This course supports ongoing development of both the technical and aesthetic principles of film and media art production. The course includes hands-on exercises and projects that explore individual and collaborative approaches to creation. Emphasis is on expanding student awareness of film and media in a range of screen and gallery-based practices. Principles of camera operation, composition, lighting, sound design, and editing are explored through class projects. Classes incorporate presentations, demonstrations, screenings, and field trips. Both individual and group projects go through several stages of critiqued development, from concept to completion, as students experiment with their unique approach to form and content.

This course is subject to priority rules; see here.

This course explores the fundamentals of analogue and digital cinematography. Students learn the basics of camera operation, light measurement, exposure, visual composition and lighting techniques. Basic electricity and its safe use in support of good and effective lighting will be introduced. Ultimately, students will be prepared for studio and location shooting environments. Class exercises enable students to explore the expressive elements of cinematography: composition, camera placement, camera angles, camera movement, and lens choice, which together with understanding the impact of lighting styles, will give students’ the tools to bring a unique and specific look to their productions.

This course is subject to priority rules; see here.

This course expands on interpretive skills developed in MHIS-205 by introducing students to key theoretical perspectives that impact media aesthetics and media culture at the levels of production, circulation, and reception. Theoretical perspectives may include formative lineages in media theory (e.g. semiotics and structuralism; political economy and Marxist theory; psychoanalysis; critical theory), key issues in the politics of media representation (e.g. taste cultures; gender studies; critical race theory; postcolonial and transnational studies), as well as more recent and emerging perspectives in contemporary media studies (e.g. affect theory; ecocriticism; indigenous studies). Students will engage with a selection of theoretical texts with the support of comprehensive lectures, required screenings, and active discussion seminars. The course grounds students in a broader critical and cultural awareness of contemporary media culture, as well as prepares students for subsequent more specialized upper-level courses.

This course is open to non-majors and covers the basics of mobile devices and DSLR time-based/ video production and post, including: camera operation; clipped-on lenses; exposure; color balance and manipulation, kits; codecs; sensors; basic lighting; basics of location sound recording; principles of editing and sound editing; color grading; titling; encoding, posting to web and on mobiles. Students bring their own devices (BYOD) and work with their own DSLRs, and/or mobile devices. This highly technical and creative course is particularly relevant for students who want to utilize media technology in their 3rd and 4th year work, and to enhance its potential by inventing new registers and genres. Additionally, this course emphasizes online, artistic/gallery, photo-journalistic and web applications.

This Film + Screen Arts media core studio allows for varying degrees of concentration and hybridity in a range of media practices, themes, and genres. This is a dramatic practice course in which individual and collaborative projects enable students to identify appropriate and preferred media practices, and synthesize these approaches using film, digital cinema, audio, online, web-based, interactive stories, and/or immersive, performative modalities. Foundational media skills from previous semesters are the basis for innovative and creative risk-taking that embraces specific cine-making processes and expands and cross-pollinates terrain between genres, industry genres, and the author’s approach. Project work is led by the director/author, albeit it is collaborative by nature, developing students’ multidisciplinary, team-working, and project management skills. Author-driven scripts and films will be analyzed and broken down, their components examined for purpose and intent. Students implement directing and producing concepts in their own films and class exercises and complete a significant workshop working with their actor(s), from casting and audition through rehearsal and principal photography. Students continue to refine their critical vocabulary and analytical and technical skills. They will have regular critiques and a tight timeline in which the projects must evolve from concept to completion. Students are expected to work on each other’s films covering key positions in either pre-production, production, and post-production and ensure that their third-year core studio experiences involve a solo project.

Documentary forms are constantly changing and inventing new approaches. This studio course will serve as a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of directing and making documentary film + screen art works. Students will explore and experience concept development, research and scripting, production, post-production, and presentation practices. Students will be introduced to a variety of genres and styles within the documentary tradition, which may include creative doc, advocacy for social and political change, personal and autobiographical, historical, film essay, experimental, ethnographic, observational, installation, and gallery-based practices. Teaching methods include screenings and discussions, hands-on workshops, exercises, individual and collaborative projects, and assigned readings exploring a variety of critical, aesthetic, technical, and ethical issues inherent in non-fiction practice. While the focus of the course is primarily on directing to documentary film, students may work on a variety of forms that include photo-roman, sound, media installation, and journalistic writing. Students will have regular critiques and develop a timetable in which their projects must evolve from concept to completion.

This course is built around the practical and aesthetic aspects of the student’s creative process in the production of students’ capstone year film projects and future productions. The point of view is primarily of the creative producer. Topics include: designing your production from concept to release; director’s workbook and prep, from the point of view of the producer; dramaturgical analysis of a dramatic script and breakdown of script for casting, from the point of view of the producer; working with a casting director; working with a script supervisor; post production supervision; advanced budgeting and scheduling; getting the most out of your cast; releases and contracts; music copyright and clearances; working with a composer; managing post production; release and marketing. Teaching methods include lectures and workshops. Students are expected to come into class with a written project (script or proposal) that they want to develop over the course of the semester; the project can be either their capstone year project or their first project after graduation, or a project for a colleague/ student’s that they are producing.

This course is subject to priority rules; see here.

A sound production course for students interested in sound design and soundtrack production for film and animation. The course focuses on studio and digital audio techniques and methods used in post-production environments. Through lectures, demonstrations and workshops, students gain knowledge and experience with dialogue editing, foley design, mixing, and music composition for the screen. Students will learn about audiovisual theory, best practices for film and animation sound, and how sound design supports narrative development. Workshops and assignments utilize industry standard software tools and cover expectations of professional post-production environments. This course may be used for the development of soundtracks for students’ film and animation projects.

This course is primarily for film, video, illustration, and animation students, but is open to all students who are interested in developing and improving their script-writing skills. Students will learn to develop an idea into a proposal and script that is clear and reflects their vision. Techniques for writing narrative, documentary, and experimental scripts will be practiced and, through exposure to various writing styles and approaches, students will be challenged to activate all their senses and to write to evoke the desired response.

This is a basic course in exploring the principles, theories and practices of shooting for new technologies such as Visual Effects, 4K Capture, Stereo 3D, Motion Capture, and Virtual Reality, and other new capture technologies as they emerge. The fundamentals of human and other visions will be explored both practically, historically, theoretically and aesthetically. This course is ideal for Dynamic Media students who wish to begin to engage with these technologies in their capstone year projects. This course is designed to be responsive to student interests and changing moving image capture technologies platforms.

This course is subject to priority rules; see here.

This advanced seminar course enables students to focus on a key topic in film and media (moving-image) theory. What role does the moving image play in contemporary philosophical and cultural debates? How have distinct theoretical lineages shaped the cinema as a mode of artistic practice and thought? How are emerging theoretical perspectives shaping the form, circulation, and reception of media objects today? While the specific topic and entry-point into these questions will vary each semester, the course will emphasize critical viewing, reading, and writing about moving-image aesthetics and theory.

This course is subject to priority rules; see here.

Each section of this course runs with a different topic. See here.