Fall Quarter
| Dept | Course No and Title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 85 INTRO FILM ANALYSIS | HATCH, K. |
| In this introductory 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. All class meetings will be held in person. Warning: In order to examine film's power to move and disturb us, we will be viewing R-rated films and film clips that you might find too explicitly sexual, violent, startling, and/or disgusting for your comfort. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 87 NEW MEDIA & DIGITAL | KAMIL, M. |
| What is the relationship between power and digital media technologies? New media, from devices including cell phones to platforms like Instagram to search engines such as Google, shape users’ perceptions of race in ways that are often invisible. This course traces discourse within the history of computing and its roots in American counterculture and the military-industrial-educational complex. We will examine the issue of digital labor and power, how technologies create new relationships of power and disempowerment for specific groups and individuals, and how culture is being transformed through these technologies. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 101C CONTEMPORARY ERA | HILDERBRAND, L. |
| This course surveys the international film movements, industries, and periods of national cinemas that have sought to redefine the dominant ideologies, modes of production, and aesthetics of cinema during the past half-century. As much as possible, course readings draw from manifestos for and critical writings contemporaneous with these historical film movements, and considers the numerous methods to conceptualize histories of cinema. Topics include third cinema, new hollywood, feminist cinema, Hong Kong new wave, new Black cinema, mainland Chinese cinema, and Korean cinema. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 110 FILM & MEDIA THEORY | LIU, C. |
| This class will focus on genre theory as it applies to feature film production, distribution and reception, with a special focus this quarter on the politics and economics of the Romantic Comedy. We will investigate its history and its generic limitations and innovations. We will investigate genre theory in relationship to the contemporary rom com and emphasize its importance as a mode of production for maximizing studio profits and audiences while diversifying its cast through the expansion of race, gender and sexuality representations. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 110 FILM & MEDIA THEORY | KUNIGAMI, A. |
| 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 85A and FLM&MDA 85B and FLM&MDA 85C and (FLM&MDA 101A or FLM&MDA 101B or FLM&MDA 101C). Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 110 FILM & MEDIA THEORY | KUNIGAMI, A. |
| 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 85A and FLM&MDA 85B and FLM&MDA 85C and (FLM&MDA 101A or FLM&MDA 101B or FLM&MDA 101C). Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 112 THE WESTERN | MIMURA, G. |
| This course will introduce the formal features, thematic elements and historical development of the Western as a key American genre. The first half will focus on “classical” examples that establish the genre’s codes and conventions. The second half will examine “revisionist” Westerns from the 1960s Spaghetti Western through its more contemporary expressions. More broadly, we will examine the Western and representations of the American West for their cultural, historical, and mythical resonances. What does the “American West” signify? How and why has it endured? Whose story does it tell? Toward this end, the course will question the ambivalent statuses of gender, sexuality, race, and class––particularly of women, Native Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans as subjects and objects in the Western and its cultural imaginary. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 115 ORSON WELLES | BENAMOU, C. |
| This is a multi-faceted introduction to the oeuvre of Orson Welles as writer, director, and performer in over a dozen works spanning four decades. Welles’s experimentations in theater and radio will form the basis for our exploration of his cinematic work from the groundbreaking Citizen Kane to lesser known melodramatic and mystery films. In addition to his substantial contributions to U.S. cinema and struggles for civil rights, we will consider his work in various cultural contexts during his sojourn in Latin America and later decades of self-imposed exile in Europe. In the process, students will gain a thorough introduction to the auteur theory and the study of voice-over and mise-en-scène in film. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 117A INTRO SCREENWRITING | CARTIER, M. |
| 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. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 118A WRITING TV I | STAFF |
| A writing intensive class focused on constructing and writing a screenplay for a one-hour TV drama. We will explore dramatic writing by developing characters stories, and scenes. We will study pilot 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 Pilot, and also complete and revise screenplay pages for a complete first act. (Prerequisite: FLM&MDA 85A.) | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 120A BASIC PRODUCTION | CANE, E. |
| This course introduces the fundamentals of film production using digital video. 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 students through the production process, culminating in the completion of a five-minute short digital film. Students enrolled in this class may use University owned equipment and are financially responsible for the University equipment on loan to them. The prerequisite for this course is FLM&MDA 85A. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 120A BASIC PRODUCTION | CANE, E. |
| This course introduces the fundamentals of film production using digital video. 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 students through the production process, culminating in the completion of a five-minute short digital film. Students enrolled in this class may use University owned equipment and are financially responsible for the University equipment on loan to them. The prerequisite for this course is FLM&MDA 85A. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 130 ASNAM DOCUMTRY PRAC | CHO, J. |
| We begin with the elements and evolution of documentary film language and genres in the United States as a foundation for understanding how Asian American media artists utilize mediums of film and video toward particular communication goals. We will also trace movements of documentary subjects and techniques in the context of American Americans’ historical exclusions, racialized representations, and social roles in nonfiction films. As we view a range of works by and about Asian Americans, we will consider how various makers engage strategies for production style and content, audience engagement, subjectivity, emotional truth in evolving environments of technology and access, social movements, ethnic notions. Students will pose their critical understanding of documentary film operations and social meaning to the considerations and challenges a producer faces to develop a documentary film. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 139W WRITING ON FILM&MDA | SODERMAN, A. |
| This course will investigate the influence that cinema has had on the development of video games, and vice-versa, how video games are transforming contemporary films. We will analyze a variety of issues such as the similarities and differences between video game and film narratives and how games and films repurpose each other’s formal elements. We will examine films that have been influenced by games such as Run Lola Run, Ben-X, and Scott Pilgrim Versus the World, but also video games that have been influenced by cinema. The main focus for this upper-division course will be on the writing process specific to film and media studies. Students will learn about analyzing and composing arguments, accumulating evidence to support these ideas, and researching materials to produce critical work about the course topics. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 139W WRITING ON FILM&MDA | KRAPP, P. |
| 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 85A or FLM&MDA 85B or FLM&MDA 85C. Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. Restriction: Film and Media Studies Majors only. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 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 85A or FLM&MDA 85B or FLM&MDA 85C. Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement. Restriction: Film and Media Studies Majors only. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 144 VIRTUAL REALITY | SODERMAN, A. |
| This course will offer students an introduction to the history, theory, and cultural significance of virtual reality (VR) technologies. The course will examine the ideological underpinnings of VR and the Western desire to create a technological copy of reality, beginning with Renaissance perspective and moving into the exploration of 19th century entertainment technologies such as the panorama and stereoscope. We will also examine other questions related to VR: Why do humans want to simulate reality? How are VR technologies related to the history of military visualization and training? What is the relationship between VR and the metaverse? How is VR being used in contemporary art, video games, and documentaries? In addition to examining theoretical writing about VR, this course will analyze representations of VR in cinema, television, games, and art. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 145 KOREAN POP CULTURE | KIM, K. |
| No detailed description available. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 160 BOLLYWOOD FILM | SHROFF, B. |
| This course examines how the global reach of popular Hindi-language cinema of India referred to as Bollywood film creates new representations of nationalism and national narratives. Increasing travel, changing modes of life and material expansion even within India and within the Indian diasporas have generated transnational and international movements of people, media and commodities and Bollywood is a major player in these movements and markets. The masculinist space of nation as represented in older films is transformed as gender and sexuality intersect with social categories of class and particularly caste and religion. As an increasingly transnational and global product, Bollywood’s glittering, glitzy dance and song routines reconstruct femininity and masculinity, gender and sexuality, and family identities in ways that attempt to challenge patriarchal, and nationalist discourses. Selected films include The Lover Wins the Bride, Monsoon Wedding and My Name Is Khan. As a counterpoint to Bollywood's conventions of gender production, we analyze some independently produced films that deploy the language of Bollywood, and attempt to contest its conflicted messages of gender and nation. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 160 EURO HORROR CINEMA | BEY-ROZET, M. |
| What is “European Cinema”? Is “European” merely a geographical and national descriptor? Or does it refer to a cultural specificity that goes beyond national borders? What, if anything, makes up the European-ness of films originating from France, Norway, Spain, Sweden, etc.? This class will be designed to bring tentative answers to these questions through discussion and critical examination of what Ian Olney has called “Euro-Horror.” The quarter will be divided in separate units, each dedicated to the representation of European folk tales, legends and monsters in horror cinema (e.g. “Vampires,” “Witches,” “Cannibals”). In addition to this culturally inflected examination of what is European in European cinema, considerable attention will be devoted to the history and current state of funding structures in the European Union, financial aid programs, and the prestigious European film festival circuit. As such, this class will be equal parts film analysis and industry studies, as we negotiate the tensions between European identity and the strong national identities that compose it. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 160 MIGRANT VOICES | BEY-ROZET, M. |
| No detailed description available. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 190 STAND-UP COMEDY | HAGGINS, B. |
| Comedy is a powerful discursive tool; the notion (attributed to multiple sources from George Bernard Shaw and Joe Orton to my eighth grade English teacher, Mrs. Roshko), that if one gets the audience laughing, then while their mouths are open, you can shove the truth in seems quite applicable here.” (Laughing Mad p. 243) The purpose of this course is to provide a nuanced examination of contemporary television comedy, including Stand Up specials, sitcoms, social and/or political satire, its functions as cultural, industrial & commercial product and how these varied comic voices and forms speak to notions of citizenship, identity and the American Dream. By examining how televisual comic texts respond to change in social and political sensibilities in our current socio-historical moment, we will tease out why television comedy, perhaps more than any other television genre, can get people | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 191 MOVIE TITLE | KRAPP, P. |
| This course will survey the visual language of main title design over several decades. Ever since Edison hoped to attract talent to film by displaying screen credits that demonstrate legal and economic claims to their work, the main title sequence has grown into its own genre. Film title design has demonstrated that at the intersection of film editing, special effects, and typography there is a hybrid form that draws on advertising and promotion as well as on experimental animation and abstract film that has become a staple of film culture, yet has drawn less attention than trailers and posters. Over a century of innovations from silent film to the latest digital FX, title design reflects artistic achievement in the history of technology, studio branding, and the changing roles of directors and producers, writers and actors. This class explores the tension between image and writing in looking at the film history of typography, title cards, and motion graphics. | ||
| FLM&MDA (F24) | 192 SOUND | KIM, A |
| 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 (F24) | 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 | ||