Exercise 1
Exercise 1 asks you to think about the stereotypes found in genre
film. While we have discussed and analyzed several genres of
film including the horror film, the love story, the action film,
and the gangster film, this exercise asks you to focus on the
Western. What are the stereotypical characters and situations
that generally appear in Westerns? What kinds of characters do
you expect? What kinds of scenes? After screening several
Westerns, you should be able to generate a list of stereotypical
character types (the hero, the bad guy, etc.) as well as a list
of common scenes (the saloon, the chase, etc.). From this list,
each band of students (4-5) should get together and choose a
scene to act out; each band member should choose a character type
to play. These scenes will be performed in the MOO, so each band
should get together to write up a set description (which you will
enter as a room description) as well as character descriptions.
You may also design props for your set. On the day of our
performance, each band will enact its scene while the rest of us
"lurk" (that is, we'll all be in your band room, but we won't be
participating in your scene; we'll be silent). For this exercise
it is extremely important to remember that the MOO allows you to
communicate in two crucial ways: through "speech" and through
gesture. In order for exercise 1 to be a success, you should
concentrate equally on both of these modes of communication.
That is, you should be gesturing as much as you speak.
Readings:
excerpts from Film Art on genre films
Bruckman's essay "Identity Workshop: Emergent Social and
Psychological Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Reality"