The Good Old Western Film Festival Proposal1
The Good Old Western Film Festival Proposal
Following the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines
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The Good Old Western Film Festival Proposal
Part 1
The film festival project is focused on bringing some southern comfort to the urban streets of Phoenix, Arizona. The focus of this project is to have students at the University of Phoenix get involved with the western film genre and bring some of the culture of the southern United States. As well, the film will bring the rural environments to urban neighborhoods of Phoenix for students. The aim of the project is to educate University of Phoenix students about the western film genre. The film festival will be open to university students all over the University of Phoenix.
With a big screen set up in downtown Phoenix as a backdrop, western movies will play on the big screen and the square will be decorated with tumbleweed, horses and actors who are dressed as cowboys, as well as actresses who are dressed as cowgirls. There will also be professors who are knowledgeable about film from the University of Phoenix who will speak with the students present for the festival about the history and current state of the western film genre in America.
The film festival will celebrate more than 100 years that the western film genre has been present in America.
Part 2
The following are three films that will serve as the main attraction of the festival, played on the big screens in Times Square in New York:
- 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
- True Grit (2010)
- The Great Train Robbery (1903)
Now I will go into an explanation of each film:
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
This is an American western that is directed by James Mangold. Some of the actors of the film include Peter Fonda and Russell Crowe. The main actor is a civil war veteran and also a poor rancher. Due to a default on a loan of money he owes, his barn is set on fire. The movie also includes a western gang that goes around killing and stealing from people. A character named Wade is put on the 3:10 train to the Yuma Prison. The film also includes Apache Indians and a Chinese laborer. There is more adventure involved with this film that has a sad ending (3:10 to Yuma, 2007).
True Grit (2010)
This film is directed, edited and written by the Cohen brothers and produced by Stephen Spielberg. The original film was in 1969 and starred the western movie genre classic actor John Wayne. The narrator and protagonist of the movie discusses how her father was murdered when she was only 14. The police know who did the murder, a man named Chaney and the narrator Mattie tries to get more information regarding this from the police. Mattie wants to hire a Deputy U.S. Marshal and the police officer gives her three suggestions of marshals. She does not at first have the money to hire the marshal that she wants, but then she does some horse-trading to come up with the money. Again, this story ends sadly as well and Mattie does even ever end up paying the marshal (Barnes, 2010).
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
This silent short film is written, directed and produced by Edwin S. Porter who was also a cameraman for Edison Studios. The movie is 10 minutes long and considered a true classic in filmmaking, as well as the western movie genre. The basic plot of the movie is that two bandits break into a telegraph office to stop a train so that they rob it. This story ends sadly as well (Dirks, 2016).
Comparing the Movies Selected
3:10 Yuma (2007) and True Grit (2010) are remakes of western movies that were made earlier in time. The cinematography of these films is beautiful, remaking the originals of these films into color with fast-action movements and camera techniques that have the audience moving around in their seats in the close-ups and long-range shots of these films. The long-range shots of the film put a rural landscape right into the heart of the big screens of downtown Phoenix through the stunning images of country life. The script is strongly written, with dialogue sounding true-to-life, adding to the drama, the twists and turns of the plot of these films will have the University of Phoenix students coming to a standstill from their busy lives to capture the events of the movies. Along with the professors that will be also be present from the University of Phoenix, the professors can supplement the visual content of the movies with more background knowledge of the significance of the western genre movie to America on a personal level with the university students.
In particular, the movie The Great Train Robbery (1903) will be a visual pleasure on big screens of downtown Phoenix. Being a short film which only lasts 10 minutes, as well as also silent and New York Times Square is not often known for being particularly silent, this film could lend to a quiet nature of the space as the students absorb the black and white visuals of the movie and/or the silence can also serve as an interesting sounding board to the voices of the acting cowboys and acting cowgirls, as well as the professors’ voices present who can give context as to how innovate The Great Train Robbery (1903) was for its time. Although the cinematography of this film is historic in the realm of more current cinematography of films, this film still is important to include in this festival since it was one of the first ever films to be shot on location, rather than in a movie studio which many films in 1903 were shot inside film studios using props and other devices to ensure that on film it gave the appearance of being shot on location.
Part 3
The rationale of this film festival is to explore the rural, adventurous, thrill-seeking, dramatic and tragic nature of western films in an urban environment to unite and to educate University of Phoenix students about the great western film genre. The Good Old Western Film Festival will be enjoyed by all University of Phoenix students.
University of Phoenix students need to examine this genre because of all the history that is steeped in western films in America. Taking The Great Train Robbery (1903) as an example, this film was extremely innovative for its time being one of the first films to be shot on location rather than in a film studio. University students also need to understand that there was a historical time in the United States when the northern parts of the U.S. and the southern parts of the U.S. were divided. It is often through our media forms, such as the western film genre, that can unite these divisions.
Students who are predominantly in urban settings will learn about rural culture through fiction western film. They will also get to have fun with western culture with cowboys and cowgirls, plus learn the academic knowledge of western film with the local professors’ that will be present to discuss the western film genre.
The new knowledge that will be gained is that downtown Phoenix big screens will be used to introduce rural life and western film genres to an urban environment. The meeting place will bring together students from the University of Phoenix, new friends will be made, new conversations and new ideas will be discussed, someone may be motivated to produce or to direct their own western film, many new things will come out of The Good Old Western Film Festival.
The Good Old Western Film Festival is important to ensure that more people know about the genre of western films in the United States and their long-lasting history in America.
References
“3:10 to Yuma (2007)".Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com.Archivedfrom the original on January 18, 2010. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
Barnes, Brooks (December 26, 2010).“Strong Start for Coen Brothers’ ‘True Grit’".New York Times. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
Dirks, T. (2016). “The Greatest Westerns,” AMC Film site. New York: AMC Networks. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
Souter, Gerry (2012).American Shooter: A Personal History of Gun Culture in the United States. Potomac Books, Inc. p.254.
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