Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• COM FT 566: Special Topics
  Topics and instructor vary each semester. Recent topics have included Television Production Hothouse and the Avid Film Composer.
• COM FT 570: Uncensored TV: The rise of Original Scripted Series on Cable TV
  Using series like The Sopranos, Weeds, and Breaking Bad as case studies, this course will examine the current state of cable TV with regard to industry, "quality," genres, auteurs, and the so-called "post-network" era. Students will approach these cable series with a critical eye as they work to connect industry, political economy, and government regulation to issues of social class, television hierarchies, and artistry. Students will also emerge from the course with a thorough understanding of how to perform television-focused research and analysis.
• COM FT 573: BUTV
  BUTV1 is a credit-earning opportunity for members of BUTV10 & BUTV10.com, BU's student campus channel and website. Students work with at least one of the organization's productions or administrative departments. For undergraduates, one previous, not for credit, a semester in the organization is required, except with Faculty Advisor consent. This requirement does not apply to graduate students. All students must coordinate participation and be approved by the faculty advisor. 2 credits pass/fail, either semester.
• COM FT 574: BUTV2
  BUTV2 is a credit-earning opportunity for contributing members of BUTV10 & BUTV10.com, who have previously earned credit by successfully completing FT573: BUTV1. Students work with one of the organization's productions or administrative departments. All students must coordinate participation and be approved by the faculty advisor. 2 credits pass/fail, either semester.
• COM FT 575: Renoir & Bu?uel
  A survey of the careers of two of cinema's greatest and most admired directors: Jean Renoir and Luis Bu?uel. Both these directors had long careers, stretching from the late silent era into the 1970s, and both worked in various countries--France, Spain, the U.S., Mexico, India--taking in new situations and ways of life while maintaining their own attitude, philosophy of life, and artistic vision. The class will view and analyze such great films as Renoir's Grand Illusion, Rules of the Game, and The River and Bu?uel's L'Age d'Or, The Exterminating Angel, and Belle de Jour.
• COM FT 576: Global New Wave
  Explores the interconnected production and reception of selected European, African, and Asian New Wave cinemas of the mid-1940s through the early 1970s. These films experimented with form and style to challenge classical Hollywood norms.
• COM FT 578: 3MASTERDIRECTRS
  
• COM FT 582: Writing the Narrative Short
  Writing the Narrative Short class is an intensive writing workshop that focuses on the short form narrative screenplay. Students will write at a pace of roughly one script per three weeks, completing a minimum of FOUR (4) polished short screenplays: a personal film; a character driven film; and two "long shorts" of 10-25 pages
• COM FT 589: Advanced Production Workshop
  The focus of this class will be on story creation, performance, and filming strategies using small crews and lightweight equipment, culminating in the production of six short films. Working from approved scenarios with a core group of actors, directors will explore character and story development through an in-class workshop process of improvisation. Once committed to script form, these short films will be shot with a small crew made up of fellow class members in pods of three; Director, Cinematographer, and Editor. The class will be limited to 6 Directors and 4 to 6 Cinematographer/Editors.
• COM FT 590: 2D Animation Basics
  From TV shows and feature films to webisodes, 2D animation is more popular than ever, but how is it created? This fun yet intensive hands-on beginner course teaches all the fundamental skills needed to create great 2D character animation the way it is done in the industry, with Adobe Animate CC. Through progressive lessons students learn basic drawing and character design, storytelling, and how to make characters walk, talk and come to life. We will cover acting, timing, and facial expressions; drawing "keys and in-betweens," scene composition, color backgrounds, and more. The history of animation and industry trends are also discussed. Students complete numerous projects including a fully produced animated short film that will be shown in the End of Term Screening. Many of the valuable skills learned in this class can also be applied to 3D and experimental animation, filmmaking, art, and broadcast design.
• COM FT 591: Media Business Entrepreneurship
  This course will provide students with the practical knowledge and skills needed to heed the call of entrepreneurship. Classes will include guest speakers from various business sectors including venture capital professionals, angel investors, accountants, attorneys, marketing experts who are skilled in the launch phases of PR, as well as media entrepreneurs who succeeded against all odds. Students will also participate in the development of a core business idea, from concept through the creation of a sound business plan as a final project/presentation.
• COM FT 592: Production Design
  The Production Designer, along with the Director and the Director of Photography, is one of the top three creative decision makers on any film. Of the three, Production Designers are the least heralded; their work is so intrinsic to the storytelling as to be virtually invisible to the lay audience. In this course, we explore this quiet yet powerful source of creative power through collaborative projects, studio tours, presentations and individual design concepts.
• COM FT 593: Introduction to Cinematography
  FT593 is an introduction course to the key fundamentals of Cinematography: Composition, Optics and Lighting. This course also emphasizes on applying those fundamentals in a storytelling context and as tools of on-set communications. This is the gateway course to Intermediate Cinematography.
• COM FT 595: Intermediate Cinematography
  Intermediate Cinematography is focused on the required technical skillsets needed to work on a motion picture film set. Here, the concentration will be on training students to be proficient in working with the Steadicam, Gimbal,Dolly, Jib, Wireless Follow Focus, Wireless HD Transmitters and the various Lighting Fixtures. There will also be a class trip to local equipment rental houses to familiarize them with the industry equipment rental protocol as well as an introduction to the professional crew who work there. While it might come across as overly technical, the aim of the course is, in fact, to help students overcome all the technical handling and use them to heighten their visual storytelling capabilities. The course is designed to address the practical challenges when trying to achieve the best possible cinematic images through the design of advanced camera movement, camera techniques and lighting techniques.
• COM FT 597: Advanced Cinematography
  Advanced Cinematography is an intensive hands-on and creative course that challenges students to draw from the knowledge they have gained in Basic and Intermediate Cinematography and their previous production experiences, and apply them in a structural yet artistic approach in creating a true cinematic image. The main objective of this course is to inspire students to create quality cinematographic images, not merely by just the creation of frame and light, but rather, by digging deeply into the subtext of the narrative and the subliminal elements of the music. FT597 will be conducted in four phases in accordance with the standard film industry practice:Training, Pre-production, Production and Post-Production.
• COM FT 701: Media in Evolution
  This course examines how media businesses adapt or perish in the face of disruptive technologies. Students trace the history of the television industry and the emergence of new platforms to explore how technology has influenced consolidation, emerging revenue models, distribution options and audience consumption.
• COM FT 702: Script To Film
  Exclusive to Graduate Screenwriting students (required in 1st year). An introduction to the relationship between the written script and the image on screen. Through in-depth analysis, we will study screenplays, films and the mind of the screenwriter in order to decipher the process of developing story from character, plot and theme. Students will be required to write expository papers and present their own analysis of a chosen film.
• COM FT 703: Media Business Entrepreneurship
  This course will provide students with the practical knowledge and skills needed to heed the call of entrepreneurship. Classes will include guest speakers from various business sectors including venture capital professionals, angel investors, accountants, attorneys, marketing experts who are skilled in launch phases of PR, as well as media entrepreneurs who succeeded against all odds. Students will also participate in the development of a core business idea, from concept through the creation of a sound business plan as a final project/presentation. 4 cr. Fall
• COM FT 704: Genre for Screenwriters
  This course starts with the basics of genre theory, then identifies American genre conventions using the course's "study" films. Study films will be discussed in terms of the genre's conventions: theme, structure, characters, setting, subject matter, visual motifs or recurring icons, and tone/mood. Each student is then required to write a treatment and 10-15 pages of a feature script in a genre unfamiliar to him/her. Students' creative work will be workshopped.
• COM FT 705: Comedies and Melodramas for Graduate Students
  This class will view and discuss romantic comedies and domestic melodramas made in Hollywood in the 1930's and 1940's.

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