Cinema and Media Studies

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This is an archived copy of the 2013-2014 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://catalog.uchicago.edu.

Contacts

Undergraduate Primary Contact

Director of Undergraduate Studies
Xinyu Dong
G-B 416
834.4241
Email

Administrative Contact

Department Coordinator
Matt Wallace
G-B 418
834.1077
Email

Website

http://cms.uchicago.edu

Program of Study

For more than a century, and across widely different cultures, film has been a primary medium for storytelling; it has served to depict and explore the world, to engage and shape the human senses and emotions, memory, and imagination. We live in a time in which the theatrical exhibition of films to a paying public is no longer the primary venue in which motion pictures are consumed. But cinema seems to survive, even as it is being transformed by television, video, and digital media; these media, in turn, are giving rise to new forms of moving image culture.

The major in Cinema and Media Studies provides a framework within which students can approach the history of film and related media from a variety of historical, critical, and theoretical perspectives. Focusing on the study of the moving image, as well as sound, the program enables students to analyze how cinema creates meanings through particular forms, techniques, and styles; how industrial organization affects the way films are produced and received; and how the social context in which they are made and circulated influences our understanding of the medium.

At the same time, the goal is to situate the cinema and related media in broader contexts: modernity, modernism, and the avant-garde; narrative theory, poetics, and rhetoric; commercial entertainment forms and consumer culture; sexuality and gender; constructions of ethnic, racial, and national identities; and international media production and circulation.

Students graduating with a Cinema and Media Studies major will be trained in critical, formal, theoretical, and historical thinking and analysis. The program thus fosters discussion and writing skills. Students will gain the tools to approach film history as well as today's media environment within specific cultural contexts and broad transnational perspectives.

Students wishing to enter the program should consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies no later than Spring Quarter of their second year. Participation in the program must be declared to the Director of Undergraduate Studies before registration.

Program Requirements

The major consists of twelve courses (four required courses and eight elective courses) and a BA research paper.

Required Courses

The following five courses are required:

CMST 10100 Introduction to Film Analysis. This course provides an introduction to the basic concepts of film analysis. It should be completed before other Cinema and Media Studies courses; it must be completed before other required courses. It should be completed as early as possible; it must be completed by the end of the third year.

History of International Cinema sequence CMST 28500 and 28600. This required two-quarter sequence covers the silent era (CMST 28500 History of International Cinema I: Silent Era) and the sound era to 1960 (CMST 28600 History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960), as well as major characteristics and developments of each. It is typically taught in Autumn and Winter Quarters. It should be completed by the end of the third year.

CMST 29800 Senior Colloquium. In Autumn Quarter of their fourth year, students must participate in a Senior Colloquium that helps them conceptualize their BA research paper and address more advanced questions of methodology and theory.

CMST 29900 BA Research Paper. Students are required to register for CMST 29900 BA Research Paper during the term in which they plan to graduate from the College. CMST 29900 BA Research Paper is a zero credit course. Registration for CMST 29900 ensures that a thesis grade will appear on the student's transcript. While students who entered the College before Autumn Quarter 2011 are not required to REGISTER for CMST 29900 as part of the major, they are strongly urged to do so to ensure that a thesis grade appears on the transcript. Whether or not these students choose to register for CMST 29900, they must complete the BA thesis as part of the program requirements.

Elective Courses

Of the eight remaining courses, five must either originate in or be cross-listed with Cinema and Media Studies. Students must receive prior approval of the five courses that they choose, and they are encouraged to consider broad survey courses as well as those with more focused topics (e.g., courses devoted to a single genre, director, or national cinema). Members of the affiliated faculty often teach courses that meet requirements for the three elective courses; students are encouraged to consult with them when making their selections. A course agreement form to be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies by fourth week of Autumn Quarter of the student's third year is available in G-B 418 and on the CMS website.

Although the other three courses may be taken outside Cinema and Media Studies, students must demonstrate their relevance to the study of cinema. For example, a group of courses could focus on: traditional disciplines (e.g., history, anthropology/ethnography, philosophy, psychology, linguistics, sociology, political economy); subfields within area studies (e.g., East Asian, South Asian, African American, Jewish studies); art forms and media other than film, photography, and video (e.g., art history, architecture, literature, theater, opera, dance); or cross-disciplinary topics or sets of problems (e.g., the urban environment, violence and pornography, censorship, copyright and industry regulation, concepts of the public sphere, globalization). A form listing and explaining the choice of outside electives must be submitted to the Director of Undergraduate Studies by fourth week of Winter Quarter of the student's third year is available in G-B 418.

BA Research Paper

Before seventh week of Spring Quarter of their third year, students meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies to discuss the focus of their required BA project. Students begin reading and research during the summer. By the end of fourth week of the Autumn Quarter of their fourth year, students select a project adviser and prepare to present an outline of their project to the Senior Colloquium. Writing and revising take place during Winter Quarter. The final version is due by fourth week of the quarter in which the student plans to graduate.

The BA research paper typically consists of a substantial essay that engages a research topic in the history, theory, and criticism of film and/or other media. A creative project in film or video production supplemented by an essay is sometimes an option, contingent on the approval of the faculty.

To be considered for this option, the student will submit a written proposal to the Director of Undergraduate Studies by the seventh week of Spring Quarter of the third year. Priority will be given to students who have completed three production classes (2 must originate in CMST) by the end of Autumn Quarter of their fourth year.

In addition to enrollment in CMST 29800 Senior Colloquium during the Autumn Quarter of the fourth year, students who supplement their BA thesis project with film or video work are required to enroll in the Senior Creative Thesis Workshop during the Winter Quarter of their fourth year. The Senior Creative Thesis Workshop may not be counted toward distribution requirements for the major. All students are required to register for CMST 29900 BA Research Paper during the term in which they plan to graduate from the College.

Summary of Requirements

CMST 10100	Introduction to Film Analysis	100
CMST 28500-28600	History of International Cinema I-II	200
CMST 29800	Senior Colloquium	100
5 elective courses in Cinema and Media Studies (courses originating in or cross listed with Cinema and Media Studies) ^*		500
3 elective courses (courses originating in Cinema and Media Studies or elsewhere that are relevant to the study of cinema) ^**		300
CMST 29900	BA Research Paper ^†	000
Total Units		1200

*	A course agreement form to be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies by fourth week of Autumn Quarter of a student's third year is required to obtain approval of these courses.
**	A form to be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies by fourth week of Winter Quarter of a student's third year is required to obtain approval of these courses.
†	Students are required to register for CMST 29900 BA Research Paper, although it carries no course credit. Students must register for CMST 29900 during the term in which they graduate from the College.

Grading

Students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies must receive a quality grade in all courses required for the major. With prior consent of instructor, non-majors may take Cinema and Media Studies courses for P/F grading.

Honors

Students who have earned an overall GPA of 3.25 or higher and a GPA of 3.5 or higher in Cinema and Media Studies courses are eligible for honors. To receive honors, students must also write a BA research paper that shows exceptional intellectual and/or creative merit in the judgment of the first and the second readers, the Director of Undergraduate Studies, and the Master of the Humanities Collegiate Division.

Advising

A course agreement form to be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies by fourth week of Autumn Quarter of the student's third year is required to obtain approval of the five elective courses that must either originate in or be cross listed with Cinema and Media Studies. A form to be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies by fourth week of Winter Quarter of the student's fourth year is required to obtain approval of the three additional elective courses. Both forms are available in G-B 418.

Minor Program in Cinema and Media Studies

The minor in Cinema and Media Studies requires the completion of six courses:

CMST 10100	Introduction to Film Analysis	100
CMST 28500-28600	History of International Cinema I-II	200
Three courses numbered 20000 or above		300
Total Units		600

Students are encouraged to take CMST 10100 Introduction to Film Analysis early in their undergraduate career, or at the beginning of their minor course of study. It must be taken no later than Spring Quarter of a student's third year.

Students who elect the minor program in Cinema and Media Studies must meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies before the end of the Winter Quarter of their third year to declare their intention to complete the minor and to select courses. The Director's approval of the minor program should be submitted to a student's College adviser no later than the end of Spring Quarter of a student's third year. Approval forms are obtained from the Director of Undergraduate Studies, the department website, or the College adviser.

Courses in the minor (1) may not be double-counted with the student's major(s) or with other minors; and (2) may not be counted toward general education requirements. All classes toward the minor must be taken for quality grades, and more than half of the requirements for the minor must be met by registering for courses bearing University of Chicago course numbers.

Sample Minor Program in Cinema and Media Studies

CMST 10100	Introduction to Film Analysis	100
CMST 28500	History of International Cinema I: Silent Era	100
CMST 28600	History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960	100
and
CMST 23404	French Cinema, 1920s–1930s	100
CMST 24701	Left-Wing Art and Soviet Film Culture of the 1920s	100
CMST 25201	Cinema and the First Avant-Garde, 1890-1933	100

Cinema and Media Studies Courses Offered in 2013-2014

For the most up-to-date listing of Cinema and Media Studies courses, please visit the Department's website .

CMST 10100. Introduction to Film Analysis. 100 Units.

This course introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres. Along with questions of film technique and style, we consider the notion of the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Films discussed include works by Hitchcock, Porter, Griffith, Eisenstein, Lang, Renoir, Sternberg, and Welles.

Instructor(s): Y. Tsivian, Staff Terms Offered: Autumn, Spring
Note(s): Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 20000,ARTV 25300,ENGL 10800

CMST 10300. Visual Language: On Time and Space. 100 Units.

Through studio work and critical discussion on four-dimensional form, this course is designed to reveal the conventions of the moving image, performance, and/or the production of digital-based media. Basic formal elements and principles of art are presented, but also put into practice to reveal perennial issues in a visual field. Form is studied as a means to communicate content. Topics as varied as but not limited to narrative, mechanical reproduction, verisimilitude, historical tableaux, time and memory, the body politic, and the role of the author can be illuminated through these primary investigations. Some sections focus solely on performance; others incorporate moving image technology. Please check the time schedule for details. Visits to museums and other fieldwork required, as is participation in studio exercises and group critiques. Students must attend class for the full first week in order to confirm enrollment. Sign up for the wait list for this course at dova.uchicago.edu/content/wait-list-core-courses-0.

Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Note(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, and 10300 may be taken in sequence or individually. This course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. Previous experience in media-based studio courses not accepted as a substitute for this course.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 10300,TAPS 23400

CMST 23405. A Topography of Modernity: Cinema in Paris, 1890-1925. 100 Units.

In the Arcades Project, Walter Benjamin wrote: “Couldn’t an exciting film be made from the map of Paris? From the unfolding of its various aspects in temporal succession? From the compression of a centuries-long movement of streets, boulevards, arcades, and squares into the space of half an hour?” In this course, we will undertake a study of modernity as both a philosophical concept and historical phenomenon by focusing on film style, cinema culture, film exhibition practices, and the visual culture and urban milieu of Paris—“the capital of the 19th century”—between 1890 and 1925. Knowledge of French is desirable, but not required.

Instructor(s): J. Wild Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): PQ: CMST 10100 Introduction to Film or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 33405

CMST 23905. Creative Thesis Workshop. 100 Units.

This seminar will focus on how to craft a creative thesis in film or video. Works-in-progress will be screened each week, and technical and structural issues relating to the work will be explored. The workshop will also develop the written portion of the creative thesis. The class is limited to seniors from CMS and DOVA, and MAPH students working on a creative thesis.

Instructor(s): J. Hoffman Terms Offered: Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): CMST 23930; CMST 23931 or 27600; departmental approval of senior creative thesis project.

CMST 23930. Documentary Production I. 100 Units.

This class is intended to develop skills in documentary production so that students may apply for Documentary Production II. Documentary Production I focuses on the making of independent documentary video. Examples of various styles of documentary will be screened and discussed. Issues embedded in the documentary genre, such as the ethics and politics of representation and the shifting lines between fact and fiction will be explored. Pre-production methodologies, production, and post-production techniques will be taught. Students will be expected to develop an idea for a documentary video, crews will be formed, and each crew will produce a five-minute documentary. Students will also be expected to purchase an external hard drive.

Instructor(s): J. Hoffman
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent enrollment in CMST 10100 is strongly recommended.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 23930

CMST 23931. Documentary Production II. 100 Units.

This course focuses on the shaping and crafting of a nonfiction video. Students are expected to write a treatment detailing their project. Production techniques focus on the handheld camera versus tripod, interviewing and microphone placement, and lighting for the interview. Postproduction covers editing techniques and distribution strategies. Students then screen final projects in a public space.

Instructor(s): J. Hoffman
Prerequisite(s): CMST 23930/ARTV 23930
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 23931,ARTV 33931,CMST 33931

CMST 24550. Central Asian Cinema. 100 Units.

Nowhere has the advent of modernity been more closely entwined with cinema than in Central Asia, a contested entity which for our purposes stretches from Turkey in the West to Kyrgyzstan in the East, though our emphasis will be squarely on Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asia (especially Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan). This course will trace the encounter with cinematic modernity through the analysis of individual films by major directors, including (but not limited to) Shukhrat Abbasov, Melis Ubukeev, Ali Khamraev, Tolomush Okeev, Sergei Paradzhanov, Gulshad Omarova. In addition to situating the films in their cultural and historical situations, close attention will be paid to the sources of Central Asian cinema in cinemas both adjacent and distant; to the ways in which cinema enables a distinct encounter with modernity; and to the cinematic construction of Central Asia as a cultural entity.

Instructor(s): R. Bird Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): PQ: CMST 10100 Introduction to Film or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 34550,SLAV 24550

CMST 24607. Chinese Independent Documentary Film. 100 Units.

This course explores the styles and functions of Chinese independent documentary since 1989, with particular attention to the institutional, social, economic, and political contexts that underpin its flourishing. We will discuss the ways in which recent Chinese documentaries challenge current theories of the genre, how they redefine the relationship between fiction and non-fiction, and the problems of form, political intervention, and ethics of representation that they pose. We will look at their channels of circulation in Asia and elsewhere, and will discuss the political implications and limits of “independent” documentary in the wake of intensified globalization. In addition, we will consider recent influential feature films characterized by a “documentary style.” Readings will include theorizations of the documentary genre in relation to other visual media and narrative forms, analyses of specific works, and overviews of recent transformations in Chinese media.

Instructor(s): P. Iovene Terms Offered: Spring

CMST 24614. Three New Waves: Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China. 100 Units.

Like all New Waves, Chinese New Waves are first and foremost an international event. From the late 1970s on and throughout the 1980s, three “New Wave” cinemas from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China appeared on the international stage, representing the historical debut of Chinese-language cinema to world cinephiles. This course will investigate how such “universal” New Wave issues as their stylistic treatment of youth, city, and violence engage with historical local experiences. Films include major works by such important New Wave directors as Ann Hui, Wong Kar-wai, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Chen Kaige, and Zhang Yimou.

Instructor(s): X. Dong Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): PQ: CMST 10100 Introduction to Film or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 34614

CMST 24615. Chinese Musicals. 100 Units.

Are there Chinese musicals? It very much depends on what we would consider a Chinese musical. To answer Adrian Martin’s call for “Musical Mutations: Before, Beyond and Against Hollywood,” this course will look for Chinese musicals in both obvious and unlikely places. The “musical mutations” under discussion include traditional opera adaptation, back-stage opera film, martial-arts opera film, Maoist opera film, musical comedy, song-and-dance film, melo-drama, Hong Kong musical, and most certainly the “apocalyptic” musical named by Martin, The Hole (Tsai Ming-liang, 1998). The tripartite developments of Chinese-language cinemas provide a privileged site to chart the ways the musical genre expands, transforms, and rejuvenates across time and borders.

Instructor(s): X. Dong Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: CMST 10100 Introduction to Film or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 34615

CMST 26400. The Cinema of Charlie Chaplin. 100 Units.

The course looks at Chaplin and his long film career from a number of perspectives. One of these is Chaplin’s acting technique inherited from commedia dell’arte and enriched by cinematic devices; another is Chaplin as a person involved in a series of political and sexual scandals; yet another one is Chaplin as a myth fashioned within twentieth-century art movements like German Expressionist poetry, French avant-garde painting, or Soviet Constructivist art.

Instructor(s): Y. Tsivian Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PQ: CMST 10100 Introduction to Film or consent of instructor.

CMST 26402. Post–World War II American Mise en Scene Directors. 100 Units.

This course will treat the style of a number of American Hollywood feature film directors during the two decades after World War II, including Nicholas Ray, Anthony Mann, Otto Preminger, and others. These directors were singled out at that time by the critics writing for the French journal Cahiers du Cinema as auteurs, directors with a consistent style. Critics in France, England, and the USA used the term mise en scene to discuss their use of framing, performance, editing, and camera movement and especially their use of new technologies such as wide screen and color. This course will explore the concept of directors’ style as well as the mode of close analysis criticism that grew out of this concept.

Instructor(s): T. Gunning Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): PQ: CMST 10100 Introduction to Film or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 36402

CMST 26503. Scandinavian Cinema in the Classic Era (1910-1960) 100 Units.

During the 1910s Scandinavian cinema was among the most popular cinemas in the world. The best directors, actresses, and actors developed a mastery of cinematic expression and screen appearance never seen before in cinema. Erotically charged melodramas and comedies were the most popular genres, but also poetic masterpieces such as The Passion of Joan of Arc are key works from this era. The course will explore the breathtaking appearances of such celebrated female stars as Asta Nielsen and Greta Garbo, and analyze silent masterpieces such as Blom’s early science fiction films, the dramas of Christensen, Stiller, Sjostrom, and Dreyer, and the early films of Tancred Ibsen and Ingmar Bergman. All readings are in English.

Instructor(s): E. Rossaak Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): PQ: CMST 10100 Introduction to Film or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 36503

CMST 27204. Realisms. 100 Units.

The course will examine key genealogies, theoretical debates, and critical accounts of realism in the cinema. Questions of realism have been carried over from the “traditional” arts and literature, but had undergone a sea-change with the particular ontological and epistemological claims of the cinematic medium, across fiction and documentary, mainstream and experimental forms. While the concept seemed bracketed (or buried) with the advent of structuralism and post-modernism, reality effects—traversing types, genres, and ideologies of representation—still haunt the cinematic imagination. The claim to “presence” carried by photographic indexicality, the historical conventions of mimesis and illusionism, the shifting values of document, witness, testimony, of the material and the referential, of the authentic and the composed—all ensured the continued fascination with realism and its productive transfigurations through our time. We will explore examples from different cinemas and cultural moments, and consider debates on the political implications of realism and its capacity for transformation and revival.

Instructor(s): Noa Steimatsky Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): PQ: CMST 10100 Introduction to Film or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 37204

CMST 27600. Introduction to Black and White Film Photography. 100 Units.

Photography is a familiar medium due to its ubiquitous presence in our visual world, including popular culture and personal usage. In this class, students learn technical procedures and basic skills related to the 35mm camera, black and white film, and print development. They also begin to establish criteria for artistic expression. We investigate photography in relation to its historical and social context in order to more consciously engage the photograph's communicative and expressive possibilities. Course work culminates in a portfolio of works exemplary of the student's understanding of the medium. Field trips required.

Instructor(s): S. Huffman, L. Letinsky Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Note(s): Camera and light meter required.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 24000,ARTV 34000,CMST 37600

CMST 27602-27702. Photography I-II.

The goal of this course is to develop students’ investigations and explorations in photography, building on beginning level experience and basic facility with this medium. Students pursue a line of artistic inquiry by participating in a process that involves experimentation, reading, gallery visits, critiques, and discussions, but mostly by producing images. Primary emphasis is placed upon the visual articulation of the ideas of students through their work, as well as the verbal expression of their ideas in class discussions, critiques, and artist’s statements. As a vital component of articulating ideas and inquiry, students will refine their skills, e.g., black and white or color printing, medium or large format camera usage, or experimenting with light-sensitive materials. Courses taught concurrently and can be repeated as part of an ongoing, developing photographic project.

CMST 27602. Photography I. 100 Units.

Instructor(s): L. Letinsky Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300; and 24000.
Note(s): Camera and light meter required. Courses taught concurrently and can be repeated as part of an ongoing, developing photographic project.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 24401,ARTV 34401,CMST 37602

CMST 27702. Photography II. 100 Units.

CMST 27800. Theories of Media. 100 Units.

This course will explore the concept of media and mediation in very broad terms, looking not only at modern technical media and mass media, but at the very idea of a medium as a means of communication, a set of institutional practices, and a habitat" in which images proliferate and take on a "life of their own." The course will deal as much with ancient as with modern media, with writing, sculpture, and painting as well as television and virtual reality. Readings will include classic texts such as Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Cratylus, Aristotle's Poetics, and such modern texts as Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media, Regis Debray's Mediology, and Friedrich Kittler's Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. We will explore questions such as the following: What is a medium? What is the relation of technology to media? How do media affect, simulate, and stimulate sensory experiences? What sense can we make of such concepts as the "unmediated" or "immediate"? How do media become intelligible and concrete in the form of "metapictures" or exemplary instances, as when a medium reflects on itself (films about films, paintings about painting)? Is there a system of media? How do we tell one medium from another, and how do they become "mixed" in hybrid, intermedial formations? We will also look at such recent films as The Matrix and Existenz that project fantasies of a world of total mediation and hyperreality. Students will be expected to do one "show and tell" presentation introducing a specific medium. There will also be several short writing exercises, and a final paper. (H)

Instructor(s): W. J. T. Mitchell Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 12800,AMER 30800,ARTH 25900,ARTH 35900,ARTV 25400,CMST 37800,ENGL 32800

CMST 28304. Absorption/Distanciation: Wagner, Brecht, Kluge. 100 Units.

Explores Richard Wagner's music-dramas, Bertolt Brecht's plays, and Alexander Kluge's films as a forum for the formulation, circulation, and contestation of absorption and distanciation. While a conventional historical account would map the tensions between absorption and distanciation as a one-way trip, moving from absorption (in Wagner) to distanciation (as coined by Brecht) to distraction (as deployed by Kluge), we will explore how each artist deploys each term to varying effects. Works to be considered include Wagner's The Flying Dutchman and Parsifal, Brecht's Man Is Man and The Measures Taken, and Kluge's Yesterday Girl and The Power of Emotions. Readings by each artist, as well as by Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Michael Fried, Miriam Hansen, Andreas Huyssen, and Gertrud Koch. In English.

Instructor(s): D. Levin Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GRMN 33914,CMST 38304,TAPS 28439,MUSI 29614,MUSI 33914,GRMN 29614

CMST 28500-28600. History of International Cinema I-II.

This sequence is required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies. Taking these courses in sequence is strongly recommended but not required.

CMST 28500. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era. 100 Units.

This course introduces what was singular about the art and craft of silent film. Its general outline is chronological. We also discuss main national schools and international trends of filmmaking.

Instructor(s): J. Lastra Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent registration in CMST 10100 required. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): This is the first part of a two-quarter course.
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 28500,ARTH 38500,ARTV 26500,ARTV 36500,CMLT 22400,CMLT 32400,CMST 48500,ENGL 29300,ENGL 48700,MAPH 36000

CMST 28600. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960. 100 Units.

The center of this course is film style, from the classical scene breakdown to the introduction of deep focus, stylistic experimentation, and technical innovation (sound, wide screen, location shooting). The development of a film culture is also discussed. Texts include Thompson and Bordwell's Film History: An Introduction; and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, and Godard. Screenings include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir.

Instructor(s): T. Gunning Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent registration in CMST 10100 required. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): CMST 28500/48500 strongly recommended
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 28600,ARTH 38600,ARTV 26600,CMLT 22500,CMLT 32500,CMST 48600,ENGL 29600,ENGL 48900,MAPH 33700

CMST 28801. Digital Imaging. 100 Units.

This studio course introduces fundamental tools and concepts used in the production of computer-mediated artwork. Instruction includes a survey of standard digital imaging software and hardware (i.e., Photoshop, scanners, storage, printing, etc), as well as exposure to more sophisticated methods. We also view and discuss the historical precedents and current practice of media art. Using input and output hardware, students complete conceptually driven projects emphasizing personal direction while gaining core digital knowledge.

Instructor(s): J. Salavon Terms Offered: Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): ARTV 10100, 10200, or 10300
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 22500,ARTV 32500,CMST 38801

CMST 28905. Studies in Sound Aesthetics. 100 Units.

This course will serve as an elaboration of the phenomenon of sound and an introduction to the history of its aesthetic usage with an emphasis on tactile production: hand-soldering microphones and inducers, building simple circuits, twitching speakers, etc. This route will guide us through a performative history of sound art, meeting up with contemporary, digital sound techniques while outlining the physical bases (and basics) of sound production and transmission. Such a methodology will help us to investigate the shifts in socio-political thought and artistic practice that accompany developments in sound technology. In addition to two creative projects, students will research and remake a historically important sound art piece. In lieu of replaying these from the archives, class time will often be spent re-presenting these works live and re-imagined.

Instructor(s): M. Gibisser Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ARTV 23860,ARTV 33860,CMST 38905

CMST 29700. Reading and Research Course. 100 Units.

Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): Consent of faculty adviser and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Form. This course may be counted toward distribution requirements for the major.

CMST 29800. Senior Colloquium. 100 Units.

This seminar is designed to provide fourth-year students with a sense of the variety of methods and approaches in the field (e.g., formal analysis, cultural history, industrial history, reception studies, psychoanalysis). Students present material related to their BA project, which is discussed in relation to the issues of the course.

Instructor(s): N. Steimatsky Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): CMST 10100. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies.

CMST 29900. BA Research Paper. 000 Units.

Terms Offered: Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor. Required of students majoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Form. This course may not be counted toward requirements for the major or as a free-elective credit.