Film Studies (FLM)

Provides an introduction to the study of film as narrative, art form, and a medium of cultural communication. Students will gain a basic understanding of the technical aspects of film, including cinematography, editing, acting, mise-en-scene, and sound. In addition to learning to analyze films using film terminology students will also explore the broader cultural impact and politics of film and the film industry.

This course will provide hands-on instruction in narrative filmmaking/digital video production, introducing students to production, directing, editing, cinematography, and audio. Content involves technical concerns such as camera, lens, format, and lighting instruments, as well as various methods related to composition and subject modeling in order to tell the story.

This course, a required foundation course for the Film Minor, is the study of the history of motion pictures from their inception in the late nineteenth century to the present. Emphasis is placed on major directors, films, social and cultural developments, and aesthetic movements that have contributed to the evolution of cinema. Students will also learn the terminology and concepts necessary for the intensive study of film.

This course takes a chronological and international approach to the study of animated films as a genre. We'll look not onty at how animation has developed (and continues to develop) as an art form, but at a number of salient topics in animation history: ontology, genre, economic context, narration, censorship, authorship, and others. We will study animation's major developments and historical periods within several national film-making traditions.

From the inception of the movies, women have played an integral role, yet their struggles to tell their stories persist. This course offers an overview of the careers and film productions of various internationally recognized women filmmakers (writers, directors, cinematographers, editors) focusing on their unique contributions to the cinema.

This course investigates nation and identity in films that are approached in their specific cultural, historical, and theoretical terms. It includes the study of international film movements, individual directors, and comparisons between national cinemas.

The cinematic genre of horror, although frequently marginalized and overlooked, serves an important social function. This course is thematic - the primary concern not so much the history of horror films but rather how horror explores gender issues/anxieties. Us versus them. Male versus female. Acceptable behavior versus deviance. Sex (procreation) versus violence (destruction). And yet despite these threats, we derive some sort of pleasure from horror films. Why? That's one of the many ideas we'll explore in the course.

This seminar will provide the advanced student the opportunity to do intensive work in Film Studies. Topics vary and may include the study of genre, individual directors, screenwriting, film production, or themes/issues.

This course, a required foundation course for the Film minor, concentrates on film theory either as a general overview or focus on certain theoretical approaches, such as auteur studies, postmodernism, feminism, spectatorship, and post-colonialism. Junior/senior academic standing or permission of instructor is required.

Students with compelling reasons may participate in independent study under the direction of a faculty member in the Department of English, Communications and Media. Permission of department chair is required.