Film Buffs Team with Students for "Greatest Scene Ever"

• By Rosemary D'Amour
• April 4, 2011

Film professor Greg Smith asks his students a very simple question: what is the greatest scene ever? The answers come from his students readily, from films like Gone With the Wind and North by Northwest. The challenge comes when he asks them another simple question: why?

The ‘why,’ Smith said, is what makes this assignment different, and allows him to assess his students’ filmmaking skills and perception. It’s part of making students more analytical and critical of films other than their own.  

“The answer could no longer be ‘because it’s cool,’” Smith said. “I wanted them to tell us the important things about it, what does the filmmaker do, what technology is used, what’s the lighting, the camerawork, how does that change your perception of the story.” 

The assignment was the basis for Greatest Scene Ever, the new television show on AU’s in-house cable channel. It features three nine-minute segments on scenes from three films from a genre, highlighting the important aspects of the scene and how it contributed to the film or the film industry. Thus far, Smith and the Greatest Scene crew, including his co-host, Program Coordinator for Audio Technology at AU Paul Oechlers, have featured the Western, the American comedy, and Hitchcock films. Next up, Smith said, are political films. 

“We can all name our favorite films, but when we break it down into scenes, it gets more particular, we talk about them in their component parts,” Smith said. “Great scenes make great films.” 

As the show has developed, Smith and Oechlers have incorporated new segments, such as a trivia question designed by the “high priestess of cinematic trivia,” professor Sarah Menke-Fish, which tests the audience’s knowledge of (sometimes) obscure film facts—such as who was originally vying for the role Cary Grant played in North by Northwest.

The team also decided to incorporate students into the production of the show, which is taped once a month, as a supplemental learning experience to what they were getting in the classroom. 

“We’re using students who are donating their time; we want them to learn something,” Smith said. “These students can see the results of what they do, they can put this on their reels and add it to their resumes, they’re getting real-world experience.” 

Smith is attempting to incorporate more of the AU community, using the theater department to develop the set, and bringing in film professors and personal contacts to contribute to the discussion. 

“We have some amazing filmmakers in the family at SOC,” Smith said. “And the film department here is really a family.” 

On April 1, the team will be shooting an episode featuring the films of SOC Artist-in-Residence and two-time Academy Award-winner Russell Williams. “He’s going to be contributing to the discussion, and at the end, we get to challenge him: what is the greatest scene ever?” Smith said.

First Tuesday

It was a scene from Out of the Past.  Literally.  Very noir.

There’s this little bar called Aroma.  A last stand for habits that die hard.  He wasn’t a regular in the usual sense; just there on the first Tuesday of every month at 6. 

He drinks alone.  Just one drink.  Nurses it for an hour.  He drinks not to get drunk or to forget.  Rather, to remember.  An indulgence that’s easily categorized in ‘what the hell’.  It’s worth that.  She’s worth that.

So on one of those first Tuesdays, she walks into the bar.  She’s wearing a simple black dress, just like a scene in a movie, because it is.  Hair just so.  Makeup subtle, but to impress.  She doesn’t need much, she‘s already picture perfect.  Lithe.  Sultry.  Confident, but mostly on the surface. 

She sits at the far end of the bar and orderes a drink.  He watches her as if for the first time, because in this little bit of theatre, in this place, at this time, in both their lives, it is.  The past would be set aside, if just for tonight, but not forgotten.  Beyond that was beyond that.

So he doesn’t notice her at first, but when he does, and their eyes meet at a distance, he feels a shiver.  It’s a true power exchange.  She feels it too.  He gives her this power; a woman likes to be noticed.  And she returns it with her gaze.  And she knows its affect on him.  And on herself.

She motions for the bartender and asks what he’s drinking and it soon arrives on little paper napkin.  Overt flirtation?  Obviously.  A peace offering?  Perhaps.  Or is a drink sometimes just a drink?  He looks up and she looks away.  In fact he’s three sips into it before she crosses the room and sits down without introduction.  

Film Noir has its heroes and its treachery.  The truth distilled through circumstance, opportunity, self-interest and eventually, whatever we bring to the table.  There are few outright winners. 

But in the end, is it not for the journey?  For the opportunity to feel alive while those around settle for cathartic numbness.  That’s what they told themselves, even though the little voices sometimes challenge it.  These two were well aware of the normal lives that their friends lived; at least what most people consider normal.

But at the core, what brought her to the table was a desire to dance on the edge, to see what was on the other side of the mountain. That’s what brought them together, tore them apart, and back together and so on in a cycle that carried them along.  That’s where life is lived.  Like punching a guy two heads taller.  Or pulling down the curtains to make a dress for the ball.  The opportunity to feel alive while those around settle for cathartic numbness. 

They toast.  They sit in silence for long periods, speaking to each other only in face ticks.  Occasionally they reach to stir their drinks.  Tonight he’ll break tradition and have a second.

The end credits?  Every story has a different ending.  And this one is being written over martinis on the first Tuesday of the month.  Stoli.  Three Olives.  Slightly dirty.