FILM 110: Visual Culture in America (GI)
Explores the history and enduring significance of visual culture in America. Themes will include the role of technology in visual culture, the dawn of modern consumerism, the emergence of film, and the postmodern digital collage of 21st century visual culture.
A variable-topics course introducing students to selected historical themes depicted by popular film. Students will watch and deconstruct popular historical films within the larger context of scholarly analysis of a particular historic period or event.
A thematic approach to the study of art in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Course material will explore the art, artists, and theory related to modern and contemporary art.
Focuses on understanding and appreciating film as a unique visual communication experience. Includes an introduction to the understanding of film language and different theories of film aesthetics and criticism.
COMM 249: Great Moments in Cinema (GH)
A survey overview of the history of cinema from its inception to today, covering the technological developments of filmmaking, the historical development of various countries’ film industries, cinema’s aesthetic developments, and the relationship between cinema and society throughout history.
Considers films from the Classical Hollywood Cinema era to better understand how such films take up cultural ideals of masculinity and femininity and repackage them for viewers. Learn a set of terms and techniques for interpreting film and another set of terms and techniques for analyzing gender and sexuality.
Learn to conceptualize, structure, and produce analytical writing in multiple forms within digital contexts. Since such contexts are often multi-modal — layered with visual images as well as sound — instruction will include the analysis and appropriation of the visual and auditory in critical writing.
Sociologically analyze racial and ethnic patterns in American films. Discuss how decision-makers shape the public imagination. Examine how race intersects with other identities in ways that lead to specific trends in Hollywood, highlighting the relationship between media, culture and the economy.
Explore the ways in which sound design and music have been uused in conjunction with images in diverse media including films, video games, video art, cartoons, music videos, television, and live performance.
Examines the conventions, development, and cultural contexts of a rotating selection of film genres, with a focus on the stylistic innovations, recurrent themes, and varying interpretations of representative films and/or filmmakers. Repeatable with a change of topic.
Examines the complex cultural work of adapting literature to film. Through critical analysis of narrative fiction and the films they inspire, investigate the history, narrative conventions, iconic elements, and cultural significance of literary adaptations to film. Repeatable with a change of topic.
FILM 354: Shakespeare on Film (GH)
Study the history, narrative conventions, iconic elements, and cultural significance of Shakespearean films. Unpack cinematic adaptations of Shakespeare's plays with a focus on the generic (tragedy, comedy, history) and the formal (stage, page, and screen).
FILM 356: Text and Image (GH)
A theoretical and practical study of how text and image interact to create "story" in visual communication, focusing especially on sequential art (a.k.a. graphic novels or comics) and interactive fiction (e.g. video games).
Gain practical experience in writing scripts for cinema and/or television, with special emphasis on creative, theoretical, and critical processes.
Learn to analyze film in international contexts. The course will either focus on a director whose work crosses national and language boundaries or compare two established film directors, one working in English and one working in another language. Topics will vary.
FILM 485: Film Theory
Study the work of major film theorists and analyze specific films using theoretical lenses. Broaden your knowledge of terms and concepts in film analysis, using established theoretical lenses such as feminism, Marxism, queer theory, and psychoanalysis. Topics will vary.
FILM 498: Independent Study
A student may wish to substitute an individually designed research or writing project for another course in the Film Studies program. Such a student may plan an independent study course in collaboration with a faculty member. The student and faculty member can propose the independent study using this form: INDEPENDENT STUDY PROPOSAL.
Individually Designed Major in Film Studies
Some students have designed their own programs to combine their interests in Film Studies with other programs or to prepare for employment or graduate school in a specific area of Cinema or Media Studies. Students wishing to consider this option should speak to a Film Studies Coordinator. A description of the program can be found here: INDIVIDUALLY DESIGNED MAJOR.