FILM BC 3119x and y Screenwriting

FALL: Practical workshop in dramatic writing for the screen. Through a series of creative writing exercises, script analysis, and scene work, students explore and develop the basic principles of screenwriting. The final project will be a 30-page, Act One segment for a feature screenplay. SPRING: Screenplays are the foundation of much of our popular culture, but can they be art? This intensive writing workshop examines the art and practice of the screenplay form, its root in classical narrative structure, the ways in which it differs from the other written arts, and how one can engage its particular tools to express original ideas. Weekly writing assignments and class critique form the heart of this workshop. Students should be prepared to share their work with others and participate fully in class discussion. Students will create several short scenes, a short screenplay and a detailed outline for a feature script. All students encouraged, but Junior and Senior film majors will be given priority.
Prerequisites: FILM BC3201 or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Priority is given to Film Studies majors/concentrations in order of class seniority. Sign-up with the English Department is required. Registering for the course only through eBear or SSOL will NOT ensure your enrollment. The date and time that English & Film sign-up sheets go up is listed on the English Dept.'s Announcements Page: http://english.barnard.edu/course-information/news-center Corequisites: (Since this is a Film course, it does not count as a writing course for English majors with a Writing Concentration.) General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
3 points

FILM BC 3120y Feature Film Screenwriting

Workshop in feature film writing. Students will enter the course with a story idea, ready to start a feature screenplay. Through lectures and workshop discussions, the course will critique the details of character development and scene construction. Analysis of student work will prompt generalized conversations/lectures on the fundamentals of film writing. Emphasis will be placed on character as the engine of story.
Prerequisites: FILM BC3201 or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Priority is given to Film Studies majors/concentrations in order of class seniority. Sign-up with the English Department is required. Registering for the course only through eBear or SSOL will NOT ensure your enrollment. The date and time that English & Film sign-up sheets go up is listed on the English Dept.'s Announcements Page: http://english.barnard.edu/course-information/news-center Corequisites: (Since this is a Film course, it does not count as a writing course for English majors with a Writing Concentration.) General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
3 points

FILM BC 3200x and y Film Production

This workshop introduces the student to all the cinematic tools necessary to produce their own short narrative work. Using what the student has learned in film studies, we'll break down shot syntax, mise-en-scene and editing strategies and master them in weekly video exercises. We'll include casting, working with actors and expressive camera work in our process as we build toward a final video project. By the end of the course, the student will have created a DVD containing a collection of their video pieces and their final project. Priority given to junior and senior film majors.
Prerequisites: FILM BC3201 or equivalent. Sophomore standing. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Priority is given to Film Studies majors/concentrations in order of class seniority. Sign-up with the English Department is required. Registering for the course only through eBear or SSOL will NOT ensure your enrollment. The date and time that English & Film sign-up sheets go up is listed on the English Dept.'s Announcements Page: http://english.barnard.edu/course-information/news-center General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
3 points

FILM BC 3201x Introduction to Film and Film Theory

Introductory survey of the history, aesthetics and theories of film. Topics in American and International cinema are explored through weekly screenings, readings, discussion, and lecture. A complete introduction to cinema studies, this course is also the prerequisite for further film courses at Columbia and Barnard.
Prerequisites: Open to first-year students. No departmental sign-up required in Fall 2011: students may add this course to their eBear and SSOL as usual. General Education Requirement: The Visual and Performing Arts (ART).
3 points

FILM BC 3301y Advanced Production

Advanced Film Production will teach students how to create a short narrative film; emphasizing the steps taking in pre-production, production and post-production. Through hands-on workshops and theory, students will learn narrative editing, shot progression, camera lenses, lighting and audio equipment. Students will work in teams of four, learning the roles and responsibilities of the different crew members.
Prerequisites: FILM BC3201 or equivalent, and FILM BC3200. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Priority is given to Film Studies majors/concentrations in order of class seniority. Sign-up with the English Department is required. Registering for the course only through eBear or SSOL will NOT ensure your enrollment. The date and time that English & Film sign-up sheets go up is listed on the English Dept.'s Announcements Page: http://english.barnard.edu/course-information/news-center
3 points

FILM BC 3990y Senior Seminar in Film: Revolution in Cinema/Cinema as Revolution

In the past two years, calls for revolution have sounded in several parts of the world. Many of these calls have been made using the globalizing devices of new media - the twitter accounts, facebook pages, blogs and video streams - that media producers claim have connected and subsequently altered the course of world events. In this course, we will consider the history of revolution in film and the idea that the emergence of new media provokes revolutionary change. Beginning with the Mexican and Russian Revolutions of the early 20th Century, we will examine how early filmmakers theorized, recorded, edited and exhibited revolutions in film. We will study the Third Cinema movement that began with the battles for independence in Africa and Latin America in the 1960s and continues as an ongoing response to neocolonialism today. We will consider censorship, exile and filmmaking concerning the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the non-violent revolutions that overthrew communism in Eastern Europe a decade later. We will compare filmic narratives about the French Revolution, pondering the ways that our century's revolutions might be depicted hundreds of years from now. In the final weeks of the course, we will look at two global trends in cinema that may be considered revolutionary: environmental and digital media production. Assigned readings in the course will be interdisciplinary with selections from film history, film theory, political history, philosophy and memoir.
Prerequisites: Enrollment restricted to Barnard seniors majoring or concentrating in Film Studies. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Sign-up with the English Department is required. Registering for the course only through eBear will NOT ensure your enrollment. The date and time that English & Film sign-up sheets go up is listed on the English Dept.'s Announcements Page: http://english.barnard.edu/course-information/news-center
4 points