Media Studies, what do you think?

So it's time to think about signing up for my last semester of classes. 4 or 8 credits (I can pick) needs to be "thesis" so that I have time to do the pre-production for my film. So then I get 2 or 3 classes that can be whatever I want. But then I discovered today that over the course of the 2 years I have to take 2 electives in Media Studies in addition to the Masterworks class I took the first semester. I was thinking only one. So two from below. What do you think?

There are a few "absolutely not" but only one firm yes. The British cinema one I think I'll enjoy. I kind of wonder if I should take Media Business Entrepreneurship. Do you suppose that would help me with Heron Media, or do you suppose they're thinking of something else. I might try to email the prof and see if I can see the syllabus. Or maybe the TV to Tablets one or the Improv one. 

And then I  might take Lighting, or I might just give myself an easy semester and concentrate on making a kick-ass thesis film. 

FILM STUDIES COURSES and SPECIAL TOPICS

Spring 2014 - Department of Film and TV

FT 303: Understanding Television

Mon/Wed 4pm – 6pm

COM FT 303 A1

This course will navigate the history of a medium that has always negotiated the tensions between government intervention and private enterprise; artistic ambition and the limitations of viewing technologies; hypercommercialism and the integrity of the text; network control and creative freedom.  In short, this course will examine the ways in which industrial factors and communication policies have shaped the medium that sits in 99% of U.S. homes.

FT 360: Understanding Film

Mon/Wed 6pm – 9pm

COM FT 360 A 1

Prof. Kelly

Required of all students in the Film Program. An introduction to the art of film. How do films make meaning? How do audiences understand them? Explores some of the ways in which movies teach us new ways of knowing. May be taken second semester of freshman year.

FT 457: American Masterworks

Mon, Wed 9:00am - 11:30am

Prof. Grundmann

A comprehensive survey of American cinema from the beginnings to the recent past. The course covers the stylistic and narrative milestones of American cinema (Griffith, Welles), classical Hollywood genres (the gangster film, the screwball comedy), the paradox of art within commerce (Sirk, Hitchcock, Kubrick), the New Hollywood of the late 60s and 70s (Coppola, Scorsese), independent film (Cassavetes, Warhol, Morrissey, Spike Lee), and recent developments (Bigelow, Soderbergh, Luhrman, Coen Brothers).

FT 458 (ugrads), FT 721 (grads): International Masterworks

Tues. 2-4 PM and Thurs. 2-5 PM

Prof. Carney

A survey of the supreme masterworks of international film created by the greatest cinematic artists of the past fifty years. Titles vary from year to year, but include work by the following directors: Robert Bresson (France), Abbas Kiarostami (Iran), Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey), Vittorio DeSica (Italy), Yasujiro Ozu (Japan), Jean Renoir (France), Federico Fellini (Italy), Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), Roberto Rossellini (Italy), and the comedies of Jacques Tati (France).

FT 552 A1: Women and TV

Wed 1pm - 4pm

Prof. Jaramillo

Description: From Irna Philips to Tina Fey, women have occupied essential roles in the crafting of television programs.  And from Donna Reed to Kim Kardashian, they have provided controversial representations of femininity.  Using feminist methodologies, this course will examine the multiple points at which women and television intersect.

FT 552 B1: Experimental Television

Mon 1pm – 4pm

Prof. Jaramillo

TV is many things, but can it be experimental? Part of the project of this class is to work through this designation and what it means on a medium like television‹-one with a distinct mode of operation and with incredibly high barriers to entry. Are we beholden to a definition that stems from art, theater, and cinema, or can (should) we modify the existing paradigm to accommodate the specificities of television? Relying on scholarly work from different fields, we will confront a set of television programs and examine them in opposition to a conceptualization of mainstream television that we will formulate as a class. We will also use these television programs as primary documents to be picked apart and analyzed.

FT 552 E1: Writing the Short Film

Mon 6:00-9pm

Prof. Bernstein

Writing the Short is an intensive writing workshop.  The purpose is to help Film and Theatre students to write the best script possible “produce-able” scripts. Students will be doing writing exercises to help develop their characters and stories. Along the way students will complete FOUR screenplays: a character driven film; an adaptation from another source; and two original shorts.

FT 553 B1: Movie Stars

Fri 10:00am – 1:00pm

Prof. Burr

How have movie stardom and our ideas of celebrity changed over a century-plus of cinema?  This course surveys the cultural and technological landscape -- and the faces and personas in them -- from the earliest silents to the Internet era.  Ty Burr is the chief film critic for the Boston Globe and the author of "Gods Like Us: On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame". Course is open to all BU Community.

FT553C1: TV to Tablets: Making Money with Multi-Platform Content

Tue, Thu 12:30-2:00pm

Prof. Luber

Think you know more about what TV, movie, and music fans want more than the industry's top execs? Ever wish you could call Spielberg, Letterman, or Diddy and tell them exactly what to do in order to stay hip and make $$$ in today's multi-platform world? Learn how traditional media brands are scrambling to catch up with the YouTubes, Facebooks and iTunes of the world. Create strategies that bring your favorite shows, artists, and actors into the the modern age!  Discover how Lady Gaga and other top brands think in downloads, social, and tweets before they even launch new products. This new course is a must for anyone who’s interested in the “business” end of the business-- tomorrow’s media producers, executives, marketers and dream-chasers. Course is open to all FTV, Mass Com, or JO majors!  

FT 554 A1: Contemporary American Comedy

Mon 2-6p

Prof. John Kelly

An exploration of American film comedy—focusing on both the crude, silly assaults of lowbrow and transgressive humor and the sometimes insipid, sometimes inspired ‘rom-com’ romances that have dominated the marketplace in the last decades. These are the films pushing the buttons of highbrow cultural critics and pushing the boundaries of good taste.  No subject is taboo—subjects of race, body image, gender, sexuality, religion and social institutions are all satiric fair game to these filmmakers, actors and writers.  Haughty highbrows—and even more stuffy academics and self-appointed cultural commissars—view these midbrow and lowbrow comedies as signs of the coming apocalypse, when, in fact, a closer examination of this ‘trash aesthetic’ reveals a lively, expressive and significant intellectual content. We’ll examine various charges and claims concerning contemporary Hollywood comedy, debate its literary, television and standup comedy sources, wrangle over its meaning, ponder its aesthetic importance and its impact on culture and discuss its artistic merits.  In addition, we’ll consider the significance of pop culture in general and the phenomenon of an ‘educated’ lowbrow comedy, observe the consequence of its great commercial success, and trace its roots in television sketch comedy—where the writers and the personas of the characters and actors were developed and honed. Course is open to all BU Community.

FT 554 B1 (ugrads), FT 703 (grads): Media Business Entrepreneurship

Tues 2-5p

Prof. Luber

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.

FT 554 C1: Improvisation in Art and Life

Tues, Thurs. 9–11:00 AM

Prof. Carney

Many of the most important works in recent cinema, particularly those created by younger generation American independent filmmakers, have not used screenplays or been written out in advance. The directors and actors have created the films by having the actors create their own characters and improvise their lines and scenes. In this course we will study the work of two directors whose methods inspired the current generation of improvising filmmakers, American director John Cassavetes and British director Mike Leigh—and consider how they used improvisation to create their films and how their work has influenced the current generation of young American independent filmmakers. Course is open to all BU Community.

FT 554 D1: British Cinema in the New Century

Tues 5-9p

Prof. Kelly 

 A survey of recent British cinema that, through its innovative style and compelling stories, has attracted new audiences tired of the monolithic Hollywood model. We will study the widely diverse range of distinctive subjects and genres of the new British cinema. Filmmakers include Lynne Ramsay (Morvern Callar, Ratcatcher); Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People); Guy Ritchie (Snatch, RocknRolla, Sherlock Holmes), Shane Meadows (This Is England, Dead Man’s Shoes), Danny Boyle (Trainspotting), Martin McDonagh (In Bruges), and others. Course is open to all BU Community.

FT 554 E1: Avant-garde Film

Wed 2:00pm – 6:00pm

Prof. Grundmann

A survey of American and international 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 high modernist cinema of “isms” (Dadaism, Surrealism, Impressionism), American avant-garde film after World War Two including trance film, underground film, structuralism, and “psychedelic expanded cinema of split and multiscreen films (Maya Deren, Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith, Michael Snow, Peter Kubelka, Rudy Burckhardt), 1970s video art including feminist and gay/lesbian filmmakers (Joan Jonas, Yvonne Rainer, Barbara Hammer, Michael Wallen), X-rated Europeans (Kren and the Vienna Secessionists) and American “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. Course is open to all BU Community.

FT 554 F1: Terrence Malick and Paul Thomas Anderson

Tue, Thu 11:00am-2:00pm

Prof. Warren

This course will survey the work of these two contemporary American directors who have taken the fictional feature film in exciting new directions and have won worldwide critical acclaim on a par with major international directors of the past and present. Here, it seems to many, are the current American equals of Bergman, Godard, or Kurosawa. We will view and analyze such films as “Days of Heaven,” “The Thin Red Line,” “The Tree of Life,” “Magnolia,” “There Will Be Blood,” and “The Master,” and consider the theatrical boldness, innovative film style, beauty, and philosophical depth of this work. We will also ask, what is the picture or critique of America given in these films? Course is open to all BU Community.

FT 563: French New Wave

Mon, Wed 11:30am-2:00pm

Prof. Warren

This self-aware, idealistic film movement in the 1960s, involving such directors as Godard, Truffaut, Rohmer, Resnais, and Varda, produced many wonderful films in a variety of styles new to cinema, and set the standard for "new waves" and filmmaking movements in later times and places.  The class will survey the important films - Breathless, Weekend, The 400 Blows, My Night at Maud's, and so on - and will consider theoretical writings by the filmmakers involved, and the political and cultural context that gave rise to all this work. Course is open to all BU Community.