Key Elements of an Essay Several film actors have recently moved to television, citing that they believe television is where the best work can be found. Critics seem to support these actors’ claims, as television shows have been receiving much higher ratings and acclaim than the typical newly released film. Thus, though film has traditionally been seen as the higher art form, television is now generally better than film. Television is a better medium because it allows for more in-depth character development, can build suspense longer, and can gather fan input as a program unfolds. Because television is serialized and not restricted to being under three hours or so, characters have time to develop into complex, interesting people who show a lot of depth. As a season or more unfolds, the audience watches a character encounter many different events and people, and they can witness a character’s growth. For instance, in The Office, the audience saw Jim and Pam’s entire relationship unfold: they saw their unspoken attraction to each other, their first kiss, their marriage, their first child, and eventually, their marital struggles. By watching this couple form and develop over nine years of television, the audience felt invested in their relationship and rooted for them on a level higher than they could for a film. In a film, we may watch a relationship unfold, but it will almost always seem slightly superficial, as the relationship can only really last, especially in romantic comedies, for about an hour and a half. Television affords us the extra time for really getting to know a couple. That extra time helps television characters seem more like real people to the audience watching the show because the character is able to develop layers that is difficult to achieve in film’s much more restricted time limit. The extended length of television shows, as well as their episodic form, also helps build suspense. **Every body paragraph should introduce (make a claim with a topic sentence), prove (show with evidence/examples/statistics), and explain (analyze the evidence to show what it means or how it proves your claim). That should be your organizational goal for each body paragraph. Overall essay outline may look like this: I. Introduction—thesis: Television is a better medium because it allows for more in-depth character development, can build suspense longer, and can gather fan input as a program unfolds. A. (Topic sentences): Because television is serialized and not restricted to being under three hours or so, characters have time to develop into complex, interesting people who show a lot of depth. As a season or more unfolds, the audience watches a character encounter many different events and people, and they can witness a character’s growth. 1. (Evidence) The Office example 2. (Evidence) Film’s length example B. (Topic sentence): The extended length of television shows, as well as their episodic form, also helps build suspense. 1. (Evidence): The Walking Dead example 2. (Evidence) How I Met Your Mother example C. (Topic sentence): Fan input can help address possible problems in storytelling or characters. 1. (Evidence): In Lost, creators severely reduced the time of two of the characters, and eventually even killed them off, after fans had such a negative reaction to them. 2. (Evidence): “Shipping,” which means fans who obsess over a possible romantic relationship between two characters, helps creators know which relationships spark for fans and which are not working; consequently, they can build romantic relationships that seem more exciting. II. Conclusion: Wrap up points by synthesizing (what does all this mean?), not just summarizing (telling me what you already have). Answer the “so what?” question: So what do I do know? So what does this all matter? Example: Television is often thought of as a lesser, more temporal medium than film. Good films often seem to last and to speak to future generations more than television does. However, with the gradual growth in quality of television, television may soon be seen in a new light, so that we may see Intro to Television classes just as often as we see Intro to Film classes. Television is thus on its way to being not just a half hour escape, but an art form in its own right. Sample Response Normally, when people think of “God” or “gods,” they think of benevolent, fair-minded, and virtuous beings who are the voice of goodness and justice. In Homer’s Odyssey, however, they are capricious, jealous, interfering, and tricky. They are, essentially, very similar to the human beings they rule over. This makes the gods difficult to trust, but their presence in the world and frequent interaction with the humans infuses the world with sacred meaning. The gods are difficult to trust because they seemingly change their minds and argue amidst themselves frequently. They even take sides in human conflicts, so that human beings may find it difficult to know which god is sabotaging them and which is trying to help them. Odysseus, for example, knows that Poseidon hates him and is trying to keep him from home. He also has been held against his will by the goddess Calypso. Thus, when Calypso is told by the gods she must free him, Odysseus questions her motives when she says she will help him get home. He demands she “swear a solemn oath that [she’s] not planning some new trouble for” him (75), showing a lack of trust in the temptress goddess. His distrust of the gods shows again when Ino tells him how to survive his shipwreck. Instead of obeying her, he decides he “will not obey, but will instead “play it the way that seems best to” him (80). He survives anyway, but Odysseus’s distrust could have killed him. However, with the manipulative and unpredictable nature of the gods, he also recognizes Ino could have been trying to kill him with her instructions. This lack of reliability from the gods makes it very difficult to trust any kind of divine aid, making a human feel very alone in the world. On the other hand, the pervasiveness of gods in the world also makes one feel very close to the divine. Every forest, sea, or object takes on meaning when there is a chance of a god’s spirit residing there. Help and guidance, for instance, may always reside nearby. Odysseus can simply pray to whatever god resides in the river, saying, “whoever you are/And however men pray to you/ [. . . ] hear my prayer” (83). Odysseus may struggle with issues of trust, but he also trusts that some kind of god is always there, present everywhere he goes. The Greeks had gods for nearly everything, even such things as commonplace as the market place, so that every action, every place, takes on a new level of meaning. In this way, human beings constantly engage with the divine, making every day, and every event, meaningful. Though trusting the gods may be difficult, their very presence infuses a kind of excitement into everyday existence. Their interferences may not always be welcome, but their constant interest in human beings means that even mundane tasks like grocery runs can easily turn into an encounter with the divine. An Explanation of Film Choices and Content (Why Some Films are R-Rated) 1) The choice of films are of those that nearly all received strong critical acclaim throughout the years and are regarded as masterpieces in the genre. Many of the masterpieces are, by definition, envelope pushing and challenging and deal with difficult themes. They are, however, works of art that should be appreciated for their beauty and complexity, even when the content is difficult. 2) Violence, sex, and other aspects of R-rated films are, frankly, reflections of our society. They are little snapshots of what the world is like, and we therefore have the responsibility not to avoid it, but to look at it straight on and see it. If we don’t honestly see the world, we will have no idea how to respond to it or try to help alleviate its pains. 3) I’m not saying, however, that you should go out and immediately rent every R-rated movie out there just to know what the world is like. By being artistic masterpieces, these films offer some sort of questions and meaning not offered by lesser caliber films. I firmly believe that for something to be “Christian art” it must first be good art, because it is only good art that gives us glimpses into the true and beautiful. For instance, even though it wasn’t written by a Christian and depicts characters struggling through alcoholism, affairs, and atheism, Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises is a more “Christian” book than something like The Shack, because it's better written, more beautiful and complex, and better captures human nature, human experience, and the ways in which we try to give our lives meaning. The Vatican has paintings by non-Christian artists because they were the best artists. Likewise, these films may not be overtly Christian, but all try to raise questions and offer some sort of meaning or purpose to what may seem meaningless. 4) Or, on the other hand, dark movies show us the great need for God. There is often a Godshaped hole in what the characters in these films desire or quest for. Their lives seem meaningless, and they are doing what they can to figure that out—often without success. In Fight Club, for instance, the film says we are all “scum,” essentially, and that we are only living for our ability to buy a life out of a catalog. Though it does so in a very violent fashion, it actually provides some important critiques to our culture: A) that we value consumerism far too much and let it shape our identity B) that we have put violence as an escape method C) that without God, we are all alone to figure out life. That’s a pretty profound message. 5) These films unsettle us and make us challenge our own ways of conceiving certain ways of understanding truth, justice, and morality. For instance, in The Truman Show, we see the characters unsure of what is “real” or not real, and that includes the viewers, who try to make their own lives part of the fake reality of the show. It makes us question what “truths” or “reality” we are allowing to dictate our lives. Or, in something like No Country for Old Men, we are challenged in the face of an indescribable evil that seems to be able to evade our typical systems of justice. How can we find justice in an unjust world, where everything seems to be chaotic? 6) These films do not contain anything not found in the Bible. In the Scripture, there is incest (Lot and his daughters), murder (Cain and Abel, David’s sons, many more), war, prostitution (including the cutting up of a prostitute and sending her pieces to the various tribes of Israel), rape (including a brother of his sister), and more. Again, this dark stuff is unfortunately part of life, so the class and its forums will be an attempt to figure out how to face it and think about it in a safe place. 7) Lastly, then, it is not what we watch, always, but how we watch it. The goal of this class is to get you to watch films with a critical, analytical eye. You use that same lens to make sense of the difficulties and challenges in the Bible. Why are they there? Why is someone like David, who commits adultery, orders murders (not just Uriah, but also, right before he dies, for Joab, his commanding officer), and engages constantly in wars, a man after God’s own heart? How is Jacob, who tricks and steals his way through much of his life, a father of the faith?
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