Film Studies Minor

Study and analysis of the elements basic to a critical understanding of film: story elements; visual design; cinematography and color; editing and special effects; functions of sound and music; styles of acting and directing; and functions of genre and social beliefs.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

This course provides both a historical survey of film theory and the opportunity to actively engage in analyzing film using theoretical tools. Film theory is a set of conceptual frameworks through which to understand cinema and the various artistic, social, and psychological questions the medium poses to viewers. Through a study of major film theories and their uses in critically analyzing film, this course will further prepare you to be an informed and engaged viewer of all kinds of cinema.

Prerequisites: FILM 402 or FILM 412

This course examines the major films, filmmakers, movements, and trends that defined cinema throughout its first 65 years as a medium. It utilizes a range of historical lenses--aesthetic, industrial, technological, sociocultural--to offer a fuller understanding of film's development across varying temporal and geographic contexts. To encourage engagement with the construction of cinematic history, the course both engages with primary documents and analyzes scholarly historical work on film's creation and expansion. Ultimately, the class seeks to foster both knowledge of early cinematic history and appreciation for film history as a mode of research and writing.

Prerequisites: none

This course examines the major films, filmmakers, movements, and trends that have defined cinema from the early 1960s to the present. It utilizes a range of historical lenses--aesthetic, industrial, technological, sociocultural--to offer a fuller understanding of film's development across varying temporal and geographic contexts. Utilizing primary documents alongside scholarly historical accounts, it also allows students to conduct research into contemporary titles and make an argument for how they reflect and/or challenge larger historical patterns. Ultimately, the course explores how the state of modern cinema can be contextualized and understood through an engagement with the (relatively) recent filmic past.

Prerequisites: none

Study and analysis of the techniques, thematic conventions, and cultural and historical contexts of major film genres including the western, the musical, crime, melodrama, science fiction, and gangster. Films will include a mix of classic and contemporary examples.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Course will explore specialized topics in film; may be repeated under a different topic.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Studies analytical film language in several different film writing forms, including short and long-form reviews, collaborative analysis, and formal critical essays. Emphasizes social and critical contexts needed for film analysis and practice of writing in these film forms.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06

Introduces fundamentals of film production: writing, producing, directing, lighting, shooting, and editing, through lecture, critiquing the work of other filmmakers, and hands on production. By the end of this course students will be ready to puruse their own film projects.

Prerequisites: none

Goal Areas: GE-06, GE-11

This course introduces students to the history of independent filmmaking. It includes the close analysis and study of films and filmmakers in United States independent cinema and in independent cinemas across the globe. The focus is on films made outside of the Hollywood economic model of filmmaking. The student will learn how to conduct historical research in independent filmmaking and how to critically analyze independent films.

Prerequisites: none

Designed for students who have prior experience and want to make an experimental, narrative and/or documentary film. Students will move from screenplay/proposal to production and post production of short films. Pre-req: ENG 217 or permission of instructor. May be repeated.

Prerequisites: FILM 217 or permission of instructor

Introduces students to film from a variety of world cultures. Designed to increase knowledge of world cultures and appreciation and understanding of cultural differences in representation. Emphasizes history of national cinemas, film analysis, and writing.

Prerequisites: none

Diverse Cultures: Purple

This course introduces students to the close study of performance in the cinema. Through close analysis, we will challenge ourselves to think carefully about the creative contributions of actors to film narratives. Students will be taught how to closely describe, read, and interpret film performances, and will be introduced to critical frameworks for analyzing film acting in its various historical, aesthetic, and socio-cultural contexts. The focus in the course will be primarily on performance in U.S. cinema, although some case studies will also look at performance in international film.

Prerequisites: none

Film Authorship teaches the study of authorship in cinema and other forms of moving-image media. The course focuses on the concept of authorship throughout the history of film studies by looking at the career of one or more film directors. The course explores the careers of the selected director(s) in their varying historical, cultural, ideological, theoretical, and aesthetic contexts. The course may be repeated for credit if the particular director(s) under discussion differ from the previous course the student has taken. The director(s) studied will be listed under Notes in the course schedule whenever the course is offered.

Prerequisites: none

Topic-oriented course in film studies. May be repeated with change of topic.

Prerequisites: none

The course explores 20th and 21st century German film in historical, social, cultural contexts and events. Topics may be a survey, or concentration on Weimar Cinema, New German Cinema, East German Cinema, transnational cinema. Topics vary. Course may be repeated.

Prerequisites: none

This course investigates some of the central philosophical issues in our thinking about film, including questions about narrative, ontology, ethical criticism of film, the role of artistic intentions in interpretation, artistic medium, and the art/entertainment distinction.

Prerequisites: none