DEPARTMENT OF FILM AND MEDIA STUDIES
235 Humanities
Instructional Building; (949) 824-5386
Mark S. Poster, Department Chair
235 Humanities
Instructional Building; (949) 824-5386
Fatimah Tobing Rony, Acting Department
Chair
Core Faculty
Eyal Amiran, Ph.D. University of Virginia, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and of Film and Media Studies (digital media theory, twentieth-century literature, narrative and textual theory, psychoanalysis, modern and postmodern intellectual history)
Sohail Daulatzai, Ph.D. University of Southern California, Assistant Professor of African American Studies and of Film and Media Studies (cultural studies, postcolonial theory, race, internationalism, cultural politics of hip-hop, sports, cinema)
Edward Dimendberg, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies (film history, audio-visual media and the built environment, contemporary architecture and urbanism, avant-garde cinema, modernism and modernity)
Nanette Fornabai, Ph.D. Brown University, Assistant Professor of French and of Film and Media Studies (early French film, detective film, film noir, science and cinema)
Jonathan M. Hall, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and of Film Studies (Japanese film, East Asian Cinemas, queer and psychoanalytic theory, experimental and avant-garde film)
Victoria E. Johnson, Ph.D. University of Southern California, Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies and of African American Studies (history and critical theory of U.S. television, popular film, and media; politics of geography, race, gender, and sexuality in popular culture; cultural studies)
Kyung Hyun Kim, Ph.D. University of Southern California, Director of the Film and Video Center and Associate Professor of Korean Culture and of Film and Media Studies (modern Korea, Asian cinema, critical theory)
Peter O. Krapp, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara, Director of the Graduate Program in Visual Studies and Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies (digital culture, media theory, cultural memory, history and politics of the Internet, hypertexts)
Bliss (Felicidad) Cua Lim, Ph.D. New York University, Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies (Filipino and Hong Kong cinema, Third World and postcolonial studies, horror, fantastic cinema, and the politics of genre; temporality)
Catherine Liu, Ph.D. City University of New York Graduate School and Center, Co-Director of the Humanities and Arts Major and Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies and of Comparative Literature (critical theory, visual and literary culture, psychoanalysis, narrative theory and melodrama in film and literature, New Wave)
Glen Mimura, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies (minority and third cinemas; cultural studies; queer theory and racialized sexuality)
Mark S. Poster, Ph.D. New York University, Department Chair and Professor of Film and Media Studies and Professor of History and Comparative Literature (theory and history of the media, theory of technology and culture, and Internet studies)
Fatimah Tobing Rony, Ph.D. Yale University, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies (documentary and ethnographic film, race and representation, film history and theory, film production)
Jared Sexton, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Assistant Professor of African American Studies and of Film and Media Studies (race and sexuality, policing and imprisonment, contemporary U.S. cinema and political culture, multiracial coalition, critical theory)
Affiliated Faculty
Juan Bruce-Novoa, Ph.D. University of Colorado, Professor of Spanish (Latin American and Chicano literatures)
Kai Evers, Ph.D. Duke University, Assistant Professor of German (twentieth-century German literature and film, modernism and Holocaust literature)
Edward Fowler, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Department Chair of East Asian Languages and Literatures and Professor of Japanese (modern Japanese literature, cultural studies, film)
Adriana M. Johnson, Ph.D. Duke University, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature (Latin American literature, nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin America, cultural and postcolonial studies)
Sally A. Stein, Ph.D. Yale University, Associate Professor of Art History (American art, history of photography, feminist theory)
Frank B. Wilderson III, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Drama (film theory, Marxism, dramaturgy, black political theory)
We live in a world in which we are surrounded by electronic media in the form of images and sounds. Whether printed on roadside billboards or broadcast into our homes via television, the media greatly influence our sense of who we are and how we live. Yet so much of our exposure to the sights and sounds of film, TV, video, advertising, and new technologies is taken for granted. Those sights and sounds are so pervasive, and in many cases so enjoyable, that we rarely pause to consider how they act upon us and how we interact with them. An undergraduate education in Film and Media Studies provides students with an opportunity to explore the appeal and to begin to understand the operation of these complex meaning-producing machines we call cinema, television, and new digital technologies, and to interrogate the inter-relationships of visual media and sound and music as forms of media.
The course work for the B.A. degree program in Film and Media Studies trains students to read and understand the audio-visual languages of modern media and new technologies and to analyze images from socioeconomic, political, aesthetic, and historical perspectives. Learning these critical viewing skills involves learning new ways of seeing. The Film and Media Studies curriculum is systematic and comprehensive; upper-division courses have between 20 and 70 students and are typically taught by regular faculty. There are more than 300 Film and Media Studies majors enrolled at UCI.
The Department of Film and Media Studies familiarizes students with the history, theory, and art of cinema and other media. Courses focus on a range of topics, including directors, period styles, genres, national cinemas, the history and criticism of television, sound theory and popular music, and developments in new technologies. Additional courses offer students hands-on experience in video production and screenwriting. The program provides its majors with a thorough appreciation of the modern media's roles in contemporary society. Regular course offerings are complemented by film and video screenings and series at the School of Humanities Film and Video Center. Film and Media Studies, in cooperation with other units at UCI, regularly invites scholars, digital artists, directors, producers, and screenwriters to campus to share their work and perspectives with students.
Film and Media Studies at UCI is unique in its concentration on the history, theory, and criticism of cinema, television, popular music and sound, and new technologies. The faculty has published books and articles on topics that include fantastic cinema, avant-garde directors, ethnographic film, film and postmodernism, horror cinema, hip-hop and cinema, television performance, and new technologies.
In order to cover the extra costs generated by the purchase and rental of media and production equipment demanded by the specialized Film and Media Studies curriculum, the School of Humanities charges a laboratory fee of $20 per course to all students taking Film and Media Studies courses.
Film and Media Studies students can complete professional internships in the fields of film, television, or digital media production, distribution, writing, and related areas for elective course credit.
Film and Media Studies students also have the opportunity to spend their junior year in France studying at the Inter-University Center for Film and Critical Studies in Paris, through the University's Education Abroad Program. Information is available both in the Film and Media Studies Office and the Education Abroad Program Office.
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
A degree in Film and Media Studies will provide students with a variety of opportunities leading to a career choice or to further education at the graduate or professional level. Graduates from the program have gone on to a host of different careers. Some have pursued graduate work in critical film studies at leading institutions such as the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Iowa. Others have entered M.F.A. programs in production at places like the University of Southern California, UCLA, or San Francisco State University. Many are now at work in various sectors of the entertainment industry as feature film editors, executives in film and video distribution companies, network television producers, and independent filmmakers.
The UCI Career Center provides services to students and alumni including career counseling, information about job opportunities, a career library, and workshops on resume preparation, job search, and interview techniques. See the Career Center section for additional information.
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE
University Requirements: See pages 57-62.
School Requirements: See pages 258-259.
Departmental Requirements for the Major
Film and Media Studies 85A-B-C, 101A-B-C, either 110 or 111, either 117A or 120A, 139 (taken to satisfy upper-division writing), and four of the following: 112, 113, 114, 115, 117B*, 117C*, 120B*, 120C*, 130, 141, 142, 143, 144, 160, 161, 185, 190. (*Students may apply only two of the courses marked with an asterisk toward this requirement.)
Residence Requirement for the Major: At least five upper-division courses required for the major must be completed successfully at UCI.
Departmental Requirements for the Minor
Film and Media Studies 85A, 101A-B-C, and three of the following: 85B, 85C, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 130, 141, 142, 143, 144, 160, 161, 185, 190.
Residence Requirement for the Minor: Four upper-division courses must be completed successfully at UCI. By petition, two of the four may be taken through the UC Education Abroad Program, providing course content is approved in advance by the appropriate department chair.
In conjunction with the Department of Art History, the Department of Film and Media Studies offers a graduate program in Visual Studies. A description may be found in the Program in Visual Studies section, toward the end of the School of Humanities section.
Courses in Film and Media Studies
LOWER-DIVISION
85A-B-C Image Culture
85A Visual Media and Contemporary Culture (4) F. An introduction to the study of visual media-such as advertising, movies, television, and video-and analysis of their role in contemporary culture. Introduces students to the critical vocabulary of film and television studies. (IV)
85B History of Broadcasting (4) W. A history of broadcast media. Social, political, economic, legal, institutional, and cultural perspectives guide analysis. United States commercial TV serves as the primary case study. Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 85A or consent of instructor. (IV)
85C New Technologies and Visuality (4) S. The study of electronic communication technologies, such as virtual reality and the Internet, from social, cultural, psychological, and political perspectives. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 85A-B or consent of instructor. (IV)
UPPER-DIVISION
101A-B-C History of Film
101A The Silent Era I (4) W. An investigation of the technological, economic, social, and aesthetic determinants of the cinema in its first 30 years. The formal strategies and historical importance of films by Méliès, the Lumières, Porter, Griffith, Murnau, Lang, Eisenstein, Pudovkin, and others. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 85A; open to Film and Media Studies majors and minors only.
101B The Sound Era I (4) S. Explores the formal strategies and socio-historical dynamics of films made between 1930 and 1960, concentrating on representative cinemas and works by Lang, Riefenstahl, Renoir, Welles, De Sica, Ophüls, Kurosawa, and others. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 101A with a grade of C- or better; open to Film and Media Studies majors and minors only.
101C The Sound Era II (4) F. Studies narrative strategies and formal possibilities in films made since 1960, framing aesthetic questions in political, social, and economic terms, using selected features from Western and non-Western countries. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 101B with a grade of C- or better; open to Film and Media Studies majors and minors only.
110 Film and Media Theory (4) F, W, S, Summer. Survey of major directions in film and media theory. Various theories of mass culture, realism, auteurism, semiotics, feminism, cultural studies, and theories of other media. Offered as a seminar, with an emphasis on developing the student's ability to analyze and articulate a theoretical argument. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 85A-B-C and 101A-B-C.
111 Media Theory and Practice (4) F, W, S. Seminar on theory and practice focusing on issues in film and media production and editing. Reading and exercises to understand aspects of film and media production (montage, sound, film movement, directing, and mise en scène), and how ideology works in tandem with style. Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 101C, 120A, and consent of instructor. Open only to Film and Media Studies majors.
112 Genre Study (4) F, W, S. Critical approaches to the serial productions we call "genre" films, the patterns of recognition known as westerns, weepies, musicals, horror films, and others; televisual genres, such as sitcoms, drama, comedy, news, docudrama, police; Internet categories, such as chat-rooms, listservs, Web pages. Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 85A or consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
113 Narrative/Image (4) F, W, S. What relations do sound, image, and story assume in film, television, video, and Internet narratives? In what ways do these media interact with and borrow from each other and traditional story-telling media, like print and orality? How have the new media explored non-narrative strategies and to what end? Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 85A or consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
114 Film, Media, and the Arts (4) F, W, S. A synthetic entity, film draws on both established and popular arts. Looks at visual media's exchanges with "high" and "low" culture, exploring its relation to areas such as photography, music, painting, and architecture. Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 85A or consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
115 Authorship (4) F, W, S. Theoretical and analytical discussions of visual media authorship, focusing on case studies of directors, producers, scriptwriters, and film, video, and digital artists. Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 85A or consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
117A Introduction to Screenwriting (4) F, W, S, Summer. Introduction to the technique and format of the screenplay, with a particular focus on its three act structural elements: coverage, treatment, and 60 beat outline.
117B Intermediate Screenwriting (4) F, W, S. Exercises in the development of screenplays, with emphasis on formal and structural considerations of character development. Students work with the hero structure and other character development methodologies, such as method acting. Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 117A.
117C Screenwriting Workshop (4) F, W, S. Continuation and intensification of work initiated in 117B. Students complete a full-length screenplay. Concentrates on both practical and technical concerns, addressing pragmatic and aesthetic questions in intensive small-group discussions. Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 117B.
120A Basic Production (4) F, W, S, Summer. Introduction to the basic apparatus of video/film production. The elementary essentials of production, including the use of camera and lenses, lighting, editing, and sound. Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 85A or consent of instructor.
120B Intermediate Production (4) W. Students work on individual and group projects, utilizing skills and insights introduced in Film and Media Studies 120A. Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 120A or consent of instructor.
120C Production Workshop (4) S. As film and video are collaborative media, students form production groups and ultimately produce final 10-15 minute film/video projects. Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 120B or consent of instructor.
130 Multicultural Topics in the Media (4) F, W, S. An investigation of media representations of gender, race, and sexuality in the United States. Topics include media images of and by one or more minority groups in the United States, including African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicano/Latinos, Native Americans, and gays and lesbians. Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 85A or consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit as topics vary. (VII-A)
139 Writing on Film and Media (4) F, W, S. Practical exercises in film, TV, and other media criticism as a form of cultural analysis. Requires at least 4,000 words of assigned composition. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 85A and 101A; satisfactory completion of the lower-division writing requirement; junior standing.
141 Studies in Television: 1930-1970 (4) F, W, S. Part one of an in-depth sequence in the critical history of television. Focuses thematically on different concerns of the period (the Anthology Drama, Live Television, TV and the Hollywood Studios, and others). Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 85A-B-C or consent of instructor.
142 Studies in Television: 1971-Present (4) F, W, S. Part two of an in-depth sequence in the critical history of television. Expands on knowledge of broadcast history from 85B and 141. Focuses thematically on different concerns of the period ("Quality Television and the Producer's Medium," TV and Censorship, The Emergence of Cable and Narrowcasting). Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 85A-B-C or consent of instructor.
143 Critical Theory of Television (4) F, W, S. Introduction to critical, theoretical, scholarly understandings and analyses of television, which offer in-depth analyses of television programming, audience reception practices, and industry strategies of address. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 85A-B or consent of instructor.
144 Studies in New Media (4) F, W, S. Analyzes interpretations of the Internet and looks at empirical studies of various features of it. Asks students to explore the Internet and present their own conclusions about it. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 85A-B-C or consent of instructor.
160 National Cinemas (4) F, W, S. Period styles, national schools, oppositional movements, e.g., Classical Japanese Cinema, Italian Neorealism, Nouvelle Vague, Weimar Film, Cinema Nôvo. Same as East Asian Languages and Literatures 160, French 160, German 160, or Spanish 160 when topics are appropriate. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. (VII-B)
161 Global Media (4) F, W, S. Comparative analysis of global media systems focusing on case studies in the development, embrace of, and resistance to media forms and practices from the 1850s to the present. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 85A-B-C or consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit as topics vary. (VII-B)
185 Television and New Media (4) F, W, S. An advanced seminar focusing on special issues pertaining to broadcasting and/or new technologies. Topics include, but are not limited to: television criticism; space and new technologies; and broadcast advertising. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 85A-B-C or consent of instructor.
190 Special Topics in Film and Modern Media (4) F, W, S. Special issues concerned with film and media history, theory, and criticism. Examples include Gone Primitive (Anglo-American romance with the "primitive" in literature, film, other media); television criticism (review and analysis of models and modes of criticism applied to television since the 1940s). Prerequisite: Film and Media Studies 85A or consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
197 Professional Internship (2 to 4) F, W, S. Professional internship in the broadcast, film, video, or Internet industries designed to provide students with closely supervised professional experience to enhance their understanding of media from industrial, historical, and critical perspectives. Journal and final report required. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 117A-B-C or 120A-B-C or consent of instructor. Open only to Film and Media Studies majors and minors with a B average or better in Film and Media Studies course work. May be taken for credit for a total of four units.
198 Creative Project (2 to 4) F, W, S. Creative project in screenwriting, filmmaking, videomaking, or Web or Internet design intended to provide advanced production and creative writing training beyond the Film and Media Studies 117A-B-C or 120A-B-C series. Final project required. Prerequisites: Film and Media Studies 85A and 117A-B-C or 120A-B-C or consent of instructor; 101A recommended. May be taken twice for a credit total of eight units.
199 Directed Research (4) F, W, S. Directed reading and research under supervision of a faculty member in topic areas not covered by regular course offerings. Final research paper required. Prerequisites: upper-division standing and consent of instructor.