INTRO TO FILM & MEDIA STUDIES
This course serves as an introduction to the study of film and related visual media, examining fundamental issues of aesthetics (mise-en-scene, editing, sound), history (interaction of industrial, economic, and technological factors), theory (spectatorship, realism, and indexicality), and criticism (auteurist, feminist, and genre-based approaches). The course also investigates how digital media change has been productive of new frameworks for moving image culture in the present. Discussion section FILM UN1001 is a required corequisite.
- W 2:10 p.m.-3:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Jane Gaines
CULPA: 4 Info - 3 points
INTRO-FILM & MEDIA STUDIES-DIS
Co-requisite discussion section for FILM UN 1000 INTRO TO FILM & MEDIA STUDIES.
- F 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
- F 2:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Yuwen Zhang
Info -
Instructor:
Eva Gretskaya
Info - 0 points
CINEMA HIST II: 1930-1960
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 cinemas changing function as a social institution. Discussion section FILM UN 2021 is a required co-requisite.
- R 2:10 p.m.-3:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Ronald Gregg
CULPA: 2 Info - 3 points
CINEMA HIST II-1930-1960-DIS
Co-requisite for FILM UN 2020 Cinema History II.
- F 9:10 a.m.-10 a.m.
- F 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Mitch Camarda
Info -
Instructor:
Kate Dirienzi
Info -
Instructor:
Yihong Lee
Info - 0 points
CINEMA HIST III:1960-1990
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). Discussion section FILM UN 2031 is a required co-requisite.
- M 2:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Annette Insdorf
CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info - 3 points
CINEMA HIST III:1960-1990-DISC
Co-requisite discussion section for FILM UN 2030 Cinema History III: 1960-90.
- T 5:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
- T 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
- T 2:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Ria A Vieira
Info -
Instructor:
Oksana Mirzoyan
Info -
Instructor:
Mary C Walker
Info - 0 points
American Film: Cult & Exploitation
Amer Film: Cult & Exploit
Once associated with images of fishnet-costumed fans of
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
, the concept of the “cult film” has gone increasingly mainstream in recent years. This course seeks to assess the popularization of the phenomenon, asking: what exactly
is
a cult film? And what does the mainstreaming of the concept suggest about our changing relation to today’s media environment?
Whereas most types of film can be defined through widely recognized elements of story and setting (tumbleweed, deserts, gunfights: it’s a western), this is far from being the case with cult. Some have defined the cult film as “created” by audiences (again,
Rocky Horror
); others in terms of nonclassical or aberrant modes of textuality (e.g., various forms of “bad taste” cinema). This course, however, seeks to go beyond audience- and text-based definitions, instead placing cult within a series of historical contexts:
as an outgrowth of film industry practices that sustained the
low cultural status
of certain movie types during the classical Hollywood cinema (e.g., B movies, exploitation, etc.);
as the product of
audience reception
practices, shaped by the politics of cultural taste and “camp” viewing practices that first coalesced during the “midnight movie” phenomenon of the late 1960s/1970s;
as sustained by the
transnational flow
of media content, offering new frameworks for understanding “national” cinemas.
In offering such an approach, this course seeks to isolate the different uses to which “cult” has been put, in order to indicate how pervasive and adaptable the idea has recently become. As we will see, the cult phenomenon implies both a perspective on the past, hence inseparable from the experience of nostalgia, as well as an engagement with our media-driven present.
- R 10:10 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Robert King
CULPA: 7
Info
- 3 points
American Film: Cult & Exploitation DISC
Per syllabus- required discussion section for Film UN2132 American Film: Cult & Exploitation
- F 9 a.m.-9:50 a.m.
- F 2:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
- F 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Ethan Mattheus
Info -
Instructor:
Luis A Portela Vazquez
Info -
Instructor:
Sophia Jones
Info - 0 points
American Film: Film Noir
This course surveys the American film genre known as
film noir
, focusing primarily on the genre’s heyday in the 1940s and early 1950s, taking into account some of its antecedents in the hard-boiled detective novel, German Expressionism, and the gangster film, among other sources. We will consider a wide variety of critical and theoretical approaches to the genre, and will also study a number of film noir adaptations and their literary sources.
- M 10:10 a.m.-1:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
James A Schamus
CULPA: 8
Wikipedia
Info
- 3 points
American Film: Film Noir DISC
Per syllabus- required discussion section for Film UN2136: American Film: Film Noir
- F 11:10 a.m.-noon
- F 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Jiayi Li
Info -
Instructor:
Byung Joon Lee
Info - 0 points
LAB IN WRITING FILM CRITICISM
Lab in Writing Film Criticism
This course will focus on writing fresh, original criticism, on developing an individual voice, and on creating strong arguments supporting your ideas (qualities that translate to many areas, from reviewing to pitching a film project). Screenings in and outside class will be followed by discussion and in-class writing exercises, as well as regular writing assignments. How do you choose an effective critical approach? How do you make your opinions vivid and convincing on the page? We will also analyze recent criticism and consider the changing landscape of film criticism today.
Prerequisite:
Instructor’s permission. Submit a short, film-related sample to cj2374@columbia.edu
Note: Because permission is required, on-line registration may say the course is full when it is not. Priority given to film majors.
- M 2:10 p.m.-4:40 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Caryn James
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
LABORATORY IN SCREENWRITING
This lab is limited to declared Film and Media Studies majors. Exercises in the writing of film scripts.
- F 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- F 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Nana F Duffuor
Info -
Instructor:
Kali A Kahn
Info -
Instructor:
Katherine Burns
Info - 3 points
LAB IN FICTION FILMMAKING
This lab course is limited to declared Film & Media Studies majors. Exercises in the use of video for fiction shorts.
- M 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- R 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Greta Diaz Moreau
Info -
Instructor:
Daryl Wang
Info - 3 points
Film Adaptation
This course will explore the transformation of literary texts onto the big screen of motion pictures. Adaptation is an act of re-visioning, a way of expanding the reach of a given story while still upholding its unique, immutable grace and power.
That’s easier said than done. The screenwriter who is tasked with an adaptation reads that source text with an eagle eye for all that is embedded therein. They don’t need to be utterly faithful to the source. In fact, they can’t be. But the source is a holistic entity, a product of another literary mind (and soul). It’s a gestalt that demands respect and thoughtful creative interpretation. And like all strong works of art, it contains beautiful secrets, some of which good screenwriters will find and preserve.
And they must. Half of the feature films made in America are adaptations. Many of their sources are already beloved. Those that aren’t, deserve the wider audience that film can bring. All story forms have adapted each other since
Pyramus and Thisbe
sprung from Ovid’s
Metamorphoses
, later to inspire
Romeo and Julie
and
West Side Story.
Adaptation is how stories continue to inspire humans across time. It is therefore a core skill of the screenwriter’s art and livelihood.
Adaptation is a reflex of mind. We “see” what we read, and we “read” what we see.
I have a dream. I tell you about it. Already, I’m adapting my own inner life into a spoken version of a dream I have salvaged from the chaos of dreaming. And yet I’m compelled to relate that dream to you because it had some gravitational pull that made the story of that story well worth the telling.
To adapt any story for film is to make its original content visible and audible, through dialogue, behavior, theme and visual metaphor. It is to take the reflective and make it active, show more and talk less, imbed theme in plot, turn ideas and symbols into images, expand or condense it as needed, shape its new timeframe, and emphasize story at least as much as character.
Every source must be approached using different rules of engagement. Literature, plays, and true-life stories all resist the morphology of adaptation in unique ways. But the great equalizer is film’s deliberately kinesthetic structure. Character and structure are one in the same. And movies must
move.
This is a process of translating the
char
- W 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Stephen Molton
Info - 3 points
SENIOR SEMINAR IN FILM STUDIES
A seminar for senior film majors planning to write a research paper in film history/theory/culture. Course content changes yearly.
- R 10:10 a.m.-12:40 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Racquel Gates
Info - 3 points
ADVANCED FILM PRODUCTION PRACTICE
Advanced Film Production Practice is an advanced production and lecture course for students who wish to obtain a deeper understanding of the skills involved in screenwriting, directing and producing. Building on the fundamentals established in the Labs for Fiction and Non-Fiction Filmmaking, this seminar further develops each student’s grasp of the concepts involved in filmmaking through advanced analytical and practical work to prepare Thesis film materials.
- W 6:10 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Hector Prats I Castro
Info - 3 points
SENIOR SEM IN SCREENWRITING
A seminar for senior film majors. Students will complete a step outline and minimum of 30 pages of their project, including revisions. Through reading/viewing and analyzing selected scripts/films, as well as lectures, exercises and weekly critiques, students will expand their understanding of dramatic writing and narrative-making for film and TV, including adaptations. They will learn appropriate structure for each specific screen-writing form, and endeavor to apply their understanding of drama, character, theme, and structure to their chosen narrative project.
- F 2:10 p.m.-4:40 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Loren-Paul Caplin
CULPA: 2 Info - 3 points
FILM AND MEDIA THEORY
This course offers a historical and critical overview of film and media theory from its origins up to the present.
- R 1:10 p.m.-4:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Nico Baumbach
Info - 3 points
FILM & MEDIA THEORY-DISC
Co-requisite undergraduate discussion section for FILM GU 4000 Film & Media Theory.
- F 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Philip Gilstrap
Info -
Instructor:
Juntong Wu
Info -
Instructor:
Carley J Pinke
Info -
Instructor:
Sidnee Lim
Info - 0 points
Auteur Study: Lubitsch and Wilder
Auteur Stu: Lubitsch & Wi
This seminar analyzes the tension in Hollywood between industry self-censorship of film (roughly 1929-1965) and the European émigrés who brought a more cosmopolitan, sexually modern perspective to the genre of comedy. Students will be introduced to the history of Hollywood’s Production Code (popularly known as the Hays Code), which institutionalized self-administered censorship. In addition, students will study the genre of comedy, where we often discover implicit subversion of the censorship code.
The course will teach students about the change in the industry brought about by new talent from Europe during the classical Hollywood period. In particular, students will study the biographies and work of two directors, the Austrian/German émigrés Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder, whose separate careers bracket the beginning and end of the censorship code. In the 1920s, as Hollywood moved towards a codified censorship code, Ernst Lubitsch developed his infamous “Lubitsch touch,” which subverted the Hays Code by hinting at possible sexual indiscretions through verbal and visual double entendres and other aesthetic strategies. Many producers and directors learned how to subvert the code from Lubitsch’s films; like Lubitsch, while emphatically publicizing their belief in and rigid practice of self-censorship, these producers and directors used Lubitsch-like techniques to hint at salacious attitudes and behaviors, which they had claimed to have censored.
Billy Wilder was one of these directors. Wilder learned from Lubitsch directly, working as screenwriter on Lubitsch’s films
Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife
(1938) and
Ninotchka
(1939). With a handful of other Hollywood personnel, Billy Wilder is credited with directly challenging and bringing the Hays Code to an end, particularly with his film
Some Like It Hot
(1959). Wilder moved sexual indiscretions and illicit desire into the open in this film and others such as
The Apartment
(1960).
- M 9:10 a.m.-1 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Ronald Gregg
CULPA: 2 Info - 3 points
Black Film and Media
This course examines the historical and theoretical issues concerning the representation of African Americans in film and media. The course will provide a historical overview while focusing on key themes, concepts, and texts.
- T 9:10 a.m.-1:10 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Racquel Gates
Info - 3 points
Black Film and Media Discussion
Black Film and Media DISC
This course examines the historical and theoretical issues concerning the representation of African Americans in film and media. The course will provide a historical overview while focusing on key themes, concepts, and texts.
- F 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Laila A Bearden
Info - 0 points
Seeing Narrative
An advanced film theory "workshop" in which we shall avoid reading film theory in favor of a selection of other texts, taken mainly from the domains of art history, philosophy, and literature. Our central question will be: What can we, who have grown up in the age of cinema and digital media, learn from discourses about vision and its relation to narrative that pre-date the cinema, or that consider the cinema only marginally? In this course, we shall begin to approach some of the major topics of contemporary film theory -- narrativity, subject-construction, the relation of words to images -- through the lens of texts that have remained largely outside the network of citations and references we normally associate with the work of professional media theory. We might begin the groundwork for an "opening up" or critique of some of the blind spots of current theory; at the very least, we shall be reading works that challenge our usual ways of theorizing.
- M 6:10 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
-
Instructor:
James A Schamus
CULPA: 8
Wikipedia
Info
- 3 points
Soviet Avant-garde Cinema of the 20s
In the 1920s and 30s, Soviet Union became one of the important centers for the development of cinema medium. The nationalization of the film industry by the Bolsheviks and the massive ideological and cultural shifts endured by the newly established Soviet state led to the explosion of Soviet cinema and the active exploration of film language. This seminar explores the history of Soviet cinema of that period with the main focus on the emergence and development of Soviet Montage Theory. It will introduce students to the pinnacles of film history made by renowned Soviet film auteurs such as Lev Kuleshov, Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Esfir Shub and Dziga Vertov, as well as important films by Soviet film directors who are lesser known in the West: Abram Room, Boris Barnet, Margarita Barskaya. The emphasis throughout the class will be on the connection between form and content, as we learn to analyze the cinematic language side by side with the social and political significance of these films. The following questions will be central to our class discussions: How did Soviet cinema develop a new cinematic language to reflect massive social and political changes taking place in the Soviet Union during the period in question? How did Soviet Montage Theory emerge and develop, and what were the cultural forces shaping it? How can we distinguish between different approaches to montage among Soviet film directors? What was the role of the state in shaping the national cinema? How were individual filmmakers able to either work with or push back against, the state agenda to assert their own creativity?
- M 10:10 a.m.-12:40 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Anastasia Kostina
Info - 3 points
NEW MEDIA ART
The rapid democratization of technology has led to a new wave of immersive storytelling that spills off screens into the real world and back again. These works defy traditional constraints as they shift away from a one-to-many to a many-to-many paradigm, transforming those formerly known as the audience from passive viewers into storytellers in their own right. New opportunities and limitations offered by emergent technologies are augmenting the grammar of storytelling, as creators wrestle with an ever-shifting digital landscape. New Media Art pulls back the curtain on transmedial works of fiction, non-fiction, and emergent forms that defy definition. Throughout the semester well explore projects that utilize Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and the Internet of Things, alongside a heavy-hitting selection of new media thinkers, theorists, and critics. The course will be co-taught as a dialogue between artistic practice and new media theory. Lance Weiler, a new media artist and founder of Columbia’s Digital Storytelling Lab, selected the media artworks; Rob King, a film and media historian, selected the scholarly readings. It is in the interaction between these two perspectives that the course will explore the parameters of emerging frontiers in media art and the challenges these pose for existing critical vocabularies.
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- 3 points
History of American Television
From its relative appearance in American homes (ca. 1950 - 1955) through the first decade of the 21st century television has remained (arguably) the most culturally, socially and politically determinative technology in American life. The exchanges that occur between the content of American television and its ever-broadening audience really shaped perspective on the American character and American values across fifty years. Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine that the cultures of consensus and conformity that shaped the 1950s were in fact attainable in the absence of television. But, and at the same time, we must admire the creativity of shows like
Donna Reed
or
Wagon Train
that made certain that subtilty insured the advocacy for a more democratic America.
We begin with brief attention to the most immediate creative influences on early television: vaudeville, and radio. Across the semester we will then consider the evolution of the various technologies that shaped and reshaped the American experience of television. While our focus remains on creative content, we must also note the moments where television afforded new experiences of collective sympathy (JFK and MLK assassinations, the Vietnam War etc.) as well as collective failure (The Pentagon Papers, Iran Contra, Rodney King) and triumph (Civil Rights Movement across the American South, the moon landing etc.). We will also, of course, consider the full implications of television “events” that afforded news kinds national debate concerning the very soul of America: Roots, the final episode of M*A*S*H*, and The Day After)
Finally, we will conclude with discussion of HBO and the formative impress of unprecedented creative achievement: The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Mad Men; and, we must consider that during the early years of the 21st century these serial dramas represent a particular (and unprecedented) manifestation of American art and artistry.
- R 6:10 p.m.-8:40 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Ben Alexander
Info - 3 points
CINEMA HIST II: 1930-1960
- R 2:10 p.m.-3:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Ronald Gregg
CULPA: 2 Info - 3 points
CINEMA HIST III:1960-1990
- M 2:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Annette Insdorf
CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info - 3 points
ELEMENTS OF DRAMATIC NARRATIVE
A lecture and discussion course on the basics of feature-length screenwriting. Using written texts and films screened for class, the course explores the nature of storytelling in the feature-length film and the ways in which it is an extension and an evolution of other dramatic and narrative forms. A basic part of Film’s first year program, the course guides students in developing the plot, characters, conflict and theme of a feature-length story that they will write, as a treatment, by the end of the semester.
- M 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Andrew S Bienen
Info - 3 points
SCREENWRITING I
In this introductory workshop, students write several short screenplays over the course of the semester and learn the basics of the craft. Character, action, conflict, story construction, the importance of showing instead of telling, and other essential components are explored.
- M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- F 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Jamal Joseph
Info -
Instructor:
Rania Attieh
Info -
Instructor:
Jamal Joseph
Info -
Instructor:
Minhal Baig
Info -
Instructor:
Daniel Kleinman
Info -
Instructor:
Keith Bunin
Info -
Instructor:
Yared Zeleke
Info -
Instructor:
Lucy Teitler
Info - 3 points
American Film: Cult & Exploitation
Amer Film: Cult & Exploit
Once associated with images of fishnet-costumed fans of
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
, the concept of the “cult film” has gone increasingly mainstream in recent years. This course seeks to assess the popularization of the phenomenon, asking: what exactly
is
a cult film? And what does the mainstreaming of the concept suggest about our changing relation to today’s media environment?
Whereas most types of film can be defined through widely recognized elements of story and setting (tumbleweed, deserts, gunfights: it’s a western), this is far from being the case with cult. Some have defined the cult film as “created” by audiences (again,
Rocky Horror
); others in terms of nonclassical or aberrant modes of textuality (e.g., various forms of “bad taste” cinema). This course, however, seeks to go beyond audience- and text-based definitions, instead placing cult within a series of historical contexts:
as an outgrowth of film industry practices that sustained the
low cultural status
of certain movie types during the classical Hollywood cinema (e.g., B movies, exploitation, etc.);
as the product of
audience reception
practices, shaped by the politics of cultural taste and “camp” viewing practices that first coalesced during the “midnight movie” phenomenon of the late 1960s/1970s;
as sustained by the
transnational flow
of media content, offering new frameworks for understanding “national” cinemas.
In offering such an approach, this course seeks to isolate the different uses to which “cult” has been put, in order to indicate how pervasive and adaptable the idea has recently become. As we will see, the cult phenomenon implies both a perspective on the past, hence inseparable from the experience of nostalgia, as well as an engagement with our media-driven present.
- R 10:10 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Robert King
CULPA: 7
Info
- 3 points
American Film: Film Noir
This course surveys the American film genre known as
film noir
, focusing primarily on the genre’s heyday in the 1940s and early 1950s, taking into account some of its antecedents in the hard-boiled detective novel, German Expressionism, and the gangster film, among other sources. We will consider a wide variety of critical and theoretical approaches to the genre, and will also study a number of film noir adaptations and their literary sources.
- M 10:10 a.m.-1:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
James A Schamus
CULPA: 8
Wikipedia
Info
- 3 points
FUNDAMENTALS OF DIRECTING
Weekly lectures will introduce film grammar, textual analysis, staging, the camera as narrator, pre-visualization, shot progression, directorial style, working with actors and editing. Lectures by all members of the full time directing faculty anchor the class, highlighting a range of directorial approaches with additional lectures on the techniques and aesthetics of editing. Each lecture will be supported by visual material from master film directors as well as the examples of the short films students will be required to produce in their first two semesters. For the final 7 weeks of the term, a student fellow will be available to mentor students through the planning of their 3-5 films.
- W 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Bette Gordon
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
Fundamentals of Directing Lab: Secrets o
Fund of Dir Lab: Short Fi
Each week, outstanding shorts from Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, Aspen, and other international festivals will be screened and discussed. (You might see a few duds as well, for comparison purposes.) The emphasis in the first two weeks will be on shorts under six minutes, in preparation for the “3-to-5” project. The second two weeks will be devoted to films between 8 and 12 minutes long, in preparation for the “8-to-12”. The final weeks will include a variety of narratives the size of Columbia thesis films. Altogether, over forty films will be shown and discussed.
- W 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Daniel Kleinman
Info - 0 points
DIRECTING I
Students explore the grammatical rules and narrative elements of cinematic storytelling by completing a minimum of three short, nondialogue exercises and two sound exercises, all shot and edited in video. Emphasizes using the camera as an articulate narrator to tell a coherent, grammatically correct, engaging, and cinematic story. Technical workshops on camera, lighting, sound, and editing accompany the workshops, as well as lectures that provide a methodology for the director.
- R 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- R 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- R 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- R 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- R 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Hilary Brougher
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
DIRECTING ACTORS I
A workshop in which the student explores the craft and vocabulary of the actor through exercises and scene study as actors and the incorporation of the actor's vocabulary in directed scenes. Exploration of script analysis, casting, and the rehearsal process.
- M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- T 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Emil Benjamin
Info -
Instructor:
Mikael Sodersten
Info -
Instructor:
Jodie Markell
Wikipedia Info -
Instructor:
Keith Manning
Info -
Instructor:
John Rubin
Info -
Instructor:
Abigail Zealey Bess
Info -
Instructor:
Jennifer McCabe
Info -
Instructor:
Eli Pauley
Info - 3 points
FUNDAMENTALS OF EDITING
This online class explores the creative and narrative principals of editing through the editing of students' 8-12 minute films and / or other footage. Instructors are professional editors who will provide lecture and individual based instruction.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Joshua Lee
Info -
Instructor:
Elizabeth Kling
Info - 1.5 points
PRACTICAL PRODUCTION I
Practical Production 1 teaches students best practices regarding film production and technology in the integrated first year of the MFA Film Program through lectures, discussions, pre-production meetings, multi-hour shoots on set and an end-of-the-semester screening. This class is required for all first-year students. Throughout the Fall, students will work in small production groups to prep and shoot a short script in the Prentis studio. Each week one group will organize a pre-production meeting and then produce a four-hour shoot. The professor will be in attendance and two de-briefing sessions will occur throughout the production to reiterate best film production practices. Additional assignments will include the creation of various pre-production, production and wrap paperwork and tech deliverables. Additional mandatory production and risk management workshops will be given. The last class will be a screening of all group films and prep/discussion for the 3-5 exercise shot over Winter Break. Required for all first-year students.
- F 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Joshua R Troxler
Info - 1.5 points
TECH ARTS:POST PRODUCTION
Tech Arts: Post Production delivers a practical introduction to modern post production workflows. The course will cover the process of moving efficiently from production to post production, the techniques of non-linear editing and ultimately the process of professionally finishing a film for modern distribution. Students will learn foundational post terminology, how to create the best workflow for your film, how to manage data/footage in the edit room, and offline and online editing. Additionally, the class will explore other key steps in the post production process including audio syncing, transcoding, exporting and mastering. The hands-on lessons and exercises will be conducted using the industry-standard non-linear editing system (NLE), Avid Media Composer, and will serve as a primer for other professional systems, including Adobe Premiere and Davinci Resolve. Students will also learn about Columbia Film’s shared storage system and cloud editing systems, Avid Nexis and Avid Media Central. The course is necessary and required for Columbia Film MFA students as it prepares them for post production, an unavoidable component of the most essential part of the Film MFA, filmmaking.
- R 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Michael J Cacioppo Belantara
Info - 0 points
TECH ARTS
TECH ARTS: CAMERA & LENSES
The Tech Arts curriculum is a hands-on, experiential way for our students to learn best practices regarding film production and post production technology in the integrated first year of the MFA Film Program. The curriculum will be taught in 3 different disciplines/sections with up to 12. Instructors: Matthew Farrell, Michael O’Brien, Gregg Conde
The disciplines/sections are: Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio. Students will all be required to take one discipline for registration in their first year.
Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio will educate students on this topics utilizing the cameras and lens equipment offered by Film’s Production Center in Nash. In addition to the practicum workshops students will be required to do specific readings and assignments to maximize their learning of the weekly subject matter and participate in class discussion.
Practical Production 1: Lab-Tech Arts Curriculum takes students through the principles of cinematography, lighting, framing, and audio production by working directly with the equipment and technology through small group sections. Technological competency is required to maximize what they are learning through their other classes in directing, screenwriting and producing classes.
- R 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Gregg L Conde
Info - 0 points
TECH ARTS
TECH ARTS: GRIP & ELECTRIC
The Tech Arts curriculum is a hands-on, experiential way for our students to learn best practices regarding film production and post production technology in the integrated first year of the MFA Film Program. The curriculum will be taught in 3 different disciplines/sections with up to 12. Instructors: Matthew Farrell, Michael O’Brien, Gregg Conde
The disciplines/sections are: Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio. Students will all be required to take one discipline for registration in their first year.
Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio will educate students on this topics utilizing the cameras and lens equipment offered by Film’s Production Center in Nash. In addition to the practicum workshops students will be required to do specific readings and assignments to maximize their learning of the weekly subject matter and participate in class discussion.
Practical Production 1: Lab-Tech Arts Curriculum takes students through the principles of cinematography, lighting, framing, and audio production by working directly with the equipment and technology through small group sections. Technological competency is required to maximize what they are learning through their other classes in directing, screenwriting and producing classes.
- M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Matthew D Farrell
Info - 0 points
TECH ARTS
TECH ARTS: CINEMA AUDIO
The Tech Arts curriculum is a hands-on, experiential way for our students to learn best practices regarding film production and post production technology in the integrated first year of the MFA Film Program. The curriculum will be taught in 3 different disciplines/sections with up to 12. Instructors: Matthew Farrell, Michael O’Brien, Gregg Conde
The disciplines/sections are: Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio. Students will all be required to take one discipline for registration in their first year.
Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio will educate students on this topics utilizing the cameras and lens equipment offered by Film’s Production Center in Nash. In addition to the practicum workshops students will be required to do specific readings and assignments to maximize their learning of the weekly subject matter and participate in class discussion.
Practical Production 1: Lab-Tech Arts Curriculum takes students through the principles of cinematography, lighting, framing, and audio production by working directly with the equipment and technology through small group sections. Technological competency is required to maximize what they are learning through their other classes in directing, screenwriting and producing classes.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Michael O'Brien
Info - 0 points
TECH ARTS
TECH ARTS: CAMERA & LENSES
The Tech Arts curriculum is a hands-on, experiential way for our students to learn best practices regarding film production and post production technology in the integrated first year of the MFA Film Program. The curriculum will be taught in 3 different disciplines/sections with up to 12. Instructors: Matthew Farrell, Michael O’Brien, Gregg Conde
The disciplines/sections are: Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio. Students will all be required to take one discipline for registration in their first year.
Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio will educate students on this topics utilizing the cameras and lens equipment offered by Film’s Production Center in Nash. In addition to the practicum workshops students will be required to do specific readings and assignments to maximize their learning of the weekly subject matter and participate in class discussion.
Practical Production 1: Lab-Tech Arts Curriculum takes students through the principles of cinematography, lighting, framing, and audio production by working directly with the equipment and technology through small group sections. Technological competency is required to maximize what they are learning through their other classes in directing, screenwriting and producing classes.
- R 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Gregg L Conde
Info - 0 points
TECH ARTS
TECH ARTS: GRIP & ELECTRIC
The Tech Arts curriculum is a hands-on, experiential way for our students to learn best practices regarding film production and post production technology in the integrated first year of the MFA Film Program. The curriculum will be taught in 3 different disciplines/sections with up to 12. Instructors: Matthew Farrell, Michael O’Brien, Gregg Conde
The disciplines/sections are: Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio. Students will all be required to take one discipline for registration in their first year.
Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio will educate students on this topics utilizing the cameras and lens equipment offered by Film’s Production Center in Nash. In addition to the practicum workshops students will be required to do specific readings and assignments to maximize their learning of the weekly subject matter and participate in class discussion.
Practical Production 1: Lab-Tech Arts Curriculum takes students through the principles of cinematography, lighting, framing, and audio production by working directly with the equipment and technology through small group sections. Technological competency is required to maximize what they are learning through their other classes in directing, screenwriting and producing classes.
- M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Matthew D Farrell
Info - 0 points
TECH ARTS
TECH ARTS: CINEMA AUDIO
The Tech Arts curriculum is a hands-on, experiential way for our students to learn best practices regarding film production and post production technology in the integrated first year of the MFA Film Program. The curriculum will be taught in 3 different disciplines/sections with up to 12. Instructors: Matthew Farrell, Michael O’Brien, Gregg Conde
The disciplines/sections are: Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio. Students will all be required to take one discipline for registration in their first year.
Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio will educate students on this topics utilizing the cameras and lens equipment offered by Film’s Production Center in Nash. In addition to the practicum workshops students will be required to do specific readings and assignments to maximize their learning of the weekly subject matter and participate in class discussion.
Practical Production 1: Lab-Tech Arts Curriculum takes students through the principles of cinematography, lighting, framing, and audio production by working directly with the equipment and technology through small group sections. Technological competency is required to maximize what they are learning through their other classes in directing, screenwriting and producing classes.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Michael O'Brien
Info - 0 points
TECH ARTS
TECH ARTS: CAMERA & LENSES
The Tech Arts curriculum is a hands-on, experiential way for our students to learn best practices regarding film production and post production technology in the integrated first year of the MFA Film Program. The curriculum will be taught in 3 different disciplines/sections with up to 12. Instructors: Matthew Farrell, Michael O’Brien, Gregg Conde
The disciplines/sections are: Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio. Students will all be required to take one discipline for registration in their first year.
Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio will educate students on this topics utilizing the cameras and lens equipment offered by Film’s Production Center in Nash. In addition to the practicum workshops students will be required to do specific readings and assignments to maximize their learning of the weekly subject matter and participate in class discussion.
Practical Production 1: Lab-Tech Arts Curriculum takes students through the principles of cinematography, lighting, framing, and audio production by working directly with the equipment and technology through small group sections. Technological competency is required to maximize what they are learning through their other classes in directing, screenwriting and producing classes.
- M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Saro Varjabedian
Info - 0 points
TECH ARTS
TECH ARTS: CINEMA AUDIO
The Tech Arts curriculum is a hands-on, experiential way for our students to learn best practices regarding film production and post production technology in the integrated first year of the MFA Film Program. The curriculum will be taught in 3 different disciplines/sections with up to 12. Instructors: Matthew Farrell, Michael O’Brien, Gregg Conde
The disciplines/sections are: Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio. Students will all be required to take one discipline for registration in their first year.
Cameras and Lenses, Grip and Electric, and Cinema Audio will educate students on this topics utilizing the cameras and lens equipment offered by Film’s Production Center in Nash. In addition to the practicum workshops students will be required to do specific readings and assignments to maximize their learning of the weekly subject matter and participate in class discussion.
Practical Production 1: Lab-Tech Arts Curriculum takes students through the principles of cinematography, lighting, framing, and audio production by working directly with the equipment and technology through small group sections. Technological competency is required to maximize what they are learning through their other classes in directing, screenwriting and producing classes.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Sean O'Neil
Info - 0 points
CINEMA/MEDIA HISTORIOGRAPHY
An introduction to issues and cases in the study of cinema century technologies. This class takes up the definition of the historiographic problem and the differences between theoretical empirical solutions. Specific units on the history of film style, genre as opposed to authorship, silent and sound cinemas, the American avant-garde, national cinemas (Russia and China), the political economy of world cinema, and archival poetics. The question of artificial intelligence approached as a question of the “intelligence of the machine.” A unit on research methods is taught in conjunction with Butler and C.V. Starr East Asian Libraries. Writing exercises on a weekly basis culminate in a digital historiography research map which becomes the basis of final written “paper” posted in Courseworks in video essay format. Students present this work at a final conference. Topics in the past include:
Cultural Transactions: Across Media and Continents, Genre: Repetition and Difference, and Bang, Bang, Crash, Crash: Canon-Busting and Paradigm-Smashing
- W 10:10 a.m.-12:40 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jane Gaines
CULPA: 4 Info - 3 points
INTERNSHIP
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Instructor:
Hanna Seifu
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Instructor:
Maureen A Ryan
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Instructor:
Jack Lechner
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Instructor:
Mynette Louie
Wikipedia Info - 1-3 points
Adaptation
This is a fast-paced writing, survey and workshop course that will empower writers to define the formal ideals of screenwriting by investigating film adaptations of novels and short stories. The course will culminate in the writing of a short pitch document. This course is at once a survey of the twentieth century American Film, a survey of the Twentieth Century American novel, and a course for writers. We will distill the craft of screenwriting by looking through the prism of adaption in order to understand which elements of the novel translate into film, and why. We will consider novels with the mercenary detachment of a screenwriter, scouring for scraps with value for a screenplay. As we compare the original text with the finished film, we will distill the essence of the screenplay form. What is plot, action, dialog, metaphor? How do we converge these goals? We will decipher, with the clinical eye of a detective, what the screenwriter took from the novel and what they left behind. And in doing this, we will reach an understanding of the formal tenets of an American film.
- F 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Galt V Niederhoffer
Info - 3 points
SCREENWRITING THREE
A two-semester intensive screenwriting workshop with one instructor. The Screenwriting 3 and Screenwriting 4 class sequence allows for the careful and more sustained development of a feature-length script. In the fall semester, students further develop an idea for a screenplay and write the first act (approximately 30 pages). In the spring semester, students finish writing the script and, time permitting, begin a first revision.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- W 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- T 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Minhal Baig
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Instructor:
Christina Lazaridi
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Instructor:
Andrew S Bienen
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Instructor:
Trey Ellis
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
DIRECTING III
Students explore more deeply the range of skills and techniques necessary to direct both short and feature films including script breakdown of sequences, scenes, turning points and beats as well as advanced study of actor and camera staging. Students will hone their directing skills by preparing, shooting, and editing, in video, a minimum of three significant scenes from published or original work, depending on priority of the instructor. When taken concurrently, at least one of these scenes will be presented in Directing the Actor workshops. Students should also be working on a first draft of a short screenplay for their second-year project if they intend to take Directing 4.
- M 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- F 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Tom Kalin
Wikipedia Info -
Instructor:
Eric Mendelsohn
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
DIRECTING ACTORS III
More sophisticated principles are applied and more challenging scenes are presented. Collaboration with a writer is a requirement. Required for Screenwriting and Directing concentrates.