FILM 184 - The Art of Attention in Film Production

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

How do framing, duration, sound, and rhythm shape the way we look and listen? The late Belgian filmmaker, Chantal Akerman, once suggested that when time flies in a film, the viewer may be robbed of it: “With my films you’re aware of every second passing through your body.”

In this introductory production course, first-year students gain a foundation in filmmaking through the question of attention. Drawing on examples from experimental, documentary, and narrative cinema, the class explores observation, presence, and the ways film can elide, draw out, or suspend time through image and sound. Students respond periodically to screenings and readings in writing as well as in class discussion, and produce a series of short exercises and creative projects culminating in a final film.

Students complete a range of hands-on assignments in image and sound making, working with duration, sound, voice, and editing. Exercises may include observational studies, listening exercises, fixed-camera, hyper-edited, short form, and found footage assignments. Special emphasis is placed on filmmaking as a practice of noticing, and on how small formal decisions shape perception, meaning, and feeling.

Open only to first-year students, this course requires sustained creative practice and active participation in critique. By the end of the semester, students possess a working vocabulary for analyzing how films organize attention, demonstrate a foundation in essential production techniques, and produce a portfolio of original work that reflects an emerging sensitivity to time, presence, and the expressive possibilities of image and sound. Carl Elsaesser.

One 3-hour period.

Course Format: CLS