An examination of the art, craft, and business of screenwriting from theoretical and practical perspectives. Topics include screenplay format and structure, story, plot and character development, dialog and scene description, visual storytelling, pace and rhythm, analysis of professional and student scripts and films.

Why do we put certain films into categories? What constitutes a film genre, how do we recognize it, and what do we do with it? This course examines these questions and more by considering a specific genre over the course of the semester. We will learn to think of genre as a way of comparing and contrasting different films. Genre will also be thought of as a way of creating expectations and measuring experience and meaning. The power of film genre is that it allows us to understand film as a text and film as a social practice at the very same time.

Why do we put certain films into categories? What constitutes a film genre, how do we recognize it, and what do we do with it? This course examines these questions and more by considering a specific genre over the course of the semester. We will learn to think of genre as a way of comparing and contrasting different films. Genre will also be thought of as a way of creating expectations and measuring experience and meaning. The power of film genre is that it allows us to understand film as a text and film as a social practice at the very same time.

A hands-on introduction to single-camera filmmaking using digital video camcorders and non-linear editing. Production assignments will foster student skills in the art of visual storytelling: from pre-production, shot composition and lighting to continuity editing and post production audio.

This course combines reading and discussion with application of theoretically informed methods in the study of everyday social interaction. We will: 1) Read and discuss representative studies of social interaction and communicative behavior in cultural context. 2) Do graduated classroom and field exercises to assemble methodological tools and accumulate data for your final paper. The final paper will be based on accumulated data - especially recordings and transcripts - from your field site. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Comm majors.

This course focuses on the concept of horror in contemporary public culture in the United States, reflecting on the nature of evil and human responsibility in the face of it. Topics for discussion include the rhetorical use of horror, the narrative creation of monstrosities, the responses to fear of the Other, the relationship between horror and terror, and the aesthetics of disturbing performances. Several weeks will be devoted to popular icons of monstrosity in order to examine the ethical and political ramifications of these metaphors lurking in contemporary culture.

This is a stand-alone independent study designed by the student and faculty sponsor that involves frequent interaction between instructor and student. Qualitative and quantitative enrichment must be evident on the proposed contract before consent is given to undertake the study.

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Not available at this time