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 2022

FYS: Global Cinema in the 21st Century
AS.001.122 (01)

This First-Year Seminar introduces students to the intellectual life of the university by considering some of the riches of contemporary global cinema. After a brief introduction each week, you will watch the assigned film and read some texts to deepen your sense of how to analyze it and think about broader matters the director has taken on. During in-class discussion, we will consider what makes a particular film noteworthy, what the director seems to think about his/her national context, and how local issues intersect with broader questions about the human condition. How does the past shape us? What is justice? What is political action? Who are we responsible to? We will also consider aesthetics. What is a good director? How do we know we are watching good acting (especially when reading subtitles?) What impact do cinematography and editing have on our perception of a film? How do film makers speak to and quote one another?

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM, T 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings
Instructor: Mason, Laura
Room: Gilman 134 Gilman 217
Status: Open
Seats Available: 12/12
PosTag(s): n/a

FYS: Deep Listening and Multimedia Sound Art
AS.001.128 (01)

Sound plays a rich and complex role in our everyday lives and in our various forms of media art. In the past thirty years, sound studies has become a new addition to the study of the human senses, as well as the relationship of these senses to history, aesthetics, epistemology, culture, and art. How do we listen to the world around us? To different media? In this First-Year Seminar, we explore listening to the lived environment, to music, and to multimedia sound art ranging from performance art to cinema. The nexus of questions surrounding listening opens us up to a host of new texts and approaches: those of acoustic ecology, or how we experience sound via the lived and natural environment; those of the relationship between the senses and our emotions; those of the nature of musical listening; and those of the art world as it engages with sound. This seminar is a mixture of sound theory and practice. We will read, debate, and bring in examples. Students will create their own projects, both written and sonic. No prior experience in sound theory or sound practice are required.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Ward, Meredith C
Room: Gilman 134
Status: Open
Seats Available: 12/12
PosTag(s): n/a

Navigating the Entertainment Industry: A Preparation for Intersession
AS.061.103 (01)

This course prepares students for FMS’s Intersession field trip to Los Angeles, and also serves as an introduction to the professional skills necessary to navigate a career in film, television, and other fields of entertainment. Through discussion, hands-on practice, and guest lectures with FMS alumni, students will learn how to find their way in a complex industry, how to present themselves and their work, how to choose the right path, and how to cultivate the connections and opportunities they’ll need to succeed. We will also discuss what to expect and how to make the most of the week-long intersession course, which introduces students to alumni in a range of professions in film, television, and entertainment. Meets 6 times during the semester. Required for students planning to enroll in The Entertainment Industry in Contemporary Hollywood. Open to all FMS majors and minors.

Credits: 1.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: W 5:45PM - 7:00PM
Instructor: DeLibero, Linda
Room: Greenhouse 113
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 0/12
PosTag(s): n/a

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

This course explores the fundamentals of film analysis and encourages students to embark on an exploration of the first half of our first century of movies. It teaches the basic elements of film form, as well as their use in films across the globe from the turn of the twentieth century through the start of World War II. Movements discussed include the silent comedy of Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, moody German Expressionism, the playful anarchy of Surrealism, the fundamentals of editing with Soviet Montage, the beauty of French poetic realism, the rule-breaking of Pre-Production Code cinema, the work of the young Alfred Hitchcock, and, of course, highlights of classical Hollywood filmmaking.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM, T 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings
Instructor: DeLibero, Linda
Room: Gilman 55 Gilman 17
Status: Reserved Open
Seats Available: 28/40
PosTag(s): n/a

Introduction to Digital Video Production: Visual Language
AS.061.145 (01)

This course is a study of the visual language used to create a moving picture. Through screenings and discussion of films, videos, and related readings, students will develop a visual critical facility and will demonstrate this facility in a few response papers to screenings and video projects. The course will focus on image construction, including composition, framing, movement inside the frame and use of light as well as use of sound. Students will learn to be attentive to rhythm and tempo in picture editing and sound. In-class video assignments included, in which students will work in small groups of three.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: W 3:30PM - 6:00PM, T 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings
Instructor: Yasinsky, Karen
Room: Hodson 315
Status: Open
Seats Available: 2/10
PosTag(s): FILM-PROD

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: F 10:00AM - 12:30PM
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 - 3:30PM
Instructor: Roche, Jimmy
Room: The Centre 239
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 2/10
PosTag(s): FILM-PROD

Lights, Camera, Action: In the City
AS.061.159 (01)

This mini-course will provide a survey of American and international films to which city as setting is integral. In-class screenings and emphasis on discussion over lecture. Four short written responses. No prior experience in film studies required. Due to the limited number of meetings, perfect attendance is required.

Credits: 1.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 5:00PM - 8:00PM
Instructor: Bucknell, Lucy, DeLibero, Linda, Mann, John, Roos, Suzanne
Room: Gilman 50
Status: Open
Seats Available: 4/45
PosTag(s): n/a

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: Rodgers, Adam F, Staff
Room: The Centre 206
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 0/12
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: Greenhouse 113 Hodson 303
Status: Open
Seats Available: 2/12
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Intermediate Video: Dreams, Psychosis, and Altered States in Cinema
AS.061.232 (01)

In this production course, students will create multiple video projects that reflect the representation of dreams, psychosis, and altered states in cinema. We will screen and deconstruct a variety of feature films, video artworks, and music videos to understand the mechanics and language of subjective realism as a narrative form. We will trace this stylistic lineage from its roots in art house cinema to its rise as an accepted Hollywood modality. We will also explore editing and software techniques that will further students' ability to create stunning works of strange beauty.Basic proficiency with digital cameras and editing is required. This class fulfills the intermediate film production requirement.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 12:30PM - 3:00PM
Instructor: Roche, Jimmy
Room: The Centre 216
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 3/10
PosTag(s): FILM-PROD

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: 10/30
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST, MSCH-HUM

The Body and Cinema
AS.061.270 (01)

Before film even emerged as a popular entertainment form, motion pictures were used to study the human body for purposes of scientific inquiry and medical practice. The present-day crossovers between imaging science and cinema—the inclusion of medical imaging in movies and television shows, the deployment of informational videos and animations in telehealth, and the myriad ways that digital imaging itself is spurred on by the needs of scientific investigation and the demand for cultural works—suggest that what we know about the human body is caught up in a complex web of technical representations and cultural meanings. This course explores the construction of the human body within this array of cinematic practice. Our approach will be twofold: First, we will consider scientific and medical images not merely as powerful means of seeing what would otherwise be unseeable but also as technically enabled and culturally influenced ways of knowing, that is, images, as in cinema, that are historical and could be otherwise. Second, we will examine representations of the human body in the history of film, focusing on how bodies are represented, what bodies are privileged, and how bodies are figured using medical imaging.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Lower Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Instructor: Stine, Kyle J.
Room:
Status: Open
Seats Available: 5/15
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST, MSCH-HUM

Personal Storytelling for the Screen
AS.061.313 (01)

A workshop devoted to creating compelling short scripts based on personal experience. Analysis of screened films and collaborative development of student work will emphasize how unique worlds and world views can reflect a larger shared humanity. Short critical and creative written exercises, and a longer, creative 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 Hodson 303
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/9
PosTag(s): FILM-SCRWRT

A Cinema Of Anxiety: Film Noir
AS.061.339 (01)

Shadows, dead ends, and dangerous women in the postwar films of Sam Fuller, John Huston, Fritz Lang, Anthony Mann, Jacques Tourneur, and others.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: M 3:00PM - 5:30PM, S 7:00PM - 9:30PM Screenings, Th 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings
Instructor: Bucknell, Lucy
Room: Hodson 216 Hodson 303
Status: Open
Seats Available: 1/15
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

French Cinema of Immigration, Cultural Identity, and Difference
AS.061.380 (01)

An exploration of a series of contemporary French films that bear witness to the contemporary reality of France as a multi-ethnic society and ask essential questions about cultural identity. Is cultural and ethnic identity something that you are born into or it is a role that you elect or perform? How should individuals living today understand their relation to historical injustices? Are there things that we can learn only through relationships with people from other cultures? Screenings include works of Abdellatif Kechiche, Jacques Audiard, Claire Denis, Céline Sciamma, Michael Haneke, Mathieu Kassovitz, the Dardennes. $50 LAB FEE

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM, W 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings
Instructor: Roos, Suzanne
Room: Greenhouse 113 Hodson 303
Status: Open
Seats Available: 3/12
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Fabric of the Real
AS.061.384 (01)

Maurice Merleau-Ponty writes, “the real is a closely woven fabric”. In this course we will consider how several artistic disciplines weave their own version of that fabric. These disciplines include documentary film, prose poetry, landscape painting, literature, and music. The course will be predicated upon Martin Heidegger’s essay, “The Age of the World Picture” and follow the lead of Roland Barthe’s essay on the “effect of the real”. We will also highlight various hybrid forms within these disciplines, with particular attention to the work of W.G.Sebald and StevenReich.

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: 0/10
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Love and Film
AS.061.391 (01)

In this course, we explore different understandings of "love" and the way that film has dealt with the concept as a medium. We explore a variety of approaches to the question of "love" - from the agapic to the familial to the romantic - through a series of interdisciplinary readings ranging from philosophy to anthropology. We will also equally explore the question of how film has engaged with the question of love as a concept, and what depictions of human affection - from the general to the personal - it has offered us. Screenings are required for this course. Lab fee: $50

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM, M 7:30PM - 10:00PM Screenings
Instructor: Ward, Meredith C
Room: Gilman 50 Hodson 315
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/12
PosTag(s): FILM-CRITST

Advanced Screenwriting
AS.061.404 (01)

Intensive workshop course where students will write a first draft of a feature-length screenplay. Classes will focus on the specific challenges of the students’ works-in-progress, with an emphasis on developing a story idea that is suitable for a feature, and the craft to see it through to completion. Particular emphasis will be placed on the feature screenwriter’s central challenge: creating enough of a structure in the early writing stages to keep the screenplay on track, while remaining open to new ideas for scenes and sequences that inevitably arise as the characters come to life. Select professional screenplays will be read and analyzed — and clips from select films viewed—to explore what works well on the page, and how it translates to working well onscreen. Students will aim to have a solid and workable first draft at the end of the semester, at which point avenues for further revision may be discussed. Throughout the course, Instructor will also devote a portion of class time to discuss the business of screenwriting. Students will be required to purchase a license for Final Draft screenwriting software for $99.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: F 11:30AM - 2:30PM
Instructor: Rodgers, Adam F
Room: The Centre 206
Status: Approval Required
Seats Available: 0/9
PosTag(s): FILM-SCRWRT

Animating Cartoons
AS.061.406 (01)

Animating Cartoons: This class will focus on character animation. Through weekly screenings of cartoons and animations and reading comics, the form will be analyzed in class discussions and short papers. Students will create their own hand drawn character and create an extensive story board for an animation involving their character. A scene will be chosen and a short hand-drawn animation from the storyboard will be created.

Credits: 3.00
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Yasinsky, Karen
Room: The Centre 216
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/8
PosTag(s): FILM-PROD

Senior Capstone Project: Production
AS.061.440 (01)