You should already have written a paragraph analyzing and image, sound or clip from the film Bladerunner. If you're interested, check out Benjamin Irom's and Gary Litt's paragraphs.

Your next task will be to write and evaluation paper on the film. An evaluation paper, as the name implies, demands that you assign some sense of value to the thing being discussed. This can be difficult because definitions of value are often subjective. In fact, you will really be trying to get people to agree with your definition of value. Once you have done that, it will be fairly simple to demonstrate whether or not the item meets those definitions.

For example, if you were trying to evaluate whether the basketball player, Dennis Rodman, was a good or bad professional athlete, you would need to convince people to agree with your criteria for a good professional athlete.

Some people might not agree that a professional athlete needs to be a good role model, so you'll have to explain why that is important. Once you have clearly demonstrated that the criteria you choose are necessary to the definition of a good professional athlete, you can easily match this particular figure with that definition.

This sample is designed to give you an idea of the kinds of thinking that should go into evaluating something. The way you fold these different aspects of the project into a paper of web site is up to you. For the film Bladerunner, you will need to decide what kind of thing you are evaluating. Is it a science fiction movie? Is it an adventure film? Is it a means of communicating a complex idea? Next, you might try to decide what criteria make up the kind of thing you are calling the film. Should it have special effects, a complex message, or symbolism, for example? Why?

Your task for today is to begin thinking about the kinds of criteria that might be used to define a good science fiction film, or a good multimedia presentation. I encourage you to think of the film itself as a multimedia project, somewhat like the project you build on the web. Does it use symbolism to convey its message? Is it enhance by the colors, the sounds, the language? How do they work together? If you are in class today, you will need to group with two other people. Working in groups of three, spend some time thinking about criteria and writing them down in a text file. I'd like you to come up with at least five criteria for both a science fiction film and for a multimedia project. Once you have five for each, you should go back and select the best three for each. Finally, go to the Bladerunner message forum and (as a group) write a posting explaining your criteria for a science fiction film and send it to the board. Next write one talking about your criteria for a multimedia project. If you are not in class you can do this work on your own and post it to the board. As always, let me know if you have any questions.