Daniele Wilmouth

Form and Meaning is a rigorous investigation of the art of moving image editing and provides a historical and theoretical understanding of both classical film editing and newer modes and models of editing and perception. The course provides a working foundation and framework.

A close reading of films will train the student in the core aesthetic decisions, structures, strategies and demands of editing cinematic works. In addition, we will look at examples and discuss how editing functions for the installation artist, and further, how the Internet, New Media, television and video art have made an impact on concepts surrounding editing. Weekly readings will expand on the work presented in class.

Students should expect to research and write both a midterm and final papers as well as a few short responses to works presented in class. Form and Meaning is a theory-based seminar and is not designed to offer critique for works in progress.

Sonics and Optics is an intensive study of lenses, optics, sensors, stocks, materials, laboratory processes, microphones, and recorders as essential tools in film/video making. Throughout the semester students will learn the fundamentals of a lens (focal length, aperture), its relationship to the camera (shutter, ISO), and aesthetic options available. The course will offer the same immersive perspective of sound technologies; including choosing microphones (stereo, cardioid, shotgun, contact, etc), recording options (sound device, field recorder, mixing board), and methods of field recording. This course is an essential technical base for all advanced moving image work.

In-class screenings of films and videos and weekly readings will expand on the technical workshops at the core of the course.

Students should expect to complete a series of quick technical exercises as well as a more in depth final project.

Sonics and Optics is an intensive study of lenses, optics, sensors, stocks, materials, laboratory processes, microphones, and recorders as essential tools in film/video making. Throughout the semester students will learn the fundamentals of a lens (focal length, aperture), its relationship to the camera (shutter, ISO), and aesthetic options available. The course will offer the same immersive perspective of sound technologies; including choosing microphones (stereo, cardioid, shotgun, contact, etc), recording options (sound device, field recorder, mixing board), and methods of field recording. This course is an essential technical base for all advanced moving image work.

In-class screenings of films and videos and weekly readings will expand on the technical workshops at the core of the course.

Students should expect to complete a series of quick technical exercises as well as a more in depth final project.

How can physicality and spatial properties of performance be transformed through a flat rectangular projection of light? How can a film director's shot list be influenced by the acting techniques of Meisner? What can a cinematographer learn from the breath control and movement techniques of Japanese Butoh dance? When film/video and performance are approached as a hybrid form, exploring and exploiting the unique properties of each, fusions between these mediums can truly be successful. This course will give an introduction to established theories and methods in four areas: 1) Dance/Movement for the camera. 2) Experimental Theater/Performance Art combined with film/video. 3) Acting for the camera. 4) Directing performers for film/video.

Readings and screenings typically include an introduction to Japanese Butoh Dance, featuring works by Tatsumi Hijikata, Kazuo Ohno, and Shuji Terayama. Cinedance works by DV8, Alla Kovgan, and Liz Aggiss. Various approaches to acting and directing with readings on Konstantin Stanislavski, Sanford Meisner, and John Cassavetes.

Students will participate in weekly movement workshops, a group acting and directing video shoot with professional actors, a Cinedance project, and a final film/video/performance fusion of the student's design.

The course is survey of documentary film practice, from its inception up to current times. Throughout the course we will review the change in formal, thematic and ethical concerns underlying documentary filmmaking, with an emphasis on the ways in which technological development impacted the production of time-based journalism, the presentation of subjective perspectives on political and social issues, the use of documentary as a political tool for generating impact or propaganda, narrative structures in the documentary format etc. Emphasis will be placed on the question of the use of visual media as a form of knowing, recording and telling.

Viewings will typically include films by Lumiere Brothers and Edison, early documentary filmmakers such as Flaherty, Vertov, Lenny Reifenstahl, Pare Lorenz, Walter Ruttman, Joris Ivens and John Grierson, the lyrical documentary work of Basil Wright, the social documentary films of Humphry Jennings, Direct and Verita filmmakers such as Rouch, Weisman, Maysles brothers, Leacock, Pennebaker and Ross McElwee, the audio documentaries of Glenn Gould, the archival documentaries of Ken Burns, contemporary social reflection and engagement by filmmakers such as Errol Morris and Michael Moore, the work of the Sensory Lab and much more.

In the course of the semester students will be researching, assembling material, interviewing and editing video for three short assignments and a final, longer, documentary project that will be incorporating the material viewed and discussed in class and demonstrate a mastery of -- and inquiry into -- the documentary film/video tradition.