Filmmaking 211

07:211:111 Sound (3) Introduces students to the fundamentals of producing audio for the moving image. Explores emerging techniques and strategies of sonic practice while also emphasizing underlying principles that have defined the film industry for the past century. Students will learn the essentials of recording audio in the field, editing, mixing, and sound design, with particular emphasis on acquiring critical listening skills. Students produce a series of short projects culminating in an ambitious final project.

07:211:120 Cinematography (3) Students will work with digital cameras to learn composition, lighting, lenses, and filters. They will study the language of film with a focus on visual storytelling. Students will become proficient in technical aspects of shooting digital cinema, both for documentary and narrative scenarios. 

07:211:191 Introduction to Film Production I (4) Through a series of short film and sound exercises this introductory course puts basic film theory, language, and dramatic structure for the screen into action. During the course, students will study formal devices such as camera framing, lighting, sound, dialogue, and editing choices.

07:211:192 Introduction to Film Production II (4) In this course, students will continue learning the basics of film language through a series of short film exercises. Each exercise will explore a specific approach or formal device. Using specific feedback exercises, students will learn to engage critically with each other's work.

07:211:205 Screenwriting (Short Film) (3) This introductory course allows students to learn the fundamentals of screenwriting while developing a short 12-16 page screenplay. Students will learn about dramatic structure, development of character, writing dialogue, developing a theme, and concept as it applies to writing a short screenplay. The students will create "video drafts" from their screenplay to provide them with the opportunity to visually explore creative ways to drive the narrative beyond the word on the page. This interaction between writing and production allows the screenwriter to explore visual language and visual storytelling.

07:211:211 Advanced Sound (3) This advanced audio course explores creative production and postproduction techniques for sound design. In this course, students will learn to design sound for an array of applications, from composition to sound for moving-image to sound installation. We also learn DIY and experimental strategies for sound production in the field. Students will work with ProTools digital audio workstations and field recorders to produce a range of projects oriented around a set of unique design challenges.

07:211:212 Digital Field Production (3) This course gives students a comprehensive understanding of group-oriented Digital Field Production which can be applied to both fiction and documentary production strategies. Students will receive training on various camera systems and audio equipment. This is a hands-on, field-production course that covers single- and multi-camera shoots in multiple settings and locations. Students will work in small groups in a wide variety of real-world production situations. Students will learn production skill sets and the importance of collaborative processes in both the preproduction and production stages of filmmaking.

07:211:217 Horror Film Production (3) This production course is a deep consideration of horror as both subject and cinematic/artistic form. Horror has been dismissed for its "crude" aesthetics; criticized for the pleasures it takes in violence, misogyny, racism, escapism, etc.; and lauded as a potential vehicle for subversion and critique. Class viewings will include a wide array of narrative fiction ("canonical", Hollywood, B-movies, cult films, arthouse, foreign, etc.), experimental films, and documentary, as well as works of video art, performance, photography, and radio. Class readings draw from film studies, cultural studies, psychoanalysis, and fiction. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to filmmaking, students will produce one nonfilmic work (audio, performance, or creative writing), a non-narrative "horror" short film, and one final film.

07:211:220 Advanced Cinematography (3) This is an intensive hands-on production course, intended to serve as a venue through which students will expand upon the skills they have acquired through Cinematography (211:120). In this course, students will learn more sophisticated lighting techniques, advanced composition, color, and different lens options. Students will study films for specific techniques, then attempt to shoot using those techniques in class, then follow up with a group homework shoot that will be presented in the class.

07:211:230 Animation 2-D (3) Introduces the basic terminology, concepts, and principles of 2-D animation intended to illustrate or reinforce narrative concepts. It covers three distinct techniques within 2-D animation: animating for the web, stop motion animation, and 2-D, vector-based animation. While focusing on technical aspects of 2-D animation, this course takes into consideration the historical perspective, current technologies, and applications of animation within documentary and fiction film.

07:211:231 Image Postproduction (3) This course provides a workshop opportunity for students to develop their postproduction skills. We will explore a set of tools, concepts, and methods covering both primary and intermediate aspects of digital video postproduction. Over the course of the semester, we will delve into editing, compositing, sync sound, color correction/grading, and exporting techniques. The class time will be comprised of lectures, readings, exercises, and screenings to help students build a technical and aesthetic foundation in digital postproduction.

07:211:291 Intermediate Film Production I (4) In this course, students continue to gain theoretical and practical experience in the craft of conceptualizing and directing a film. Students put film theory, language, grammar, and dramatic structure for the screen into action. This course builds on the fundamentals of film language and basic visual grammar, concentrating on collaboration, staging, shooting, and editing. Through lectures, readings, and screenings, students will engage in discussions regarding various formal approaches to cinema. By the end of the semester, students will have produced and directed four assignments guided by formal restrictions.

07:211:292 Intermediate Film Production II (4) In this course. students expand upon theoretical and practical experience in the craft of conceptualizing and directing films. Students produce, direct, and edit three exercises and a final project of their choosing. Thematic restrictions will guide each exercise. Students learn to work in groups and share the responsibilities in the filmmaking process. Through lectures, readings, and screenings, students will engage in discussions regarding various formal approaches to cinema.

07:211:293 Directing the Actor (3) This is a workshop course designed to develop techniques for directing engaging and believable on-screen performances. Exercises and assignments will emphasize the relationship between the director and actor. Through script analysis, rehearsals, and scene performances, students will learn the fundamentals of the acting process and gain the necessary skills to communicate their objectives and intentions with actors effectively.

07:211:294 Introduction to Producing (3) This course introduces students to the multiple responsibilities of a film producer and explores how producers ensure all legal, financial, and safety requirements while also helping fulfill the film's creative and commercial potential. This course will also cover pr-production and production; how to prepare budgets, shooting schedules, hiring crew, and tracking costs; and negotiating contracts.

07:211:295 Special Topics in Digital Filmmaking (BA) Explores in depth a unique topic in filmmaking. Topic determined by the program.

07:211:300 Short Film Repurposed (3) Intensive postproduction course where students explore the possibilities of moving images from multiple artistic and conceptual perspectives. The course engages with the tradition of science documentary filmmaking, as well as with found footage/appropriated filmmaking. In the first part of the course, students complete a short documentary film focusing on the needs of scientists and/or science communication. For the second part, using the raw footage of their science films, students make another film that is conceptually and artistically different. Students are exposed to found/appropriated footage filmmaking and are expected to produce innovative and critical works from the images and obstructions presented in this course.

07:211:301 Sensory Ethnography (3) This course introduces students to sensory ethnography as both a research method and aesthetic approach to filmmaking. Through in-class screenings, production workshops, and seminar, students are exposed to the key terms and debates fundamental to ethnographic filmmaking, the films, and filmmakers crucial to its evolving practice, and the tools and techniques used to produce sensory films. The course will continually interrogate the relationships between film form, content, and the ethnographic method. Students will produce two short production assignments, a detailed written treatment, and a sensory ethnography film.

07:211:305 Screenwriting: Feature Film I (3) This course allows students to advance their screenwriting abilities while developing a feature-length screenplay.  During this course, students will continue their learning of the fundamentals of screenwriting and apply those principles to the development of a step-outline and the first act of a feature-length screenplay (approximately 25-30 pages). The class will be a mixture of lecture, screenplay analysis, discussion of viewed films, and workshopping of the students' step-outline and screenplays through peer review.

07:211:306 Web Filmmaking (3) Gives students hands-on experience as a producer, writer, director, and editor of their own web-based serialized narratives. Students learn how to conceptualize and structure a web series. They write two screenplays or documentary treatments: the pilot and episode #1. The students will gain theoretical and practical experience in producing, directing, and editing as they work to complete these episodes through preproduction, production, and postproduction.

07:211:320 Essay Filmmaking (3) Film critic Alexandre Astruc created the term camera-stylo to suggest a new means of writing through the camera, in which the camera would serve as a pen, creating arguments, mediation, and inquiries. Film essays are usually a hybrid of different forms, often playing with documentary and fictional narrative conventions, and tend to be driven by theme rather than plot. Through lectures, in-class discussions, and feedback sessions, students develop a deep understanding of the essay film, its history, and the possibilities for its future practice. The goal is for students to study, negotiate, and engage the essay film's many potentialities as a means of honing their own artistic practices. Students produce two, short essay film exercises and one 8- to 12-minute final film that addresses or responds to the materials covered in the class.

07:211:325 Blurred Boundaries: An Introduction to Fact/Fiction Filmmaking (3) This course will examine filmmaking techniques that blur boundaries between fact and fiction. Students will explore the evolution of fact/fiction blurring through film movements such as direct cinema, cinéma vérité, realism and surrealism, ethno-fiction, slow cinema, auto-documentary, and found footage, among others. Students will create three assignments and a final film that utilizes similar techniques. This course will provide students with a foundational understanding of film form and grammar while challenging the assumption that film techniques can be reduced to film truths.  Students will learn approaches to filmmaking that seek to craft uncertain and enigmatic film experiences.

07:211:330 Animation 3-D (3) This course introduces the basic terminology, concepts, and principles of 3-D animation. It is designed to remove the complexities of modern digital 3-D development tools by examining each segment individually and reinforcing it with in-class workshops and weekly assignments. This course takes into consideration the historical evolution of 3-D animation, the current technologies, and applications of animation within documentary and fiction film.

07:211:337 Experimental Film (3) Production course based on an overview of key works and ideas that have informed "avant-garde" and "experimental" film, from their beginnings in the early years of cinema through the present day. While emphasis is placed on nonnarrative works, which generally stress nonlinear and/or abstract expression via form, color, and movement, the course also considers narrative and documentary films that utilize experimental form to challenge, question, and problematize traditional kinds of cinematic storytelling. Through in-class workshops and assignments, students will learn the fundamentals of experimental film production, including shooting on/working with 16mm, hand-processing, darkroom techniques, etc. Students will produce three short-film exercises and a final film.

07:211:375 Documentary Lab Production (3) In this course, students will be working exclusively on projects developed at the Documentary Film Lab.  As they craft advanced non-fiction film projects, students will learn (depending on the production schedule of projects at the Lab) pre-production, research methods, pre-conceptualization, methodologies of production, film portraiture, interviewing methods, non-fiction story structure, editing, and post-production. Students will develop and refine their documentary filmmaking skills with support and direction from a faculty instructor.

07:211:391 Advanced Directing I (4) This advanced course enables students to produce a short fiction film from conception to completion. In class, students will workshop every project through all the stages of production. Crew members for shoots can be drawn from within the course; each student is required to crew a minimum of three projects in addition to their directing project. Exploration of historical and aesthetic issues that have shaped the development of the narrative film comprises a significant part of the course. The course consists of continuous feedback sessions throughout the development of each student's script, rough cut, and final cut.

07:211:392 Advanced Directing II (4) In this advanced course, students complete a 7- to 10-minute documentary film. In class, students workshop every project through all the stages of production and discuss the general stylistic approach of each film. Exploration of historical and aesthetic issues that have shaped the development of documentary film comprises a significant part of the course. Students participate in various dynamic feedback exercises, which will encourage intellectual and artistic investment in each other's projects. A collaborative spirit of participation and discussion is essential as students engage with each student's work and collectively develop critical viewing skills.

07:211:491,492 Senior Thesis I,II (4,4) This two-semester culminating filmmaking workshop provides the framework and opportunity for senior B.F.A. film students to write, produce, direct, and edit a short thesis film. In this class, students will workshop every aspect of this project with student feedback. In the final semester, students will present their latest cut to faculty members for a thesis review panel. By the end of the semester, students will have produced, directed, and edited a short film that can be submitted to film festivals.

07:211:495 Independent Study (1-4) In this independent study, students working on an individual project will develop and refine their filmmaking skills with one-on-one support and direction from professional faculty. Students are offered supervision and instruction in all areas of filmmaking from technical to narrative structure as they craft their advanced film projects.