Grading Policy
This course will employ a “portfolio” grading approach, which considers the quality of the entire portfolio of work submitted, along with commentary from each student about the work that they put into producing their portfolio, and a self-assessment of both the quality and effort put into the production of the portfolio and the entire course, given the stated expectations for the course. Each student will submit a document summarizing the portfolio and including a self-assessment for the course overall and additional possible comments on each assignment. A template for this self-assessment can be found here, which you will include in your portfolio.
1. The Portfolio will be turned in via Box.
2. All documents should be turned in single-spaced and as a Microsoft Word document unless indicated otherwise.
3. Assignments are due by 11:59 PM on the due date.
Late assignments will be docked 5% per day late that they are turned in.
4. Failure to comply with the submission instructions outlined below will result in a reduced score on any assignment.
Students will produce a detailed log of their time spent undertaking all activities relevant to this course, including course lectures and discussions, time editing, time consuming and critiquing media, etc. These total hours should add up to 150 across the semester in order to receive a quality grade. A template for this Log can be found here.
Students will demonstrate their capacities in each discipline (editing, color correction/grading, sound engineering, photographic editing). These demonstrations will be submitted in the students’ overall portfolio for the course. Follow the details outlined below for each of these demonstrations:
i) Editing: The sequences that you produce will demonstrate your mastery of the editing process. You need to produce at least three demonstrative sequences (exceptions to this structure can be approved with the instructor if your project requires something different): 1) an observational sequence that unpacks some significant dimension of experience in the world of your interlocutors; this sequence should not be driven by narration or interview, but rather by observation; 2) an interview-driven sequence that uses talk (preferably an interview with one of your interlocutors) interspersed with imagery to make some explicit point about the cultural world that you are analyzing; 3) some creative sequence that gets at your ethnographic object of analysis in some innovative or creative fashion, finding new ways to undertake ethnographic storytelling (You might experiment with different frames, using different types of images, innovate with sound, etc., the point is to get innovative and creative in your editing). Export these sequences and submit them via Box. Label them in this fashion: “Lastname_Firstname_Sequence-Observational.MOV” (use “Sequence-Interview” and “Sequence-Creative” for the other two sequences, and you may also use an .MP4 container or other standard container when you export).
ii) Color correction / grading: You will produce one screen recording of you working with one of the clips/sequences that you color corrected and graded for your sequence, showing the before and after, as well as the steps you took to get to the finished color grade, as well as the logic you used in the color grading process. This needs to include at least one clip that was originally shot in LOG. Ideally, this screen recording should include multiple clips in the same sequence, demonstrating both your mastery over the color grading/correction process, as well as some intentional thinking about what you are trying to achieve in coloring your images. The final screen recording should be no longer than 10 minutes. Submit the screen recording to Box, using the following file naming convention: “Lastname_Firstname_ColorGrading.MOV”.
iii) Sound engineering: You will produce one screen recording of how you engineered the sound for at least one sequence. This should include some coverage of transitions, adjusting levels and compression, and mixing different audio sources to achieve the soundtrack that you designed to go with your film sequence. In the screen recording, discuss the decisions you made and the logic by which you arrived at those decisions as you were engineering the sound for your ethnographic film sequence. The final screen recording should be no longer than 10 minutes. Submit the screen recording to Box, using the following file naming convention: “Lastname_Firstname_SoundEngineering.MOV”.
iv) Photographic editing: You will produce a screen recording of you editing at least three photographs in Adobe Lightroom Classic / Photoshop. Discuss the decisions you made, what you are trying to do (ethnographically) with the image, and how you believe that your edits help you achieve those purposes for the images. The final screen recording should be no longer than 10 minutes. Submit the screen recording to Box, using the following file naming convention: “Lastname_Firstname_PhotoEditing.MOV”.
Students will find, view, and write short critiques of a body of film/photography on ethnographic phenomena relevant to Northern Ireland. These critiques should make it clear how these media (films, etc.) inform the students’ evolving capacity for ethnographic storytelling, including how your style takes cues from these films, how the content informs your analysis and style, etc.
Instructions: You will produce an “Annotated Filmography” document that provides the following information for each piece that you reviewed as you developed your own work: 1) a full citation for the film or creative piece, 2) a link or complete instructions on how you acquired the piece, 3) a short synopsis of the piece, summarizing the creator’s intent with the piece or general plot, 4) a note about how the piece influenced your creative work with your short film or photographic editing. You need to include a minimum of 5 pieces in this Annotated Filmography document. The majority of these should be Submit this document as a PDF to Box, using the following file naming convention: “Lastname_Firstname_ANTHR390R_AnnotatedFilmography.PDF”.
Each student will produce a component of an ethnographic film as their major assignment in the course. In addition to completing their component based on the student’s sub-specialty, students are responsible to work together with all of their collaborators to integrate all components into a final cut of the ethnographic film. To be clear, this complete integration of all components is the responsibility of all members of the group. With written prior approval, a student may substitute another type of media for the ethnographic film or supplement it in some way.
Final film instructions: Your ethnographic short film should ideally include at least some of the sequences, color grading, sound engineering, and photographs (e.g., as thumbnails for the film) from your assignments in the course, although it is not required to use all of the material in the assignments leading up to this final film project. While I am not expecting a festival-winning production, I do expect you to take the production quality of the final short ethnographic film seriously, and to do as much as you can to properly edit, color-correct/grade the film, engineer the sound, and provide title slides and brief credits (and subtitles where pertinent) so that the final ethnographic film feels like a reasonably well-produced ethnographic short film, telling some limited ethnographic story about the cultural world with which you were engaging in your research. Export the final cut and upload the film to Vimeo or Youtube and provide the link in document that includes the following information: 1) your full name and the title of the course, 2) date of submission, 3) title of the film, 4) the link to the film, 5) a short synopsis / abstract for the film, which makes clear your ethnographic intent of the film. You may optionally include an additional set of notes on the film, highlighting anything that you would want me or another audience to know about the film that does not necessarily belong in the short synopsis. Submit this document as a PDF to Box, using the following file naming convention: “Lastname_Firstname_ANTHR390R_Ethnographic_Film.PDF”.
