ôyong and Manghae Temple,
99-122
Notes and summary: As you read, please make notes on passages,
characters, incidents, or other matters that catch your attention, and explain
why they did.
Second, what can you find out about Korea's
historic society, cultural practices, issues or concerns? What was it
like in Korea back then?
Summarize your notes in a one or two-page response
and post it to the correct section on the class blog/web site by Sunday July 1,
11pm. so we can get a sense of your encounters with the Samguk Yusa and related historical materials. In class, we will discuss how the class blog will be used. In some
cases these responses will be emailed directly to Professor David McCann.
12 pm - Welcoming Ceremony and Lunch
4:30pm - Mandatory software/tech session
• Software will be distributed
• Camera kits will be
distributed
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27 - 10 am – 12pm
• Using the equipment part 1 – hands on workshop
- Manual overrides, focus, white
balance, film speed, aperture
5:30pm – Pizza dinner – lobby of
the LG Auditorium
6:00pm – Film screening LG
Auditorium
TO THE STARRY ISALND (1993, Park
Kwang-su, Korea)
THURSDAY, JUNE 28 – 10am – 12pm
• Using the equipment part 2 – hands-on
workshop
• Transferring the footage,
digitizing, basic edits
•
Film production Assignment One
Shooting for Editing - The Cause and Effect
Fundamental concepts in film layout and editing will be
discussed. Examples from Sergei Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potempkin” (Odessa
steps scene), the Kuleshov effect of
film editing and ideas about “mis-en-scene” will be introduced.
FRIDAY, JUNE 29
• open day for shooting
• 10-12pm Korean Language Class
SATURDAY, JUNE 30 – All day excursion
PLEASE SEE the handout with details about this excursion
WEEK 2. JULY 2 - 6
Concepts of film montage and responding to
text
MONDAY, JULY 2 – 10am – 12pm
• Look at assignments, critiques,
•
Introducing Adobe Premiere CS 5.5
Readings in Early Korean
Literature, Selections and Introductions
Second Round, Week of
July 9
For discussion (and further notes): What do the stories seem to be about?
Are there themes that connect Lady Suro with the story of Ch'ôyong and
then in turn to the story of King Mu, pp. 18-24? Characters? Types?
Materials? Issues? Cultural
practices? Other?
What were the circumstances of the compilation
itself? Who wrote the stories down? When? And can we infer, why?
TUESDAY, JULY 3 – 10am – 12pm
Director Park Kwang-su in person
Roundtable discussion with the film
director Park Kwang-su with Haden Guest
LG Auditorium, prepare a minimum of
two questions for director Park
WEDNESDAY, JULY 4 – 10am – 12pm
• Sound Workshop with Bertrand
Laurence
THURSDAY, JULY 5 - 10am
– 12pm
•
Technical Workshop
-
shooting techniques, working with audio
• Film Production Assignment Two
The Video Portrait with Text.
• 6pm -
Film Screening LG Auditorium
VEREDAS (1978, Joao Cesar Monteiro,
Portugal)
FRIDAY, JULY 6
• open day for shooting
• 10-12pm Korean Language Class
WEEK 3. JULY 9 - 13
WEEKLONG
EXCURSION – Exploring Korea
Please see the hand-out for details
MONDAY, JULY 9 Travel
to the Southern Region
Readings in Early Korean
Literature, Selections and Introductions
Third Round, for discussion
in class July 16
Reading: EKL, Koryô – Chosôn Transition, pp
29-45; Song of the Dragons Flying,
123-137
How might the contents and circumstances of the
EKL materials be translated to present-day Korea? Which elements,
structural features, issues, or other constituent materials might you use in a
contemporary projects—Yours! – for your course projects?
TUESDAY, JULY 10 - Ulsan
WEDNESDAY, JULY 11 – Gyeongju
THURSDAY, JULY 12 – Andong
FRIDAY, JULY 13 – return to Seoul
WEEK 4. JULY 16 - 20
Narrative Structure
in Korean Film -
and Preliminary Project
Proposals
MONDAY, JULY 16 –
Project proposals are due,
presentations to faculty
-
discussions
about the projects
-
treatments
and shooting plans are due
Readings in Early Korean
Literature, Selections and Introductions
Fourth Round:
Reading, EKL 47-96;
139-161 (Enjoy the sijo!)
TUESDAY, JULY 17 – 10am – 12pm Film Screening LG Auditorium
SOPYONJE (1993, Im Kwon-taek, Korea)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 18 –
• Techniques in post production,
- transitions, filters, color
correction
THURSDAY, JULY 19 –
• Techniques in post production,
-effects, titles
FRIDAY, JULY 20 –
• open day for shooting
• 10-12pm Korean Language Class
WEEK 5. JULY 23 - 27
Final Projects
Rough
Cuts, Post Production and Final Presentations
MONDAY, JULY 23 – 10am-12pm
• Rough Cuts are Due
•
group discussions about the rough cuts, feedback
TUESDAY, JULY 24 – 10am – 12pm Film Screening and roundtable discussion
LG Auditorium (TBA)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 25 – 10am-12pm
• Final Polish, audio mixing, final
output
- technical workshop on completing
the project
THURSDAY, JULY 26 - Final
Projects are Due
All
projects are due by 12pm. No late projects will be accepted
FRIDAY, JULY 27 - Final Presentations
READINGS
and TEXTS:
1.
McCann,
David, Early Korean Literature, Columbia
University Press, New York, 2000.
2.
Online
resources for the use of the software will be provided.
ABOUT THE
INTSRUCTORS
Y. David Chung is an artist and award-winning filmmaker who has exhibited widely throughout
the country and internationally at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Studio
Museum in Harlem, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Gwangju Biennale, the
Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of
American Art. Chung began his career
collaborating as a graphic artist on documentary films. His credits
include “Surveillance, No Place to Hide” (HBO), “American Journey” (PBS),
“Gardens of Paradise” (PBS), “The Forgotten People” (PBS), “Soldiers in Hiding”
(HBO) and “Peace on Borrowed Time” (ABC). In 1996, he won the Best of
Show Award with Matt Dibble for directing “Turtle Boat Head” at the
Rosebud Film and Video Awards in Washington, DC. He received a National
Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowship in 1995. Chung’s recent
documentary film produced with Matt Dibble and Meredith Woo, “Koryo Saram: The Unreliable People” received
the Best Documentary Film Award from the National Film Board of Canada in
20005. Chung attended the University of Virginia, the Corcoran College of Art
and Design (BFA) and George Mason University (MFA). Chung is Professor with the
School of Art and Design and the former Director of the Nam Center for Korean
Studies at the University of Michigan.
A film historian, curator and archivist, Haden Guest is director of the Harvard Film Archive, overseeing the HFA´s cinematheque, preservation program, research
initiatives and its renowned collections. Guest's research focuses principally
upon studio-era Hollywood cinema, postwar American experimental film, and
contemporary Argentine, Latin American and French cinema. Guest received a PhD
in 2005 from the University of California, Los Angeles and is currently
expanding his dissertation, a critical history of the Hollywood police
procedural film between 1930-60, into a book. A frequent contributor to Film
Comment, Guest is also completing an anthology of unpublished and uncollected
writings by maverick American director Sam Fuller. Haden Guest is a lecturer
with the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University.
David R. McCann is David McCann is the Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Literature in
the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and former director of
the Korea Institute at Harvard University.
He has received the Order of Cultural Merit (2006), one of the highest
decorations by the Korean government, and the Manhae Prize in Arts and Sciences
(2004). His books of translations
include Azaleas, Poems by Kim Sowôl
(Columbia University Press, 2007), Enough
to Say It’s Far, Poems by Pak Chaesam (with Jiwon Shin; Princeton
University Press, Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation, 2006), Traveler Maps: Poems by Ko Un (Tamal
Vista Press, 2004), The Columbia
Anthology of Modern Korean Poetry (Columbia University Press, 2004), Early Korean Literature: Selections and
Introductions (Columbia University Press, 2001), and several co-edited
volumes, including War and Democracy: A
Comparative Study of the Korean War and the Peloponnesian War (with Barry
Strauss; M. E. Sharpe, 2001) and The
Classical Moment: Views from Seven Literatures (with Gail Holst Warhaft;
Rowman and Littlefield, 1999). His poems
have been published in Poetry,
Ploughshares, Descant, Runes, The
Café Review, Off the Coast, Salamander and other journals including
several in Korea. His poem “David” was included in the Pushcart Prize Anthology III. His recent poetry books include The Way I Wait For You from Codhill
Press (2007), and a collection of original sijo poems in English, Urban Temple, from Bo-Leaf Press
(2010). His current projects include a
new collection of poems, The Next Set,
exploring a variety of poetic forms including the haiku and sijo in
contrapuntal narrative, and what he thinks at the moment is trying to become a
multivariant cosmolinguistic analysis of the poem “Azaleas.”
Contact
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