Humanitas Cinema Mr. Hurst's Class
"The Great end of learning is nothing else but to seek for the lost mind." Meg Tzu	Home Who is Mr. Hurst Grades Assignments Extra Credit Class Standings Baseball Links
"True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision." Edith Wharton         "What we learn with pleasure we never forget." Louis Mercier       "It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth." John Locke         "An educated man should know everything about something and something about everything." C.V. Wedgewood		What is Humanitas Cinema? The Humanitas program is for students that want more out of their high school education. Classes within the program are paired according to the subject matter, and then connected. For example, in the tenth grade students may be reading about Joan of Arc and Queen Elizabeth I in their social studies class while reading poetry from Anne Bradstreet, Phylis Wheatly and other female authors in their English class. Humanitas cinema functions in much the same manner; while students are reading Romeo and Juliet in their English class, they may watch Edward Scissorhands in their cinema class to emphasize the idea of forbidden love.   Who takes Humanitas Cinema? The students are recommended by their teachers, and given the option of continuing on with regular English and Social Studies classes, or entering the program. If they choose to enter the program, they are expected to not only perform at a higher level than typical classes, but they are also expected to conduct themselves in a manner that is conducive to their studies. Much of the class is based in reading and discussion, so the environment has little space for those who operate at the level of a two-year old.   What are some of the movies viewed in Humanitas Cinema? Some of the movies that will be connected with the ninth grade core literature are: Edward Scissorhands Citizen Kane Metropolis Forrest Gump Jerry Maguire Guess Who's Comming To Dinner? Psycho (Both new and old) Rear Window Star Wars Casablanca E.T. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure Dances With Wolves Gone With The Wind The Godfather Jersey Girl Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Biggie and Tupac and many more.     Do you do anything else other than watch movies? Students in Humanitas Cinema not only watch movies, but they go into why and how movies are made. The students watch not only films, but films about films. We see how a movie goes from a concept, to a screenplay, to a storyboard, to a set, to a theater, and eventually to our living rooms. Concepts such as special effects, distribution, and editing are covered in depth and are dealt with in a manner that makes these things understandable to the student. The class will view movie-making from behind the scenes and will hopefully get the opportunity to view production of a major motion picture.   After going over the inner-workings of the movie industry, the students will then have the opportunity to create their own screenplay and movie, which they will screen during the last finals day of class. They will go through all of the stages of development from character development, casting, and even editing. If the students choose to do so, they may even enter into other realms of non-live action filming such as what Andy Rojas did this past semester. The following link contains a sample of Andy's work with stop-animation using Legos.   Lego Panzers