The Future of Westerns: Final Project

Overview:

We have so far exposed ourselves to a variety of Western films from the past fifty years ranging from the “classical” to the “revisionist.” For a film genre that has been pronounced dead on more than one occasion, it surprisingly remains a strong competitor in popular culture, de-centered but nevertheless accessible as a style and form. But what kind of future can we envision for Western films?

Description:

For the final project, you will pitch an original Western film by producing a treatment, sample storyboard and script.  In addition, you will write a comprehensive manifesto that clearly articulates and defends your film’s merit.  As part of the writing process, you will progressively structure and develop your film into a treatment by writing a story statement and a story outline.

Requirements:

Every step of your film’s development must be showcased in the form of a website. The website will have at least eight pages:

1. Introduction
2. Story Statement
3. Story Outline
4. Treatment
5. Sample script
6. Sample storyboard
7. Manifesto
8. Works cited page

Web Page Requirements:

The main page ("index.html") needs to briefly introduce your film. It should include a basic image as a banner and include a menu that allows visitors to easily access every part of your film's development process from the Story Statement to the Manifesto. The design of this page should serve as a template for all subsequent pages.

Most importantly, you need to make sure that all of your web pages are easily accessible and navigable. Every visitor should have free access to any other part of your project regardless of what page s/he is on.

Works Cited Requirements

Althought the final project is largely a creative endeavor, whenever you reference another film or text (this will undoubtedly most often occur in your manifesto), it needs to be in MLA format and hyperlinked to your Works Cited page.