Sample Course Descriptions

Film & Video

(These are samples only. Course offerings are subject to change and not all courses are offered each term or each year. Be sure to check the online courses catalog and the current class schedule for details about pre-requisites, terms offered, class fees, etc.).

Phase I Courses
Production I
With an emphasis on narrative form, the course covers a basic technical and aesthetic foundation in 16mm. film production and post sync sound. Students learn to develop craft as well as personal voice through doing projects that involve writing treatments and scripts; developing storyboards; producing; lighting; directing action; working with actors and crew; and editing. For the final project, each student works on both their own film as well as those of their classmates.
24-6011, 6 credits

Directing I
This course teaches the basics of the craft of directing, including text analysis, characterization, casting, blocking, rehearsal and performance. Students learn the tool of the director's breakdown and its uses in preparing a movie for production, concentrating on scenes from well-known plays and films. The emphasis is on conversion of dramatic texts into emotionally effective performances; the focus is on the relationship between actor, text, and director. Students also learn to make connections between their own inner lives and the work they direct, as well as to apply the lessons of society, history, and current events to the text at hand. Everyone acts as well as directing. As a final project, each student casts and directs a scene of his or her own choosing.
24-6312-71, 3 credits

Screenwriting I
This course introduces students to techniques for finding story ideas and for developing them in a variety of script formats. It aims to provide approaches to writing screenplays drawing from the writer's own life experiences and direct observations; to facilitate a deeper understanding of the screenwriting process and writing for an audience; to teach students the elements and structure of Western drama as applied to short screenplay form, including character, story/plot and cause/effect structure; to assist in developing systematic work habits to carry the student from conception to idea development through revisions to polishing scenes/scripts; and to provide students with the opportunity for critique of their screenwriting. Students learn to write in treatment form as well as shot outline, split script, and master scene formats.
24-6713, 3 credits

Theory & History of Cinema*
The course explores the basic concepts of film and video theory. It also covers important developments in world cinema from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century to the present. It aims to provide an aesthetic understanding of the style exercises in Film Production II; to provide an aesthetic and theoretical grounding for issues of our program such as subtext, dramatic structure, and authorship; to provide a perspective on the aesthetic options available to a filmmaker from both within and outside of mainstream industry practice; and to provide a grid for placing one's ideas and work within the contexts of film history, culture, and art. *Prerequisites: Production I, Directing I, Screenwriting I, Co-requisite: Production II.
24-6022, 3 credits

Production II*
This course aims to help students refine their aesthetic sensibilities and sense of personal vision as directors through projects that involve writing, making storyboards; shooting in a variety of visual styles; producing; directing action; working with actors; and editing. First, students collaborate with their classmates to shoot exercises on video in a number of different cinematic styles; for the final project, each student writes and directs their own seven-to-eight-minute film. Students expand their sense of filmmaking in by doing collateral work in the two other courses offered in the second semester, Theory and History of Cinema and Editing for Film and Video. They expand a sense of aesthetic possibilities by the work they do in Theory and History and extend their editing sense through the work they do in the Editing course. *Prerequisites: Production I , Directing I, Screenwriting I.
24-6021, 6 credits

Phase II Courses
Production III*
Projects are theme based and center on alternative forms including experimental and documentary. Students express a chosen theme through several different genres and become conversant with the principles of digital video acquisition and nonlinear editing. *Prerequisites: Phase 1 courses
24 6031-01, 3 credits

Documentary I*
This course introduces the history and practice behind a range of documentaries, from the institutionally based to the individual. It emphasizes developing a personal approach to material and explores how the principles of dramatic struggle relate to documentary practice, often through a character-based focus. Students use digital video to explore a range of common documentary situations, both controllable and uncontrollable. As they define subjects for given approaches, students acquire hands-on practice at structuring documentary materials. Work includes: research for a biographical film; learning basic shooting and editing precepts; and doing various exercises in interviewing, shooting, and editing. The final project is a short biographical profile combining direct cinema and cinema verite approaches. *Prerequisites: Phase 1 courses
24-6832, 3 credits

Ideation and Theme*
Prerequisites: All Phase 1 courses and Documentary 1, Production III, and Short Forms
This course is designed to help students approach the creative process in multiple ways and to explore questions of personal visions and expression. Students will review their creative work produced in the program as well as their creative work in other disciplines. Class projects may be used for subsequent work in the program. *Prerequisites: All Phase 1 courses and Documentary 1, Production III, and Short Forms
24-6700, 3 credits

Directing III*
Using a short script developed in Ideation and Theme, students make a short film to prepare them for their thesis project. This course covers the whole process of directing one's own dramatic material, from preparation of a breakdown through final cut. Students will learn the collaborative skills needed to work with a cinematographer and editor, as well as how to maintain continuity of direction through each stage of production. *Prerequisites: Phases I & II, including Directing II
24 6351, 3 credits

Phase III Courses*
Thesis Seminar
In this class students work intensively on a thesis project proposal based on responses from the instructor, their classmates, and from graduate faculty readers. For narrative work, the goal is to generate a well-developed dramatic treatment and then a first-draft script of the thesis project (approx. 20 minutes). For documentary, students initiate research and develop a proposal for their thesis project (approx. 20 minutes). Continuation in either form to the thesis stage requires that the student secure two faculty thesis advisors after a maximum of two semesters of taking the course. *Prerequisites: all Phase 1 & 2 required courses
24-6060, 3 credits