16172

FILM 114

 History of Cinema

John Pruitt

 T         1:30 pm-4:30 pm

 Screening: M        6:00 pm-9:00 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

 

16170

FILM 167

 Survey of Electronic Art

Edward Halter

 F         10:10 am-1:10 pm

 Screening: Th      7:00 pm-10:00 pm

AVERY 110

AART

Cross-listed: Science, Technology & Society;  Open to First-year students only. An introductory lecture course on the history of moving-image art made with electronic media, from the earliest computer-generated films, through television, the portable video camera, the internet, and gaming. Topics include analog versus digital, guerrilla television, expanded cinema, feminist media, video and performance, internet art, video installation, and the question of video games as art. Requirements include two short essays and a final in-class exam or final research paper.  Class size: 25

 

16181

FILM 203

 Performance & Video

Ben Coonley

 T         1:30 pm-4:30 pm

AVERY 117

PART

Cross-listed:  Experimental Humanities, Theater  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

 

16167

FILM 207

 Electronic Media Workshop

TBA

 T         10:10 am-1:10 pm

AVERY 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.  Class size: 12

 

16177

FILM 208 A

 Introduction to 16mm Film

Justin Weldon

(Ephraim Asili)

 T         1:30 pm-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.  Class size: 10

 

16179

FILM 208 B

 Introduction to 16mm Film

Peter Hutton

 Th      1:30 pm-4:30 pm

AVERY 319

PART

See above. Class size: 10

 

16175

FILM 223

 Graphic Film Workshop

Peter Hutton

 F         1:30 pm-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

 

16173

FILM 230

 Film Among the Arts

Richard Suchenski

 W        1:30 pm-4:30 pm

Screening: T           Begins @ 7:15 pm

AVERY 110

AART

Cross-listed: Art History   This course will be an intensive exploration of the ways in which cinema has been informed and enriched by developments in the other arts.  Each week we will look at a particular media or theme and consider the ways in which it has been used as a catalyst for distinctly cinematic creativity in various periods.  Attention will be paid not only to the presence of other arts within the films but also to the ways in which consideration of relationships between different media provide new ways of looking at and thinking about cinema.  Directors studied include Michelangelo Antonioni, Ingmar Bergman, Marguerite Duras, Sergei Eisenstein, Jean Epstein, Jean-Luc Godard, Alfred Hitchcock, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Stanley Kubrick, Chris Marker, Michael Powell, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alain Resnais, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, Teshigahara Hiroshi, and Peter Watkins. Two short papers and a final research essay.  Prior coursework in Film and/or Art History preferred.  Class size: 15

 

16180

FILM 252

 War Crimes in Film

Ian Buruma

M         1:30 pm-4:30 pm

Screening: Su    6:00 pm-9:00 pm

AVERY 333

AART

Cross-listed: Human Rights  This course will look at the matter of war crimes through the cinema. Subjects we will explore include legal definitions, as applied in war crime trials, the political use made of historical atrocities, and the way the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals changed the way we look at war crimes. The question of genocide will be a recurrent theme. The course will be taught from a culturally comparative perspective. Japanese, German, and French films will be screened as well as American ones. The Japanese war in Asia will be considered, as well as Nazi crimes in Europe, the Vietnam War and the French colonial wars.  Films will range from Judgment at Nuremberg to Battle of Algiers. The infamous Nanking Massacre of 1937, will be looked at from Japanese as well as various Chinese points of view. Along with viewing the films, we will read various books, including Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men, Paul Aussaresses's The Battle of the Casbah, and Seymour Hersh's My Lai 4.  Class size: 12

 

16174

FILM 258

 Asian Cinematic Modernisms

Richard Suchenski

 Th      1:30 pm-4:30 pm

Screening:  W        Begins @ 7:15 pm

AVERY 110

AART

Cross-listed:  Art History, Asian Studies This seminar will explore the various permutations of modernism in and between the cinemas of East, Central, South, and Southeast Asia 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 mediate on the dramatic changes taking place in their societies as well as on the way in which the meaning of these strategies shift over time.  We will consider the ways in which the different modernisms being discussed differ both from Western paradigms and from each other.  Class size: 15

 

16169

FILM 278

 Documentary Film Workshop

Peggy Ahwesh

 Th      10:10 am-1:10 pm

AVERY 217 / 333

PART

A video production workshop for students interested in social issues, reportage, home movies, travelogues and other forms of the non-fiction film. Working in both small crews and individually, the students will travel locally to a variety of locations to cover particular events, people and natural phenomena.  A final project, that is researched, shot and edited during the second half of the semester, is required of each student.  This production class fulfills a moderation requirement.  Class size: 12

 

16176

FILM 312

 Advanced Screenwriting

So Kim

M         1:30 pm-4:30 pm

AVERY 117

PART

An intensive workshop designed specifically for someone who plans to make a film for moderation or senior project. In a seminar setting, we will work on: script analysis, staging,  re-writes, and a shooting script.  The goal will be to develop a concise and polished script to become the basis for a short film.  
Pre-requisite: Film256 - Writing the Film or the successful completion of a sophomore level production class.  Non-majors must email the professor prior to registration for approval. Class size: 14

 

16183

FILM 316

 Film Production Workshop

Peggy Ahwesh

 W        1:30 pm-4:30 pm

AVERY 217 / 333

PART

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.  Class size: 12

 

16171

FILM 318

 Film as Art: Classical Theories

John Pruitt

M         1:30 pm-4:30 pm

Screening:  Su   6:00 pm-9:00 pm

AVERY 217

AART

A survey devoted to the major theories of film from the so-called "classical period" (largely the first half of the twentieth century), when both critics and writer/filmmakers were manifestly trying to establish a groundwork for how to think of the relatively new medium of cinema as an expressive form worthy by itself of serious consideration among its more established sister arts. Class discussions will primarily evolve from close readings of sometimes highly complex aesthetic arguments that think through the properties of the medium. We will scrutinize the answers to various questions such as: Can what is deemed "cinematic" ever be isolated from other art forms? Can film be thought of as constituting a language? Select film screenings will support our understanding of the written texts. A number of readings will offer a more general philosophical questioning of the nature of art itself, since cinema seems to invite speculation that technology and modern consciousness may have brought dramatically new pressures to bear on aesthetic thinking. Writers to be discussed include C. S. Peirce, Benedetto Croce, Ferdinand de Saussure, Hugo Munsterberg, Erwin Panofsky, Sergei Eisenstein, Rudolf Arnheim, Siefried  Kracauer, Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Hollis Frampton, Andrei Tarkovsky, Laura Mulvey, Walter Benjamin, Andre Bazin, Susan Sontag, Gilles Deleuze, Umberto Eco, Christian Metz, et al. Limited to upper college students who preferably have taken at least one course in film history. A required short mid-term essay and an extended written term project.  Class size: 15

 

16178

FILM 342

 Stereoscopic 3D Video

Ben Coonley

 W        1:30 pm-4:30 pm

Screening:  M        7:00 pm-10:00 pm

AVERY  117 / 333

AVERY 117

PART

Cross-listed:  Experimental Humanities   This course introduces methods for producing three-dimensional video using stereo 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 apparatuses that attempt to intensify realistic reproductions of the physical world. Students attend weekly screenings of a broad range of 3D films, including classic Hollywood genre movies, contemporary blockbusters, short novelty films, independent narratives, animations, industrial films, documentaries, avant-garde and experimental artworks. Creative assignments challenge students to explore the expressive potential of the 3D frame (the “stereoscopic window”) while developing new and experimental approaches to shooting and editing 3D images. This production class fulfills a moderation requirement.  Class size: 12

 

16168

FILM 344

 Sound & Picture

Jacqueline Goss

 W        9:30 am-12:30 pm

AVERY 110 / 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 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

 

16604

FILM 354

 CURATING CINEMA

Ed Halter

 Th                      2:00 pm-4:30 pm

Screening: W 5:00 pm-7:00 pm

CCS

AVERY 110

AART

This seminar explores the history, theory and practical concerns of film curating , both in and out of the context of the art world. As a way of investigating the range of possibilities for modes of exhibition, the course will look at pre-cinematic technologies of the projected image; various models employed in the silent era; early alternatives to the Hollywood system, including cine-clubs, “small cinemas,” road shows, and exploitation; later examples such as cinematheques, film festivals, and microcinemas ; expanded cinema and projection performance; different attempts to introduce film and video into spaces traditionally devoted to visual art; and the role of collections and archives. Individual case studies will include the Museum of Modern Art’s Film Library, Amos Vogel’s Cinema 16, Anthology Film Archives, the Collective for Living Cinema, the Whitney Museum’s exhibition Into the Light, and contemporary developments. Coursework will include class presentations, two sets of program notes for imagined film exhibitions, and a final curatorial project. Class size: 8 CCS students, 4 undergraduates.   *Note to undergraduates: All interested students must send an email indicating their interest and course experience to the professor in order to be considered ([email protected]). Upper college film majors will be given priority.

 

16182

FILM 405

 Senior Seminar

TBA

 T         5:00 pm-6:59 pm

AVERY 110

 

A requirement for all majors, the Senior Seminar is an opportunity to share working methods, knowledge, skills and resources among students 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. (Meets every other week.) Class size: 20