Carleton College

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 cr., ND, Fall,Winter,Spring—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 cr., AL, Fall,Winter—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 cr., AL, Fall,Winter,Spring—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 cr., AL, Winter—C. Donelan

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 cr., AL, RAD, Fall—D. Nemec Ignashev

CAMS 213. Italian Neorealism and Global Cinema Neorealism is generally associated with a set of films produced by the Italian film industry during the post-World War II years, but filmmakers all over the world have been preoccupied with neorealism’s primary concern--representing social reality. In this course, we examine the traditional neorealist films of Rossellini, De Sica and Visconti in relation to relevant theories, the modernist films of Fellini, Pasolini and Antonioni that question or problematize neorealism, and the impact of neorealism on global cinema. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 110 and 111 or permission of the instructor. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

CAMS 215. American Film History In this course, we investigate Hollywood cinema as a unique economic, industrial, aesthetic, and cultural institution. Topics addressed include the experience of movie-going, the nature of Hollywood storytelling, and the roles played by the studio system, the star system, and film genre in the creation of a body of work that functions both as entertainment and as an influential mediator of American experience, identity, and culture. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

CAMS 217. Border Crossings: Postmodern Perspectives on French and German Cinema In this course, we will explore the responses of French and German filmmakers to the challenges facing Europe as it redefined itself throughout the twentieth century. Taking Foucault's and Derrida's theories about the center and the margin as a starting point, we will examine such issues as national identity, marginalization, shifting gender roles and technological change. Filmmakers to be discussed will be Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Renoir, Agnes Varda, Fritz Lang, Rainer W. Fassbinder and Helma Sanders-Brahms. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

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 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 cr., AL, Spring—C. Donelan

CAMS 226. The Melodramatic Imagination: Visual Storytelling in Popular Media and Fine Art

Melodrama is arguably the dominant visual storytelling mode in American popular culture, existing across popular media, manifesting in films, television shows, magazines, advertising, video games and comics. It is evident in "chick flicks" and action blockbusters, film stills and posters, soap operas, sports shows, commercials, celebrity profiles and newscasts. In addition to exploring the reception and meanings of melodrama in popular film and media, we will investigate the migration of "lowbrow" melodrama into "highbrow" media, including fine art photography, painting and sculpture. Students enrolled in the course will participate in researching and mounting an exhibit in the Carleton Art Gallery. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

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 cr., AL, Fall—J. Schott

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 cr., AL, Winter—E. Tretbar

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 cr., ND, Spring—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 cr., AL, Spring—R. Rodman

CAMS 248. Creativity and Innovation in Mass Media What is the nature of creativity and innovation? What are their conditions and possibilities within industrialized mass media systems? Beginning with early critiques of mass media as obstacles to creativity and innovation, we will examine countervailing efforts to position mass media producers as inventive "auteurs," and explore several new approaches developed recently by leading industry scholars. We will analyze the institutional logics of mass media industries and consider the role that medium, genre, control of production, professional training, profit margins, and access to technology, capital, and human resources play in enabling or limiting particular forms of creative expression. 6 cr., ND, Not offered in 2009-2010.

CAMS 252. Open the Box: Critical Approaches to Television Studies How do we define "television" as an object of critical inquiry, and what is the task of television criticism? As television technologies, industries, programming, and audiences have changed in recent decades, so too have approaches pursued by television scholars. This class provides an overview of critical methods in contemporary television studies, including formal analysis of television style and narrative; ideological analysis from psychoanalytic, Marxist, feminist, and cultural studies perspectives; industry analysis of institutional pressures shaping program production; and studies of audiences and fan communities. Students will apply the methods studied in a series of short papers on programs of their choosing. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

CAMS 253. Sound in the Era of Mechanical Reproduction: From Edison to the iPod In this class we study the history of sound reproduction, tracing the rise of the phonograph, radio, and sound cinema, the hi-fi revolution, cassette culture, transformations of television sound, video game sound, and new digital audio devices. Emphasis is on the relationships between different audio media and the various technological, economic, aesthetic, and social exigencies that have shaped their historical development. Students will complete semi-regular listening assignments and pursue close analyses of course readings, with critical attention to questions of historiographic method. Students will also participate in a collaborative research project and multimedia presentation. 6 cr., ND, Not offered in 2009-2010.

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 cr., ND, Winter—S. VanCour

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 cr., AL, Spring—S. VanCour

CAMS 269. New Media Seminar in Europe Program: Understanding New Media Most broadly, new media may be thought of as the intersection of the arts and the emerging universe of digital tools and distribution strategies. The class explores the history of new media, with particular emphasis on key concepts, genres and critical issues. We explore a wide variety of new media projects available online, and typically visit practicing new media artists in the area. No special computing skills are required, but students wishing to may undertake a creative project as part of the class. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

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 cr., AL, Spring—E. Tretbar

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 cr., AL, Fall—E. Tretbar

CAMS 272. Advanced Editing Techniques New digital media are changing the way we produce and distribute art and information. We'll combine critical perspectives with hands-on production with particular focus on multi-media for the web and DVD authoring. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

CAMS 274. Special Projects Workshop Students with their instructor produce a long-form broadcast-quality nonfiction project. Roughly ten mid- to advanced-level students will work to conceive, research, shoot and edit the film. This is an exceptional opportunity for committed student video producers. Permission of the instructor is required for enrollment. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

CAMS 275. Audio Workshop The Audio Workshop introduces students to essential skills in audio storytelling and drama. Students will produce projects in three essential genres: reportorial projects [suitable for news or research reporting], personal narratives (along the lines of This American Life), and new audio drama (fiction recorded in our sound booth with actors). Along with essential technical skills, students will engage critical historical and esthetic issues in audio, along with directorial skills like interviewing and directing voice talent. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

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 cr., AL, Spring—E. Tretbar

CAMS 277. Studio Production In this class we will explore the full resources of studio production by producing and distributing to the campus a weekly video show. Students will shoot and edit field segments and the studio program which we will publish as a web-based video subscription. The class will construct a permanent set with green-screen graphics background, and explore the logic of studio production including live, three-camera switching. Additionally, we will review the historical evolution of studio broadcasting as a key contemporary media form. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111 or permission of the instructor. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

CAMS 278. Studio Production In this class we will explore the full resources of studio production by producing and distributing to the campus a weekly video show. Students will shoot and edit field segments and the studio program which we will publish as a web-based video subscription. The class will construct a permanent set with green-screen graphics background, and explore the logic of studio production including live, three-camera switching. Additionally, we will review the historical evolution of studio broadcasting as a key contemporary media form. Prerequisite: Cinema and Media Studies 111 or permission of the instructor. 3 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

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 cr., AL, Winter—E. Tretbar

CAMS 280. We Media: Theories and Practices of Writing Lives, Documenting Community, and Framing Change

Storytelling is a tool for preserving memory, writing history, learning, entertaining, organizing, and healing. It is in the telling of stories that communities build identities, construct meaning, and make connections with others and the world. In this course we will examine modes and power dimensions of digital storytelling, investigate the role of digitized media used for community organizing and development, and discuss the gendered and racialized digital divide. Students will gain tools to tell their own stories using digital media (video, still images, sound and artwork) and learn Mac-based editing. Students will produce photographic and video work that will be shared on the course blog. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

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 cr., AL, Fall—J. Schott

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 cr., AL, Winter—J. 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 permission of the instructor. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

CAMS 289. New Media Seminar in Europe Program: Digital Workshop

This is a "special projects" workshop exploring digital video, photography, audio, camera phones, GPS and the like. Projects change in each edition of the workshop, but in all cases we typically explore core theoretical issues that inform production, visit reference projects typically available online, and then develop a working plan for executing projects. The Workshop is also designed to accommodate students with minimal or baseline production as well as those with more extensive experience. Prerequisities: Cinema and Media Studies 111 or permission of the instructor. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2009-2010.

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 cr., AL, Fall—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 cr., AL, Fall—C. Donelan

CAMS 340. Media Theory: Objects and Methods

Media form an important and pervasive part of our everyday lives, affecting how we think, act, and communicate with one another, and offering vital resources for understanding world and self. This class surveys approaches used by scholars of print, radio, television, film, and new digital technologies to understand our modern media environment, including narrative theory, ideological analysis, technology studies, production studies, public sphere theory, cultural geography, political economy, globalization theory, convergence theory, and audience studies. Assignments include short written analyses of readings and a self-designed practicum project. No prerequisites. 6 cr., ND, Not offered in 2009-2010.

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 cr., AL, Fall—E. Tretbar

CAMS 400. Integrative Exercise 6 cr., S/NC, ND, Fall,Winter,Spring—Staff