DIVISION OF THE ARTS
FILM
Note to first-year students: the Film Department tries to accommodate as many seriously interested students as possible, whether they are prospective film majors or not. We do this by offering Film 109 An Introduction to the History and Aesthetics of Film in the SPRING solely for first-year students. Film 109 serves as a prerequisite for those who are thinking of making film a focus of their studies.
FILM 201 A Intro to Film Making I
Professor: P. Ahwesh
CRN: 92224 Distribution: F
Time: F 9:30 am 12:30 pm PRE
FILM 201 B Intro to Film Making I
Professor: L. Gilliam
CRN: 92225 Distribution: F
Time:M 9:30 am 12:30 pm PRE
Introduction to the basic problems (technical and theoretical) related to the film medium through classroom production of short films and outofclass assignments. Coupled with Film 102, this course is designed to be taken in the sophomore year and leads to a spring Moderation project. Prerequisites: A 100 or 200 level course in film history.
FILM/MPZ 210 Film and Sound (and Music) Continuum
Professor: B. Boretz
CRN: 91895 Distribution: n/a
Time: M 1:30 pm 4:30 pm PRE
Cross-listed: Music Program Zero
To observe, analyze, and participate in, the convergence of eventsound, environmentsound, musicsound, and filmimage which comprise the medium and the literature of soundfilms. All here witness showings of a number of exemplary films from the commercial and non-commercial literature, depending on their availability, for intensive discernment and consideration of the issues of time-experience structuring and multidimensional image formation - among other issues - which pervade the total receptory aesthetic and articulative resource of projected filmworks. Opportunity, for those who need it, for collaboration sound/film, music/film, in realtime or out, in film or video, in soundmedia electronic or acoustic, tape or live included.
FILM 211 Scriptwriting Workshop
Professor: A. Mekas
CRN: 91830 Distribution: B/F
Time: W 10:30 am 12:30 pm PRE
From an idea to a plot; from an outline to a script. Character development, dramatic/cinematic structure. Continuous analysis of students' work. Students who wish to take the course should have a demonstrable background in film or writing, and be willing to share their work with others. Limited enrollment. Open to non-majors.
FILM 245 Video Production Workshop
Professor: L. Gilliam
CRN: 91831 Distribution: F
Time: W 9:30 am 12:30 pm PRE
This workshop in video production will emphasize the techniques of editing and post-production skills. Class sessions will include screening of narrative, experimental, and documentary video work, with an eye toward educating the student to the history of video as an art form. There will be weekly production exercises, and all students will produce a substantial final project. By permission of the instructor.
FILM 295 Film, Gender and Culture
Professor: N. Leonard
CRN: 91898 Distribution: A
Time: Tue 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm PRE Films
W 1:30 pm - 4:00 pm PRE Films
Cross-listed: Gender Studies, Literature
Feminist film theory, drawing on a number of disciplines, has altered our understanding of how culture is produced at the level of individual experience. Drawing attention to the codes of representation of classic narrative film, and to the historical conditions of the studio system which helped develop these codes, the course will study important work by film theorists such as Christian Metz, Laura Mulvey, Teresa de Lauretis, Judith Mayne and Kaja Silverman. We will employ the theoretical vocabularies of semiotics and psychoanalysis, and their contemporary extensions in sexuality and cultural studies, to analyze topics such as spectatorship, the gendering of film narrative, the cinematic apparatus, and the cultural implications of editing and sound. Weekly screenings will emphasize classic narrative films by directors such as Sternberg, Vidor, Hitchcock, Wyler and Bergman.
FILM 300 Non-Linear Editing
Professor: L. Gilliam
CRN: 91930 Distribution: F
Time: Th 9:30 am - 12:30 pm PRE
A class designed to introduce
seniors concentrating in Film and Video production to the Avid
Non-Linear Editing System. This class will combine traditional
post production editing strategies and theory in conjunction with
computer based non-linear techniques. Students will be required
to create short 10 minute videos based on film or video material.
FILM 301 A Major Conference Documentary Cinema
Professor: A. Mekas
CRN: 91829 Distribution: C/F
Time: Tue 9:30 am - 12:30 pm PRE
FILM 301 B Major Conference Autobiographical-Biographical
Cinema
Professor: A. Mekas
CRN: 91929 Distribution: F
Time: Th 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm PRE
A required seminar-workshop for juniors. The purpose is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas prior to Senior Project work and to make available technical information useful to individual projects though combined theory-practice sessions. Students are required to complete a short film and to share their work with others. In addition, films will be screened and readings assigned to establish a common ground for discussion and argument.
FILM 319 Film Aesthetics Seminar: Film Noir
& the American Baroque
Professor: J. Pruitt
CRN: 91833 Distribution: C
Time: Tue (Lect) 1:30 pm 4:30 pm PRE
Mon (Film) 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm PRE
The course focuses on an array of American films, loosely connected by stylistic and thematic tendencies, that when viewed together form a particularly strong brand of popular narrative filmmaking. The stylistic traits include ornate pictorialism, a cinematic equivalent of first-person narration, and expressionistic composition and lighting. The thematic concerns include fatalism, paranoia, sexual perversion, and a debunking of American ideals in situations of extreme moral ambiguity. Directors included are Hawks, Sternberg, Welles, Ray, Ulmer, Ophuls, Aldrich, Reed, Hitchcock, Huston, Lang, and Tourneur. Reading include standard works of criticism on American film, along with detective novels by such writers as Hammett, Chandler, Spillane, and Thompson that served as the original inspiration for many of the works under consideration.
FILM 378 Production Workshop
Professor: M. Ahwesh
CRN: 91827 Distribution: F
Time: F 1:30 pm 4:30 pm PRE
Members of the class will
act as a production team in planning, shooting, and editing a
short film. The hours will be irregular with some work on weekends.
Under simulated typical production conditions, students will apply
the knowledge acquired in various workshops and theory classes.
Students will solve technical and aesthetic problems under the
close supervision and instruction of the professor. By permission
of the instructor.