Fall 2023 Courses

SCRN Courses

 

 

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Course Descriptions

SCRN 2001 | Introduction to Screen Arts

Paul Catalanotto

In this introductory course taught by Artist-in-Residence Paul Catalanotto, students can expect to get a taste of different aspects of filmmaking and video production as well as study a variety of filmmakers, styles, and genres. 

SCRN 3001 | Cult Cinema

William Kahalley

How does a movie become a cult movie? Must its form or content transgress the notion of good taste? Does it have to have an obsessively adoring audience that loves the film beyond all reason? Is it still possible to be a cult movie in the 21st century? In this class, we will examine the numerous ways that cult film has been defined throughout history. Importantly, this class will also deal with cult cinema in relation to race, gender, sexuality, and class. We will also watch several films considered cult and explore their social, cultural, and political contexts, as well as their reception from the time of their release and their afterlives, to help us strengthen our understanding of what makes a cult film. 

SCRN 3010 | Cinematography

Glen Pitre

A mostly workshop course, SCRN 3010 is designed to teach motivated beginners how to use digital cameras and associated gear to tell compelling stories with moving images. Students complete successively more ambitious film assignments working hands-on with gear available for check out from Screen Arts. Planning and reviewing students’ films and practicing film industry procedures occupies the bulk of the 3 hour weekly class time. Emphasis is on how to control and manipulate lighting, framing, movement, sound, and image qualities to shape mood, convey emotion, tell story, and create a coherent look, first working individually, then as a crew. Classes will offer some basic, relevant cinema history but will concentrate on a workshop style, largely nuts-and-bolts approach. While grades remain private, the instructor’s critiques of each student’s work will be shared publicly among all students.

SCRN 3011 | Editing

Paul Catalanotto

SCRN 3011 explores editing theory and history as well as offering 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 3503: Classical Japanese Masters

Kathryn Barton

This course offers an introduction to the Classical Master Directors of Japanese cinema. Kurosawa (dir. Seven Samurai), Ozu (dir. Tokyo Story), and Mizoguchi (dir. Ugetsu). An analysis and appreciation of the major works of these very different directors will be explored to gain insight into the era in which they were made. For this term, we will focus on the 1920s through the 1970s. Through secondary readings, lectures, and discussions students will critically examine how Japanese cinema as an institution both responds to and intervenes in the social, cultural, and political history of Japan.

SCRN 3505 | Vampires in Film & Television

June Pulliam

The figure of the vampire is thousands of years old and common to most cultures.  The creature as we know it today originated from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (1897), which crystalized previous literary and folkloric representations the vampire. F. W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film Nosferatu, the first cinematic adaptation of Stoker’s novel, was nearly lost to history after Stoker’s widow successfully sued the director for copyright infringement and had nearly every copy destroyed. Universal Studios Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931) changed the monster from a hideous ancient creature to a suave, caped aristocrat whose charm beguiled potential victims. Later vampire films continued to represent the creature as a sexual predator as well as an actual predator, and the term “vamp” that described femme fatale characters is short for “vampire.” The vampire reached the height of its popularity in the 1990s thanks in part to Anne Rice’s novels and their film adaptations. In first two decades of the 21st century, however, the zombie better represented the cultural zeitgeist of the post 9/11 world and replaced the vampire as the dominant trend in horror film and fiction. Today though the vampire is enjoying a renaissance on the small screen thanks to FX’s comedy series What We Do in the Shadows as well as AMC’s series Interview with the Vampire, a more detailed adaptation of Rice’s novel than Neil Jordan’s 1992 film of the same name. In Vampires in Film and Television, we will trace the evolution of the vampire in these mediums as well as consider how they shape the creature as it is imagined in literature and graphic novels.

SCRN 4001 | Black Women in Film

Naomi Bennett

This course will trace the history, evolution, and contribution of Black women in film over the last hundred years. From Dorothy Dandridge and Fredi Washington, to Beyoncé and Keke Palmer, students will gain an expanded understanding of the ways in which Black women have been historically represented in American films. Topics will include issues of gender, sexuality, race, and colorism, and the ways in which Black female performers have worked to reclaim their agency to tell their own stories.

SCRN 4012 | Advanced Film Directing

Glen Pitre

Students who already have some background in practical filmmaking will learn in depth and detail the practices and disciplines that go into film directing by applying what they learn in class to, working together over the course of the semester, making one or more complete or near-complete short films suitable for submission to competitive film festivals, etc. Students will be shepherded by the instructor through the pre-production, production, and at least some post-production. These projects will be made as team efforts alongside fellow members of the class and may also employ the services of people outside the class. Enrolled students will hold directing-related crew positions such as screenwriter, producer, casting director, director of photography, editor, production designer, script supervisor, as well as director per se and may be asked to perform other roles as needed. Video lectures, workshop sessions, one-on-one consultations, and student presentations for class discussion and critique will all be employed in order to provide educational content and improve the quality of the finished films.

SCRN 4046 | Advanced German Film

Gundela Hachmann

Knowledge of German not required. German film in its socio-historic contexts with some attention to cinematic technique.

This course provides an overview of German cinema from the 1930s to the present, with an emphasis on contemporary films, and introduces the basics of film analysis. We pay particular attention to how films deploy doubling, duality and duplicity. Exploring the complexities of reality beyond a straight-forward surface appearance is an issue dear to the hearts of many filmmakers around the world, but in German cinema, the topic takes on special relevance as figures of duality or duplicity provide a vehicle to explore the complicated history of Germany in the 20th century.

All films will be available with English subtitles through online streaming services, mostly LSU’s Kanopy which is free of charge for students, and sometimes for-charge services such as Amazon Prime, Itunes, or Google Play. Students also have the option to watch the films in the Foreign Language Laboratory free of charge.

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ENGL 2009-1 | Writing Screenplays

Jason Buch

Want to write a movie? TV Pilot? Learn the form and structure of Screenwriting to bring your ideas to life, while reading, watching, and discussing current films and television programs. Workshop your scripts to get friendly and helpful feedback from your fellow students. You will write your own short script and begin work on a feature film script or television pilot.

ENGL 2009-2 | Writing Screenplays

Mari Kornhauser

Story tellers!  Come and learn the ins and outs of creating a feature film script by writing a series of short scripts and the first act of a feature (with the rest of the script outlined). You’ll watch films and tv shows of your choice to study, culminating in a short visual paper/powerpoint. Other forms of writing, such as collaborating with writing partners, writing for web-series and television, may be discussed and/or practiced. Plus, you will workshop each other’s work. MOST OF ALL, IT WILL BE FUN! 

ENGL 4009-1 | Intermediate TV & Film Writing

Jason Buch

This course is an intermediate workshop for students who are familiar with the craft and art of Screenwriting, intended to help students continue development of a feature film script or television pilot. Bring your work-in-progress or begin a new script, with a goal of completing the work by the end of the semester. In addition, we will discuss and analyze screenplays from successful films and television shows.

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CMST 2012 | Intro to Film

William Kahalley

Study and practice of film as a mode of communication and the basic language of cinema; selected films screened and studied. The course includes a required weekly screening and introductory video projects.

CMST 3107 | Rhetoric of Contemporary Media

Joni Butcher

This course will focus on TV sitcoms and opening theme songs from the 1960s to present day. We will use various methods of rhetorical criticism to examine the vocal, visual, and musical texts along with the historical contexts (including political, social, and economic) surrounding these shows and their opening themes. 

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CMST 7944 | Performance and Media: The Video Essay

Patricia Suchy

Since Web 2.0, the video essay has proliferated on platforms such as Vimeo and YouTube, in channels and sections of journals such as Every Frame a Picture and Sight and Sound, in specialized journals such as The Society for Cinema Studies' [in]Transition, on websites devoted to cinema such as MUBI and Fandor, and in special issues of the performance studies e-journal Liminalities. In this course, we will explore the history and practice of the video essay. We will immerse ourselves in examples of the form as we work to understand the video essay as scholarship with its own possibilities--not just as an illustrated traditional essay, but as an integral form of audio-visual scholarship. We will also consider issues such as copyright and legitimation of the video essay in academe. At the beginning of the seminar, each of the seminarians will select media objects (films, television series, new media works).  Each student will work through a series of videographic assignments based on these objects, showing and telling at our seminar meetings along the way, and culminating in the production of a full video essay and an accompanying text situating that essay historically and theoretically.  Experience with video technology is not a prerequisite, but you will be expected to use or learn to use basic audio and video technology.