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07:211:110
Introduction to Filmmaking (3)
Have
you ever thought deeply about what it takes to make a movie? Have you ever
wanted to learn the tools and techniques of the film maker, transforming your
research, creative practice, idea, or experience into a film? Whether you are a
scientist or painter, a journalist or poet, this rigorous introduction to
filmmaking will teach you the foundational methods you need to stage, shoot,
and edit sounds and images into works of film art. Through readings, film
screenings, technical workshops, classroom discussions and critiques, and
production assignments, we will learn to use film to study, story, and
experiment. Our focus will span narrative, documentary, and avant-garde practices
and will use this unique interdisciplinary course as an opportunity to examine
how film intersects with art, science, scholarship, and entertainment.
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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 with an ambitious final project.
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07:211:120
Cinematography (3)
In this class, 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.
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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.
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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 in each other's work.
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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.
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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.
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07:211:212
Digital Field Production (3)
This intent of this course is to give 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 pre-production and production stages of filmmaking.
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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.
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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 in class, then follow up with a group homework shoot that will be presented in the class.
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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.
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07:211:231
Image Postproduction (3)
This course is designed to provide a workshop opportunity for students to develop their post-production skills. We will explore a set of tools, concepts, and methods covering both primary and intermediate aspects of digital video post-production. 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 post-production.
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07:211:291
Intermediate Film Production I (4)
This course provides students with the opportunity to continue to gain theoretical and practical experience in the craft of conceptualizing and directing a film. Students will 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.
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07:211:292
Intermediate Film Production II (4)
This course provides students with the opportunity to 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.
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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.
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07:211:294
Introduction to Producing (3)
This course will introduce students to the multiple responsibilities of a film producer and will explore 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: pre-production, production, and how to prepare: budgets, shooting schedules, hiring crew, and tracking costs, and negotiating contracts.
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07:211:295
Special Topics in Digital Filmmaking (BA)
Explores in depth a unique topic in filmmaking. Topic determined by the program.
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07:211:300
Short Film Repurposed (3)
Intensive
postproduction course where students will explore the possibilities of moving
images from multiple artistic and conceptual perspectives. The course will engage with the tradition of science documentary filmmaking, as well as with
found footage/appropriated filmmaking. In the
first part of the course, students will 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 will make another film that is conceptually and artistically different. Students will be exposed to found/appropriated footage filmmaking and be expected to produce innovative and critical works from the images and obstructions presented in this course.
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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.
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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 with peer review.
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07:211:306
Short-Form Series Filmmaking (3)
Gives students hands-on experience as a producer,
writer, director, and editor of their own short-form serialized narratives.
Students will learn how to conceptualize and structure a Short-form Series.
They will 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 pre-production, production, and post-production.
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07:211:307
AI and New Technologies in Filmmaking (3)
This online
synchronous course focuses on giving students real-world learning experiences
with cutting-edge technologies in machine learning, generative AI, and other
spaces, in combination with storytelling fundamentals, to help students
navigate the next great tech revolution in cinema.
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07:211:308
Community Engaged Filmmaking (3)
What does a
filmmaking practice rooted in ethical and caring community engagement look
like? What tools and techniques are needed to create compelling films with
community partners? What is the metric of a successful community film
collaboration? In this rigorous introduction to community engaged filmmaking,
students will learn to identify and collaborate with community partners to
create captivating and impactful films. Through readings, film screenings,
classroom discussions, production workshops, and community endeavors, students
will explore crucial stylistic and social characteristics of community film and
will learn strategies for sharing authorship and engaging community members.
Students will be exposed to a wide range of ethical considerations and fiction
and non-fiction approaches.
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07:211:320
Essay Filmmaking (3)
Film critic
Alexandre Astruc created the term camera-stylo to suggest a new means of
writing through cinema, 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 will 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 towards honing their
own artistic practices. Students will
produce two short essay film exercises and one 8-12 minute final film that
addresses or responds to the materials covered in the class.
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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, cinema verité, 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.
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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.
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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 the emphasis is placed on non- narrative
works, which generally stress nonlinear and/or abstract expression via form,
color, and movement, the course also considers narrative and documentary films
that utilize the 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.
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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.
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07:211:391
Advanced Directing I (4)
This advanced course is designed to enable students
to produce from conception to completion a short fiction film. 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 3 projects in addition to their directing
project. An understanding of historical and aesthetic issues that have shaped
the development of narrative film will comprise a significant part of the
course. The class will consist of continuous feedback sessions throughout the
development of each student's script, rough cut, and final cut.
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07:211:392
Advanced Directing II (4)
In this advanced course, students enrolled in the course will complete a documentary film. In class, students will workshop every project through all the stages of production and discuss the general stylistic approach of each film. An understanding of historical and aesthetic issues that have shaped the development of documentary film will comprise a significant part of the course. Students will 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.
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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.
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07:211:495
Independent Study (1-4)
In this independent study, students working on an individual project will have the chance to 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.
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07:211:498
D. Filmmaking Internship (3)
Immerse
yourself in the world of media through our internship course. This program
offers students the opportunity to work alongside professionals at media
companies, gaining valuable insights into the industry's operations. Enhance
your understanding of production, marketing, and distribution in a
collaborative, real-world environment. Develop the skills and connections in
the media and entertainment sectors, allowing you to build a strong
professional network and gain practical knowledge.
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Mason Gross School of the Arts 
