This is a history of film course focusing on what is sometimes referred to as the "Golden Age" of Hollywood. An examination of classical Hollywood cinema, this course will concentrate on the period from the 1920s to the 1960s. We will look at the production and distribution practices of the Hollywood studio system, and pay special attention to the way this preeminent form of cinema established many of the norms of the immersive film experience.

This class belongs to the Visiting Professor of the 21st c. Series. Award-winning international filmmakers and film scholars offer classes in screenwriting, directing, cinematography, and other key areas of filmmaking. Students have a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience and enrich their portfolios. Class can be taken more than once, because content and faculty vary.

Video, still images and sound are used in this course to explore the fundamental character of storytelling, filmmaking and time-based art practices. Students perform all aspects of production with particular attention to developing ideas and building analytical, critical and production skills. We will read seminal written work and interviews with practicing artists in order to expand our knowledge, understanding and love for the medium. Through exercises that include weekly projects students will produce sketches aimed at exploring video as an experimentation tool.

Thrillers compel audiences even as they repel us with their narratives of dark secrets and cryptic menace. How can we understand the appeal of thriller movies? How does the effect of suspense lure us with its promise of mysteries that might be revealed, and what is revealed along the way about the nature of the film experience? What is the thriller's allure of transgression and violence, which horrify, tantalize, or spur catharsis?