Fall quarter will introduce concepts of visual culture with an emphasis on the moving image, ethics and politics of representation, a survey of genres and experimental responses to them, and the historical roots of cinema and mass media.  These topics will be explored through lectures, screenings, readings and seminars.  In production workshops, students will gain skills in 16mm film, analog (2D and 3D) animation and sound design through projects incorporating thematic material from lectures and seminars.  They will further integrate technical and critical skills through critiques of their work.  A third strand of program work, persuasive communication, will engage students in producing short performative multi-media works based on themes of sustainability to prepare for campus Focus the Nation events on climate change in January, 2008.

Screenings will range from examples of early cinema, trick film and experimental works, to avant garde animation and live action films, video art and critical media of the later twentieth century.  Assignments will include 1) readings and written responses, 2) a Media Workbook compiled of media responses, sketchbook exercises, production process documentation and notes from classes and critiques, 3) media design problems assigned in the production workshops and 4) a collaborative project. 

Credit will be awarded based on the timely, thorough completion of all assignments with integrity, on-time attendance at all program events, active and constructive engagement in critiques and collaborations, and fulfillment of expectations outlined in the program description and the covenant.  This is a fulltime, 16 credit program.  For every hour you are in class you will need to devote at least two more reading, writing, executing production assignments, taking proficiencies or viewing additional films and videos in order to do well in the program.  Students who do not earn full credit in the fall may be asked to make other plans for winter quarter.

Required Readings

You will need copies of these books to bring to seminar:

• Berger, John, Ways of Seeing, ISBN 0-14-013515-4.  Read this for the first day of class.

• Dixon, Wheeler Winston and Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey, ed., Experimental Cinema: The Film Reader, ISBN 0-415-27787-6

• Leslie, Esther, Hollywood Flatlands, ISBN 1-84467-504-1

• Small, Edward S., Direct Theory, ISBN 0-8093-1920-9

• Utterson, Andrew, ed., Technology and Culture: The Film Reader, ISBN 0-415-31985-4

You will need copies of these books for workshops:

• Katz, Steven D.  Film Directing Shot by Shot, ISBN 0-941188-10-8

• McCloud, Scott, Understanding Comics, ISBN 0-06-097625-X (not in the bookstore:  order on-line or purchase from Orca Books in downtown Olympia.) http://www.alibris.com/, http://www.abebooks.com/, http://www.powells.com/ or purchase from Orca Books in downtown Olympia.)

You will need hard copies of these reprints and on-line articles to bring to seminar:

• Benjamin, Walter, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", http://www.marxists.org/ reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

• Freud, Sigmund, “The Uncanny”  http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html

• Wayne, Mike, “Problems and Possibilities in Developing Critical Practice” in Journal of Media Practice, Vol. 2 Issue 1 – 2001 (available through TESC library on-line)

• Russett and Starr, Introduction to Experimental Animation (reprint)

• Philippon, "An Interview With George Griffin", http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.12/articles/philippon 1.12.html

• Griffin, George, Willful Ignorance: Making “Flying Fur” http://www.geogrif.com/ff/FF.htm

• Moritz, William “Concerning the Aesthetic Autonomy of Animation”  http://www.iotacenter.org/ visualmusic/articles/moritz/shortanimation

• Moritz, “Resistance and Subversion in Animated Films of the Nazi Era: the Case of Hans Fischerkoesen” http://www.iotacenter.org/visualmusic/articles/moritz/naziresistance

• Moritz, “Narrative Strategies for Resistance and Protest in Eastern European Animation” http:// www.iotacenter.org/visualmusic/articles/moritz/easteurope

Other articles, websites and independent screenings, tba.

In addition, you will need the following materials for workshop and program assignments:

• Spiral-bound sketchbook (s), at least 9” x 9” but no more than 11” x 14”.  This should be new.  (You may need more than one for fall quarter)

• Drawing supplies, including 2B, 4B and 6B pencils, pentel sign pen, charcoal pencil, sumi brush or other soft bristle brush or brush-pen, Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser.  Color pencils and markers and other mark-making tools such as rubber stamps, pastels, oil crayons, etc, are also useful.

• Exacto knife with spare blades

• Cascade 16# bond for animation exercises (you can split a ream with one or two other students).

• Flash drive and/or external hard drive to store digital media.

Expect to spend from $200-$300 fall quarter on media production related expenses, including a $170 fee to cover the costs of 16mm film stock and processing.

Winter quarter we will shift our focus to non-fiction and documentary media, including multimedia performance, autobiography and auto-ethnography, essayistic film, video and animation.  Students will develop skills in digital video and digital animation, and will begin the pre-production research and development of their spring quarter independent projects or internships. 

Spring quarter students may pursue independent projects in the form of individual or collaborative media productions or internships.