| | Description: | In spite of -- and because of -- its propensity for terrifying readers and viewers, horror has proven to be one of the most resilient and popular genres across all forms of media. Why are audiences attracted to a genre that causes fear, revulsion, and distress? This course will consider the cultural, philosophical, and generic dimensions of horror and explore how it operates across an array of media platforms: film, literature, television, comics, and video games. We will read two literary masters of the genre, H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King, and we will screen some of the most successful horror films of the last 50 years. We will also study horror through a variety of critical frameworks, including gender, stardom, special effects, transnationality, adaptation, transmedia storytelling, and interactivity. The course will culminate in two extended case studies. In the first, we will compare and contrast literary, filmic, and televisual adaptations of "The Shining." In the second, we will consider "The Walking Dead" as a franchise that spreads its narrative across comics, multiple television programs, and video games. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Required screenings: Tuesdays @ 7pm |
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| | 01 | -T-R--- | 11:30A-12:50P | TBA | Fleury | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
| Waits Not Allowed |
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| A | -T----- | 7:00P-10:00P | TBA | Fleury | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
| Waits Not Allowed |
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| | 01 | TBA | | TBA | Studlar | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | |
| 03 | TBA | | TBA | Bogost | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | |
| 05 | TBA | | TBA | Chapman | No final | 0 | 0 | 1 | | |
| 06 | TBA | | TBA | Powers | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | |
| 07 | TBA | | TBA | Burnett | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | |
| 08 | TBA | | TBA | Maitre | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | |
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M-W---- | 7:00P-10:00P
1:00P-1:50P | Brown / 100
Wrighton / 300 | Burnett | No final | 203 | 38 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| A | --W---- | 2:00P-2:50P | TBA | [TBA] | No final | 25 | 19 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| B | --W---- | 2:00P-2:50P | TBA | [TBA] | No final | 21 | 0 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| C | --W---- | 2:00P-2:50P | Mallinckrodt / 305 | [TBA] | No final | 21 | 1 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| D | --W---- | 3:00P-3:50P | TBA | Fleury | No final | 23 | 4 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| E | ----F-- | 2:00P-2:50P | TBA | [TBA] | No final | 22 | 8 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| F | ----F-- | 2:00P-2:50P | TBA | [TBA] | No final | 21 | 3 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| G | ----F-- | 2:00P-2:50P | TBA | [TBA] | No final | 19 | 0 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| H | ----F-- | 3:00P-3:50P | Seigle / L003 | [TBA] | No final | 23 | 3 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| I | ----F-- | 2:00P-2:50P | TBA | [TBA] | No final | 19 | 0 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| J | --W---- | 3:00P-3:50P | TBA | [TBA] | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Desc: | THIS SECTION IS RESERVED FOR FIRST-YEAR FRESHMEN ONLY |
| | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
| Waits Not Allowed |
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| | Description: | This course introduces the core concepts and skills for producing dramatic narrative film and video, building on the Hollywood paradigm. No previous technical experience is required, but students should have taken or be concurrently enrolled in Film 220. This course teaches students how films are put together to tell stories, negotiating between the possibilities of cinematic language and the practicalities of working with machines and other people. In order to develop an understanding of filmic narration, students will learn the basics of camera operation, lighting, digital video editing, sound design and recording, casting and directing actors, visual composition and art direction, and production planning and organization. These concepts will be put into practice through a series of exercises culminating in a creative, narrative short digital video. This course fulfills the prerequisite for 300 and 400 level video and film production courses in Film and Media Studies and the production requirement in the FMS major. Admission by waitlist only. Prereq: Film 220. |
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| | Description: | In parallel with an overview of various documentary genres, ranging from the personal, the poetic, the agitprop, and cinema verité, this course will offer students the opportunity to produce a short documentary piece on the topic of their choosing. Aesthetic and ethical issues will be explored by considering the overall methodology in terms of subjectivity, content, structure, and the possible usage of music and/or voice-over. For the sake of completing the project in time, it is recommended that students be familiar with the subject matter of their investigation, before taking the course. Prerequisite: L53 Film 230 (Moving Images and Sound) or permission of the instructor. |
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| | 01 | ----F-- | 1:00P-3:50P | TBA | Maitre | See instructor | 0 | 0 | 11 | | |
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| | Description: | From movie screens to cell phones, moving images that "document" life have never been more ubiquitous. What do these images tell us about the relationship between representation and reality? How have film and media makers used moving images to represent major cultural, political, and social upheavals as well as communicated an understanding of everyday life? To answer these questions, this course will survey the rich, vibrant legacy of documentary filmmaking as well as demonstrate its ongoing artistic and cultural relevance to newer media. We will examine key modes of documentary film while contextualizing the historical development of these forms within aesthetic, industrial, and political factors. We will also consider ethical issues in filmic representation, especially in relation to the ethnographic tradition. In addition to studying the work of documentary pioneers, we will explore contemporary activist documentaries, as well as new industrial developments such as serialized online documentary. Required screenings. Mondays @ 4pm |
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| | 01 | M-W---- | 1:00P-2:20P | TBA | Powers | Dec 18 2024 1:00PM - 3:00PM | 19 | 9 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| A | M------ | 4:00P-6:50P | TBA | Powers | No final | 19 | 9 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| | Description: | British cinema has gotten a bad rap. French film director François Truffaut once declared that cinema and Britain were incompatible terms since "the English countryside, the subdued way of life, the stolid routine-are anti-dramatic. . . [even] the weather itself is anti-cinematic." Yet British films proudly rank among some of the most acclaimed and beloved in film history: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, A Hard Day's Night, Lawrence of Arabia, The Third Man, Zulu, The Ladykillers, A Night to Remember, Trainspotting, The King's Speech, and the James Bond franchise. Admittedly, British cinema has had its ups and downs, never quite knowing whether to position itself as a distinctive national cinema or as a rival to Hollywood. This uncertainty has fostered a rich diversity and complexity that this course will emphasize in a survey approach. We will give equal attention to the work of high-profile directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Michael Powell and to important "genres" in which the British seem to excel--like black comedy, imperialist adventure, "kitchen sink" drama, documentary, and the so-called "heritage" films that paved the way for television's Downton Abbey. Required Screenings: Tuesdays @ 4pm |
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| | 01 | -T-R--- | 2:30P-3:50P | TBA | Studlar | Dec 18 2024 3:30PM - 5:30PM | 19 | 7 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| A | -T----- | 4:00P-6:50P | TBA | Studlar | No final | 19 | 7 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| | Description: | In Making Movies II, students advance their skills in filmmaking through a series of exercises and individual short films culminating in a final narrative project shot in high definition digital video and edited in Adobe CC and Premiere Pro. With faculty guidance, and working in groups, students collaborate in producing a narrative film that is a minimum of 10 minutes in length, following three-act structure and involving elements of motivation, conflict, and resolution. In addition to this structured approach to content, students are encouraged to achieve a unified aesthetic approach to picture and soundtrack that reinforces/enhances the meaning of their final projects. The course develops student skills through lectures, demonstrations, in-class screening of excerpts and critiques. Topics covered include idea development, preproduction planning, directing actors, composition, lighting, and editing. Students are required to assist other students in their productions and attend all classes. 3 credits. Admission by waitlist only. Prerequisite: Film 220 and Film 225. |
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| | Description: | Before they became "retro," games played on platforms of the 1970s and 1980s were just games. But early game-console hardware was designed with very particular ideas of what made a game a game, and under extreme constraints of cost and technical viability. Creators designed for these constraints, and their work then influenced the design of later hardware and software.
This is a course about the history, design, and technology of one retro game console, the 1977 Atari Video Computer System (also known as the Atari VCS or the Atari 2600). The first popular home console, the Atari VCS is a truly weird computer: It "boasts" 128 bytes of RAM, no video buffer, and a custom graphics and sound chip designed to interface with then-universal cathode ray tube televisions. Against all odds, creators made fun and successful games within these extreme constraints.
Just as an artist benefits from learning the fundamentals of their craft, so a game designer or developer can benefit from returning to these early and crude hardware platforms. In this course, students will learn the technical and creative history of the Atari, and they will also learn the fundamentals of programming its unfamiliar hardware. Students will carry out programming exercises, mostly in the assembly language instructions required to operate this unusual computer. They will then make their own games for the Atari, which will be able to run on the actual, 45-year-old hardware. |
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| | 01 | M-W---- | 4:00P-5:20P | TBA | Bogost | Dec 13 2024 6:00PM - 8:00PM | 0 | 0 | 43 | | |
| A | ---R--- | 4:00P-6:50P | TBA | Bogost | No final | 0 | 0 | 1 | | |
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| | 01 | -T-R--- | 11:30A-12:50P | TBA | Lewis | Dec 16 2024 1:00PM - 3:00PM | 68 | 42 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| A | --W---- | 7:00P-10:00P | Brown / 100 | Lewis | No final | 68 | 42 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| | 01 | M-W---- | 11:30A-12:50P | TBA | Hilu | Dec 17 2024 10:30AM - 12:30PM | 19 | 6 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| A | M------ | 7:00P-10:00P | TBA | Hilu | No final | 19 | 6 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| | Description: | SPECIAL NOTE: Admission by wait-list only. Preference will be given to declared Film & Media Studies AND English majors and minors. Writers will explore the various elements, structures and styles used in crafting a motion picture screenplay. They will experience this process as they conceive, develop and execute the first act of a feature-length script. Writers will create a screenplay story, present an outline for class discussion and analysis, then craft Act One. Writers will be encouraged to consult with the instructor at various stages: concept, outline, character and scene development and dialogue execution. While the students fashion their screenwriting independently, the class will also explore the general elements of THEME, GENRE, and VOICE. A more specific examination of mechanics, the nuts and bolts of story construction, plotting, pacing, etc. will follow to support the ongoing writing process. In-class exercises will aid the writer in sharpening skills and discovering new approaches to form and content. Writers' work will be shared and discussed regularly in class. Screening of film scenes and sequences will provide students with concrete examples of how dramatic screenwriting evolves once it leaves the writer's hands. |
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| | 01 | M-W---- | 10:00A-11:20A | TBA | Chapman | See instructor | 0 | 0 | 9 | | |
| 02 | -T-R--- | 10:00A-11:20A | TBA | Chapman | See instructor | 0 | 0 | 11 | | |
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| | Description: | This class will focus on all the factors that go into preparing and writing an episode for a network TV series (dramas only). Students begin with a "pitch" (verbally or in short outline form) for an idea for a show currently on a network schedule. Once the "pitch" is accepted, the student will then complete a "beat sheet," and ultimately a spec script that can run from 62 to 75 pages. Two drafts of the script will be required. During the course of this process, students will also learn how to research their narrative premises by contacting legal, medical, and law enforcement experts in order to guarantee the accuracy of their scripts.
In addition to learning the actual writing process, students will be expected to watch several television shows and to read books, scripts, and industry trade papers as they pertain to the craft and business of television writing. Finally, students will also meet agents, producers, directors, and other television industry professionals in order to gain their insights into the script writing process and to gain a more global view of the steps involved in bringing their ideas to the screen. |
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| | 01 | -T-R--- | 1:00P-2:20P | TBA | Chapman | See instructor | 0 | 0 | 11 | | |
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| | 01 | M-W---- | 1:00P-2:20P | TBA | Lloyd | Paper/Project/TakeHome | 30 | 21 | 0 | | Desc: | For AFAS majors, this course fulfills Area Requirement 3. |
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| | 01 | M-W---- | 2:30P-3:50P | TBA | Hilu | Dec 16 2024 3:30PM - 5:30PM | 19 | 7 | 0 | | |
| A | -T----- | 4:00P-6:50P | TBA | Hilu | No final | 19 | 7 | 0 | | |
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| | Description: | By close examination of three or four specific types of film narratives, this course will explore how genre has functioned in the Hollywood mode of production. Students will gain an understanding of genre both as a critical construct as well as a form created by practical economic concerns, a means of creating extratextual communication between film artist/producers and audience/consumers. Genres for study will be chosen from the western, the gangster film, the horror movie, the musical, screwball comedy, science fiction, the family melodrama, the woman's film, and others. In addition to film showings, there will be readings in genre theory as well as genre analyses of individual films. Required screenings Thursdays @ 4pm |
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| | 01 | --W-F-- | 11:30A-12:50P | Seigle / 104 | Fleury | No final | 19 | 10 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| A | ---R--- | 4:00P-6:50P | Brown / 100 | Fleury | No final | 19 | 10 | 0 | | | Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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| | Description: | Filmmaker Stan Brakhage famously wrote the following: "Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception." In this course, we will embark upon our own adventures of perception, examining and producing works of art that challenge our preconceptions of what cinema is or can be. From city symphonies to pop collages, portraiture to handcrafted animation, and ethnography to gender studies, we will explore the multifaceted and transformative avant-garde cinema through the work of its greatest practitioners, contextualize films in relation to aesthetic aspirations (e.g., formalism, opposition, reflexivity, transcendence) and movements in art and cultural theory (e.g., Dadaism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Performance Art, Minimalism), and acquire the digital production skills needed to make our own experimental videos. Each week, we will mix the classic with the contemporary to demonstrate the ongoing vitality of -- and make our own contributions to -- this often misunderstood cinematic tradition. Required screenings: Tuesdays @ 7pm |
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| | 01 | M-W---- | 10:00A-11:20A | TBA | Powers | No final | 19 | 13 | 0 | | |
| A | -T----- | 7:00P-10:00P | TBA | Powers | No final | 19 | 13 | 0 | | |
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| | 01 | TBA | | TBA | Studlar | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | |
| 03 | TBA | | TBA | Bogost | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | |
| 05 | TBA | | TBA | Chapman | No final | 0 | 0 | 2 | | |
| 06 | TBA | | TBA | Powers | No final | 1 | 0 | 0 | | |
| 07 | TBA | | TBA | Burnett | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | |
| 08 | TBA | | TBA | Maitre | No final | 0 | 0 | 1 | | |
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| | 01 | TBA | | TBA | Studlar | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | |
| 03 | TBA | | TBA | Burnett | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | |
| 05 | TBA | | TBA | Chapman | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | |
| 06 | TBA | | TBA | Powers | No final | 0 | 0 | 0 | | |
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