Courses
Film 110. Freshman Seminar: Race and Ethnicity on American Television
Same as L90 AFAS 111, L98 AMCS 111.
This course will present a historical overview of the forms that racial and ethnic representations have taken in American television. The course will chart changes in public perception of racial and ethnic difference in the context of sweeping cultural and social transformations. The course examines how notions of medium and ponders the implications for these identities of the contemporary practice of "narrowcasting." Required Screening. Credit 3 units.
FA:> SSP
AS:> CD, SD, TH
SB:> BA
Film 112. Freshman Seminar: Race and Ethnicity in American Cinema
Same as L98 AMCS 112.
From the early documentary roots of cinema through the Civil Rights movement and to the recent democratization of the means of media production, questions of race and ethnicity have proved crucial both to the content of American films and also to the perspective from which they are made. This class will look at the representation of historical moments from the Civil War to Hurricane Katrina, the production of cinematic stereotypes as well as their appropriation for subversive purposes, and the gradual evolution of multi-culturalism as a central factor in the stories told and the telling of stories on the American screen. Students will use film texts to develop a critical understanding of one of the most important issues in American history. REQUIRED SCREENING: [day, time]. Credit 3 units.
AS:> SD, TH
SB:> BA
Film 116. Freshman Seminar: Cult TV: Critical Approaches to Fans and Fictions
Same as L98 AMCS 116.
What do such disparate television series as Dr. Who, Star Trek, The Avengers, Monty Python's Flying Circus, The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Sealab 2021 have in common? They all attract loyal audiences, stimulate "subcultural" sensibilities, lend themselves to "textual poaching," and thus qualify as examples of "Cult TV," a term that has become increasingly salient within critical studies of the medium. In this course we will explore the subject of cult television from a variety of social, cultural, and thematic perspectives, so that by the end of the semester students will have gained a deeper understanding of its historical importance as a barometer of both popular and oppositional tastes. We will examine how these and other examples of genre-based network and cable programming complicate distinctions between lowbrow and highbrow tastes while sustaining worldwide "interpretative communities" years after their original airdates. Students will also examine the importance of syndication, home video technologies, ancillary markets, publishing, and the Internet in the construction of fan cultures. Required Screening. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
Film 117. Freshman Seminar: Asians in American Film
This course surveys the history of Asian representations in American cinema from the silent period to the contemporary era. Throughout the semester we will focus on images of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, and Vietnamese that have become most ingrained in American popular culture over the last century, from Fu Manchu and Madame Butterfly stereotypes popular during the classical studio era to more recent reconfigurations of racialized imagery in Jackie Chan and Jet Li films. We will also examine selected works by Asian American independent writer-directors-films and videos like Chan is Missing, History and Memory, and Better Luck Tomorrow that challenge the stereotypes and normative tropes of "Orientalism" still permeating mainstream media. Students will be asked to frame textual analyses of key films (such as The Cheat, Daughter of Shanghai, Battle Hymn, Flower Drum Song, and Enter the Dragon) within various political, social, cultural, and industrial contexts (e.g. anti-Asiatic immigration and labor policies; U.S. foreign policies; the practice of "yellowface;" censorship codes; wars in East and Southeast Asia; anti-miscegenation laws; grassroots campaigns to stem the tide of stereotypes and hate-crimes; etc.). Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
Film 121. Freshman Seminar: Youth Culture and Visual Media
Same as L98 AMCS 1210.
Since the advent of cinema through the recent development of online social networking, visual media in the United States and around the world have been identified with a market of youthful consumers and producers. This course will look at the development of youth culture in the United States and its unique relationship to visual media, including film, television, comic books, video games, and the Internet, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We will examine youth culture as a social phenomenon generated by the young, a means of representing the experience of being youthful, and as part of the ongoing debates over the effects of media on the young. As alternately mass culture, popular culture, counter culture, and participatory culture, youth culture holds a privileged place in the history of American visual media and continues to influence production and innovation within the media marketplace. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
Film 200. Special projects
This course is intended for freshmen and sophomores who wish to register for internships. Students must receive Program approval prior to beginning the internship. Please consult the Program guidelines governing internships. Credit variable, maximum 3 units. Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
Film 2151. Introduction to Comparative Practice
Same as L16 Comp Lit 215C.
FA:> Lit
AS:> TH
SB:> HUM
Film 220. Introduction to Film Studies
Same as L98 AMCS 246.
How do film images create meaning? What are the tools the film artist uses to create images? This course will introduce students to basic techniques of film production and formal methodologies for analyzing film art. Students will learn the essential components of film language -- staging, camera placement, camera movement, editing, lighting, special effects, film stock, lenses -- to heighten perceptual skills in viewing films and increase critical understanding of the ways films function as visual discourse. The course is foundational for the major in Film and Media Studies. REQUIRED SCREENING: [day, time]. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
SB:> HUM
Film 225. Making Movies
This course introduces the core concepts and skills for producing dramatic narrative film and video, building on the Hollywood paradigm. No previous technical experience is required, but students should have taken or be concurrently enrolled in Film 220. This course teaches students how films are put together to tell stories, negotiating between the possibilities of cinematic language and the practicalities of working with machines and other people. In order to develop an understanding of filmic narration, students will learn the basics of camera operation, lighting, digital video editing, sound design and recording, casting and directing actors, visual composition and art direction, and production planning and organization. These concepts will be put into practice through a series of exercises culminating in a creative, narrative short digital video. This course fulfills the prerequisite for 300 and 400 level video and film production courses in Film and Media Studies and the production requirement in the FMS major. Admission by waitlist only. Prereq: Film 220. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
Film 230. Moving Images and Sound
SPECIAL NOTE: Admission by Wait-list only. Preference will be given to Film and Media Studies majors and minors. This introductory video production course explores how images and sounds function as cinematic building blocks and purveyors of content. Through creative assignments involving at times personal inquiry, at other times the understanding of elementary semiotics, the components of film and video are examined. Students learn the basics of key sound and editing software to produce, outside of class time, an original two-minute narrative piece. This course is a prerequisite to all other Film and Media Studies video courses. Prereq: Film Studies 220 or consent of instructor. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
Film 310. Video Production
An advanced course exploring the creative and technical aspects of video production. Students sharpen their knowledge of cameras, directing, lighting, sound recording, non-linear systems, and narrative structures. In addition to acquiring a theoretical understanding of the production process, students will gain practical experience by producing, outside of class time, a short project reflecting their visual and conceptual maturity. Prerequisite: L53 Film 230 (Moving Images and Sound) or permission of the instructor. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
Film 311. Documentary Production
In parallel with an overview of various documentary genres, ranging from the personal, the poetic, the agitprop, and cinema verité, this course will offer students the opportunity to produce a short documentary piece on the topic of their choosing. Aesthetic and ethical issues will be explored by considering the overall methodology in terms of subjectivity, content, structure, and the possible usage of music and/or voice-over. For the sake of completing the project in time, it is recommended that students be familiar with the subject matter of their investigation, before taking the course. Prerequisite: L53 Film 230 (Moving Images and Sound) or permission of the instructor. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
SB:> HUM
Film 315. Visual Music
The cinema took more than 30 years to emerge with fully synchronized sounds. Since then, sound and picture have continued to be more and more integrated and interdependent. Current music video artists like Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham constitute only one expression of that desire to merge image and sound. Earlier, many explorers such as Oskar Fischinger, Peter Kubelka and Norman McLaren conceived films where images and sounds surprise the viewer. In the process of producing similarly challenging 4-5 minute video pieces, we will examine how synesthesia in the arts has functioned to energize the two media. A variety of software will be explored in that context. Prerequisite: L53-230 or permission from the instructor. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
SB:> HUM
Film 320. British Cinema: A History
Same as L79 EuSt 320, L97 IAS 320.
> In cinema, as in politics, Britain is caught awkwardly between America and Europe, never quite knowing how to position itself. Should it try to compete seriously with Hollywood, or develop a smaller-scale and more distinctive national cinema on the French or Swedish model? This uncertainty has commonly been seen as a weakness but it can be seen, conversely, as a strength, fostering a rich diversity and complexity both in the output overall and in the work of key British film-makers like Michael Powell, David Lean, and, in the first half of his career, Alfred Hitchcock. This course traces the fortunes of British cinema from its lively beginnings through a switchback history of slump and recovery, giving equal attention to the work of high-profile directors like Hitchcock and to important genres like 1930s documentary, Ealing comedy, and Hammer horror. A continuing theme is the complex economic relationship between British cinema and Hollywood: co-productions, trade barriers, the drain of talent to Hollywood, and the intermittent success of British films like Four Weddings and a Funeral in the American market. REQUIRED SCREENING Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
SB:> IS
Film 322. Contemporary East Asian Cinema
Same as L97 IAS 322, L06 ANECC 322, L03 East Asia 3220.
This course focuses on films made in Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea over the past three decades. Students will examine how the global/local geopolitics specific to the post-Cold War period, the passing of authoritarian regimes, the boom and bust of the Asian economy, and international film festivals have influenced the shaping of New East Asian cinemas across borders. The first section of our course will investigate the ways in which historical traumas (wars, massacres, revolutions, and uprisings) have been revisited in the cinemas of Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea. What is the relationship between history and national cinema? How do such concepts as imperialism, nationalism, postcolonialism, guilt and trauma figure in films shouldering the "burden of history" and representing the "unrepresentable"? The second section explores selected auteurs and stars familiar to international cinephiles, such as Zhang Yimou, Kim Ki-duk, Park Chan-wook, Nagisa Oshima, Maggie Cheung, Stephen Chow, John Woo, Chow Yun-fat, Gong Li, and Takeshi Kitano. In the process, we will identify the themes, styles, genres and ideological/cultural content of East Asian film canons in the West. The final weeks will be devoted to border-crossing films such as Ang Lee's Wedding Banquet, Wong Kar-wai's Happy Together, the Korean-Japanese co-production Asako in Ruby Shoes, and the pan-Asian horror film Three Extremes, which highlight the critical concerns of diaspora, hybridity, transnationalism, and globalization. REQUIRED SCREENING. Credit 3 units.
AS:> CD, TH
SB:> IS
Film 323. The Cinema of Eastern Europe in the Cold War Era
Same as L79 EuSt 323, L97 IAS 323.
This course has two objectives. On the one hand, we will watch masterpieces of European cinema, awarded at international festivals and directed by legendary names such as Milos Forman, Emir Kusturica and Andrzej Wajda, and focus on their artistic genius. On the other hand, we will study the way in which the confrontational politics of the Cold War inform these films, with a special focus on the perplexing predicament of a divided and antagonized Europe. The readings for this class emphasize our dual exploration. We will work with texts dealing with both film history and its aesthetics and with broader analyses of the intellectual and political landscape of the Cold War context. REQUIRED SCREENING. Credit 3 units.
AS:> CD, TH
SB:> IS
Film 324. History of Chinese Cinemas: 1930s-1990s
Same as L97 IAS 3245, L06 ANECC 324, L04 Chinese 324, L03 East Asia 3240.
This course offers an overview of Chinese cinemas, including those of Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, over the twentieth century. We will study major trends such as the left-wing filmmaking in the 1930s, the Maoist revolutionary narratives, Taiwanese healthy realism, the New Cinemas of the three regions, and contemporary transnational productions. Major topics include urban modernity, gender formation, national and transnational cinemas within specific historical contexts. All films come with English subtitle. REQUIRED SCREENING. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
Film 325. French Film Culture
Same as L79 EuSt 3250, L97 IAS 3250.
Called "the seventh art," film has a long tradition of serious popular appreciation and academic study in France. This course will offer an overview of French cinema, including the origins of film (Lumière brothers, Méliès), the inventive silent period (which created such avant-garde classics as Un chien andalou), the poetic realism of the 30s, the difficulties of the war years, the post-war emphasis on historical/nationalist themes in the "tradition of quality" films, the French New Wave's attempt to create a more "cinematic" style, the effects of the political turmoil of May '68 on film culture, the "art house" reception of French films in the US, and the broader appeal of recent hyper-visual ("cinéma du look") films, such as La Femme Nikita and Amélie. While the primary focus of the course will be on French cinema, we will also discuss the reciprocal influences between American and French film culture, both in terms of formal influences on filmmaking and theoretical approaches to film studies. French film terms will be introduced but no prior knowledge of the language is expected. REQUIRED SCREENING. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
SB:> IS
Film 328. History of German Cinema
Same as L97 IAS 3291, L79 EuSt 328.
This course explores the major developments of German cinema throughout thetwentieth century. More specifically, this course will engage with issuesrelating to German film culture's negotiation of popular filmmaking and artcinema, of Hollywood conventions and European avant-garde sensibilities.Topics will include the political functions of German film during theWeimar, the Nazi, the postwar, and the postwall eras; the influence ofAmerican mass culture on German film; the role of German émigrés in theclassical Hollywood studio system; and the place of German cinema inpresent-day Europe and in our contemporary age of globalization. Specialattention will be given to the role of German cinema in building andquestioning national identity, to the ways in which German feature filmsover the past hundred years have used or challenged mainstream conventionsto recall the national past and envision alternative futures. Films bydirectors such as Murnau, Lang, Fassbinder, Herzog, Tykwer and many others.All readings and discussions in English. May not be taken for German majoror minor credit. Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
SB:> IS
Film 329. Italian Neorealism
Same as L79 EuSt 3290, L97 IAS 3290.
This course explores the visual language of one of the most influential film movements of the twentieth century. We will concentrate on the origins of neorealism in Italian post-war cinema and history, and focus on the works of film-makers such as Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica and Luchino Visconti. We will also consider the longer-term influence of the movement both in Italy and elsewhere. Throughout this course, we will reflect on the possibilities of mimesis in cinema, on the social and political engagement of neorealist film, and on the factors that caused its decline. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
SB:> IS
Film 330. History of American Cinema
Same as U18 Film 330, L98 AMCS 3301, L22 History 3303.
This course traces the history of the American cinema from the earliest screenings in vaudeville theaters through the birth of the feature film to movies in the age of video. The course will examine both the contributions of individual filmmakers as well as he determining contexts of modes of production, distribution, and exhibition. The course aims to provide an understanding of the continuing evolution of the American cinema, in its internal development, in its incorporation of new technologies, and in its responses to other national cinemas. Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
FA:> AH
AS:> TH
SB:> HUM
Film 331. The New Hollywood Cinema
This course will examine the history of film culture and the film industry in the United States since the end of the classical Hollywood studio system. It will pay special attention to the period of auteur-centered filmmaking in the 1970s. During this time, the end of the production code, the financial crisis of the industry, the unparalleled influence of European New Wave and Art films, and the introduction of the first generation of film school graduates (the so-called "movie brats") all combined amidst the tumultuous cultural politics of such movements as the counterculture, civil rights, and second wave feminism to form a film-historical moment often called the Hollywood Renaissance. This brief period was soon followed by a newly reinvigorated Hollywood industry focused on the high-concept blockbuster. Such rapid transformations in the practice and nature of American film not only continue to influence commercial filmmaking today but also continue to shape our understanding of the role of authorship, genre, and ideology within Hollywood. The course will consider films of the New Hollywood in the context of tensions between radicalism and populism, progressivism and nihilism, entertainment and ideology, artistic and commercial success. Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
SB:> HUM
Film 336. Cinema and Ireland
Same as L97 IAS 3365, L79 EuSt 336.
Like many other anglophone and francophone countries, Ireland only even started to develop a robust national cinema in the 1970s. As in, for instance, Australia and New Zealand, growth had previously been blocked by the dominance of local screens by films from, on the one hand, the overbearing 'imperial' power, Britain, and, on the other, Hollywood, center of an even stronger cultural imperialism. Increased national self-assertion coincided with the weakening of the grip of those two cinemas in the post-classical period. A major focus of the class is on some of the key works of the film-makers who established themselves in the 1980s, notably Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan. But, as the title indicates - not simply Irish Cinema - it deals with more than this. Like Ireland itself, Irish cinema is deeply marked by, and preoccupied with, the political and cultural struggles of the past, and recent cinema is illuminated by seeing it in the context of earlier films: Hollywood and British versions of Ireland, whether shot on location or in the studio, as well as the isolated earlier landmarks of an indigenous Irish cinema. We also look at the rich topic of the representation of Irish immigrants in Hollywood films. REQUIRED SCREENING. Credit 3 units.
AS:> CD, LA
SB:> IS
Film 340. History of World Cinema
Same as L16 Comp Lit 3405, L79 EuSt 340, L97 IAS 3400.
The course surveys the history of cinema as it developed in nations other than the United States. Beginning with the initially dominant film producing nations of Western Europe, this course will consider the development of various national cinemas in Europe, Asia, and third world countries. The course will seek to develop an understanding of each individual film both as an expression of a national culture as well as a possible response to international movements in other art forms. Throughout, the course will consider how various national cinemas sought ways of dealing with the pervasiveness of Hollywood films, developing their own distinctive styles, which could in turn influence American cinema itself. REQUIRED SCREENING. Credit 3 units.
FA:> AH
AS:> CD, TH
SB:> HUM, IS
Film 341. Transnational Cinema(s): Film Flows in a Changing World
Same as L97 IAS 3414, L06 ANECC 341.
Across a century of extreme nationalism, Cold War imperialism, and increased globalization, moving image culture remains deeply tied to the evolution of global economics, shifting notions of local identity, and human migration. Recent changes in the dynamic of international economics and cultural flow have led to new critical approaches that reassess international cinema as being constructed by relationships that transcend national borders. This course examines multiple ways in which cinema works "transnationally", focusing on recent theories of modernism, globalization, and borderless cultures. Exploring a range of contexts from American domination of the early international market, to the recent evolution of Chinese blockbuster action films, to contemporary Palestinian video art, this course looks at the way in which material developments, narrative and aesthetic conventions, and film professionals have circulated over the past century. We will also look at how new technologies of production, distribution, and exhibition challenge traditional notions of cultural borders. Required screenings and in-class textual analysis will be used to complement industrial studies of how transnational flows have come to define contemporary audio-visual media practices. REQUIRED SCREENINGS. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
Film 345. Sexual Politics in Film Noir and Hard-boiled Literature
Same as L14 E Lit 3451, L77 WGSS 345A, L98 AMCS 3450.
Emerging in American films most forcefully during the 1940s, film noir is a cycle of films associated with a distinctive visual style and a cynical worldview. In this course, we will explore the sexual politics of film noir as a distinctive vision of American sexual relations every bit as identifiable as the form's stylized lighting and circuitous storytelling. We will explore how and why sexual paranoia and perversion seem to animate this genre and why these movies continue to influence "neo-noir" filmmaking into the 21st century, even as film noir's representation of gender and sexuality is inseparable from its literary antecedents, most notably, the so-called "hard-boiled" school of writing. We will read examples from this literature by Dashiell Hammett, James Cain, Raymond Chandler and Cornell Woolrich, and discuss these novels and short stories in the context of other artistic and cultural influences on gendered power relations and film noir. We will also explore the relationship of these films to censorship and to changing post-World War II cultural values. Films to be screened in complete prints or in excerpts will likely include many of the following: The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Murder My Sweet, Phantom Lady, Strangers on a Train, The Big Sleep, The Killers, Mildred Pierce, The High Wall, Sudden Fear, The Big Combo, Laura, The Glass Key, The Big Heat, Kiss Me Deadly, The Crimson Kimono, Touch of Evil, Alphaville, Chinatown, Taxi Driver, Devil in a Blue Dress, The Bad Lieutenant, and Memento. REQUIRED SCREENINGS. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
Film 349. Media Cultures
Same as L98 AMCS 3490, L15 Drama 3491.
This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of cultural and media studies. Through a focus on television and new media, it analyzes current theoretical ideas and debates about culture. Main topics include the relationship between new technologies and everyday life and popular culture; analysis of media messages and images; how media help construct new identities and mark differences between groups; analysis of the globalization of the production and circulation of media culture; the rise of multimedia cultural industries; and the role of the audience. Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
SB:> BA
Film 350. History of Electronic Media
Same as L22 History 3853, L98 AMCS 351.
This course traces the history of electronic media as they have become the dominant source for entertainment and information in contemporary culture, starting with over-the-air broadcasting of radio and television through to cable and the "narrowcasting" achieved by digital technologies. While some attention will be paid to other national industries, the chief focus of the course will be on electronic media in the United States to determine, in part, the transformative role they have played in the cultural life of the nation. The course will explore the relationship of the electronic media industries to the American film industry, determining how their interactions with the film industry helped mutually shape the productions of both film and electronic media. Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
SB:> HUM
Film 352. Introduction to Screenwriting
Same as L13 E Comp 352.
Writers will explore the various elements, structures and styles used in crafting a motion picture screenplay. They will experience this process as they conceive, develop and execute the first act of a feature-length script. Writers will create a screenplay story, present an outline for class discussion and analysis, then craft Act One. Writers will be encouraged to consult with the instructor at various stages: concept, outline, character and scene development, and dialogue execution. While the students fashion their screenwriting independently, the class will also explore the general elements of THEME, GENRE, and VOICE. A more specific examination of mechanics, the nuts and bolts of story construction, plotting, pacing, etc. will follow to support the ongoing writing process. In-class exercises will aid the writer in sharpening skills and discovering new approaches to form and content. Writers' work will be shared and discussed regularly in class. Screening of film scenes and sequences will provide students with concrete examples of how dramatic screenwriting evolves once it leaves the writer's hands. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
SB:> HUM
Film 353. Writing Episodic Television
This class will focus on all the factors that go into preparing and writing an episode for a network TV series (dramas only). Students begin with a "pitch" (verbally or in short outline form) for an idea for a show currently on a network schedule. Once the "pitch" is accepted, the student will then complete a "beat sheet," and ultimately a spec script that can run from 62 to 75 pages. Two drafts of the script will be required. During the course of this process, students will also learn how to research their narrative premises by contacting legal, medical, and law enforcement experts in order to guarantee the accuracy of their scripts. In addition to learning the actual writing process, students will be expected to watch several television shows and to read books, scripts, and industry trade papers as they pertain to the craft and business of television writing. Finally, students will also meet agents, producers, directors, and other television industry professionals in order to gain their insights into the script writing process and to gain a more global view of the steps involved in bringing their ideas to the screen. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
Film 355. Topics in Korean Literature & Culture
Same as L51 Korean 355.
AS:> CD, SD, TH
Film 356. Television Culture and Cult TV: Critical Approaches to Fandom
Same as L98 AMCS 3563.
Why do television series inspire passionate involvement on the part of some viewers? What are the differences among being a viewer, an audience member, and a fan? How can we make scholarly sense of cultural practices such as learning to speak Klingon or building a repli-car of the General Lee? Studies of fandom have attempted to answer such questions and continue to explore issues that are crucial to understanding contemporary television culture. The phenomenon of "Cult TV" offers fertile ground for examining the complex dynamics at play among fans, popular culture, the institutions of American media, and individual programs. In its exploration of cult television and fans, this course will engage with key issues in contemporary media such as the proliferation of new media technologies and the repurposing of existing media forms, the permeable boundaries between high and low or mass and oppositional culture, and the fragmentation and concentration of media markets. The class will combine close textual analysis with studies of fan practices to examine a variety of television programs, from canonical cult texts such as Star Trek and Doctor Who to "quality" fan favorites such as Designing Women and Cagney & Lacey to contemporary cult/quality hybrids such as Lost and Heroes. In mapping out this cultural territory, we will develop a set of critical perspectives on audience identities and activities and examine the continuing and conflicted imagination of fans by media producers, distributors, regulators, and critics. Required Screening. Prerequisite: Film Studies 220 or Film Studies 350 or consent of instructor. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
SB:> BA
Film 357. Quality Television and the "Primetime Novel"
Same as L98 AMCS 3570.
Over the past four decades, the cultural status of television in the United States has been reconfigured and complicated with changes in industrial structures, audience formations, regulatory presumptions, and production techniques and strategies. This course examines these interrelated forces, particularly as they have fostered a set of programs and practices often hailed as Quality Television. The class will survey the institutional paradigms that gave rise to particular generations of programming celebrated as "quality" and analyze the systems of distinction and cultural value that make the label socially and industrially salient. We will critically investigate the role of audiences and the conceptions of viewer choice at play in these developments. In addition, the course will analyze the textual features that have come to signify narrative complexity and aesthetic sophistication. We will examine foundational historical examples of this phenomenon from The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Hill Street Blues and Cagney & Lacey to Northern Exposure as well as more contemporary broadcast and cable fiction such as LOST, The Wire, and Mad Men. In addition, students will be expected to watch a complete series, chosen in consultation with the instructor, as part of their final research project. REQUIRED SCREENING. Prerequisite: Film Studies 220 or Film Studies 350 or consent of instructor. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
Film 359. The American Musical Film
Same as L98 AMCS 3590, L27 Music 320, L15 Drama 3950.
Film musicals were crucial to the success of the American film industry from the dawn of sound film in the late 1920s to the demise of the studio system in the late 1950s. This course examines the American film musical from a variety of aesthetic, critical, and historical perspectives, with particular attention to how the genre interacted with popular music and dance and the major political and social trends of the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties. REQUIRED SCREENING. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
SB:> HUM
Film 360. The History of the Film Score
Same as L27 Music 328.
Moving pictures have always needed sound, and long before film actors could talk, the emotions on their faces were (literally) underscored with music. This course considers the breadth of film history, from the silent era to the present, by way of music and how it has been deployed for artistic effects and commercial purposes. Topics include: live accompaniment practices in silent film, thematically-integrated, original "classical" scores; pastiche scores; popular music scores; how music defines and supports various film genres; technical and creative practices behind the making of film scores; Hollywood film music versus selected world cinemas; the highly personal uses of music by important writer-directors; the power of music to generate nostalgic feelings (often for a quite recent past); the relationship between classical and popular music as vehicles of emotional expression within film narratives; and the shifting commercial connections between the music and film industries. Structured around 14 screenings, the course surveys the uses of music in narrative feature-length films, with particular emphasis on films that bring music-making as a creative human activity directly into plot or overall theme. The films range from THE JAZZ SINGER (1927) to THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY (1999). Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
FA:> AH
AS:> TH
SB:> HUM
Film 361. Film Sound
Although film critics and theorists tend to think of cinema as a "visual art," this shorthand description of the medium overlooks the importance of film sound in cinematic storytelling. This course is intended to provide a general overview of the way in which film theorists have treated the issue of sound in the cinema. Among the issues addressed in the course are: the contribution sound technology and practice makes to film form; the various possible formal relationships between sound and image; the effects of sound technologies on notions of realism and verisimilitude; the importance of sound to particular genres, like the horror film; and lastly, the role of sound in film spectatorship. The course will also showcase the work of the most important sound stylists in film history, such as Fritz Lang, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Altman, and David Lynch. Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
Film 363. Video Post-Production
While post-production of the soundtrack has been around for years, post-production of the "visual track" has increasingly become a major phase in the video and movie-making process. It often allows filmmakers to enhance existing footage with potentially dazzling results. As in all our production courses, we will be concerned with developing strong content. The focus is not on special effects per se, but rather on how they may be used to enhance the message. Students find a non-profit organization of vital importance in need of exposure and produce a Public Service Announcement to be broadcast. Key post-production software like Commotion, AfterEffects and Motion are explored throughout the semester. Prereq: Film 230 (Moving Images and Sound) or consent of instructor. 3 units. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
Film 366. Women and Film
Same as L98 AMCS 3660, L97 IAS 366, L79 EuSt 366, L77 WGSS 3666.
The aim of this course is primarily to familiarize students with the work of prominent women directors over the course of the twentieth century, from commercial blockbusters to the radical avant-garde. Approaching the films in chronological order, we will consider the specific historical and cultural context of each filmmaker's work. In addition we will be discussing the films in relation to specific gender and feminist issues such as the status of women's film genres, representations of men and women on screen and the gender politics of film production. Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
AS:> SD, TH
SB:> HUM
Film 370. American Horrors
Same as L98 AMCS 369.
Horror movies. Fright films. Scream marathons. Blood and gore fests. Why should we want to look at movies that aim to frighten us? What is the attraction of repulsion? Is there an aesthetics of ugliness? Except for some early prestige literary adaptations like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the horror film began as a low class genre, a notch above exploitation movies. In the 1970s-1980s, it became the dominant commercial genre by offering increasingly graphic images of violence and mayhem. The horror film had arrived: lavish budgets, big stars, and dazzling special effects in mainstream major studio films competed with low-budget, no frills productions that helped establish artistically ambitious and quirky filmmakers like George Romero and David Cronenberg. By a chronological survey of the American horror film, this course will explore how differing notions of what is terrifying reflect changing cultural values and norms. Throughout, we will consider the difficult questions raised by horror's simple aim of scaring its audience. In addition to weekly screenings, work for the course will include analytical and theoretical essays on the horror film. Written analyses of films with a close attention to visual style will be required. Prerequisite: Film 220. REQUIRED SCREENING. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
SB:> HUM
Film 371. Making War
Same as L98 AMCS 373.
This course examines the cinematic representation of war. Using World War Two as a case study, students will examine a series of combat pictures, documentaries, and "home front" films from the 1940s to the present. Several key questions will guide the class discussion: How do war films respond to and shape the political worlds in which they are produced? How do these films confront the aftermath of war and the soldier's homecoming? Where is the line between the home front and the front line? More broadly, what does it mean to portray the violence and suffering that war inevitably brings? At the close of the semester, students will partake in an in-class symposium presenting their research on the cinematic treatment of other conflicts, from the Civil War to the "War on Terror." Films include: The Boat, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Why We Fight, and Mrs. Miniver. Readings will include works by Susan Sontag, Kaja Silverman, and W.G. Sebald. Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
SB:> BA
Film 375. Screening the Holocaust
Same as L75 JNE 380, L79 EuSt 375, L97 IAS 375.
The course will survey ways in which the story of the Holocaust is conveyed through film. Focusing on the individual and aesthetic pleasure, modern Western film seem to be an inappropriate genre to depict the German mass murdering of six million Jews. But since the broadcasting of the NBC series "Holocaust" in 1975, feature films have replaced documentaries and historiographies in educating the public about the traumas of the unprecedented genocide. With the continuing impact of the Holocaust on Jewish, American, and German identity and politics, Holocaust films are more scrutinized than any other genre. We will examine these aesthetic and philosophical controversies as well as the narrative and editing strategies filmmakers use to relate collective history and individual trauma. Special attention will be given to the complex cinematographic perspectives on human agency in a world of bureaucratically administered killing. In the course, we will try to close the gap between reading film theory and watching a Holocaust movie: we will analyze the properties of cinematic language, reconstruct the sociohistorical and psychological formation of memory and imagination, and even question our own evaluation of a film. Screenings include "Shoah," "The Wannsee Conference," "Europa, Europa," " Enemies, a Love Story," "Jakob the Liar," "Schindler's List," and "Life Is Beautiful." Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
FA:> AH
AS:> TH
SB:> BA
Film 376. French New Wave
French cinema from 1958-1968 offered "La Nouvelle Vague" or "The New Wave," one of the most innovative, influential, and critically discussed movements in film history. The New Wave marked a major turning point in the relationship between film, thought, and politics in France, as well as a unique bridge between art cinema and pop-culture. Speaking for more than just the youth generation of its own country, it had a major influence on new approaches in subsequent European, American and Asian cinemas. This course offers a detailed look at the social values, artistic motivations, and aesthetic experiments embodied in the French New Wave through the films of Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, François Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, and others, positioning their work within the larger social, political, and cultural environment of this period. As many of these directors collaborated as filmmakers and also were active as film critics and theorists, this class provides a unique insight into the overlapping between visual theory and practice, film and other media, culture and society. Weekly screening required. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
Film 379. Expressionism in Theater and Film
Same as L15 Drama 379.
AS:> TH
Film 390. TABOO: Boundary and Transgression in American Cinema
Same as L98 AMCS 3901.
Almost from the first public exhibition of motion pictures in the United States, concerns were expressed about the content of film. Denied the First Amendment protection of free speech by a 1915 Supreme Court decision, movies were repeatedly subject to various attempts at regulating content by government at federal, state and even municipal levels. Trying to stave off government control, Hollywood would eventually institute forms of self-regulation, first in the formation of the Production Code Administration and subsequently in the Ratings system. Control of content in American movies may be seen as paternalistic, a top-down attempt to impose moral norms and standards of behavior on a diverse audience. But it also reflects changing standards of acceptable public discourse, most particularly with regard to violence, sexuality, and race. That topics once barred from dramatic representation by the Production Code - miscegenation, non-normative sexuality and "lower forms of sexuality," abortion, drug addiction - could eventually find a place in American movies speaks to changes in the culture at large. In trying to understand these cultural changes, this course will explore films that challenged taboos, films from the early teens that brought on the first attempts to control film content to films released under the Ratings system, which has exerted subtler forms of control over content. Required Screenings. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
SB:> ETH
Film 419. Theories of Mass Media
This course explores theories of the mass media with an emphasis on television as well as its convergences with other media and computer technologies. It starts by examining theories that posit the media as instruments of societal maintenance or transformation and then examines the ways in which various theorists have refined or rejected elements of these theories in a quest for both specificity and complexity. In particular, the course examines media and cultural studies' attempts to synthesize critical paradigms ranging from political economy to semiotics to feminism. The course concludes with an examination of the challenges and opportunities posed to theorizations of the mass media by contemporary circumstances such as media conglomeration, niche marketing and micro-casting, and global flows of information, capital, and people. REQUIRED SCREENING. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
SB:> BA
Film 420. Film Theory
Same as L14 E Lit 4204, L16 Comp Lit 4204.
This course is an introduction to both classical and contemporary film theory. Beginning with the earliest attempts to treat cinema as a new and unique art form, the course will initially review the various ways in which film theory attempted to define cinema in terms of its most essential properties. The course will then examine more contemporary developments within film theory, more specifically its attempt to incorporate the insights of other critical and analytical paradigms, such as semiotics, psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory, and postmodernism. Throughout the course, we will consider questions regarding the ontology of cinema, its relation to spectators, and the various ways in which its formal properties create meaning. Readings for the course will include the major works of Sergei Eisenstein, Andre Bazin, Christian Metz, Laura Mulvey, and Fredric Jameson. Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
FA:> Lit
AS:> TH, WI
Film 421. Film Historiography
This course is a seminar on the writing of film history for advanced students. Through an engagement with the historiographical writings of scholars, such as Dominic LaCapra, Hayden White, and Michel Foucault, students will gain an understanding of various genres of film historical writing, an appreciation for the kinds of research that film historians do, and a familiarity with the ways in which film historians delimit their field of study, form research questions, and develop hypotheses. In addition to reading and classroom discussions, students will be expected to write a fairly lengthy paper (17-20 pages) that involves original historical research and the close examination of trade press, professional journals, fan magazines, and news articles. As preparatory assignments leading up to the final project, students will also prepare project descriptions, bibliographies, and outlines that will be shared and discussed in a workshop format. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
Film 422. Film Stardom, Performance, and Fan Culture
Same as L15 Drama 422A, U89 AMCS 5223.
This course focuses the Hollywood star system. We will explore stars in relation to celebrity and consumerism, especially how "stardom" is created by a system that seeks to create effects in film viewers whether conceived as audiences, fans, or spectators. We will examine the performance element of stardom and its relationship to genre, style, and changing film technology. Also of concern will be how stars and the discursive construction of stardom intersect with gender representation, race, ideology, sexuality, age, disability, nationality, and other points of theoretical interest to and historical inquiry in contemporary film studies. While emphasis will be placed on mainstream commercial U.S. cinema, students are encouraged to pursue questions beyond this framework within their own research. REQUIRED SCREENING. Credit 3 units.
AS:> LA
SB:> BA
Film 430. Clown Princes
"Dying is easy, comedy is hard," runs an old theatrical adage. Nevertheless, some of the most popular actors in American film have chosen the hard path by typecasting themselves in comedy, playing repeated variations on the same character. "Comedian comedy," representing films that showcase the distinctive skills of great clown-actors, is the central concern of this course. We will analyze how individual comedians rework performance traditions through the distinctive concerns of their time and culture to create idiosyncratic comic personae. We will look at films starring Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, Peter Sellers, Jim Carey and Eddie Murphy. Work for the course will require reading in comic theory and analytical essays. Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
Film 438. Aesthetics: The Aesthetics of the Interface/Media and the Arts as Windows onto the World
Film 450. American Film Genres
Same as L14 E Lit 450, L98 AMCS 457.
By close examination of three or four specific types of film narratives, this course will explore how genre has functioned in the Hollywood mode of production. Students will gain an understanding of genre both as a critical construct as well as a form created by practical economic concerns, a means of creating extratextual communication between film artist/producers and audience/consumers. Genres for study will be chosen from the western, the gangster film, the horror movie, the musical, screwball comedy, science fiction, the family melodrama, the woman's film, and others. In addition to film showings, there will be readings in genre theory as well as genre analyses of individual films. Required screenings. Credit 3 units.
FA:> Lit
AS:> TH
Film 451. American Television Genres
Same as L98 AMCS 4510, L15 Drama 4511.
Questions of genre are central to any exploration of television's texts, whether they are being analyzed as craft, commerce, or cultural phenomenon. Genre has been used by critics and historians to ascribe "social functions" to groups of programs and to diagnose cultural preoccupations, while genre has been used industrially to manage expectations among audiences, advertisers, programmers, producers, and creative professionals. Investigating genres ranging from the soap opera to the western, workplace situation comedies to sports, and game shows to cop shows, this course will explore the role of genre in the production, distribution, and reception of American television. Students will gain a critical understanding of genre theory and key arguments about the form and function of television texts and will develop a set of tools for analysis of televisual narrative and style, the social uses and meanings of genre, the institutional practices and presumptions of the American television industry, and the persistence of textual forms and audience formations in the face of structural changes such as deregulation, media convergence, and globalization. Required Screening. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
SB:> BA
Film 452. Advanced Screenwriting
Same as L13 E Comp 4521.
This course is intended for students who have already taken Film Studies 352, "Introduction to Screenwriting." Building on past writing experiences, students will explore the demands of writing feature-length screenplays, adaptations, and experimental forms. Particular attention will be paid to the task of rewriting. Credit 3 units.
FA:> Lit
AS:> LA
Film 4529. Seminar in Cultural Theory
Same as L21 German 529.
Film 454. American Film Melodrama and the Gothic
Same as L98 AMCS 4540.
American film melodrama has been considered both the genre of suffering protagonists, incredible coincidences, and weeping spectators as well as a mode of action, suspense, and in-the-nick-of-time rescues. In this course, we will examine American film melodrama as a dialectic of sentiment and sensation which draws heavily on Gothic tropes of terror, live burial, and haunted internal states. We will trace the origins of film melodrama and the cinematic Gothic to their literary antecedents, the horrors of the French Revolution, and classical and sensational stage melodramas of the nineteenth century. In addition to the 1940s Gothic woman's film cycle, we will excavate the Gothic in the maternal melodrama, the suspense thriller, film noir, domestic melodrama, the slasher film, and the supernatural horror film. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
Film 458. Major Film Directors
Same as L21 German 3281, L21 German 4901, L79 EuSt 458, L97 IAS 459.
What does the film director do? In the earliest movies, film directors modeled themselves on their theatrical counterparts: they chiefly focused on how to stage an action in a confined space for a stationary camera that represented an ideal member of the audience. As the camera began to be used to direct audience attention, first through cutting, then through actual movement, the film director evolved from a stager of events to a narrator. By analyzing the work of one or more major film directors, this course will explore the art of film direction. We will learn how film directors may use the camera to narrate a scene, to provide their own distinctive view of the actions playing out on the movie screen. May be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor. REQUIRED SCREENING. Credit 3 units.
AS:> TH
SB:> HUM
Film 495. Special Projects
This course is intended for juniors and seniors who wish to register for internships. Students must receive Program approval prior to beginning the internship. Please consult the Program guidelines governing internships. Credit variable, maximum 3 units. Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
Film 499. Study for Honors
This course is intended for majors pursuing honors in Film and Media Studies. In order to enroll for this course, students must apply in advance for honors and be approved by a faculty committee. Please consult the Program guidelines for application deadlines and other requirements. Credit 3 units.
Film 500. Independent Study
This course is intended for students who wish to pursue areas of study not available within the standard curriculum. In order to enroll for this course, students must have a faculty adviser and submit a contract outlining the work for the course to the Film and Media Studies office. Please consult the Program guidelines governing independent study work. Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
Film 501. Advanced Moving Image Analysis and Criticism
This course will explore the analytical tools that have served as the foundation for cinematic and televisual academic criticism. The variety of texts, visual and aural, that comprise moving image production will be considered with the aim of determining how textual strategies structure perception. The aim of the course is two-fold: to have students develop analytical skills for dealing with film and video texts, but also to see how these have been deployed in a multiplicity of approaches/applications offered by academic film criticism. There will be regular screenings to provide the material for analysis, as well as readings to offer a variety of critical models. REQUIRED SCREENINGS. Credit 3 units.
Film 505. Travel in Space: Contemporary Cinemas of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China
Same as L06 ANECC 505, L04 Chinese 505, L03 East Asia 5050.
The recent phase of intensive urbanization, industrialization, and globalization in Chinese regions has also mobilized multi-directional flows of migrants, tourists, workers and entrepreneurs across geographical boundaries. Moving through space, the voyagers offer changing perspectives to the cinematic mapping of socio-political relationships, histories, and cultures that constitute the identities of places. This course explores contemporary Chinese-language films that imagine trajectories between distant spaces as well as the experiences of "new comers" in "foreign" places. We will examine the current wave of travel films in Taiwan, the representation of drifters in Chinese urban films, as well as the imagination of migration in Hong Kong cinema. We will also explore theories that draw connections between movement, space, and cinema. REQUIRED SCREENINGS: TBA Credit 3 units.