Choose a genre of film that you're interested in exploring or that appeals to you. Film genres are identifiable types, categories, classifications or groups of films that have similar techniques or conventions.

Pick three films that belong to the same genre. Ideally, these should be films by different directors/editors to show how the editing techniques are influenced by the genre, not the editor.

Research the editing techniques and conventions that contribute to that particular genre. Cite your sources.

Part One: Outline of the Analytical Response

Part Two: Presentation, Creative Project

1. Presentation

Presentations may be created in Powerpoint, Keynote or other software. You may also use online presentation software like Prezi, You may also record yourself talking about the genre and its characteristics and include this video in your presentation.

Include the video clips in the order that you want us to view them. Use text and/or audio to establish the points that you want to make. You can record audio with your slides and then export the presentation as a movie file to upload it. In Keynote this is under "Record Slideshow" under the 'Play' tab. In Powerpoint it is under "Record Slideshow" under the "Slide Show" Tab.

2. Edit a scene (creative project)

Shock Shot, Reaction Shot, Revelation Shot: Breakdown of Typical Horror Movie Editing Moves

This project will focus on the horror genre. Very different examples of this genre will be examined. However, every example picked will demonstrate signature editing techniques used in many horror genre films: a particular style of shock or smash cut. This type of cut, combined with quick cutting, is a powerful tool used by films in this genre to convey the fear of a character when confronting a dangerous or terrifying situation.

This project will look at three completely different instances of this within the horror genre: The Birds , directed by Alfred Hitchcock; The Shining , directed by Stanley Kubrick; and Twin Peaks, the recent and latest installment in David Lynch's bizarre genre-bending television series that included ample sequences of traditional horror.

Three specific scenes from these films will be analyzed. All three of them will feature a pattern described by Julian Hanich in horror genre films. This is the shock cut that generally (but doesn't always) involve three elements: the shock shot , the reaction shot , and the revelation shot (2012, p. 133-4). The shock shot shows a scene that shocks the character (p. 133). The reaction shot shows the character's reaction to the shocking scene or situation (p. 133-4). Then the revelation shot shows the

full extent of the shocking scene or situation (p. 134).

All examples picked for this project show elements of this pattern. In addition, all of them use quick cutting back and forth between these various shots (shock, reaction, and revelation).

Genre Movie Essay - PowerPoint Presentation (PDF format)

References

Hanich, Julian. (2012.) Cinematic Emotion in Horror Films and Thrillers: The Aesthetic Paradox of Pleasurable Fear. Oxford: Taylor & Francis.

Hitchcock, A. (1963.) The Birds . United States: Universal.

Kubrick, S. (1980.) The Shining . United States: Warner Bros.

Lynch, D. (2017.) Twin Peaks . Hollywood, CA: Showtime.

Video games are a popular extracurricular activity for students at all levels of study. They are an important part of a student's social life and are an enjoyable activity whether one is playing games alone or in a group. There has been a great deal of controversy over the effect that video games have on student's grades. Some claim that video games have a negative impact on students grades while others claim that playing video games has no effect on student's grades, no matter how frequently they play video games. However; neither of these arguments is completely accurate as whether or not playing video games affects your grades is influenced by other factors such as time and frequency of game play. It can be hypothesized that spending more than 10 hours per week playing video games can have a negative effect on student academic performance. However; playing less than ten hours per week will have little if any affect on academic performance.

Literature Review

Computers have been show to have various effects on student's academic performances. Jackson, von Eye, Witt, Zhao and Fitzgerald argue that whether or not video games influence a student's academic performance is based on a student's gender, race, ethnicity, parent's income, as well as initial academic performance and amount of time spent playing video games. In a study of 482 students between the ages of 12 and 14, Jackson et al. found that students who played video games had stronger visual spatial skills than other students. However students that spent more time on video games in comparison to time spent on the internet or reading had lower grades than other students. This study indicates that while students may show improved grades in academic tasks that require strong visual spatial skills, overall their grades suffer.

Anand hypothesizes that video games have a negative impact on academic performance. In a content analysis of grades and Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) scores and surveys from 276 college students, Anand found that college students who played video games for more than a few hours a week had overall lower grades and SAT scores than students who reported that they spent a limited amount of time playing video games. Males were more likely to experience a drop in grades due to frequent use of video games whereas, females showed no noticeable effects.

Skoric, Lay-Ching-Teo and Lijie argue that students with addictive personalities who play video games are more likely to have lower grades than students with non-addictive personalities who play video games. They found that while amount of time spent playing video games or engagement in vide ogame play had no affect on typically developing children, children with addictive personality traits were more likely to have problems with their grades if they played video games because they were more likely to neglect their studies in favor of game play.

Finally, Gentle, Lynch, Linder-Ruh and Walsh hypothesize that adolescents who were frequent video game players (more than 10 hours per week) would demonstrate more problems with aggression and hostility and lower grades than student's that were infrequent gamers. Gentle et al. also argued that the effects of frequent video gaming would be more prominent if the video games were violent in nature. In a study of 607 middle and high school student's they found violent video games were more highly correlated with hostile behaviors, aggressive behaviors such as, bullying, and lower grades than infrequent gamers. They found a strong correlation between gender and increased hostility and aggression and lower grades, as male participants were more likely to experience these effects than female gamers.

Survey Results

A total of eight college students from the writer's college wee surveyed for the purpose of this paper. Four female students and four male students responded to this survey. The average age of the students was 19.5 years of age. The students were all Caucasian and middle class.

Method

The survey was administered to the eight students during a lunchtime meeting. Students were asked to complete a five question survey that asked them to rate their video game usage and academic performance using a Likert Scale format. These questions ranged from questions on how often they had handed in work late due to playing video games to what types of games they played and how frequently they played video games. After the participants completed the survey they were informed as to the nature of the study.

It can be hypothesized that spending more than 10 hours per week playing video games can have a negative effect on student academic performance. However; playing less than ten hours per week will have little if any affect on academic performance.

Results

Basic descriptive statistics were conducted in order to analyze the results of this survey. When asked if they had ever turned in work late due to playing video games. Ninety nine percent of students reported turning in homework late a majority of the time due to playing video games. The reported assignments were late an estimated 64.8% of the time. On average students reported playing an estimated 4.52 hours per week of first person shooter video games an average of 3.67 hours playing strategy games and 2.13 hours playing role playing games.

In terms of extracurricular activities, 66% of the students surveyed reported that sports were a favored activity and 18.5 % of participants reported that video gaming was a favorite activity. Only 14.5% of participants reported that reading was a favored hobby. The majority of students reported that they felt satisfied after playing a game while only a small percentage of students reported they could not wait to get back to a game. On average students reported that they had between a 2.5 and 3.0 grade point average.

Discussion

The majority of the students who responded to this survey were not serious gamers indicated by the fact that the average participant did not play more than 10 hours per week on average. None of the students reported that they had problems with their grades due to video gaming even though several students reported that they turned in assignments late because they were playing a video game. This indicates that the hypothesis was supported.

This study has several weaknesses. First, only eight students responded to the study. While the group was evenly distributed in terms of gender, the group was mainly white and between the ages of 18 and 23. This means that the results of this survey cannot be generalized to other student populations at the elementary, middle or high school level. The small size of the group that was surveyed and the untested survey may also create problems with the validity and reliability of the survey results. Furthermore, this survey was not designed to give definitive support one way or the other about the effect of video games. It was not meant to have deeply significant results as it was only intended to answer a simple one time questions about how video games affected the grades of college students. While this information could be applied to further study, the survey would need to be expanded and refined and the survey would need a much larger sample in order to have significant results.

Conclusion

According to the literature frequent use of video games can have a negative effect on the grades of elementary, middle school, high school and college students. Video games are thought to take away time that should be spent studying or finishing class assignments. For the purpose of this paper it was hypothesized that playing less than 10 hours per week of video games would not significantly effect a student's grades whereas; playing more than 10 hours per week of video games would cause a drop in student grades. The results of the survey indicated that most students played less than 10 hours per week of video games and despite being late on assignments due to video gaming, students did not demonstrate any noticeable drop in grades.

This study was limited in that only eight students were surveyed and that group was very homogenous regarding race, age, and socioeconomic status. This meant that the results of the survey could not be easily applied to other groups. There were also limitations in regards to the survey in that the survey was very short and it was untested. In order for further study to be conducted on this topic, the survey will need to be edited and expanded and a larger sample of participants will be required.

Works Cited

Anand, Vivek. "A Study of Time Management: The Correlation between Video Game Usage and Academic Performance Markers." Cyber Psychology and Behavior, 10:4 (2007): 552-561.

Gentle Douglas A., Lynch Paul J., Linder-Ruh Jennifer, & Walsh, David A. "The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance." Journal of Adolescence, 27 (2004): 5-22.

Jackson Linda A., von Eye Alexander, Witt Edward A., Zhao Yong, & Fitzgerald Hiram E. "A longitudinal study of the effects of Internet use and videogame playing on academic performance and the roles of gender, race and income in these relationships." Computers in Human Behavior, 27 (2011): 228-239.

Skoric Marko M., Lay-Ching-Teo Linda, and Lijie-Neo Rachel . "Children and Video Games: Addiction, Engagement, and Scholastic Achievement." Cyber Psychology and Behavior, 12:5 (2009): 567-574.