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Spring 2010 Undergraduate Course Atlas

Spring 2010 Graduate Course Atlas

Summer 2009 Course Atlas

updated 10/29/2009


Undergraduate Film Courses

SPRING 2010

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Film Studies Undergraduate Courses


 

Graduate Film Courses

SPRING 2010

FILM 402WR: Scriptwriting

Brown, MW 11:30-12:45, Max: 18
Mandatory film screening  Mon. 8-10pm

Content: Students will perform assignments with the end goal of achieving professional competency in the craft of screenwriting. Assignments will include treatment, development, narrative outline development, character development, and dialogue writing. Film screenings will augment seminar style discussions. The final paper will either be act one of an original feature film or a 30-page original short film script.

 

FILM504: Seminar in Theory: Feminist Film and Television Theory

Schreiber, W 1-4, Max: 18
Mandatory film screening M 5:30-8:30

Content:  (Re)Making Feminist Film (and Media) Theory in the 21st Century

The field of feminist media studies is in the midst of a vibrant period in which scholars are using a range of diverse approaches to examine the role and function of gender and sexuality inside and outside of fiction and non-fiction texts. As a response to the growing resistance to the psychoanalytic theoretical paradigm that dominated the field in the 1970s and 1980s, cultural studies, queer theory, archival/historical and Deleuzian models have become increasingly prominent.  This has resulted in an exciting shift in the field in which the act of “doing feminist film theory” has become more than about applying pre-existing frameworks to texts but has moved toward fluidly integrating various approaches once thought to be mutually exclusive.

In this course, students will examine scholarship from the last 15 years that integrates theory, history, and cultural analysis in its examination of gender and sexuality in film and television texts. We will have three main objectives: first, to conduct close readings of recent scholarship within the context of broader trends and tendencies in the history of film and media studies; second, to conduct a comparative analysis of different methodologies for gender-based analysis in film and television; and third, to explore the changing role and definition of “theory” within film and television studies. 

Students will required to participate in a proposal workshop, give one short and one long presentation, and complete a 20-25-page term paper.

Texts will include:
Samuel L. Chambers, The Queer Politics of Television.  London: I.B. Tauris, 2009. ISBN: 978-1845116811
Rebecca Feasey, Masculinity and Popular Television. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-0748627981
Amelie Hastie, Cupboards of Curiosity: Women, Recollection, and Film History. Raleigh: Duke University Press, 2007. ISBN:  978-0822336877
Kara Keeling, The Witch’s Flight: The Cinematic, The Black Femme, and the Image of Common Sense. Raleigh, Duke University Press, 2007. ISBN: 978-0822340256
Amanda Lotz, Redesigning Women: Television After the Network Era. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. ISBN: 978-0252073106
Judith Mayne, Directed by Dorothy Arzner. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995. ISBN: 978-0253208965
Gaylyn Studlar, This Mad Masquerade: Stardom and Masculinity in the Jazz Age. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. ISBN: 978-0231103213
Amy Villarejo, Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire. Raleigh: Duke University Press, 2003. ISBN: 978-0822331926

FILM 506S: Historiography: Segregated Cinema in a Southern City, Atlanta, 1896-1996

Bernstein/White, M 1-4pm, MAX: 8 Mandatory film screening Th 6-8pm

Content: W.E.B. Du Bois once declared race relations to be "the problem of the twentieth century." This course examines that problem in terms of ordinary people's leisure, particularly moviegoing Atlanta and its rich and diverse history from the turn of the century to the present. In terms of subject matter, we have three primary areas of focus: (1) Atlanta's history of race relations and its connection with how black and white Atlantans enjoyed and understood particular Hollywood and non-Hollywood films; (2) the business of movie exhibition and distribution in Atlanta, which was a distribution hub for the southeast; (3) the depiction of the South, of race and race relations in Hollywood and non-Hollywood films, with reference to Hollywood and Atlanta censorship. While learning about these topics, students will also gain research skills in reception studies, exhibition history as well as textual analysis and contribute actively to gathering knowledge of Atlanta's little-known movie history.

Particulars: You are responsible for writing one paper of 5-7 pages in length choosing from the "biography:" of an Atlanta theater or a research report on the distribution of a particular film in the city. The second paper of 10-12 pages will either describe the reception of a particular film as registered in local and other black and white newspapers or on a topic of your choosing.Texts: Books will include Thomas Cripps, Slow Fade to Black and Making Movies Black; Ed Guerrero, Framing Blackness; Donald Bogle, Toms, Coons, Mulattos, Mammies and Bucks (4th ed.); Lucy Fischer, Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life; Atlanta History special issue on Movie Going Atlanta, and assorted articles.

Films will likely include The Birth of a Nation, Body and Soul, I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Imitation of Life (1934 and 1959), Judge Priest, They Won’t Forget, Gone with the Wind, Song of the South, Pinky,The Defiant Ones, School Daze, Driving Miss Daisy.

 

FILM 582: Contemporary Film Theory
Schreiber, TT 1:00-2:15, MAX: 20
Mandatory film screening Tu 6-8pm

Content: In this course students will read major works of film and media theory published since the 1960s. The first part of the class will trace the trajectory of topics that have preoccupied contemporary film theorists over the last 40 years, including semiotics, psychoanalysis, narratology, phenomenology, and spectatorship. The second part of the class will examine critical and theoretical issues underlying the study of television and the mass media, including reception, industrial, and cultural studies. The class will conclude with readings that focus on our current cultural moment wherein the rise of the digital technology, the changing nature of viewing practices and media convergence raises new (and old) questions about the past, present and future of film and media theory and practice.

Particulars: This course is reading-intensive and very dependent on active student participation. In addition to weekly reading worksheets, students will be required to complete 3-4 term papers that engage with and apply the theoretical models studied in class.

 

FILM 597R: Colloquium in Film and Media Studies
Film Studies Faculty
4-6 p.m., every other Thursday, Rich 103.
Meeting dates: January 21, February 4, February 18, March 4, March 18, April 1, April 15.

This course, required of all M.A. Film Studies students, consists of bi monthly talks by Film Studies and affiliated faculty and advanced graduate students.  It is designed for the presentation of new research and the professionalization of graduate students in the Film Studies program.  One credit hour.

 

FILM 597R 00P: Directed Study
Faculty

Prerequisite:
Written permission of instructor prior to preregistration.

 

FILM 599R 00P: Thesis Research

Faculty

Prerequisite:
Consent of Instructor.

 


Summer School Film Courses

Summer 2009


FILM 270-00A  Introduction to Film CANCELLED
Mueller
8:30-10:45 M, Tu, Th.  Mandatory Screening Wed. 6:00pm-10:00pm
1st session. Credit, 4 hrs. Max: 15

This course familiarizes students with basic film form and style, and it is then devoted to issues of critical analysis, aesthetic positions, historical inquiry and cultural criticism.  We will survey influential approaches to narrative filmmaking as well as alternative strategies, using films from different countries as examples.


FILM 270-00A  Introduction to Film                                   
Mueller
11:30-1:45 M, Tu, Th.  Mandatory Screening Wed. 6:00pm-10:00pm
1st session. Credit, 4 hrs.

This course familiarizes students with basic film form and style, and it is then devoted to issues of critical analysis, aesthetic positions, historical inquiry and cultural criticism.  We will survey influential approaches to narrative filmmaking as well as alternative strategies, using films from different countries as examples.


FILM 402WR-00A  Scriptwriting                                   
Mueller
2:30-4:45 M, Tu, Th.  Mandatory Screening Wed. 6:00pm-10:00pm
1st session. Credit, 4 hrs.

Students will perform assignments with the end goal of achieving professional competency in the craft of screenwriting. Assignments will include treatment, development, narrative outline development, character development, and dialogue writing. Film screenings will augment seminar style discussions. The final paper will be act one of an original feature film.


FILM 270-00C  Introduction to Film   CANCELLED                                
Schreiber
9:00-11:15 Tu, W, Th.  Mandatory Screening Wed. 4:00pm-6:00pm
2nd session. Credit, 4 hrs.

This course familiarizes students with basic film form and style, and it is then devoted to issues of critical analysis, aesthetic positions, historical inquiry and cultural criticism.  We will survey influential approaches to narrative filmmaking as well as alternative strategies, using films from different countries as examples.


FILM 270-00C  Introduction to Film                                   
Schreiber
12:30-2:45 Tu, W, Th.  Mandatory Screening Wed. 4:00pm-6:00pm
2nd session. Credit, 4 hrs.

This course familiarizes students with basic film form and style, and it is then devoted to issues of critical analysis, aesthetic positions, historical inquiry and cultural criticism.  We will survey influential approaches to narrative filmmaking as well as alternative strategies, using films from different countries as examples.


FILM 399-0PA: Internship: Filmmaking Projects                 
Faculty
1st session. Credit, 1-4 hrs. S/U

This project course can involve an internship or film production. Students are to formulate their projects before approaching the member of the Film Studies faculty with whom they wish to work. The project should be discussed the semester before the Internship is to be undertaken. Under no circumstances will retroactive credit be given. Although the Department of Film Studies occasionally can find internships for students, students are encouraged to arrange projects on their own.  Internships require a minimum of ten hours of work per week, a journal, and an eight-page paper. Film production projects require a minimum of ten hours of work per week, the submission of production notes, and a final product.

Prerequisite: Students MUST be Film Studies majors or minors and should be close to completing the course of study in film. Permission of a Film Studies faculty member is REQUIRED in advance.


FILM 399-0PC: Internship: Filmmaking Projects                 
Faculty
2nd session. Credit, 1-4 hrs. S/U

This project course can involve an internship or film production. Students are to formulate their projects before approaching the member of the Film Studies faculty with whom they wish to work. The project should be discussed the semester before the Internship is to be undertaken. Under no circumstances will retroactive credit be given. Although the Department of Film Studies occasionally can find internships for students, students are encouraged to arrange projects on their own.  Internships require a minimum of ten hours of work per week, a journal, and an eight-page paper. Film production projects require a minimum of ten hours of work per week, the submission of production notes, and a final product.

Prerequisite: Students MUST be Film Studies majors or minors and should be close to completing the course of study in film. Permission of a Film Studies faculty member is REQUIRED in advance.


FILM 499R-0PA: Directed Study                                            
Faculty
1st session. Credit, 4 hrs.

A supervised project in an area of study to be determined by instructor and student in the semester preceding the independent study. Students are to formulate their projects before approaching the member of the Film Studies faculty with whom they wish to work. The project should be discussed the semester before the Directed Study is to be undertaken. Under no circumstances will retroactive credit be given.  Requirements: Directed readings are arranged with the instructor.

Prerequisite: Students MUST be Film Studies majors or minors and should be close to completing the course of study in film. Permission of a Film Studies faculty member is REQUIRED in advance.


FILM 499R-0PC: Directed Study                                            
Faculty
2nd session. Credit, 4 hrs.

A supervised project in an area of study to be determined by instructor and student in the semester preceding the independent study. Students are to formulate their projects before approaching the member of the Film Studies faculty with whom they wish to work. The project should be discussed the semester before the Directed Study is to be undertaken. Under no circumstances will retroactive credit be given.  Requirements: Directed readings are arranged with the instructor.

Prerequisite: Students MUST be Film Studies majors or minors and should be close to completing the course of study in film. Permission of a Film Studies faculty member is REQUIRED in advance.


FILM 597R-0PA, 0PC: Directed Study                                    
Faculty
1st and 2nd sessions. Credit, 1-12 hrs.

Consent of Instructor.