| Course | Title | Instructor | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| FLM&MDA 85 | INTRO FILM ANALYSIS | HATCH, K. | In this course you will develop the tools for analyzing film and other moving-image media. We will focus on understanding how filmmakers use narrative, mise-en-scène, cinematography, sound, and editing to produce meaning and elicit emotional responses. Popular narrative films often encourage audiences to become absorbed in the world of the film and to forget that we are watching a movie. In this course, you will learn to recognize the techniques that filmmakers have developed to make the film apparatus (the camera, the microphones, the technology) disappear, and we will consider the ways in which filmmakers have departed from and embellished this "invisible" style. In the process, we will also discuss some of the debates that animate scholarship on film aesthetics and the poetics of cinema. Students who successfully complete the course will • Develop the vocabulary and analytical skills to interpret and evaluate films; • Understand how film and other moving image arts use narrative, image, and/or sound to convey meaning and create emotional effects; • Engage in critical formal analysis of film form and narrative; • Understand some of the key debates within the discipline of Film & Media Studies. |
| FLM&MDA 101D | RADIO TV HISTORY | GUTIERREZ, A. | This course surveys U.S. broadcasting history from the radio era through cable television. We will examine how historically specific economic and political forces, regulation, technological innovation, creative producers, and audiences have interacted to shape the development of radio and television. In addition, we will explore how radio and television have become part of our social history. In assessing the many changes across this span, the course will explore the proliferation of broadcasting in the U.S., media policy, industrial operations, programming strategies, and how radio and television have reflected and influenced cultural, political, and social transformations through the decades. |
| FLM&MDA 110 | FILM & MEDIA THEORY | PERLMAN, A. | This course will introduce students to key theoretical works in the study of film and media. Its focus is broadly on theories of media and power: media’s symbolic power (its function in shaping how we view, make sense of, and understand our world); the allocation of power within the production of media texts (who makes media, under what conditions, for which purposes, to what ends); and the power of audiences/public’s to engage, resist, and reimagine the messages circulating within the media. Over the course of the quarter will engage both canonical works of media theory and more contemporary scholarship on media, identity, and power. |
| FLM&MDA 110 | FILM & MEDIA THEORY | CRANO, R. | 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 |
| FLM&MDA 110 | FILM & MEDIA THEORY | HAGGINS, B. | This section (course code 24156) will not be offered F26 |
| FLM&MDA 112 | THE WESTERN | MIMURA, G. | Critical approaches to the serial productions we call "genre" films such as westerns, weepies, musicals, horror films, and others; televisual genres such as sitcoms, drama, comedy, news, docudrama, police; Internet categories such as chat-rooms, listservs, Web pages. |
| FLM&MDA 115 | BRUCE LEE | MIMURA, G. | Theoretical and analytical discussions of visual media authorship, focusing on case studies of directors, producers, scriptwriters, and film, video, and digital artists. Prerequisite: FLM&MDA 85. Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. |
| FLM&MDA 117A | INTRO SCREENWRITING | KAMALAKANTHAN, P. | Introduction to the technique and format of the screenplay, with a particular focus on its three act structural elements: coverage, treatment, and 60 beat outline. Materials Fee Prerequisite: FLM&MDA 85. Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. |
| FLM&MDA 118A | WRITING TV I | STAFF | A writing-intensive class focused on constructing and writing an original screenplay for a one-hour TV drama. Students will explore dramatic writing by developing characters stories, and scenes. We will study episodes of critically acclaimed TV series to understand the creative decisions, approaches and techniques of the writing team. We will compare and contrast traditional and nontraditional approaches. Building on weekly writing assignments, students will complete a treatment (Beat Sheet) for a one-hour drama, and also complete and revise screenplay pages for a complete first act. (Prerequisite: FLM&MDA 85A.) |
| FLM&MDA 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 120A | BASIC PRODUCTION | KAMALAKANTHAN, P. | Introduction to the basic apparatus of video/film production. The elementary essentials of production, including the use of camera and lenses, lighting, editing, and sound. Designed for students who have little or no production experience, the fundamental skills learned in this class will serve as a foundation for all future production work and will be apply to intermediate and advanced-level production classes. Class time will be divided into lecture and workshop, including weekly screenings and quizzes on assigned reading. Lectures cover basic cinematography, lighting, sound, and introductions to directing of actors and editing. Students will journey through a series of exercises in workshops through the production process, culminating in the completion of a 2-minute short digital film emphasizing visual storytelling. Prerequisite: FLM&MDA 85. Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. |
| FLM&MDA 139W | WRITING ON FILM&MDA | HAGGINS, B. | This course focuses upon three forms of critical writing: the “hot take,” the review as popular media criticism and the academic/scholarly essay. Each offers interesting perspectives on critical writing on film and media and provide different tools for edifying, persuading and provoking the reader. By analyzing and writing each of these forms, students will hone their critical reading and writing skills for multiple audiences. |
| FLM&MDA 139W | WRITING ON FILM&MDA | CRANO, R. | 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. |
| FLM&MDA 144 | PLAYFUL MEDIA | SODERMAN, A. | This class will examine the rise of the importance of “play” and “playfulness” in contemporary culture, particularly in relation to media. We will examine ideas of playful media which go beyond the typical discussion of play in relation to games. Thus, we will analyze playful interfaces and design. We will study how play was a key category for theorizing television viewership in the 1980s and digital spectatorship in the 2000s. We will discuss how scholars have been using ideas of play to develop new methodological ways to study media. We will also study how gamification uses play to shape everyday life, the recent reappearance of “interactive” TV and films, and playful uses of social media. Indeed, we will study why scholars and theorists claim that the 21st century will be fundamentally shaped by playfulness. Throughout the quarter we will read scholarship from "play studies" to theorize the relationship between play and media, and we will examine various forms of media beyond video games. |
| FLM&MDA 145 | KOREAN POP CULTURE | KIM, K. | This course will examine the history of Korean popular culture--from the early 20th Century to the present. In so doing, the course will learn concepts like ‘colonial modernity,’ ‘postmodernism,’ ‘mimicry,’ and ‘cultural hybridity.’ The class will first think about whether it is possible for Koreans to extricate nationalism (minjok-juui) from its popular culture by examining the pop culture of the colonial period. Then we will examine, via pop music, sports, television, food, film, and visual materials, how the globalization pursued by Korean Wave has defined the core of Korea’s national identity over the past several decades. The course will tackle each area of the aesthetic, geopolitical, and ‘authenticity’ debates that are crucial to the redefining of Korean popular culture. |
| FLM&MDA 160 | BRAZILAN CINE & RAC | KUNIGAMI, A. | What happens when we shift the lens through which we look at the history of a national cinema? How can we read critically the history of Brazilian cinema—among the most thriving film cultures in Latin America—when we consider that film in Brazil is historically a white medium? This course will introduce key films and debates of Brazilian cinema, from its early silent years until the current decade, through the lens of racial difference and the violence that comes with it, promoting a critical approach to the relation between aesthetics, technology, and politics. Through the study of a broad range of works—documentary films, musicals, experimental films, and commercial blockbusters—alongside historical issues of industry and labor, this course will explore the centrality of racial difference for the consolidation (and the critique) of Brazilian cinema. |
| FLM&MDA 192 | SOUND | STAFF | Introduction to motion picture sound aesthetics, techniques, and procedures. We will learn the basic principles required in the production and post-postproduction of film soundtracks. Specific topics include digital recording, the selection and use of microphones, and basic sound editing and design. Hands-on practice with professional equipment is emphasized. |
| FLM&MDA 194 | MEDIA & US ELECTION | PERLMAN, A. | The goal of this course is to understand the many ways that the development of media in the US across the 20th and in the 21st centuries has interacted with and transformed the process of electing political leaders. While we will often examine the policy positions, ideological commitments, and public profiles of candidates for public office, our focus will be on how media enabled or constrained their campaigns, structured how the public understood the stakes of the election, altered the contours of political communication, and affected the relationship between voter and candidate. As part of this process, we will be: • examining transformations in how candidates use different media forms (such as TV ads, YouTube videos, tweets) in their bids for public office • tracing how the press has covered political campaigns, paying attention both to the impact of new communication technologies and to shifting journalistic norms • interrogating the relationship between campaign uses of media and the escalating costs of running for office and the attending efforts to address the role of money in politics In sum, the goal of this class is not to advocate for any political position, past or present, or any political candidate, past or present. Rather, it is to try to make sense of how changes in communication technologies have altered elections and posed opportunities, as well as hazards, to democratic processes. |