Courses

Core Film Courses

FTT 20101 / 21101 / 22101: Basics of Film and Television | Lab | Tutorial | Matthew Payne

This class is designed to enhance your understanding and appreciation of film and television. It operates on the philosophy that the better we understand how film and television texts work, the more intelligently and perceptively we will be able to consume them, which is an invaluable skill to have in our media-saturated world. You will learn about the basic elements that distinguish films and television programs from other aesthetic forms, such as editing, cinematography, sound and set design, and how these components work together to develop stories and characters. We will also work with interpretive frameworks that uncover deeper meanings and patterns in film and television, such as genre theory, the idea of authorship, political economy, and ideological analysis. Finally, you will acquire the skills and tools needed to write your own educated analyses of film and television texts. The class screenings present a range of films, from Hollywood classics to independent and international films, as well as television shows both old and new. This course is required for all concentrators in Film and Television.

FTT 30202 | 31202: Global Cinema II | Lab | Olivier Morel

This course traces the major developments in world cinema from the post-WWII era to the present. The course will examine the shifting social, economic, technological, and aesthetic conditions of this period, especially the demise of the Hollywood studio system, the rise of new technologies and auxiliary marketing outlets, and the increasing globalization of cinema. The course will not be limited to Hollywood filmmaking, but will also look at various international movements, including Italian Neorealism, the French New Wave, and recent Asian cinemas.

FTT 30456 | 31456: Crit. Approaches to Screen Cultures | Lab | Pam Wojcik

In this course, students will learn different theories, methods, and approaches to understanding and writing about screen cultures. We will explore approaches that consider aesthetics/style, narrative, authorship (directors, show runners, stars), genre (e.g. the musical, horror), history (history of film/media industries, history of visual spectacle, historical context for films/media, etc.), technologies (sound, color, digital technologies, etc.), identities (considerations of gender, sexuality, race, nation, age, etc.), and audience (reception, fandom). Students will: Read theories that articulate and advocate each approach; consider the parameters, value, and appeal of that approach, as well as its limitations; practice each approach in written exercises; and research and write a final paper using one or more of these approaches. Students may also use video essays or other media as tools of analysis and critique. This is a course in academic criticism, not journalistic reviewing. Strong emphasis will be placed on argumentative writing.

Core Television Courses

FTT 20101 / 21101 / 22101: Basics of Film and Television | Lab | Tutorial | Matthew Payne

This class is designed to enhance your understanding and appreciation of film and television. It operates on the philosophy that the better we understand how film and television texts work, the more intelligently and perceptively we will be able to consume them, which is an invaluable skill to have in our media-saturated world. You will learn about the basic elements that distinguish films and television programs from other aesthetic forms, such as editing, cinematography, sound and set design, and how these components work together to develop stories and characters. We will also work with interpretive frameworks that uncover deeper meanings and patterns in film and television, such as genre theory, the idea of authorship, political economy, and ideological analysis. Finally, you will acquire the skills and tools needed to write your own educated analyses of film and television texts. The class screenings present a range of films, from Hollywood classics to independent and international films, as well as television shows both old and new. This course is required for all concentrators in Film and Television.

FTT 30461: History of Television | Christine Becker

Television has been widely available in the United States for only half a century, yet aleady it has become a key means through which we understand our culture. Our course examines this vital medium from three perspectives. First, we will look at the industrial, economic and technological forces that have shaped U.S. television since its inception. These factors help explain how U.S. television adopted the format of advertiser-supported broadcast networks and why this format is changing today. Second, we will explore television's role in American social and political life: how TV has represented cultural changes in the areas of gender, class, race and ethnicity. Third, we will discuss specific narrative and visual strategies that characterize program formats. Throughout the semester we will demonstrate how television and U.S. culture mutually influence one another, as television both constructs our view of the world and is affected by social and cultural forces within the U.S.

Core Theatre Courses

FTT 20720: Collaboration: Intro Theatre | Kevin Dreyer

Collaboration, the Art of Making Theatre explores the roles of the artists who create the material world in which a performance exists and most importantly, the collaborative nature of those relationships. Students will be challenged to understand the thinking behind the work of the designers, writers, directors, and off-stage personnel who bring stories to life on stage. Incorporating hands on projects as well as lecture/discussion formats, students will experiment with story telling through the visual elements of scenery, costumes, lighting, etc. Collaboration, the Art of Making Theatre is an excellent entry point to the Theatre Concentration.

FTT 30715: World Theatre II: Text and Performance Across Cultures | LaDonna Forsgren

This course examines world theatre history from 19th century popular entertainment performance practices to the present. Students learn techniques of script analysis, performance analysis, and independent research as tools for analyzing theatre from the literary, aesthetic, and historical perspectives. Throughout, the course emphasizes the importance of cultural context and historiography to understanding the creation and transformation of theatre as an art form. Each semester will be a stand-alone course and can be taken in any order. Students are encouraged to enroll in adjacent semesters. At least one semester of this sequence is a prerequisite for the upper-level electives required to complete the major.

Electives

FTT 21001: Acting Process | Carys Kresny

Acting Process introduces the student to the core techniques of acting for the stage. The course engages both the analytical and the creative mind as students use research and analysis to support their physical, vocal and imaginative approaches to creating compelling scripted and improvised scenes. Students will rehearse and prepare scenes outside of class (with a partner and solo) for in-class performance. All students must see two live theatrical performances and turn in a reflection for each.

FTT 21006: Playwriting | Anne Garcia-Romero

This course is designed to introduce students to creating original work for the theater. The course will explore the writing process as well as models from contemporary U.S. theater with the aim to present a variety of paths toward creating new, vibrant plays. This is primarily a writing course. In addition, by reading and discussing ten separate dynamic play texts, we will analyze dramatic writing. Weekly writing exercises, movement work, visual arts approaches, improvisation techniques and collaborative discussions will create resources for rich play material, which each student will eventually use in a final scene, presented in a public reading at the end of the semester.

FTT 30021: Voice and Dialect | Siiri Scott

In this course students will learn the principles of vocal production for acting in any medium. The class will use physical and vocal exercises to explore the relationship between alignment, respiration, and relaxation. Articulation and phonetics will be emphasized throughout the coursework. In addition to learning the standard dialect rules of American English, students will research and analyze the sounds and ethnographic influences of several dialects, as well as perform short monologues and/or scenes in those dialects. Students can expect to work on three to five dialects throughout the semester.

FTT 30030: Contemporary Global Cinemas | Jim Collins

This course focuses on some of the most influential art films of the twenty-first century. While each of them has been critically acclaimed, we’ll use a comparative approach to explore their points of contact and divergence. How do prestige or “indie” films function as a particular type of content in entertainment landscapes defined by streaming and transmediation? How can we use films to pose questions about the relationship between national and global cultures? Featured films will likely include: In the Mood for Love, Mulholland Drive, Spirited Away, Lagaan, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Moonlight, Roma, Before Sunrise/Before Sunset, Mustang, Grand Budapest Hotel, The Great Beauty, Timbuktu, Happy as Lazzaro, Faces, Places, etc.

FTT 30103 (1cr. Hr.): Europe Through Film: At The Margins | Ricky Herbst

This course will meet for 5 weeks during the latter part of the semester. Specific dates TBD. Film remains an excellent window into various cultures, but we have to analyze why certain windows (don't) exist, what they allow us to (not) see, and the nature of that access. One way to foreground that conversation is through looking at films by, for, and/or about marginalized populations in Europe, which will be the focus of the films, readings, and discussions in this course. With ties to the Nanovic Institute's reoccurring film series, the content of this course will zone in on the relationship between contemporary European cinema and the European ideas and realities it finds compelling in terms of social and imaginative power and to whom it is granted. The course will include some history of cinema, but emphasis will be laid on using cinema as a way of stimulating questions about the nature of Europe today. Open to students of all years and majors.

FTT 30150: Decolonizing Gaming: Critical Engagement Through Design and Play | Ashlee Bird

This course aims to change the way you think not only about the way that we play games, but also about the way that video games teach their players to behave within their digital worlds. This course will encourage students to reflect on and utilize their lived experiences as players, and utilize these experiences to locate themselves within their analysis and writing as well as their design practices. This course will undertake an intensive, interdisciplinary focus on the history of video game development, representation in video games, and the languages that digital games work in as well as decolonial theory and diverse theories of design. This class will engage with a variety of scholarly texts, video games, media posts, videos, and design exercises, in order to illustrate the ways in which video games have shaped the ways we play, think, and behave within their spaces. Students will be required to write and design around these lessons and address and push back against the problematic behaviors and colonial narratives around violence, race, gender, sexuality, and relationship to the land that these gamic languages and lessons have created.

FTT 30196: Theories of Media & Technology | Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal

This course offers a multidisciplinary introduction to the vast variety of theoretical approaches used to understand media and technologies. From film, TV, and videogames to computers, internet, and social media, we will study different methods and concepts that help us understand our mediated condition(s) better. Moving historically and geographically, we will also encounter the many ways in which the term 'media' itself gets deployed and critiqued in scholarship across humanistic and social scientific disciplines. We will plug some of these (critical) theoretical understandings of media and culture into the longer histories of politics, philosophy, language, and literature, considering, for example, books as media technologies. And finally, we will ask what studies of media and mediation can do for our comprehension of the politico-economic, sociocultural, racial, and environmental crises surrounding us today.

FTT 20320/21320: Play Like a Champion | Matthew Payne

It has long-been a part of Notre Dame's Saturday football tradition. As uniformed players leave the locker room and descend a tight stairwell to the field below, they reach up and touch the iconic "Play Like a Champion Today" sign. Countless players, students, and fans have touched the sign over the years, hoping to imbibe some illusive and ineffable Fighting Irish magic. But what does it mean to "play like a champion today" ... or any day, really? More simply, what does it mean to play? Play is an inescapable and essential part of the human condition. And, yet, the experience's core liminality defies easy definition and explanation. This course provides an introduction to the study of human play primarily through the lens of analog and digital games. It is designed for first- and second-year students from a range of backgrounds and disciplines. Given the variety of play practices across human history and cultures, this class strives to equip students with a critical vocabulary and interpretive framework to help them make sense of play in its many forms. This class will pay particular attention to how rules, goals, game mechanics, and narratives offer reliable and compelling structures for gameplay, and what ludic activities reveal about social power.

FTT 30410: Introduction to Film and Television | Ted Mandell

An introductory course in the fundamentals of writing, filming, and editing film and television productions. This is a hands-on production course emphasizing aesthetics, creativity, and technical expertise with the goal of learning the many aspects of successful visual storytelling. The course requires significant amounts of filming and editing outside of class. Students write and produce short, single camera narrative projects using Canon C100 cameras, editing with Adobe Premiere Pro. The principles of three-camera studio production are also covered. Cannot have taken FTT 30405 or FTT 50505.

FTT 30480: Televised Sports Production: Technology and Storytelling | Ted Mandell

The Game, as we experience it on screens big and small, is an ever evolving story. A human competition turned into a visual narrative by producers, directors, and broadcasters. How is that three hour ebb and flow of emotions turned into an engaging narrative for fans? How has that story evolved over decades? How has the evolution of technology changed that story? And has the televised broadcast changed the meaning of the game itself? From the Super Bowl to March Madness, ESPN Sportscenter to WWE Smackdown, we'll dissect the process, storytelling techniques and technology that form the American sports story on television, as well as experience the actual game production operation from inside the control rooms of Notre Dame Studios. Assignments include on-camera and off-camera production exercises, as well as written assignments deconstructing historical and current broadcasts. No prior television production experience required.

FTT 30542: Cinema and Migration | Olivier Morel

Cinema and hospitality in a broad sense: how do films embody the art of welcoming, of hosting, of including and caring? Three months after his election in 2013, Pope Francis visited the Island of Lampedusa (Italy), one of the world’s deadliest forefronts of the humanitarian catastrophe often referred to as the global “refugee crisis.” He denounced the “globalization of indifference” in which no one wants to take responsibility for “our brothers and sisters” migrants who suffer and die. Ten years later, while the Pope is again addressing the “crisis” in Marseilles, in the month of August 2023 alone, 2,095 “migrants” have lost their lives in their attempts to cross the Mediterranean Ocean. Through a general concept of “hospitality,” our class will offer a holistic, cinematic approach to a world scene in which an unprecedented number of individuals are forced to flee their homes. We will focus on the (extremely) old notion of hospitality (a decisively matrixial one) and analyze films that put this concept at their core both formally and narratively. One critical goal will be to explore the various cultural understandings and practices that forge the highly cultural, both idiosyncratic and universal art of inviting, including, unconditionally hosting, and caring for the guest, the stranger, the child, the unknown. An ideal of protection, empathy, and compassion without which there is no responsibility, no ethics, all concepts that are the cornerstone of a feminist ethics that will nourish our research. This class will, in most parts, consist of seminar discussions and lectures. Two written assignments, group work, oral presentations as well as active participation in our class will constitute the basic requirements.

FTT 30635: Drunk on Film: The Psychology of Storytelling with Alcohol and its Effects on Alcohol Consumption | Andre Venter and Ted Mandell

Long Title: Drunk on Film: The Psychology of Storytelling with Alcohol and Its Effects on Alcohol Consumption. Alcohol Use Disorder is a chronic relapsing brain disease. But when presented on screen, it's entertainment. Why do we laugh, why do we cry, why do we emulate fictional characters whose drinking habits result in a life of debilitating addiction? From James Bond to Jonah Hill, the psychology and seduction of alcohol on film, television, and online will be analyzed. Furthermore, what is the relationship between the manner in which alcohol use/abuse is presented on screen and the manner in which alcohol is used and abused on, for example, college campuses? Surveying recent film history, we will examine how alcohol is used in story structure, as a character flaw or strength, and as a narrative device in the story arc of films across multiple film genres, (action/adventure, comedy, romance, etc). Why do characters drink, where do they drink, and how does the result of their "getting drunk" advance the narrative? We'll also look at non-fiction films that tackle issues of addiction, as a way of comparing character development in Hollywood films to the results of this same behavior in everyday life. Film materials will include weekly screenings outside of class, and academic articles relating to portrayal and analysis of alcohol use in film and television, including the business of marketing alcohol in print and television advertising. From the psychological perspective we will discuss the topic and process of social influence and how the presence of others influences our behavior. Questions of interest will include the following: what are the mechanisms by which group influence unfolds? How and why might we be persuaded? Does the manner, and if so how, in which alcohol use is portrayed in movies and the media reflect the processes and principles of social influence? Readings will include chapters on social influence, persuasion and academic articles evaluating the manner in which alcohol is portrayed and advertised and the effect this has on alcohol consumption. In addition, issues of addiction will be discussed - from understanding the basis of addiction to examining the efficacy of addiction treatment.

FTT 30706: Musical Theatre History – The American Broadway Musical | Tarryn Chun

The intention of this course is to provide you with a context within which to understand the history of the American Broadway Musical, while cultivating your own opinions about the art form and how it relates to society. You will track the progression of the musical by studying its path through the Operetta, Minstrelsy, Vaudeville, Golden Age, Sondheim and the Concept Musical, the Modern Rock Musical, the Juke-Box Musical and the Post-Modern Era. This course is a research based course. Research topics are assigned by eras so that we may analyze and compare the material to the history of society. You will apply your growing knowledge of musical theatre history and context to intelligently observe and engage in discussion of the thoughts and presentations of your peers within a structured setting. Throughout the course there will be group discussions, group research, independent research, group presentations and weekly writing responses to prompts, which will require critical thinking and self reflection. There will be two papers due throughout the semester while ending in a one on one meeting with the instructor.

FTT 30708: Performance Techniques – How to Act a Song | Matt Hawkins

The intention of this course is to provide you with a context within which to understand the techniques of musical theatre performance and the foundational skills needed to personally inhabit these techniques. This course will give you the tools to "act a song." You will work on analysis and performance of five songs from the following categories: Golden Age, Modern, Rock, Pop and any other kind of song you love. These songs are assigned by era sequentially so that we may simultaneously introduce the context of this material within the genre-at-large. You will also apply your growing knowledge of technique and context to intelligently observe and comment on the work of your peers within a structured setting. Throughout the course we will incorporate short group exercises to better explore performance technique and promote a deeper understanding of the differences between traditional script/text analysis and score/lyric analysis. There will be reflection papers due after the exploration of your songs.

FTT 30800: Scenic Painting | Marcus Stephens

An introduction to the tools and techniques used in painted and textured scenery for the stage and screen. Students will learn and apply the variety of methods used in creating a wide range of painted effects; from the basic wood treatments to the advanced marbling and faux finishes. Outside of class painting time will be required.

FTT 30802: Lighting Design | Kevin Dreyer

This class will teach you what is involved in creating and executing a lighting design. We will cover lighting equipment and safety. You will design and draft a light plot, and you will learn how to write and use paperwork. Most importantly, the goal of this class will be to teach you how to see light. There will be lectures, videos, projects (take-home and in-class), hands-on training, and required attendance at TWO performances. The semester culminates with a final design project, as well as written components.

FTT 30890: Media Industries: History, Structure, Current Issues | Christine Becker

How do the contemporary film and television industries work? How can an analysis of the "business of entertainment" enable a greater understanding of contemporary media aesthetics and culture? This course will explore these questions by focusing on the structure, practices and products of America's film and television industries, and students will engage with academic readings, screenings, trade publications, current events, guest lectures, and written and oral assignments in order to understand the activities of the film and television industries. By the end of the course, students should be able to understand prominent practices employed by media conglomerates and independent companies today, recognize the ways in which industrial structures and practices can shape media products, and examine how television shows and movies are influenced by business strategies. The course should be especially beneficial for students intending to pursue scholarly or professional careers related to film and television through its comprehensive overview of how these industries work, why they work as they do, and the broader practical and theoretical implications of media industry operations.

FTT 30905: Special Effects for Studio and Stage | Ken Cole

From Singing in the Rain to Star Wars to Beauty and the Beast, special effects existed before CGI. This course will cover the Design, Budgeting, and Execution of special effects.. Theoretical and hands on experience with some common and not so common effects used on the Movie Studio lot and Broadway stage.

FTT 31006: Directing: Process | Matt Hawkins

Directing Process is a class intended to help a director develop their own particular directorial voice or vision while encouraging their theatrical imagination. The class will focus on fundamental principles and tools in the fields of play analysis, acting, design, and staging. To be considered for the class, please email Matt Hawkins, mhawkin2@nd.edu, and "make your case" for why you want to be in the class.

FTT 31125: Acting Shakespeare | Siiri Scott

Acting Shakespeare is an active and participatory exploration of the works of the world's greatest playwright from the perspective of the actor. You will be acquainted with basic analytical, physical and vocal techniques for unlocking the meaning and emotional content of Shakespeare's texts. The structure of this course allows you the opportunity to create and present multiple roles through the performances of monologues and scenes.

FTT 35505: Paths to Entertainment Industry (1 cr. Hr.) | Ted Mandell

It's commonly said that there is no set path to a career in the media and entertainment industries the way there is a path to working in, say, accountancy, law, or medicine. But a more accurate description would be that there are many paths because there are so many different jobs one could pursue in film and television, and each can have multiple routes of getting there. This course will focus specifically on the paths to becoming a producer within the media and entertainment industries, which may include areas such as feature film, scripted television, live sports, and news. Guest speakers will be included in the course to help illuminate particular producer roles and processes, and students will be charged with developing resources that describe production jobs and paths, which will subsequently be made available to future generations of students for career discernment and development.

FTT 37600: Notre Dame Film Society (0 to 1 cr. hr.) | Christine Becker

The Film Society is a film screening group that meets on Sunday nights in the Browning Cinema to watch an independent, international, or classic film. Students can take the course for either zero credit or one credit S/U. Those taking it for one credit will have a minimum attendance and writing requirement. Contact the sponsoring professor for more information.

FTT 40040 Creating Theatre and Film as Social Action | Carys Kresny

Be in the room where it happens! Creating Theatre and Film as Social Action will prepare students to transform ideas, encounters, and convictions into vivid performative texts. Performers, writers, artists, composers and bold thinkers of kinds will investigate and apply techniques that have created some of the most exciting productions of the current decade as they devise and perform both solo and company-generated productions. Exercises and discussions lay the foundation for creative work as students experience the process of generating text, action, and image from initial inspiration to live performance or film. The class engages both the analytical and impulsive mind in world-building and storytelling as it explores diverse forms of expression. For the final project, students are expected to create a video essay, a multi-disciplinary performance, or a hitherto unseen new experience or happening.

FTT 40121: Writing the Feature Film | Terrance Brown

This workshop focuses on the theory and craft of dramatic writing as it applies to feature screenplays. Through lectures, film viewing, and weekly exercises, emphasis is placed on plot and story structure, the adaptation of ideas into cinematic forms, how to tell a story with images, character, plot, and dialogue development. Students should come to class with 2 ideas for a feature script in hand and be prepared to develop one idea into the first half of a feature length screenplay (approximately 60 pages) at a minimum.

FTT 40125: Writing the Half-Hour Comedy | Terrance Brown

This workshop focuses on the theory and craft of comedic writing as it applies to original half-hour screenplays. Through lectures, film viewing, group projects and weekly exercises, emphasis is placed on plot and story structure and the intentionally comedic expression of student ideas. Students will explore classic half-hour comedy pilots (script and screen) with an eye towards identifying and evolving the concepts of comedic character development and story arcs. Students should come to class with an expectation to write frequently and collaboratively in order to create two original half-hour television episode scripts.

 

FTT 40130: Shakespeare and Asia | Peter Holland and Tarryn Chun

Course Description: Asian theatre- and film-makers have produced some of the most innovative and exciting versions of Shakespeare's work. His strong presence in Asia also speaks to the histories and legacies of colonization and cultural imperialism. This course explores several well-known Shakespearean plays through the lens of Asian adaptation, rooted in both close reading of the plays themselves and the historical-cultural contexts of their adaptations. How, when, and why have specific Shakespearean plays captured the imaginations of Asian theatre artists and filmmakers? How have they transformed Shakepearean texts through translation, the use of local performance forms, new geographic and historical settings, and other techniques? How do these reimaginings rethink what "Shakespeare" might mean? By exploring such questions, students will gain a deeper understanding of Shakespeare, Asian theatre, and the complexities of their conjoining.

FTT 40257/41257: Documentary: Fact or Fiction? | Ted Barron

Over the past decade, network television producers have reimagined the situation comedy with great success by utilizing mockumentary film techniques. This course will examine the ever-changing boundaries between fiction and non-fiction film and television by analyzing a series of works which question these discrete categorizations. We will consider canonical examples of documentary and the challenges posed to these known forms by pseudodocumentary and other media which reveal the devices used to establish cinematic realism. We will also explore a selection of film and television work which ascribes to realist modes of representation while subverting this approach. Issues such as testimony, performance, reflexivity, and ethics will be addressed in an effort to deepen the complex discourse of realism in visual media.

FTT 40405: The Art of Film Directing | George Sikharulidze

A film director is first and foremost a visual thinker, who translates a script onto the screen through the language of cinema. In this course, we will learn how to use this language and organize its syntax and grammar to tell a story. We will focus on the meaning of a shot as a singular capsule of cinematic time and space in service of the script. We will learn how to use shot progression in order to build a scene. And we will explore the methods of connecting scenes into a cumulative cinematic experience. This process involves conceptualizing a film from pre-production to post-production from the point of view of a director. Therefore, in addition to theories of directing, this course will include hands-on exercises that focus on preparing a film using various tools like a shotlist, storyboard, floorpan, lined script, visual references, color palettes, and notes for actors. We will learn how to analyze and break down a scene in order to answer the eternal question on every director's mind - how do I know where to put the camera? This course will help you understand your role as a film director and build your confidence at every stage of filmmaking. Filmmaking is a highly industrial process that involves technical expertise in lighting, grip, and camera. However, building on this knowledge, we must understand how to use these technical skills in order to tell an emotional story in any genre. As such, this course will complement the knowledge you will gain in introductory and intermediate filmmaking classes.

FTT 40410: Intermediate Filmmaking | Bill Donaruma

Through hands-on, field experience and critical analysis, we will explore the tools and techniques used to produce professional video and digital cinema projects in all genres. We will explore the use of composition, cinematography, color and editing to create a narrative structure. This class will also provide you with a technical knowledge of the tools required in professional filmmaking including a variety of lighting and grip equipment, lenses, filters, light meters, etc. Using RED Digital Cinema RED Raven 4K cameras and various support tools you will produce, shoot and edit short projects or "challenges" including your final short 3-5min film. This will be a non-‐dialogue driven film based with a post-‐produced soundtrack. No other digital formats are to be used outside of what we utilize for this class. We will also discuss various filmmaking techniques and current industry topics, including film in relation to digital cinema and current workflows. Post Production will be done using Davinci Resolve.

FTT 40453: Adaptation | Anne Garcia-Romero

Adaptation is designed to engage students in exploring playwriting and screenwriting approaches to adapt existing texts (i.e. historical or contemporary fiction and non-fiction). The course will delve into analyzing adaptations in theatre, film and television with the aim to present a variety of paths toward creating new, vibrant plays, screenplays and teleplays. Culminating projects will include several short adaptation scripts and the start of a full-length adaptation. Adaptation is for students who have completed at least one playwriting or screenwriting course.

FTT 40502: Media and Identity | Mary Kearney

This course focuses on critical analyses of identities in media culture. Taking a cultural studies approach, we will interrogate theories and popular discourses of identity while exploring how particular identities are constructed, negotiated, resisted, and transformed within media culture. Our primary questions in this course are: What is identity? How do our identities inform our various relationships to media culture? And, how does media culture impact the construction of our identities? Our particular sites of analysis will be media representation (narrative, performance, aesthetics), media production (industries and political economy), and media consumption (reception practices and audiences). We will examine a broad array of media forms, including film, television, the Internet, games, and popular music. Traditional demographic identities, such as gender, age, race, sexuality, and class, will be central to the course, although other identities, including geographic and lifestyle identities, will be examined also. We will strive toward critical analyses that understand identities as constructed, not inherent, and intersectional, not autonomous.

FTT 40604: Directing Actors for Film & TV | George Sikharulidze

This is an introductory course to directing actors for film and TV. You will acquire various tools and methods of directing to create authentic and nuanced performances for the camera. You will learn how to work and communicate with actors to get the best, most believable acting on screen; how to stage and choreograph blocking with regards to camera and how to react and fix problems in a fast and efficient way on set. As such, you will have an opportunity to be both in front of and behind the camera to better understand the specificities and requirements of on-camera acting. You will get a chance to direct scenes of various complexity to practice these tools in a simulated set environment.

FTT 40621: King Lear | Peter Holland

Wherever we place it in the pantheon of great plays and in spite of Tolstoy's loathing of it, King Lear is a very extraordinary play. This course will explore its extraordinariness by concentrating on it unremittingly. It will do so in two steps. For the first half of the semester we will slow-read the play together, thinking about anything and, insofar as we can, everything that it provokes us to investigate, from Shakespeare's sources to early stagings and revisions, from its views on power, gender and the spiritual to its verse and vocabulary, and so on and on. In the second half of the semester we will engage with the play in performance and reimaginings through film versions and a variety of adaptations from Nahum Tate to Jane Smiley and beyond.

FTT 30421: Video Art Installation | Cecilia Kim

This course will approach the digital medium of video art to consider spatial possibilities of installation. We will explore how to create an experiential presence for video art, both virtually and physically. Looking at contemporary examples of video artwork that have global significance, we will develop the language to critically analyze their effect. There are largely two components—understanding video art and its social impact, and the technical skills of projection mapping, After Effects, 360 camera, working with the realities of gallery installation. The course will end with a collective project installation. Over the semester we will acquire awareness as makers who have a close relationship to our surrounding society.

FTT 30459/31459: Gender and Rock Culture | Lab | Mary Kearney

An introduction to the study of gender and rock culture, this course provides students with a broad, foundational understanding of the concepts, theories, and methodologies used in critical analyses of rock's various gendered constructions. Rather than taking a musicological perspective, this course uses a socio-cultural approach to examine a myriad of gendered sites within rock culture, including performance, music video, and rock journalism. Therefore, music and song lyrics will not be our only or primary objects of study; our exploration of rock's gendered culture will also include studies of the various roles, practices, technologies, and institutions associated with he production and a synthetic, interdisciplinary approach is employed which draws on theories and methodologies formulated in such fields as popular music criticism, musicology, cultural studies, sociology, ethnography, literary analysis, performance studies, and critical media studies. In turn, the course is informed by feminist scholarship and theories of gender.

Crosslisted Eelectives 

FTT 20260: Le Telenovela: History-Culture-Production | Elena Mangione-Lora & Steve Varela

This course aims to change the way you think not only about the way that we play games, but also about the way that video games teach their players to behave within their digital worlds. This course will encourage students to reflect on and utilize their lived experiences as players, and utilize these experiences to locate themselves within their analysis and writing as well as their design practices. This course will undertake an intensive, interdisciplinary focus on the history of video game development, representation in video games, and the languages that digital games work in as well as decolonial theory and diverse theories of design. This class will engage with a variety of scholarly texts, video games, media posts, videos, and design exercises, in order to illustrate the ways in which video games have shaped the ways we play, think, and behave within their spaces. Students will be required to write and design around these lessons and address and push back against the problematic behaviors and colonial narratives around violence, race, gender, sexuality, and relationship to the land that these gamic languages and lessons have created.

FTT 30132: Applied Multimedia | Anthony Fuller

Applied Multimedia for Journalists - The main focus of this course is that students will learn how to shoot and edit videos. It will briefly touch on how to produce audio stories and podcasts. Students will also study the legal and ethical issues surrounding the use, creation and publication of digital media. The use of drones and the legal issues surrounding them will also be discussed.

FTT 30151: Game Day Media: Play by Play, Color Analysis & News Conference | TBD

Taught by former ESPN anchor, Emmy award-winning sports reporter, and President of Game Day Communications Betsy Ross, Game Day Media will delve into the preparation and performance of game day media opportunities: play by play personnel, color analysts, Public Address talent, news conference moderators and more. This is a 50/50 zoom and class will meet in person and over zoom/ class. Students will record play-by play/analyst segments from campus sports, conduct pre-game interviews and post-game news conferences and observe the intricacies of public address announcing.

FTT 30511: Introduction to Film Analysis through Brazilian Cinema | Marcio Bahia

Students will be able to improve their argumentative and analytical skills through the study of key issues and concepts in film studies. Film form and narrative, gender, class, stereotypes, the film auteur, cultural industry, violence and social denunciation will be some of the topics explored for the exploration of Brazilian case studies. Special emphasis will be given to the retomada -the rebirth of Brazilian cinema from the mid 1990s on - with in-depth analyses of feature films such as Carlota Joaquina (Carla Camurati, 1995), Central do Brasil (Walter Salles, 1998), CIdade de Deus (Fernando Meirelles, 2002) and Tropa de Elite (Jose' Padilha, 2007); documentary movies such as Edifcio Master (Eduardo Coutinho, 2002) and Santiago (Joao Moreira Salles, 2007) , as well as short movies such as Recife Frio (Kleber Mendonca Filho, 2009) and Eu nao Quero Voltar Sozinho (Daniel Ribeiro, 2010). Taught in English.

FTT 40426 The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict through Films | Atalia Omer

What is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict about? How did it start? How might it be resolved? Some interpretations rely on claims of ancient hatreds. Others invoke sacred and biblical narratives as their authority for claims to a land deemed holy by many different religions. Still others underscore the ills and legacies of settler colonialism and indigenous accounts of historical presence. Some invoke international law and human rights to make their claims. This course will explore these arguments surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through screening and discussion of cinematic representation, narrative argument, and documentary films. Multiple genres provide powerful tools to introduce students to multiple perspectives, conceptions of history, experiences of injustice and grievances and loss, and imagining peace and justice. Each screening will be paired with relevant and interdisciplinary reading material. The students will emerge from this course with a detailed and complex understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the present dating back to the late Ottoman period, the British control of historic Palestine, and the definitional moment of 1948 which is marked both as Israeli independence and the Palestinian catastrophe (the Nakba).