Cinema and Media Studies

The Cinema and Media Studies (CAMS) major combines the critical study of moving image and sound media with digital video and audio production. Courses range from global and Hollywood film studies to fiction and nonfiction filmmaking, animation, television studio production, media installations, and writing for film and television. The integration of theory and practice is a guiding principle in the formulation of the curriculum, reflecting a liberal arts philosophy in which thinking and making are mutually informing.

Requirements for a Major

Seventy-two credits are required for the major; forty-eight credits in core courses and twenty-four credits in elective courses. We ask students to pursue a common path through a core curriculum while also encouraging them to pursue their interests by choosing electives from a rich array of departmental and extra-departmental course offerings. In the core curriculum, beyond the two introductory courses (CAMS 110 and CAMS 111), majors are required to take one additional 200-level studio production class, two courses in film, photography, or art history (one of which must be film history) and two 300-level theory seminars (CAMS 320, CAMS 330, CAMS 350, ENGL 362). In addition to the core curriculum, students are required to take four elective courses. In the senior-year comps project, students are asked to synthesize and further their work in the curriculum.

I. Core Courses:

a) Two 100-level Introductory Courses (12 credits):

  • CAMS 110 Introduction to Cinema and Media Studies
  • CAMS 111 Digital Foundations

b) One 200-level Studio Production Course (6 credits):

c) Two History Courses (12 credits). One of these courses must be a film history course (either CAMS 210, CAMS 211 or CAMS 214).

d) Two 300-level Seminars (12 credits).

e) Integrative Exercise CAMS 400 (6 credits)

Students considering a major in Cinema and Media Studies are strongly encouraged to take CAMS 110 Introduction to Cinema and Media Studies and CAMS 111 Digital Foundations by the end of their sophomore year and the two required core history courses (CAMS 210 Film History I, CAMS 211 Film History II, CAMS 214 Film History III, CAMS 243 Film Sound History or Art History 171, 172, 240) and at least one of two required 300-level seminar courses (CAMS 320 Sound History Seminar, CAMS 330 Cinema Studies Seminar, CAMS 350 Visual Studies Seminar or ENGL 362 Narrative Theory) by the end of their junior year. Two 300-level seminar courses are offered every year.

Students interested in cinema studies should consider enrolling in the three-term film history sequence (CAMS 210 Film History I, CAMS 211 Film History II and CAMS 214 Film History III) and/or CAMS 243 Film Sound History. At least two of these courses are offered every year and it is not necessary to take them in any particular order. CAMS 330 Cinema Studies Seminar and ENGL 362 Narrative Theory, are typically offered on a regular basis. Additional courses focus on film genres and modes (CAMS 186 Film Genres, CAMS 188 Rock 'n' Roll in Cinema, CAMS 224 Classical American Film Comedy, CAMS 225 Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream) CAMS 240 Adaptation and national, transnational and global cinemas (CAMS 212 Contemporary Spanish Cinema, CAMS 216 American Cinema of the 1970s, CAMS 218 Contemporary Global Cinemas, CAMS 219 African Cinema, CAMS 232 and 234 Cinema Directors, CAMS 236 Israeli Society in Israeli Cinema, CAMS 237 Cinemas and Contexts: Russian Film, CAMS 239 Cinemas and Contexts: East European Film and CAMS 295 and 296 Cinema in Chile and Argentina: Representing and Re-imagining Identity). CAMS majors are also encouraged to choose courses from a rich array of extra-departmental offerings in film.

Students interested in video or television production should start with CAMS 111 Digital Foundations and CAMS 170 Story Development Workshop, proceed to 200-level production genre and technique courses such as CAMS 245 The Essay Film, CAMS 270 Nonfiction, CAMS 271 Fiction, CAMS 273 Digital Editing Workshop, CAMS 277 Television Studio Production and CAMS 286 Animation, and expect to execute advanced projects in digital film production in CAMS 370 Advanced Production Workshop, which is offered every spring term.

Students interested in sound studies, including sound design and audio production, can explore sound-image relationships and produce audio projects in courses such as MUSC 115 Music and Film, CAMS 188 Rock 'n' Roll Cinema, CAMS 242 Sound and Music in New Media, CAMS 243 Film Sound History, CAMS 265 Sound Design, CAMS 275 Audio Workshop and CAMS 320 Sound Studies Seminar. Advanced projects in audio may be produced in CAMS 370 Advanced Production Workshop, which is offered every spring term.

II. Elective Courses

Twenty-four credits in elective courses are required for the Cinema and Media Studies major. Credit may be obtained by enrolling in departmental and approved extra-departmental courses with the following stipulations:

a) Any CAMS course not fulfilling a core requirement can serve as an elective course for the CAMS major.

b) A maximum of 18 credits in elective CAMS production courses count toward the major.

c) A maximum of 12 credits in extra-departmental elective courses count toward the major. Extra-departmental elective courses approved for the CAMS major are listed on the Registrar's Web site (Schedule of Classes/Enroll page) each term.

  • ARTH 240 Art Since 1945
  • ARTH 241 Contemporary Art for Artists
  • ARTS 140 The Digital Landscape
  • ARTS 141 Experimental Photography
  • ARTS 238 Photography I
  • ARTS 339 Advanced Photo: Digital Imaging
  • CHIN 250 Chinese Popular Culture
  • ENGL 288 California Program: The Literature of California
  • ENGL 362 Narrative Theory
  • FREN 233 French Cinema and Culture
  • GERM 249 German Post War Culture (not offered in 2016-17)
  • LCST 245 The Critical Toolbox: Who's Afraid of Theory?
  • MUSC 115 Music and Film
  • POSC 100 American Elections of 2016
  • POSC 204 Media and Electoral Politics: 2016 United States Election
  • POSC 214 Visual Representations of Political Thought and Action
  • SPAN 244 Spain Today: Recent Changes through Narrative and Film (not offered in 2016-17)
  • SPAN 328 The Contemporary Spanish Fictional Essay
  • SPAN 356 The Political and Cultural History of the Cuban Revolution
  • THEA 320 Live Performance and Digital Media

Cinema and Media Studies Courses

CAMS 100 Rock 'n' Roll in Cinema This course is designed to explore the intersection between rock music and cinema. Taking a historical view of the evolution of the "rock film," this class examines the impact of rock music on the structural and formal aspects of narrative, documentary, and experimental films and videos. The scope of the class will run from the earliest rock films of the mid-1950s through contemporary examples in ten weekly subunits. 6 credits; AI, WR1, IDS; Fall; Jay S Beck
CAMS 110 Introduction to Cinema and Media Studies This course introduces students to the basic terms, concepts and methods used in cinema studies and helps build critical skills for analyzing films, technologies, industries, styles and genres, narrative strategies and ideologies. Students will develop skills in critical viewing and careful writing via assignments such as a short response essay, a plot segmentation, a shot breakdown, and various narrative and stylistic analysis papers. Classroom discussion focuses on applying critical concepts to a wide range of films. Requirements include two evening film screenings per week. Extra time. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Winter, Spring; Carol Donelan, Jay S Beck
CAMS 111 Digital Foundations This class introduces students to the full range of production tools and forms, building both the technical and conceptual skills needed to continue at more advanced levels. We will explore the aesthetics and mechanics of shooting digital video, the role of sound and how to record and mix it, field and studio production, lighting, and editing with Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Course work will include individual and group production projects, readings, and writing. This is an essential foundation for anyone interested in moving-image production and learning the specifics of CAMS' studios, cameras, and lighting equipment. 6 credits; ARP; Fall, Winter, Spring; Laska Jimsen, Catherine Licata, Cecilia M Cornejo
CAMS 170 Story Development Workshop This course explores the creative practice of developing stories or ideas for a range of cinematic forms, including fiction, nonfiction, animation, and experimental films. Students will draw inspiration from a variety of sources that are personal, cultural, or observational, and in doing so, develop confidence in their own artistic practice and perspective. We will learn the fundamentals of dramatic tools, use these tools to make screen ideas evolve, consider audience reception, and practice giving and receiving constructive critique. By the end of term, students will have generated ideas for future production projects that reflect their thematic concerns, and have one fully developed outline for a project that may be realized in an upper level production course. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111. 6 credits; ARP; Winter; Catherine Licata
CAMS 177 Television Studio Production In this hands-on studio television production course, students learn professional studio methods and techniques for creating both fiction and nonfiction television programs. Concepts include lighting and set design, blocking actors, directing cameras, composition, switching, sound recording and scripting. Students work in teams to produce four assignments, crewing for each other's productions in front of and behind the camera, in the control room, and in post-production. 6 credits; ARP; Fall, Winter; Paul Hager
CAMS 186 Film Genres In this course we survey four or more Hollywood film genres, including but not limited to the Western, musical, horror film, comedy, and science-fiction film. What criteria are used to place a film in a particular genre? What role do audiences and studios play in the creation and definition of film genres? Where do genres come from? How do genres change over time? What roles do genres play in the viewing experience? What are hybrid genres and subgenres? What can genres teach us about society? Assignments aim to develop skills in critical analysis, research and writing. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Spring; Carol Donelan
CAMS 188 Rock 'n' Roll in Cinema This course is designed to explore the intersection between rock music and cinema. Taking a historical view of the evolution of the "rock film," this class examines the impact of rock music on the structural and formal aspects of narrative, documentary, and experimental films and videos. The scope of the class will run from the earliest rock films of the mid-1950s through contemporary examples in ten weekly subunits. 6 credits; LA, IDS; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 210 Film History I This course surveys the first half-century of cinema history, focusing on film structure and style as well as transformations in technology, industry and society. Topics include series photography, the nickelodeon boom, local movie-going, Italian super-spectacles, early African American cinema, women film pioneers, abstraction and surrealism, German Expressionism, Soviet silent cinema, Chaplin and Keaton, the advent of sound and color technologies, the Production Code, the American Studio System, Britain and early Hitchcock, Popular Front cinema in France, and early Japanese cinema. Assignments aim to develop skills in close analysis and working with primary sources in researching and writing film history. 6 credits; LA, IS; Fall; Carol Donelan
CAMS 211 Film History II This course charts the continued rise and development of cinema 1948-1968, focusing on monuments of world cinema and their industrial, cultural, aesthetic and political contexts. Topics include postwar Hollywood, melodrama, authorship, film style, labor strikes, runaway production, censorship, communist paranoia and the blacklist, film noir, Italian neorealism, widescreen aesthetics, the French New Wave, art cinema, Fellini, Bergman, the Polish School, the Czech New Wave, Japanese and Indian cinema, political filmmaking in the Third World, and the New Hollywood Cinema. Requirements include class attendance and participation, readings, evening film screenings, and various written assignments and exams. 6 credits; LA, IS; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 212 Contemporary Spanish Cinema This course serves as a historical and critical survey of Spanish cinema from the early 1970s to the present. Topics of study will include the redefinition of Spanish identity in the post-Franco era, the rewriting of national history through cinema, cinematic representations of gender and sexuality, emergent genres, regional cinemas and identities, stars and transnational film projects, and new Spanish auteurs from the 1980s to the present. 6 credits; LA, IS; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 214 Film History III This course is designed to introduce students to recent film history, 1970-present, and the multiple permutations of cinema around the globe. The course charts the development of national cinemas since the 1970s while considering the effects of media consolidation and digital convergence. Moreover, the course examines how global cinemas have reacted to and dealt with the formal influence and economic domination of Hollywood on international audiences. Class lectures, screenings, and discussions will consider how cinema has changed from a primarily national phenomenon to a transnational form in the twenty-first century. 6 credits; LA, IS; Winter; Jay S Beck
CAMS 216 American Cinema of the 1970s American cinema from 1967-1979 saw the reconfiguration of outdated modes of representation in the wake of the Hollywood studio system and an alignment of new aesthetic forms with radical political and social perspectives. This course examines the film industry's identity crisis through the cultural, stylistic, and technological changes that accompanied the era. The course seeks to demonstrate that these changes in cinematic practices reflected an agenda of revitalizing American cinema as a site for social commentary and cultural change. 6 credits; IDS, LA; Winter; Jay S Beck
CAMS 218 Contemporary Global Cinemas This course is designed as a critical study of global filmmakers and the issues surrounding cinema and its circulation in the twenty-first century. The class will emphasize the close reading of films to study different cultural discourses, cinematic styles, genres, and reception. It will look at national, transnational, and diasporic-exilic cinema to consider how films express both cultural forms and contexts. Aesthetic, social, political, and industrial issues also will be examined each week to provide different approaches for cinematic analysis. 6 credits; LA, IS; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 219 African Cinema: A Quest for Identity and Self-Definition Born as a response to the colonial gaze and discourse, African cinema has been a deliberate effort to affirm and express an African personality and consciousness. Focusing on the film production from West and Southern Africa since the early fifties, this course will entail a discussion of major themes such as colonialism, nationalism and independence, and the analysis of African symbolisms, world-views, and their links to narrative techniques. In this overview, particular attention will be given to the films of Ousmane Sembène, Souleymane Cissé, Mweze Ngangura, Zola Maseko, Oliver Schmitz, Abderrahmane Sissako and many others. 6 credits; LA, IS; Spring; Cherif Keïta
CAMS 224 Classical American Film Comedy This course serves as a historical and critical survey of American film comedy from the late silent era through the end of the classical Hollywood period. It is designed to study the evolution of sound film comedy from its origins in slapstick and vaudeville-based skit routines, through the sophisticated dialogue and screwball comedies of the 1930s, to the social commentary comedies of the 1940s and 50s. The term will be spent studying the evolution of forms of film comedy, understanding how the genre has changed, and examining the social/historical factors that account for these changes. 6 credits; LA, IDS; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 225 Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream After Americans grasped the enormity of the Depression and World War II, the glossy fantasies of 1930s cinema seemed hollow indeed. During the 1940s, the movies, our true national pastime, took a nosedive into pessimism. The result? A collection of exceptional films populated with tough guys and dangerous women lurking in the shadows of nasty urban landscapes. This course focuses on classic American noir as well as neo-noir from a variety of perspectives, including mode and genre, visual style and narrative structure, postwar culture and politics, and race, gender, and sexuality. Requirements include two screenings per week and several short papers. 6 credits; LA, IDS; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 234 Cinema Directors: Sokurov Mentored by Tarkovsky, influenced by the German Expressionists Dovzhenko and Bresson, but essentially self-made as a director, Aleksandr Sokurov delights and perplexes viewers with cinematic canvases of exceptional beauty and emotion. He also offers us a media sandbox for analyzing everything from screenplay writing to sound production, from painting to photography, and theories of visuality in-between. Of Sokurov's fifty-seven films (documentary and fiction) made over thirty years and already influencing younger directors around the world we will focus on those grouped around his "power" cycle. In-class analyses, short writing assignments. No knowledge of Russian language or Russian studies required. 3 credits; LA, IS; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 236 Israeli Society in Israeli Cinema This course will introduce students to the global kaleidoscope that is Israeli society today. Since the 1980s the Israeli public has increasingly engaged with its multicultural character, particularly through films and documentaries that broaden national conversation. Our approach to exploring the emerging reflection of Israel’s diversity in its cinema will be thematic. We will study films that foreground religious-secular, Israeli-Palestinian, gender, sexual orientation, and family dynamics, as well as Western-Middle Eastern Jewish relations, foreign workers or refugees in Israel, army and society, and Holocaust memory. With critical insights from the professor’s interviews with several directors and Israeli film scholars. Conducted in English, all films subtitled. Evening film screenings. 6 credits; LA, IS; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 236F Israeli Society in Israeli Cinema - FLAC Hebrew Trailer This course is a supplement in Hebrew for CAMS 236, Israeli Society in Israeli Cinema. Open to students currently in Hebrew 103 or higher, we will watch particular film clips from class without subtitles and discuss them in Hebrew. We will also read and discuss some critical reviews not available in English, and a sample of scholarly writing in Hebrew on Israeli film and social history. Prerequisite: Hebrew 102; Concurrent registration in Cinema and Media Studies 236. 2 credits; NE; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 240 Adaptation Film adaptations of pre-existing texts (from songs to novels) have been around almost as long as cinema itself, and the percent of film adaptations continues to grow. (Of the top two-thousand movies over the last twenty years fifty-one percent were adaptations.) In this course we will take a chronological journey through the history of film adaptations in a variety of film cultures, considering along the way the processes involved in translating narratives from words to visual media, and how the cinematic has come to shape the literary (reverse adaptation). Discussions and assignments will aim at both analysis and practice. 6 credits; LA; Fall; Diane M Nemec Ignashev
CAMS 242 Sound and Music in TV and New Media This course covers the theory and production of sound and music in radio, electronic soundscapes, electroacoustic music, and film and video. The course will focus on the aesthetics, theory and practice of sound in these media. Students will create sound artworks in a laboratory component, using Logic Pro and other sound engineering software. Students will produce several audio projects, including a podcast of a radio show, an electronic musique concrete or sound art piece, and a musical accompaniment to a short film or video using pre-existing music. Music reading and/or knowledge of musical recording software helpful but not required. 6 credits; ARP; Spring; Ronald Rodman
CAMS 243 Film Sound History Although cinema is an audio-visual medium, there has long been a tendency to privilege the visual component of film over the elements of film sound. In an attempt to redress this imbalance, this course will focus on the technological, cultural, and theoretical histories of film sound throughout the twentieth century. We will examine the transition to sound in United States and European cinema, radio's role in the development of sound aesthetics, standardized and alternative sound practices, the role and use of music in cinema, and the complex effects of contemporary sound technologies on the medium and experience of film. 6 credits; LA; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 245 The Essay Film This course explores a hybrid cinematic genre whose critical and creative energies spring from the collision of traditionally separated spheres: documentary and fiction, text and image, private and public, reason and intuition. We focus on the intersection where creative practice and intellectual inquiry meet through theoretical readings, film screenings, and the fulfillment of various production exercises aimed at the production of original film work. Screenings include works by Carmen Castillo, Chris Marker, Ignacio Agüero, Jem Cohen, Agnés Varda, Harun Farocki, Jonas Mekas, and other filmmakers who have explored this hybrid form. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111. 6 credits; ARP; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 246 Documentary Studies This course explores the relevance and influence of documentary films by closely examining the aesthetic concerns and ethical implications inherent in these productions. We study these works both as artistic undertakings and as documents produced within a specific time, culture, and ideology. Central to our understanding of the form are issues of technology, methodology, and ethics, which are examined thematically as well as chronologically. The course offers an overview of the major historical movements in documentary film along more recent works; it combines screenings, readings, and discussions with the goal of preparing students to both understand and analyze documentary films. 6 credits; LA, IS; Winter; Cecilia M Cornejo
CAMS 265 Sound Design This course examines the theories and techniques of sound design for film and video. Students will learn the basics of audio recording, sound editing and multi-track sound design specifically for the moving image. The goal of the course is a greater understanding of the practices and concepts associated with soundtrack development through projects using recording equipment and the digital audio workstation for editing and mixing. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111 or instructor permission. 6 credits; ARP; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 269 New Media Program: Exploring New Media and the Arts This class combines exploration and discussion of art exhibitions in three major European cities, along with creative media projects tailored to each student's skill set and technical resources. A highlight of this course is the production of a series conceptual, photographic projects that will be gathered into a photo-book designed and produced by each student. 6 credits; ARP; Winter; John Schott
CAMS 270 Nonfiction This course addresses nonfiction media as both art form and historical practice by exploring the expressive, rhetorical, and political possibilities of nonfiction production. A focus on relationships between form and content and between makers, subjects, and viewers will inform our approach. Throughout the course we will pay special attention to the ethical concerns that arise from making media about others' lives. We will engage with diverse modes of nonfiction production including essayistic, experimental, and participatory forms and create community videos in partnership with CCCE and local organizations. The class culminates in the production of a significant independent nonfiction media project. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111 or instructor consent. 6 credits; ARP; Fall; Laska Jimsen
CAMS 271 Fiction Through a series of exercises, students will explore the fundamentals of making narrative films. Areas of focus in this course include visual storytelling and cinematography, working with actors, and story structure. Through readings, screenings, and writing exercises, we will analyze how mood, tone, and themes are constructed through formal techniques. Course work includes individual and group exercise, and culminates in individual short narrative projects. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111 and one additional Cinema and Media Studies course, or instructor permission. 6 credits; ARP; Spring; Catherine Licata
CAMS 273 Digital Editing Workshop This course introduces students to the art of motion picture editing by combining theoretical and aesthetic study with hands-on work using the non-linear digital video editing software Adobe Premiere. We explore graphic, temporal, spatial, rhythmic and aural relationships in a variety of moving image forms including classical narrative continuity and documentary storytelling. Underscoring the strong links between concept, direction, shooting, and editing, this course examines the close ties between production and post-production. Through editing assignments and class critique, students develop expressive techniques and proficiency in basic video and sound editing and post-production workflow. 6 credits; ARP; Fall; Catherine Licata
CAMS 278 Writing for Television TV is a very specific, time-driven medium. Using examples from scripts and DVDs, students will learn how to write for an existing TV show, keeping in mind character consistency, pacing, tone, and compelling storylines. Students will also get a taste of what it's like to be part of a writing staff as the class itself creates an episode from scratch. Topics such as creating the TV pilot, marketing, agents, managers, and more will be discussed. Finally, general storytelling tools such as creating better dialogue, developing fully-rounded characters, making scene work more exciting, etc., will also be addressed. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 or 111 or instructor permission. 6 credits; ARP; Fall; Andrew L Rosendorf
CAMS 279 Screenwriting This course teaches students the fundamentals of screenwriting. Topics include understanding film structure, writing solid dialogue, creating dimensional characters, and establishing dramatic situations. Art, craft, theory, form, content, concept, genre, narrative strategies and storytelling tools are discussed. Students turn in weekly assignments, starting with short scenes and problems and then moving on to character work, synopses, outlines, pitches and more. The goal is for each student to write a 15 to 25 page script for a short film by the end of the term. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 or 111 or instructor permission. 6 credits; ARP; Spring; Christina Ham
CAMS 280 New Media Program: Photography Workshop This edition will be oriented to photo projects on the CAMS Off-Campus Study Program in the winter of 2017. This foundational course deals with vision, technique and publication. Prerequisite: Students should have their own digital camera, laptop and Adobe Lightroom software. 6 credits; ARP; Winter; John Schott
CAMS 283 Site-Specific Media: Out and About Video and photography are coming off the screen, out of the gallery, finding their way into the world through site-specific, installation-style projects. We will take visual projects out of the studio using projection and print techniques that speak and respond to particular locations. Imagine a multi-track movie playing on ten laptops in the Arb; or a film projected on the side of a mobile home with viewers in folding chairs. We will explore VJ software and produce live multi-track visuals to accompany a band performance at the end of the class. This class should be attractive to videographers, musicians, photographers, dancers and others with a speculative, experimental bent. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 and 111 or instructor permission. 6 credits; ARP; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 286 Animation Animation will explore both traditional, handmade animation and computer-based animation software. The course will emphasize skills in observation, perception, and technique using both old and new technologies. Exercises will build skills in creating believable and cinematic locomotion, gesture, and characters in diverse media including drawing by hand on cards, software-based animation, and stop-motion. The final project gives students the opportunity to develop more advanced skills in one, or a combination, of the techniques covered in class to create a self-directed animation project. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111 and one Cinema and Media Studies 200-level studio production course or instructor permission. 6 credits; ARP; Winter; Laska Jimsen
CAMS 290 New Media Program: Directed Reading: Cultural and Technological Perspectives on Place and Location This is a self-directed course in which all assignments should be completed prior to departure. The course will provide students with a broad understanding of key issues and ideas central to the seminar. Prerequisite: Participation in OCS Media Arts Program. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; NE; Winter; John Schott
CAMS 295F Cinema in Chile and Argentina-FLAC This course is an ancillary reading/discussion-based trailer for CAMS 295; the FLAC section will be a Spanish-language addition to the English-language course. CAMS 295 will provide the set of background knowledge that students taking the trailer will use to discuss Spanish-language texts. Prerequisite: Spanish 204; concurrent registration in Cinema and Media Studies 295. 2 credits; S/CR/NC; NE; Fall; Cecilia M Cornejo
CAMS 295 Cinema in Chile and Argentina: Representing and Reimagining Identity Through an examination of fiction and documentary films, this course offers a broad historical and cultural overview of Chile and Argentina. The course examines significant political events, cultural developments, and cinema movements including the rise and decline of the politically-engaged New Latin American Cinema movement of the late 1960s, the cinematic diaspora of the 1970s and 1980s, the cultural and artistic responses after the return to democracy, the commercial consolidation of each country's film industry and cultural production in the 1990s, and recent attempts to create a local audiovisual language with an international appeal. This course is part of an off-campus winter break program involving two linked courses in fall and winter terms. Students who take Cinema and Media Studies 295 must also enroll in Cinema and Media Studies 296 in the winter term. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 296 required winter term. 6 credits; LA, IS; Fall; Jay S Beck, Cecilia M Cornejo
CAMS 296 Cinema and Cultural Change in Chile and Argentina This course is the second part of a two-term sequence beginning with Cinema and Media Studies 295. In order to bring the students into contact with the cultural and social discourses examined in Cinema and Media Studies 295, this course begins with a study trip to Santiago and Buenos Aires during the first two weeks in December. Our time will be spent visiting filmmakers, producers, scholars, and cultural organizations that shape filmmaking practices and cultural production. The course meets once early in winter term and then involves individual meetings with the faculty during the first five weeks. The course then meets regularly during the second half of winter term, when students formally present their projects followed by a group discussion. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 295. 6 credits; LA, IS; Winter; Jay S Beck, Cecilia M Cornejo
CAMS 320 Sound Studies Seminar This course presents the broader field of Sound Studies, its debates and issues. Drawing on a diverse set of interdisciplinary perspectives, the seminar explores the range of academic work on sound to examine the relationship between sound and listening, sound and perception, sound and memory, and sound and modern thought. Topics addressed include but are not limited to sound technologies and industries, acoustic perception, sound and image relations, sound in media, philosophies of listening, sound semiotics, speech and communication, voice and subject formation, sound art, the social history of noise, and hearing cultures. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 or instructor permission. 6 credits; LA; Spring; Jay S Beck
CAMS 330 Cinema Studies Seminar The purpose of this seminar is guide students in developing and consolidating their conceptual understanding of theories central to the field of cinema studies. Emphasis is on close reading and discussion of classical and contemporary theories ranging from Eisenstein, Kracauer, Balazs, Bazin and Barthes to theories of authorship, genre and ideology and trends in contemporary theory influenced by psychoanalysis, phenomenology and cognitive studies. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 or instructor permission. 6 credits; LA; Winter; Carol Donelan
CAMS 350 Visual Studies Seminar Images abound: contemporary life increasingly is defined by the pervasiveness of visual images which inform, entertain, document, manipulate, and socialize us. This seminar explores a wide range of critical issues and methods--both historical and contemporary--that will provide students a theoretical and critical command of contemporary visual experience. Our primary focus will be the photographic image as the foundational logic not only of photochemical and digital photography, but of cinema, the web and emerging forms such as virtual reality and computational digital imagery. This seminar offers essential critical tools for students of film, photography and contemporary media. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 or instructor permission. 6 credits; LA; Not offered 2016-17
CAMS 370 Advanced Production Workshop Working in a variety of genres and technical formats, students design, test, and execute an in-depth, individual media project during the course of the term. Students are expected to work at advanced technical and conceptual levels to expand specific skills and aesthetics. Weekly class critiques will help students develop formal approaches, audio and visual language, and work flows specific to their projects. As students enter the production and post-production phases, further critiques will help them shape their material for the greatest, most precise expression. Students may enroll in this course multiple times. Prior to registering for the course, students must submit a project proposal to the instructor. Please contact instructor for further information. Final enrollment is based on the quality of the proposal. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111, and either Cinema and Media Studies 270 or 271 or instructor consent. 6 credits; ARP; Spring; Laska Jimsen
CAMS 400 Integrative Exercise 6 credits; S/NC; Fall, Winter; Laska Jimsen, Carol Donelan, Catherine Licata, Jay S Beck