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.
- R 1:10 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
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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 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
- F 11:10 a.m.-noon
- F 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jackson S Lee
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Instructor:
Mathilde A Hauducoeur
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Instructor:
Valeria Contreras
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CINEMA HIST I: BEGIN-1930
This course rethinks the ;birth of cinema; from the vantage of ;when old media was new.; Following standard approaches, it moves from actualities to fiction, from the ;cinema of attractions; to narrative, from the cinematographe to cinema, from cottage industry to studio system. Units in silent film music, early genres, film piracy and copyright, word and moving image, and restoration--the film archivists dilemma in the digital era. FILM W2011
- F 10 a.m.-1:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Vito Adriaensens
CULPA: 1 Info - 3 points
CINEMA HIST I:BEGIN-1930-DISC
- M 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
- M 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
- M 6:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
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Instructor:
Zuko M Garagic
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Instructor:
Alexandra J Bateman
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Instructor:
Molly K Follette
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CINEMA HISTORY IV: AFTER 1990
This course brings our survey of the development of the art, technology, and industry of motion images up to the present. During this era, most people no longer watched movies (perhaps the most neutral term) in theaters, and digital technology came to dominate every aspect of production, distribution, and exhibition. Highlighted filmmakers include Michael Haneke, Lars von Trier, Wong Kar-wei, and Steve McQueen. Topics range from contemporary horror to animation. Requirements: short (2-3 pages) papers on each film shown for the class and a final, take-home exam. FILM W2041
- R 10 a.m.-1:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Fabio C Andrade
Info - 3 points
CINEMA HIST IV:AFTER 1990-DISC
- F 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
- F 11:10 a.m.-noon
- F 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Faranak Sahafian
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Instructor:
Prashanth Sampathkumaran
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Instructor:
Bruno Mattos Rubeiz
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American Film: Comedy
This course will explore the history of American film comedy from the origins of cinema to the present. In its various forms, comedy has always been a staple of American film production; but it has also always been a site of heterogeneity and nonconformity in the development of American cinema, with neither its form nor its content fitting normative models of film practice. This course accounts for that nonconformity by exploring comedy’s close and essential links to “popular” cultural sources (in particular, vaudeville, variety, stand-up); it looks at how different comic filmmakers have responded to and reshaped those sources; and it examines the relation between comedy and social change. Rather than engage the entire spectrum of comic styles (animation, mockumentary, etc.), this course is primarily focused on a single tradition bridging the silent and sound eras: the performance-centered, “comedian comedy” format associated with performers as diverse as Charlie Chaplin, Mae West, the Marx Brothers, and, into the present Amy Schumer, Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell, and others. “Laughter and its forms,” writes theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, “represent the least scrutinized sphere of the people's creation.” This course will restore film comedy to the scrutiny it deserves, examining both its inward formal development and its external relation to other modes of cultural expression.
- W 10:10 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Robert King
CULPA: 7
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- 3 points
American Film: Comedy DISC
Per syllabus- required discussion section for Film UN2130 American Film: Comedy
- F 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
- F 11:10 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
- F 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
- F 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
- F 2:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
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Instructor:
Angeline J Dimambro
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Instructor:
Margaret F Talbot-Minkin
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Instructor:
Melanie A Rish
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Instructor:
Katherine L Folker
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Instructor:
Vivienne E Shaw
Info - 0 points
THE DOCUMENTARY TRADITION
This class offers an introduction to the history of documentary cinema and to the theoretical and philosophical questions opened up by the use of moving images to bear witness, persuade, archive the past, or inspire us to change the future. How are documentaries different than fiction films? What is the role of aesthetics in relation to facts and evidence in different documentary traditions? How do documentaries negotiate appeals to emotions with rational argument? From the origins of cinema to our current “post-truth” digital age, we will look at the history of how cinema has attempted to shape our understanding of reality. FILM W2311
- M 2 p.m.-5:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Nico Baumbach
Info - 3 points
THE DOCUMENTARY TRADITION-DISC
- F 9:10 a.m.-10 a.m.
- F 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
- F 11:10 a.m.-noon
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Instructor:
Yilun Li
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Instructor:
Tara Ebrahimian
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Instructor:
Ethan D Mermelstein
Info - 0 points
LABORATORY IN SCREENWRITING
This lab is limited to declared Film and Media Studies majors. Exercises in the writing of film scripts.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- F 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Danielle T Douge
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Instructor:
Felix Van Kann
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.
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
William S Turner
Info - 3 points
LAB IN NONFICTION FILMMAKING
Exercises in the use of video for documentary shorts.
- M 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Stephanie E Choriatis
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.
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Benjamin C Leonberg
Info - 3 points
NARRATIVE STRAT-SCREENWRITING
Prerequisites: FILM W2420. This workshop is primarily a continuation of Senior Seminar in Screenwriting. Students will either continue developing the scripts they began in Senior Seminar in Screenwriting, or create new ones including a step outline and a minimum of 30 pages. Emphasis will be placed on character work, structure, theme, and employing dramatic devices. Weekly outlining and script writing, concurrent with script/story presentation and class critiques, will ensure that each student will be guided toward the completion of his or her narrative script project.
- R 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Loren-Paul Caplin
CULPA: 2 Info - 3 points
Polish Cinema: Seminar in Intl Film
Polish Cinema: Intl Semin
This course explores the richness--formal, political and thematic--of post-World War II Polish cinema, with a focus on the films of Andrzej Wajda ("Ashes and Diamonds"), Krzysztof Kieslowski ("Decalogue"), and Wojciech Has ("The Hourglass Sanatorium").
- T 2 p.m.-5:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Annette Insdorf
CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info - 3 points
INTRO TO EXPERIMENTAL FILM & VIDEO
This course provides an overview of experimental film and video since the early 20th century European art movements (abstract, Dada, Surrealism), including the emergence of American experimental film in the 1940s, post-World War II underground experimental films, structuralist films and early video art in the 1960s and 70s, post-1960s identitarian experimental work, the emergence of digital video in museums and online in the 1990s to the present. The course surveys and analyses a wide range of experimental work, including the artists Hans Richter, Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali, Joseph Cornell, Maya Deren, Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage, Michael Snow, Martha Rosler, Vito Acconci, Barbara Hammer, Su Friedrich, Julie Dash, Isaac Julien, Matthew Barney, Ryan Trecartin, and others. The course will study the structural, aesthetic and thematic links between mainstream and avant-garde cinema, theater, and art movements, and will place the films in their economic, social, and political contexts.
- R 2:10 p.m.-5 p.m.
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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.
- R 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
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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 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
- F 2:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
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Instructor:
Rachel N Ward
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Instructor:
Maya Cozier
Info - 0 points
QUEER CINEMA
This course examines themes and changes in the (self-)representation of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in cinema from the early sound period to the present. It pays attention to both the formal qualities of film and filmmakers’ use of cinematic strategies (mise-en-scene, editing, etc.) designed to elicit certain responses in viewers and to the distinctive possibilities and constraints of the classical Hollywood studio system, independent film, avant-garde cinema, and world cinema; the impact of various regimes of formal and informal censorship; the role of queer men and women as screenwriters, directors, actors, and designers; and the competing visions of gay, progay, and antigay filmmakers. Along with considering the formal properties of film and the historical forces that shaped it, the course explores what cultural analysts can learn from film. How can we treat film as evidence in historical analysis? We will consider the films we see as evidence that may shed new light on historical problems and periodization, and will also use the films to engage with recent queer theoretical work on queer subjectivity, affect, and culture.
- M 2 p.m.-5:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Ronald Gregg
CULPA: 2 Info - 3 points
Reality Television
This course focuses on the origins, form, and social relevance of reality television. Specifically, the course will examine the industrial, economic, and ideological underpinnings of reality television to gesture toward larger themes about the evolution of television from the 1950s through the present, and the relationship between television and American culture and society. To this end, the class lectures, screenings, and discussions will emphasize (but are not limited to) topic of race, gender, sexuality, and class.
- W 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Racquel Gates
Info - 3 points
ANALYSIS OF FILM LANGUAGE
- R 2 p.m.-5:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Annette Insdorf
CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info - 3 points
CINEMA HIST I:BEGINNINGS-1930
- F 10 a.m.-1:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Vito Adriaensens
CULPA: 1 Info - 3 points
CINEMA HIST IV:AFTER 1990
CINEMA HIST IV: AFTER 1990
- R 10 a.m.-1:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Fabio C Andrade
Info - 3 points
American Film: Comedy
Grad section for FILM UN 2190 Topics in American Cinema. 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 number of critical and theoretical approaches to the genre, and will also study a number of film noir adaptations and their literary sources.
- W 10:10 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Robert King
CULPA: 7
Info
- 3 points
SCREENWRITING II
- W 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
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Instructor:
Richard Dresser
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Instructor:
Hannah H Weyer
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Instructor:
Jamal Joseph
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Instructor:
Michael H Castelaz
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Instructor:
Barbara C Cigarroa
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Instructor:
Kathy Greenberg
Info - 3 points
SCRIPT TO SCREEN
- R 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jeanne Donohoe
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Instructor:
Sushama Parmar
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Instructor:
Tom Kalin
Wikipedia Info -
Instructor:
Katherine Dieckmann
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Instructor:
Valerie C Martinez
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Instructor:
Charlotte Glynn
Info - 1.5 points
DIRECTING II
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- T 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- W 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- T 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Hilary Brougher
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
DIRECTING ACTORS II
- T 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Harris Doran
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Instructor:
Shira-Lee Shalit
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Instructor:
June Stein
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Instructor:
Lisa Milinazzo
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Instructor:
Abigail Zealey Bess
Info - 3 points
PRACTICAL PRODUCTION II
- F 9 a.m.-11 a.m.
- F 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
- F 1 p.m.-3 p.m.
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Instructor:
Maureen A Ryan
Info - 1.5 points
Practical Production II: Tech Arts Lab
Prac Prod II: Tech Arts L
Tech Arts Lab associated with Practical Production II.
- M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- R 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- 0 points
Tech Arts: Post Production II
Tech Arts: Post Production II continues teaching the core techniques for picture and sound editing and the post production workflow process for Columbia Film MFA students. We will cover preparing for a long-form edit, digital script integration, color management and continuity, advanced trimming, and advanced finishing. The hands-on lessons and exercises will be conducted using the industry-standard Non-Linear Editing Systems, Avid Media Composer, and Davinci Resolve. Each week’s class will consist of hands-on demonstrations and self-paced practice using content created by the students and provided by the program.
- R 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Michael J Cacioppo Belantara
Info - 1.5 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.
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Instructor:
Gregg L Conde
Info - 1.5 points
Media Archeology
“It could have been otherwise.” -Noël Burch
With this brief yet generative statement from a foundational film theorist we are introduced to a major theme of this course, a graduate level seminar concerning the still-in-formation field of media archeology. Pursuing the material traces left by false starts, wrong moves, misbegotten speculation, and dead formats, this course will dig into the historical past in order to better understand our current media ecology, prepare for the computational future, and imagine how things could be otherwise. Archeology in this sense refers to the study of a technical object through investigating its origins (its arché), as a means of breaking down traditional linear accounts of history and reconstructing them along new, more lacunary, less teleological lines. This will be our goal. We will be introduced to media archeology as both a method and an aesthetics. Our approach will look for the old in the new and the new in the old, while locating recurring topoi, ruptures, and discontinuities. Marking a departure from more hermeneutical, text-based film and media studies models, we will instead focus on questions of hardware, materiality, and physical inscription—technological research that sticks close to the signal of mediatic events, close to the metal, close to the silicon. We will perform close reading and thick description, as in established humanities disciplines like literary studies and anthropology, but with radically different, non-phenomenological, non-discursive object formations. Topics we will consider include, for example, analog waveforms and digital pulses, mathematical versus narrative modes of epistemology, and what Thomas Elsaesser calls a “poetics of obsolescence.” Our readings will draw from the corpus of media archeology studies as well as consonant fields such as material culture studies, computer engineering, and the history of science.
- F 2:10 p.m.-4:40 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jason R Lariviere
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:
Ira Deutchman
Wikipedia Info - 1-3 points
SCREENWRITING IV
- M 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Christina Lazaridi
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Instructor:
Andrew S Bienen
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Instructor:
Katherine Dieckmann
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Instructor:
Trey Ellis
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
Story Gym
This seven-week elective is taught online. It is open to 2nd year Screen/TV Writers and Directors, will serve as an incubator for story ideas not currently being developed in any full-semester core classes.
- M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Katherine Dieckmann
Info - 1.5 points
DIRECTING IV
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Bette Gordon
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Instructor:
Ian W Olds
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Instructor:
Diana Peralta
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Instructor:
Laurie Collyer
Info - 3 points
ACTING FOR SCREENWRITERS AND DIRECTORS
The course is intended to give the screenwriter and/or director an experiential understanding of acting and writing, thus enhancing the student’s ability to inhabit characters more fully as a writer, and to more effectively direct actors. The experience of embodying characters and living through plot subjectively enables a unique kind of understanding of structure, character and particulars such as “turning point” etc. In addition, the process of being well directed can open many doors to using impulse, spontaneity and intuition effectively in both writing and directing.
- R 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- R 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Mikael Sodersten
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Instructor:
James Price
Info - 3 points
FEATURE FILM FINANCING
- M 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Mynette Louie
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Instructor:
Mary Jane Skalski
Info - 3 points
WRIT/SCRIPT ANALYSIS-PRODUCERS
This is a specialized course designed to provide prospective producers with a nuanced framework for understanding the screenwriting process. The course will explore all the ways a producer might interact with screenwriters and screenplays, including coverage, script analysis, notes, treatments, and rewrites. Each student will complete a series of writing and rewriting assignments over the course of the semester. Required for all second-year Creative Producing students and only open to students in that concentration.
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jack Lechner
Info - 3 points
STORY STRUCTURE WRITERS/DIR
- R 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Anthony Weintraub
Info - 1.5 points
PRE-PROD OF A MOTION PICTURE
Pre-Production of the Motion Picture teaches Creative Producing students how to breakdown, schedule and prep all aspects of a low budget independent feature film. Using one shooting script as a case study, the class will learn to think critically and master each step of the pre-production process. Students will prepare script breakdowns, production strip boards, call sheets and a full production binder. Topics will include state tax incentives, payroll services, union contracts, deal memos/hiring paperwork, casting, labor laws, hiring BTL crew, legal, insurance and deliverables. Additionally, students will become proficient in Movie Magic Scheduling. Required for all second-year Creative Producing students and only open to students in that concentration.
- R 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Dana Kuznetzkoff
Info - 3 points
POST SUPERVISING FOR PRODUCERS
This class is an intensive introduction to Post Production, with a specific focus on the role of the producer and post-production supervisor. We will examine the different components of Post-Production (Editing, Sound Design/Mixing, Music, Picture finishing, VFX, Titles) from Pre-Production through Delivery. Throughout the course, post department heads will come in as guests, and we will attend site visits to local post facilities. Required for all second-year Creative Producing students and only open to students in that concentration.
- W 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Mark S Haynes
Info - 1.5 points
POST SUPERVISING FOR PRODUCERS
This class is an intensive introduction to Post Production, with a specific focus on the role of the producer and post-production supervisor. We will examine the different components of Post-Production (Editing, Sound Design/Mixing, Music, Picture finishing, VFX, Titles) from Pre-Production through Delivery. Throughout the course, post department heads will come in as guests, and we will attend site visits to local post facilities. Required for all second-year Creative Producing students and only open to students in that concentration.
- W 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Mark S Haynes
Info - 1.5 points
DOCUMENTARY ACTIVISM:THEORY
This is a course in how to think about documentary but not about “how to” make documentary work. Its premise is that documentary as an approach is still undergoing revision as a definitional problem. Relevant to our times, cameras and sound recorders are called upon to “witness” events. Basic readings on the history and theory of documentary are the heart of the course and practical exercises test theoretical questions. Students conduct low end exercises with their own smart phone cameras. Topics and issues center on the history of the radical documentary—from the Workers Film and Photo League of the 1930s to the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, comparing then new 16 and 35mm film camera capabilities with contemporary internet distribution. Other topics include climate change and documentary work; motion picture film and photography in labor struggles; uses of anti-war and nuclear bomb footage; sexualities and video camera activism.
- R 10 a.m.-1:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
James L Hoberman
Info - 3 points
TV PILOT: COMEDY & DRAMA
With the pilot as a focal point, this course explores the opportunities and challenges of telling and sustaining a serialized story over a protracted period of time with an emphasis on the creation, borne out of character, of the quintessential premise and the ongoing conflict, be it thematic or literal, behind a successful series.
Early in the semester, students may be required to present/pitch their series idea. During the subsequent weeks, students will learn the process of pitching, outlining, and writing a television pilot, that may include story breaking, beat-sheets or story outline, full outlines, and the execution of either a thirty-minute or hour-long teleplay. This seminar may include reading pages and giving notes based on the instructor but may also solely focus on the individual process of the writer.
Students may only enroll in one TV Writing workshop per semester.
- F 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
David Klass
Info - 3 points