1/10 Course Syllabus & Introductions

 

1/13 Introduction: How to Look at Media

READ: Sturken & Cartwright, “Chapter 1: Practices of Looking,” from Practices of Looking: an Introduction to Visual Culture.

[PDF OF LECTURE SLIDES]

 

1/17 Introduction: How to Interpret Media

READ: Sturken & Cartwright, “Chapter 2: Viewers Make Meaning,” from Practices of Looking: an Introduction to Visual Culture.

[PDF OF LECTURE SLIDES]

 

1/20 Introduction: How to Interpret Media continued

 

1/24 Mise-en-Scène: Film Aesthetics

DUE: Short Writing Assignment #1
READ: Corrigan & White, selections on “Mise-en-Scène.” Read the section “The Elements of MES” (pp. 67-73; 75-77; 80-84).

 

1/27 Mise-en-Scène: Film Aesthetics continued

 

1/31 Analyzing the Mise-en-Scène & Writing Discussion

VIEW: Do the Right Thing (Lee, 1989, 120’) [Must be viewed in its entirety by 2/3]

 

2/3 Analyzing the Mise-en-Scène

READ: Corrigan & White, selection on “Mise-en-Scène” about Do the Right Thing (pp. 78-80).

VIEW: Do the Right Thing (Lee, 1989, 120’)

 

2/7 Cinematography: Film Aesthetics

DUE: Short Writing Assignment #2

READ: Corrigan & White, selections on “Cinematography.” Read the section “The Elements of Cinematography” (pp. 104-105; 108-121).

 

2/10 Cinematography: Film Aesthetics

 

2/14 Analyzing Cinematography

VIEW: Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954, 115’)

  • Can be downloaded from Blackboard (under “Course Materials”). NOTE: This file CANNOT be streamed from Blackboard in your browser. You must DOWNLOAD the file and view it in a compatible player, like VLC. (Mac users will need to hold the “Control” button, click the download link, and select “Download Linked File” from the drop-down list.)
  • Can be rented/purchased on iTunes or Amazon

 

2/17 Analyzing Cinematography: the (Male) Gaze & Power Relations

READ: Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.”

  • Important concept(s) to understand: scopophilia; woman’s “to-be-looked-at-ness” (woman as image); the male gaze (man as “bearer of the look”).
  • Important factor(s) to consider: how the gaze is constructed by three looks; what narrative (disavowal) has to do with visual pleasure / the gaze.

 

2/21 Editing: Film Aesthetics

DUE: Short Writing Assignment #3

READ: Corrigan & White, selections on “Editing.” Read the section “The Elements of Editing” (pp. 143-145; 148-161; 165-166).

 

2/24 Editing: Film Aesthetics continued

 

2/28 Analyzing Editing

VIEW: Requiem for a Dream (Aronofsky, 2000, 100’)

DISCUSS: Rewrite Guidelines [PDF]

 

3/3 Analyzing Editing continued

DISCUSS: Requiem for a Dream (Aronofsky, 2000, 100′)

 

3/6-10 Spring Break, NO CLASSES

 

3/14 Snow Day, CLASSES CANCELLED

 

3/17 Sound: How to Listen

DUE: Short Writing Assignment #4; Rewrite for SWA#2

READ:

  • Michel Chion, “The Three Listening Modes.”
  • Don Ihde, “The Auditory Dimension” from Listening and Voice.
  • (background) Rick Altman, “The Material Heterogeneity of Recorded Sound,” from Sound Theory/Sound Practice
  • (background) Rick Altman, “Four and Half Film Fallacies,” in The Sound Studies Reader, pp. 225-233.
  • (background) Corrigan & White, selections on “Sound.” Read the section “The Elements of Film Sound” (pp. 191-193; 196-211).
  • (background) Hillel Schwartz, “The Indefensible Ear.”

 

3/21 Sound: TV Aesthetics

DUE: Short Writing Assignment #4 REVISION

VIEW: “Pilot,” Nip/Tuck (S01E01, 2003, 66’).

READ:

  • Karen Lury, “Sound,” from Interpreting Television, pp. 57-88.
  • Ben Aslinger, “Nip/Tuck: Popular Music,” in Thompson & Mittell (eds), How to Watch Television (New York: NYU Press, 2013): 47-55.
  • (background) Rick Altman, “Television/Sound.” In Studies in Entertainment (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 39–54.

 

3/24 SCMS Conference, NO CLASS

VIEW: Comet (Esmail, 2014, 91’)

 

3/28 Narrative in Film

DISCUSS: Comet (Esmail, 2014, 91’)

READ: David Bordwell, “Three Dimensions of Film Narrative” (Ch 3 from Poetics of Cinema)

  • (background) David Bordwell, “Classical Narration” (Ch 3 from The Classical Hollywood Cinema)
  • (background) Corrigan & White, selections on “Narrative Films.”

 

3/31 Narrative Analysis

DUE: Short Writing Assignment #5 ; Rewrite for SWA#3

 

4/4 Narrative in TV

READ: Newman, “From Beats to Arcs: Toward a Poetics of Television Narrative,” Velvet Light Trap 58 (2006): 16-28.

  • (background) Jason Mittell, “Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television,” Velvet Light Trap 58 (2006): 29-40.
  • (background) Jane Feuer, “Narrative Form in American Network Television” in Corrigan, White, Mazaj (eds), Critical Visions in Film Theory, pp 610-619.

 

4/7 Narrative: Adaptation from Comics to TV.

VIEW: “Days Gone Bye,” The Walking Dead (S01E01, 2010, 67’)

READ:

 

4/11 Narrative: Genre & Music Videos

DUE: Research Paper Draft

READ:

  • Greg Smith, “Chapter 4: Genre Shmenre,” from What Media Classes Really Want to Discuss
  • (background) Rick Altman, “A Semantic/Syntactic/Pragmatic Approach to Genre,” from Film/Genre
  • (background) Thomas Schatz, “Film Genre and the Genre Film,” from Hollywood Genres.

 

4/14 Alternative Narratives: Remix & Sampling

READ: Paul D. Miller / DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, “In Through the Out Door: Sampling and the Creative Act,” from Sound Unbound, pp. 5-19.

 

4/18 Course Wrap-Up

 

4/24 Final Paper Due, uploaded on Blackboard by 5:00pm