MFA 598 Transnational Film Genre (January 2019)

Through mini lectures, readings, discussions and production workshops and labs, this course explores the horror genre in a transnational context. The course combines theoretical and experiential learning to help broaden students’ theoretical and historical knowledge and deepen their artistic practices.


MFA 600 Thesis

In order to complete the Master of Fine Arts in Digital Filmmaking, students must complete MFA 600, a “capstone course” that not only demonstrates a command of the learning outcomes of the writing and production courses, but also provides an opportunity to work on a project that may be submitted to a film festival or otherwise used to show creativity, imagination and solid cinematic construction.  The final completed project is the Thesis Film Project.  Length, genre or other aspects will be determined by the student in consultation with the thesis advisor.  This course counts as one of the ten core courses for the MFA program.  The Thesis Project can be completed in two terms.

MFA 580 Concepts of Post Production (October 2018)

This course gives the beginning filmmaker hands-on experience practicing the fundamentals of post production editing and sound design. Through lectures, reading, and a series of shooting and editing exercises, you learn how to shape your story and guide your audience’s emotional and intellectual experience of your film.

Students must already have already installed editing software on their computer (Premiere, FinalCut Pro, Avid, or other) and understand basic editing moves such as cutting clips, creating sequences, and outputting.

Throughout the semester, students shoot and edit three short 30- to 60-second exercises. The final project is prepping, shooting, editing, and scoring a 2 to 5-minute narrative short.

This course will combine practical with theoretical learning in helping students gain a solid foundation in postproduction editing and sound design.


MFA 550 History of World Cinema (August 2018)

This course focuses on central issues and concerns relating to the effective management of teaching and learning processes in second and foreign language classrooms. In this course management does not mean the creation of budgets and the creation of timelines, but the creation of a positive pedagogical environment which facilitates learning.

The focus of the course is on the professional decisions that teachers must make in order to ensure that learning takes place effectively. Content will include lesson planning; teacher talk, including the effective use of questions, the provision of explanations and the use of feedback; classroom dynamics; instructional groups, small group work, dealing with large classes, one-to-one teaching, and learner-teacher roles; affective issues in the language classroom; and classroom monitoring and evaluation.

MFA 510 Film Aesthetics (May 2018)

As digital media replace the photo-chemical basis of the filmic text and the cinematic experience, we should take the opportunity to return to the originary moment of the movies and rethink the issue of “aesthetics.” This course will thus consider “film-form-degree-zero,” re-examining theories of early cinema and the basics of filmic construction, including the shot, framing, the moving camera and editing.  We will then consider more sophisticated films from the standpoint of the creation of on-screen and off-screen space and complex narrative strategies.  Finally, we will take a moment in the stream of mid-century cinema, at the height of Hollywood’s so-called “Classical” era, and see how what has come to be taken as a standardized film language was, in fact, roiling with experimentation.

MFA 540 Screenwriting

This course focuses on central issues and concerns relating to the effective management of teaching and learning processes in second and foreign language classrooms. In this course management does not mean the creation of budgets and the creation of timelines, but the creation of a positive pedagogical environment which facilitates learning.

The focus of the course is on the professional decisions that teachers must make in order to ensure that learning takes place effectively. Content will include lesson planning; teacher talk, including the effective use of questions, the provision of explanations and the use of feedback; classroom dynamics; instructional groups, small group work, dealing with large classes, one-to-one teaching, and learner-teacher roles; affective issues in the language classroom; and classroom monitoring and evaluation.

MFA 560 Film Theory (November 2017)

What is film? What is its relationship with language and with reality? What is the balance of power between film form, ‘author’, culture and spectator? This intensive course provides an historical overview of the evolving body of major theories that have explored these questions.  It examines the theoretical movements that have attempted to make sense of the aesthetic, cultural, and psychoanalytical dimensions of film.  Topics considered include: formalism, realism, the auteur, semiotics, psychoanalysis, feminist frameworks, genre analysis, spectatorship, cultural studies, the transnational, and digital and post-cinema debate.

MFA 520 Intro to Digital Filmmaking (September 2017)

This course gives the beginning filmmaker a fundamental understanding of the digital filmmaking process, starting from preproduction and going through production to post- production and delivery. Through lectures, screenings and hands-on practical learning, the students will learn the jobs and responsibilities of the each member of a film crew, proper on- set procedures and protocols, and understand the fundamentals of screenwriting, casting, working with actors, camera techniques, directing and editing. Over the course of the class, each student will take a film project from inception to completion by applying the techniques learned throughout the course. This course will combine practical with theoretical learning in helping students gain a solid foundation in digital filmmaking.