Film & Television
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In this course, students study and practice the art and craft of expressing themselves persuasively through audio-visual media. The aim is both to familiarize students with the conventions of screen language and to test the validity of those norms. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Creativity/Innovation.
Understanding Film introduces students to key aesthetic aspects of film. Students study a variety of historical and contemporary examples of fiction and nonfiction films that illustrate the expressive possibilities of image and sound. Students learn to analyze, explain and write about these formal elements. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Critical Thinking.
This course examines television (and its foundation in radio) as it emerged, stabilized as an aesthetic and technological form, interacted with other media, was regulated and deregulated, and was shaped by and shaped the culture around it. We will use the sitcom and soap opera genres as aesthetic through-lines for this study and examine their evolution in historical contexts. Throughout the semester, we focus on broadcasting's beginnings, expansion, establishment as the national, mass medium in America, and eventual fracturing into niches. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
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.
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. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Creativity/Innovation.
This course takes students through the process of creating non-fiction TV programming. Think talk shows, reality programs, and documentaries. How to create a concept, write a proposal, cast a program, and develop a marketing reason to do the program. It's all part and parcel of being a creative producer.
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.
This class will view and discuss romantic comedies and domestic melodramas made in Hollywood in the 1930's and 1940's. these films were some of the most popular and culturally significant of their time, involving many of the era's best screenwriters and directors and most prominent stars. The films set standards for dialogue writing, rich characterization, film performance and story structure.
Intermediate motion picture production with an emphasis on narrative storytelling, high definition cinematography, sync-sound location recording, and multi-track editing. Students develop, produce, direct, shoot, record and edit medium-length productions that are of film festival quality, and which can be incorporated into highlight and demo reels.
Surveys important and influential films from India, Japan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and elsewhere in East Asia from the 1950s to the present, taking in the work of such directors as Satyajit Ray, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, Zhang Yimou, Tsai Ming-liang, and Wong Kar-wai. The course is designed to make students familiar with foundational styles of realism and fantasy in Asian film and with ways Asian films address changes and evolution in Asian culture and society. The course should help students understand certain traditions in Asian film, and prepare them to engage critically with the ever burgeoning, new, and compelling filmmaking that comes from this part of the world.
Developing your first feature-length narrative screenplay; creation of characters, narrative outline, and scenes. . Each student will create a step outline, develop a treatment and write the first act of a feature-length screenplay. First draft screenplay pages will be discussed in class, and will be revised for the final project. Students will be advised to either work on a major rewrite of Act One or go deeper into Act Two, while outlining the remainder of the story.
Further study of narrative screenwriting, dramatic structure, and character development. Each student will develop and write a full feature-length screenplay. First draft materials will be discussed in class and will be revised for the final project.
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.
An eclectic and unsystematic survey of a small number of the supreme masterworks of international film created by some of the greatest artists of the past eighty years. The focus in on cinematic style. What does style do? Why are certain cinematic presentations highly stylized? What is the difference from realistic, representational work? We will consider the special ways of knowing, thinking, and feeling that highly stylized works of art create and devote all of our attention to the function of artistic style and form to create new experiences and ways of thinking and feeling.
This is an honors thesis class for undergraduates who have taken Production II as well as other high-level production classes, such as Directing, Cinematography, Sound Design, Motion Picture Editing, etc. Students apply to the class as either as producers, directors, cinematographers, editors, sound designers and production designers. Directors submit scripts for consideration. The production faculty then selects eight directors, based on the scripts and each candidate's previous work. Faculty then selects the producers, cinematographers, editors, sound designers, and production designers based on their previous production work and their ability to work as members of a team. The class forms production teams to make eight thesis- quality films that can compete with the best student films in America. Maximum running time for each film is fifteen minutes.
Individual projects; opportunity for advanced students who have completed a major portion of their degree requirements to engage in-depth tutorial study with specific faculty in an area not normally covered by regular curriculum offerings.
Individual projects; opportunity for advanced students who have completed a major portion of their degree requirements to engage in-depth tutorial study with specific faculty in an area not normally covered by regular curriculum offerings.
Opportunity for students to gain professional experience at television and radio stations, film and video production houses, and other media institutions. Responsibilities vary. Availability depends on market needs.
Opportunity for students to gain professional experience at television and radio stations, film and video production houses, and other media institutions. Responsibilities vary. Availability depends on market needs.