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 10:10 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Robert King
CULPA: 7
Info
- 3 points
INTRO-FILM & MEDIA STUDIES-DIS
Co-requisite discussion section for FILM UN 1000 INTRO TO FILM & MEDIA STUDIES.
- F 9:10 a.m.-10 a.m.
- F 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
- F 2:10 p.m.-3 p.m.
- F 11:10 a.m.-noon
- 0 points
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
- R 2:10 p.m.-4:40 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jane Gaines
CULPA: 4 Info - 3 points
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
- T 10:10 a.m.-1:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Elizabeth Ramirez Soto
Info - 3 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
- T 2 p.m.-5:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Nico Baumbach
Info - 3 points
LABORATORY IN SCREENWRITING
This lab is limited to declared Film and Media Studies majors. Exercises in the writing of film scripts.
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- F 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- 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 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- 3 points
LAB IN NONFICTION FILMMAKING
Exercises in the use of video for documentary shorts.
- R 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- 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.
- F 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Loren-Paul Caplin
CULPA: 2 Info - 3 points
Music, Sound and Image Theory
Some of the most exciting theoretical moving image work in recent years has centered on the problem of the acoustic sign in cinema and especially around the relation between image track and sound “track.” This course rethinks the history and theory of cinema from the point of view of sound: effects, dialogue, music. From cinematic sound recording and play-back technologies through Dolby sound enhancement and contemporary digital audio experiments. Revisiting basic theoretical concepts from the pov of sound: realism (sound perspective, dubbing), anti-realism (contrapuntal and dissonant effects), genre (the leitmotiv), perception (the synaesthetic effect). The silent to sound divide considered relative to the *19th* century Romanticism of the classical Hollywood score associated with the Viennese-trained Max Steiner to the scores of John Williams.
- R 10:10 a.m.-11:45 a.m.
- 3 points
ANALYSIS OF FILM LANGUAGE
- W 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
- R 2:10 p.m.-4:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jane Gaines
CULPA: 4 Info - 3 points
CINEMA HIST IV:AFTER 1990
CINEMA HIST IV: AFTER 1990
- M 2 p.m.-5:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Elizabeth Ramirez Soto
Info - 3 points
SCREENWRITING II
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- W 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- R 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Richard Dresser
Info - 3 points
SCRIPT TO SCREEN
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- T 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- R 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- F 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jamal Joseph
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Instructor:
Trey Ellis
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Instructor:
Katherine Dieckmann
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Instructor:
Joshua R Troxler
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Instructor:
John Walsh
Info - 1.5 points
DIRECTING II
- R 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- R 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Bogdan G Apetri
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Instructor:
Ian W Olds
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Instructor:
Hilary Brougher
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Instructor:
Darya V Zhuk
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Instructor:
Diana Peralta
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Instructor:
Carlo Mirabella-Davis
Info - 3 points
DIRECTING ACTORS II
- T 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- M 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- T 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Shira-Lee Shalit
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Instructor:
Emil Benjamin
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Instructor:
Jodie Markell
Wikipedia Info -
Instructor:
John Rubin
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
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
Ethics: Inclusive Storytelling
This course focuses on the necessary and often undiscussed role of ethics and inclusivity in storytelling and story creation. This course will provide space, as requested by the students, faculty and staff, for facilitated discussion around narrative ownership, comedy, history of on-screen portrayals, intersectionality, the business of inclusion and other related topics so that students walk away with a personal inclusive storytelling plan and a greater level of cultural competency as they continue their creative journeys. The instructors are professionals in the entertainment space with deep knowledge and practical Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) experience.
- W 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
- 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.
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Wanda Strauven
Info - 3 points
Minstrelsy and Popular Culture
Minstrelsy is one of America’s original forms of popular entertainment, and its formal, thematic, and narrative elements continue to reverberate throughout popular culture to this day. Indeed, given the close relationship between stage performance and the development of screen cultures, it should come as little surprise that many of the tropes and representational strategies that film and media adopted to portray blackness bore, and continue to bear, close relation to minstrelsy and blackface. This seminar will examine the ways that minstrelsy has played a crucial role in the evolution of American popular culture, especially in film and media. The course will focus on the complex function and legacy of minstrelsy, whether from the perspective of Jewish artists trying to establish their racial identities in early Hollywood, or African American artists attempting to subvert dominant representational modes.
- T 10:10 a.m.-12:40 p.m.
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Instructor:
Racquel Gates
Info - 3 points
Character Development Lab
In this seven-week class, open to Writing for Film and Television and Screenwriting & Directing concentrates we will do the deep work of creating at least two unforgettable and irreplaceable characters for a future screen or teleplay. In weekly group meetings, students will be assigned a slot to discuss first a main character and then in response to that character, their main antagonist/foil, working through specific exercises until their two characters are sufficiently rich and nuanced that the writer is now able to build a story around them.
- T 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Trey Ellis
Wikipedia Info -
Instructor:
Jamal Joseph
Info - 1.5 points
SCREENWRITING IV
- T 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- T 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- W 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Trey Ellis
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Instructor:
Andrew S Bienen
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Instructor:
Christina Lazaridi
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Instructor:
Rafael L Pedreira
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.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Katherine Dieckmann
Info - 1.5 points
Intro to TV Pilot Writing
This new class will provide Writing for Film & Television students with a foundational experience in TV Writing in the second semester of their first year at Columbia. They will have studied feature writing in their first semester, and this class will explore how TV is different from the feature form, the unique structure of TV when compared to features, plays, and novels, the key elements of a good TV show and pilot, the different worlds of network and streaming and the current marketplace, how to structure a TV pilot, and how to write and begin revising the pilot episode for an original TV show.
- M 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
David Klass
Info - 3 points
DIRECTING IV
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- R 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
- R 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Ramin Bahrani
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
FEATURE FILM FINANCING
- M 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Mynette Louie
Wikipedia Info -
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
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.
- R 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Luca Borghese
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.
- R 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Luca Borghese
Info - 1.5 points
ADVANCED EDITING WORKSHOP
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- W 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Elizabeth Kling
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.
- M 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Alice O'Neill
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Instructor:
Blair Singer
Info - 3 points
VISUAL EXPERIENCES
The course seeks to bridge two intimately related studies that currently exist within the Film Program: 1. intensive academic analysis of filmmaking practices/principles and, 2. the practitioner’s creative/pragmatic application of those practices/principles in their own work. Students will study, through screenings, lectures and personal research, an overview of various directing forms/methodologies (conventional coverage, expressive directing, comedy directing, subjective directing, objective directing, multiple-protagonist narrative, etc.) with a primary focus on the Western classic narrative tradition. The visual grammar, axiomatic principles, structural necessities of a variety of directing forms/genres will be analyzed and compared with works of art from other disciplines (poetry, painting, sculpture, etc.) and cultures. The ultimate goal is student implementation of these principles in their own work, exposure to and examination of some works of the established canon, as well as a greater understanding of the context in which creation occurs.
- F 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Eric Mendelsohn
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
Vietnam War in American and Vietnamese C
Vietnam War in US and Vie
This course explores the portrayal of the Vietnam War in American and Vietnamese cinema. Students will analyze and compare films from both countries, examining themes such as patriotism, disillusionment, national identity, resistance and the human cost of war. The course also investigates how each country portrayed the other through its cinema, and the impact of cinema on public opinion and historical understanding of the conflict in both countries. We will also examine differences in cinematic and storytelling techniques used in each country, unpacking cinema as art, commercialism and propaganda. This course combines film screenings (in and out of class), discussions and critical analysis to provide a deeper understanding of how cinema in America and Vietnam were used to portray the same war.
BUSINESS OF TELEVISION
Explores the different types of television and the ways in which producing is defined differently from theatrical narratives. Covers series television (both scripted and unscripted), made-for-TV movies, mini-series and other forms of television; the roles of the writer/producer, the show runner, and the director in different forms of television; how television is developed; and the implications of changing business models. Open to all SoA students.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Richard Perello
Info - 1.5 points
DIGITAL STORY TELLING II
BUILDING STORYWORLDS
- M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
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Instructor:
Lance Weiler
CULPA: 1 Wikipedia Info - 3 points
World-Building and Unbuilding
What happens when we reject the classic hero’s journey in favor of new myths? From folktales to franchises, this course from the Digital Storytelling Lab will explore transportive worlds and the methods used to create them. Collectively, we will deconstruct the idea that World-Building is a private practice and instead, uplift the notion that it is a creative tool to strengthen stories and expand ideas. As Author and activist Clarice Lispector writes: “Creating isn't imagination, it's taking the great risk of grasping reality,” but what happens when we use World-Building to shift the systems that govern our reality?
Leveraging storytelling techniques of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) and Role Playing Games (RPGs), we will collectively build a world that transcends the classroom and moves into the outside world, ultimately bringing participants together to tackle complex issues and redefine solo authorship as a collaborative space. This course culminates in the collective experience of each other’s worlds and the Alternate Reality experiences therein. There are no prerequisites for this course.
- R 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Char Simpson
Info - 3 points
ENTERTAINMENT LAW FILMMAKERS
- F 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Domenic Romano
Wikipedia Info - 1.5 points
FILM FESTIVALS:THEORY&PRACTICE
FILM FESTIVALS: THEORY & PRACT
- M 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Mynette Louie
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
Tech Arts: Advanced Post Production
Tech Arts: Adv Post Produ
Tech Arts: Advanced Post Production covers advanced techniques for picture and sound editing and the post production workflow process. The goal of the course is to give you the capabilities to excel in the field of post production. We will focus extra attention to concepts and workflows related to long-form projects that can contain a team of technical artists across the post production pipeline. 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.
- W 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
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Instructor:
Michael J Cacioppo Belantara
Info - 1.5 points
SCREENWRITING THESIS WORKSHOP
Screenwriting concentrates who are focusing on Screenwriting MUST take Screenwriting Thesis Workshop with their advisor at least once during Research Arts matriculation in order to graduate. Students may take this class with their advisor whenever it is offered. They should consult with their advisor if they are considering taking Thesis Workshop at the same time as Script Revision or TV Revision.
- R 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- T 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- M 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- W 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
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Instructor:
Andrew S Bienen
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Instructor:
Trey Ellis
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Instructor:
Jamal Joseph
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Instructor:
Christina Lazaridi
Info - 0 points
DIRECTING THESIS ADVISEMENT
- W 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
- T 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
- W 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
- R 2 p.m.-5 p.m.
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Instructor:
Ramin Bahrani
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Instructor:
Bette Gordon
Wikipedia Info -
Instructor:
Eric Mendelsohn
Wikipedia Info -
Instructor:
Bogdan G Apetri
Info - 0 points