We Did It! Final Post!

 1. Favorite screenings? Why? What did you love? What did you learn? 

2. What have you discovered about yourself as a film spectator (preferences, knowledge, filmmaking) since we began?

3. What movies did you see over the course of the pandemic that you wish you could've seen with many others? Or, which do you wish you could share and watch with someone else?

4. Recommendations for Spring '23 films in this class?

1. My favorite screening was definitely Jaws, I had never seen it and I loved it. I felt the tension and was more afraid than anything I have watched recently, even though I knew Jaws has been around for so long. It wasn't a screening in the classroom, but I also really enjoyed Get Out. Another film that I hadn't seen before, actually I hadn't seen anything that we watched in this class before this class so that is much appreciated, but Get Out helped open my eyes towards film auteur-ship and made me want to watch Jordan Peele's other productions. 

2. I discovered that I am not as knowledgeable about movies as I thought that I was, and I want to know more in the future. I realized that most of the time when I'm watching a film, my brain mostly turns off and I just enjoy (or not) the experience. It isn't until after I've thought about it for a few days and compared my opinions to other people's that I feel like I am prepared to talk about a movie. In the future I would like to make this process a little quicker so that I could have meaningful discussion about a film right out of the theater. The Fascination Project also helped me realize that I really enjoy simple projects. A movie doesn't have to have 10 different important characters like I'm used to now, I would like to seek out more smaller-budget films that have a smaller cast that I can enjoy and learn from.

3. I don't remember watching a lot of movies throughout the pandemic to be honest, I don't think I went to any theaters until Shang Chi came out in September 2021. I watched some movies that I had missed on streaming services, but mostly off of the recommendations from my friends who had already seen them, so really I was the one whom it was being shared with. I definitely have a lot of couch time ahead of me after this class. Usually movies that I want to share with people are animated and I don't know if they would work too well for this class, because they're often in another language with subtitles. That's a lot of extra work that not everyone is willing to undertake, but I think there are great lessons that can be found in animation. Examples are Your Name, Spiderman Into the Spiderverse, the Demon Slayer movie. Spiderman is the only one I think might actually work though because it's in English.

4. Again, I have seen some live action movies that are really good but they're in Korean, and I don't think that would go over well in a class. But if you think it could work, Train to Busan or Parasite would be my choices. Both deal with issues of classism in society that are relevant to America too. Train to Busan is more of an action movie with a zombie outbreak, but it's a very fun movie and my preferred out of the two. They also both have interesting relationships between characters that are complicated.

Thanks for teaching this class! I'm very excited to view more films in 2023 and learn more about the industry as I continue growing and evolving with the world.