Media Studies Program (MEDA)
Director: Professor John F. Schott
Emeritus Professor: Vern D. Bailey
Professor: John F. Schott
Visiting Assistant Professor: Carol Donelan
Adjunct Instructor: Paul Hager
The Media Studies Program serves as a center for those interested in the formal study of film, video, television and the internet. Course work is of three related kinds: 1) study of past and present connections between film, video, television and other arts—photography, music, theater, dance and painting, 2) study of both narrative and non-fiction film and video and their relation to other disciplines—history, sociology, psychology, American Studies, etc., and 3) production classes to provide the essential "hands-on" experience for understanding and creating video and multimedia.
Media Studies Courses
MEDA 110. Introduction to Media Studies An introduction to film, television, and digital media from multiple perspectives: formal, cultural, and theoretical. How do films tell their stories? How do they reflect some of the historical and cultural issues of their time, including gender and race? What are the formal and cultural significances of television and digital media? How are we constructed differently, as spectators, in relation to various media? These questions will be addressed by studying a variety of texts, including Hollywood, avant-garde, and documentary film, TV sitcoms and soap operas, and the world wide web. Discussion will focus on applying critical concepts to screenings and clips. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—C. Donelan
MEDA 112. Screenwriting In this introduction to writing for the screen, students will first orally present either a full-length motion picture idea or a 20-30 minute short film idea, which is critiqued by the class. Students then write the first 30 script pages of the full-length film idea or their entire shorter idea. (Short projects may then be filmed in Fiction Video Production, offered in the spring.) All projects will be critiqued by the class and judged on professional standards, with analysis which is exacting, rigorous and encouraging. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 114. Film History and Criticism From the two-minute Edison primitives to the epic-length wide-screen movies of the 70's, we survey the evolution of the modern film form in the U.S. and abroad, paying particular attention to eras dominated by German Expressionism, Russian Formalism, French New Wave and the omnipresence of Hollywood. Historical examples and current strategies of film criticism provide a second, coordinate part of the course. 6 credits cr., HU, Winter—C. Donelan
MEDA 115. Music and the Media Refer to MUSC 115 for description. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 116. The Hollywood Film Musical Cross-listed with AMST 114,MUSC 116. A survey of the film musical. This course will trace the history of the film musical from its inception with the coming of sound through the big-budget MGM productions of the 50s to its decline after the break-up of the studio system. Emphasis will be placed on identifying structural features that distinguish the various types of film musicals. Other topics include the status of women in these films, the role of music, whether the genre is socially progressive or regressive, and the so-called "self-reflective" musical—films such as Singin' in the Rain, whose subject is the musical. One screening per week. No prerequisites. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 122. Video Production for Community Television Explore how local communities are using cable television to reaffirm civic and cultural identity in an age of homogenizing mass media. This course offers a rich experience in "service learning" as students make video projects for broadcast on Northfield's own community cable station. No prerequisite other than the short, non-credit Introduction to Video Production offered by the Carleton Media Lab. 3 credits cr., ND, Spring—P. Hager
MEDA 140. Photography I Cross-listed with ARTS 140. This class covers basic 35mm camera operation, film processing and printing techniques as well as explores some principles affecting photographic imagery. We will also view the work of historical and contemporary photographers to consider fundamental questions in the aesthetics of the medium. Manual 35mm camera required. No prerequisite. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall,Winter,Spring—L. Rossi
MEDA 142. Color Photography Cross-listed with ARTS 142. This course covers basic 35mm camera operation, color theory and printing on a Colex color processor. We will view the work of past and present color photographers and consider some principles affecting photographic imagery and color photography. Manual 35mm camera required. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—L. Rossi
MEDA 156. Studies in German Cinema: Current Issues in Contemporary Film Cross-listed with GERM 216. This course will be an introduction to Austrian and German film from the 1970s to the present. We will watch one or two films a week, and focus class discussions on such issues as the Third Reich and its impact on contemporary Germany (Fassbinder, Syberberg, Sanders-Brahms), the American dream in German culture (Wenders, Herzog), minorities in Germany (Fassbinder, Ottinger), literature into film (Schlöndorff), the role of women (Fassbinder, Sanders-Brahms, Ottinger, Dörrie) and other topics. We will discuss different genres, the notion of auteur cinema, and film in its double role of reflection and co-creator of ideology. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 204. Media and American Politics: Special Election Edition Cross-listed with AMST 204,POSC 204. Our analysis of media influences on politics will draw from three fields of study: political psychology, political behavior and participation, and public opinion. This year we will focus on media and politics by following the role of media in election 2000. 6 credits cr., SS, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 220. Nonfiction Video Production An introduction to the basic techniques and theoretical issues of non-fiction video production. In addition to completing a variety of skill-building exercises, students will complete a substantial work of documentary video. No prerequisite other than the short, non-credit Introduction to Video Production offered by the Carleton Media Lab. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—J. Schott
MEDA 221. Fiction Video Production An introduction to the basic techniques and creative issues of fiction video making. Students will complete several skill-building exercises, write or adapt a short script, learn how to run a low-budget set, and produce a short fiction video. No prerequisite other than the short, non-credit Introduction to Video Production offered by the Carleton Media Lab. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—J. Schott
MEDA 223. Films of Frank Capra Cross-listed with AMST 216. A Sicilian immigrant, Capra became Hollywood's voice for the American Dream. His Oscar-winning films (It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet John Doe, and It's a Wonderful Life) proclaim Capra's concept of libertarian America. Capra scorned political propaganda, yet today his comedies still seduce viewers into believing we can all be "ordinary" heroes. In this course we will work toward understanding the ideology embedded in his major films. 3 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 224. Film's Narrative Strategies Unlike the novelist, who must create passions with printed words, a filmmaker uses lighting, color, camera angles, unanticipated editing, sound design, music, special effects, and known actors to shape audience responses. This course will provide a brief, intensive study of the variety of narrative techniques used in classical and modern films including Citizen Kane, Persona, Magnolia, Groundhog Day. 3 credits cr., AL, Spring—V. Bailey
MEDA 225. Hitchcock: The Classic Films Cross-listed with AMST 229. The name, even the mere profile of Alfred Hitchcock, suggest films of suspense beyond our expectations. Even more surprising, is the range and influence of his narrative formulations. He may be the screen's greatest rhetorician, the director most capable of tailoring the film image to the viewer's response. We will test this idea through a selective retrospective of eight of his more thematically-profound films. 3 credits cr., AL, Spring—V. Bailey
MEDA 226. The Films of Ingmar Bergman: High Seriousness Bergman's intense and unrelenting studies of human relationships have earned him a dominant place among exponents of "serious cinema." His films examine the dilemma of a modern Everyman who is lonely, vulnerable and starved of faith and love. We will examine the form and content of representative Bergman films, including: The Seventh Seal, The Silence, Persona, Cries and Whispers. 3 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 227. Open the Box: Studies in Television Television is probably the most important socializing agent in American culture apart from the family. Yet we seem more comfortable looking down our nose at the medium, rather than scratching our heads about it. This course draws on the rapidly expanding literature of cultural theory that addresses television as both ideology and social form. We will examine the cultural exchanges found in genres such as news, soap opera and advertising, and the external contexts of the medium such as ratings and the regulatory context. Prerequisite: Media Studies 110. 6 credits cr., HU, Winter—C. Donelan
MEDA 228. Rethinking the Fifties Through Film, Television and Photography Cross-listed with AMST 258. Disguised in a poodle skirt and Elvis wig, Fifties America remains a nostalgic caricature for many students. This course offers a revisionary social history of this complex decade by examining a broad range of visual media. We'll consider key issues like the rise of consumer culture, the policing of gender, the "invention" of teens, Cold War paranoia, the rise of suburbia, the explosion of popular culture, television's "living room lectures," and smell-o-vision. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—J. Schott
MEDA 229. Outsiders Cinema: Fiction Film This course considers fiction films produced in conscious (if not militant) opposition to Hollywood, films driven by esthetic, moral or expressive commitments rather than the bottom line. In addition to doing close readings of fifteen or so films, we will consider the cultural, esthetic, economic and biographical circumstances that inform each work. The course will emphasize films that have been considered landmarks in post-war independent fiction—with an emphasis on projects of the last ten years—from Cassevete's Husbands (1970) to Tarentino's Pulp Fiction (1995). 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—J. Schott
MEDA 231. Japanese Cinema This course examines the extraordinary achievement of Japanese cinema from the 1930s to the present, from the classic films of Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Kurosawa to the pop cinema of "Beat" Takeshi Kitano and the phenomenon of "anime." We will study films such as Tokyo Story, Ugetsu, Throne of Blood, Tampopo and Hana-Bi, among others, in their aesthetic, cultural and auteurist contexts. 6 credits cr., AL,RAD, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 232. Cinema at the Edge: The Idea of the Avant-Garde This class traces the development of avant-garde film, video and multi-media from Salvadore Dali's surrealist cinema in the ‘20's to contemporary virtual reality on the internet. Along with examining key paradigms of experimentalism (art cinema, video art, hypermedia, etc.), we will consider theoretically how the avant-garde defines itself at differing moments in history. The class will feature an extended "field trip" into Beat culture of the 1950's, where we will look at beat cinema in the context of poetry, music and the visual arts. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 233. Italian Neorealism and Its Legacy An introduction to the key films and theories of Italian neorealism. We will begin by looking closely at the traditional neorealist films of Rossellini, De Sica, and Visconti in relation to the theories of Bazin and Zavattini. We will then turn our attention to films by Fellini, Pasolini, and Antonioni, among others, that question or problematize traditional neorealism, from films situated on the boundaries of the tradition, to films said to constitute a break with the tradition, to films that reconsider the tradition from contemporary perspectives. We will conclude the course by considering the impact of neorealism in an international context. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—C. Donelan
MEDA 234. Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream After Americans grasped the enormity of the Depression and World War II, the glossy fantasies of 30s cinema seemed hollow indeed. During the 40s, the movies, our true national pastime, took a nosedive into pessimism. The result? A collection of exceptional films chocked full of tough guys and bad women lurking in the shadows of nasty urban landscapes. This course applies the tools of formal criticism, intellectual history, and feminist theory to films like Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, and Kiss Me Deadly. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—C. Donelan
MEDA 235. Film and the Melodramatic Imagination You think your life is complicated? Take a look at the spectacles of emotional excess in the films of major filmmakers such as Griffith, Ophuls, Sirk, Minnelli, Ray, Fassbinder, and Almodovar. Seduction, betrayal, abandonment, extortion, murder, suicide, revenge, jealousy, incurable illness, obsession, compulsion-it's all there. You've got nothing to complain about. And if you think these spectacles are pablum for passive, naïve spectators, you are sorely mistaken. Join us to find out why. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 238. Border Crossings: Postmodern Perspectives on French and German Cinema Cross-listed with GERM 220,FREN 238,FRST 220. In this course, we will explore the responses of French and German filmmakers to the challenges facing Europe as it redefined itself throughout the twentieth century. Taking Foucault's and Derrida's theories about the center and the margin as a starting point, we will examine such issues as national identity, marginalization, shifting gender roles and technological change. Filmmakers to be discussed will be Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Renoir, Agnes Varda, Fritz Lang, Rainer W. Fassbinder and Helma Sanders-Brahms. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 241. The French Cinema Cross-listed with FREN 233. In this overview of the major trends in French cinema, we will consider the intersections of the political, social, cultural, and artistic dimensions of films by Renoir, Truffaut, Godard, Varda, Chabrol, and others. Discussions will focus on such questions as the following: In what ways has French cinema mobilized (or undermined) national myths? How have films established and mediated French historical memory? How have French films dealt with the nation's (colonial) others? Course materials will incorporate critical theory and cultural readings. Taught in English with all films subtitled. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 242. Cinemas of Loneliness: Kubrick and Scorsese With the collapse of the Hollywood studios, filmmakers were set free artistically. But this artistic freedom came with a price. As Robert Kolker notes, new Hollywood is old Hollywood without financial security and a sense of community. The freedom of new Hollywood is, in effect, the freedom to be alone. This course examines how two major auteurs, Kubrick and Scorsese, have fared in the loneliness of new Hollywood. We will draw our conclusions by weighing the aesthetic evidence of their key films—from Paths of Glory to Eyes Wide Shut and from Mean Streets to Raging Bull—against outlying factors such as economics, technology, and history. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 244. Representing Reality: Nonfiction Film and Video This course considers a variety of issues in the history of documentary in cinema, television and photography. While the class focuses primarily on historical and critical concerns, students will also do some exercises in both still photography and video that invite them to engage theoretical issues "in the field." 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—J. Schott
MEDA 247. African Cinema: In Search of Identity and Self Definition Cross-listed with AFAM 247,FREN 248. This course will introduce students (who are not expected to have an extensive knowledge of African history and culture) to films that engage the socio-political issues central to an emerging African cultural identity. The course will focus on work by African filmmakers such as Souleymane Cissé (whose The Brightness won the Prix du Jury at Cannes in 1987), but it will also touch on the cinemas of the diaspora—particularly in the Caribbean. In contrast, we will also consider colonial and post-colonial "definitions" of Africa from Hollywood in the ‘30s (where "the natives" are the ones with the spears) to France in the ‘70s (Jean-Jacques Arnaud's Oscar-winning Black and White in Color Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 250. Designing Complex Web Sites In this course students develop and design a major web site. Emphasis is on detailed project planning, information architecture, usability, design, user testing and professional graphic presentation. Students need not know HTML programming. Depending on skill levels, students can execute their sites as Photoshop pages or as an actual web site. Emphasis is on the conceptual issues of web design rather than learning a programming language. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—J. Schott
MEDA 255. Introduction to Russian Cinema: History and Theory Refer to RUSS 255 for description. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 260. Cyberculture: Studies in Digital Culture and the Internet The explosive growth of the internet is creating the most far-reacing communications revolution of modern life. Media Studies takes up where computer Science leaves off: by considering the cultural rather than the technological implications of the Internet. We will examine a range of theoretical perspectives from Marshall McLuhan to "cyborg theory," and topics like changing notions of community, identity and artistic expression. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2001-2002.
MEDA 261. The Artist and the City Cross-listed with SPAN 260,LTAM 260. An examination of the role of the modern city in Spanish and Latin American literature from the end of the XIX century until the present. The course is organized around two central questions: how has the modern city shaped our sensibility and what has been literature's response to the loss of meaning and the rationalization of life brought about by modernity? Authors studied include Pérez Galdós, Marsé, Mart", Jiménez, Borges, Moreno Villa, Fuentes, Lihn, and Paz. Prerequisite: Spanish 204 or proficiency. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—H. Huergo
MEDA 261. Spanish Cinema Cross-listed with SPAN 260,LTAM 260. This course will study Spanish film from 1950's to the present. Through the study of the social and political processes involved in the conception of time and memory we will discuss the work of internationally recognized filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel, Luis Garc"a Berlanga, Mario Camus, Carlos Saura , Victor Erice and Pedro Almodóvar. Prerequisites: Spanish 204 or proficiency. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—J. Brioso
MEDA 262. Advanced Editing Techniques A five-week course introducing video production students to advanced uses of the Media 100, Macintosh Final Cut Pro, and selected graphics and digital effects software. Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor. 3 credits cr., AL, Winter—P. Hager
MEDA 263. Authoring New Media New digital media are changing the way we produce and distribute art and information. We'll combine critical perspectives with hands-on production with particular focus on multi-media for the web and DVD authoring. Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor. 3 credits cr., ND, Fall—P. Hager
MEDA 362. Narrative Theory Cross-listed with ENGL 362. "Does the world really present itself to perception in the form of well-made stories?" asks Hayden White (historiographer). To try to answer that question, we will read contemporary narrative theory and analyze various literary texts and films. This course fulfills the advanced seminar requirement. Prerequisite: English 200. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—S. Jaret McKinstry
MEDA 395. Media Theory and Analysis This course will grapple with some of the philosophical and theoretical problems and controversies that currently enliven media studies. Class time will be spent chiefly in the discussion and debate of a body of common readings and screenings. Each student will, in addition, research, report on, and write a theoretical paper about an individual topic or text of his or her own choosing. Senior Media Studies Concentrators or permission of the instructor. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—C. Donelan