LAW2005 Hospitality Law Short Documentary Assignment Assignment Due Date and Time This

LAW2005

Hospitality Law

Short Documentary Assignment

Assignment Due Date and Time

This project is due Thursday of Week 7, with an Outline checkpoint due in Week 4.

The Assignment

Each student is expected to create a short documentary, roughly five (5) minutes long, portraying the evolution of a particular concept in the law as it relates to the hospitality industry. The assignment is targeted to several relevant, but focused topics, listed below, from which students may choose. The documentary exercise requires students to track how a particular legal concept has changed, synthesize the key components of those changes, and present the current legal standards with an eye toward advocating whether those standards negatively or positively impact liability for the affected hospitality-related businesses.

The Topic Choices

Hotel liability for guests’ property, from common law through today

Restaurant/bar liability for intoxicated patrons who harm third parties, at common law through today

Trend toward application of Reasonable Expectation Test rather than Foreign/Natural Test in cases involving injuries caused by objects in food

The expansion of liability for food borne illness, from negligence to breach of warranty

Assignment Components and Due Dates

Week Four: A Graded Outline (5% of Course Grade)

The Outline should identify the general organizational set up of your short documentary project. Specifically, break the chosen topic down historically. Identify the original legal rules related to your chosen topic, provide examples of legal milestones where those rules began to change, then introduce the modern legal framework for you chosen topic. Included in the Outline, students should reference any potential source materials they have identified during their research. Students are not necessarily required to use those sources identified early on as the project evolves, however, students should take care to find as many relevant sources as possible at this stage of the assignment.

Week Seven: Video Documentary Project (15% of Course Grade)

Create a short documentary, roughly five (5) minutes long, portraying the evolution in of a particular concept in the law as it relates to the hospitality industry. Using any readily available movie making software, plan, write, film, and edit the video to explain the rule of law in its original form, track the law’s changes through to the current rule, and opine on the impact of that rule in contemporary business settings, that is, whether the current rule of law helps or harms the affected business.

Documentary Guidelines and Movie Making Software Options

Although students are free to use whatever software they are most comfortable with, below are some suggestions:

For Mac users:

    Imovie (free on Mac)

Filmora by Wondershare (free trial period)

Lightworks (free version)

Final Cut Pro (free 90-day trial)

For PC users:

    Filmora by Wondershare (free trial period)

Windows Movie Maker for Windows 7 & 8 (free)

Photo Video Maker for Windows 10 (free)

Kden Live (free)

Sony Vegas (free trial available)

Online Video Making Platforms:

Clipchamp (free version)

Animoto (free)

Documentary Guidelines:

Do not use more than 15 seconds of outside video at a time, whether from YouTube or other video sources. Be vigilant about editing to maintain focus, to keep yourself as the primary voice, and keep interest in your film.

Support the documentary film with a substantial amount of research to support any claims you make.

Be clear about your persuasive purpose—what the position/claim is and what you would like the audience to know about it.

Do not put yourself, or others, in any dangerous situations in the making of your film.

Do not show any illegal activity or potentially incriminate others in the making of your film.

Do not use video/images/language that is not suitable for an academic setting and discourse community. Remember that your film will be shown in class and could be shown in wider venues at the end of the semester.

Once the documentary is completed, upload your video to YouTube. Once you upload it, make sure your link is set to Public or Unlisted. The YouTube link for your finished project must be submitted in ulearn in two places. First, submit the link in the Documentary Project Discussion Forum, where the class can view and comment on submitted videos. Then, submit the YouTube link for your finished project in the Documentary Project Assignment Link in the Week 7 folder for instructor grading.