Courses & Special Topics – Summer 2012

“Course Summaries” will be listed below as they become available – simply click on the course title to view the course summary information. Special Topics courses may vary from year to year.

Please note:

• the time and location of courses is published in the Public Class Schedule
• official Course Descriptions are available in the Undergraduate and Graduate Calendars
• the official Course Outline will be distributed at the first class of the term

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[slideme title=”FILM 1000 A: Introduction to Film Studies – Term: May-August”]

Instructor: José Sanchez

FILM 1000 “Introduction to Film Studies” is the only Film Studies course offered in first year at Carleton University. It is offered by the Film Studies Program, one of the three Programs within the School for Studies in Art and Culture. (The School’s other two Programs are Music and Art History). Students may pursue a B.A General or a B.A. Honours in Film Studies. Many students take Film Studies courses as options within other degree Programs.

This course is organized as an introduction to the different ways in which films may be studied. We pay particular attention to questions of form, style and critical method. The objectives of the course are to familiarize students with the vocabulary and concerns of cinema studies and to survey three overlapping areas of inquiry: film as art, the aesthetics of film form and film as a social practice. While there is obviously a historical dimension to the course, we do not follow a strictly historical chronology in the presentation of films or issues.

The course is divided into four units. Unit 1, “Style and Technique,” introduces students to the basic elements of cinema as an artistic and communicative form. During Unit 2, “Film Genres,” we look at generic categories as a way of classifying films and examine particular genres. This summer the genres studied are the Romantic Comedy and the Horror Film. Unit 3, “The Filmmaker,” looks at the problems and advantages of analyzing films in terms of the creative personality of the director as Auteur. This summer we will examine three different filmmakers. Finally, Unit 4, “A Period in Film History,” focuses on specific movements within film history. This year we will look at Contemporary Québec Cinema

Each section of the course will be examined separately by In-Class Test and/or Out-of-Class Essay and/or Formal Exam. During the discussion groups there will be surprise pop-quizzes on the readings and the films or written exercises aimed to improve essay writing. Attendance and participation are compulsory and will be evaluated as part of the final grade.

CAVEAT: Films screened in this course may contain disturbing images and sounds. In order to conduct valid film analyses, students must be able to adopt a critical distance vis-à-vis audiovisual material that might be unsettling or shocking.  Individuals who are unable or unwilling to adopt such critical distance should not take this Film Studies course.

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[slideme title=”FILM 2101 A: The Film Industry – Term: May-June”]

Instructor: Sylvie Jasen

This course will examine aspects of film production, distribution and exhibition within a global context and historical perspective.  Several weeks will be devoted to Hollywood with a focus on the development of the studio system, vertical integration, and dominance in international markets.  Other topics that will be covered include the following: independent filmmaking in the U.S.; the role of film festivals for independent producers; changes in distribution from theatrical to home video and the Internet; the emergence of international co-productions; and the transnationalism of Bollywood.

Evaluation: Attendance, mid-term, essay, exam.

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[slideme title=”FILM 2401 B:  The Filmmaker (Kubrick) – Term: July-August”]

Instructor: Tom McSorley

A detailed study of the themes, the characteristic style, development and influence of one or more directors. This summer’s filmmaker is Stanley Kubrick.

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[slideme title=”FILM 3608 B:  Topics in Film History (Horror) – Term: July-August”]

This summer’s topic is:  a historical exploration of the horror film from the silent era to the Twentieth Century.

Instructor: Murray Leeder

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[slideme title=”FILM 3801 A:  Audiovisual Practice – Term: May-June”]

Instructor: Steve Rifkin

“Every day the urge grows stronger to get hold of an object at very close range by way of its likeness, its reproduction.” – Walter Benjamin

Why do we take pictures of things? Why do we record sounds? What fuels the human urge to produce surrogates for the presence of the real? In this course, we will learn how various techniques of visual and audio reproduction, from cave paintings to Facebook profiles, respond to and nurture different kinds of needs. We’ll find out how pictures and sounds promise knowledge of things past and present, near and far. We’ll see how they foster notions of memory, posterity, presence, and absence. We’ll explore their relation to concepts such as expression, authenticity, and beauty. Above all, we’ll discover how our own audiovisual practices shape our experiences of ourselves, of others, and of the world around us.

Prerequisite: FILM 2000

Text: Course pack

Assignments and Evaluation (tentative)

Short response papers (3 x 10%) 30%
Project proposal and bibliography 15%
Final essay or audiovisual project 35%
Attendance and participation 20%

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