Courses

Film and video are ubiquitous in contemporary society, combining image and text to create a powerful medium which increasingly reflects us, defines us, persuades us, markets us, and tells our stories. Students all over the country--and world--are majoring in Film Studies: to teach, to succeed in the business world, to enter graduate study, to work with non-profit arts or charitable organizations, to work in media of all types, or to create their own films.

DePauw offers both a major and a minor in Film Studies. The major requires nine (9) courses in film, which complement the other graduation requirements defined by the university, to fully engage students in the liberal arts model. The minor requires five (5) total courses in film. Specific requirements for the major and minor are listed below and aim to expose students to a variety of approaches to film study-- from history to theory and criticism, cultural to genre exploration, production to the final capstone senior project (for majors only) which enables students to focus on a scholarly or creative project of larger scope.

Course Catalog

Requirements for a major

Film Studies

Requirements for a minor

Film Studies

Courses in Studio Art

Introduction to Photography

This survey class is an introduction to photography as an art form. This course provides opportunities for learning personal expression, critical thinking, and the aesthetics of photography through studio assignments, critiques, demonstrations, lectures and discussions. Students will use both digital and non-digital cameras, print in the darkroom, and learn the magic of chemical photography, while also outputting digitally. By learning the history of the medium students will come to know that photography does not have to be tied to the camera industry. A Digital SLR camera, with full manual capabilities, is required.

Courses in Communication and Theatre

Television Production and Televisual Literacy

An introduction to the basic concepts and processes of television production. Emphasis is placed on the creation and analysis of ideas communicated through the medium of television, including aesthetic, ethical and technical influences on message construction. Students learn studio and field production: basic scripting, lighting, audio, camera/picturization, editing, directing, etc. Televisual literacy is developed, and assignments apply the critical skills needed to interpret and analyze visual imagery and television programming.

Film and Culture

This course is a critical examination of motion pictures as a medium of communication. In addition to looking at the films as texts to be "read," this course considers the institutional contexts in which films are produced, as well as the various reception contexts in which audiences see films. As a course in communication, we begin from the perspective that motion pictures are an important and meaningful part of the way we produce and re-produce our culture. Importantly, the course is not only concerned with how film texts communicate, but also how we communicate about films, as both fans and critics.

Writing for Stage, Screen and TV

A workshop approach to creative story making in the three forms of media. Emphasis is on the relationship between form and content, dramatic structure and critical response. Students are expected to complete a full length stage play, screenplay or teleplay.

Global Media

This course explores global flows of media texts, industries, and reception practices as elements of complex transnational structures. The course may focus on one or more of a wide array of media forms, including print, radio, podcasting, popular music, television, film, and social media.

Courses in Literature

Introduction to Film

Designed to develop students' ability to understand and appreciate film as art and to acquaint them with a representative group of significant works and the characteristics of film as a type of literature.

Courses in Writing

Creative Writing II: Screenwriting Workshop

An introduction to the fundamentals of screenwriting, in theory and in practice. Students will explore story, character, dialogue and structure as relates to writing for film; learn the screenplay format; and participate in writing workshop and discussion. Prerequisite: ENG 149.

Courses in Film Studies

Introduction to Film

(cross-listed with ENG 167) Designed to develop students' ability to understand and appreciate film as art and to acquaint them with a representative group of significant works and the characteristics of film as a type of literature.

On-Campus Extended Studies Course

An on-campus course offered during the Winter or May term. May be offered for .5 course credits or as a co-curricular (0 credit). Counts toward satisfying the Extended Studies requirement.

First-Year Seminar

A seminar focused on a theme related to Film Studies. Open only to first-year students.

Film and Culture

(cross-listed with COMM 237) This course is a critical examination of motion pictures as a medium of communication. In addition to looking at the films as texts to be 'read,' this course considers the institutional contexts in which films are produced, as well as the various reception contexts in which audiences see films. As a course in communication, we begin from the perspective that motion pictures are an important and meaningful part of the way we produce and re-produce our culture. Importantly, the course is not only concerned with how film texts communicate, but also how we communicate about films, as both fans and critics.

Documentary Film

(cross-listed with ARTH 250 or COMM 291) This discussion-based course is structured thematically around such topics as representations of the family, subjectivity and selfhood, crime and justice, sexuality, trauma, and war propaganda. We view a wide variety of documentary styles: poetic, ethnographic, direct cinema, government sponsored, social advocacy, rockumentary, mockumentary, pseudo-documentary, and different hybrid forms. These styles and themes are used as springboards to explore larger questions: What is the source of our fascination with the real? How can documentary evoke discourses of truth, realism and authenticity when the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction have become ever more fluid; when digital technology makes possible the absence of any camera or original referent from the 'real' world; and when documentarians make use of strategies such as staging, re-enactments, discontinuous editing, or various poetic devices? What are the conventions of documentary film practice, that provide the necessary impression is the ethical responsibility of a filmmaker to his/her subjects who are, after all, not actors, but people going about the business of their lives? To understand better the complex nature of representation, we also take into account how context, expectations, institutional supports, viewing communities, cultural frameworks, and historical and social forces (and their interaction) all contribute to the making of meaning in visual images.

Topics in Film History

Introduces students to pivotal eras in cinema history (both U.S. and international) as well as questions of historiography. Courses will engage with historical approaches to film industries, film texts, and/or film audiences. Topics may include courses such as: U.S. Film History 1897-1950; Hollywood Since 1950. May be repeated for credit.

Introduction to Digital Film Production

This course provides an introduction to camerawork, sound recording, lighting and editing in digital filmmaking, with short units on short film screenwriting and working with actors. Prior experience in film production not required. Prerequisite: FILM 100, FILM 200, FILM 241, or permission of instructor.

Topics in Film Cultures and Traditions

(may be cross-listed with ENG 255 or M L 164) This course offers intensive examination of specific issues in film cultures and traditions, often those at the center of current critical interest. Topics for this course are conceived broadly to encompass studies of national cinemas, specific directors, filmmaking practices, and specific genres. May be repeated for credit with a different topic.

Global Cinema

This introductory film course is a survey of contemporary films from across the globe. Students will be exposed to a diverse array of culturally distinct and unique aesthetic expressions and will be encouraged to engage perspective(s) apart from their own while discussing topics including, but not limited to, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, class, and sexual orientation.

African American Cinema

Reading African American cinema as a pivotal archive in African American cultural production, this course explores the diverse black aesthetic traditions that African American film has and continues to develop, explore, and shape. Specifically, the course will track how films produced, written, and/or directed by African Americans are situated in larger debates about the politics of race and representation.

Film Theory

(may be cross-listed with ENG 395) Provides students who already have a background in introductory film studies with a sense of the most important theoretical issues in cinema. Topics may include the following: early film theory; film and (anti-) narrative; auteur theory; genre theory; semiotics; psychoanalysis; ideology and politics; feminist film theory; theories of documentary; postmodernism; post-colonialism and "third cinema"; new media and the digital era. Prerequisites: FILM 100 (ENG 167) or FILM 200 (COMM 237).

Topics in Gender, Sexuality and Cinema

(may be cross-listed with ENG 390 or COMM 401) Introduces students to the importance of gender as a category of film scholarship. Issues covered may include: women in film, masculinity and film, feminist filmmaking and film scholarship, women filmmakers. May be repeated for credit with a different topic.

Advanced Topics in Cinema

A course on an advanced topic in film studies.

Advanced Topics in Digital Film Production

Advanced topics courses in the area of digital film production. Courses may include Intermediate Digital Filmmaking, Directing for the Camera, or Film Development as well as COMM 319, Writing for the Stage, Screen and TV, and ENG 342, Screenwriting Workshop. Some courses will require a prerequisite; prerequisite for Intermediate Digital Filmmaking: FILM 100, FILM 200, FILM 220, OR FILM 241 AND FILM 231 or its equivalent.

Independent Study in Film

Independent project under tutorial supervision designed for juniors and seniors wishing to work in depth on a particular aspect of film study.

Film Studies Senior Project Preparation

The Film Studies Senior Capstone Experience is the culmination of the Film Studies major, designed to provide students with a challenging final project of significant length and complexity, spanning fall and spring semester of senior year at DePauw. Whether the final project is a scholarly thesis paper of significant length and scope or a creative/production-oriented venture (such as a feature-length screenplay, short narrative film or documentary), the capstone project requires extensive planning, on-going organization, persistence and dedication, along with the ability to meet deadlines and work closely with a faculty advisor. To this end, the Film Studies Senior Project Prep (FILM 429) is a .25-credit prelude to the Film Studies Senior Project (FILM 430). In consultation with the Director of Film Studies and a faculty project advisor from the program, students prepare and submit proposals and supporting documents to the FS faculty committee. Once proposals are approved, students complete additional preparatory work, including research, extensive outlining, and/or preliminary pre-production, which is submitted to their advisor for evaluation. These phases of the project provide a solid base from which to begin the second, full (1) credit semester, and the more intensive writing/production phases of their capstone projects.

Film Studies Senior Project

This course is the culmination of the Film Studies Senior Capstone Experience, building on the work completed in FILM 429. Working closely with their FS faculty project advisor, students immerse themselves in intensive writing and revision, and/or the progressive filmmaking phases of pre-production/production/post-production. Three deadlines must be met over the course of the semester: the first installment; completed first draft or edit; and the final draft or edit. (A failing grade on any project development phase results in course failure; and students must earn a C- or above in the course to graduate.) At the year's end, students present their work to a faculty and student audience. Prerequisite: FILM 429

Courses in Religious Studies

Religion and Film

This course uses major theories of religion in order to investigate religious themes and symbols in a number of contemporary films. In this course we use the screening of a dozen or so religiously evocative films in order to open up a discursive space within which we can think critically about ourselves and the time we live in. In order to do this we look at the ways in which powerful religious themes have been dealt within film. At times the religious themes addressed in movies are overt and tradition-specific while at other times they are covert and universal. Throughout the course we interrogate filmic texts in order to understand the ways in which religious themes are dealt with through the cinematic medium. But we also allow the films to interrogate us! In this class we view the screening of the films as an opportunity for us to reflect upon the nature of religion as we try to come to a better understanding of its place within society and our own lives. The purpose of the course is twofold: first, students learn how to think critically about religion and its place as a social and cultural force in the contemporary world; second, they learn how to apply a critical attitude and critical tools to view films and other aspects of popular culture.