Smoke Signals: Chris Eyre, 1998: 33:50-38:10

Level One

1. What does "stoic" mean? What is a stoic face like?

2. When Thomas tells Victor that their tribe never hunted buffalo, what does he say they did hunt?

Level Two

1. How does Victor feel about his American Indian heritage?  How is this different from how Thomas feels?

2. What is the effect of the long, slow-motion shot of thomas coming out the rest room?  Describe how the nondiegetic music helped create this effect.

3. WHy do Thomas and Victor  not do more to get the men out of the their seats?

Level Three

1. What does this popular representation of American Indians tend to be like in the media today, and what has it been like throughout history?

2. What do you think is the most common misunderstanding between Whites and American Indians?

3. What causes racism between various ethnic and racial groups? 

Henry V: Kenneth Branagh, 1989--51:15-55:09

1. Have you ever seen a foreign film with subtitles?  Did you expret this one to have subtitles?  How did you feel when you realized that there were not going to be any?

2. What were the words that Katherine learned?  Were these similar to or different from the first words that you learned in a foreign language?

3. When did you feel the most confused during this scene?  When did you really fell like you understood what they  were talking about?  Do you think that you would understand even more if you were to see the clip again?

North by Northwest: Alfred Hitchcock, 1958

1. What does Hitchcock do to make this scene suspenseful?

2. How does he show Thornhill's Vulnerability?

3. Why does he use only diegetic sound until the very end?

Philadelphia: Jonathon Demme, 1993

1. Describe the mise-en-scene of Joe's office environment and of the partners' conference room.  What is the effect of these choices?

2. Describe the contrasting uses of the long shot and the close-up in this sequence.

3. Why does this scene include such a variety of editing rhythms?  When do you notice the long and quick takes?

4. What information did we get in the flashback that Joe did not?  Could this have affected his response to Andrew?

Apocalypse Now: Francis Ford Coppola, 1979

1. If the director's Aim was to create a sense of confusion and/or displacement, what elements of the mise-en-scene helped him achieve this?

2. Trace the sounds throughout this scene.  Try to classify them as diegetic, internal, or nondiegetic.  Have a reason for your response.  When does there seem to be more than one type of sound?  What is the effect?