Courses in Film and Video Studies (Division 368)

F/V 200. Introduction to Film, Video and Television Production.

(3). (CE). Laboratory fee ($50) required.

This course provides students with a basic introduction to hands-on production in Film, Video and Television. Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production (from basic script form to directing and editing) are all covered, and the differences as well as the similarities of these three related media are explored.

F/V 230. Introduction to the Moving Image.

(4). (HU). Laboratory fee ($50) required.

An introduction to the language, structures, and narratological and theoretical assumptions that reveal channels of expression in film television and video art. Social/historical contexts are examined along with aesthetic values.

F/V 236/RC Hums. 236. The Art of the Film.

(4). (HU). Laboratory fee ($45) required.

Lectures and demonstrations isolate the different elements and techniques (i.e., film stock, lighting, camera placement and movement, actors, special effects, sound, and editing) that the director and crew utilize in film-making to shape the viewer's response. Some historical developments, artistic and technological, are discussed. Recitation sections analyze and interpret significant films.

F/V 300. Filmmaking I.

Film-Video 200. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee required.

An introduction to the technique and uses of film. Students create individual works of film art using Super 8mm film equipment.

F/V 301. Video Art I.

Film-Video 200. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee required.

Designed to provide an understanding of the history, aesthetics, technology, and uses of video. Hands-on use of video tools is accompanied by discussions of the history of video art and its major artists.

F/V 302. Television Studio I.

Film-Video 200. No credit granted to those who have completed or are enrolled in Comm. 421. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

An introduction to multi-camera television studio production, including scripting, directing, and practical operation of studio equipment.

F/V 310. Screenwriting.

Film-Video 200. Completion of the introductory composition requirement. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee required.

This course teaches students to write a feature-length screenplay. Students begin with the development of a concept, proceed to writing a treatment, and then spend the majority of the term working on the full script. Students read and critique each other's work.

F/V 311. Screenwriting for Television.

F/V 200 and completion of the composition requirement. (3). (Excl).

This course teaches students to write full length teleplays for various small-screen formats. The class has rotating formats so students focus on one genre or serial format during a given term, such as sit-coms, dramas, soap-operas, etc.

F/V 340. Writing Film Criticism.

F/V 230 or 236. (3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($20) required.

A course aimed at helping students write illuminating and stylistically engaging film criticism, within the context of screening contemporary films and reading various types of critical writing in popular and academic criticism.

F/V 350. The History of American Film.

(3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

American cinema from the early days of silent film until the present time. As well as examining the history of the feature film in some detail, the course also gives attention to the development of animation, the documentary, and avant-garde cinema.

F/V 360. The History of World Film.

(3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

World film outside the United States from the earliest explorations by the Lumière brothers and Mélies in France to the contemporary third-world cinema. As well as focusing on commercial feature films, the class is also concerned with avant-garde cinema, the documentary, and animation.

F/V 361/WS 361. Women and Film.

(3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($45) required.

An examination of films made by, for, and about women. Focus is on how societal norms and film language have constructed the representation of women in film and how women have appropriated the medium for self-representation through both narrative and experimental filmmaking.

F/V 365. Race and Ethnicity in Contemporary American Television.

F/V 230 or 236. (3). (HU). (R&E). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

This course considers the racial and ethnic meanings that television produces in relationship to gender and sexual identity, economic consciousness, nationality and notions of "Americanness."

F/V 366. Topics in Film, Television and Popular Culture.

(3). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of nine credits.

This course addresses the role of film and television as popular media. It emphasizes the acquisition and use of analytical skills relevant to the given topic and serves as an introduction to cultural studies. Students are taught to read and analyze specific popular films, genres, or figures; at the same time, the course introduces broader issues in cultural studies, such as definitions of popular/mass culture and the 'culture industry', the role of intertextuality, reception or globalization in popular culture, and the function of gender and sexuality in popular culture. Topics may include: James Bond as Popular Hero; Serials in Film and TV; Popular Cinema Beyond Hollywood; Cult Films/Cult Shows.

F/V 370. Television History.

(3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

This course traces the development of television from the medium's historical, industrial and technological roots in radio to the advent of new audiences, technologies and forms in the 1990s. Addressing television as a global phenomenon, we investigate television's institutions, structures, and programming from various perspectives in order to understand television's role in mass culture of the late twentieth century.

F/V 399. Independent Study.

Permission of instructor. (1-4). (Excl). Does not count toward film-video concentration requirements. Laboratory fee required. (INDEPENDENT). May be repeated for credit.

Independent study on a subject to be determined by student in conjunction with a faculty member. Does not count toward concentration requirements. Must be approved by Program in term prior to enrollment. In exceptional cases, students can petition for enrollment during current term.

F/V 400. Filmmaking II.

Film-Video 300 or equivalent experience in filmmaking and permission of instructor. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee required.

Students learn experimental and artistic forms of filmic expression as well as traditional movie-making techniques in this intermediate-level film technique class.

F/V 401. Video Art II.

Film-Video 301 or equivalent experience with video production and permission of instructor. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee required.

An intermediate course in video technique that allows students to apply their skills to various video formats including experimental and documentary work as well as group projects such as the video magazine. The emphasis of the course is on the various artistic possibilities of the medium.

F/V 402. Television Studio II.

F/V 302. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

An advanced course in multi-camera television studio production, including scripting, producing, directing and practical operation of studio equipment.

F/V 404. Interdisciplinary Collaborations in Visual Media.

A 300- (or 400-) level production course in the relevant emphasized area: F/V 300, 301, 302, or 405. (1-3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($50) required. May be repeated for a total of six credits.

This course provides an advanced experience in special production topics. Film, video, TV, digital production (or some combination of these) is focused upon a particular topical subject area or approach to the medium. Collaborations with other courses or units may also provide the course's focus.

F/V 405. Computer Animation I.

Film-Video 200, and permission of instructor. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee required.

A comprehensive course offering practical experience in creating two-dimensional computer animation on the Apple Macintosh.

F/V 406. Computer Animation II.

Film-Video 405 or equivalent experience with video production, and permission of instructor. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee required.

A hands-on intermediate level course that instructs students in the techniques of creating three-dimensional objects in motion on the Apple Macintosh.

F/V 410. Screenwriting II.

Film-Video 310. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required. May be repeated for a total of six credits.

An intermediate course in the art and practice of screenwriting, stressing creative dramatic writing. Each student writes or re-writes a feature length screenplay.

F/V 412/English 412. Major Directors.

(3; 2 in the half-term). (HU). Laboratory fee ($35) required. May be repeated for a total of nine credits.

A survey of the works of a select number of major directors. The course examines the individual accomplishments of these artists while placing their films in the context of world cinema.

F/V 413/English 413. Film Genres and Types.

(3; 2 in the half-term). (HU). Laboratory fee ($35) required. May be repeated for a total of nine credits with department permission.

An examination of such film genres as comedy, the horror film, or Western; and such film types as avant-garde cinema or the documentary. The class examines a representative number of examples from both historical and critical perspectives.

F/V 414. Film Theory and Criticism.

(3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

The development of film theory and criticism from the days of silent motion pictures to the present. The class reads selections from figures such as Eisenstein, Arnheim, Kracauer, and Bazin during the first half of the term, and from contemporary schools such as Marxism, psychoanalysis, feminism, and semiotics during the second half.

F/V 417. Screenwriting Master Class.

FV 310, current enrollment in 410, and permission of the instructor. Limited to students whose screenwriting work is judged as outstanding. (1-3). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of six credits.

Master class seminar with distinguished screenwriters. Course may vary in number of weeks, hours of commitment, and credit. Students receive one on one and small group instruction in screrenwriting. Topics vary depending upon interests of the visiting artist.

F/V 420. Documentary Film.

(3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

Critical, historical and theoretical studies of topics in non-fiction film. Examination of principles, methods, and styles of representation. The ethics of the documentary. Written reports required.

F/V 422. Topics in Avant-Garde Film.

(3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

Historical and theoretical studies of topics in avant-garde film and video. The class examines the cultural contexts of the films as well as their formal innovations.

F/V 423(Comm. 423). Practicum for the Screenwriter.

F/V 200, 310, and 410. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee required. May be repeated for a total of six credits.

This class is a writing practicum where the student learn the role of the screenwriter in the greater process of the production media. Each student participates in the various creative steps involved in bringing a narrative script to the screen.

F/V 427. Screenwriting III.

FV310, 410, and permission of the instructor. Limited to students whose work is judged as showing outstanding potential in writing for the screen. (3). (Excl).

An advanced screenwriting course that provides individual and small group instruction to select students who have completed basic (F/V310) and intermediate (F/V410) screenwriting. Students write a final draft of a revised original screenplay (see 410) and a first draft of a new screenplay.

F/V 440/CAAS 440. African Cinema.

(3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

A critical and interdisciplinary look at the development of African cinema from its inception in the 1960s, at the height of the sociopolitical upheavals experienced by many nations in the transition from colonialism to independence, to the recent phase of introspection and diversification.

F/V 441. National Cinemas.

Film-Video 360. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($50) required. May be repeated for a total of six credits.

An in-depth exploration of the evolution and forms of a specific national or regional cinema in terms of its stylistic, socio-political, economic, and technological dimensions. Close study of the development of a cinema e.g., Japanese, Eastern European, British) or of a film movement, e.g., Italian Neorealism, German Expressionism, French New Wave.

F/V 442/CAAS 442. Third World Cinema.

(3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

The interrelationships and disruptions between dominant cinema practices and Third World and marginal cinema on the level of aesthetics, production, economic, social and cultural history. Cinema as ideological practice: the formulation of new approaches to film practice sympathetic to the cultural specifications of the producing nations.

F/V 450. Television Theory and Criticism.

Film-Video 230 or 236. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

Introduction to various methodologies in study of commercial television programming: semiotic, linguistic, rhetorical, cultural, etc. Throughout the course, emphasis is upon inquiry into what television is saying and how messages are represented for mass comprehension.

F/V 451/Amer. Cult. 490. American Film Genres.

Junior standing. (4). (HU). Laboratory fee required.

The development of American film genres as a popular art form, considered within the broad context of American cultural development since the late nineteenth century.

F/V 455. Topics in Film Studies.

(3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required. May be repeated for a total of nine credits.

Studies in various film topics: e.g., silent film, women and film, German Expressionism, Latin-American film.

F/V 460. Technology and the Moving Image.

Film-Video 230 or 236. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

The course traces the impact of such technological innovations as sound, color, and wide screen on the history of the motion picture and the evolution beyond cinema of the new digital technology, virtual reality, and multi-media performances. It examines the aesthetics of technology and the ways in which technology through art influences individual psychology and society at large.

F/V 461/WS 461. Explorations in Feminist Film Theory.

Junior standing; and Film-Video 414 or Women's Studies 240. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($50) required.

The course offers an in-depth exploration of feminist theories that address film in relation to gender. Discussion focuses on contemporary feminist scholarship that draws upon a variety of viewpoints, including psychoanalysis, cultural theory, postmodernism, historical research and ideological theory.

F/V 470/CAAS 470. Cultural Issues in Cinema.

(3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

An exploration of developments in the cross-cultural use of media – from Hollywood feature films to ethnographic documentaries, from Caribbean liberationist literature to African allegories of Colonialism, from indigenous use of film and video to Black Diasporan "oppositional" film practice.

F/V 480. Internship.

Concentration in Film and Video Studies. (2). (Excl). Offered mandatory credit/no credit. May not be included in a concentration in Film/Video. (EXPERIENTIAL). May be repeated for a total of six credits.

This course is restricted to Film/Video concentrators who work, under careful supervision, in some part of the film or video industry. Students work in some aspect of preproduction, production, or postproduction, in the creative or business areas of film and video, documenting their experiences and learning in a journal that must be submitted for final credit.

F/V 489. Senior Screenwriting Tutorial.

F/V 410 and permission of the instructor. Open to Dramatic Writing concentrators only. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($35) required.

This course is one of the options for the capstone experience required of Dramatic Writing concentrators who choose the screenwriting sequence. Students write a screenplay as a thesis under the supervision of a faculty member.

F/V 490. Senior Honors Research.

Acceptance as an Honors Candidate in Film and Video Studies. (1-4). (Excl). Laboratory fee required. (INDEPENDENT). May be repeated for a total of four credits.

Candidates for Honors work independently with a faculty member in the Program on a thesis or on a film or video project during their senior year.

F/V 500. Directed Study in Film and Video.

Permission of instructor. (1-4). (Excl). Laboratory fee required. (INDEPENDENT). May be repeated for a total of six credits.

Advanced course permitting intensive study of film and/or video subject under supervision of a Film/Video faculty member.