12053

FILM 106 Intro to Documentary Media

Ed Halter

Screening:

. . . . F

. . . Th .

10:10 - 1:10 pm

7:00 - 10:00 pm

AVERY 110

AART

An introductory historical survey of the documentary, from the silent era to the digital age. Topics addressed will include the origins of the concept of the documentary, direct cinema and cinema verite, propaganda, ethnographic media, the essay film, experimental documentary forms, media activism, fiction and documentary, and the role of changing technologies. Filmmakers studied will include Flaherty, Vertov, Riefenstahl, Rouch, Pennebaker, Maysles, Wiseman, Marker, Farocki, Spheeris, Hara, Riggs,Honigman, Morris, and Moore. Grades will be based on exams, essays and other research and writing projects. Open to all students, registration priority for First-Year students and film majors. Class size: 25

12362

FILM / PHOT 109 Photography for Filmmakers

Tim Davis

. . . Th .

1:30 -4:30 pm

WDS

PART

This course is designed to instruct film students in the inextricable importance of the camera in the construction of all photographic images, both moving and still. Each weekly assignment will be prompted by a thematic lecture from the history of photography, and will culminate in a seven-week-long individual project. Emphases will be placed on the role of form and the pressures, both conceptual and practical, in building a body of work. Students are expected to have their own digital cameras, even if only point-and-shoots. Class size: 12

12043

FILM 114 History of Cinema

John Pruitt

Screening:

. T . . .

M . . . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

7:00 - 10:00 pm

AVERY 110

AART

Open to First-year students only. The one-year sequence, conducted as a lecture course, is designed to give the student a broad introduction to the history and aesthetics of film from a roughly chronological perspective. There are weekly screenings of major films widely acknowledged as central to the evolution of the medium as well as supplementary reading assignments which provide both a narrative history and a strong encounter with the leading critical and theoretical issues of cinema, often within a context of 20th century art and literature. While the student can take either half of the sequence, the program recommends that both parts of the course are taken, especially for any student contemplating film as a concentration. Mid-term and final exams; term paper. The second half of the sequence begins with crucial films in the transition to the technology and aesthetic of the sound film on an international scale, those by Lang, Sternberg, Bunuel, Vertov and Vigo. There follows a study of the evolution of the long-take, deep-focus aesthetic in the films of Renoir, Welles and Mizoguchi; of Hollywood genres in the films of Ford, Hitchcock, Hawks and Sturges; the rise of neo-realism in Rossellini, DeSica and Visconti; the contribution of the American avant-garde in Deren, Peterson, Brakhage, Anger, Smith, Conner and Breer; the French New Wave in Godard, Truffaut and Rohmer; the northern tradition in Dreyer and Bergman; selections of Asian filmic practice in films of Ray, Kurosawa, and Ozu; and finally, further European innovations in Antonioni, Varda, the Taviani Bros., Pasolini, et al. Readings by Bazin, Brakhage, Deren, Bresson, Sontag, et al.

Class size: 25

12247

FILM 203 Performance & Video

Ben Coonley

. . W . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 217

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. Class size: 12

12040

FILM 207 Introduction to Video

Jacqueline Goss

M . . . .

10:10 -1:10 pm

AVERY 217

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. Class size: 12

12246

FILM 208 A Introduction to Film

Peggy Ahwesh

. . W . .

10:10 -1:10 pm

AVERY 217

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. Class size: 12

12249

FILM 208 B Introduction to Film

Peter Hutton

. . . Th .

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 217

PART

12051

FILM 211 Screenwriting I

Marie Regan

. . W . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 338

PART

Screenplays are the foundation of much of our popular 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 it 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. Class size: 12

12301

FILM 223 Graphic Film Workshop

Peter Hutton

. . . . F

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 319

PART

This course explores the materials and processes available for the production of graphic film or graphic film sequences. It consists of 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. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement. Interested students should contact Prof. Hutton ([email protected]) prior to registration.

Class size: 12

12044

FILM 242 Script to Screen

Kelly Reichardt

. T . . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 217

PART

This is a production workshop. Concentration will be on the narrative form with a goal of developing a comprehensive methodology for transforming the text to the screen. Students will be given a script from which to work. Emphasis will be placed on blocking the actors and the use of the camera-as-narrator. Through an extended series of scenes to be shot on video students will explore the dramatic and narrative elements of film, consider motivation for both character and camera, and learn to physicalize on film what is internal or emotional in the given text. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement. Class size: 12

12052

FILM 249 International Film Noir

Richard Suchenski

Screening:

. . . Th .

. . W . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

7:00 -9:00 pm

AVERY 110

AART

Cross-listed: Art History This course provides an exploration of film noir as a genuinely international form. We will look intensively at a number of key noir films made in America, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan during World War II and the postwar era, with a focus on visual style and the way in which these atmospheric, morally ambiguous crime dramas are related to, and comment upon, developments in the larger culture. Attention will be paid to the roots of film noir in the visual arts (especially photography) and hard-boiled fiction, its changes over the course of the 1940s and 1950s, and its influence on subsequent filmmaking. Readings include novels and short stories as well as a range of essays about film noir and postwar culture. Directors studied include Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Nicholas Ray, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, and Henri-Georges Clouzot. We will also examine contemporary art movements such as Abstract Expressionism and the work of photographers such as Brassai and Weegee. Three short papers and a final research essay. Film and Art History majors will have priority. Class size: 14

12042

FILM 311 Contemporary Narrative Film

John Pruitt

Screening:

M . . . .

S. . . . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

7:00 - 10:00 pm

AVERY 110

AART

An open-ended, investigative seminar into a select group of prominent, narrative filmmakers who are still active and whose international reputation has emerged within the last twenty-five or so years. A special emphasis will be placed on those artists whose work presents a particular challenge to or innovation in narrative form per se, to the extent that as they approach a kind of visual poetry, they place difficult demands upon the viewer to be a creative collaborator. The list of film screenings may be augmented or altered by current releases in the fall, or student interest as the course progresses, but it will certainly include films by the following: Jim Jarmusch, David Lynch, Abbas Kiarostami, Aleksandr Sokurov, Peggy Ahwesh, Claire Denis, Guy Maddin, Hou Hsaio-hsien, Michael Haneke, Lars von Trier, Peter Greenaway and Chantal Akerman. Two written projects: one short and one long. Limited course enrollment: Juniors and Seniors only; preference will be given to those students with background in film criticism and history. Class size: 14

12248

FILM 328 Cinematic Adaptation

Marie Regan

. . . Th .

10:10 -1:10 pm

AVERY 338

PART

Is adaptation translation or response? This workshop takes on all kinds of inspirational forms: music, science, painting, literature, dance, philosophy etc. and uses them as roots for cinematic adaptation. We'll explore the process of adaptation by looking at a number of different works and their source materials then, through a series of exercises, students will engage an outside work and not simply translate it to film, but respond to the initial work in their adaptation. Class size: 12

12049

FILM 336 Notes on the Cinematographer

Jacqueline Goss

. T . . .

10:10 -1:10 pm

AVERY 217

PART

"Provoke the unexpected. Expect it." "Make the objects look as if they want to be there." "Build your film on white, on silence, and on stillness." "Debussy himself used to play with the piano's lid down." Robert Bresson's elliptical and influential book "Notes on the Cinematographer" contains twenty-five years of the French director's memos, observations, and critiques of his own filmmaking. With these brief aphorisms, one discerns his philosophy of filmmaking and its relationship to theater, painting, music, literature, and nature. Using "Notes On the Cinematographer" as our guide, course participants will produce a series of short film/video works in response to specific "directives" chosen from Bresson's book. We will also view Bresson's films "A Man Escapes," "Pickpocket," "Mouchette," and "Au Hasard Balthazar" as iterations of the ideas expressed in "Notes" and use these as texts to respond to with our own productions. Through these exercises, course participants will develop a deeper understanding of Bresson's work and develop their own personal philosophies of cinema. A final project that is designed, shot and edited during the second half of the semester is required of each student. All genres of film and videomaking are welcome and expected. Class size: 12

12245

FILM 342 3D Video Production

Ben Coonley

. T . . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

AVERY 117

PART

This course introduces methods for producing three-dimensional video using stereoscopic cameras and projection systems that exploit binocular vision. We examine moments in the evolution of 3D technology and historical attempts at what André Bazin called “total cinema," considering the perceptual and ideological implications of technologies that attempt to intensify realistic reproductions of the physical world. Creative assignments encourage students to develop new and experimental approaches to working in both virtual (computer generated) and non-virtual 3D production environments. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement. Class size: 10

12048

FILM 344 Sound & Picture Editing

Kelly Reichardt

. . W . .

10:10 -1:10 pm

AVERY 333

PART

This course will explore the principles and practices of sound design in motion pictures. Through analysis of existing narrative sound works and through student's own sound creations, the class will explore the mutual influence of sound and picture. Over the semester, students will have the opportunity to deeply explore the editing process and discover how sound comes into play when making a cut. In the first part of the semester, students will record and build layered tracks (ambient, foley, ADR) for sequences from existing films. In the second part of the semester, students will shoot their own footage to integrate with existing soundtracks. Students who wish to take the course should be familiar with the fundamentals of computer-based media and should be willing to share their work with others. Class size: 12

12050

FILM 358 Auteur Studies: The Legacy

of Robert Bresson

Richard Suchenski

Screening:

. . W .

. T . . .

1:30 -4:30 pm

7:00 - 10:00 pm

AVERY 117

AVERY 110

AART

Cross-listed: French Studies In this seminar, we will undertake a comparative study of major directors, with the focus and theme changing each time the course is offered. This time, the primary subject is French filmmaker Robert Bresson, whose rich body of work has become a paradigm for international art cinema. Among other things, we will examine Bresson’s relationship to his contemporaries and his influence on subsequent generations, with a special focus on film style, film sound, cinematic adaptation, and artistic representations of gesture and the human figure. In addition to studying all thirteen of Bresson’s features, we will watch films by such wide-ranging directors as Carl Theodor Dreyer, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Andrei Tarkovsky, Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet, Chantal Akerman, Martin Scorsese, Michael Haneke, the Dardenne brothers, Kumar Shahani, and Mani Kaul. We will read a range of relevant criticism, along with historical material and literary works by Georges Bernanos, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Leo Tolstoy. Grades based on in-class discussion, short writing assignments, and a final research essay. Upper-college students who have taken courses in film criticism and history will have priority. Class size: 14

12047

FILM 405 Senior Seminar

Ben Coonley

M . . . .

5:00 - 7:00 pm

AVERY 110

AART

As an established 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 the seniors working on Senior Project. The course will have a number of film and video makers in 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.