Film & Television

• COM FT 536: Film Theory and Criticism
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Undergraduate pre-req: FT250 - 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 538: City in Film
  This course explores the relationship between the moving image and urban spaces in the 20th and early 21st century. We initially focus on a subgenre of avant-garde film and experimental media, the city film, which includes the European "City Symphonies" of the 1920s and numerous examples of experimental shorts made about the city in the big metropolises of the West. We continue into the post-World War II era with films rendering the impact of the war on European cities through the stylistic paradigms of realism and expressionism. The second half of the course focuses on narrative features and experimental (often digital) documentaries portraying life in cities around the globe.
• COM FT 541: TV Genres
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMFT303) - This class uses fan studies and genre studies approaches to critically analyze the ways that fan practices have shaped and been shaped by the television industry as well as how fans have used their position to influence the norms of television. We will focus on genres with extremely active and integral fandoms and how they are similar or distinct: science fiction/fantasy, melodrama/soap operas, and sports.
• COM FT 542: Advanced Screenwriting
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMFT412) - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMFT713) - The student will write a first-draft screenplay and two sets of revisions. In addition to participating in weekly discussions on aspects of screenwriting that are tailored to student needs, each student will complete and revise a full length motion-picture screenplay. 4cr.
• COM FT 544: Documentary Production
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMFT353) - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMFT707) - This course is designed to develop skills necessary for producing long-form documentaries. There is an emphasis on exploring new, more engaging forms of storytelling and a broad range of stylistic approaches. It covers the entire process: finding a topic, developing a story structure, conceiving a style, shooting, editing, and post-production. Students develop their own ideas and form small groups to produce them.
• COM FT 545: Television and Childhood
  Children represent an important target for mediated messages. However, there are important rules, ethics and differences we should keep in mind when creating content for this audience. In this class, we will consider the effects messages have on behavior and development in younger populations. We will also consider design and programming decisions that influence these effects.
• COM FT 547: Avant Garde Cinema
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMFT250) - A survey of global avant-garde film and experimental media from the 1920s to the present. We will explore film, video, and digital video as mediums of unadulterated artistic expression resulting in daring, experimental forms and controversial contents. The course covers 1920s and early 30s high modernist cinema of "isms" (Dadaism, Surrealism, Impressionism), Transatlantic and international currents after World War Two including trance film, underground film, structuralism, and "psychedelic expanded cinema of split and multiscreen films (Kenneth Anger, Andy Warhol, Michael Snow, Peter Kubelka, Rudy Burckhardt), 1970s video art including feminist and gay/lesbian filmmakers, X-rated Europeans (Kren and the Vienna Secessionists) and international "trash" cinema auteurs, the digital video avant-garde, masters of found footage cinema, queer digital media, recent transnational trends. Disclaimer: Some of the films shown in this course contain sexually explicit and graphic bodily acts.
• COM FT 552: Special Topics
  Relevant topics in Film and Television. Course information and descriptions sent out in the FTV newsletter. Email filmtv@bu.edu for more information.
• COM FT 553: Special Topics in Media Studies
  Topics vary per semester.
• COM FT 554: Special Topics in International Studies
  Topics vary per semester. FT554 can fulfill the Undergraduate Additional Studies requirement. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Creativity/Innovation, Digital/Multimedia Expression. Effective Summer 2025, this course carry's no Hub requirements.
• COM FT 555: Advanced Documentary Production
  Prerequisites: COMFT 544 or instructor permission. - This course will refine the technical skills and aesthetic sensibility learned in FT544 Documentary Production. In this advanced production course, students may continue or expand a project started in FT544, with the aim of creating a festival-worthy film. Students who have shown proficiency in documentary production may also choose to begin a new project. In either case, the emphasis will be on a vital sub-category of contemporary creative nonfiction: vérité documentary production and the unique challenges and opportunities of working within this cinematic tradition.
• COM FT 556: American Independent Film-Part 1 The Foundational Masterworks
  The course comprises one unit of a four-semester survey (each part of which is free-standing and may be taken separately and independently of each other and in any order, with no prerequisites) of the major achievements of the most important artistic movement of the last sixty years in American film--the independent feature filmmaking movement, in which American narrative filmmakers broke away from the financial, bureaucratic, and (most importantly) imaginative influence of Hollywood values and entertainment story-telling methods to create the most important works in American film--a series of generally low-tech, low-budget, DIY, personal-expression films, made and distributed more or less outside the mainstream exhibition system. This section of the survey focuses on the foundational masterworks created by the first generation of American independent feature filmmakers. These are the works that not only changed film history at the point they were made but that continue to inspire generations of independent filmmakers with their example. Since women have made some of the best and most important works in this area, as many female filmmakers as possible are being included. Offered in the fall of odd numbered years.
• COM FT 557: American Independent Film-Part 2 The Second Generation
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - The course comprises one unit of a four-semester survey (each part of which is free-standing and may be taken separately and independently of each other and in any order, with no prerequisites) of the major achievements of the most important artistic movement of the last sixty years in American film--the independent feature filmmaking movement, in which American narrative filmmakers broke away from the financial, bureaucratic, and (most importantly) imaginative influence of Hollywood values and entertainment story-telling methods to create the most important works in American film--a series of generally low-tech, low-budget, DIY, personal-expression films, made and distributed more or less outside the mainstream exhibition system. This section of the survey focuses on the second generation of American independent feature filmmaking. Since women have made some of the best and most important works in this area, as many female filmmakers as possible are being included. Offered in the spring of even numbered years.
• COM FT 558: American Independent Film'Part 3 Recent and Contemporary Work
  The course comprises one unit of a four-semester survey (each part of which is free-standing and may be taken separately and independently of each other and in any order, with no prerequisites) of the major achievements of the most important artistic movement of the last sixty years in American film--the independent feature filmmaking movement, in which American narrative filmmakers broke away from the financial, bureaucratic, and (most importantly) imaginative influence of Hollywood values and entertainment story-telling methods to create the most important works in American film--a series of generally low-tech, low-budget, DIY, personal-expression films, made and distributed more or less outside the mainstream exhibition system. This section of the survey focuses on the third generation of American independent feature filmmaking in the period running from approximately 2000 to the present. Since women have made some of the best and most important works in this area, as many female filmmakers as possible are being included. Offered in the fall of even numbered years.
• COM FT 559: American Independent Film-Part 4 Mumblecore, the Voices of a Generation
  The course comprises one unit of a four-semester survey (each part of which is free-standing and may be taken separately and independently of each other or in any order) of the major achievements of the most important artistic movement of the last sixty years in American film--the independent feature filmmaking movement, in which American narrative filmmakers broke away from the financial, bureaucratic, and (most importantly) imaginative influence of Hollywood values and entertainment story-telling methods to create a series of low-tech, low-budget, personal-expression films. This semester will focus on the contemporary generation that has been referred to by reviewers as "mumblecore" filmmakers. The past fifteen years have seen the birth and development of a new kind of ultra-low-budget DIY filmmaking created by filmmakers in their 20s and 30s who write, shoot, edit, and often act in their own movies. The result is a series of works that have their finger on the pulse of contemporary sexual and social mores and communicate what it is to be young, restless, eager, and uncertain in the world as we actually experience it today. Since women have made some of the best and most important of these films, screenings will include many female filmmakers. No pre-requisites and no permission required.
• COM FT 561: Contemporary East Asian Cinema
  This course studies the astonishing artistic flowering of contemporary East Asian film, focusing on selected works from directors working in China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand. We will focus on post-1997 films, though we will occasionally look back at earlier films that these directors made or that influenced them. The course aims to survey a variety of different genres, styles, and themes as we look closely at the significant output from key directors in these countries. Some of the notable directors we will discuss include Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook, Lee Chang-dong, Zhang Yimou, Jia Zhangke, Ann Hui, Wong Karwai, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Hayao Miyazaki, and Edward Yang. Our discussions will deal with their styles and themes as auteurs, industry developments in Asia that have affected the kinds of films produced and distributed, and cultural values and history embedded within these films. A background in film/TV analysis, as taught in Understanding Film (FT250) and in other film/TV studies-oriented courses, will be essential. Prior knowledge of East Asian cultures, histories and language will help but is not essential. (The films will be screened in their native language whenever possible, with English subtitles.)
• COM FT 565: Motion Picture Editing
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: FT353 - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMFT707) - Given its central role in the filmmaking process, examining the way films are edited can reveal a lot about the inner workings of film and help students understand the art of filmmaking. Editing scenes from films, television shows, and other material in a classroom setting and then examining different versions of those scenes can help students become better editors and will help them evaluate/critique their future film and television work. The course is designed for students who have edited a number of exercises and films in previous classes. It provides an opportunity for students to develop advanced editing skills, while learning advanced digital editing techniques on the Adobe Premier. This is an advanced editing class, and not a course on how to use Premier. By editing scenes from episodic television shows, and other professionally shot footage, students will learn how to select (and reject) material, where and when to cut, how to create pace, how to control what the audience sees and does not see, how to add music and effects to increase the emotional content, and how to use visual effects to enhance the impact of the material.
• COM FT 570: Uncensored TV: The rise of Original Scripted Series on Cable TV
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMFT303) - 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 571: Religion and TV
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMFT303) - Religion and Television critically engages with religious representation on television, focusing especially on American fictional television since the 1980s. The course examines both the representation of specific religious traditions as well as generalized and abstracted religion and spirituality. Using the framework of television studies in conversation with religious studies, Religion and Television analyzes religion as: a tradition, as a grouping of tropes and stories, a functional part of lived experience, a component of identity, a structure of sociocultural power, and a discourse with specific cultural assumptions attached to it. These televisual articulations of religion are shaped by television's history, ideology, industry, culture, and reception. Thus, this course critically analyzes and maps the relationships among television, religion, and American culture.
• COM FT 572: Streaming TV
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMFT303) - This course focuses on the variety of ways we watch television beyond the cable subscription and/or broadcast antenna. Starting with VHS distribution and continuing through DVD distribution and eventually streaming and digital on-demand, the course will critically examine if and how these distribution shifts are changing television as we know it. This course will also make connections between these new distribution outlets and practices with antecedents and legacy industrial practices to historicize these shifts. In this class, we will explore ideas of on-demand television and its effects on how television is made and marketed, paying particular attention to narrative structures and assumptions about viewer attention and practices. Additionally, we will look at how taste, class, race, and gender are inflected through which audiences are targeted as cord-cutters or additional subscribers and which audiences and genres are left out of the streaming TV discourse. This course fulfills the additional TV Studies course requirement. Pre-req: FT303.