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.

Spring 2023

Introduction to Cinema, 1960-present
AS.061.141 (01)

Introduction to Cinema provides an overview of American and international cinema from 1960 to the present. Through lectures and discussion, weekly screenings, and intensive visual analysis of individual films, we will explore the aesthetic, cultural, political, and economic forces that have shaped the art and industry of film over the past 60 years. Regular quizzes, writing assignments, class participation required. Mandatory film screenings.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, Th 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings
Instructor: Ward, Meredith C
Room: Krieger 180
Status: Open
Seats Available: 18/48
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.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: M 10:00AM - 12:30PM
Instructor: Mann, John
Room: The Centre 216
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 4/10
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: W 12:30PM - 3:00PM
Instructor: Roche, Jimmy
Room: The Centre 239
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 0/10
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 three short screenplays, 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. 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: M 2:00PM - 5:00PM
Instructor: Rodgers, Adam F; Sharman, Russell L
Room: The Centre 206
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 0/12
PosTag(s): FILM-SCRWRT

Special Topics: Animation Workshop
AS.061.219 (01)

Students will produce several animations using hand-made techniques, including drawing animation, paper puppets and stop-motion. Screenings and readings will provide a historical and conceptual context to the exploration of animation as an experimental technique within both narrative and non-narrative works.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: T 10:00AM - 12:30PM
Instructor: Yasinsky, Karen
Room: The Centre 216
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/10
PosTag(s): n/a

Intermediate Digital Video Production: Adobe After Effects
AS.061.233 (01)

This course will serve as an introduction to Adobe After Effects. Students will learn a variety of motion graphics techniques such as digital character animation, rotoscoping, motion tracking, chroma key compositing and automating 3D cameras. Through screenings and discussions students will gain insight into the myriad of ways After Effects is used in Film and Television. Throughout the semester students will complete several short video art projects.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 12:30PM - 3:00PM
Instructor: Roche, Jimmy
Room: The Centre 239
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 4/12
PosTag(s): FILM-PROD

Reading the Moving Image
AS.061.238 (01)

This course will emphasize close observation and critical thinking. Through weekly screenings and class discussion, students will practice noticing; seeing and hearing with fresh eyes and ears, and taking nothing on screen for granted. And they’ll learn to reflect on and contextualize what they find, drawing evolved conclusions about how film texts communicate ideas and what those ideas may be. They’ll consider all elements of cinematic form; an array of analytical frameworks including genre, historical era, authorship, and modes of production; and representations of gender, race, and class. Regular quizzes, a short oral presentation, and a short written analysis. No prior experience in film studies required; majors and non-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: Hodson 303
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/15
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Poetry and the Moving Image
AS.061.263 (01)

Using P. Adams Sitney's text: The Cinema of Poetry, this course will explore the relationship between poetry and the moving image. When experimental film began to define itself in the 1950s and 60s the terms cine-poem and film-poem were ubiquitous as identifying avant-garde cinema. Poetic structures in the moving image will be studied in relation to language, images and formation of meaning. Students will independently research a poet who greatly inspired and influenced a filmmaker/moving image artist and write on that filmmaker's work. One moving image project will be undertaken and completed during the semester as well. Weekly assignments will include screenings, reading, writing, and or video work.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 3:30PM - 6:00PM, T 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings
Instructor: Yasinsky, Karen
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 12/15
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Podcasting: Critical and Creative Practice
AS.061.303 (01)

Combining approaches to audio storytelling and multimedia production, this course offers a wide-ranging introduction to the art of podcasting. Students will learn techniques from the innovators of the golden age of radio, read culturally significant radio plays, develop tools for critically listening to and analyzing today’s podcasts, and learn how to research, write for, and produce their own podcasts. Examples will come from a broad sample of narrative, documentary, interview, and discussion-based podcasts. While no formal training in audio production is necessary to take the course, students will be expected to learn the necessary skills to create their own podcasts. In-class demonstrations of microphones, editing software, and approaches to sound design will be offered. The full suite of podcast materials—written copy, cover image, and audio file—will be posted to the JHU FMS Podcasting channel at https://jhufilmandmedia.podbean.com/. Subscribe to the feed on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. $50 lab fee.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: M 10:00AM - 12:30PM
Instructor: Stine, Kyle J.
Room: The Centre 206
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/15
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Screenwriting By Genre
AS.061.315 (01)

Story design for the screenplay with special attention to the genres of comedy, horror, melodrama, and adventure. Regular workshops, short written exercises, and a longer final project.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: T 3:00PM - 5:30PM, M 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings
Instructor: Bucknell, Lucy
Room: Greenhouse 113
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/9
PosTag(s): FILM-SCRWRT

Teens On Screen
AS.061.347 (01)

This course will explore changing representations of adolescence in films from the 1950s to today across a range of mainstream Hollywood, independent, and international films. We’ll examine how this dynamic and misunderstood genre shapes and reshapes perceptions of youth, and we’ll discuss the frank and sometimes explosive ways teen films address difficult questions of race, class and sexual identity, often in the guise of “pure” entertainment. Recommended Course Background: Introduction to Cinema I or Introduction to Cinema II, or permission of instructor.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: DeLibero, Linda
Room: The Centre 206
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/15
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Women Making Movies (Europe)
AS.061.389 (01)

This course introduces students to some of the most exciting female directors of the 21st century, asking how gender shaped the production and reception of their films. Do particular directors attribute any significance to the fact of being a woman? Does a director's gender shape her choice of subject or how she represents it? Does wider knowledge of works directed by women change our sense of the canon and authorship? Covers non-U.S. films, strongly encouraged for FMS majors and minors. Cross-listed with WGS. No pre-requisite.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: T 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings, TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM
Instructor: Mason, Laura
Room: Hodson 303
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 2/15
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Modern Paris on Film
AS.061.396 (01)

This course uses French film to examine the history of twentieth-century Paris. We will consider how filmmakers interpreted the social, political, and technological transformations that shaped Paris in the modern era, treating movies as expressions of change and means by which filmmakers comment on it. Taught in English. $50 lab fee.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM, W 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings
Instructor: Mason, Laura
Room: Bloomberg 178
Status: Open
Seats Available: 6/15
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Advanced Screenwriting II
AS.061.407 (01)

You’ve just finished the first draft of your feature screenplay or long-format teleplay. If you’re like most mortals, including the teacher of this course, it’s likely to be terrifically average. Here’s the chance to make it good — and possibly great — with a semester’s worth of systematic, high-octane rewriting. Hard labor, creative breakthroughs and a glimpse at what it takes to get Hollywood’s attention included.

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: 3/12
PosTag(s): FILM-SCRWRT

Lost & Found Film
AS.061.413 (01)

This course explores various elements of film production and filmic expression through a somewhat nebulous field typically described as lost films. Lost films (or as they are sometimes called, "orphan" films) can be generally described as films that have, for a variety of reasons, fallen out of the public view. They frequently come from educational, scientific, medical, or industrial films from the 1950s and 1960s. Using these films as source materials, lost film filmmakers explore and expose cultural conventions, visual icons, and historical value materials. Each week, students are responsible for re-editing sources found on an internet archive site. The assignments follow thematic concerns related to film editing. Students complete a final project (4-8 minutes). All editing for the course is accomplished with non-linear software, generally Adobe Premiere or Final Cut.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: W 11:00AM - 1:30PM
Instructor: Mann, John
Room: The Centre 216
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 3/10
PosTag(s): FILM-PROD

Senior Capstone Project: Production
AS.061.440 (01)