91473

FILM 109 Aesthetics of Film

Richard Suchenski Screening:

. T . Th . . . W . .

11:00 - 12:30 pm 7:00 - 10:00 pm

AVERY 110

AART

Designed for first-year students, this course will offer a broad, historically-grounded survey of film aesthetics internationally. Key elements of film form will be addressed through close analysis of important films by directors such as Griffith, Eisenstein, Dreyer, Hitchcock, von Sternberg, Mizoguchi, Rossellini, Powell, Bresson, Brakhage, Godard, Tarkovsky, and Denis, the reading of important critical or theoretical texts, and discussions of central issues in the other arts. Midterm exam, two short papers, and final exam. Open to first year students only.

91463

FILM 113 History of Cinema I: The Silent Era

John Pruitt Screening:

. T . . . M . . . .

1:30 -4:30 pm 7:00 - 10:00 pm

AVERY 110

AART

A lecture survey course that traces the medium of film as an art form from its origins to the end of the silent era. An emphasis will be placed on particularly prominent "schools" of filmmaking: The American Silent Comedy, German Expressionism, The Soviet and European Avant-gardes. The long list of film artists to be screened and studied include: the Lumiere Brothers, George Melies, D.W. Griffith, Lois Weber, Germaine Dulac, Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Yasujiro Ozu, Carl Dreyer, Fernand Leger, Luis Bunuel, Man Ray, Erich von Stroheim, F. W. Murnau, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Readings will consist mostly of classic aesthetic studies from the era itself, those by Eisenstein, Vertov, Munsterberg, Arnheim, et al. Course is limited to First-Year students only and is highly recommended for (but not restricted to) those students who are contemplating film as a major course of study. Two essay exams and a term paper. Open to first-year students only.

91471

FILM 167 Survey of Media Art

Ed Halter Screening:

. . . . F . . . Th .

10:10 -1:10 pm 7:00 - 10:00 pm

AVERY 110

AART

An introduction to the history of moving-image art made with electronic media, with a focus on avant-garde traditions. Topics include video art, guerrilla television, expanded cinema, feminist media, Net art, music video, microcinema, digital feature filmmaking and art made from video games. Open to first year students only.

91466

FILM 200 Modernism in East Asia

Richard Suchenski Screening:

. . W . . . T . . .

1:30 -4:30 pm 7:00 - 10:00 pm

AVERY 110

AART

Cross-listed: Asian Studies This seminar will explore the various permutations of modernism in and between the cinemas of East Asia from the
1920s to the present by looking closely at major films and the cultural configurations from which they emerged. Special attention will be paid to
the way in which strong directors from different traditions use formal innovations to meditate on the dramatic changes taking place in their
societies as well as on the way in which the meaning of these strategies shifts over time. We will consider the ways in which the different
modernisms being discussed differ both from Western paradigms and from each other. Directors studied include Kinugasa Teinosuke, Ozu Yasujiro,
Mizoguchi Kenji, Kurosawa Akira, Oshima Nagisa, Teshigahara Hiroshi, Fei Mu, Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Jia Zhangke, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Im Kwon-taek, and Wong Kar-wai. Three short papers and a final research essay. Prior coursework in Film, Art History, and/or Asian Studies preferred.
 

91540

FILM 203 Performance & Video

Ben Coonley

. T . . .

10:10 - 1:10 pm

AVERY 117 / 333

PART

This course explores intersections of video and performance art. Course participants develop ways of using video's most fundamental property: its ability to reproduce a stream of real-time synchronized images and sounds. How does video technology mediate between on-screen performer and audience? How can artists interested in creating critical and self-reflexive media respond to video’s immediacy and “liveness”? How can performance artists use video playback devices, displays, projectors, and interactive elements to shape and enhance live art? Course participants will work on individual projects using cameras, monitors, switchers, surveillance systems, projectors, and software-based video mixers. The first half of the course concentrates on the creation of performance “tapes” (or tape-less video documents) and the history of experimental video focused on framing staged live activities. The second half of the course concentrates on the use of video as a central component within live art events, plus a continued discussion about the larger cultural and psychological impact of live video production. Readings on and viewings of work by Nam Jun Paik, Andy Warhol, Joan Jonas, Martha Rosler, Laurie Anderson, Richard Serra, Chris Burden, John Baldessari, Bruce Nauman, Gilbert & George, George Kuchar, William Wegman, Michael Smith, Walid Raad, Wynne Greenwood, Shana Moulton, Eileen Maxson, Ryan Trecartin, Xander Marro, Miranda July, Sadie Benning, Jeremy Bailey, Paper Rad, Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement.

91462

FILM 205 Narrative Film Workshop

Kelly Reichardt

. T . . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 117 / 333

PART

A filmmaking workshop for students especially interested in narrative form.  Approaches to visual storytelling, examination of narrative strategies, hands-on shooting, and solutions of practical and/or aesthetic problems, as they are encountered in the making of a film. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement.

91467

FILM 207 Introduction to Video Production

Les LeVeque

. . W . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 117 / 333

PART

This course is designed to introduce you to various elements of video production with an emphasis on video art and experimentation. The class culminates with the completion of a single channel video piece by each student. To facilitate this final project, there will be a number of camera and editing assignments that are designed to familiarize you with digital video technology while investigating various aesthetic and theoretical concepts. Class sessions will consist of technology demonstrations, screenings, critiques and discussions. Technology training will include: cameras, Final Cut Pro, studio lighting and lighting for green screen, key effects, microphones and more. No prerequisites, permission from instructor. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement.

91461

FILM 208 A Introduction to Film: 16 mm

Peggy Ahwesh

M . . . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 319

PART

An introduction to filmmaking with a strong emphasis on mastering the 16mm Bolex camera. Students will be required to shoot six different assignments designed to address basic experimental, documentary, and narrative techniques. A wide range of technical and aesthetic issues will be explored in conjunction with editing, lighting, and sound recording techniques. No prerequisites, permission from instructor. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement.

91470

FILM 208 B Introduction to Film: 16 mm

Peter Hutton

. . . Th .

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 319

PART

See above.

91464

FILM 211 Screenwriting I

Marie Regan

. T . . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 338

PART

Screenplays are the foundation of much of our film culture, but can they be art?  This intensive writing workshop examines the art and practice of the screenplay form, its root in classical narrative structure, how differs from the other written arts and how one can engage its particular tools to express original ideas.  Weekly writing assignments and class critique form the heart of this workshop.  Students should be prepared to share their work with others and participate fully in class discussion. Students will create several short scenes, one short screenplay and a detailed outline for a feature film script.  This production class fulfills a moderation requirement.

91459

FILM 233 Art & Internet

Ben Coonley

M . . . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 117 / 333

PART

Cross-listed: STS This production course considers the Internet as a source of creative material, an exhibition context, and begetter of new art forms. With reference to media history and theory, we survey the contemporary landscape of online media production, covering topics including: the World Wide Web and its technological antecedents, social networks, on-line games, machinima, surf clubs, hacktivism, net art, generative art, web video, and the specificity of digital media, among others. Students complete independent and collaborative projects designed to respond to and engage with Internet technologies and online networks. No special expertise with computers is required, but all work for the seminar will be produced using the digital media we study. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement.

91469

FILM 235 Video Installation

Les LeVeque

. . . Th .

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 116 / 333

PART

This production course will investigate the historical and critical practice known as video installation as a vehicle for activating student composed projects. Since the beginning of video art artists have experimented with installation. Wolf Vostell and Nam June Paik’s use of multiple monitors in the 1960’s, Joan Jonas’ incorporation of video with live performance, Juan Downey and Steina’s experiments with interactive laser discs, the use of live feeds, large and small video projections on walls and objects, imply complex shifts of narrative composition as well as temporal and spatial relationships. Through readings and screenings our discussions will examine this diffuse practice. Students will be encouraged to explore high and low tech solutions to their audio visual desires and should be prepared to imagine the campus as their canvas. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement.

91485

FILM 244 The Conversation

Kelly Reichardt

. . W. . .

8:30 -11:30 am

AVERY 217

PART

This production course will investigate ways of approaching dialogue scenes. Students will consider the impact of casting, camera movement, camera placement and editing, on a particular scene. Reworking a single scene over the course of a semester, students will discover how their filmmaking choices either support, undermine or contradict what their characters are saying. Students who wish to take the class should be familiar with Final Cut pro and should come to the first class with a scene from a short story that involves dialogue. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement.

91472

FILM 307 Landscape & Media

Peter Hutton

. . . . F

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 319

PART

A class designed for Junior level film and video majors. The class will study and compare representations of the American landscape through the history of film and painting vs. the depiction of landscape and environmental issues manifest through television and video. Students will be required to complete a short film or video every two weeks referencing sites visited. Required reading: B. McKibben’s The Age of Missing Information.

91465

FILM 312 Advanced Screenwriting: Multiple Protagonists

Marie Regan

. . W . .

10:10 -1:10 pm

AVERY 338

PART

The last few years have seen a wave of narrative films structured around multiple points of view.  Starting with Rashomon and ending with Syndromes and a Century, we'll study several films that use multiple protagonist structures to express complex ideas.  Having analyzed these films, the second part of the course will function as a workshop.  During this phase, the course will  break into groups to collaboratively create multiple protagonist scripts.  Preference given to students who have completed Screenwriting, but permission also be granted by instructor.  You will emerge from this class having co-written a feature film script.

91541

FILM 319 Reenactment

Peggy Ahwesh Screening:

. T. . . M . . .

10:10 – 1:10 pm 5:00 – 7:00 pm

AVERY 217 AVERY 110

PART

This course will use weekly screenings to survey the styles and meaning of reenactments, including remakes, homages, reinterpretations, sequels, conspiracy rants and reruns to pose questions about history, trauma, memory and forgetting, narrative and authenticity as they is presented in both experimental and mainstream media. Themes such as fictionalizing historical events (Kiarostami, 9-11 docudramas), repetition in experimental media (Arnold, Jacobs), performance and playacting (Ra'ad, Dougherty), memory and repression (Hitchcock) will be screened. Issues regarding gender, identity, politics, history, technology, and copyright will be addressed as raised by the work. Students are required to write weekly responses to the films and readings and produce their own video work, as the syllabus for the class will specify.

91474

FILM 334 American Film Comedy 1920-45

John Pruitt Screening:

M . . . . Sun

1:30 -4:30 pm 7:00 - 10:00 pm

AVERY 217 AVERY 110

AART

The course will devote itself to an in-depth study of a remarkable period when American narrative cinema produced a number of enduring comic films, many of which still serve as models for contemporary practitioners. The works to be screened bridge the medium’s transition from silence to sound. We will investigate the two undisputed masters of silent comedy, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and take a look at a number of worthwhile secondary figures of the same era, including Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon and Marion Davies. We will begin our study of sound era films by looking at the works of Mae West, W.C. Fields and the Marx Brothers, and then trace the development of the so-called screwball comedy throughout the thirties, culminating in the forties films of director Preston Sturges. Recurrent themes of the course will be a theoretical investigation into the nature of comedy itself, as well as the powerful role that classic theatrical form plays in shaping a cinematic counterpart. With respect to the former we will turn to Sigmund Freud among other writers; with respect to the latter, we will read a few pertinent comic plays by William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Moliere, et al. Two required essays. Open to juniors and seniors, preferably with a background in film or theater.

91565

FILM 405 Senior Seminar

Les LeVeque

. T . . .

5:00 - 7:00 pm

AVERY

0 credits A component of the Film Program’s requirements for all majors, the Senior Seminar is an opportunity to share working methods, knowledge, skills and resources among seniors working on Senior Project. The course will have a number of film and video makers visit to discuss their process and techniques, artistic life-after-Bard skills workshop, a review of distribution and grant writing opportunities and critique of works in progress. The course is an integral aspect of Senior Project for all seniors in Film.