Course Descriptions

ENGL V244 Screen Power 3 crs.

Common Curriculum: Humanities/Arts Modern
Prerequisite: ENGL T122
This course aims to introduce students to an analytical model dealing with the ideological power of film with respect to its aesthetics, content, and audience appeal. Recent studies argue that film is not ideologically free and that any serious study of film history, aesthetics, or criticism should take this into account. This course may be taken more than once as the subject matter changes.

ENGL A313 Feature Screenwriting I 3 crs.

Prerequisite: ENGL T122 or A205; ENGL A211
This workshop-oriented writing course takes students through the study of classical and nonclassical feature scripts and asks students to develop a feature narrative concept through the stages of treatment and outline and to write half of the script itself.

ENGL A370 How to Read a Film 3 crs.

Prerequisites: ENGL T122 or A205; sophomore standing.
This course introduces students to reading films, gives some familiarity with film criticism, provides an introduction to the history of the cinema and to its development as an industry, and exposes students to a wide variety of films.

ENGL A372 Studies in American Cinema 3 crs.

Prerequisites: ENGL T122 or A205; sophomore standing.
Designed to explore the development of the classical Hollywood narrative film and its alternatives, the course focuses on aesthetic as well as sociocultural aspects of American film in relation to production, distribution, and consumption. The specific topic will change each term.

MUIN M415 Music Visualization 2crs.

This “Introduction to Digital Filmmaking” offers a basic hands-on introduction to the practical aspects of developing digital visual projects, using a variety of methods and media. After a month of technical study in video electronics and operations, production techniques, lighting, and writing for both the creative and marketing aspects of film, students are then involved first-hand in the production of each of the three major visual forms: documentaries, live performance recording, and conceptual/fiction projects like music videos and short films.

MUIN M425 Video Editing

MUIN M430 Video Writing/Directing 2 crs.

Prerequisite: MUGN-M415
This “Digital Filmmaking” course, offers a complete, more detailed experience of the practical aspects of developing a digital film, using a variety of methods and media. Students learn to pitch their projects to financiers, to write one-page and timed treatments, to develop a budget, to conceive and execute storyboards and complex production shot lists, and to write an actual working script in proper format.