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"