Fall 2018 Undergraduate Courses

Number	Title	Time	Days	Instructors
FMA/SCRN 2001-01	INTRO SCREEN ARTS	3:00-4:20	M W	APPLIN M
FMA/SCRN 2001-02	INTRO SCREEN ARTS	9:00-10:20	T TH	OWUSU-BOATENG
FMA/SCRN 3001-02	INDIAN FILM CULTURE	9:30-10:20	M W F	RAY A
FMA/SCRN 3010-01	CINEMATOGRAPHY	6:00-8:50 N	M	PITRE G
FMA/SCRN 3011-01	EDITING	3:00-5:50 N	T TH	TBA
FMA/SCRN 3014-01	FILM PRODUCING	3:00-5:50	M	PITRE G
FMA/SCRN 3020-01	INDEPENDENT STUDY	TBA
FMA/SCRN 3030-01	FMA/SCRN INTERNSHIP	TBA		KHANNOUS T
FMA/SCRN 3030-02	FMA/SCRN INTERNSHIP	TBA		CATANO J
FMA/SCRN 3503-01	INTRO TO JAPANESE CINEMA	4:30-7:20 N	W	BARTON K
FMA/SCRN 4001-01	FILM STYLE: MELIES TO NEW WAVE	1:30-2:50	T TH	CATANO J

 

NON-FMA/SCRN Courses

 

FMA/SCRN 3001-02: Indian Film Culture, Anwita Ray

The Indian film industry is the largest producer of films in the world and films have been made in India since the earliest decade of the art. Yet, Indian films have not gained adequate attention in the context of global cinema, apart from films by Satyajit Ray. This course will problematize such invisibility and deconstruct stereotypes such as presuming Indian culture to be analogous to Bollywood. We will look at Indian films thematically from its inception (in 1913) to the contemporary times, and some of the major areas of our discussion will relate to Indian silent forms, post-independence developments, realism and its critical extension, the rise of the angry young man in Bollywood, Indian diasporic films and so on. Basic concepts in Indian film aesthetics and culture will be introduced through film screenings and supplementary analysis of scholarly articles.

 

FMA/SCRN 3010-01: Cinematography, Glen Pitre

 With this hands-on introduction to the art and practice of cinematography, students interested in motion picture camera technique, either as professional specialty or as one of several crucial disciplines of screen storytelling, will learn the principles, procedures and equipment that go into shooting video and film. Emphasis will be on how to control and manipulate lighting, framing, movement, and image qualities to shape mood, convey emotion, tell story, and create a coherent look. Students will learn, practice, and refine skills with cameras and other gear through formal instruction and considerable hands-on practice as classes deliver a nuts-and-bolts approach to narrative, commercial, and documentary cinematography as currently practiced.

 

FMA 3014-01 How to Produce Movies & Other Media, Glen Pitre

This course provides students with an in-depth, intensive understanding of the business and managerial side of filmmaking, from story idea through development, casting, and production including on-set procedures, then finally distribution, each step as it pertains variously to Hollywood movies, independent films, shorts, TV, video games, commercials, documentaries. and new media. Topics covered include budgeting, negotiating, contracts, insurance and legal issues, copyright and clearance, raising money, scheduling, and running a film set. Instructor Glen Pitre has beaucoup experience producing both for Hollywood and indie, features and TV, narrative and docs, in the U.S. and overseas.

 

FMA/SCRN 3503-01: Japanese Cinema: Directors, Genres, and History

This course offers an introduction to the study of Japanese cinema. We will pay close attention to the languages and styles of films as well as the film-historical and socio-cultural contexts. An analysis and appreciation of major works and genres such as Jidaigeki (period/samurai films), Anime and J-Horror will be explored and directors such as Kurosawa, Ozu and Kitano will be introduced. Through secondary readings, lectures, and discussions, students will critically examine how Japanese cinema as an institution both responds to and intervenes in the social, cultural, and political history of Japan.

 

FMA/SCRN 4001-01: Film Style: Melies to New Wave, James Catano

Film Style, From Melies To The New Wave (3) Cinema has developed an entire set of recognizable visual styles over its history. This course looks at 5 key styles: telling stories via special effects and shallow space in Melies’s early cinema, developing complex viewpoints within Bazin’s deep-space, manipulating lighting and cinematography in Film Noir, escaping the set and sound stage in Italian Neo-realism, and playing with cinema as a whole in the French New Wave. Students will discuss the development and impacts of these film styles on production and viewing and will work in small crews to produce short videos that exemplify each. Fulfills FMA/SCRN 4001 core requirement. As a new topic, this section of 4001 may repeated even if 3 hours of FMA/SCRN 4001 have been taken already. Offered in Fall 2018 TTH 1:30-2:50. Catano.

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REL 4010-01: Black Religion and Film,  Stephen Finley

Film is an untapped resource for an understanding of the human condition and an interpretation of various identities. Like written work, film is a text. As a genre, film consciously or unconsciously incorporates elements of religious discourse and practice. In Theologian James Cone’s book, God of the Oppressed, he asserts “there is no truth for and about black people which does not emerge out of the context of their experience." Here, Cone hints at the centrality of experience as an essential tool for a fruitful interpretation of the ‘black condition.’ Film offers an innovative yet realistic way of exposing unspoken and uncomfortable social realities that often reveal themselves in religion, but it is significant because as a spectatorship medium, it lends itself to critical inquiry in a way that written language does not, due to the ability of the spectator to glean meaning in the cultural idiosyncrasies, bodily comportment, cinematic style, and nuances that written language is unable to capture. Scholar and cultural critic bell hooks contends: “Film, more than any other media experience, determines how blackness and black people are seen and how other groups will respond to us based on their relation to these constructed and consumed images” (Black Looks: Race and Representation, p. 5). In this sense, film is able to fill in the blanks that written word does not encapsulate adequately. In as much as film represents a director’s interpretation of an event or series of events, the genre does afford the opportunity for one to interrogate critically a director’s and producer’s perspectives and the cultural context that they represent.