Keesey, Douglas  

Dr. Keesey is a great guy and a truly awesome professor. He really cares about the films that he shows, and is so effective at teaching them that whether you like them or not, you as a student are able to appreciate them and see them more clearly. If you love watching movies and want to know more about the complexities that they hold, then by all means take this class. It is somewhat writing intensive, but it is by no means overbearing. In the quarter I took the class there were four 500 word writing assignments, one 2000 word term paper, and assigned reading based on the aspects of film technique. In class quizzes occurred around 90% of the time, but if you pay attention to that week's movie and keep up on the film terms you will ace them. The work load of this class i entirely manageable, and if you want to know more about the cinema, then I would definitely recommend taking this class ( and it fills the GWR requirement, so if you still need to pass it, taking this class could help you to finish that). TAKE THIS CLASS! YOU WON'T REGRET IT!!!

Professor Keesey is a great professor who clearly cares about his students. He is organized, very knoweldgable, and facilitates a collaborative learning environment to learn about film. The class is a little challenging though, so I would be aware of that.

Dr. Keesey's class consists of a lab that meets every Monday at 4:25 in Palm Theater and a 1.5 hour lecture Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are quizzes every week after the film, generally asking about directors, opening and ending shots, and film terms he assigns. There is a large list of vocabulary that is crucial to know so make flashcards as soon as they are assigned. The first three weeks he assigns three short writing assignments that are credit/no credit but are extremely helpful and are important for the big essay later on. The midterm and final exams consist of vocab, grammar, punctuation, and other film associated questions. There is one final paper at then end. Dr. Keesey is a fantastic professor and expects participation.

I have been at poly for 5 years and it is rare to see a professor work this hard for his students. He genuinely cares about their learning. He takes the time and puts in the effort to make sure that every individual improves their writing. I encourage going into his office hours and getting one on one help as well. I took Hitchcock with him, and he really brought the material to life. I strongly recommend this guy.

This was my favorite class I've taken at Cal Poly so far. I had him for Kubrick, and every week Professor Keesey made it really exciting to talk about the film we had screened that week and was always very open and considerate about everyone's ideas; Keesey made it really comfortable for students to speak out about their thoughts, which made the discussions extremely interesting. If you love film studies, take this class to fulfill your C4. His grading is very fair and for the midterm paper, he took the time to give every student a very descriptive response to what he thought- he gave me a typed two page response to my paper, which I thought was amazing, and the way he explains how to construct a paper made passing the GWR super easy. If you love film, take Keesey's class.

Keesey was/is great. While you may spend more time in class than a normal 4 unit English class(because of watching the movie downtown every week), it is well worth it. There are a lot of terms yo memorize but there are plenty of quizlets that help out. The quizes do ask questions about the films and maybe even the actors names, but it was easily manageable highly recommend this class for a c4/GWR

It's true, Professor Keesey does a lot for his students, it's freaking amazing. Throughout the course, you have to work on memorizing a pretty long list of technical film terms but he tries to give as much help as possible with worksheets, mnemonics, and take home quizzes. The class is extremely engaging. I found myself sometimes not enjoying the movies when I first viewed it, but the class discussions and the new viewpoints he has really made me appreciate the films. I feel like anyone would enjoy his class!

Keesey is a good professor. He really cares about teaching the students the material. However, the class is fairly demanding. You watch a 2-3 hr movie once a week, then have a quiz the next day where you have to memorize all the people involved in making the movie, they are not too hard, just annoying to memorize pointless information. Midterm is just an essay that can count for the GWR as well. Final has another essay, a bunch of sentence correcting problems, and about 75 vocab questions that are all free response. Final took me about 2.5 hours which is a bit absurd for a GE class. Overall, class is not too bad, just a good amount of work needs to be done to get anything over a B.

This is a great professor teaching a super interesting subject. The work load is minimal, which is nice. You might find this a challenging course if you're not a very strong writer, but Keesey truly cares about your success in his class and will do everything in his power to help you do well.

The most fun I've ever had in an English class. It will be a challenge if writing is a big chore for you. If you have the aptitude to write decent papers, then it will be a joy. Especially movie night.

Professor Keesey is the most kind-hearted, thoughtful, and intelligent professor I have ever had. I never had a teacher who goes above and beyond for his students to succeed. Majority of the students in the course are not English majors, thus our writings are passable but mediocre. I have not written a solid essay since my second year in college and I am currently a senior. I came on the course a bit worried about my writing abilities especially since English was not my first language and that I haven't written a formal essay since my second year in college. Professor Keesey would assign writing assignments and then would return with constructive feedback on our writing. He would help correct grammar issues, elaborate on your ideas, and suggest further ideas to help expand your ideas. He is truly someone that is out here trying to help students succeed rather than questioning his student's intelligence like some professors here on this campus. Yes, there are a lot of writing assignments but like people have said, it is nothing unbearable. Just do the assignment, it's credit if you do it, or no credit if you don't. Even if it's trash, Professor Keesey accepts it and returns with very helpful feedback. Attendance matters so just show up. It is really not that bad especially on the days you go and watch the movie. You usually would have a quiz the next day about the movie you watched such as character names and etc., so just go to class. Stop being a lazy piece of sh*t because I know damn well you're not that sick. Overall, I am so grateful for Professor Keesey and I truly appreciate all the work he puts forth to help his students succeed.

If you are looking to take the "Film Directors" course in order to get your GWR credit this might not be the class for you. The discussions and information about film are interesting, but he is really bad at explaining how he wants things to be written, and hardly passes anyone. He is also fairly scatter brained, and mixes up the character names from several different films. If you don't desperately want to learn about films, just take a different class for your GWR because then you might actually pass.

Prof. Keesey is awesome! I really, really enjoyed this class because he made is extremely knowledgeable and made the class interesting. He's wicked helpful in office hours and is always willing to make time for you if you cant make office hours. He gives some homework that did not take me long at all. Weekly quizzes about the movies, one midterm & one final with grammar, key terms, and an essay. Honestly, the hardest part was the grammar. I studied his movie summaries right before the quizzes and did well on them. I spent less than 2 hours on this class for homework every week so it's a good class to take if you have a heavy load with other classes. I got behind on some assignments because of IME 312 (rip if you have to take that class) and Prof. Keesey was always so understanding. He's passionate about movies, insanely knowledgeable, and empathetic to students' lives. I definitely recommend this guy & class!

BOYCOTT!!!