Courses

• COM FT 304: Film Industry
  A survey of current business trends in the motion picture industry. Focuses on script development; studio structure; agents, attorneys, and contracts; independent filmmaking; and distribution.
• COM FT 310: Storytelling for Film & Television
  Required of all undergraduate students in Film & Television. An introduction to the art and craft of storytelling through the moving image. Particular emphasis will be given to writing short scripts. Topics covered include character development and narrative structure as it applies to shorts, features and episodic television.
• COM FT 314: Writing for Television
  Required of all students in the Television Program. The theories and techniques underlying writing for the principal radio and television forms. Emphasis is on the relationship between writing and production, establishing sound aesthetic bases for all broadcast writing, and the writer's social and ethical responsibilities. Weekly writing assignments, lectures, and critiques. May be taken sophomore year.
• COM FT 316: The Impact of Film and Television in Modern Britain
  Examines selected elements of British film, television and other broadcast media, marketing, promotions and new technologies. Students will study major trends and trans-Atlantic influences in media.
• COM FT 317: British Cinema and Society
  Surveys the changing nature of modern British culture and society, using cinema as the main source of evidence. The course is theme-oriented, focusing on issues including social class, regionality and ethnicity, racism, gender and sexuality, youth culture, and popular culture. Students screen one or two films per class meeting and augment their understanding of cinematic themes with assigned reading.
• COM FT 318: British Television Studies
  Examines the content and form of British television, contrasting it with American television programming. Special emphasis on the study of genres and themes. Genres unclude fictional presentations, actuality, entertainment magazines, and variety shows, as well as children's television and sport. Themes include gender, cultural diversity, and social class.
• COM FT 325: Producing I
  Required of all students in the Television Program. An introductory course that takes the student through the various stages of production, beginning with concept and ending with full-fledged, camera-ready proposals. Students are introduced to issues of finance, scheduling and organization; they learn to keep budget and concept on track. May be taken sophomore year.
• COM FT 345: Australian Cinema
  An introduction to Australian cinema by examining the relationship between Australian social history, cultural history, art history, and cinema. In order to understand the "national" nature of Australian films, the course addresses two periods of film production: the first wave from the late 1910s, '20s, and '30s; and the restructuring of the film industry with the so-called new wave of the 1970s and '80s.
• COM FT 352: Film-Style Video Production
  Covers practical application of film production, including script writing, production management, production, and post-production techniques. Theory and practice of digital production and non-linear post production. Short projects using digital video. Development of ideas and visual creation in a variety of genres.
• COM FT 353: Production I
  Required of all Film & Television majors. An intensive course in all the fundamental aspects of motion picture production. Students learn to use cameras, sound recording equipment and editing software and then apply these skills to several short productions. The course emphasizes the language of visual storytelling and the creative interplay of sound and image.
• COM FT 360: Understanding Film
  Required of all students in the Film Program. An introduction to the art of film. How do films make meaning? How do audiences understand them? Explores some of the ways in which movies teach us new ways of knowing. May be taken second semester of freshman year.
• COM FT 402: Production II-Digital
  Continuation of the study of digital field production and postproduction editing. Students develop, produce, direct, shoot, record, and edit longer-form, single-camera, location productions. Emphasis on the development of storytelling in narrative and nonfiction production.
• COM FT 403: Production II- Film
  Working in small crews and using sophisticated production equipment, students write and produce short, synchronous sound color films. Students may choose to work in either narrative or documentary styles, with the majority of shooting done on location. Students pay for film stock and processing; the department provides high-end 16mm camera's and digital postproduction facilities. Two-hour production workshops added to weekly course hours to increase students' familiarity with production equipment.
• COM FT 411: Screenwriting II
  Writing the feature-length narrative film; creation of characters, narrative outline; writing the first draft of an original screenplay.
• COM FT 412: Screenwriting III
  Writing an original (second) feature-length screenplay (a first draft and set of revisions required). Further study of dramatic structure: tone and rhythm.
• COM FT 428: Creating New Ideas With Existing Content
  Introduces students to the tools and techniques used to produce multi-platform content. Students learn multimedia concepts, elements, and production to extend the brands of properties and to attract new audiences. Training in the use of computer-based hardware and software for multimedia creation. 4 cr. Fall/spring
• COM FT 456: Acting for Directors and Writers
  Develops the director's knowledge and understanding of actors --the "human equipment" of filmmaking--through direct acting experience. Students learn the language and tools of the craft through sensory exercises, improvisation, text analysis, and scene study.
• COM FT 457: American Masterworks
  Subjects vary with the instructor. Directors discussed include D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, King Vidor, Frank Borzage, Victor Fleming, Howard Hawks, Frank Capra, Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, John Huston, Elia Kazan, George Cukor, Orson Welles, Robert Altman, John Cassavetes, and Woody Allen.
• COM FT 458: International Masterworks
  Subjects vary with the instructor. Directors discussed include Carl Dreyer, Satyajit Ray, Sergei Eisenstein, V. I. Pudovkin, Jean Renoir, Rene Clair, Andrzej Wajda, Jean-Luc Godard, Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Luis Buñuel.
• COM FT 465: Hi-Def Production
  This course allows students to write, shoot, edit and complete a short "film" entirely in the High Definition digital video format. Students use state-of-the-art High Definition cameras and complete the post-production process in the new Ezratti HD Lab created for High Definition editing and screening. The "films" are produced using professional actors and are targeted for film festival entry. A previous project from this class won the First Place prize at the 2009 Redstone Film Festival. 2nd Sem

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