Below are descriptions of courses offered in the department of Film & Media Arts. For specific information on which courses are being offered, class times and sections available during each semester, please visit the Temple University online course listing. To register for classes, visit the Owlnet website, or for more information, visit the Temple Registration information website.
[Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor]
A creative workshop exploring the concepts, aesthetics, and techniques of independent
animation in a number of media from cards and cels to digital design and manipulation.
(Offered summer only.)
[Prerequisite: Permission of instructor]
Theories of directing, dramatic form, and acting are examined through lectures,
demonstrations, readings, and applied exercises to establish a theoretical
and practical foundation in film and television directing.
[Prerequisite: MFA candidacy or permission of instructor]
This course is an introduction to audio production and audio as a form of aesthetic
expression. Students will explore theoretical concepts as they use digital
audio recording and editing systems to complete projects. Mode: lecture, hands
on instruction, discussion.
[Prerequisite: MFA candidacy]
Analysis and exercises dealing with the conventional language of mainstream
narrative film, including how this language, traditionally presented as the
only way to organize narrative films, actually serves to circumscribe the kinds
of stories that may be told.
[Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor]
Theories of cinematic form and structure are examined through lectures, demonstrations,
assigned readings, and applied exercises in film and video editing and related
computer and disc technologies.
[Prerequisite: MFA candidacy or permission of instructor. Required for the Fall semester of the first year of the MFA program.] The art, theory, and technology of film production with special attention paid to location lighting, location sound, cinematic composition, and film structure. This is a dual level course, intended for both the experienced filmmaker and the media-aware but inexperienced graduate student ready for intensive, accelerated study in the design and solution of cinematographic problems.
[Prerequisite: MFA candidacy or permission of the instructor. Recommended for the Spring semester of the first year of the MFA program.] Lectures, demonstrations and practical exercises in the art, theory, and technology of video and electronic media production.
An international, historical survey of the factual film, including creative documentary, anthropological film, television news film, direct cinema, and cinema verite.
[Prerequisite: MFA candidate or permission of the instructor. Recommended for the Fall semester of the first year of the MFA program.] This course surveys major filmmakers who have theorized their practice in journals, workbooks, lectures, interviews, essays, etc., including theorist-practitioners like Sergei Eisenstein, Jean-Luc Godard, Atom Egoyan and Jane Campion. Historical and cultural contexts of theorist-practitioners and related critics are considered in relation to the conditions of experimentation and innovation in significant genres and aesthetic movements.
[Cross listed with Philosophy and Art History.]
This screenings-oriented
graduate examines how writers such as
Deleuze, Taussig, and Robbe-Grillet and media makers such as
Antonioni, Frampton, and Viola expand our ideas about time- based images
and the production of space in a globalizing and
technological era. Students respond to the readings and screenings
through short biweekly discussion papers, which are used to launch
seminar discussions. Students conclude the course with a paper (M.A./Ph.D.
students) or project (M.F.A. students) designed in response to the
course discussions; students share in a cross-disciplinary critique
of each other's works.
An overview of the processes of financing, managing, promoting, and distributing a documentary, fiction, or experimental production. Emphasis is on projects produced independently, outside the commercial mainstream, and without institutional sponsorship or governance. Students will produce a comprehensive proposal for a viable film or videotape project.
Investigation of the historic and aesthetic relationship between idea and form as applied to modern media, theater, films, broadcasting and writing; emphasis on the application of critical theory and problems of meaning. Examination of the nature of the image, especially its textual and its symbolic properties, visual representation, its relationship to verbal communication, and its reception.
[Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor]
An advanced workshop to develop projects in experimental, documentary, or narrative
forms using portable video, TV studio, and computerized image and editing facilities.
Major trends in theatrical film history and the methods and issues in the writing of film history.
[Prerequisite: MFA candidacy or permission of instructor. Required
for the Fall semester of the first year of the MFA program.]
A seminar and workshop exploring various approaches to media writing, including
documentary treatment, experimental appropriation, performative conceptions,
and narrative screenplays. Through weekly exercises and a final project, each
student will begin to develop a personal integration of these approaches, leading
to a voice of his/her own.
[Prerequisite: Permission of instructor]
The preparation of a scenario and complete television or motion picture script.
[Prerequisite: Permission of instructor]
Design, pre-production planning, production, and subsequent evaluation of individual
documentary projects.
[Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor]
Exploration, study, design, production, and implementation of hypermedia projects
including interactive and computer controlled video, computer graphics, digital
sound, videodisc, virtual reality, and other emerging technologies. Interdisciplinary
collaborations will be encouraged between FMA, Computer Sciences, Engineering,
Architecture, Art, and Music.
Course
website, Prof. Peter D'Agostino
[Prerequisite: FMA 419, 651 or permission of the instructor]
Designing and executing individual documentaries, dramatic projects, or works
that intermix the strategies of documentary and fiction while dealing with
socially significant material. Each project will involve one month of planning
and scripting, one month of field production in film or video, and a final
month of editing and postproduction. Lectures, demonstrations, critiques, and
crew assignments on each other's projects will accompany the intensive fieldwork.
[Prerequisite: FMA 457 or permission of the instructor]
Advanced tools and concepts of digital non-linear editing of film and video
with emphasis on fine-cut preparation, file management, ProTools, foley, looping,
multi-track mixing, compositing, titling, EDL generation, and film matchback.
[Prerequisite: FMA 458 or permission of the instructor]
Technical, aesthetic and compositional aspects of lighting for cinematic, photographic
and electronic media. The course analyzes the evolution of lighting styles
in fiction and non-fiction film, commercials, and music videos. Each student
completes an individual and/or group portfolio of different lighting exercises.
[Prerequisite: FMA 655 and permission of instructor]
Enrollment limited. Planning and production of individual projects dealing
with significant topics. May be repeated.
[Prerequisite: Prerequisites: FMA 655 and permission of instructor]
Enrollment limited. Planning and production of individual projects dealing
with significant topics. May be repeated.
[Prerequisite: FMA 419 or 442 and permission of the instructor]
Exercises and critiques specifically exploring the theories, aesthetics, and
practice of directing actors for the screen. Directors are paired with advanced
MFA actors from the Theater Department.
A production lab for new and on-going film, video and multimedia projects. Media theories and aesthetics will be applied to developing documentary, fiction and experimental productions. Explorations in this class range from issues of genre blending to the use of new technologies, including distribution strategies utilizing the World Wide Web, CD-ROMs and digital video disks.
[Prerequisite: FMA 461. Required of 4th semester
MFA candidates.]
Methods and approaches to issues of media history, theory, and critical analysis
are covered through lectures, discussions, screenings, and directed research
as practical preparation for comprehensive examinations.
A critical and historical examination of the films of a particular country or world region. Topics vary per semester. May be repeated (as long as the specific topic is not duplicated).
Analysis of selected films through various critical methodologies.
Special seminars typically taught by distinguished visiting faculty. Inquire at departmental offices for details, since these seminars often are scheduled on short notice.
Special seminars typically taught by distinguished visiting faculty. Inquire at departmental offices for details, since these seminars often are scheduled on short notice.
Special seminars typically taught by distinguished visiting faculty. Inquire at departmental offices for details, since these seminars often are scheduled on short notice.
Special seminars typically taught by distinguished visiting faculty. Inquire at departmental offices for details, since these seminars often are scheduled on short notice.
[Required for the Fall semester of the first year of the MFA program.] Wide variety of discussions, screenings, and lectures from guest image makers, exploring and integrating the range of theoretical, conceptual, and pedagogical aspects of film and video production. This course must be taken a second time for fufillment of the MFA degree in FMA.
Individual research / theory projects proposed by advanced students.
Individual production projects proposed by advanced students.
[Prerequisite: Permission of the department]
Open only to M.F.A. candidates in Film and Media Arts for their final project.
May be repeated for credit during all semesters the final project is in progress,
although only a maximum of six hours will be counted toward the degree.