Film | Academic Requirements | Courses | Faculty
The Film B.F.A. Program: Courses
Lower level: TFI 1000–1999 (freshman)
Lower level: TFI 2000–2999 (sophomore)
Upper level: TFI 3000–3999 (junior)
Upper level: TFI 4000–4999 (senior)
Note: Courses are open only to film majors, unless noted otherwise. In the two-semester course sequences offered every year, successful completion of the fall course is a prerequisite for the spring course. For example, TFI 1090/Exercises in Storytelling (part one, fall) is a prerequisite for TFI 1100/Exercises in Storytelling (part two, spring).
Exercises in Storytelling
TFI 1090 and 1100 / 3 credits (per semester) / Every year
A series of weekly exercises to develop the student’s ability to write short stories. The problems of exposition, characterization, conflict, and action are discussed and studied. Limited to freshman film majors.
Film Workshop
TFI 1160 and 1170 / 5 credits (per semester) / Every year
Introduces the possibilities of film technique. Short projects in motion picture cinematography, lighting, sound recording, and continuity editing, augmented by lectures, demonstrations, film analysis, and readings. In the spring, systems of cinematic structure and form are emphasized.
Introduction to Documentary: Nonfiction Film
TFI 2000 and 2050 / 5 credits (per semester) / Every year
Practical aspects of documentary filmmaking. Students produce four to five short films each term (including describing a process, a place, an interview, and a film portrait). Production is complemented by screenings, class discussions, and demonstrations.
Film Editing I and II
TFI 2010 and 2020 / 3 credits (per semester)
I: Fall; II: Spring
Students learn the fundamentals of film language through editing and are provided with professionally produced picture and sound rushes that they sync-up, structure, and edit into a complete film. Additional individual and group projects are assigned.
Cinematography I
TFI 2090 / 2 credits / Fall
Basics of photography, camera operation, crew organization, picture composition, and lighting.
Cinematography II
TFI 2100 / 2 credits / Spring
Camera movement, angles and blocking, studio lighting procedures, and introduction to gaffing and electrics.
Prerequisite: TFI 2090
Directors’ Scene Workshop
TFI 2310 and 2320 / 3 credits (per semester) / Every year
In this introduction to directing narrative film, students produce scenes from their own original and previously produced scripts. They chose materials and cast, direct, and edit four to five short narrative films each term.
The Film Noir
TFI 2720 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Film noir represents the intersection of theme and style that gave American films from 1941 to 1955 a new cynicism, moral ambiguity, and atmosphere of terror. This course attempts to define and explore the concept of film noir by close analysis of films like The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity, Detour, The Big Heat, The Big Combo, Somewhere in the Night, and Kiss Me Deadly. Also offered as CIN 2720.
Prerequisite: TFI/CIN 2760 and 2770
Cinematic Expression I and II
TFI 2760 and 2770 / 4 credits (per semester)
I: Fall; II: Spring
An intensive study of film history with analysis of specific films that represent stages in the evolution of the formal aspects of cinematic expression. Film showings, lectures, seminars. TFI 2760 and 2770 are prerequisites for all other film history courses. Open to freshman dramatic writing majors; offered as CIN 2760 and 2770 for cinema studies majors, new media majors with advanced standing, and a limited number of other liberal arts students.
Prerequisite (for TFI/CIN 2770): TFI/CIN 2760 or permission of instructor
Writing for Film I
TFI 2810 / 2 credits / Spring
The techniques of writing for the screen in both the narrative and documentary forms. Emphasis on the construction of dramatic material without the use of spoken dialogue leads to a better understanding of the power and importance of visual imagery as a prime component in storytelling, and to a heightened awareness of the camera’s role in the writing process.
Cinema and Revolution
TFI 3001 Refer to CIN 3000 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Film Sound: Technique and Theory
TFI 3040 Refer to CIN 3040 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Added Spring 2009:
Cult Cinema
TFI 3060 Refer to CIN 3060 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Added Spring 2009 (9/10/08):
Mexican Cinema
TFI 3080 Refer to CIN 3080 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Cinematography III
TFI 3090 / 2 credits / Fall
Individual projects in advanced cinematography.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
Cinematography IV
TFI 3110 / 3 credits / Spring
Advanced techniques in cinematography and lighting, with group and individual projects.
Prerequisite: TFI 3090
Film Directors’ Workshop
TFI 3200 and 3210 / 4 credits (per semester) / Every year
An advanced two-semester course designed to explore the technique, practice, and theory of motion picture directing. Exercises in mise-en-scène, screenwriting, and fiction filmmaking. Students must write, cast, and direct a complete narrative short film for presentation at the end of the spring term.
Cinemas of Migration
TFI 3250 Refer to CIN 3250 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Screenwriting I
TFI 3320 / 2 credits / Spring
A practical course in the writing of screenplays. A preliminary screenplay for the senior thesis film must be completed by the end of the semester.
Genres of Affect
TFI 3330 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Investigation of comedy and horror in cinema from aesthetic, philosophical, and mythic perspectives. Films by Keaton, Romero, McCarey, Powell, Lester; readings by Bergson, Freud, Langer, Carroll, and others. Also offered as CIN 3330.
Prerequisite: TFI/CIN 2760 and 2770
Research Practicum: Silent Cinema
TFI 3340 Refer to CIN 3340 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Film in the Expanded Field
TFI 3360 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Addresses the history of exchange between art and cinema and the dominance of film in contemporary aesthetic practices. How has the expansion of film into museum and gallery spaces redefined the practice of both art and film, especially given the rise of new technologies?
Prerequisite: TFI 2760 and 2770, and permission of instructor
Contemporary Global Cinema
TFI 3401 Refer to CIN 3400 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Documentary Workshop I and II
TFI 3460 and 3470 / 4 credits (per semester)
I: Fall; II: Spring
An intermediate-level course in the practice of documentary filmmaking. A series of exercises in 16mm and video documentary production are complemented by screenings, class discussions, group projects, and demonstrations. Students research, design, and complete a documentary film.
Methods in Film Criticism
TFI 3480 / 4 credits / Alternate years (Fall)
Introduction to the history and modes of film criticism, using the films of John Ford as the focal point. Methods examined include auteurism, structuralism, poststructuralism, and postmodernism. Limited to junior and senior film majors.
Prerequisite: TFI 2760 and 2770, and permission of instructor
Eastern European Film
TFI 3515 Refer to CIN 3515 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Queer Cinema
TFI 3540 Refer to CIN 3540 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Added Spring 2009 (10/13/08):
Feminism and Cinema
TFI 3550 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
The influence of feminism in cinema and its emphasis on the social construction of sexual differences are considered. As an investigation of the performance of gender in film, this course also addresses the intersection of feminism with such critical discourses as Marxism, psychoanalysis, postcolonialism, and queer theory.
Prerequisite: TFI 2760 and 2770, and permission of instructor
Kubrick
TFI 3600 Refer to CIN 3600 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Experimental Workshop
TFI 3610 and 3620 / 3 credits (perctor
semester) / Every year
An introduction to the history and theory of nontraditional approaches to filmmaking, with particular emphasis on the strategies of the American avant-garde. Optical printing, rephotography, digital animation and manipulation, and related techniques are taught in this hands-on studio course. Offered as NME 3611 and 3621 for new media majors with advanced standing.
Advanced Editing: Sound on Film
TFI 3650 / 3 credits / Fall
Techniques and theory of sound editing. Application and use of synchronous and nondiegetic sound from production through mix.
Advanced Picture Editing
TFI 3655 / 3 credits / Spring
Strategies for the structuring and pacing of films, taught through the editing of specific film projects.
American Film Genres
TFI 3705 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly, Fall)
A detailed examination of the notion of film genre, and consideration of one or more classical Hollywood genres, including the western, musical, melodrama, and film noir. Also offered as CIN 3705.
Prerequisite: TFI/CIN 2760 and 2770
The Western
TFI 3715 Refer to CIN 3715 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
The Business of Film
TFI 3725 / 2 credits / Spring
Prepares students for entry into the film industry. Covers basic techniques used to raise money for, produce, and distribute films.
The American Avant-Garde Film
TFI 3730 / 4 credits / Every third year
Film and theories of the American avant-garde cinema since 1943. The approach is historical, surveying the various periods in the American avant-garde and their relation to contemporary cultural phenomena. Among the artists considered are Harry Smith, George Landow, Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, Ernie Gehr, Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger, Michael Snow, and Hollis Frampton. Also offered as CIN 3730.
Prerequisite: TFI/CIN 2760 and 2770
The Independent Spirit in American Film
TFI 3735 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
History of American independent filmmaking from the 1940s to the present. Focuses on a range of directors, including Sam Fuller, Morris Engel, John Cassavetes, and Robert Altman. Also offered as CIN 3736.
Prerequisite: TFI/CIN 2760 and 2770
Meaning and Truth in Cinema
TFI 3745 / 4 credits / Alternate years (Fall)
Intensive introduction to film theory, focusing on issues surrounding the meaning and truth of the moving image. Readings by Bazin, Eisenstein, Metz, and others. Limited to junior and senior film majors.
Prerequisite: TFI 2760 and 2770, and permission of instructor
Transcendent Visions: The Spiritual on Film
TFI 3755 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Investigation of a range of filmmakers who attempt to convey the spiritual through manipulation of film form. Films by Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer, Tarkovsky, and others. Also offered as CIN 3755.
Prerequisite: TFI/CIN 2760 and 2770
New Waves of East Asian Cinema
TFI 3757 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
In this course on internationally acclaimed auteurs of East Asian cinema (Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea), emphasis is placed on the concepts of “national cinema” and “new waves.” In particular, the critique of nationalism via a radicalization of both content and form in the various new waves is examined. Also offered as CIN 3757.
Prerequisite: TFI/CIN 2760 and 2770, and permission of instructor
Japanese Cinema
TFI 3760 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
The cinema of Japan through the work of its most outstanding directors: Ozu, Mizoguichi, and Kurosawa. The extreme variety of this national cinema is stressed through the individuality of each director. At the same time, the common cultural background of the directors is stressed, as well as the divergence of the Japanese approach to representation from the tradition of Western art. Also offered as CIN 3760.
Prerequisite: TFI/CIN 2760 and 2770
Contemporary Asian Cinema
TFI 3763 Refer to CIN 3763 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Topics in Classical Cinema
TFI 3765 Refer to CIN 3765 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
American Cinema of the ’50s
TFI 3783 Refer to CIN 3783 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Hawks and Wilder: Hollywood Auteurs
TFI 3785 Refer to CIN 3785 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
The New Hollywood
TFI 3787 Refer to CIN 3787 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Added Spring 2009 (9/03/08):
Warhol in Context
TFI 3795 Refer to CIN 3795 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Writing for Film II
TFI 3810 / 2 credits / Fall
Construction and writing of screenplays, with exercises in characterization, plotting, etc. Story treatments for both fiction and documentary films are stressed.
Italian Cinema After Neorealism
TFI 3830 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Survey of Italian cinema of the postneorealist era, with special focus on the films of Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini. Also offered as CIN 3830.
Prerequisite: TFI/CIN 2760 and 2770
André Bazin, Realism, and Cinema
TFI 3835 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
An advanced seminar focusing on the criticism of André Bazin, a co-founder of the influential magazine Cahiers du Cinéma and prolific author (What is Cinema? Vol. 1 and 2); the cinema that he championed, including Italian neorealism; his influence on post–World War II film studies and criticism; and his current renaissance in contemporary filmmaking and criticism. Also offered as CIN 3835.
Prerequisite: TFI/CIN 2760 and 2770
French Cinema Since 1930
TFI 3855 / 4 credits / Special topic (offered irregularly)
Survey of French filmmaking from the sound era, with special focus on poetic realism and the nouvelle vague. Films by Vigo, Carné, Renoir, Truffaut, Godard, and others. Also offered as CIN 3855.
Prerequisite: TFI/CIN 2760 and 2770
Contemporary French Cinema
TFI 3857 Refer to CIN 3857 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Melodrama
TFI 3870 Refer to CIN 3870 in Cinema Studies Courses (School of Humanities) for description.
Senior Production: Filmmaking
TFI 4180 and 4190 / 8 credits (per semester) / Every year
An intensive, two-semester workshop course in which students prepare and produce their thesis film. Production can proceed only after faculty approval of the screenplay, casting, and production schedules.
Advanced Screenwriting
TFI 4310 / 2 credits / Fall
Completion of senior thesis screenplay.
Updated Oct. 13, 2008