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Film Studies Course Offerings: Fall 2008

 

To Students: The film courses listed below will earn credits toward either the major or minor in Film Studies. All students are responsible for checking the Queens College course bulletin to determine what prerequisites, if any, they need to enroll in any particular course.

Students seeking advisement on enrollments for Film Studies courses offered should contact:

Professor Amy Herzog, Coordinator,
Film Studies Program
Office: “G” 102-C         Phone: 718-997-2956
Office hours: (Spring 09) TBA

R  =  required course for Film Studies major and/or minor          E  =  elective course

CMLIT 241: Literature and the Movies	(E) 3 hr, 3 cr
T 10:15 AM-1:05 PM	Prof. Elizabeth Alsop
M 1:40-4:30 PM	Prof. Nathalie Fouyer

A study of the ways in which literature and the movies have strongly influenced each other. The course will investigate problems arising from the relations and conflicts between these two different media. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. See instructor for information about the specific focus of each section.

EURO 250: Contemporary European Cinema	(E) 4 hr, 3 cr
F 9:15 AM-1:05 PM	Prof. Eugenia Paulicelli

This course will introduce students to some of the most interesting contemporary European films and filmmakers who have had and still have a profound impact on global cinema. Students will be exposed to a variety of genres and aesthetic perspectives and will be able to trace the influence that filmmakers such as Roberto Rossellini for example had on other directors such as Jean Luc Godard and others. Students will learn how to look at film in a global perspective that transcends cultural and national boundaries while at the same time recognizing the distinctive traits of a director’s cinematic style, aesthetic choices, mise en scene and the cultural, political and historical background that underlies the narrative and the characters. We will be watching films from France, Italy, Germany, England, Spain, Greece, Denmark. Authors will include Roberto Rossellini, Jean Luc Godard, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog, Costantin Costa-Gavras, Michael Lee, Ken Loach, Pedro Almadovar, Julian Jarrold, Paul Rappeneau, Gabriel Axel, Wolfang Becker. For further information, please contact the instructor: epaulicelli@gmail.com

MEDST 144: "History of Cinema II (1930-1970)"	(R) 4hr, 3 cr
F 9:15AM-1:05 PM	Prof. Amy Herzog

This course will survey film history from the 1930s through the 1960s, examining institutional and aesthetic shifts in the film industry, as well as significant movements and genres in world cinema (musicals, melodramas, film noir, Neorealism, the French New Wave, Direct Cinema). Readings and class discussions will consider the historical, political, aesthetic, and cultural contexts of these cinematic trends, and will present an overview of the development of film criticism and theory during this period.

MEDST 200: "Principles of Sound and Image"	(R) 4 hr, 3 cr
M/W 10:15 AM-12:05 PM	Prof. Leslie McLeave
M/W 6:30-8:30 PM	Prof. Jonathan Buchsbaum

An examination of the dominant visual and sound conventions characteristic of most film, television and video production. Lectures illustrated with a wide range of media examples present the basic principles of sound and image combinations, including technological principles, shot language, composition, editing, and storytelling. Students apply these principles in the production of two short video projects. Students are also introduced to the fundamentals of the FINAL CUT PRO editing software program, which they will use to edit their second video project. Readings cover both practical material and theoretical discussions of visual and audio parameters.

MEDST 240: "Styles of Cinema"	(R) 4 hr, 3 cr
T 5:30-9:20 PM	Prof. Julian Cornell

The course will introduce students to the systematic "formalist" analysis of film stylistics in both non-narrative and narrative modes. We will focus on the way filmmakers use the film medium's techniques and strategies to develop constructions of and reflections about aspects of human lives and their societies. The major course text will be David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson's Film Art: An Introduction, 8th ed. and it will be supplemented by other readings. Films of widely differing types will be screened, including A wide variety of films will be screened including Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock); Citizen Kane (Orson Welles); 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick); Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard); All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk) and The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel) among others.

MEDST 245: "Screenwriting"	(E) 3 hr, 3 cr
W 1:40-4:30 PM	Prof. Richard Vetere

This class will help students develop a screenplay from an original idea to the first act of a finished script. In a simulation of Hollywood's story development process, students will begin with a pitch, move to a treatment of their screen story, then act one of their scripts. Special attention will be paid to the fundamentals of storytelling, including creating memorable characters; three-act structure; and story points, such as the "inciting action" and the "climax." This will be achieved through an in-class writing workshop and exercises; screening mainstream, foreign, and independent films; reading film and TV scripts from accomplished writers such as Ted Tally and Larry David; and studying excerpts from screenwriting bibles, including Robert McKee's Story and William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade.

MEDST 265: "Producing Independent Media"	(E) 3 hr, 3 cr
M 6:30-9:20 PM	Prof. E. Foley

The course presents an overview of the current media landscape and of all aspects of independent production: from development and fundraising through pre-production, production, post-production and distribution. Students will also explore the various roles that independent producers play: from small business owner and project developer to line-producer, amateur legal expert and distribution manager. Applicable to all kinds of programming, including feature films, documentaries, TV, cyber programming and other media, the course will focus most on project development, presentation, and funding. Students emerge from the course with one project "presentation packaged" and ready for further development, funding, and pre-production.

Required reading: Film & Video Budgets, 4th Updated Edition by Deke Simon and Michael Wiese and a course packet.

MEDST 311: "Film Culture, New York"	(E) 3 hr, 1 cr
Thursday 6:00-9:00 PM DATES TBA	Profs. Beloff, Buchsbaum, Hendershot, Herzog, McLeave

Students are introduced to five of the premier venues for film screenings in New York City on five evenings, TBA. Venues include the Museum of Modern Art, Anthology Film Archives, the Walter Reade Theatre, and Film Forum, among others. Students are required to attend all five sessions. One or more articles will be assigned for each film and discussed with the professor who accompanies the students to each screening. A short final paper surveying what students learned about non-commercial programming and exhibition practices will also be required.

NOTE: Interested students must have at least taken MEDST 143 or 144 or other more advanced courses at Queens or elsewhere. Please consult with Professor Herzog about eligibility and enrollment, which will take place in the first two weeks of the Fall, 2008 semester.

MEDST 341W: "Film Theory"	(R) 3 hr, 3 cr
Th 10:15 AM-1:05 PM	Prof. Amy Herzog

This course will provide an overview of significant movements, debates, and figures in film theory.  Readings will span both classical and contemporary film theory, addressing a range of approaches including realism, structuralism, auteur theory, genre criticism, psychoanalytic film theory, feminist and critical race theories, third cinema, postmodern theory, and new work on digital cinema.  The class will examine writings on cinema in their historical and national contexts, looking at the ways in which film theory intersects with political, cultural, and aesthetic trends.  Class discussions and written projects will focus on close analysis of both written and filmic texts, and students will be required to view at least one film outside class (and encouraged to watch many more!).

MEDST 342W: "Genre: Animation"	(E) 3hr, 3cr
T 12:40-4:30 PM	Prof. Julian Cornell

This survey course will provide an historical and theoretical introduction to the art, commerce and ideology of animated films.  Through an examination of the wide variety of technical and artistic approaches to the form, the course will investigate the aesthetic and cultural aspects of the animated image.  In particular, we will consider a dual function of animation: For children it has served as Hollywood’s principal form of pedagogical entertainment, while animated films programs for adults have exploited the subversive potential of the medium itself.  Mainstream American shorts and features will provide the bulk of the course screenings, but will be supplemented by Eastern European, Russian, Canadian, British, French and Japanese animated films, and some recent broadcast and cable television programs.  Titles to be viewed will include: Early Silent shorts, Disney’s Silly Symphonies, Warner Brothers’ Looney Toons, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Fritz the Cat, Toy Story, Grave of the Fireflies, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Waking Life to name but a few.

MEDST 344W: "National Cinemas"	(E) 3 hr, 3cr
M 9:15 AM-12:05 PM	Prof. John Matturri

Special topic to be announced.

PHIL 105: "Horror Films"	(E) 4 hr, 3 cr
T 1:40-5:20 PM	Prof. John Matturri

SOC 381W: "New York, Hollywood, and the Movies"	(E) 3 hr, 3 cr
W 6:30-9:20 PM	Prof. Robert Kapsis

This course explores the relationship between two New Yorks: the real place and the mythic city born of the movies. It will analyze how filmic representations of New York compare to the external “real” New York, and focus on two issues: (1) aspects of New York’s reality as presented in popular films compared with aspects that are neglected or ignored and (2) the means by which creators of movies use their films to comment on the real social world or on the direction they believe society is heading. The work of four quintessentially New York filmmakers will be highlighted: Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Spike Lee, and Sidney Lumet. Students will complete 4 writing assignments. The combined output for each student will total a minimum of 25 pages or approximately 5000 words.