Film Studies

Links literature to painting, photography and film, as well as texts in psychology (Freudian trauma theory and recovered memory). We will explore the role of personal and cultural memory in the creative process through key examples from the medieval "memory rooms" to the work of Alain Resnais. Weekly screenings. Also listed as ENGL 3145.

This workshop introduces the student to all the cinematic tools necessary to produce their own short narrative work.  Using what the student has learned in film studies, we'll break down shot syntax, mise-en-scene and editing strategies and master them in weekly video exercises.  We'll include casting, working with actors and expressive camera work in our process as we build toward a final video project.  By the end of the course, the student will have created a DVD containing a collection of their video pieces and their final project.  Priority given to junior and senior film majors.

Enrollment in one of the following sections is required when registering for FILM BC 3201: Introduction to Film and Film Theory.

Close examinatin of the oeuvre of a single filmmaker within a larger cinematic, aesthetic and historical context.

Examines the changing role of film in dramatizing, promoting and critiquing American participation in the military conflicts over the past 70 years. From the gung-ho patriotism of Howard Hawks's SGT. YORK and the front-line reportage of Lewis Milestone's A WALK IN THE SUN to the ambivalence of John Frankenheimer's THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and the calculated cynicism of Barry Levinson's WAG THE DOG, we explore shifting political perspectives and aesthetic strategies.

Advanced Film Production will teach students how to create a short narrative film; emphasizing the steps taken in pre-production, production and post-production. Through hands-on workshops and theory, students will learn narrative editing, shot progression, camera lenses, lighting and audio equipment. Students will work in teams of four, learning the roles and responsibilities of the different crew members.

A seminar for senior film majors planning to write a research paper in film history/theory/culture. Course content changes yearly.

This course examines major developments and debates in the history of cinema between 1930 and 1960, from the consolidation of the classic Hollywood studio system in the early sound era to the articulation of emergent “new waves” and new critical discourses in the late 1950s. Our approach will be interdisciplinary in scope, albeit with an emphasis on social and cultural history – concerned not only with how movies have developed as a form of art and medium of entertainment, but also with cinema’s changing function as a social institution. FILM W2021

By closely watching representative classics from countries including Italy, Poland, Russia and Argentina, we will study the distinctive trends and masters of this vibrant era. Special attention will be paid to the French New Wave (60s); the New German Cinema (70s); the reformulation of Hollywood studio filmmaking in the 70s (Altman, Cassavetes, Coppola), and the rise of the independent American cinema (80s). FILM W2031

Exercises in the writing of film scripts.

FILM W2291

The dramatic and cinematic principles of screen storytelling, including dramaturgy, character and plot development, use of camera, staging, casting, sound, editing, and music. Diverse narrative techniques, story patterns, dramatic structures, and artistic and genre forms are discussed, and students do screenwriting exercises. FILM W2401

Exercises in the use of video for documentary shorts.

A survey of American TV history, with a focus on dramatic narration related to independent cinema. Structured in three acts--from the "Golden Age" of the 1950s to the dramatic complexity found in recent Cable series--it begins with prestigious writers Rod Serling and Paddy Chayefsky; studies groundbreaking mini-series like "Roots" and "Holocaust"; and explores how shows, such as "Hill Street Blues" and "Twin Peaks", laid the groundwork for HBO series, including "Oz", "The Sopranos", "The Wire", and"Six Feet Under". Producing 13-week dramas over the span of years, these programs have developed a sophisticated narrative form, borrowing from, as well as informing, cinematic storytelling. FILM W3021

An advanced directing workshop for senior film majors who have already completed FILM W2420 or FILM W2510.