Film Studies 591M - S-Participatory Fan Practices

For the Visiting Filmmakers of the 21st Century Series, this course (open to both graduate and undergraduate students) approaches media convergence and participatory culture as both an object of study and a field of practice. Examining how technological change, industry dynamics, and audience activity reshape media production and circulation, the course traces the histories of fan communities and explores practices such as remix, vidding, fan fiction, forensic viewing, and other forms of transformative engagement. Drawing on debates around authorship, convergent labor, and power, the course introduces videographic criticism as a methodological framework, treating digital editing as a tool for discovery, experimentation, and argumentation. Students will engage with the course reading materials primarily by creating videographic works that respond to and reimagine existing media texts. Combining theoretical inquiry with sustained hands-on practice, the seminar positions scholars not only as analysts of participatory culture but as active participants within it. Basic familiarity with a digital editing platform is helpful, but students may also acquire these skills independently as the course progresses. This course fulfills the Film Production Concentration of the Film Major.