Anahita Ghazvinizadeh

This course introduces students to the basic elements of a screenplay, including format, terminology, exposition, characterization, dialogue, voice-over, adaptation, and variations on the three-act structure. Weekly meetings feature a brief lecture, screenings of scenes from films, extended discussion, and assorted readings of class assignments. This is primarily a writing class, with students required to write a four-to-five page weekly assignment related to the script topic of the week.

This course is a production class designed for students interested in alternative modes of narrative production in film and Video. Through workshops on writing, acting, and directing, students learn to work with actors, dialogue, and alternative narrative structures. Students apply the concepts covered in class to their selected projects, from production through editing. Throughout the course, a wide range of narrative films utilizing experimental modes of production are screened. Technical issues are covered in cinematography workshops, but it is assumed that students have a solid technical grounding in their medium of choice. Though the body of this class focuses on film and video production, the class is also appropriate for students working in performance and sound.

This Professional Practice course is designed for students with practical experience and understanding of the language and process of fiction, non-fiction, hybrid or experimental film production, and who would like to prepare themselves for professional survival and growth as emerging filmmakers outside of school. The topics covered at the class will include: producing project proposals for grants, fellowships and labs; learning about local, national and international film communities, networks and institutions; discussing festivals and other conventional or DIY distribution models; learning about programming and writing about film as career paths; and strategies for building film communities and production teams such as companies and collectives.
We will watch and discuss works by notable SAIC alumni such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and will have in-person and virtual visits and discussions with local and global filmmakers, programmers, distributors, centers and platforms. Selected successful recent film projects will be discussed as case studies; we will research the life of each project from ideation to fund-raising, production and distribution.
Students will practice professional development by working around one of their own past or in-progress film projects and producing a body of documents around it, including a proposal for a grant or a lab, an artist/director statement, visual treatment and mood-board, and a written festival and distribution plan.

This course is designed to acquaint first year, first semester Film, Video, New Media, and Animation (FVNMA) graduate students with the technical and conceptual aspects of the FVNMA department and to prepare students for their first formal critique. Students get authorized on FVNMA equipment and facilities.

Some examples drawn from contemporary art and current theoretical materials will be considered for discussion.

Students will have to write a project proposal and present work in progress in preparation for critique week. A group project at the beginning of the semester will introduce students to the available equipment and facilities.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.