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 solely for first-year students. Film 109 serves as a prerequisite for those who are thinking of making film a focus of their studies.
Course no. | FILM 109 |
Title | An Introduction to the History and Aesthetics of Film |
Professor | John Pruitt |
Schedule | Mon(film) 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm Preston
Tu(lecture) 10:30 am - 12:40 pm Preston |
Distrib. | A |
CRN | 93265 |
A one-semester survey course comprising weekly screenings and lectures designed for first-year students, especially those who are considering film as a focus of their undergraduate studies. Films by Griffith, Chaplin, Keaton, Renoir, Rossellini, Hitchcock, Deren, and others are studied. Readings of theoretical works by authors including Vertov, Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Munsterberg, Bazin, and Arnheim.
Course no. | FILM 201 A |
Title | Introduction to Filmmaking I |
Professor | Peter Hutton |
Schedule | Mon 1:20 pm - 4:30 pm Preston |
Distrib. | F |
CRN | 93253 |
Introduction to the basic problems (technical and theoretical) related to the film medium, through classroom production of short films and out-of-class assignments. Coupled with Film 202 this course is designed to be taken in the sophomore year and leads to a spring Moderation project. Prerequisite: a 100- or 200-level course in film history.
Course no. | FILM 201 B |
Title | Introduction to Filmmaking I |
Professor | to be announced |
Schedule | Wed 9:30 am - 12:30 pm Preston |
Distrib. | F |
CRN | 93254 |
Introduction to the basic problems (technical and theoretical) related to the film medium, through classroom production of short films and out-of-class assignments. Coupled with Film 202 this course is designed to be taken in the sophomore year and leads to a spring Moderation project. Prerequisite: a 100- or 200-level course in film history.
Course no. | FILM 201 C |
Title | Introduction to Video Production I |
Professor | Leah Gilliam |
Schedule | Mon 9:30 am - 12:30 pm Preston |
Distrib. | F |
CRN | 93258 |
This workshop will emphasize the techniques and strategies related to small video production. Class sessions will include screenings of film, digital, and video work, with a focus on 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.
Course no. | FILM 203 |
Title | Electronic Media Workshop |
Professor | Leah Gilliam |
Schedule | Tue 1:20 pm -4:30 pm Preston |
Distrib. | F |
CRN | 93259 |
Cross-listed: Integrated Arts
This course combines lectures, demonstrations, and in-class exercises to introduce students to a variety of computer applications for media production. Students design and construct desktop
video projects and animation and interactive media works, all of which incorporate elements culled from moving image, graphic, text, and audio sources. Emerging computer technologies enable
visual artists to work with a new vocabulary, to rethink their relation to tools, and to utilize the networking and distribution options now available through the interactive computer world. This class
places media arts in context, in terms of both these new technologies for visual exploration and the traditions of film history. The course is open to students with some experience in film and video.
A production workshop for Juniors exploring experimental documentary forms ranging from images of light and shadow to the more traditional language of non-fiction film. All students are
required to make a short film. Advanced film making workshop for students especially interested in dramatic, documentary or reportage cinema. Hands-on shooting, and solutions of practical and/or aesthetic problems, as
they are encountered in the making of a film. Wed(lect) 1:20 pm - 3:20 pm Preston Designed to give the student in-depth understanding of a particular period, style or national school of film making. Weekly screenings of films which have influenced the direction of cinema and
related seminars comprise the bulk of the course. There are no prerequisites. This semester the topic is:
Course no.
FILM 204 Title
Experimental Documentary Workshop Professor
to be announced Schedule
Th 9:30 am -12:30 pm Preston Distrib.
F CRN
93263
Course no.
FILM 205 Title
Narrative Film Workshop Professor
Adolfas Mekas Schedule
Tue 9:30 am - 12:30 pm Preston Distrib.
F CRN
93262
Course no.
FILM 214 Title
Special Topics in the History of Cinema: Physical Comedy Professor
Adolfas Mekas Schedule
Tue (film) 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm Preston
Distrib.
F CRN
93261
From early cinematic tricks, from slapstick vaudeville routines to perfection of physical comedy in cinema. Méliès, Zecca, Sennett, Turpin, Pollard, Chaplin, Lloyd, and the entire works of Buster Keaton will be shown. Weekly screenings and seminars next day.
Course no. | FILM 236 |
Title | Graphic Film Workshop |
Professor | Peter Hutton |
Schedule | Wed 9:30 am - 12:30 pm Preston |
Distrib. | F |
CRN | 93256 |
Cross-listed: Integrated Arts
This class will explore the materials and processes available for the production of graphic film or graphic film sequences. The course consists of ongoing instruction in animation, rephotography, rotoscoping, and drawing on film and of viewing and discussing a number of films that are primarily concerned with the visual.
Course no. | FILM/LIT 295 |
Title | Film, Gender, and Culture |
Professor | Nancy Leonard |
Schedule | Th (lect) 1:30 pm-3:30 pm Preston
Wed(film) 7:00 pm-10:00 pm Preston |
Distrib. | A |
CRN | 93123 |
Cross-listed: Gender Studies, Literature
The course studies how the art of filmmaking produces or resists the dominant terms of our cultural self-awareness. We will draw on classical narrative films from 1930-1960 by such directors as Von Sternberg, Welles, Lang, and Wyler, as well as independent filmmakers such as Maya Deren and, more recently, Sheila McLaughlin, Yvonne Rainer, and Peggy Ahwesh. The approaches of semiotics, psychoanalysis and cultural studies in the work of such theorists as Christian Metz, Stephen Heath, Laura Mulvey and Kaja Silverman provide our grounding, and gender and sexuality receive special attention. Topics include spectatorship, the gendering of film narrative, the cinematic apparatus, and the cultural implications of editing and sound. Students should be prepared to study film in its technical aspects as well as in its cultural and theoretical ones. Weekly screenings.
Course no. | FILM 300 |
Title | Non-Linear Editing |
Professor | to be announced |
Schedule | Fri 9:30 am - 12:30 pm Preston |
Distrib. | F |
CRN | 93264 |
A class designed to introduce juniors and seniors concentrating in film and video to current nonlinear editing systems. This class will combine traditional postproduction editing strategies and theory with computer-based nonlinear techniques. Students are required to create short videos based on film or video material.
Course no. | FILM 312 |
Title | Advanced Scriptwriting Workshop |
Professor | Adolfas Mekas |
Schedule | Mon 1:20 pm -4:00 pm Preston |
Distrib. | F |
CRN | 93260 |
From an idea to plot, from an outline to script. Character development, dramatic/cinematic structure. Continuous analysis of student's work. Students who wish to take this course should have a demonstrable background in film or writing and be able to share their work with others. Prerequisite: Film History and/or Film Aesthetics Seminar, or by permission of the professor.
Course no. | FILM 319 |
Title | Film Aesthetics Seminar: Art of the Electronic Age |
Professor | Leah Gilliam |
Schedule | Th 1:20 pm -4:20 pm Preston |
Distrib. | A/C |
CRN | 93257 |
Cross-listed: Integrated Arts
This seminar posits a historical, theoretical and aesthetic context for the complex pairings of art and technology. Through focused, close readings of individual works we will explore ideas of spectatorship, projection, transmission, multivocality and perception. From the deconstruction animations of Raphael Montanez Ortiz to Ibram Lassaw's projected paintings, this seminar considers the transition from the Modern/mechanical to the Postmodern/interactive era. A wide-range of critical readings--including those by Gene Youngblood, Rosanne Allucquere Stone, Donna Haraway and Frank Popper--will be complemented by lectures, field trips, presentations and discussion.
Course no. | FILM 416 |
Title | Film Production |
Professor | Peter Hutton |
Schedule | Tue 1:20 pm - 4:30 pm Preston |
Distrib. | F |
CRN | 93255 |
This is the first part of a two-semester course (with some student change-over between semesters permitted). Members of the class will act as a production team in planning, shooting, and editing a short film on the history of medicine.