Film and Media Studies
Film and Media Studies Website
Assistant Professor AROM CHOI Assistant Professor BARAN GERMEN Assistant Professor JORDAN LORD Associate Professor & Associate Chair SCOTT KRZYCH Associate Professor & Chair DYLAN NELSON
Film and Media Studies is increasingly essential to a rigorous liberal arts education. Our program integrates critical studies with creative practice, preparing students to understand moving images, harness media technology, and participate actively in a swiftly changing media landscape. Students study cinema and media history and theory, while pursuing creative work in a variety of forms. Building on Colorado College’s history of innovation in liberal arts education, the Film and Media Studies Program produces students who are engaged thinkers, thoughtful and collaborative practitioners, and who have achieved success in film and media industries as well as many other fields.
Major Requirements
Film and Media Studies (12 units)
Core Courses (3 units)
- FM101: Introduction to Film Studies
- FM102: Basic Filmmaking
- FM301: Advanced Theory and Research Methods
Genre, History, and Theory (3 units)
- FM200: Topics in Genre and History
- FM201: Media Theory and Cultural Studies
- FM203: Media and Psychoanalysis
- FM250: Global Queer Cinema
- FM270: New Media Publics and Social Movements
- FM228: Experimental and Expanded Cinema
- FM300: Film History and Theory
- FM303: Philosophy of Technology
- FM305: Advanced Topics in Film and Media Studies
Form and Filmmaking (2 units, at least one of which must be at the 300 level)
- FM202: Screenwriting
- FM210: Topics in Filmmaking
- FM230: Storytelling Through Sound
- FM260: Digital Magic: Introduction to Animation and Visual Effects
- FM302: Advanced Filmmaking
- FM310: Advanced Topics in Filmmaking
- FM312: Documentary Form and Filmmaking
- FM332: Creative Documentary Form and Filmmaking
Electives (2 units)
- FM205: Topics in Film and Media Studies
- FM212: Writing for Performance
- FM215: Independent Work in Film and Media Studies
- FM216: Video Dance
- FM225: Topics in Media Practice
- FM245: Film and Media Practicum
- FM255: Film and Media Studies Colloquium
- FM315: Advanced Independent Work in Film and Media Studies
Any courses from the Film and Media Studies major categories (Genre, History, and Theory; Form and Filmmaking) and any FM-numbered or cross-listed courses may be taken for elective credit. Please note that FM205 is an ELECTIVE course. FM205 courses do not count toward the Genre, History, and Theory requirement.
No more than one independent study course may be counted toward the major. No more than two study abroad courses may be transferred for major credit. No more than one course may overlap with a student’s minor. No more than two courses may overlap with a second declared major.
Thesis (2 units)
Any courses from the Film and Media Studies major categories (Genre, History, and Theory; Form and Filmmaking) and any FM-numbered or cross-listed courses may be taken for elective credit. Please note that FM205 is an ELECTIVE course. FM205 courses do not count toward the Genre, History, and Theory requirement.
No more than one independent study course may be counted toward the major. No more than two study abroad courses may be transferred for major credit. No more than one course may overlap with a student’s minor. No more than two courses may overlap with a second declared major.
Senior thesis projects must be proposed in writing during the spring of the junior year. Students take either FM401 Senior Thesis (Critical) or FM402 Senior Thesis (Creative). All “critical” projects may engage a creative component and all “creative” projects must engage a critical component.
To undertake a critical studies senior thesis, FM301 must be completed before the final thesis block. To write a screenplay for the senior thesis, FM202 (Screenwriting) is required and must be completed before the final thesis block. To make a film for the senior thesis, projects must be proposed in collaborative pairs or teams. For fiction films, the team experience must collectively include FM202 (Screenwriting) or an approved course in writing for the screen or and FM302 (Advanced Filmmaking), and these must be completed before the final thesis block. For documentary films, the team experience must collectively include FM312 (Documentary Form and Filmmaking) and a second course in documentary filmmaking or FM302 (Advanced Filmmaking), and these must be completed before the final thesis block. Other types of creative projects will also require FM202 (Screenwriting), FM312 (Documentary Form and Filmmaking), or FM302 (Advanced Filmmaking) and additional relevant prior coursework; upon approval of department.
Minor Requirements
Film Studies is a program administered by the Film and Media Studies Department. The program offers a minor to students with an interest in film in addition to their major. The orientation is eclectic and aesthetic, the study of cinema as an art, whatever the genre (narrative, documentary, animation, experimental) or mode of presentation (theater, television, internet). The curriculum is enriched by faculty in other departments and by visiting scholars, filmmakers, and screenwriters.
Film and Media Studies Minor (6 units)
Core Courses (2 units)
Genre, History, and Theory (1 unit)
- FM200: Topics in Film Genre and History
- FM250: Global Queer Cinema
- FM300: Film History and Theory
- FM305: Advanced Topics in Film and Media Studies
Form and Filmmaking (1 unit)
- FM202: Screenwriting
- FM210: Topics in Filmmaking
- FM230: Storytelling Through Sound
- FM302: Advanced Filmmaking
- FM310: Advanced Topics in Filmmaking
- FM312: Documentary Form and Filmmaking
Any two additional Film and Media Studies units, not to include more than one unit of independent study.
Courses
Film and Media
Film in its formal and ideological dimensions, narrative, documentary, and experimental. Students learn to become active and critical viewers of films, and to situate film aesthetics within historical, industrial, cultural, and political contexts, developing an understanding of film form as interlinked with content. 1 unit. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.
Examines the fundamentals of filmmaking – planning, shooting, and editing – via numerous short projects that culminate in a final public screening. Topics include framing and composition; cinematography, lighting, and sound; storyboards and shot diagrams; editing tools and techniques; digital workflow; and the process of analysis, evaluation, and revision. 1 unit. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement.
Studies the form of a single film genre, auteur, or historical era and its development over time. Possible genres include science fiction, horror, the musical, melodrama, documentary, comedy, and “independent” film, among others. May include studies of specific auteurs or of national cinemas beyond the US.
Examines contemporary media and its effects on our understanding and experience of culture and society. In-depth reading of influential theories in the disciplines of contemporary film and media theory, Cultural Studies, and technology studies, as well as close analysis of visual media (television, film, web pages, and interactive technology). Group projects and analytical writing assignments will emphasize both formal and ideological analysis of media. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines the fundamentals of screenwriting: theme and meaning, structure, narrative, dialogue, character development, and revision. Students will read, analyze, and discuss the screenplays for produced films; develop and pitch their own story ideas; and plan, write, and revise, by the end of the course, a significant screenplay project. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement.
Considers the status of desire and subjectivity in the contemporary media landscape, a setting in which failure often has become a new means for success. How can we judge the aesthetic value of contemporary media when failure may ensure, rather than prevent, profitability? Is there any possibility for an ethics of media when nothing is off limits? To what extent can the psychoanalytic concept of desire be applied to and extended by the aesthetics of new media? (Not offered 2024-25).
Studies in a specific subject area involving the critical analysis of film, television, new media, audiovisual culture, or theoretical concept, among other topics. 1 unit.
Introductory work in specific areas, or with specific techniques, of filmmaking or writing. Includes critical reading and writing with an emphasis on applied projects. 1 unit.
Fundamentals Identifies techniques utilized by writers of performance, ranging from slam poets to monologists to playwrights. Script and poem excerpts as well as video and audio samples will serve as the basis for in-class conversations around craft. Students will embark on a series of short solo and group writing exercises, trying their hand at a myriad of performance writing forms. Selected student work of merit will be presented in a final public staged reading. (Not offered 2024-25).
(Not offered 2024-25).
Introduction to creating dance specifically for the video medium, also known as video dance. Investigates ways that choreographers might use video technology as a creative tool. Aspects include production of video, audio, and choreography with the aim of fusing these elements. (Not offered 2024-25).
(Summer only 2024-25).
(Summer only 2024-25).
Study and practice of forms of media-making beyond film and video. Possible topics include interactive storytelling, radio journalism, podcasting, and new media, among others. Includes critical reading and writing with an emphasis on applied projects. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines alternative approaches to cinema developed after 1960 by independent filmmakers and interdisciplinary artists working with animation, puppetry, video, performance, and installation. Uses readings by scholars such as P. Adams Sitney, Steven Shaviro, and Laura Marks to explore the visual and tactile qualities of film, the relationship between mainstream and experimental cinema, and social attitudes towards new technologies. 1 Unit. (Not offered 2024-25).
Introduces the fundamentals of sound design, a crucial yet overlooked element of cinematic storytelling, through lectures, production and post-production sound workshops, and experiential sound design assignments.
Concentrated technical practicum and workshops in filmmaking on a variety of topics.
An introduction to global queer cinema as a critical archive of gendered and sexual life-worlds vis-a-vis the encroachments of neoliberalism and nationalism. Besides the geopolitics of queer film, particular attention is given to local, diasporic, and postcolonial queer optics from the Global South, construed not only as a matter of geography but also applied to spaces and populations within the Global North that are subject to precarity and disenfranchisement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Concentrated study of varying topics related to Film and Media Studies from artistic and/or industrial perspectives. (Not offered 2024-25).
Introduces the art and technique of digital effects for filmmaking, including stop motion, 2D, and basic 3D digital animation and practical visual effects such as green screen compositing, mattes and masks, and CGI. Culminates in a screening of student work. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines the impact new media technologies, practices, and networks have on the notion of the public, social movements, and political activism, focusing largely on the Global South and the greater Middle East. (Not offered 2024-25).
Film in its material, historical and theoretical dimensions, from its beginnings to the present. Growth of the film industry; the American studio system; European avant-garde cinema; world cinema; auteurism; film and popular culture; problems of genre. Film theory: the nature of the medium; its major theorists - Griffith, Eisenstein, Arnheim, Bazin, Kracauer, Metz, Mulvey, etc.
In-depth study of contemporary theoretical approaches to film, media, or technology. Topics vary from year to year. Course assignments place special emphasis on analytical writing and scholarly research.
Emphasizes advanced approaches to motion picture storytelling, including the use of camera movement, motivated lighting, multi-track sound recording and design, methods of directing actors, and advanced editing. Analyzes concepts, language, and modes of film expression and stresses set protocols and processes of collaboration, critique, and revision. Culminates in a screening of student work.
Explores the ways in which technology serves as a compromise between mind and matter. Technology may begin as an idea in the mind of an inventor, but technologies only come into existence through unpredictable processes that involve historical, cultural, and environmental limitations. In those moments when technology begins to operate unpredictably, independently of its inventors or intended purposes, it opens up possibilities for philosophical insights into culture, society, and human subjectivity. Investigates examples in film and new media, including cybernetics, special effects, digital cinema, and virtual reality. (Not offered 2024-25).
Studies in a wide array of topics related to film history, theory, and genres. (Not offered 2024-25).
Introductory work in specific areas, or with specific techniques, of filmmaking or writing. Includes critical reading and writing with an emphasis on applied projects. 1 unit.
Students create their own short documentaries while examining the history, codes, and conventions of the feature documentary film. Topics include narrative techniques, questions of form and genre, documentary ethics, interview methods, documentary cinematography, archival imagery, fair use/copyright, and editing rhythm and pacing, among others. Student documentaries are showcased in an end-of-course screening.
Workshop in advanced documentary storytelling approaches, techniques, and creativity. Emphasizes invention, artistic development, and documentary ethics via numerous applied projects. Culminates in a screening of student work. (Not offered 2024-25).
Upper-level intensive seminar course engages film theory, history, and practice through the lens of the Sundance Film Festival. A week of intensive screening and discussion at Sundance inspires further critical and creative work on campus, with an emphasis on collaborative practices.
Advanced study of a topic, chosen by the student and approved by the program, with student research and writing directed by an individual faculty member. The essay may take the form of a traditional written essay or a video essay. Can be taken up to 2 times for credit upon approval of the department.
Advanced project, chosen by the student and approved by the program, with student work directed by an individual faculty member, culminating in a short fiction film, short documentary, or screenwriting project, accompanied by a written critical analysis. Can be taken up to 2 times for credit upon approval of the department.
Topics vary from year to year. May include preliminary work on the senior thesis project, including research, bibliography, and individual and group screenings in film/media relevant to the thesis. (Not offered 2024-25).