Spring 2024 Courses

SCRN Courses

 

 

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Course Descriptions

SCRN 2001-1&2| Introduction to Screen Arts

Paul Catalanotto

In this introductory course taught by Artist-in-Residence Paul Catalanotto, students can expect to get a taste of different aspects of filmmaking and video production as well as study a variety of filmmakers, styles, and genres. 

SCRN 2001-3 | Introduction to Screen Arts

TBA

This course is currently on hold; this entry will be updated when the hold is released and the course becomes available for enrollment.

SCRN 2203 | Global Cinemas

Jacopo Aldrighetti

Documenting Socio-environmental Conflicts: Filming & Writing 
How has cinema responded to the impacts of the extraction of resources from our planet? In this course, we will delve into films that portray the socio-economic conflicts surrounding environmental issues and their effects on the people and places involved. We will use films from different continents and a range of environmental literature to gain insights into the intricate relationships between humans and their environments. Films to be studied include: There Will Be Blood (USA, 2007), Sand Wars (Canada, 2013), The Good Life (Germany, 2015), The Path of the Anaconda (Colombia, 2019).

SCRN 3001-1 | Women Directors

June Pulliam

Women are chronically underrepresented behind the camera in the film industry, particularly as directors. “The USC Annenberg report found that of the 111 directors hired to make the 100 top-grossing movies [in 2022], just 9% were women” and that “women of color accounted for a mere 2.7% of directors of the top 100 movies” that same year. The lack of women behind the camera is surprising given that the film industry has “been under pressure to provide more opportunities to female artists and people of color in the wake of social justice and advocacy movements such as #MeToo and #OscarsSoWhite.” In Women Directors, we will examine films by a variety of female directors who have created everything from Hollywood hits such as Gretta Gerwig’s Barbie, Gina Prince-Blythewood’s The Woman King, and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla; to international female directors such as Ana Lily Amirpour A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and Lucrecia Martel La Mujer Sin Cabeza; and female directors from the silent era such as Alice Guy-Blaché, the director credited with creating the modern style of narrative film as we know it.

SCRN 3001-2 | American Comedy

Kalling Heck

Comedy has been a fundamental American movie genre since the earliest days of cinema. Despite this, comedic films are often overlooked in discussions of the value, place, and potential of the cinema—particularly when they are first released. This class will seek to correct this oversight by rigorously engaging with comedic films in the hopes of developing a deeper understanding of the role of comedy in the history and theory of the cinema, and indeed in humanistic inquiry more broadly. Through weekly screenings, readings and responses this class will consider how and why comedy has played (and continues to play) a central role in cinema’s development.

SCRN 3010 | Cinematography

Glen Pitre

A mostly workshop course, SCRN 3010 Cinematography is designed to teach motivated beginners how to use digital cameras and associated gear to tell compelling stories with moving images. Students complete successively more ambitious film assignments, first as individuals, then as part of a crew, working hands-on with a wide selection of gear available for check out from Screen Arts. Planning and reviewing students’ films and practicing film industry procedures occupies the bulk of the 3-hour weekly class time.

SCRN 3503 | Introduction to Japanese Cinema

Kathryn Barton

This course offers an introduction to the study of Japanese cinema. We will pay close attention to the languages and styles of films as well as the film-historical and socio-cultural contexts. An analysis and appreciation of major works and genres such as Jidaigeki (period/samurai films), Anime, and J-Horror will be explored, and directors such as Kurosawa, Ozu, and Kitano will be introduced. Through secondary readings, lectures, and discussions, students will critically examine how Japanese cinema as an institution both responds to and intervenes in the social, cultural, and political history of Japan. 

SCRN 3505 | Gender in Horror Film

June Pulliam

In horror, men are monstrous because of their reactions to women’s bodies, while women are monstrous merely because they have female bodies. In Screen Arts 3505, we will explore the connection between gender and monstrosity in horror by viewing movies from multiple genres ranging from slasher films to zombie apocalypses, as well as films with human and supernatural monsters. Some of the films we will discuss include the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Girl with All the Gifts, Jennifer’s Body, Teeth, The Witch, M3GAN, Freaks, and Pearl.

SCRN 4001 | French Film

Kevin Bongiorni

Course Description: This course will examine French film from its inception with the Lumière brothers and Georges Méliès to Amour and Agnès Varda’s Visages Villages. It will approach films from a variety of perspectives and contexts including historical, cultural, literary and film technique. The course is not a lecture course, but is designed around a seminar format. Students will be actively involved in each class meeting and will be responsible for leading and contributing to class discussions. Each week students will have reading and film viewing assignments to be done at home.

Goal of Course: As this is the only course at LSU taught with the specific subject of French Film it is designed as a general survey course of French national cinema. The goal is to provide students with a background in the history, movements, styles and cultural contexts in which the French film has developed and is developing. With this knowledge students will not only have better tools for understanding French film, but it is hoped that it will contribute to their skills in understanding other aesthetic phenomena.

SCRN 4011 | Advanced Editing

Paul Catalanotto

Advanced Editing explores editing theory and history as well as offers students a chance to learn practical skills on the Adobe Premiere editing platform. The course functions as an in-depth study of the history, concepts, and skills involved in film and video editing techniques. Additionally, students will receive formal instruction and practice in non-linear editing software as a means to gain a better understanding of concepts such as montage, continuity, and narrative.

SCRN 4015 | Advanced Film Practices

Glen Pitre

Featuring hands-on, everyone-working-together filmmaking, in SCRN 4015 Advanced Film Practices, you'll discover which movie-making specialty you love --- Make-up Artist? Gaffer? Music Supervisor? Special Effects? Art Department? Director --- as the class, taught by an internationally acclaimed producer-director, completes the shooting and manages the post production of LSU SCRN's first student feature film, Mysterious Behaviors, about a shapeshifting alien come to Earth to study college life.

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ENGL 2009-1 | Writing Screenplays

Jason Buch

Want to write a movie? TV Pilot? Learn the form and structure of Screenwriting to bring your ideas to life, while reading, watching, and discussing current films and television programs. Workshop your scripts to get friendly and helpful feedback from your fellow students. You will write your own short script and begin work on a feature film script or television pilot.

ENGL 2009-2 | Writing Screenplays

Mari Kornhauser

Storytellers come and learn the ins and outs of creating a feature film script by writing a series of short scripts and the first act of a feature (with the rest of the script outlined). Other forms of writing, such as collaborating with writing partners, writing for web-series and television, may be discussed and/or practiced. Plus, you will workshop each other’s work. MOST OF ALL, IT WILL BE FUN!

ENGL 4009-1 | Intermediate TV & Film Writing

Mari Kornhauser

Writers: come and workshop your pilot for TV or a feature film script. Using your own scripts, you’ll learn to scene card or outline your scripts as well as critique each other’s work. You’ll watch films or TV shows of your own choosing and present a journal of your observations at end of semester. This is a workshop to complete a rough draft of your script, not a lecture course, so having fun while writing is part of the process. Prerequisite: ENGL 2009

ENGL 4109 | Advanced Screenwriting (Capstone in Screenwriting)

Zachary Godshall

This is the semester you finish your screenplay. As you hone your craft as a screenwriter and sharpen your critical skills, you'll complete a draft of a feature-length screenplay or teleplay. This can be a script you've worked on before or something completely new. The course is a discussion-based writing workshop driven by oral and written communication and constructive criticism. You will also learn how to pitch, present, and submit your screenplay in a professional manner. 

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CMST 2012 | Intro to Film

William Mitchell Kahalley

This course focuses on the nature and function of film as a mode of communication and the basic visual language of cinema—selected films screened and studied. Students will put the concepts into practice by making short video projects in order to gain a deeper understanding of how films communicate. 

CMST 3012 | History of Film

Patricia Suchy, Autumn Passman

In this course we study historical and cultural contexts, events, people, technologies, and films that are especially significant to selected developments in the history of cinema, focusing on American and European cinemas. The course includes a required weekly screening on Tuesday evenings.

CMST 3013 | Topics in Film Genre: The Horror Film

Tracy Stevenson Shaffer, William Mitchell Kahalley

This course surveys the horror film—its themes, stories, and monsters. We cover a range of films: from German Expressionism to the classic 1930s horror films of Universal to independent cult classics to the mainstream films of today. This course is multimethodological. We consider a variety of ways films have been analyzed and theorized, from contextualizing the films in history to considering the films as works of art, to tracing the ways race and/or gender get imagined/represented in certain films, to highlighting the general themes that dominate the genre. Because this is a communication studies course, we will pay special attention to the way(s) that the horror genre, as an aesthetic act, communicates particular cultural obsessions, fears, and anxieties in particular historical moments. The course is worth 4 credit hours; it includes a lab for film screenings in the evening once a week. 

CMST 3107 | Rhetoric of Contemporary Media

Joni Butcher

This course will focus on TV sitcoms and opening theme songs from the 1960s to present day. We will use various methods of rhetorical criticism to examine the vocal, visual, and musical texts along with the historical contexts (including political, social, and economic) surrounding these shows and their opening themes. 

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SCRN 7001/ CPLT 7150 | Politics of Performance

Dorota Heneghan

This course explores the political relevance of performance in a wide range of films and literary works in particular national contexts and across the globe. Concentrating on the political influence on cinema and the many ways literary texts and cinematic adaptations represent and construct ideologies of gender, nation, and empire, we will examine the connections between art and activism, performance and political power, aesthetics of performance and politics. Authors and filmmakers to be discussed include Javier Cercas, Manuel Rivas, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Heinrich Mann, Klaus Mann, Ferdinand Bordewijk, Anton Chekhov, José Luis Cuerda, David Trueba, Pedro Olea, István Szabó, Michael Mayer, Josef von Sternberg, Mike van Diem and others. All texts will be read in translation. All films will be subtitled in English. 

ENGL 7109 | Interactive Storytelling (Forms of Film Writing)

Jason Buch

How do you tell a story when you don't control the protagonist? This course is an examination and workshop of different forms of interactive storytelling, including interactive fiction, video games, smartphone apps, augmented and virtual reality, and more. It will cover examples from popular branching narratives like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch to virtual reality, self-guided documentaries to 360-degree video experiences, hypertext fiction to AAA video games, and, of course, AI. We'll look at how technology can merge with storytelling and the challenges that presents to the artist. The course will introduce students to the tools that are available to allow them to incorporate interactivity into their own work no matter their comfort level with technology. Students will work on a semester-long interactive project of their own creation, which will be pitched, workshopped, written, and built by the end of the course. A background in programming or graphic design is not required.