Fall and Summer 2019 Undergraduate and Graduate Courses 

Fall 2019 SCRN Courses

 

Fall 2019 Other Electives (Partial List)

Fall 2019 Graduate Elective Courses

Summer 2019 Elective Courses

SCRN 2001: Introduction to Screen Arts, Paul Catalanotto

In this introductory course, students can expect to get a taste of all aspects of filmmaking and video production as well study a variety of filmmakers, styles and genres. Students will gain a better understanding of basic film analysis, screenwriting, lighting, and camera techniques. In addition, they will gain experience in various stages of production while producing two short films - a documentary and a narrative.

SCRN 3001: Comedy in American Cinema, Kalling Heck

Comedy has been a fundamental American movie genre since the earliest days of cinema. Working with its subject materials, this class will happily and rigorously engage with comedic films to develop an understanding of the role of comedy in history, film theory, and society. Through weekly screenings, readings and responses this class will consider how and why comedy plays a central role in culture and the development of cinema. The first half of the semester will trace American comedy films from the 1930s to the present day. The second half will use contemporary comedies to address theoretical discussions of comedy, humor, and laughter drawn from film theory and philosophy broadly defined.

SCRN 3010: Cinematography, Glen Pitre

With this nuts-and-bolts, hands-on introduction to the art and technology of cinematography, students will learn, practice, and refine their skills in using a camera for on-screen storytelling: narrative, commercial, and documentary. Emphasis will be on how to control and manipulate lighting, framing, movement, and image qualities to shape mood, convey emotion, tell story, and create a coherent look. While there are no formal exams, each student will make four separate films as class assignments.

SCRN 3011: Film Editing,  Paul Catalanotto

SCRN 3011explores editing theory and history as well offer students a chance to learn practical skills on the Adobe Premiere editing platform. The course functions as an in-depth study of the history, concepts, and skills involved in film and video editing techniques. Additionally, students will receive formal instruction and practice in non-linear editing software as a means to gain a better understanding of concepts such as montage, continuity, and narrative.

SCRN 3502: Italian Film,  Paolo Chirumbolo

n-depth study of various aspects of contemporary Italian cinema. Italian cinema of the 21st century in the context of profound cultural, social, and aesthetic changes in contemporary Italy. Productions by representative directors such as Crialese, Garrone, Moretti, Rorhwacher are included. Knowledge of Italian not required.

SCRN 3503: Japanese Horror, Kathryn Barton

Contemporary Japanese horror cinema has spawned so many imitators of its subject matter, style, and cinematic technique that it has practically become a movement unto itself. We will consider everything from vengeful ghost stories to serial killer thrillers, body horror to techno-horror, while considering the following: 1) What does J-horror owe to traditional folklore and forms of visual art? 2) How are monsters conceived and depicted, 3) modernity problematized, and 4) what makes us afraid? How does horror elicit feelings of dread, suspense, terror, shock, and fear? What is so pleasurable about horror and what is the sociological function served by such affective states? No previous classes in Japanese culture or language are required, and all readings, films and discussions are in English.

SCRN 3505: Cinematic Ghost, June Pulliam

The ghost has been the subject of film ever since the early days of cinema, beginning with the 1897 with Georges Méliès now-lost short film The Haunted Castle. But the cinematic ghost was not a frightening figure until 1944 in the film The Uninvited. Previous filmic representations of ghosts were comic rather than horrifying. Today, the ghost film transcends the horror genre, and many ghost films are mainstream classics including M. Knight Shamalyan’s The Sixth Sense, Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and Robert Zimeckis’ What Lies Beneath. In the Cinematic Ghost, we will explore how the ghost is represented in films from different eras and cultures.

SCRN 4001: The New Documentary, James Catano

Cinema begins with documentary: the form via Lumiéres’s actualités, the name from Grierson’s Drifters and Night Mail. Overtaken in subsequent years by fictional film, contemporary documentary has roared back. Buoyed by new equipment, a sense of expression, political activism, and a wave of viewer interest, documentary is alive and well once more in theaters and on new media everywhere. “New Documentary” works within this arena, visiting films made for theater, installations, television, and the cellphone. Class work will consist of short production pieces in the genre as well as writing about the form. No previous film experience is required. No course prerequisites.

SCRN 4015, Advanced Editing & Sound Design, Glen Pitre

Through exercises built around post production of two actual films, one fictional and the other documentary, students who already have a basic knowledge of editing using Adobe Premiere Pro software will learn and practice each of the steps that go into turning a pile of raw movie footage into a finished film including the creation of assemblies, rough cuts, and fine cuts, spotting, sound design, musical scoring, ADR, dialogue and effects editing, mixing, visual effects, color correction, etc. Students who satisfactorily complete the course will be given an on-screen credit in the actual finished films.

GERM 4046, German Film

GERM 4046 German Film (3) An overview of German cinema from the 1930s to the present, with an emphasis on contemporary film and the essentials of film analysis. The overarching topic will be doubling, duality and duplicity. A topic prominent in film history in general, in German cinema the topic takes on special relevance as figures of duality provide a vehicle to explore the complicated history of 20th century Germany’s two dictatorships. Both during and after the reign of these authoritarian regimes, duplicity was widely common, often offering the only possible way to survive. Knowledge of German not required. All films available online and in the Foreign Language Film Library. Prof. Gundela Hachmann