Courses

• COM FT 502: Sound Design for Film and Television
  A comprehensive technical examination of the role of sound as an emotional motivator and major storytelling component in both fiction and nonfiction films. Covers location sound recording, acoustic theory, track building, foley and dialog replacement, and mix preparation, as well as music editing and composition. Introduces a variety of postproduction pathways and technologies, including current digital innovations in the field and in audio postproduction, and provides an ongoing workshop for solving editing and track building problems.
• COM FT 504: Post production FX Editing
  This course teaches all aspects of video post production including window dubbing, rough cuts, A/B editing, non-linear editing, digital graphics, digital sound, and the integration of all of these processes and technologies that apply to the postproduction completion of video projects. Familiarity with Macintosh computers is desirable. Experience with video timecode editing is a necessity.
• COM FT 505: Television Production Hothouse
  This is a class that operates as a student-run, client-driven production company. Projects include PSA?s for local TV stations, fundraising videos for non-profits, an occasional music video, and documentary shorts. From time to time, there will be national competitions for student productions. No application letter is necessary. 3.0 GPA required. 4 credits only.
• COM FT 507: Television Studio Production
  Continuation of television studio production and the development of those formats that are best suited to it. Emphasizes the creative use of studio technology. 4 cr, either sem.
• COM FT 512: Writing Episodic Drama
  Deals with the process and techniques of writing a dramatic series for commercial network and cable television. Students will select a current prime-time drama, develop A, B, and (possibly) C stories for an episode, and complete a Writer's Draft and polished First Draft, suitable for a Writer Portfolio. Lectures will include the life of a working television writer, one-hour story, structure, genres, and character development. We will view and analyze TV series from the past and present, and focus on proper drama script format, character development and voice.
• COM FT 514: Advanced Writing for Television
  Prereq FT 512 or FT 522. Explores the development and creation of the Television Series Pilot. Each student will pitch a concept, write a treatment and a finished pilot script for an original series, either comedy or drama. Emphasis on premise, story structure, characterization and originality. Lectures, screenings, script readings, written assignments and critiques. 4 cr. 2nd sem.
• COM FT 515: International TV
  Survey of telecommunications in various nations; analysis of the impact of cultural, economic, demographic, and political factors on both their internal and external operation. Also explored is the dynamic international telecommunications field, its impact on understanding and commerce between nations, and its meaning for the United States.
• COM FT 517: Television Management
  The responsibilities that television and multi-platform content managers face. Research, programming, revenue, regulatory issues and ethics are all explored. Lectures, readings, case studies, and visits from professionals develop the student's understanding of a variety of managerial functions and the challenges these functions entail. 4 cr. Fall/spring
• COM FT 520: Tv Theor & Crit
  
• COM FT 522: Writing Situatuion Comedies
  Intensive explorationin the key elements of the sitcom:character development, story structure, pitching, formats, writing, and polishing. Successful participants will have completed "spec" script for the current television market.
• COM FT 523: Understanding Marketing and Sales
  A comprehensive look into the business of television and radio sales and marketing. Respected professionals occasionally guest-lecture on this important and ever changing area.
• COM FT 524: Golden Age of Television
  Course examines the extraordinary explosion of talent and creativity in live television's early days. It covers writers such as Paddy Chayefsky and Rod Serling, personalities like Edward R. Murrow, entertainers Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Groucho Marx, Gertrude Berg, and Lucille Ball, live political broadcasts and blacklisting, and most significantly the great anthology series like Philco Television Playhouse, Studio One, Playhouse 90 which presented great and original American teleplays "Marty", "Requiem for a Heavyweight", "Patterns", "The Comedian", "The Defenders", and many more. Also covered are the great early TV directors John Frankenheimer, Alfred Hitchcock, Delbert Mann and actors who began their careers in television like Paul Newman, Ed Begley, and James Dean. We also look at the quiz show scandals and unique series like "The Twilight Zone." These live television shows (seen by kinescope) are of major importance in understanding the history of television.
• COM FT 525: Creative Producing II
  Course takes the student through the process of creating a fictional program or film. The course covers comedy and drame series and movies-of -the week from development through production and post-production. The student learns the complexities of the industry, the layers of decision makers to be dealt with, the place of agents, the nature of negotiation, and the fundamentals of hiring crews, scheduling and budgeting. 4cr, 2nd sem.
• COM FT 526: Advanced Directing
  Students learn all aspects of directing, with particular emphasis given to script analysis and working with actors. The director's involvement in blocking action, composing shots, managing the production process and editing are also covered. Acting experience is helpful but not required.
• COM FT 527: Lighting
  An intensive combination of lecture, demonstration, and hands-on work in lighting. Film and video systems, from the camera to the transfer, are explained, explored, and used. Guest lecturers and field trips to production facilities and shooting locations are included. 4 cr, either sem.
• COM FT 533: American Independent Film
  A survey of cinema from the past three decades originating outside of the studio system. Though the screening list changes from semester to semester, filmmakers to be dealt with include Elaine May, Barbara Loder, John Cassavetes, Robert Kramer, Mark Rappaport, and Charles Burnett, among others.
• COM FT 536: Film Theory and Criticism
  An introduction to classical and contemporary film and media theory. Topics include montage theory, realism, structuralism, post-structuralism, semiotics, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and cultural studies. The course includes screenings of films that have contributed to critical debate and those that challenge theoretical presuppositions.
• COM FT 537: Third Wrld Cnma
  
• COM FT 540: Screenplay as Dramatic Literature
  Screenplays may be read as literature as well as be produced as films. In this course the literary and dramatic art of the screenplay is analyzed, and the screenplay as a form is perceived to be nothing less than a little brother to stage play.
• COM FT 542: Advanced Screenwriting
  The student will write a first-draft screenplay and two sets of revisions. 4cr. 1st sem.

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