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Course Listing Film Studies

All courses, arranged by program, are listed in the catalog. If you cannot locate a specific course, try the Advanced Search. Current class schedules, with posted days and times, can be found on the NOW/Student Dashboard or by logging in to SiS.


Introduction to Digital Media (Formerly JMS 100/DGMD 100)

Description

This foundational course that surveys the history and current state of digital and web-based media from a variety of perspectives: cultural and ethical, as well as the production and monetization of media. Students engage with and become critical consumers of media, learning how we use it to disseminate, market, entertain, influence and disrupt.

Introduction to Film Studies

Description

This course is an introduction to academic film studies. It aims to introduce students to the basic vocabularies, methods, and debates in scholarly writing about narrative cinema. Students will become conversant with specific elements and operations of the cinematic apparatus (e.g. camera, editing, soundtrack) and its production of meanings. We will also examine the structural and ideological attributes of cinema, concentrating on the dominant narrative model developed in the Hollywood studio system and the alternatives and challenges it provoked. Finally, we will look at the multiple ways in which digital technologies have altered the construction of narratives in Hollywood and other national cinemas.

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: ENGL.1020 College Writing II.

Introduction to Media Arts

Description

This is a foundation-level Digital Media production course. The course gives a fast-paced overview of a broad range of topics in contemporary digital media creation. Students should expect to gain foundational level skills and with still image capture, video recording, sound recording, and editing. Students will be introduced to various equipment such as DSLR cameras, audio recorders and will also learn the basics of non-linear editing. A significant portion of the course is dedicated to in-the-field and in-the-studio hands-on experience. Upon completion of the course, students will have experience with a broad range of digital media production tools. No prior experience with the medium is necessary.

Introduction to Audio Production

Description

This introductory-level production course is designed to engage students in learning techniques and principles of audio production and integration of sound into media storytelling including digital film, commercial media applications, internet production, and many more. Students will learn basic workflows of digital sound recording, processing, editing, and mixing. Likewise, students will be introduced to the aesthetic properties of sound and discuss various applications and form through the study of existing works. A significant portion of the course is dedicated to in-the-field and in-the-studio hands-on experience (both individual and in-group). No prior experience with the medium is necessary. The course is required for Digital Media BA majors but is open to anyone.

Media History and Culture before 1960

Description

This course is the first in a sequence of a two-semester expose to media history and culture in the US and worldwide. The course will trace and analyze some of the most significant developments in media technology, industry, and the role they play in the process of shaping the human experience affecting society, politics, and culture. The emphasis will be made on the visual media including film and broadcast, but the broader context will be considered.

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: ENGL 1020 College Writing II, or permission of instructor.

Media History and Culture after 1960

Description

This course is the second in a sequence of a two-semester expose to media history and culture in the US and worldwide. The content will cover the developments from the 1960s to the present moment. The course will trace and analyze some of the most significant developments in media technology, industry, and the role they play in the process of shaping the human experience affecting society, politics, and culture. The emphasis will be made on the visual media including film and broadcast, but the broader context will be considered.

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: ENGL.1020 College Writing II.

Screenwriting

Description

In this class students will be immersed in the art and craft of creating compelling stories for the screen in both fiction and nonfiction genres. As it has been said many times about media making, the story is the heart of media production. Students will develop screenwriting abilities through gaining knowledge of and experience with story conception and development: character development; story structure; dramatic action; dialogue; scene/sequence construction and writing for emotional impact.

Multimedia Storytelling (Formerly JMS 300/DGMD 300)

Description

This course will facilitate a deeper understanding of the uses of online and multimedia communication technologies in a democratic society and the impact of such technologies on the way we communicate The course will provide students with the opportunity to develop professional knowledge and skills with the tools used in online and multimedia creation. Students will develop a critical understanding of multiplatform and multimedia technologies and will learn how to use video, digital photography, audio, video, social networking and other new technologies.

Lighting Principles (Formerly JMS 340/DGMD 340)

Description

In this course students are going to understand the principles of lighting, its nature, its physical Characteristics, and its artistic role in media production. Class will have significant hands-on assignments and demonstrations beside theoretical background lectures. The concept will be developed based on a one-camera setting only. Students will work with light meters to guide their lighting schemes.

Prerequisites

Pre-req: DGMD.1100 Introduction to Digital Media Production.

Business of Media

Description

In this course students are going to be introduced to the process of film production management from preproduction through production and screening. Students will learn budget management, crewing requirements, location needs, equipment rentals, and associated production costs.

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: ENGL 1020 College Writing II, or permission of instructor.

Video Production for Digital Media (Formerly DGMD.2510)

Description

In this course students are going to understand the theory and practice of video production using a single digital camera for digital media through a mix of heavy hands-on practice and lectures. Students will be expected to understand; full digital camera operation and settings, audio control, basic directing, basic lighting, and basic editing intended for digital production. Students will also be expected to learn the terminology of video production/post-production intended for digital media.

Prerequisites

Pre-req: DGMD.1100 Introduction to Digital Media Production.

Multi-Camera Production (Formerly JMS 410/DGMD 410)

Description

This course will offer you the opportunity to produce different types of live programs using digital technology. Plan, organise and direct TV studio-based broadcasting. Work effectively as part of a group. It provides a working knowledge of compositional, personal and organizational production skills in relation to the making of a live broadcast program using at least three cameras having in mind that you will cut/ edit form a camera to another without stopping. It requires collaboration, teamwork and strict, organized structures. In most cases, it requires leadership. But for everybody, personal qualities such as determination, enthusiasm and persistence are almost essential. So too is engaged participation.

Prerequisites

Pre-req: DGMD.1100 Introduction to Digital Media Production, or Permission of Instructor.

Turning Fiction into Film (Formerly 42.232)

Description

This course explores film adaptation by looking at how writing can be turned into the visual and auditory forms. Through reading novels and watching their film adaptations, students learn conventions of fiction and film, and draw on this knowledge to discover the implications of adapting a written story into a movie. By asking students to think about the different ways writers and filmmakers convey meaning to their audiences, this course attempts to answer the question of why the movie is never exactly like the book.

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: ENGL.1020 College Writing II.

Studies in Film (Formerly 42.341)

Description

A rigorous examination of a topic of current interests in film studies organized by particular themes, genres or filmmakers.

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: ENGL.1020 College Writing II.

International Cinema Studies: French New Wave

Description

This course will introduce students to the aesthetic and theoretical qualities that define the New Wave movement in French cinema, focusing on major directors, performers, and composers associated with the New Wave. Through the close intertextual comparison of a range of films contextualized through the historical lens of 1960s Paris, students will develop sophisticated analyses that combine elements of film theory and cultural studies. This semester, we will read contemporary criticism, manifestos, mid-century French philosophy, and secondary scholarly studies to ground our discussions and writing in appropriate historical and theoretical context.

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: ENGL 1020 College Writing II, or permission of instructor.

Visual Rhetoric (Formerly 42.392)

Description

This course introduces students to the theory and practice of visual communication. Students will explore what scholars mean by terms such as visual rhetoric and visual literacy in order to think concretely about how these concepts apply to the communication practices they will engage in their academic, professional, and everyday life. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which visual representations communicate culturally-specific meanings about race, gender, class, sexuality, age, nationality, and difference. Assignments include contributions to a course blog, rhetorical analyses of visual texts, design modules, and a multimodal project.

Film Music (Formerly 74.456)

Description

A study of music in sound cinema from the 1920s to the present. The course focuses on the expressive, formal, and semiotic function that film music serves, either as sound experienced by the characters, as another layer of commentary to be heard only by the viewer, and/or some mixture of the two. Composers to be studied include Max Steiner, Bernard Hermann, Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Danny Elfman, and others, as well as film scores that rely upon a range of musical styles, including classical, popular, and non-Western. The singularly most important goal of the course will be to study how music functions in a given film, regardless of its musical style. In the process, ancillary ideas will emerge including discovering how music establishes psychological moods, guides emotions, and reveals aspects of the narrative structure of the film. By the end of the course, the student will have gained a greater understanding of both music and film and it is likely that students will never watch or listen another movie in quite the same way.

Philosophy of the Gothic Imagination (Formerly 45.314)

Description

A philosophical inquiry into science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with special emphasis on film. This course will attept to provide interpretations of some classic examples from these genres, as well as to inquire into the philosophical significance of these literary categories and their relation to mythology and religion. Questions to be addressed will include the problem of knowledge and rationality and its limits, the nature of the human being, and the moral problem of the role of violence in the social order. The class will attempt to identify a continuous tradition between these modern genres and ancient Greek tragedy and mythology.

Philosophy and Film (Formerly 45.316)

Description

This course examines the political and philosophical values and ideas which constitute cinema. It analyzes film as an historical, cultural, commercial, and artistic endeavor. Students will develop the skills to watch film actively and critically.

Politics and Film (Formerly 46.316)

Description

Analysis of the role of film in creating, expressing, revealing, and responding to social and political ideas and values. Examines a variety of film and film styles and introduces students to elements of film theory, the theory of popular culture and the role of film in forming our ideas about the world.

Race, Gender and Film

Description

In this course, we will critically and sociologically analyze racial and gender patterns in American films. We will analyze how each film is shot with regard to racial messages using film studies terminology (for example, cinematography). We will also highlight which films are recognized with prestigious awards, and what this suggests about American society. In addition, we will discuss the role of power in the film industry and how directors, producers and screenwriters shape the public imagination of the American society and the world through widely disseminated media portrayals. We will also critically evaluate seemingly race-neutral, animation films, such as children's films, where characters appear in animal form.

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: SOCI.1010 Intro to Sociology.

Francophone Identity through Cinema (Formerly 50.380)

Description

Provides a critical appreciation of the notion of Francophone identity through modern and contemporary (1970-today) Francophone cinema from diverse places such as but not limited to North Africa, West Africa (especially Senegal), Canada (especially Quebec) the Caribbean, Belgium, and Switzerland. The course is aiming at showing the evolution of the Francophone identity in the postcolonial period until now and is focusing on the following aspects: 1) The emergence and importance of postcolonial Francophone cinema in the 1970s as a "cinema engage" (especially Sembene Ousmane in Senegal); 2) Contemporary issues of the postcolonial Francophone societies through films; 3) Representations of the cultural diversity in Francophone films; 4) Identity, race and immigration, women's status issues.

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: WLFR 2110 French 3 and Culture, or WLFR 2120 French 4 and Culture or WLAN 3990 Elective.

Italian Cinema and Culture (Formerly 52.378)

Description

A guide to contemporary Italian studies through literary and cultural approaches. The works of central figures in contemporary Italian letters are examined in view of their impact on Italian life. Emphasis is given to poets, novelists, the new cinema, the influences of existentialism, and the impact of America on Italian literature. Conducted in Italian/English.

Black Italy: Debunking Italian-ness

Description

This course explores literary, cinematic and social media representations of race and identity in Italy from the late 19th century to today. Through the study of texts and drawing form history, sociology, critical race theory, media and cultural studies, students will discover how Black Italians challenge mainstream discourses, thus contributing to redefine the multilayered composition of Italian society. This course will be taught in English. Knowledge of Italian is preferred but not required. Italian majors and minors will complete all written assignments, reviews, and exams in Italian.

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: ENGL.1020 College Writing II.

Italian Cinema: Directors and Themes (Formerly 52.380)

Description

A study of Italian film history and its accomplishment by exploring the relationship of cinema to sociopolitical, economic, cultural, and literary events. The course will discuss in depth either a) one or two major and well known directors; b) a major thematic and stylistic division in a century of cinematic creativity.

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: ENGL 1020 College Writing II, or permission of instructor.

Italian Women Filmmakers

Description

This course explores crucial works of Italian cinema directed by women from the early 20th century to present day. Students will engage in critical discussions, analyzing and debating a vast array of social and ethical topics as well as private and political issues such as family ties, motherhood, work, gender discrimination, displacement, and violence. This course will be taught in English. Knowledge of Italian is preferred but not required. Italian majors and minors enrolled in this course will complete all written assignments, reviews, and exams in Italian, consolidating their intermediate high/advanced low ACTFL language proficiency level. This course satisfies credits for those students who are in the World Ready Italian Track and in the Film Studies minor. If students complete the course work in Italian, then the course also satisfies credit for those students in the Italian Studies minor, and Italian/Spanish major degree programs.

Prerequisites

Pre-req or Co-req: ENGL.1020 College Writing II.

Survey of Brazilian Cinema

Description

An introduction to Brazilian cinema and society, focusing on the Cinema Novo (New Cinema) of the 1960s and 1970s as well as more contemporary films influenced by the ideals of this movement. Films will be analyzed via reference to historical and theoretical texts. Topics to be addressed include Brazilian history as reflected in film and the formation of a distinct Brazilian aesthetic sensibility. Taught in English.

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: ENGL 1020 College Writing II.

Survey of Brazilian,Portuguese and Lusophone African Cinema (Formerly 53.304)

Description

This course is designed as an introduction to film studies and to Brazilian, Portuguese and Lusophone African cinema and cultures. Taught in English. College Writing 1 (ENGL01010) and College Writing 2 (ENGL.1020).

Prerequisites

Pre-Req: ENGL.1020 College Writing II.

Hispanic Literature & Film (Formerly 54.371)

Description

This course examines the relationship between the Hispanic narrative discourse and cinema, including film adaptations of literary works. Modern social and cultural issues, as well as Hispanic self-images. The selected works provide an array of genres and perspectives that reflect the cultural, historical, and socio-political aspects of each period. Taught in Spanish.

Prerequisites

Pre-req: WLSP.2120 Spanish 4 and Culture, or WLSP.2040 Intensive Spanish 3 & 4.

Latin American and Spanish Cinema (Formerly 54.375)

Description

An exploration of representative Spanish and latin American films from a variety of major directors. Areas of investigation include the cinematic representation of nationality, ethnicity, identity, gender, history and politics. This course will be taught in English. Knowledge of Spanish is desirable but not required. Spanish majors and minors will complete written assignments, reviews, quizzes, and exams in Spanish.

Prerequisites

Pre-req: WLSP 1020 Spanish 2 and Culture, or WLSP 2040 Intensive Spanish 3 and 4.