Spring 2008 Courses
For a full listing of all SPRING 2008 courses that fulfill Film Studies lower and upper division requirements, please click here.
Film Studies 1 (4 units)
Jaimey Fisher
LECTURE: MW 11:00 - 11:50
FILM VIEWING: M 6:10 - 9:00
DISCUSSION SECTIONS:
- Section 1 (R 5:10 - 6:00), CRN 47859
- Section 2 (R 6:10 - 7:00), CRN 66120
- Section 3 (F 10:00 - 10:50), CRN 66121
- Section 4 (F 11:00 - 11:50), CRN 66122
- Section 5 (W 4:10 - 5:00), CRN 66125
- Section 6 (W 5:10 - 6:00), CRN 66127
- Section 7 (R 3:10 - 4:00), CRN 66128
- Section 8 (R 4:10 - 5:00), CRN 66129
Description of Course: The course aims to introduce students to various aspects of film studies, including film analysis, film history, as well as film (especially genre and auteur) theory. The main focus of the course, however, is on film analysis, particularly on the technical and narrative analysis of feature films that will entail a close viewing of the films. The course introduces students to the technical aspects of film, including cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene, and sound; it also offers a survey to film history as well as important international movements, including early cinema, Soviet Montage, German Weimar Cinema, neorealism around the world (incl. India), the U.S. film noir, and "New Asian" cinema. We shall be examining, among other topics, the social, cultural, and political contexts of film as a medium as well as of particular films. The main objective for the course is for students to be able to view films critically, to develop a systematic and convincing interpretation of the film out of this critical viewing, and to articulate this analysis in a well-constructed and persuasive essay. GE credit: ArtHum, Wrt.
Course Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Film viewing - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.
Prerequisite: None.
Textbook: David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction with Tutorial CD-ROM. David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art (text only).
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Film Studies 125 (4 units): FILM GENRES: War Films
Eric Smoodin, CRN: 47874
LECTURE: TR 12:10 - 1:30
FILM VIEWING: W 6:10 - 9:00
Description of Course: This quarter we will be studying the American and European war film, from the Spanish-American war to the current war in Iraq. We will be paying
special attention to the ways these films entered into broader discussions of the importance of war as well as the necessity for peace, and played significant roles in debates about
the cinema as art and as propaganda. We will watch such films as Kubrick's Paths of Glory, Renoir's Grand Illusion, and Disney's Victory Through Air Power.
Prerequisite: Course 1.
Course Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Film viewing - 3 hours.
Textbooks: A Reader will be available for purchase.
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Film Studies 189 (4 units): CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN CINEMA
Margherita Heyer-Caput, CRN: 66589
LECTURE: TR 3:10 - 4:30
FILM VIEWING: T 6:10 - 9:00
Description of Course: This course will explore the thriving Italian cinema of the twenty-first century in relationship with the deep cultural and social changes that Italy has experienced in the last two decades. We will witness how a young generation of Italian film-makers, from Marco Tullio Giordana to Gabriele Muccino, has overcome a paralyzing sense of "afterness" and infused Italian cinema with a new vitality. These directors-writers-producers-lead actors have successfully coped with the inspiring but also challenging legacy of the great auteurs of Italian Neorealism of the '40s and '50s (Rossellini, De Sica, etc.) and of the art cinema of the '60s and '70s (Antonioni, Fellini, etc.), and with the disillusions suffered by the political cinema of the '80s and '90s (Rosi, Petri, the Tavianis, etc.). The movies analyzed revisit classic genres of Italian cinema, from the commedia all'italiana to historical productions, and reinvent film as a powerful art form with a social reference and a moral accountability. PLEASE NOTE:
1) This course counts toward the Italian Major as a course in Related Fields. 2) FMS 189 may be repeated three times for credit when topics differ.
Course Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Film viewing - 3 hours.
Prerequisite: Course 1, upper-division standing, or consent of instructor.
Textbook: Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing about Film. New York: Longman, 2004. FMS 189 - New Italian American Cinema - A Reader.
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Courses from Other Departments
TECHNOCULTURAL STUDIES COURSES
Check with Film Studies Director/Major Advisor to be sure you know which Film Studies Upper division requirements the TCS courses can fulfill. Write to Liz Constable:
elconstable@ucdavis.edu
TCS110: Object-Oriented Programming for Artists
MW, 9:30 - 10:50, MW, 11:00 - 12:30
Instructor: Bob Ostertag
ostertag@ucdavis.edu
Description of Course: This is a course on the programming language Max/Jitter/MSP, the main programming language used in the world today for creating multi-media and
interactive art. It is a programming class, and as such is daunting for many TCS students, but I am trying to change that. I have put a lot of effort into revamping this course to
make it more user-friendly for TCS students. That said, it is an advanced course in our course progression, and it does assume certain knowledge. Students should be familiar with the
following concepts:
- Image: pixels, frame rates, image resolution, how color is represented digitally, CODECS.
- Audio: audio sampling rate, analog-to-digital conversion, filtering and other DSP, MIDI.
- Students who have experience in computer programming will definitely have a leg up in this course, and programming experience can effectively substitute for specific
knowledge of video or audio. However, students who have no experience programming are welcome to take this course. In fact, if you are interested in sound and image but have never
programmed before, this course would be a good place to begin. Students who are willing to put in some extra work will be able to get by in the course knowing only the answers to the
questions concerning image, or only those concerning sound, but you will definitely struggle if you are familiar with neither.
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TCS 151: Topics in Virtuality
Th, 12:10 - 3 p.m.
Instructor: Frances Dyson
fmdyson@ucdavis.edu
Description of Course: Can machines think? Do cyborgs feel? How real is simulated experience? Why are filmakers, new media theorists and digital artists so concerned with these
questions, and what does this say about contemporary culture at large? This course explores the culture underlying the new technologies of virtual environments, telepresence,
simulated experience and artificial life. Through a study of science fiction film and relevant technologies, the course examines representations of the cyborg, virtual life and
post-humanism in art and popular culture, relating both to key intellectual concepts in new media and cyber-theory. It focuses on the rhetoric of cyberspace and virtuality, and
related issues such as embodiment, identity, materiality, knowledge, and techno-utopianism.
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TCS 198: Advanced Sound: Improvisation
MW 2:10 - 3:30 p.m.
Instructor: Bob Ostertag
ostertag@ucdavis.edu
Description of Course: This is officially listed at TCS198, but really that number is a place-holder and next year the course will have its own number indicating that it is
culmination of the TCS course track dealing with sound. In this advanced seminar, I will focus in alternating years on improvisation and composition. This spring we will focus on
improvisation. I am hoping to get a mix of students using conventional and unconventional musical "instruments." Note that there will be no technical instruction in this course. The
idea here is that you use the technical chops you acquired in the first two sound courses, and now we finally get to focus more on the art.
Also, please spread the word that video-oriented students who are experienced with digital video and sufficiently self-directed and inquisitive are also welcome.
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