United States History
Semester Film Project
Semester Film Assignment
Your Mission:
You will either create a documentary film OR film, edit, and produce a spectacular theatrical interpretation of some aspect of United States history.
Fall Semester Time Period -- Any single major historical event or time period from Pre-Columbian Indian Civilization to the end of the Civil War
Spring Semester Time Period -- Any single major historical event or time period from Reconstruction to the Present
Qualifications for Movie or Documentary Presentation:
1. Group size = 1-10 people (documentaries limited to 1-2 people)
2. Time qualifications = 5-10 minutes
3. Goal = historically accurate picture
Grading:
1. Your video will be graded/assessed on the following:
2. Creativity – action, music, editing, special effects, acting, tears, blood (FAKE BLOOD!), dialogue, costuming, anguish, passion, and CHUTZPAH in general!
3. Historical Accuracy – George Washington did not die gloriously in battle, Lewis & Clark did not get lost in the wilderness, and the South did not win the Civil War.
4. Group participation – does everyone show that they took part in the effort?
5. Time qualifications – video must be 5-10 minutes in length
(too short? = deduction… way too long? = deduction)
6. Appropriate – NO nudity, drug/alcohol use, swearing, or overall nastiness
7. Overall Effort – does it seem like the group put forth a strong effort?
This video must contain DIALOGUE (for movies) or NARRATIVE & TEXT (for documentaries)
You must submit one copy of the film via airdrop, USB or YouTube link for your instructor to keep to show off to future generations of aspiring US history film producers
**NOTE: The most important determinant of your grade will be the historical context that your presentation provides. This is not a time for looking cute on camera, but a chance to creatively portray an era and culture.
Fall Semester Brainstorming Ideas
· The Columbian Exchange
· The Salem Witch Trials
· The English Colonies
· On the path to Revolution
· Sons of Liberty
· Thomas Paine and Common Sense
· The American War for Independence
· Great Battles of the American Revolutionary War
· Loyalist resistance in the American Revolution
· The Constitutional debate and the Great Compromise
· The Alien and Sedition Acts
· King Cotton in the South
· Plantation Life
· The Abolitionist Movement
· The Middle Passage
· Amistad Rebellion
· Manifest Destiny
· Cherokee Removal Act
· The Corps of Discovery
· The Monroe Doctrine
· Nat Turner Rebellion
· The Industrial Revolution
· Remember the Alamo
· The Mexican-American War as a war of imperialism
· The Secession Debate
· Great Leaders of the Civil War
· Great Battles of the Civil War
· Espionage in the Civil War
· Medical practices in the Civil War
Points Possible: 300 pts
FALL SEMESTER Due Dates:
· Group assignments and ideas due FIRST WEEK OF NOVEMBER
· Projects due THURSDAY BEFORE FINALS WEEK
Spring Semester Brainstorming Ideas
· Soldiers coming home after the war
· Life in the Roaring Twenties
· Life in the Great Depression
· the Holocaust
· Espionage in WWII
· the Atomic Bombs
· Jewish-American response to the Holocaust
· Baby Booming
· Nuremberg Trials and German De-Nazification
· Soviet-American espionage activities in the Cold War
· Vietnam
· Korean War
· Iraq Wars
· the War on Terror
· Teenage angst in the 1950s
· Stiff suits workin' for the Man
· Jim Crow in the South
· the Beatniks
· Woodstock
· The '60s counter-culture (hippies, etc.)
· Civil Rights Movement
· Women's Rights Movement
· 9/11 and Modern Terrorism
· Conflicts in the Middle East
· The culture of underground music movements: Punk, Metal, Rap, Grunge
· Patriot Act
· the Great Recession
Points Possible: 300 pts
Due Dates:
· Group assignments and ideas due the LAST WEEK OF APRIL
· Projects due ONE WEEK BEFORE FINALS WEEK