Winter Quarter
| Dept | Course No and Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 85 INTRO FILM ANALYSIS | HILDERBRAND, L. |
| Films are made. They are constructed through the numerous choices filmmakers make—choices that are subject to conditions of the collaborative process, the technology, and the industry. In this class, we will focus on the specifics of film style, training students to recognize the specific techniques filmmakers use and to apply the appropriate terminology for these techniques. This class emphasizes learning the foundational knowledge of key terms for film form; each week’s module begins with a page of vocabulary terms for that unit. These terms and definitions differ from the textbook; the class’s version of terms will be the basis of quizzes and exams. Because these terms are shared on Canvas, no additional lecture notes or slides will be given to students. Students are responsible for taking additional notes on their own; this is an important skill to develop. Beyond this, students will analyze why these specific techniques have been chosen and to interpret what they communicate or what ideologies they reinforce. We will also consider the tensions between filmmakers’ intent and the interpretations audiences make; meaning is a negotiation between these two. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 86 INTRO TV | STAFF |
| Introduces critical approaches to the study of television from a range of theoretical perspectives. Materials Fee Prerequisite: Satisfaction of the UC Entry Level Writing requirement. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 101A SILENT ERA | KUNIGAMI, A. |
| No detailed description available. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 110 FILM & MEDIA THEORY | DAULATZAI, S. |
| Survey of major directions in film and media theory. Various theories of mass culture, realism, auteurism, semiotics, feminism, cultural studies, and theories of other media, with an emphasis on developing the student’s ability to analyze and articulate a theoretical argument. Materials Fee Prerequisite: FLM&MDA 85 and FLM&MDA 86 and FLM&MDA 87 and (FLM&MDA 101A or FLM&MDA 101B or FLM&MDA 101C or FLM&MDA 101D or FLM&MDA 101E). Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 110 FILM & MEDIA THEORY | GUTIERREZ, A. |
| This seminar introduces students to theories about race, ethnicity, and television. It explores U.S. race and ethnicity—as social categories and markers of identity/identification—and systemic racism and racial capitalism—as structures of power, inequality, and domination—from the lens of media and popular culture. We will develop conceptual and theoretical tools to analyze media, with an emphasis on developing the student’s ability to analyze and articulate a theoretical argument. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 110 FILM & MEDIA THEORY | KAMIL, M. |
| This seminar will focus on the figures of cyborgs, androids, and robots in popular culture. How do these figures embody race, gender, and class? What do cyborgs and androids reveal about techno-culture, networked society, and the relationship between humans and technology? | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 115 MIYAZAKI | MIMURA, G. |
| This course will introduce the work of Hayao Miyazaki through key films he has directed and produced over the arc of his forty-plus-year career. It will examine the rise of Studio Ghibli as the most influential force in the development of animation in Japan and globally during this period, and the creative collaborations (e.g., with Isao Takahata and Joe Hisaishi) that have shaped Ghibli’s philosophy, artistic vision, production methods, and business model. Equally, the course will explore the major themes and concerns of Miyazaki’s work, including their expressions of environmental consciousness, coming-of-age narratives (particularly of girlhood), and critiques of modernization and war, among others. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 117A INTRO SCREENWRITING | CARTIER, M. |
| Students learn about "the world of the screenwriter" by reading and studying screenplays, and writing parts of them-including the beat outline, treatment and character biography. Assignments include reading, viewing and analyzing selected films; and writing short essay responses to prompts that explore facets of the screenplay such as structure, character and theme. The final grade is based on participation, attendance, discussion board posts, and a traditional feature length screenplay project. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 120A BASIC PRODUCTION | CANE, E. |
| This course introduces the fundamentals of filmmaking using digital video. It is designed for students who have little or no production experience. There will be lectures, workshops and discussions. Assignments provide hands-on learning of the basic elements of filmmaking. From cinematography, lighting, and sound, to writing a short script and editing with Adobe Premiere Pro, this class takes you through the production process culminating in each student's completion of their own short 3-5 minute digital film. At times students will be divided into production teams and will be expected to collaborate. Class is organized as a workshop; everyone will know your characters, your script, etc. You will be expected to share and participate at every stage of the production process. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 120B INTERMED PRODUCTION | KAMALAKANTHAN, P. |
| This course is designed to expand students’ filmmaking skills introduced in 120A. The focus will be to deepen students understanding of the filmmaking process, the medium as a whole and developing the individual artist’s creative voice. The class will consist of discussions and lectures to strengthen the students’ knowledge of the general mechanics of filmmaking and further their understanding of aesthetics. Students screen, analyze, and discuss experimental, documentary and narrative films. Technical workshops in which students collaborate and rotate as crew, will prepare them to take on their projects. Students will cultivate story and images in advance in a “pre-production phase” through short script development and previsualization. The results of workshops, student projects and film clips will also be the subject of class discussion and critique. Students make a collaborative group film and individual project either which could be documentary or scripted. documentary (3-5 minutes) and an individual scripted narrative (3-5 minutes). | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 139W WRITING ON FILM&MDA | RUBERG, B. |
| Writing on cinema, television, and/or digital culture, emphasizing identification of reliable sources, close readings, addressing academic, professional, and/or popular audiences. Requires at least 4,000 words of assigned composition. ​ Prerequisite: FLM&MDA 85 or FLM&MDA 86 or FLM&MDA 87. Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. Restrictions: Film and Media Studies majors only. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 139W WRITING ON FILM&MDA | RUBERG, B. |
| Writing on cinema, television, and/or digital culture, emphasizing identification of reliable sources, close readings, addressing academic, professional, and/or popular audiences. Requires at least 4,000 words of assigned composition. Prerequisite: FLM&MDA 85 or FLM&MDA 86 or FLM&MDA 87. Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. Restrictions: Film and Media Studies majors only. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 139W WRITING ON FILM&MDA | CRANO, R. |
| This upper-division writing course will focus on our evolving relationship with the written word in the age of generative AI and some of the ways films and filmmakers have variously embraced, rebuked, or otherwise responded to both contemporary and historical developments in media culture and technology. The films we’ll address will span genres, regions, and historical periods, as we consider themes such as authenticity and embodiment, intimacy and communication, gender and power, and memory and trauma. Coursework will involve regular interrogation of automated writing tools like “AI”; students will learn strategies for high-quality scholarly research and for effectively engaging in expository, analytical, and argumentative modes of academic writing in FMS. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 139W WRITING ON FILM&MDA | STAFF |
| No detailed description available. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 144 SILICON VALLEY | KAMIL, M. |
| This course centers the Silicon Valley as an important site of technological and media development. In this class, we will trace the area's transformations in relation to industries based on the computer, World Wide Web, and Internet primarily from the 1960s to the present. We will study the impact of the SIlicon Valley's connections with the military, industry, and universities shaping the racial, ethnic, and economic makeup of the area, its surrounding communities, and globally. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 144 THE AI PARADIGM | CRANO, R. |
| A critical introduction to AI culture and technology from a humanities perspective. We’ll examine topics such as algorithmic bias and hallucination, media infrastructures and logistics, climate justice, computationalist ideology, the automation of violence, the enshittification of the internet, and the twin devaluations of social institutions and scientific expertise. Students will learn to observe and analyze the complex interplay of media systems, cultural rhetorics, and financial capital through case studies of AI writing, AI fails, AI hype, AI violence, and the local politics of data center expansion. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 145 LATINX POPULAR MEDIA | GUTIERREZ, A. |
| This course analyzes how Latinx media and popular culture engage with, construct, and challenge the United States’ social imaginaries. Students will be asked to critically engage with media and popular culture texts, as well as their relation to complex social, political, and economic issues, to understand how power and ideology are interwoven into this ubiquitous cultural form. We will analyze what Latinx media and popular culture communicate about identity, citizenship, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, language, cultural geography, and nation | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 146 AUDIO CULTURES | HILDERBRAND, L. |
| Perk up your ears: Audio Cultures examines how sound technologies have changed the ways we communicate, create, and consume culture. We will consider how have audiences have learned to listen to audio, how the ways audiences use and listen to technologies impact what they hear, how technologies have changed music and sound aesthetics, how popular music and technologies reflect and inform politics, how histories of technologies deviate from imagined uses, and now new innovations introduce new affordances. | ||
| FLM&MDA (W26) | 192 CINEMATOGRAPHY | KAMALAKANTHAN, P. |
| This course is designed to expand students’ filmmaking skills introduced in 120A. The focus will be to deepen students understanding of the filmmaking process, the medium as a whole and developing the individual artist’s creative voice. The class will consist of discussions and lectures to strengthen the students’ knowledge of the general mechanics of filmmaking and further their understanding of aesthetics. Students screen, analyze, and discuss experimental, documentary and narrative films. Technical workshops in which students collaborate and rotate as crew, will prepare them to take on their projects. Students will cultivate story and images in advance in a “pre-production phase” through short script development and previsualization. The results of workshops, student projects and film clips will also be the subject of class discussion and critique. Students make a collaborative group film and individual project either which could be documentary or scripted. documentary (3-5 minutes) and an individual scripted narrative (3-5 minutes). | ||