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, sound design, 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 the Cinema and Media Studies Major

Seventy-two credits are required for the major: forty-eight credits in core courses and twenty-four credits in elective courses. In the core curriculum, students are required to enroll in CAMS 110 and CAMS 111, two 200-level production courses (one of which must be CAMS 270 or CAMS 271), two 200-level film history courses (one of which must be CAMS 210, CAMS 211 or CAMS 214) and one 300-level theory seminar (CAMS 320, CAMS 330, CAMS 340). In addition to the core curriculum, students are required to enroll in four elective courses, choosing from courses taught departmentally as well as extra-departmentally, with limits of three production courses and two courses taught extra-departmentally counting towards elective credit for the major. In the senior-year comps project, students are asked to develop projects furthering their work in the curriculum.

  • Two 100-level Introductory Courses (12 credits):
    • CAMS 110 Introduction to Cinema and Media Studies
    • CAMS 111 Digital Foundations
  • Two 200-level Studio Production Courses (12 credits) one of which must be CAMS 270 or CAMS 271:
    • CAMS 242 Sound and Music in TV and New Media (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 245 The Essay Film (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 263 The Element of Control: Studio Filmmaking (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 264 Story Development Workshop
    • CAMS 265 Sound Design (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 270 Nonfiction
    • CAMS 271 Fiction
    • CAMS 273 Digital Editing Workshop (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 278 Writing for Television (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 279 Screenwriting
    • CAMS 280 Advanced Screenwriting
    • CAMS 286 Animation (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 288 Experimental Film & Video Production (not offered in 2020-21)
  • One 300-level Seminar (6 credits).
    • CAMS 320 Sound Studies Seminar (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 330 Cinema Studies Seminar (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 340 Television Studies Seminar
  • Four Elective Courses (24 credits). Credit for elective courses may be obtained by enrolling in any departmental or 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 limit of 18 credits in production courses count in fulfillment of elective credit for the major. The production courses currently taught in the department are listed below. Any of these courses can serve as electives for the major (up to a limit of 18 credits) as long as the course is not already serving in fulfillment of a core requirement for the major.
    • CAMS 177 Television Studio Production
    • CAMS 242 Sound and Music in TV and New Media (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 245 The Essay Film (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 278 Writing for Television (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 279 Screenwriting
    • CAMS 286 Animation (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CAMS 288 Experimental Film & Video Production (not offered in 2020-21)
  • A limit of 12 credits in extra-departmental elective courses count in fulfillment of elective credit for the major.
    • AMST 269 Woodstock Nation
    • ARTH 171 History of Photography
    • ARTH 172 Modern Art: 1890-1945 (not offered in 2020-21)
    • ARTH 240 Art Since 1945
    • ARTH 241 Contemporary Art for Artists
    • ARTS 140 The Digital Landscape
    • ARTS 141 Experimental Photography
    • ARTS 238 Photography I (not offered in 2020-21)
    • ARTS 339 Advanced Photography
    • CHIN 239 Digital China: Media, Culture, and Society
    • CHIN 240 Chinese Cinema in Translation (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CHIN 250 Chinese Popular Culture in Translation (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CHIN 348 Advanced Chinese: The Mass Media (not offered in 2020-21)
    • CS 312 Audio Programming (not offered in 2020-21)
    • ENGL 245 Bollywood Nation
    • ENGL 247 The American West
    • ENGL 248 Visions of California (not offered in 2020-21)
    • ENGL 288 California Program: The Literature of California
    • ENGL 362 Narrative Theory (not offered in 2020-21)
    • ENGL 395 Narrative
    • FREN 233 French Cinema and Culture (not offered in 2020-21)
    • FREN 236 Francophone Cinema and the African Experience
    • GWSS 398 Capstone: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Popular Culture
    • HIST 222 Slavery in Film, Literature, and History (not offered in 2020-21)
    • HIST 235 Making and Breaking Institutions: Structure, Culture, Corruption, and Reform in the Middle Ages (not offered in 2020-21)
    • JAPN 231 Tradition and Modernity: Japanese Cinema in Translation (not offered in 2020-21)
    • JAPN 244 The World of Anime in Translation (not offered in 2020-21)
    • LCST 245 The Critical Toolbox: Who's Afraid of Theory?
    • MELA 121 East-West in Israeli and Palestinian Fiction and Film (not offered in 2020-21)
    • MUSC 115 Listening to the Movies
    • POSC 203 Political Communication: Political Advertising in Elections and Public Policy
    • POSC 204 Media and Electoral Politics: 2020 United States Election
    • POSC 205 News Media and Democratic Electoral Processes (not offered in 2020-21)
    • POSC 214 Visual Representations of Political Thought and Action
    • POSC 220 Politics and Political History in Film
    • POSC 303 Political Communication: Political Advertising in Elections and Public Policy*
    • RELG 357 Televangelists and Cyber-Shaykhs: Explorations in Religion and Media (not offered in 2020-21)
    • SPAN 244 Spain Today: Recent Changes through Narrative and Film
    • SPAN 328 The Contemporary Spanish Fictional Essay (not offered in 2020-21)
    • SPAN 356 The Political and Cultural History of the Cuban Revolution (not offered in 2020-21)
    • THEA 320 Live Performance and Digital Media (not offered in 2020-21)
    • WGST 389 Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Popular Culture (not offered in 2020-21)
  • Integrative Exercise CAMS 400 (6 credits)
    Students proposing production projects for comps are strongly encouraged to apply to enroll in CAMS 370 Production Workshop I during the fall term of their senior year and are expected to enroll in CAMS 371 Production Workshop II and CAMS 400 during the winter term of their senior year. Students proposing writing projects for comps have the option to enroll in CAMS 400 in the fall or winter terms of their senior year.

Students considering a major in Cinema and Media Studies are encouraged to take CAMS 110 Introduction to Cinema and Media Studies and CAMS 111 Digital Foundations by the end of their sophomore year and at least one 200-level film history course (CAMS 210 Film History I, CAMS 211 Film History II, or CAMS 214 Film History III), one 200-level production course (CAMS 270 Nonfiction or 271 Fiction), and the 300-level theory seminar (CAMS 320 Sound Studies Seminar or CAMS 330 Cinema Studies Seminar or CAMS 340 Television Studies Seminar) by the end of their junior year.

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 101 Making Media This class introduces students to the process of making moving-image media. How do we generate creative ideas? How do we translate those ideas into moving images and sound? Students will draw inspiration from a variety of sources that are personal, cultural, and observational, and in doing so, develop confidence in their own artistic practice and perspective. Production exercises using consumer tools (smartphones, basic editing software) will introduce students to strategies for ideation and development for narrative, documentary, and experimental approaches to media production. Those planning to enroll in 200-level CAMS production courses will need to take CAMS 111 as a prerequisite. Students who have taken CAMS 111 cannot take CAMS 101. 6 credits; ARP; Winter, Spring; Paul Hager
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; Fall, Winter, Spring; Jay S Beck, Carol Donelan
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; Catherine Licata, Laska Jimsen, Cecilia M Cornejo
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, Spring; 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; Winter; Carol Donelan
CAMS 187 Cult Television and Fan Cultures This course focuses on the history, production, and consumption of cult television. The beginning of the seminar will be focused on critically examining a number of theoretical approaches to the study of genre and fandom. Building on these approaches, the remainder of the course will focus on cult television case studies from the last eight decades. We will draw on recent scholarship to explore how cult television functions textually, industrially, and culturally. Additionally, we will study fan communities on the Internet and consider how fansites, webisodes, and sites like YouTube and Netflix transform television genres. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Winter; Candace I Moore
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 2020-21
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; Spring; Jay S Beck
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 215 American Television History This course offers a historical survey of American television from the late 1940s to today, focusing on early television and the classical network era. Taking a cultural approach to the subject, this course examines shifts in television portrayals, genres, narrative structures, and aesthetics in relation to social and cultural trends as well as changing industrial practices. Reading television programs from the past eight decades critically, we interrogate various representations of consumerism, class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, lifestyle, and nation in the smaller screen while also tracing issues surrounding broadcasting policy, censorship, sponsorship, business, and programming. 6 credits; LA, IDS; Not offered 2020-21
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; Not offered 2020-21
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; Not offered 2020-21
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; Fall; Carol Donelan
CAMS 237 Russian and Soviet Film in Context This course examines major achievements of the Russian and Soviet cinematic tradition, highlighting how the outstanding formal and thematic features of the films emerge from the cultural battles and social transformations of their particular time and place. Emphasis is on the late imperial, early Soviet, Stalinist and Thaw periods; topics include pre-revolutionary melodrama, “montage” cinema, socialist realism and musical comedy for the “masses.” Supplemental readings include contemporaneous theory as well as secondary scholarship focusing on contextualization and interpretation. Course goals include the acquisition of cultural knowledge, enhanced awareness of film form, and the development of independent analytic and interpretive skills. 6 credits; LA, IS; Not offered 2020-21
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. 6 credits; ARP; Not offered 2020-21
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 2020-21
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 248 From Cops to Cartoons: Television Genres This course is an introduction to television studies through examination of TV genres from early television to the present. Genres such as the Western, Cop/Detective drama, Soap Opera, Game Show, News/Sports, Reality TV, Situation Comedy, Animated Cartoons, and Advertising will be covered. The course will focus on how television genre categories are defined in theory, but often hybridized in practice. The course will also provide a historical perspective on these genres, and analysis of programs from visual, sound, and musical perspectives to observe how each has evolved over time. 6 credits; LA, WR2; Not offered 2020-21
CAMS 256 Digital Cinema Culture The phrase “going to the movies” is perhaps more meaningless than ever. Not only do the proliferation of screens, ubiquity of cinematic conventions, and ease of media access make it seem as though we are always-already at the movies, but the definition of what a movie is seems to be in constant flux. This course addresses the issue of twenty-first century film culture by exploring how emerging media technologies have reconfigured the meaning and function of cinema in the “digital age.” Topics include media convergence, digital bodies, video games and VR, digital exhibition and distribution, social media, cinephilia, and fandom. 6 credits; LA; Not offered 2020-21
CAMS 257 Video Games and Identity As video games have emerged as a dominant cultural form, they have become deeply intertwined with broader cultural debates around identity. By analyzing a variety of specific games as well as the industry that creates them and the communities who play them, we will think through topics such as liberal multiculturalism, neoliberal capitalism, feminism, queerness, ethical design, the military-entertainment complex, GamerGate, and discourses of political correctness. This course will avoid categorizing games as having “positive” or “negative” social effects and will instead focus on how videogames function as a window into issues of identity in U.S. culture. 6 credits; LA; Not offered 2020-21
CAMS 258 Feminist and Queer Media The focus of this course is on spectatorship—feminist, lesbian, queer, transgender. The seminar interrogates arguments about representation and the viewer’s relationship to the moving image in terms of identification, desire, masquerade, fantasy, power, time, and embodied experience. The course first explores the founding essays of psychoanalytic feminist film theory, putting these ideas into dialogue with mainstream cinema. Second, we consider the aesthetic, narrative, and theoretical interventions posed by feminist filmmakers working in contradistinction to Hollywood. Third, “queering” contemporary media, we survey challenges and revisions to feminist film theory presented by considerations of race and ethnicity, transgender experience, and queerness. 6 credits; LA, IDS; Not offered 2020-21
CAMS 263 The Element of Control: Studio Filmmaking How do we bring attention to an artifact or object, a gesture or speech? In this class students will become familiar with strategies and techniques of studio practices in film making. Students will be asked to think through the ways control can heighten our conversations in film, or bring attention to specificities. Through lighting techniques and camera techniques students will learn the slippery art of controlled environments. Projects will place pressure on students to integrate elements learned in the studio into larger filmmaking practices while learning conceptual and historical conversations around the uses of the studio. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111 or instructor permission. 6 credits; ARP; Not offered 2020-21
CAMS 264 Story Development Workshop This course explores the creative practice of developing stories for narrative 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 a 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 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 2020-21
CAMS 267 Contemporary Media Arts Program: Exploring Contemporary Media Arts in New York and Europe Experiential learning is at the heart of this course; students will engage directly with filmmakers and arts organizations through film screenings, studio visits, and workshops. Class discussions, written responses, and creative projects will provide opportunities for reflection and synthesis as students expand their knowledge of contemporary media practices. Prerequisite: Participation in OCS Media Arts Program. 6 credits; NE, IS; Winter
CAMS 268 Contemporary Media Arts Program: Media Production Workshop This course will combine classes taught by faculty director Laska Jimsen with specialized workshops by filmmakers and media artists in the cities we visit. Workshops will draw on strengths of the Cinema and Media Studies production curriculum, including a focus on form/content, sound/image, and theory/practice relationships, while introducing students to production practices not currently offered at Carleton. Each student will produce individual and collaborative creative media projects. Prerequisite: Students will need Adobe Creative Cloud Software and a laptop capable of running that software. Participation in OCS Media Arts Program. 6 credits; ARP, IS; Winter
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 Carleton's Center for Community and Civic Engagement 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; Not offered 2020-21
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, WR2; Not offered 2020-21
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, WR2; Fall; Michael Elyanow
CAMS 280 Advanced Screenwriting Topic: Advanced Writing for Television. This is an intensive writing practicum for motivated students to complete a well-structured original television pilot. The course will explore dramatic structure, character motivation and action, and the complex interplay between plot and character. Students will refine their tools for television writing as they develop and revise their pilot's logline, tone, stakes, theme, and more. Over ten weeks students will move from concept to outline and then to a full draft of their original pilot. Weekly feedback provides students with an honest evaluation of their material in a dynamic and supportive environment. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 264, 278 or 279, or instructor consent. 6 credits; ARP, WR2; Spring; Tawnya M Bhattacharya
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; Not offered 2020-21
CAMS 288 Experimental Film & Video Production Experimental Film & Video Production is a process-based production course focused on the conceptual and technical concerns of experimental film, video and other time-based arts. We will explore the personal, cultural, political, and formal/aesthetic aspects of experimental media through readings, writings, screenings and the production of experimental media projects. Key course concerns include medium specificity and relationships between sound and image, form and content, and theory and practice. We will consider “experimental” as a working practice rather than a genre--a way of testing hypotheses and a process of discovery. Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111 and one additional Cinema and Media Studies course or instructor permission. 6 credits; ARP; Not offered 2020-21
CAMS 290 Contemporary Media Arts Program: Positionality and Place in Contemporary Media Arts How do the places we inhabit and visit shape us as individuals and communities? How do our experiences and identities influence how we encounter a place--as individuals and as artists? Directed readings and viewings over winter break will familiarize students with key concepts, ideas, artists, projects, and ethical considerations we will continue to explore on the trip. As we travel, students will respond through a series of short response papers. Prerequisite: Participation in OCS Media Arts Program. 6 credits; S/CR/NC; NE; Winter
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; Not offered 2020-21
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; Not offered 2020-21
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; Not offered 2020-21
CAMS 330 Cinema Studies Seminar This seminar introduces students to the history of ideas in classical and contemporary film theory. Emphasis is on close reading of primary texts and class discussion. The course surveys the formalist and realist traditions in classical film theory, the ontology and aesthetics of the photochemical and digital image, and trends in contemporary film theory, including authorship and genre, ideology and psychoanalysis, cultural studies, phenomenology, and post-cinema. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 or instructor permission. 6 credits; LA; Not offered 2020-21
CAMS 340 Television Studies Seminar This seminar aims to develop students into savvy critical theorists of television, knowledgeable about the field, and capable of challenging previous scholarship to invent new paradigms. The first half of the course surveys texts foundational to television studies while the second half focuses primarily on television theory and criticism produced over the last two decades. Television Studies covers a spectrum of approaches to thinking and writing critically about television, including: semiotics; ideological critique; cultural studies; genre and narrative theories; audience studies; production studies; and scholarship positioning post-network television within the contexts of media convergence and digital media.  Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 or instructor permission. 6 credits; LA; Spring; Candace I Moore
CAMS 370 Advanced Production Workshop I In this course, students will develop a concept and complete pre-production for their CAMS production comps. Students will draw inspiration from a variety of sources that are personal, cultural, and observational, and in doing so, develop confidence in their own artistic practice and perspective. We will refine technical and formal strategies, consider audience reception, and practice giving and receiving constructive critique. Prior to registering for the course, students must submit a project proposal to the instructor. Final enrollment is based on the quality of the proposal. Note: This course is intended to prepare students for a Comps production project in winter term and it is the first in a two part sequence with CAMS 371. If you have any questions about enrolling in this course, please email the instructor. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111, and either Cinema and Media Studies 270 or 271 or instructor consent. 6 credits; ARP; Fall; Laska Jimsen
CAMS 371 Advanced Production Workshop II Advanced Production Workshop II is taken in conjunction with CAMS 400 for students completing production comps. Production projects are inherently collaborative; this course supports collaboration through workshops, crewing, and informed critique. This course is the second in the advanced production workshop sequence with a focus on production and post-production. Please contact instructor for further information. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 370 or instructor consent. 6 credits; ARP; Winter; Catherine Licata
CAMS 400 Integrative Exercise 6 credits; S/NC; Fall, Winter; Candace I Moore, Catherine Licata