Students who wish to take the course should have mastered the fundamental techniques of digital video and should be willing to share their work with others. The line between autobiography and fiction has been considerably blurred by the influence of Post-Modernism, New Journalism, and mass media culture. This class will examine traditional as well as emerging forms of both literary and cinematic autobiography. Works that will be referenced include those by Brakhage, H.D., Mekas, Proust, Gibbons, Orton, and Saks. Students will be required to complete a short autobiography in film or video.
Enrollment is limited to junior film and video majors or by special permission of the instructor.
This course is recommended to juniors, before the start of their senior project in film. It will deal with script breakdown, production scheduling, budgeting, casting, location scouting, permits, call sheets, dealing with labs, camera reports, accounting, contracts, liabilities, insurance, copyright, legal protection and legal rights, unions, and distribution. The purpose of this course is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas prior to the Senior Project, and to make available technical information useful to individual projects though theory-practive sessions. This semester the focus will be on Harry Smith, legendary film maker and music archivist and is inspired by the re-release of his influential Anthology of American Folk Music. Smith's body of work in film animation, ethnography, occultism, surrealism and music will provide a basis for an in-depth study of these areas.