ARTH 3100: Film and the City (KPU)
Representations & Realities of the Metropolis
“The city is a fact in nature… but it is also a conscious work of art… mind takes form in the city; and in turn, urban forms condition mind.” - Lewis Mumford, The Culture of Cities (1938)
Thinking about Modernism and Modernity, the Citym, and its Connections to the Films of the Fin de Siècle.
Films to be considered and discussed…
2010 > Lumiere (1896)
2010 > Edison (1898)
2010 > Melies (1902)
2010 > Porter (1903)
Readings…
2010 > Flashback (Chapters 1, 2)
2010 > Short Guide (Chapters 1, 2)
2014 / 2024 > Cities and Cinema (Introduction)
Mise-en-scene:
Week 1 Reflective Private Journal Prompt > Seeing the City Cinematically
For this introductory week, I would like you to go out and view your city cinematically as if through the eyes of a filmmaker, and to discover the kinds of locations and places in your city that help spatialize and offer evidence of the city's personality, character, history, or "flavour."
DEADLINE FOR ENTRY: Friday, October 18th via upload link from PebblePad to Moodle, but note that Step Three below is due as a Forum entry by Tuesday, September 10th
To do this, please do the following steps:
STEP ONE: Go out and explore your local surroundings and/or pick a city other than your own in the Lower Mainland (i.e. Richmond, Burnaby, White Rock etc...). Select THREE very distinct and different locations, places, spaces to photograph or film.
STEP TWO: Once you've completed Step One, I would like you to write 3-5 sentences for each photo/video, describing why you chose it and how it helps spatialize and offer evidence of the city's personality, character, history, or "flavour." Be as descriptive and specific as possible.
STEP THREE: I would then like you to choose one of the photos/video to filter. What I mean here is that I want you to change some value of the captured photo/video through manipulating its colour, scale, light, etc.. (i.e. the kind of thing you would do on Instagram or Photoshop) and post the "before" and "after" photo/video up on the Week 1 Forum listed on Moodle by the end of Tuesday, September 10th. Be sure to enter your description from Step Two in the forum post, and offer a sentence or two about how the filtering you did changed the "mis-en-scene" (look and feel) of your chosen city space.
STEP FOUR: Place your work from Steps Three and Four into a Pebble Pad page that you title: Week 1: "Seeing the City Cinematically." You can find resources for this on the Moodle Page. Don't worry about getting Step Four fully completed ahead of next class-- the more important thing is to play around with PebblePad and get your Step Two and Three done. Your final polished entry for this prompt will not be collected until October 18th.
PHOTO PAIR No. 1…
City: Langley Township
Location: Campbell Valley Regional Park (8th Avenue @ 204 Street)
Date Visited: September 10, 2024
Langley Township interested me because of its unique mix of rural, suburban, and urban centres. I started by exploring a small corner of the Campbell Valley Regional Park, specifically by photographing two roads that run alongside two parts of the park. It was a fairly quiet, overcast evening, but a steady stream of traffic travelled along this road. In spite of this, one feels as though they are completely separated from the hustle and bustle of Metro Vancouver, with its congested streets; block after block of suburban apartments, townhomes, and subdivisions; as well as its shopping malls, hotels, movie theatres, and business blocks.
Artifact 1 > Lee, Steven H. “Campbell Valley Bikers.” Unedited digital photograph. 10 Sep 2024.
Artifact 02 > Lee, Steven H. “Warm Campbell Valley Bikers.” Edited digital photograph. 10 Sep 2024.
I applied a simple filter to the photo in Artifact 1, that was available to me on my iPad - VIVID WARM. I also made some simple adjustments to the brightness and contrast. Overall, I wanted the photo to feel a bit warmer, as if the sun was shining brightly behind the clouds, instead of the cool late afternoon shade I found myself in at the time I visited this location.
Header Image > Hitchcock, Alfred. “Film Still from VERTIGO, 1958.” Letterboxd.