COGN 21 – Methods of Media Production

Spring 2008 Tuesday & Thursday 3:30pm - 4:50 pm Peterson 108

Course web page: http://communication.ucsd.edu/courses/index.html

Professor Zeinabu irene Davis Email: zdavis@ucsd.edu Office: MCC 124A Thurs 12-2 pm

Course Description:

This course introduces you to the language and practice of media production. Through readings, lectures, and activities in section, you will acquire extensive knowledge of the art and practice of video production, film aesthetics, television studies, pre production planning, production management and editing aesthetics and practice. Creative process, issues of representation, and genre are also emphasized.

With the acquisition of this language, you will recognize the choices available to a media maker. This information is valuable if you literally will become a media producer in the future but, more generally, knowledge of these choices improves your analytical abilities as a student of communication and as a critic / viewer / auditor of media and cultural products which are forms of communication technology.

This class (COGN 21) is organized into a lecture that meets twice a week, and a discussion section that meets once a week. There is an optional production lab (COGN 22) that meets 3 hours each week for two credits. The production lab offers hands on training in audio video equipment, specifically shooting with a Digital Video Camera, recording sound, and editing. If you wish to take advanced methods courses (COMT 120, 121, 100 for example) you must pass COGN 22. It is strongly recommended that you enroll in COGN 22 concurrently with COGN 21. If you are only enrolled in COGN 21, you will not obtain hands on training in audio video production.

Course Requirements:

Reading and writing are integral to the course. Please purchase the text and access online readings immediately. Keep up with readings and expect to read at least 50 pages of text each week. It is recommend that you read each assignment twice. Attention to detail is imperative – pay attention to syllabus requirements for labs and lectures. Some of the work you do in discussion section will be conducted in groups. You have a responsibility to participate in your group work as efficiently and with as much energy as you would contribute to your own work.

Media clips and technical instruction are an important part of lecture. These clips and this technical information will not be repeated in discussion section and is not covered in the reading. You will be tested on this material during the mid term and final exam, therefore it is strongly recommend that you attend each lecture. Lecture materials will not be posted online.

Attendance is part of your grade. Absences and lateness in discussion sections are not acceptable. You must arrive to labs and lectures on time. No sleeping or emailing / im’ing / texting during sections or in lecture. If you are asleep, you will be marked absent. For every unexcused absence in discussion section, your grade will be reduced by ½ a letter grade. Each tardy will result in 2% off your final grade. Late submissions are not acceptable. For each day a project is late, the grade will be dropped by one letter grade. No incompletes will be given under any circumstances.

If you require accommodations for disabilities, please communicate with the Professor immediately and register with the Office of Students with Disabilities (OSD). This way we may make arrangements to fit your needs.

Required Reading: Complete reading assignments before the lecture / lab on the day assigned.

Tom Schroeppel The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video, self published, © 1997-2000, $8.95 (Price Center Bookstore)
Film Art, 8^th Ed., David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson (Price Center Bookstore) $69.95
Introduction to Documentary, Bill Nichols, Indiana Press, 2001.
Additional readings are available only as downloadable as PDF files via the UCSD Library e-reserves: http://reserves.ucsd.edu/. From this link, click on “Electronic Reserves and Reserve Pages” Handouts are available at COGN 21 listing on the course web page: http://communication.ucsd.edu/courses Note: If accessing e-reserves from off-campus, you will need to use the proxy server. For info on how to use the UCSD Library proxy server go to: http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/guide/proxy.html

Grading for COGN 21:

· Attendance and participation in discussion section: 10%

· Mid Term Exam: 25%

· Final Exam: 30%

· Visit to Museum/Arts Organization: 5%

· Visualization of Ideas 5% Produce short film ideas inspired by three quotes (WEEK 2 in section)

· Photography Assignment: 5% Produce 5 images exploring different elements of composition (WEEK 3 in Section)

· Pre Production Notebook: 20% Craft a 5 page script and develop a storyboard demonstrating how you would visually and editorially construct this film. Other components on handout.

Week One: The Language of the Visual

4/1: Introduction and Course Overview, The Still Image

Read: Chpt 4 Mise-En-Scene in Film Art pp. 111-161 and Bare Bones pp. 1-42

4/3: Motion and the Image

COGN 21 Section: Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989, 120 min) & “How to Watch/Hear a Film”

COGN 22 Lab: Camera demonstration. Print and bring DSR 200 pamphlet to lab.

Week Two: Movement

Read: Chpt 2 & 3 “Film Form” and “Narrative as Formal System” pp. 54-96

4/8: Time and Experimentation (Muybridge to FluxFilms)

4/20: Film Form explored through Do the Right Thing

COGN 21 Section: watch La Jetee (Chris Marker 1973, 28 min) and Visualization of Ideas exercise

COGN 22 Lab: Project One: In Camera Exercise

Bring to 22 Lab: 1 DVCam tape (60 min, no chip!)

Week Three: Editing

Read: Bare Bones 46-89, & Chpt 6 “The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing” in Film Art pp. 217-263

4/15: Editing Method

4/17: Genre and Form

COGN 21 Section: Photography Assignment

COGN 22 Lab: iMovie Editing in Seq 142

Read / Print for 22 Lab: iMovie handout

Week Four: Sound

Read: Rick Altman “Material Heterogeneity of Recorded Sound” on electronic Reserves

4/22: Sound and recording

Read: Chpt 7 “Sound in the Cinema” in Film Art pp. 264-303

4/24: The Art of Sound

COGN 21 Section: Discussion and Review

COGN 22 Lab: Instruction in sound recording for Sound Assignment.

Read for 22 Lab: S. Alten “Manually Produced Sound Effects” pp. 605-612 and H. Zettl “Audio and Sound Control” pp. 151-183 on ereserves

Week Five: Mid term exam and Documentary Beginnings

4/29: Documentary & midterm review; student photo examples

Read: Introduction to Documentary, Bill Nichols pp. intro-81

5/1: Mid Term Exam (no make ups!)

COGN 21: View High School (Frederick Wiseman, 1968, 75 min.)

COGN 22: Record sound project and import material (allow one hour for import alone.)

For COGN 22 Lab: meet in groups to decide on premise of project and sound recording list. Make spotting sheet and photocopy. Turn in photocopy at beginning of section.

Week Six: Representing Reality?

Read: Introduction to Documentary, Bill Nichols pp. 82-177

5/6: Documentary modes

Read “Kill the Documentary as We Know It” by Jill Godmilow on ereserves

5/8: Documentary reflexivity in form and production

COGN 21: View Land Without Bread (Luis Bunuel, 1932, 27min.) discussion

COGN 22 Lab: Edit and complete sound project

Week Seven: Lighting and Scriptwriting in Film

Read: Maya Deren “Film Medium as Muse and Means” on ereserves and Film Art (355-370)

5/13: Cinematography and lighting concepts

Read: Film Directing Shot by Shot excerpt by S. Katz on ereserves, Pre Production Mtls on CWS

5/15: Screenplay format and process

COGN 21: Watch Crash (Paul Haggis, 2004, 112 min.)

COGN 22: Turn in sound / image paper. Listen to sound projects. Learn lighting techniques. Discuss final pjt.

Week Eight: Issues of Representation

Read: Laura Mulvey “Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema” pp. 303-315 and Tanya Modeleski “The Master’s Dollhouse” pp. 73-85

5/20: Gazing and Glancing

Read: bell hooks article on ereserves

5/22: Staring and Desire

COGN 21 Section: Discuss reading. Group work on Script / Storyboard Project. Seq 142

Outside of COGN 22: Meet in groups of 5. Prepare script and shot list / sound list for documentary.

COGN 22 Lab: Shoot documentary.

Week Nine: Digital Media

Read: “Game Theories” ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin, pp. tba

5/27: Games Theories

Read: “Database as a symbolic form” by Lev Manovich (on Course Website)

5/29: Noah Wardrip-Fruin Guest Lecture

COGN 21: Group work on scripts / storyboards – seq 142

Before COGN 22 lab: View dailies and create EDL.

COGN 22 Lab: Edit documentary.

Week Ten: Global Media

Read: A. Perren “A Big Fat Indie Success Story?: Press Discourse Surrounding the Making and Marketing of a Hollywood Movie” pp. 18-30

6/3 The Business of Media

6/5 Merging Film and the Telephone

COGN 21: Turn in scripts / storyboards and pre production notebook

COGN 22: Complete documentary project and turn in at end of section with photocopies of Camera Report, Dailies Log and EDL.

FINAL EXAM: MONDAY, JUNE 9^th 3-6 pm

How To Watch / Hear a Film

There is more to a film than plot; therefore as you watch and listen to films, you should consider the work as a text in which the sum of the parts contribute to the whole. Think of these six points when viewing any film and particularly when writing about them:

Who (what group) made this film and why? When did they make it? What a studio involved? Was this film made independently?

What is the argument being presented by the maker(s)? Are there multiple arguments and various conflicting readings one may do of the text?

What is the visual design of the film – how does the film or video stock, lighting, color, shadow, focus, depth of field, and framing relate to content?

What is the sound design of the film? How does the maker use the following sound stems:

voice
music
sound effects / sound objects
wild / location sound / background sound
silence

What is the editing style of the film? How do images fit together? How do scenes fit together? What is the overall structure?

Why did the filmmaker choose to make this a fiction film rather than a documentary? Or why and how is this a documentary film and not a work of fiction?

EXERCISE #1: Photography

Worth 5% of final grade
Due downloaded onto computer in room MCC 136 (with TA) by end of section
(Allow 20 minutes to download images onto computer)

· Equipment: Still digital camera

In groups of 3 students

Instructions:

Explore a space from a specific perspective. Consider composition, focus, depth of field, color and light. How can you use these elements to create frames that visually represent a specific point of view about a place. (Consider how to represent a child’s view of a playground as compared to an adult’s. How might one ‘see’ a space differently if they feel welcomed or excluded?)

Types of images to capture: Collect at least 6 of these images and combine elements: ie. A close up shot with shallow depth of field.

A. Wide Shot of the place (WS)

B. Close Up on an object in the place (CU)

C. Extreme Close Up of that same object (ECU)

D. Close Up of a person in the place with their permission (CU)

G. Medium shot

H. Low Angle shot

I. High Angle shot

J. Image emphasizing horizontal axis

K. Image emphasizing vertical axis

L. Image emphasizing Z-axis

M. Shallow depth of field

N. Deep Focus

Camera Report (continue on another page):

Name of Shot	Elements	Notes: good / bad /etc

EXERCISE #3: Pre Production Notebook

Worth 20% of final grade

· Produce in groups of 3

Due week 10 in COGN 21 Section in one Three ring Notebook
Provide a Buckley Waiver

Elements:

1. Find textual inspiration through an academic essay or book (not from this course.) With the members of your group, create a premise for a short film that explores the themes of this essay or responds to them. Get approval on your premise from your TA. Due by end of section Week Eight. PUT A FINAL VERSION OF THE PREMISE IN YOUR NOTEBOOK.

2. In section, using Final Draft software in the Seq lab, begin to write the screenplay for this film. Use proper screenplay style and technique. The screenplay should not exceed 6 pages. Final version due by end of section Week Nine.

3. Draw storyboards demonstrating how the script will be moved to the screen.

4. Line the script demonstrating how you will cover the action of the script. Remember, that each line represents a type of shot and lines may overlap, particularly in shot-reverse shot dialogue sequences, for example.

5. Create breakdown sheets for every scene in your film.

6. Provide materials demonstrating the production design of the film: images of costumes, actors, sets, the color scheme of certain scenes. Provide as much evidence as you can of how you would bring this film to fruition through the mise-en-scene.