Courses

The courses listed below are provided by Student Information Services (SIS). This listing provides a snapshot of immediately available courses within this department and may not be complete. Course registration information can be found at https://sis.jhu.edu/classes/.

Please consult the online course catalog for cross-listed courses and full course information, including courses that are offered on a rotating basis.

Fall 2023

Creative Roles in Film and Television: Careers and Strategies
AS.061.104 (01)

This course will explore film and television career paths and strategies through conversations with producers, screenwriters, directors and other creatives in New York and Los Angeles, some of whom are JHU alumni. Students will gain an understanding of how to track the rapidly changing global entertainment landscape, how to craft a successful path, and how to improve the skills necessary for a professional career in entertainment.

Credits: 1.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: W 5:45PM - 7:00PM
Instructor: DeLibero, Linda
Room: Gilman 400
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/25
PosTag(s): n/a

Introduction to Cinema, 1892-1960
AS.061.140 (01)

In this course students will learn the fundamentals of film analysis through a survey of American and international films from the silent era to the early 1960s. With an emphasis on discussion over lecture, the class will consider selections from Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, and the U.S. In addition to lively class participation, requirements include quizzes, shot analysis exercises, and short written responses. No prior experience in film studies required. Non-majors and pre-majors welcome!

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: M 3:00PM - 5:30PM, Th 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings
Instructor: Bucknell, Lucy
Room: Shaffer 2
Status: Reserved Open
Seats Available: 34/45
PosTag(s): n/a

Visual Storytelling
AS.061.147 (01)

This primer to screenwriting will emphasize the power of the image to deliver character, situation, and theme, and to advance even complex plots. Students will analyze narrative films, compose their own still and moving images with cellphone cameras, and write several short dramatic pieces to be read and workshopped by the group. They'll learn the basics of scene design and of screenplay format. For FMS majors in the screenwriting track, this course fulfills the Media and Narrative requirement . $50 lab fee.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: M 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings, T 3:00PM - 5:30PM
Instructor: Bucknell, Lucy
Room: Hodson 315
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/9
PosTag(s): n/a

Anime: A History and Its Influences
AS.061.149 (01)

In this course we will explore the history of anime through weekly screenings and short response papers. Directors include early filmmakers Shimokawa, Kouchi, Kitayama and more contemporary influential directors including Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke), Oshii (Ghost in the Shell), Otomo (Akira) and Kon (Paprika). Creative assignments will explore anime's relationship to manga and students will create a short animation as a final project. This class is open to all and no previous animation experience is required.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Yasinsky, Karen
Room: Gilman 35
Status: Open
Seats Available: 8/8
PosTag(s): n/a

Introduction to Film Production
AS.061.150 (01)

This course introduces students to basic considerations of shooting 16mm film. Through lectures and practice, the course approaches the basics of light meter readings, basic camera operations and shot composition. The course also highlights specific readings from classical film theory to augment weekly shooting exercises. Each week students, working in groups, shoot film exercises, providing a general overview of film production. For the final project, each group shoots and edits (physical edits) a short (3-5 minutes) film on 16mm black and white reversal film stock. Lab fee: $200

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: W 11:00AM - 1:30PM
Instructor: Mann, John
Room: The Centre 216
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 0/10
PosTag(s): FILM-PROD

Introduction to Digital Video Production
AS.061.152 (01)

This course introduces students to the world of digital filmmaking. Through screenings, production assignments, and in-class labs, students will develop proficiency in digital cameras, sound recording devices, and software. Students will work individually to produce several video projects. For their final projects students will pitch an idea and develop a more complex film.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: T 12:30PM - 3:00PM
Instructor: Roche, Jimmy
Room: The Centre 239
Status: Open
Seats Available: 1/8
PosTag(s): FILM-PROD

Introduction to Digital Video Production
AS.061.152 (02)

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Roche, Jimmy
Room: Gilman 35
Status: Open
Seats Available: 6/8
PosTag(s): FILM-PROD

Lights, Camera, Action: Youth
AS.061.161 (01)

The Lights, Camera, Action short course series is designed to introduce non-majors, including students in disciplines outside the humanities, to the critical study of film texts. This iteration will explore representations of youth in a selection of films of different eras and national cinemas. In-class screenings and emphasis on discussion over lecture. Four short written responses. No prior experience in film studies required. This one-credit course will meet August 31, September 7, 14, 21, and will be graded Pass/Fail. Due to the limited number of meetings, perfect attendance is required. In fall 2023, the course will be taught by three FMS senior faculty members, and guest professor Keith Mehlinger of Morgan State University.

Credits: 1.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 5:00PM - 8:00PM
Instructor: Bucknell, Lucy
Room: Olin 305
Status: Reserved Open
Seats Available: 20/45
PosTag(s): n/a

Intermediate Film Production: Personal Essay Film
AS.061.202 (01)

In this course students will consider variations of the personal essay film, wherein filmmakers explore their own experiences, both real and imagined. These films constitute dialogues between filmmaker and world using subjective approaches, including but not limited to first person narration. Students will make a short (4-6 minutes) 16mm film from original and possibly archival footage; their own filmic essays based upon personal experiences. We will look at the works of several essay filmmakers including Ross McElwee, Jean Luc Godard, Chris Marker, and Su Friedrich.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: F 11:00AM - 1:30PM
Instructor: Mann, John
Room: The Centre 216
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 2/10
PosTag(s): FILM-PROD

Introduction to Screenwriting
AS.061.205 (01)

In this course we will explore the basic principles of visual storytelling in narrative film as they apply to the design, creation, and revision of the screenplay. Specifically, we will focus on learning the craft of screenwriting — strategies, processes, and philosophies that writers can develop, practice, and rely upon as they progress through a series of screenwriting exercises and write a 12-page screenplay, which will be critiqued in-class during weekly table reads and with the Instructor (one-on-one) during office hours. Select professional screenplays will be read and analyzed — and clips from select films viewed — to further explore what works well on the page, and how it translates to working well onscreen. (Scripts and clips often selected from American films spanning the 60s through the 2000s.) Final Draft screenwriting software is required; a FREE 18-week trial will be made available for all students who don’t already have Final Draft.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 2:00PM - 5:00PM
Instructor: Staff
Room: The Centre 206
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 2/10
PosTag(s): FILM-SCRWRT

Special Topics: Writing About Film
AS.061.226 (01)

This workshop promotes more effective writing, hones interpretive skills, and encourages the development of a distinctive voice through a series of progressively more complex assignments. By sharing draft essays with the class, commenting on one another’s work, and revising, students will learn to edit their own work and to thoughtfully critique others’. Fulfills the Film and Media Studies expository writing requirement. Lab Fee: $50

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: W 3:00PM - 5:30PM, T 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings
Instructor: Mason, Laura
Room: Gilman 10
Status: Open
Seats Available: 4/12
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Cultural History of the Internet
AS.061.267 (01)

This course offers an introduction to internet studies through the many ways digital culture has touched our everyday lives: memes, blogs, gaming, social networking, instant messaging, and more. From its origins in connecting scientific researchers to its present form as a multi-device, multi-platform web connecting us to everything from each other to our smart homes, the internet has proven that nearly our entire social world can be processed as data and linked up. While this has meant greater connection, it has also raised questions about how we learn, communicate, behave, and organize. The internet has long promised new avenues of personal expression, but it has also brought with it the quandaries of echo chambers, information silos, and disinformation campaigns. In response to these complicating effects, the course offers an opportunity for students to develop the critical mapping tools necessary to orient oneself within this vast cultural network and its rapid historical unfolding.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: M 2:00PM - 4:30PM
Instructor: Stine, Kyle J.
Room: The Centre 208
Status: Open
Seats Available: 14/30
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST, MSCH-HUM

21st Century Television Auteurs and American Culture
AS.061.320 (01)

Since the rise of HBO in the late 1990s, cable, network, and streaming television has become home to a diverse range of "quality" shows that showcase strong perspectives by unique creators. These series creators work within an intensive commercial medium and a cultural context they speak to but cannot themselves determine. This course examines the relationship between the cultural milieu in which they create work and the show creator themselves. Featuring such examples as Donald Glover's Atlanta, Michael Shur's The Good Place, Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag, Rebecca Sugar's Steven Universe, Mindy Kaling's The Mindy Project, and Terence Nance's Random Acts of Flyness, among others, it encourages students to engage in aesthetic critique as well as cultural analysis, with the ultimate end of making students better understand the relationship between television and auteur, and be better able to engage with the culture in which they swim via its media.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Ward, Meredith C
Room: Gilman 277
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/12
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Time, History and Memory in Recent Global Cinema
AS.061.346 (01)

With its unique ability to transcend both time and space, cinema is particularly suited to address the nature of memory and the politics of remembering. This course will examine how film frames, revises, translates and transforms memories—personal, historical and cultural—through a range of examples in recent global cinema. Films may include those by Pedro Almódovar, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Lee Chang-dong, Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Andrew Haigh, Joanna Hogg, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Christian Petzold, Sarah Polley, Hong Sang Soo, Celine Sciamma, and Jia Zhangke.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: DeLibero, Linda
Room: The Centre 206
Status: Open
Seats Available: 1/15
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Intermediate Screenwriting
AS.061.373 (01)

This course will explore strategy and process for developing a short screenplay from pre-existing literary or journalistic source material (short story, news/feature article, etc.). By exploring several “case studies” — feature films and the source material that inspired them — students will identify the practical strategies employed by professional screenwriters with the goal of employing such strategies with their own screenplay adaptations. Bulk of class will focus on designing, writing, and rewriting a 20-30 page screenplay, and sharing multiple drafts with the class (and with the professor one-on-one) for critique over the course of the semester. Each student should have 2-3 pieces of material under consideration for possible adaptation by the start of class. Discussions from time to time will also touch on the business of screenwriting. (Scripts and clips often selected from American films spanning the 60s through the 2000s.) Students will be required to purchase a license for Final Draft screenwriting software for $99. Students are expected to have previously completed AS.061.205 or another lower level screenwriting class.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 11:00AM - 2:00PM
Instructor: Rodgers, Adam F
Room: The Centre 206
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 0/12
PosTag(s): FILM-SCRWRT

Automatic Animation
AS.061.378 (01)

A hand-made, 2-D animation course based on ideas of automatism. Students will create their own animated movie during the semester with in-class animation exercises. Readings will included Dada and Surrealist texts, poetry and theory of poetics. Sounds ideas will be discussed and pursued related to the ideas explored throughout the semester. $125 lab fee.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 3:30PM - 6:00PM
Instructor: Yasinsky, Karen
Room: The Centre 206
Status: Open
Seats Available: 5/8
PosTag(s): FILM-PROD

Explorations in Film Sound
AS.061.382 (01)

This course traces the history of the soundtrack from Vitaphone at the coming of sound to Dolby Stereo in the New Hollywood era to the fully immersive, atmospheric sound systems of today’s cinemas and home theaters. We consider major theories on the relationship between sound and image, the production of sound space, the role of the voice in cinema, and the effects of film music. Assignments will engage with the materials through both analytical reflection and short creative sound production. Screenings and examples are likely to include early sound classics, such as Sunrise (1927) and 42nd Street (1933); notable international innovators, such as The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) and A Man Escaped (1956); pathbreaking stereo entries, such as Fantasia (1940) and Apocalypse Now (1979); recent exemplars of film music, such as In the Mood for Love (2000) and Morvern Callar (2002); and films that reflect on the very nature of sound recording, such as The Conversation (1974) and The Lives of Others (2006).

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: M 10:30AM - 1:00PM
Instructor: Stine, Kyle J.
Room: The Centre 208
Status: Open
Seats Available: 8/15
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST, MSCH-HUM

Senior Capstone Project: Production
AS.061.440 (01)