Television’s sure shot
Viewers need to realize how television’s “reaction shots”-the practice of showing a character’s facial reaction to any- and everything-stops audience members from thinking for themselves, Atom Egoyan warned. The acclaimed Canadian film director spoke at a sold-out lecture at Isabel Bader Theatre last Thursday.
Egoyan addressed the important differences between films that follow the traditional “shot followed by reaction shot” format, and those that bypass the reaction shot, allowing a unique response from the audience.
In more experimental films, however, the lack of a reaction shot “torments us, and gives us a sense of possibility at the same time,” Egoyan said.
The Oscar-winner made his first film while studying at U of T, and is currently in his first of three years teaching for the Innis College cinema studies program.
-Amy Smithers
Students in arts & science might soon get a “freebie” course in first year. According to a recommendation in the draft report of the arts & science curriculum review and renewal committee, students should be allowed to select a certain course on a “credit/credit-D/no-credit” basis. (Credit-D basically means you did some work, but not enough to justify getting full credit.)
“I applaud this recommendation,” commented faculty of arts & science council rep Livia Jozsa, at a CRRC town hall meeting last Thursday.
Privately, however, Jozsa wondered about the specifics of this proposal, such as whether students would be allowed to consider courses that are their program prerequites as their “freebie” course. The committee’s draft itself acknowledged that rules regarding credit/credit-D/no-credit courses would still need to be drawn up.
The CRRC has been studying ways to change the arts & science curriculum over the last year. Its final report will be released later this month. The changes it suggests may be implemented as early as fall 2008.
Another item generating debate was the recommendation that each academic unit offer at least one major or specialist program with no GPA entry requirement. Some faculty members worried that such programs would become second-tier majors.
“This is an area in which there is a tension,” acknowledged arts & science dean Pekka Sinervo. He said that entry requirements are needed, but that the faculty “want our students to have access.”
Thursday’s town hall meeting also heard from a representative from CASC, which lobbies for, among other things, an increase in area studies funding. The area studies rep questioned the university’s commitment to programs such as African, Caribbean and South Asian studies.
In response, Sinervo pointed to the CRRC’s recommendation 11, which stresses the need to incorporate “multiple perspectives” and “global issues” into the existing curriculum.
“Significant shifts in curriculum take time,” he chastised. “I think it’s unfair to suggest there isn’t a commitment.”
-Mike Ghenu
