Course Descriptions
Television and Film Arts | Communication | English | Theater
Television and Film Arts Courses
TFA 201: Introduction to Television and Film Arts
Introduction to the history of storytelling and the various ways in which stories can be told today. Emphasis on television, film, theater, and other visual media.
TFA 301: TV and Film Criticism
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
Students study great directors and the screenplays they have produced, focusing on analyzing story structure, characters, and theme of screenplays that comprise the established canon. Directors to be studied include: Spielberg, Kubrick, Hitchcock, Wilder, Allen, and Tarrantino.
TFA 304: Writing for Television and Film Arts
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
Students practice writing techniques for television, film, and other visual media by crafting a series of commercials, documentaries, scenes, and narrative scripts.
TFA 401: Producing Short Films I
Prerequisite: TFA 301, 304, COM 329 and permission of instructor.
Students form virtual video production companies and work collaboratively with other students – alternately assuming the role of writer, producer, director and production crew. In the process, students will develop the ability to assess their strengths, weaknesses and interests.
TFA 420: Producing Short Films II
Prerequisite: TFA 401 and permission of instructor.
Students function as true "auteurs" – using advanced techniques to write, produce, direct, and edit their own single camera short video project. The emphasis of this course will be on the effectiveness of the story, rather than on production quality. Critiques from peers and instructors focus on developing storytelling skills.
TFA 450: Senior Project
Prerequisite: TFA 420 and permission of instructor.
Students write a short script, partner with other students (for acting and production services) and faculty, and bring their short scripts to life in a professional, multi-camera studio production. Final projects will be shown in a public forum.
TFA 460: Adaptation
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
Students adapt literature for television or film. They choose a short story, poem, or other piece of literature and translate it into a short script.
TFA 480: Advanced Directing/Producing I
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
Students focus on directing the actor for a single camera production. Each student directs short scenes from selected plays, then shoots a scene (single camera) as a final project. The class and students from other departments act as the "Acting Company."
Communication Courses
COM 312 Basic Media Production
Exploration of basic concepts and processes of video and audio media production and editing, including hands-on experience in studio and field production, and both video and audio post-production; Discussion of career options.
COM 329: Television Production
Prerequisite: GPA of 2.6 in a communication major.
Introduction to the theory, aesthetics and fundamentals of video production; emphasis on visual, auditory and motion elements of communicating through TV; introduction to in-studio production setting.
COM 432: Nonlinear Editing
Prerequisite: COM 329 or permission of instructor.
Students study the process and art of nonlinear editing using digital editors to develop skills required to successfully compete professional using nonlinear video editing. Students will produce their own video project using the nonlinear video editing machine.
English Courses
ENG 205: History of Cinema I
This course provides the student with an understanding of cinema history from 1890 to 1960. Students will examine trends in cinema's aesthetic forms, technical breakthroughs, innovators, cultural antecedents, and impact.
ENG 206: History of Cinema II
This course provides the student with an understanding of cinema history since 1960. Students will examine representative trends in cinema's aesthetic form, technical breakthroughs, key innovators, cultural antecedents, and cultural impact.
ENG 303: Literature in Film
The motion picture as a vehicle for literature. Analysis and comparison of verbal and pictorial forms.
ENG 305: Creative Writing: Narrative
Prerequisite: Fulfillment of English composition/basic communication requirement.
The writing of narrative.
ENG 350: Twentieth-Century Drama I
Prerequisite: ENG 190 or permission of instructor.
Drama from the 1880s to the end of World War II of such playwrights as Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Lorca, Synge, O'Casey, and O'Neill.
ENG 351: Twentieth-Century Drama II
Prerequisite: ENG 190 or permission of instructor.
Drama since World War II; epic theater, absurdism, and theater of cruelty; discussions of such playwrights as Brecht, Ionesco, Beckett, Genet, Miller, Albee, Pinter, Baraka, and Arabal.
ENG 402: Advanced Creative Writing: Narrative
Prerequisite: Fulfillment of English composition/basic communication requirement.
Creative workshop for students who wish to attempt longer forms of narrative than the short story.
Theater Courses
THA 200: Voice I
Introduction to basic voice and speech practice. Develop skills and knowledge associated with freeing the natural voice and extending vocal range and physical capacity for sound, and develop awareness of the potential for articulate, precise, and expansive vocal and physical presence.
THA 226: Acting I
Introduction to the fundamental demands of the acting process. Student actors will engage in focus and concentration development; improvisation, scene work, and performance as they identify and develop themselves in the artistic process of acting.
THA 325: The Business of Performing Arts
Comprehensive overview of the numerous aspects of business relating to the performing arts of drama, dance and music.
THA 337: Set Design I
Prerequisite: One theater or design course, or upper-division status. Introduction to theatrical set design: basic design components of line, form, mass, composition, balance, color, and texture as they relate to set design; script analysis, research, color theory, drafting techniques, and mechanical perspective drawing.
THA 340: Playwriting
Prerequisite: THA 106, THA 216, and permission of instructor.
Development of critical capacities; productive work in playwriting.