Mar 28, 2024  
Catalogue 2022-2023 
    
Catalogue 2022-2023 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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FILM 289 - Access and Filmmaking

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course focuses on disability access as fundamental to filmmaking. Although access technologies such as audio description and captioning are generally left to third-party service providers, these technologies fundamentally reframe how a film communicates with its audiences, interpreting what the filmmaker intends for audiences to see and hear in their film, especially for those audiences who can’t see or hear. By looking at the work of disabled artists and filmmakers, who have centered access in their work as a creative material, students learn practical approaches to making their films more accessible. They also learn how access can be integrated into other aspects of filmmaking practice including framing, editing, writing, and sound design. Through reading disability history and theory––with a particular focus on disability activism––students develop a critical frame for thinking about the relationship of access to both ableist institutions and disability justice. Likewise, we consider how both film cameras and sound recording have been devised as access technologies from their inception, as ways of augmenting the incapacities of human vision and hearing. Over the course of the class, students present a research project on access practices, participate in workshops in which students learn access techniques, and make a final creative project that integrates access into its format. Ultimately, students are encouraged to think about the ways in which access (and its lack) structure a film before a camera even enters the room. Some experience with Premiere Pro preferred. Jordan Lord.

Prerequisite(s): FILM 209  and FILM 240  or FILM 241  and permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods.

One 3-hour period and additional lab time required.

Course Format: CLS



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