FOOT: Costanzo

                This book really hasn't yet tweaked my interests except for what we are using in the film study guide for class. Most of the information on how films are made, the genres of film that exist and how film relates to other forms of media is information that I had already studied in high school and in a couple college courses. It really seems to me that much of the information offered is very common. The chapters that did grab my attention were chapters 6, Theories of film, and chapter 8, representation in film.
                Chapter 6 really grabbed my attention because many of the ways to study film I had never consciously recognized. We all know that film is considered an art and that it descended from an art form, but I really liked how Costanzo explains looking at it in the Bazin and the Mise-en-Scene approach. I really liked looking at a film for the film study guide and in class through each camera shot. I really like how  Costanzo recognizes that, "[This approach] allows the viewer to become more deeply engaged in the film image, to explore its textures and ambiguities" (68). I liked this because as a viewer we rarely think, especially when we are young and untrained to do so, about what this image means and what the director wanted to convey by shooting the film in this manner. This is also a problem teachers have when teaching students to think of author perspective. This method of looking at film may help teachers teach this difficult concept due to how close students are to film. Maybe picking apart a movie in this manner would help them see the process and apply it to a novel. This method also allows viewers of film to see meaning in everything they watch by forcing them to think about what they are seeing and why they are seeing it. There are too many times where we sit and blindly watch something without thinking about what it is or why we watch. If we change this film becomes much more meaningful and even a very relevant topic to cover in high school classrooms.
                 Chapter 8 grabbed me because of the universality of the topics discussed. The chapter focuses on film and how certain cultures are portrayed, yes. But as teachers we can connect this to the real world and in conjunction with the things taught in chapter 6 we can prove meaning behind the representation and ask questions about life and society in reference to the film. We must not forget that film is literature, and it should be taught if it is to be consumed for so much of our lives. This is also a great way to teach students how to observe lens in which they view anything they do. We can do this by placing them in the middle of the representation of the cultures within film and again they may find this easier than within a novel due to film being visual. Don't get me wrong I love books but we have to recognize other literature in order to be fair to our students and give them insightful perspectives on all literature.