While
Mediaworks
is our entry-level moving image program, students should expect to do
upper-division work in critical thinking, reading, writing and design
at the same time that they are acquiring or augmenting their media production
skills. This program is designed to provide students with background in
some aspects of film and video history and theory, as well as training
in digital video and film. Our focus is on the nonfiction image, a broad
category that includes documentary, experimental film, installation, video
art, autobiography and mixed media. Mediaworks also emphasizes the linkage
of media theory and practice, both by focusing on the development of a
critical and oppositional perspective for image-making and by studying
the politics of representation-especially with regard to race, class,
gender and sexuality.
Weekly Schedule:
•Tuesdays 10:00-12:00 Lecture/Screening Series LH 1
1:30-4:00 Production Seminar*
5:00-7:00 Film Text screening• Com 326
•Wednesdays 10:00-12:00 Production Seminar
1:00-3:00 Film Text screening• Com 326
•Thursdays 10:00-12:00 Production Seminar
1:30-4:00 Practicum® Com. 308
• Film Text Screening (required)=Tuesdays at 5:00 or Wednesdays
at 1:00 each week in Com. 326 (Screening Room). Expect to spend between
1 and 2 hours viewing and discussing (dependent upon film length).
*Production Seminar=small group meetings that combine skill workshops,
theoretical study, critique, and discussion. See schedule for X Factor
or Y Factor for rooms and times.
®Practicum=a place for experimenting and demonstrating how we link
theory with practice. Includes writing workshops, collaborative productions,
critiques, tea parties and more.
Requirements for Full Credit
1. Full participation in all class activities (this means no absences
unless documented by a written excuse from a doctor).
2. Timely attendance at program events (this means no lateness will be
tolerated in this program; credit will be reduced if a student is habitually
late).
3. The timely execution of assigned audio-visual design problems.
4. The timely completion of a series of written assignments, including
response essays and regular maintenance of the film journal.
5. Fall Evaluation conference and written self evaluation.
Students who do not receive full credit in Mediaworks for fall quarter
will not be invited to continue the program during winter.
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PRACTICING LOOKING: Historical and Critical Perspectives
TUESDAYS 10-12 LECTURE HALL 1
WEEK.1 Tues. Sept. 27
Intro and Opening; Who We Are; X and Y Factors announced
Film Text: go to any movie this week! Write about it.
Reading: by Thursday, Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing
About Film pp. 1-92
WEEK.2 Tues. Oct. 4 jz
Shock, Boredom, Distraction, Astonishment: The Cinema of Attractions
Lumiere Brothers shorts and other actualities 1895-7
The Big Swallow, James Willliamson, 1901(UK) 30 sec
A Trip to the Moon, George Méliès 1902 (France)
14 min
Grandma’s Reading Glass G.A. Smith, 1900 (UK) 1 min
As Seen Through a Telescope, G. A. Smith, 1900 (UK) 1 min
Film Text: A Man Escaped, Robert Bresson, 1956 115 min (France)
Reading Due: (PDF Here) “An Aesthetic
of Astonishment: Early Film and the (In)credulous Spectator”
by Tom Gunning {rp}; and Ch. 1 in Ascher and Pincus, The Filmmaker's
Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age
WEEK.3 Tues., Oct. 11 sc
Waking Dream: Uses of Surrealism
Entr’acte, Rene Clair, 1924, 15 min. (France)
Un Chien Andalou, Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel, 16 min.
(France)
Meshes of the Afternoon, Maya Deren, 1943, 14 min.
Film Texts: Betty Boop’s May Party, Max Fleischer, 1935
8 min.
and Conspirators of Pleasure, Jan Svankmajer 1997 83 min. (Czechoslovakia)
Reading Due: (PDF Here) “Avant-garde
Cinemas Before World War II” by Lauren Rabinovitz, Points of
Resistance {rp}
DUE: Paper #1 on Movie Wars (Thursday)
WEEK.4 Tues. Oct. 18 sc
The Soviet Experiment/Montage Theory
Odessa Steps sequence from Battleship Potempkin, Sergei Eisenstein,
1925
A Movie, Bruce Conner, 1958 12 min
Man with a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov, 1929 (excerpt)
Film Text: Man with a Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom),
Dziga Vertov, 1929
Reading Due: (PDF Here)“A
Dialectic Approach to Film Form,” from Film Form, Sergei Eisenstein,
1929 {rp}
WEEK.5 Tues. Oct. 25 jz
The Master’s Tools Part 1: Video, Television, and Soap
Television Delivers People, Richard Serra and Carlota Faye Schoolman,
1973 6 min
Four More Years, Top Value Television (TVTV), 1972 excerpt (60
min)
Wonder Woman, Dara Birnbaum, 1978-9, 7 min << READ: "My
Pop": Dara Birnbaum on Pop Art, from Artforum October 2004 >>
Joan Does Dynasty, Joan Braderman/Paper Tiger TV, 1986, 31 min
Production Notes: Fast Food for Thought, Jason Simon, 1987, 28
min
Film Texts: Ecstasy Unlimited: The Interpenetrations of Sex and Capital,
Laura Kipnis, 1985 (60 min) and Ashley, Animal Charm 1999 (7
min)...............[OPTIONAL] Kipnis
"Crossing the Theory/Practice Rubicon"
Reading Due: Practices of Looking, Chapter V and (PDF Here) “Paper
Tiger TV” by Dee
Dee Halleck, 1990 {rp}
WEEK.6 Tues. Nov. 1 jz
The Master’s Tools Part 2: Recombinance and Recontextualization
4 Vertigo, Les LeVeque, 2000 9 min
Mutiny, Abigail Child, 1983 11 min
Removed, Naomi Uman, 1999 7 min (US/Mexico)
Film Text: Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye, 1996, (85 min); Untitled,
Eileen Maxson, 2002 3:30
Reading Due: Practices of Looking, Intro, Chapter 1 and 2
WEEK.7 Tues. Nov. 8 sc
Filmic Fabrications: Structuralist Materialist strategies
T.O.U.C.H.I.N.G., Paul Sharits, 1968, 12 min
Berlin Horse, Malcolm LeGrice, 1970. 7 min (UK)
Video weavings, Stephen Beck, 1976 (excerpt 4 min)
Free Radicals, Len Lye, 1979, 4 min (UK/USA)
Soundtrack, Barry Spinello, 1970, 11 min
Film Text: Wavelength, Michael Snow, 1967 (45 min.)
DUE: Paper #2 on Practices of Looking (Tuesday) NOW
DUE NEXT THURSDAY (wk 8)
WEEK.8 Tues. Nov. 15 sc
Film Genres Explained/Exploded
Assorted Hollywood clips including Little Caesar (Mervyn Leroy,
1930), High Noon (Fred Zinnemann], 1952), 42nd Street
(Mervyn Leroy, 1933), The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946); Bringing
Up Baby (1938, Howard Hawks); 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon,
1933)
Film Text: Far From Heaven, Todd Haynes, 2002, (107 min); and
CLIP from All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, 1955..............................[OPTIONAL]:
article from Camera Obscura 54, Vol 18, No 3 (special
issue on Todd Haynes): "The
Politics of Disappointment: Todd Haynes Rewrites Douglas SIrk" by
Sharon Willis [OPTIONAL]
Reading Due: “Film Genre and the Genre Film,” Thomas Schatz
{rp}OMIT
“Film Bodies: Gender,
Genre, and Excess,” Linda Williams {rp}
DUE: Paper #2 on Practices of Looking (Thursday practicum--begins
at 10 AM: NOTE TIME CHANGE)
<<<<Thanksgiving Break>>>>>>> [Library
and MML are CLOSED for the week]
WEEK.9 Tues. Nov. 29 jz
The Postmodern Predicament
Stimpy’s Big Day (1991), John Kricafalusi
Border Stasis, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, 1998, 25 min (Mexico/US)
Film Text: Carmelita Tropicana: Your Kunst is Your Waffen, Ela
Troyano 1994 (28 min)
Reading Due: Practices of Looking, Chapter 7 and “Postmodernism
and Consumer Society” by Frederic Jameson {rp}
DUE: Paper #3 based on Film Journal (Tuesday)
W.10 Tues. Dec. 6 sc and jz
Winter Quarter Unveiled; Intensive Journal Workshop
>>FILM TEXTS: These
are additional films or videos that you will need to screen each week.
Please make sure you write about these in your film journals. We have
arranged two times each week for you to view these films. Tuesday 5-7
ORWednesday 1-3 in Com. 326.
Country of origin for films and
videos: all USA except where noted.
>>IMPORTANT DUE DATES:
PAPER #1 THURSDAY,
OCT. 13 at Practicum (Week 3)
PAPER #2 THURSDAY, NOV. 17 at Practicum (Week 8) **NOTE DUE DATE CHANGE
PAPER #3 TUESDAY, NOV. 29 at Lecture (Week 9)
PRACTICUM PROJECT #1 THURSDAY, OCT. 20 (Week 4)
PRACTICUM PROJECT #2 THURSDAY, NOV. 10 (Week 7)
PRACTICUM PROJECT #3 THURSDAY, DEC. 8 (Week 10)
Details about all of these
assignments will be available as the quarter progresses.
For due dates of other production and writing assignments, please see
your X Factor or Y Factor hand-out.
>>FILM JOURNAL: In a separate journal from
your lecture notes, intensive journal, design project and practicum ideas,
please keep
a journal of all work screened. This should be in the form of notes
that include: maker’s name, title of work, year produced, country,
running time, and your detailed response to aspects of the production.
We will give you a handout about this at the first practicum. We will
be asking you to base your third paper on these journal entries so
it
is extremely important that you keep up to date and comprehensive entries.
