• 2009-2010 Courses:
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Fall 2009

• CAMS 109: Media Production Lab

  An introduction to key technical and aesthetic concepts of video storytelling to be applied to assignments in the corresponding course, including developing story content and context, analyzing successful examples of video storytelling, building skills in scripting, composition, camera movement, lighting, audio recording, interviewing, rhythm and pacing in editing and incorporating graphics. Instructors permission required. 2; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010 -- P. Hager

• CAMS 110: Introduction to Cinema and Media Studies

  Cinema and media are an integral part of modern life that profoundly affect the way we think, see, and understand our world and ourselves. This course provides an introduction to a wide range of modern media, including film, radio, television, video games, the internet, and new mobile media. Content traces the growth and interactions between media over the past 150 years and helps build critical skills for analyzing media technologies, industries, styles and genres, narrative strategies, and ideologies. Attendance at separate weekly screenings required. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010 -- S. VanCour

• CAMS 111: Digital Foundations

  Introduces students to the full range of media production tools and forms, including still photography, audio, graphic design, and video. Students will produce a photo essay with audio track; complete a stand-alone audio narrative with music, EFX and telephone interviews; create a weblog and gain a better understanding of graphic design; and produce a short video project. Completed projects will be mounted on each student's weblog. Although participants are welcome to use their PCs and associated software, in CAMS you will learn Apple hardware and software. Students will work with Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, SoundSlides and WordPress. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010 -- P. Hager

• CAMS 211: Film History II

  This course surveys cinema history from WW II to the twenty-first century. Our approach is internationalist, based on films from a variety of traditions-from film noir, through European, African, Soviet, and U.S. art cinema, and concluding with Persian post-revolutionary filmmakers and China’s "Fifth Generation." Cross-cultural readings span "auteur" cinema in the 1950s through the emergence of global cinema at the end of the twentieth century. Assignments aim to develop awareness of film technology and devices, to provide experience in public presentation and talking about cinema, and in analyzing and writing about complex film structures. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009 -- D. Nemec Ignashev

• CAMS 228: Avant-Garde Film & Video from Dada to MTV

  This class charts avant-garde film, video and multi-media from Salvadore Dali's surrealist cinema in the 1920's to the flowering of video art in the mid-1980's. Key films are read against the progression of art historical styles and "-isms" that informed them. We will take an extended look at Beat Culture in the 1950's as a context for the emergence of the American avant-garde. Expect to view rare original prints at Walker Art Center and make your own experimental film. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009 -- J. Schott

• CAMS 271: Fiction I: Directorial Vision

  Visiting independent feature film writer-director Eric Tretbar will introduce students to essential skills for directing fiction cinema. In a series of workshop exercises, students will explore the director's process from initial script analysis through shooting and editing. Students will develop and complete sequences exploring contrasting stylistic approaches in acting, directing, shooting, editing and narrative construction. At the center of the course is the goal of effective storytelling and understanding the options directors have for realizing their vision. The course will culminate in a short fiction project chosen by each student in consultation with Professor Tretbar. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111, or permission of the instructor. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009 -- E. Tretbar

• CAMS 281: Digital Photography

  This is a class for beginning and mid-level photographers who wish to develop an "eye" for still images. Class projects offer a range of critical and theoretical contexts--many related to visual storytelling--that will sharpen not simply your vision, but your critical vision. Expect to develop an in-depth mastery of Photoshop, the new digital darkroom. Students must provide their own digital camera. Cinema and Media Studies 111 recommended, but not required. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009 -- J. Schott

• CAMS 310: Moviegoing and Film Exhibition in America

  How have the sites where movies are screened, the sorts of entertainment programs offered, and the experience of movie going varied over time and in different locations and communities? In this course, we will familiarize ourselves with the various methodologies for doing film history while researching and writing (or producing in media form) the history of movie culture at the local level, making use of primary sources such as newspapers, interviews, and photographs. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009 -- C. Donelan

• CAMS 330: Film Theory and Analysis

  An advanced overview of film theory and criticism, emphasizing the realist and formalist traditions in classical film theory, the ontology of the photography, cinematic, and digital image, issues of authorship and genre, and trends in contemporary film theory, including screen theory, narrative theory, modernity studies, cultural studies, and post-theory. Class time will be spent chiefly in the discussion and debate of a body of common readings and screenings. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 210 or 211 or permission of the instructor. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009 -- C. Donelan

• CAMS 370: Advanced Production Workshop

  This Workshop is for advanced production students who have taken Cinema and Media Studies 111 Digital Foundations plus an additional Cinema and Media Studies 200-level video production course. This year visiting independent feature film writer-director Eric Tretbar will teach the fundamental properties of motion picture photography (applicable to both digital and film cameras), plus lighting and camera movement techniques used to create more expressive moving images. A series of workshop exercises emphasize basic technical and visual vocabulary. Additionally, students will work on a project of their own developed with Professor Tretbar. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111, plus an additional 200-level Cinema and Media Studies production course. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009 -- E. Tretbar

• CAMS 400: Integrative Exercise

  6; S/NC; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010 -- Staff

Winter 2010

• CAMS 109: Media Production Lab

  An introduction to key technical and aesthetic concepts of video storytelling to be applied to assignments in the corresponding course, including developing story content and context, analyzing successful examples of video storytelling, building skills in scripting, composition, camera movement, lighting, audio recording, interviewing, rhythm and pacing in editing and incorporating graphics. Instructors permission required. 2; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010 -- P. Hager

• CAMS 110: Introduction to Cinema and Media Studies

  Cinema and media are an integral part of modern life that profoundly affect the way we think, see, and understand our world and ourselves. This course provides an introduction to a wide range of modern media, including film, radio, television, video games, the internet, and new mobile media. Content traces the growth and interactions between media over the past 150 years and helps build critical skills for analyzing media technologies, industries, styles and genres, narrative strategies, and ideologies. Attendance at separate weekly screenings required. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010 -- S. VanCour

• CAMS 111: Digital Foundations

  Introduces students to the full range of media production tools and forms, including still photography, audio, graphic design, and video. Students will produce a photo essay with audio track; complete a stand-alone audio narrative with music, EFX and telephone interviews; create a weblog and gain a better understanding of graphic design; and produce a short video project. Completed projects will be mounted on each student's weblog. Although participants are welcome to use their PCs and associated software, in CAMS you will learn Apple hardware and software. Students will work with Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, SoundSlides and WordPress. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010 -- P. Hager

• 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; Arts and Literature; offered Winter 2010 -- C. Donelan

• CAMS 231: Cinema Auteurs: The Films of Ingmar Bergman and Jean-Luc Godard

  This seminar explores the audacious films of two cinematic giants, Ingmar Bergman and Jean-Luc Godard, whose work redefined modern cinema. Bergman brought the sexual candor and existential anguish of the modern stage to his films, using the camera as "a dreaded x-ray machine" to peer through flesh to the soul. Godard was an obsessive cinephile who used the camera like a journalist to critique and celebrate both cinema and pop culture with a breath-taking mix of essay, satire and genre conventions. Visiting independent screenwriter/director Eric Tretbar guides this in-depth auteur study. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Winter 2010 -- E. Tretbar

• CAMS 254: History and Theory of Emerging Media: From Newspapers to the Net

  How do new media come into being? What competing technologies and uses of them are proposed, what hope and fears surround them, and how do they find an enduring place in our society? This course surveys a growing body of historical and theoretical work on processes of media emergence past and present, from the beginnings of the newspaper, telephone, and telegraph, to the cinema, radio, television, internet, and beyond. Final paper required. 6; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Winter 2010 -- S. VanCour

• CAMS 279: Screenwriting

  "Screenwriting is an architectural, not literary activity."--David Mamet. Screenwriting has baffled many literary giants, including William Faulkner. But the deceptively simple art of cinematic storytelling can be learned--not by formula, but through form. Visiting writer-director Eric Tretbar teaches the principles and universal forms of cinematic storytelling with which students can write unique, challenging, meaningful scripts. Exercises with well-known movies teach students to select and arrange narrative material, analyze and design scenes, and map and analyze story structure. With these basic tools, students design, outline, and write their own short film. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 271 recommended but not required; or permission of the instructor. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Winter 2010 -- E. Tretbar

• CAMS 282: Graphic Design: Type + Image + Message

  Provides students with essential skills for producing and publishing forceful, effective visual communication. We focus on the combination of typography and image in formats such as graphic-intensive print-style publications, posters, still and motion-based typography. Production tools are primarily digital, including Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Apple iWorks, LiveType and OmniGraffle. Unlike traditional pre-professional graphic design classes that teach a "design vocabulary," this class is predicated on the notion that the best design evolves from one's own specific, real-world design problems. Students read widely in the emerging literature of visual communication and the visualization of information. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 and 111 or permission of the instructor. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Winter 2010 -- J. Schott

• CAMS 400: Integrative Exercise

  6; S/NC; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010 -- Staff

Spring 2010

• CAMS 109: Media Production Lab

  An introduction to key technical and aesthetic concepts of video storytelling to be applied to assignments in the corresponding course, including developing story content and context, analyzing successful examples of video storytelling, building skills in scripting, composition, camera movement, lighting, audio recording, interviewing, rhythm and pacing in editing and incorporating graphics. Instructors permission required. 2; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010 -- P. Hager

• CAMS 111: Digital Foundations

  Introduces students to the full range of media production tools and forms, including still photography, audio, graphic design, and video. Students will produce a photo essay with audio track; complete a stand-alone audio narrative with music, EFX and telephone interviews; create a weblog and gain a better understanding of graphic design; and produce a short video project. Completed projects will be mounted on each student's weblog. Although participants are welcome to use their PCs and associated software, in CAMS you will learn Apple hardware and software. Students will work with Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, SoundSlides and WordPress. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010 -- P. Hager

• CAMS 229: 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 30s cinema seemed hollow indeed. During the 40s, the movies, our true national pastime, took a nosedive into pessimism. The result? A collection of exceptional films chocked full of tough guys and bad women lurking in the shadows of nasty urban landscapes. This course applies the tools of formal criticism, intellectual history, and feminist theory to films like Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, and Kiss Me Deadly. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Spring 2010 -- C. Donelan

• CAMS 241: History of American Broadcasting: From Wireless to the Web

  What forces shaped broadcasting’s development in the United States? How have our broadcast media changed throughout their history, and what does the future hold? This course surveys over 100 years of American broadcasting, from nineteenth-century wireless telegraphy to early twentieth-century radio broadcasting, the postwar television boom and rise of TV’s Classic Network System, and the recent growth of cable, satellite, and internet distribution. Changing styles and genres are linked to shifting technologies, regulations, industry economics, and broader changes in social context. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 recommended but not required. 6; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Spring 2010 -- S. VanCour

• CAMS 242: Sound and Music in New Media

  This course covers the theory and production of sound and music in radio, electronic soundscapes, electroacoustic music, and music in film and video. The course will focus on the aesthetics, theory, and practice of sound in these media, and students will create sound artworks in a laboratory component, using ProTools 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 is helpful but not required for this course. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Spring 2010 -- R. Rodman

• CAMS 255: Sound Studies: Methods and Debates

  The recent rise of "visual studies" in the American academy has spurred an interest in a parallel field of "sound studies." Examining scholarship on sound media and auditory culture from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, this course explores the varied subject matter and approaches pursued by major advocates and exemplars of this emerging field. Topics addressed include semiotics of sound and sound-image relations, sound perception and arts of listening, philosophies of fidelity and politics of noise, sound technologies and audio industries, audio engineering and sound art. Final paper or creative project required. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Spring 2010 -- S. VanCour

• CAMS 270: Nonfiction I: Reality Storytelling

  Here students develop the ability to turn a nonfiction subject into a compelling, well-told media project. In addition to exploring essential techniques of nonfiction production, we focus on documentary structure and story-forms. Increasingly, students are gathering, shaping and producing knowledge in a variety of media formats. Whether you want to produce social documentary, experimental nonfiction, or a media-based comps project, this class will give you the tools you will need. The class culminates in the production of a ten to fifteen minute project. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111 or permission of the instructor. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Spring 2010 -- E. Tretbar

• CAMS 276: Fiction II: Producing and Directing the Short Film

  This course builds on the skills developed in Cinema and Media Studies 271 Fiction 1, and takes them further in the areas of screenplay analysis, cinematography, casting, production management, and location shooting-skills utilized in the production of a short work of fiction, the focus of this course. Since this is not a screenwriting class, students work from scripts written in Cinema and Media Studies 279 Screenwriting, found elsewhere or provided by the instructor. This year's edition is taught by visiting independent cinema writer-director Eric Tretbar. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 271, or permission of the instructor; Cinema and Media Studies 279 strongly recommended. 6; Arts and Literature; offered Spring 2010 -- E. Tretbar

• CAMS 400: Integrative Exercise

  6; S/NC; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010 -- Staff