Original course design by Caitlin Horsmon with modifications by David Ellsworth and Jennifer Proctor
Required Texts:
Film Art: An Introduction, Bordwell & Thompson, Eighth Edition: McGraw Hill
Additional readings posted to Blackboard
Course Description: Survey of Media Production Modes is an introductory course in the critical study of the modes (or forms) of film and video work produced around the world. Each week will offer readings, a number of clips, and a film text to evaluate. We will examine and discuss the distinctive formal elements of each mode as well as the historical, cultural, and economic context in which it was produced and received by its audience.
Objectives: The goals of this course are to provide you with a foundation for analyzing the formal, thematic, and stylistic elements of various forms of media as well to offer you an introduction to international film and video history. You will hone your skills in dissecting a film text, applying readings to the analysis of film and video, performing scholarly research, and writing about cinema. More than that, however, the aim of this course is to provide you with tools for seeing films in a new way, for peeling away layers of the moving image to reveal rich subtexts, and to make you a better informed, more empowered viewer – and, potentially, a more powerful filmmaker.
Course Requirements: Two short reading/film response papers, two critical analysis papers, a group-based oral presentation, and midterm and final examinations. Attendance, punctuality, and participation are also required. If you must miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed from classmates –please inquire of your classmates before coming to me. Missed screenings will be difficult to make up, and in some cases make-up screenings may not be possible.
Assignments will not be accepted by email except with previous permission from the professor, and any assignments sent without permission will not considered officially submitted. If you need to submit work outside of regular class time, contact the professor to make arrangements in advance.
Late work: Late work will be accepted no later than the next class meeting, and will be penalized one letter grade per day late.
Assignments & Evaluation: |
|
Response Paper #1 |
10% |
Response Paper #2 |
10% |
Midterm Examination |
15% |
Analysis Paper #1 |
15% |
Analysis Paper #2 |
15% |
Oral Presentation |
10% |
Final Examination |
15% |
Classroom Participation |
10% |
TOTAL: 100 points |
COURSE SCHEDULE: (Films and schedule subject to change)
WEEK 1: HOLLYWOOD—THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FILM FORM
1/5 Introduction to Course – syllabus and class overview
1/7 Screening: The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) - 1 hour 41 minutes
Reading: Film Technique handout (Blackboard)
Film Art, Chapters pp. 1 – 25, 456 – 459, & Ch. 2
Assign Response Paper #1WEEK 2: HOLLYWOOD—FILM FORM CONTINUED
1/12 – 1/14 Discuss readings and vocabulary
Reading: Film Art, Ch. 3 & 4
Assign Analysis Paper #1WEEK 3: NARRATIVE AND FILM FORM
1/19 – 1/21 Screening: Citizen Kane, (Orson Welles, 1941) – 2 hours
Readings: Film Art, Ch. 5 & 8
Response paper #1 due/Assign oral presentationsWEEK 4: NEW HOLLYWOOD – HIGH CONCEPT
1/26 – 1/28 Screening: Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) – 2 hours 4 minutes
Readings: Film Art, 431 – 434 and Ch. 6;
Wyatt, Justin, High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood, Ch. 1 http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exwyahig.html#ex1 (Blackboard)WEEK 5: EUROPEAN ART CINEMA
2/2 – 2/4 Screening: The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) – 96 minutes
Reading: Bordwell, David “The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice” in The European Cinema Reader, p. 94 – 102 (Blackboard)
Denitto, Dennis and Herman, William, Analysis of The Seventh Seal from Film and the Critical Eye (Blackboard)
Analysis Paper #1 DueWEEK 6: AMERICAN INDEPENDENT CINEMA
2/9 – 2/11 Screening: Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995) – 2 hrs.
Reading: Film Art, Ch. 9, 463-468WEEK 7: SHORT FICTION
2/16 – 2/18 Screening: International short films, titles to be distributed in class
Reading: Martin, Adrian, “Man’s Favorite Short – Introduction,” in Undercurrent
Cantell, Saara, “Poetry on screen or visualized jokes? An approach to the genres of short fiction films,” p.o.v #18, 2004 (Blackboard)WEEK 8: SHORT FICTION CONTINUED & EXAM
2/23 Short fiction continued; Exam Review
2/25 Midterm ExamWEEK 9: SPRING BREAK
3/1 – 3/8 NO CLASSESWEEK 10: INTERNATIONAL CINEMA – HONG KONG
3/9-3/11 Screening: Chungking Express (Wong Kar Wai, 1994) – 102 min.
Reading: Film Art, 405-410, 468-471
Assign Response Paper #2WEEK 11: INTERNATIONAL CINEMA – IRAN
3/16 – 3/18 Screening: Offside (Jafar Panahi, 2006) – 93 min.
Reading: “Iranian Cinema,” Hamid Naficy in Oxford History of World Cinema (Blackboard);
“Jafar Panahi and the Rules of the Game,” Interview by David D’arcy, GreenCine.com, http://www.greencine.com/central/node/351/print (Blackboard)WEEK 12: ANIMATION
3/23 – 3/25 Screening: International animated shorts, titles to be distributed in class
Reading: Furniss, Art in Motion Ch. 1 (Blackboard); Film Art 370-377
Response paper #2 due; Assign Analysis Paper #2WEEK 13: EXPERIMENTAL FILM
3/30 – 4/1 Screening: International experimental and avant-garde films, titles to be distributed in class
Readings: Film Art, 355-370;
Mekas, Jonas, “A Call for a New Generation of Filmmakers” in Sitney, P. Adams, Film Culture Reader, p. 73-76 (Blackboard)WEEK 14: AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY CINEMA
4/6 – 4/8 Screening: The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988) – 1 hour 43 minutes
Reading: Film Art, 413 - 419
Nichols, Bill, “Documentary Modes of Representation” (Blackboard)WEEK 15: NEW MEDIA: ONLINE, INTERACTIVE, AND CULTURE JAMMING
4/13 Screening: Shorts and online examples of culture jamming, flash animations, database cinema, and interactive narratives; titles to be distributed in class
Reading: Harold, Christine, “Pranking rhetoric: ‘culture jamming’ as media activism,” in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Vol. 21, Issue 3, September 2004
Analysis Paper #2 Due4/15 Finish up New Media; Exam Review; Wrap up course