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Twin Cities Campus

Studies in Cinema and Media Culture Minor

Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature
College of Liberal Arts
  • Program Type: Undergraduate minor related to major
  • Requirements for this program are current for Spring 2016
  • Required credits in this minor: 18
Studies in cinema and media culture (SCMC) examines cinema by emphasizing its location within the intricate social, historical, and cultural matrix of audiovisual forms and practices.
Program Delivery
This program is available:
  • via classroom (the majority of instruction is face-to-face)
Minor Requirements
Students may earn a B.A. or a minor in studies in cinema and media culture, but not both.
Minor Courses
ARTH 1921W - Introduction to Film Study [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 1201W - Cinema [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
or CSCL 1921W {Inactive} [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
or SCMC 1201W - Cinema [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
Electives
Take at least 14 credits of electives at the 3xxx-5xxx level.
Take 14 or more credit(s) from the following:
· AFRO 3654 - African Cinema [AH, GP] (3.0 cr)
· AFRO 3655 {Inactive} [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· AMES 3356W - Chinese Film [AH, WI] (3.0 cr)
· AMES 3456 - Japanese Film [GP] (3.0 cr)
· AMES 3556 - Korean Film and Media [AH, GP] (3.0 cr)
· AMIN 3402 - American Indians and the Cinema [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· AMST 3252W {Inactive} [HIS, CIV, WI] (3.0 cr)
· AMST 3253W - American Popular Culture and Politics: 1940 to the Present [HIS, CIV, WI] (4.0 cr)
· ARTH 3921W - Art of the Film [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 3240 {Inactive} (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 3750 - Narrative Digital Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 3760 - Experimental Film and Video (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 3730 - Intermediate Digital Photography (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 5610 {Inactive} (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 5750 - Advanced Narrative Digital Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
· ARTS 5760 - Experimental Film and Video (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3201 - Introduction to Electronic Media Production (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3204 - Advanced Electronic Media Production (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3211 - Introduction to Media Studies (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3231 - Reality TV: History, Culture, and Economics (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4245 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4263 - Feminist Media Studies [DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5211 - Critical Media Studies: Theory and Methods (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5261 - Political Economy of Media Culture (3.0 cr)
· CSCL 3210 - Cinema and Ideology [AH] (4.0 cr)
· CSCL 3211 - Global and Transnational Cinemas [GP] (4.0 cr)
· CSCL 3221 - On Television [CIV] (3.0 cr)
· CSCL 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics [AH, CIV, WI] (4.0 cr)
· CSCL 3993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
· CSCL 4993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
· CSCL 5411 - Avant-Garde Cinema (4.0 cr)
· CSCL 5993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
· ENGL 3040 - Studies in Film (3.0 cr)
· ENGW 4205 - Screenwriting (3.0 cr)
· ENGW 5207 {Inactive} (4.0 cr)
· FREN 3451 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· FRIT 3802 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· GER 3604W - Introduction to German Cinema [AH, GP, WI] (3.0 cr)
· GWSS 3307 - Feminist Film Studies [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· GWSS 3409W - Asian American Women's Cultural Production [AH, DSJ, WI] (3.0 cr)
· HSCI 4321 - History of Computing [TS, HIS] (3.0 cr)
· JOUR 3614 - History of Media Communication [HIS, TS] (3.0 cr)
· JOUR 3615 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· JOUR 3741 - Diversity and Media [DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· JOUR 3745 - Media and Popular Culture [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· JOUR 3786 - Media and Politics (3.0 cr)
· JOUR 5615 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· SCMC 3001W - History of Cinema and Media Culture [WI] (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3201 - Fundamentals of Digital Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3202 - Intermediate Digital Filmmaking (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 3993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
· SCMC 4993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
· SCMC 5001 - Critical Debates in the Study of Cinema and Media Culture (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 5002 - Advanced Film Analysis (4.0 cr)
· SCMC 5993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
· SPAN 3800 - Film Studies in Spanish (3.0 cr)
· TH 4550 {Inactive} (3.0 cr)
· GEOG 3374W - The City in Film [AH, WI] (4.0 cr)
or GEOG 5374 {Inactive} (4.0 cr)
 
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· College of Liberal Arts

View future requirement(s):
· Fall 2022
· Fall 2020
· Fall 2018
· Fall 2016


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· Studies in Cinema and Media Culture Minor
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ARTH 1921W - Introduction to Film Study (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall
Fundamentals of film analysis and an introduction to the major theories of the cinema, presented through detailed interpretations of representative films from the international history of the cinema.
CSCL 1201W - Cinema (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to the critical study of the visual in modernity, presented through sustained analysis of the cinema and cinematic codes. Emphases on formal film analysis and major film movements and conventions in the international history of cinema. Students develop a vocabulary for formal visual analysis and explore major theories of the cinema. *Students will not receive credit for CSCL 1201W if they have already taken SCMC 1201W, CSCL 1201V, SCMC 1201V, ARTH 1921W, CSCL 1921W, CSCL 1201 or SCMC 1201
SCMC 1201W - Cinema (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtH 1921W/CSCL 1201W/SCMC 120
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Introduction to the critical study of the visual in modernity, presented through sustained analysis of the cinema and cinematic codes. Emphases on formal film analysis and major film movements and conventions in the international history of cinema. Students develop a vocabulary for formal visual analysis and explore major theories of the cinema. *Students will not receive credit for CSCL 1201W if they have already taken SCMC 1201W, ARTH 1921W, CSCL 1921W, CSCL 1201 or SCMC 1201
AFRO 3654 - African Cinema (AH, GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Summer
This course introduces you to films written and directed by African filmmakers beginning the 2nd part of the 20th Century. Through an exploration of the stylistic and thematic issues raised by each film, it is expected that students will gain a broad understanding of how African filmmakers portray African social and cultural life, including the artistic and political contexts within which they work. In this way, students will gain an historical perspective on the origins of African filmmaking, confront the basic social, cultural and aesthetic questions raised by African filmmakers and critics, and consider how questions raised by African filmmakers and their films fit into the larger context of world cinema. We will contrast postcolonial African films with Hollywood jungle epics, settler/adventure romances in safari paradise, and colonial movies about Africa. Moving beyond strict categories and standards we will also examine the role of documentary films in shaping our understanding of African people's lives and the social construction of reality. We will review the place of documentary film in the current media-scape and discuss its functions and limitations. Most films will be screened in original languages with English subtitles.
AMES 3356W - Chinese Film (AH, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Survey of Chinese cinema from China (PRC), Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Emphasizes discussion/comparison of global, social, economic, sexual, gender, psychological, and other themes as represented through film.
AMES 3456 - Japanese Film (GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Themes, stylistics, and genres of Japanese cinema through work of classic directors (Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu) and more recent filmmakers (Itami, Morita). Focuses on representations of femininity/masculinity.
AMES 3556 - Korean Film and Media (AH, GP)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AMES 3556 / AMES 5556
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course is an introduction to Korean film from the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945) to the present day. We discuss the emergence of the Korean film industry under the conditions of colonial modernity and the various political pressures put on film production in South Korea until the 1990s. We will then turn to the last twenty years, during which South Korean film and television have experienced a boom in popularity in East Asia and globally. Throughout, we will focus on the formal and technical aspects of film, representations of history and historical memory, genre borrowing and genre mixing, and the relationships between art-house and culture industry productions.
AMIN 3402 - American Indians and the Cinema (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AmIn 3402/AmIn 5402
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring & Summer
Representations of American Indians in film, historically/contemporarily. What such representations assert about Native experience and cultural viability. What they reflect about particular relationships of power.
AMST 3253W - American Popular Culture and Politics: 1940 to the Present (HIS, CIV, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring & Summer
Historical analysis of how popular arts represent issues of gender, race, consumerism, and citizenship. How popular artists define boundaries of citizenship and public life: inclusions/exclusions in polity and national identity. How popular arts reinforce/alter political ideologies.
ARTH 3921W - Art of the Film (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
This course will engage with the history of film as an art form through a selection of significant movements, styles, filmmakers, institutions, and, of course, individual films from around the world. While this will not be a comprehensive study, it will address both mainstream, commercial films as well as oppositional, experimental, underground, and otherwise challenging works. Some of the wide-ranging selection of films we will watch and discuss: Germaine Dulac?s La Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman) (1922), Gillo Pontecorvo?s The Battle of Algiers (1966), Julie Dash?s Daughters of the Dust (1991), and Alfonso Cuarón?s Roma (2018).
ARTS 3750 - Narrative Digital Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3750/ArtS 5750
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
The class approaches Filmmaking as an art form and is designed to heighten students' awareness of the variety of ways narratives can be constructed and developed through moving images and sound. Students will spend the semester making an original short fictional narrative or documentary film which they shoot and edit. Through development, pre-production, production, and post-production processes, students work with original ideas and material to discover alternative ways of telling their stories. The first section of the class is dedicated to developing their ideas, studying scene design, character development, and various forms of narrative filmmaking that they will use to write a short original screenplay. The second section of the class is dedicated to pre-production and production, including planning for and shooting their screenplay and applying innovative cinematography and audio techniques to tell their stories in image and sound. The last section of the class is devoted to post-production, including editing video and audio and finishing the film. When editing, students will edit various versions of scenes to explore interesting and unplanned changes in tone and flow in their films. Finally, students will finish their films and participate in an end-of-semester public screening. Prerequisite: 1704 or instructor consent
ARTS 3760 - Experimental Film and Video
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3760/ArtS 5760
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Experimental moving image practice is increasingly prevalent within contemporary art and cinema. This class is designed to heighten your awareness and experience of the variety of ways feeling and perception can be explored through moving images and sound. We will step beyond traditional narrative structures and conventions of camera use to explore the spiritual, conceptual, and emotional potential of the medium. There will be individual and collaborative group work on elements of film production - character design, location and scene design, writing, improvisational and scripted acting and shooting, camera and sound recording tools and techniques, editing, and post-production. The class will include screenings, readings and discussion of experimental films from the inception of the avant-garde through the most contemporary experimental work being produced today. You will explore the visual and aural experience of moving image and sound through a variety of alternative shooting, recording, editing and interdisciplinary installation and presentation options. Students begin the semester by developing a film concept and planning production. Working individually and collaboratively, you will then shoot the film and complete a preliminary edit. Through critiques and further editing and shooting, you will work, re-work, and start over with your material to discover unplanned changes in tone, flow, experience, and meaning. Students need to provide their own portable drive and 1-2 SD cards for each class, and may choose to purchase their own subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud if they wish to use their own computer. Prerequisite: ARTS 1704
ARTS 3730 - Intermediate Digital Photography
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
In a world of images, what are ways you can use digital photography? This class explores those possibilities. You will consider your own image making in the context of contemporary art, current events, photographic history, and the universe of imagery in which we live. This class builds on 1701 Intro to Photography, approaching photography as a means of expression, investigation, critical inquiry, and interaction. The emphasis is on finding your personal voice and direction as a photographic artist. Students come to this class with a working knowledge of basic camera operation and photographic principles, from technical to aesthetic and conceptual. Students will learn and use advanced digital tools and workflow in the service of their own creative exploration. We will examine the changing role of digital image production and distribution in society. This class is organized around a series of project assignments and exercises. These prompts are opportunities to engage with both your own physical surroundings and the larger world. Smartphone cameras, social media and mass dissemination of images have changed people's everyday lives. These tools have been at the forefront during the pandemic and to highlight long-standing systems of violence. This class engages with these topics. Projects will be completed with manually controlled advanced digital cameras, cell phone cameras, found images (print, negatives and / or digital), and more. Prerequisite: ARTS 1701
ARTS 5750 - Advanced Narrative Digital Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3750/ArtS 5750
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
The class approaches Filmmaking as an art form and is designed to heighten students' awareness of the variety of ways narratives can be constructed and developed through moving images and sound. Students will spend the semester making an original short fictional narrative or documentary film which they shoot and edit. Through development, pre-production, production, and post-production processes, students work with original ideas and material to discover alternative ways of telling their stories. The first section of the class is dedicated to developing their ideas, studying scene design, character development, and various forms of narrative filmmaking that they will use to write a short original screenplay. The second section of the class is dedicated to pre-production and production, including planning for and shooting their screenplay and applying innovative cinematography and audio techniques to tell their stories in image and sound. The last section of the class is devoted to post-production, including editing video and audio and finishing the film. When editing, students will edit various versions of scenes to explore interesting and unplanned changes in tone and flow in their films. Finally, students will finish their films and participate in an end-of-semester public screening. Prerequisite: 3750 or Graduate Student
ARTS 5760 - Experimental Film and Video
Credits: 4.0 [max 12.0]
Course Equivalencies: ArtS 3760/ArtS 5760
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Experimental moving image practice is increasingly prevalent within contemporary art and cinema. This class is designed to heighten your awareness and experience of the variety of ways feeling and perception can be explored through moving images and sound. We will step beyond traditional narrative structures and conventions of camera use to explore the spiritual, conceptual, and emotional potential of the medium. There will be individual and collaborative group work on elements of film production - character design, location and scene design, writing, improvisational and scripted acting and shooting, camera and sound recording tools and techniques, editing, and post-production. The class will include screenings, readings and discussion of experimental films from the inception of the avant-garde through the most contemporary experimental work being produced today. You will explore the visual and aural experience of moving image and sound through a variety of alternative shooting, recording, editing and interdisciplinary installation and presentation options. Students begin the semester by developing a film concept and planning production. Working individually and collaboratively, you will then shoot the film and complete a preliminary edit. Through critiques and further editing and shooting, you will work, re-work, and start over with your material to discover unplanned changes in tone, flow, experience, and meaning. Students need to provide their own portable drive and 1-2 SD cards for each class, and may choose to purchase their own subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud if they wish to use their own computer. Prerequisite: ARTS major, ARTS 1704
COMM 3201 - Introduction to Electronic Media Production
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Students work as a team to plan, script, and shoot video productions in a hands-on multi-camera television studio. By creating their own productions and reviewing the productions of others, students learn how media aesthetics shape the presentation of themes and messages.
COMM 3204 - Advanced Electronic Media Production
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Video as communicative medium integrating visual/aural aesthetics. Creation of broadcast-quality production integrating message creation, audience analysis, argument development, and visual/audio scripting. Utilization of media aesthetics to develop/shape production content. prereq: 3201 or instr consent
COMM 3211 - Introduction to Media Studies
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Historical development and current issues in electronic media technologies and programming. Effects of governmental, industrial, and public organizations on message content. Problem areas of electronic media.
COMM 3231 - Reality TV: History, Culture, and Economics
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Social, visual, cultural, economic, historical, and ethical dimensions of reality television.
COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Analysis of media images/messages. Principles of literacy. Media content/industries. Media and identity. Media effects. Textbook/packet readings, videos, small groups of peer writing workshops, media analyses.
COMM 4263 - Feminist Media Studies (DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Issues, controversies, and practices of gender and their relationship to U.S. media. Ways in which gender is represented in and comes into play with media texts/institutions. Histories of feminism, theories/methods/political economy, case studies. prereq: 3211 or instr consent
COMM 5211 - Critical Media Studies: Theory and Methods
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Survey of theories, research methods, and scholars dominating critical media studies since late 1920s. prereq: Graduate students or undergraduates who have completed COMM 3211 (Introduction to Media Studies) or its equivalent
COMM 5261 - Political Economy of Media Culture
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Organizational practices of media communicators. Media content as link between communicators and audiences. How viewers use/process media content. prereq: 3211 or instr consent
CSCL 3210 - Cinema and Ideology (AH)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3210/SCMC 3210
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
The cinema as a social institution with emphasis on the complex relations it maintains with the ideological practices that define both the form and the content of its products. Specific films used to study how mass culture contributes to the process of shaping beliefs and identities of citizens.
CSCL 3211 - Global and Transnational Cinemas (GP)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3211/SCMC 3211
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
This course explores Global and Transnational Cinemas as alternative traditions to the dominant Hollywood-centered accounts of film history. Students will grapple with the historical, social, and political motivations of cinematic projects that critique traditions of national cinema, or that resist the hegemonic force of neocolonial cultural centers. Italian Neo-realism and the French New Wave will be examined as movements that challenge politics and mass culture. Third Cinema in Latin America and pan-African cinematic movements will be examined through their struggles with both colonialism and the rise of post-colonial dictatorships. Indian and Japanese cinemas of the 50s & 60s will mark out new possibilities of filmmaking and distribution. Finally, counter-hegemonic and experimental movements in U.S.-based film, such as the L.A. Rebellion and Fluxus, will allow students to understand how opposition to Hollywood style could exist within the very centers of cultural power while also reaching out to larger global communities.
CSCL 3221 - On Television (CIV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3221/SCMC 3221
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
We will study writings on television and specific TV shows from a variety of angles to understand the rise of American broadcast technologies, how race and class are crafted on TV, representations of gender and the home, postmodernity and late capitalism, the rise and demise and of taste, global television and the public sphere, the production of ?reality? in our present historical moment, and changes in televisual technologies. Throughout the course, we will also consider what constitutes television?the technology, the form, and the content?and learn to read these three facets of it concurrently.
CSCL 3212W - Documentary Cinema: History and Politics (AH, CIV, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 3212W/SCMC 3212W
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
This course explores the ethics and aesthetics of documentary cinema, arguably the very first genre of film. We will track the way documentary has widened from largely instructional and experimental uses early in its history to become a distinct genre among today?s familiar feature films. We will screen early documentaries, which may include shocking ethnographies (Nanook of the North, The Mad Masters). Over the course of the term, the syllabus makes its way to recent exemplars of the genre (films may include: Amy, American Teen, I Am Not Your Negro, A Jihad for Love, Generation Wealth, Fetish, Blackfish and so on). One of our aims will be to explore students? relations as viewers and documentarians themselves (via smartphones, Instagram, etc.) to this participatory, revelatory, and always controversial, politically fraught film practice. Documentary Cinema includes both full class lectures and discussions as well as small group discussion of films and readings, and may include the opportunity for students to create their own personal documentary. Intellectually, the course balances out a study of the grammar of documentary as an artistic practice with explorations of the ways the genre reflects broader currents of cinematic and cultural history. By the end of the semester, students should have a stronger understanding of the ways documentary cinema opens our senses to the world around us.
CSCL 3993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Guided individual reading or study. Prereq-instr consent, dept consent, college consent.
CSCL 4993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 6.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Guided individual study.
CSCL 5411 - Avant-Garde Cinema
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall
In 1939, the art critic Clement Greenberg defined avant-garde art in opposition to the ?kitsch? of mass-produced culture. To what extent does this conception of the avant-garde apply to the cinema?an institution and art form that supposedly requires machines and industrial modes of production? This course introduces students to key works of avant-garde and experimental film made by artists working on the margins of commercial film and mainstream art institutions. From the first half of the twentieth century, we will consider influential films made under the banners of Futurism, Constructivism, Surrealism, and Dada, and discuss their complex relation to Hollywood commodities. In the postwar period, we will explore a range of increasingly global experimental film practices, from the queer underground cinema in Latin America to the use of film projection in avant-garde performance. We will examine these practices in light of larger debates about medium specificity as well as the aesthetics and politics of the personal vs. the structural. In the final unit, we will reflect on the way contemporary artists, scholars, and curators have assembled a tradition of avant-garde cinema in the age of new media, and contemplate new directions we want it to take.
CSCL 5993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 9.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSCL 5993/CSDS 5993
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Guided individual reading or study. Prereq-instr consent, dept consent, college consent.
ENGL 3040 - Studies in Film
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Course Equivalencies: EngL 3040/EngL 3040H
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Topics regarding film in variety of interpretive contexts, from range/historic development of American, English, Anglophone film.
ENGW 4205 - Screenwriting
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: EngW 4205/EngW 5205
Grading Basis: OPT No Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
An introductory workshop to screenwriting basics, including formatting, style, and structure. In-class and take-home exercises will assist the students in learning techniques for developing engaging characters, writing concise description and vivid dialogue, and outlining a usable plot. prereq: EngL 3001W or 3001V or EngW 3102 or 3104 or 3106 or 3110, or jr or sr in SCMC major or minor
GER 3604W - Introduction to German Cinema (AH, GP, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Fall Even, Spring Odd Year
An introduction to the study of German cinema, with a focus on the relation between German film and German history, literature, culture, and politics.
GWSS 3307 - Feminist Film Studies (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Construction of different notions of gender in film, social uses of these portrayals. Lectures on film criticism, film viewings, class discussions.
GWSS 3409W - Asian American Women's Cultural Production (AH, DSJ, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AAS 3409W/GWSS 3409W
Typically offered: Every Fall
Analysis of media, art, literature, performance, on artistic contributions. History, politics, culture of Asian American women. Interpret cultural production to better understand role of race, gender, nation within American society/citizenship.
HSCI 4321 - History of Computing (TS, HIS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: CSci 4921/HSci 4321
Typically offered: Fall Even, Spring Odd Year
Developments in the last 150 years; evolution of hardware and software; growth of computer and semiconductor industries and their relation to other business areas; changing relationships resulting from new data-gathering and analysis techniques; automation; social and ethical issues.
JOUR 3614 - History of Media Communication (HIS, TS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Glos 3605/Hist 3705/Jour 3614
Typically offered: Every Spring
In the history of humankind, there have been five major changes in how we communicate and we're in the middle of the latest revolution. This class helps you make sense of these uncharted waters by exploring how humanity adopted, and adapted to, past disruptions. From the alphabet to the internet and social media, learn how technological innovations in the media have changed not only how people share information and values but also what people have communicated throughout history. We will learn about these five phases in mediated communication over 5,000 years, and how they relate to major changes in politics, society and culture. And then we'll use history's lessons to peek into the future: When presidents tweet and everyone's foodie photos are on Instagram, how does the world communicate?
JOUR 3741 - Diversity and Media (DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
How are our perceptions of crime been influenced by the news? How do social movements use media to share their messages? What can we as audiences do? Social media, news and entertainment media help shape our ideas about identity and differences. Learn how representation and inclusion have been negotiated through media with a particular focus on local case studies. Topics include race, ethnicity, social class, physical ability, and gender. Students will learn how to use media literacy to build a just and equitable society.
JOUR 3745 - Media and Popular Culture (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Popular culture is everywhere. Social media, film, music, video games, television, websites, and news bring popular culture into our daily lives. In this class, we will examine popular culture in modern and historical contexts through various mass communication, sociological, and cultural theories. Is popular culture of the people? or dictated by corporate interests? What social and commercial pressures result in stereotypes, misrepresentation and exclusion in popular culture? Does popular culture mirror or shape social reality? This course will provide you with the tools to become active and thoughtful consumers of media and popular culture.
JOUR 3786 - Media and Politics
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Jour 3786/Pol 3786
Typically offered: Every Fall
Do facts matter anymore? Is press freedom under threat? Are audiences trapped in filter bubbles? Why do people hate the media, and how can the news be improved to better serve citizens? Explore the historical and contemporary dynamics that shape the relationship between professionals in the media, the mass public, and political actors across different parts of government. Study major forms of mass media, including television and newspapers, alongside new forms such as digital and social media. Look at specific reporting rituals and practices, as well as issues involving media ownership, regulation, ethics, and press freedom. We will study politicians? efforts to craft messages, advertise strategically, and target select audiences for political gain. The course will focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the United States, and you will be asked to engage with current events and the role of communication technologies in political and civic life.
SCMC 3001W - History of Cinema and Media Culture (WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Genealogy of cinema in relation to other media, notably photography, radio, television/video, and the Internet. Representative films from decisive moments in global development of cinema. Rise/fall of Hollywood studio system, establishment of different national cinemas, cinematic challenges to cultural imperialism, emergence of post-cinematic technologies.
SCMC 3201 - Fundamentals of Digital Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
Practice of digital filmmaking. Digital techniques, practical tools required to produce films. Optical/digital devices as artistic tools. Historical/theoretical issues of cinema, its relation to other art forms.
SCMC 3202 - Intermediate Digital Filmmaking
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Students complete a film of any length, 24 frames or feature-length. Emphasizes formal analysis of frames, shots, sequences, and relations of unit (frame or shot) to whole. prereq: 3201 or instr consent
SCMC 3993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 6.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Guided individual reading or study.
SCMC 4993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 6.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Guided individual reading or study.
SCMC 5001 - Critical Debates in the Study of Cinema and Media Culture
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
This course serves as a capstone within the Studies in Cinema and Media Culture program as well as an advanced seminar in cinema and media theory. It covers such topics as contemporary cinema, transnational television, video games, digital networks, and surveillance technologies. It builds on the knowledge of cinema and media studies that students have developed over their undergraduate education. Students are given the resources and encouragement to construct larger reading and viewing lists that will further develop their knowledge of media and cinema. The final grade is based on participation, critical essays, weekly viewing assignments, and an individualized project that can include creative and professional interests.
SCMC 5002 - Advanced Film Analysis
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Application of textual analysis to the reading of a film. Students work collaboratively to discern and interpret all component aural/visual elements of what the film says and how it says it.
SCMC 5993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 6.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Guided individual reading or study.
SPAN 3800 - Film Studies in Spanish
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Films from Spain or Spanish-speaking world in their historical, (geo)political, and socioeconomic contexts. Films analyzed under interdisciplinary frameworks, noting aspects related to cinematography/rhetoric. prereq: A grade of C- or better in SPAN 3104W or SPAN 3104V or TLDO 3104W or ARGN 3104W or SPAN 3105W or SPAN 3105V or TLDO 3105W or SPAN 3107W or SPAN 3107V or TLDO 3107W
GEOG 3374W - The City in Film (AH, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Course Equivalencies: Geog 3374W/3374V/5374W
Typically offered: Every Spring
Cinematic portrayal of changes in 20th-century cities worldwide including social and cultural conflict, political and economic processes, changing gender relationships, rural versus urban areas, and population and development issues (especially as they affect women and children).