Berkeley offers an interdisciplinary undergraduate program leading to a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in film. The program offers rigorous engagement with the entire culture of moving-images, teaching students to think historically, theoretically, and analytically about a wide range of cinematic forms. At the same time, it encourages students to look at moving images from the vantage point of other disciplines. To this end, the Department of Film and Media cooperates with a number of other departments and programs on campus. Students earning their BA in Film may also choose to complement their study of the history and theory of moving images with the hands-on experience provided by production classes.
Declaring the Major
To declare a major in film, students must have completed a minimum of 30 units, and have satisfactorily completed FILM 25A or FILM 25B. For further information regarding prerequisites, please see the Major Requirements tab on this page.
Honors Program
To be eligible for admission to the honors program in film, a student must have attained senior standing with a grade point average (GPA) of 3.3 or higher on all University work and a 3.5 GPA or higher in courses in the major. The levels of honors are as follows: honors, high honors, and highest honors. Students in the honors program are to take FILM H195 for a letter grade to complete a senior honors thesis. Although the production of a film may be part of the preparation of the thesis — and the film may be submitted as a documentation, or example — it is expected that the thesis will be a substantial piece of writing on film criticism or film history.
In addition to the University, campus, and college requirements, listed on the College Requirements tab, students must fulfill the below requirements specific to their major program.
General Guidelines
All courses taken to fulfill the major requirements below must be taken for graded credit. There are a few exceptions (See Major Advisor for details).
No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs, with the exception of minors offered outside of the College of Letters & Science.
A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 must be maintained in both upper and lower division courses used to fulfill the major requirements. In addition, all upper- and lower-division courses used to fulfill major requirements need to be passed with a C- or better.
For information regarding residence requirements and unit requirements, please see the College Requirements tab.
Language Requirement
Film majors have three options for completing their language requirement ( this will only apply to students admitted before Fall 2017 ):
Students may complete the third semester of a college-level language course in a single language.
Students may choose to complete the second semester of a college-level language course in two different languages. If a student has taken three or more years of a language in high school, that language can count as one of the two languages. In this case, students are required to only complete the second semester of one additional language.
Native/Heritage Speakers of a language major may receive a waiver for the foreign language requirement by taking a proficiency test in the sponsoring department. International students will be required to provide a copy of a high-school transcript from home to verify coursework in native language at the high-school level.
Language courses which are strictly conversational are not acceptable. Students may enroll in the courses being used to satisfy the film language requirement on a Pass/No Pass basis. Students should be aware that if they are also using the course to satisfy the foreign language requirement, it must be taken on a letter-grade basis. Any natural language is acceptable. Students who are native speakers of a language other than English may demonstrate their language competency by satisfactorily passing a language proficiency exam administered by a language department at UC Berkeley or by taking an advanced course in the language (such as an upper division course which is taught in the language). Students are expected to demonstrate both verbal and written proficiency.
New Requirements beginning Fall 2017 ( All incoming freshman and newly admitted transfers will be held to the new language policy ):
Students may complete the second semester or higher of a college-level language course in one language, which has to be taken at UC Berkeley (this means French 2, German 2, etc. or higher: French 102 or another upper division course taught in the target language). Students should take a course at the appropriate level. Student with no language background should take the first and second semester sequence in one language.
The class must be taken for a letter grade and with minimum of a C- grade or better.
There will be no waivers or credit given for courses completed in high school or at community college. Film majors have to take at least one language course at UC Berkeley, second-semester level or higher as appropriate to their background, in order to pass the requirement. The requirement cannot be completed at an outside institution (with the exception of UC-approved study abroad programs). This rule also applies for transfer students who took a four-semester sequence at community college, students must enroll in one further language course at Berkeley, preferably an upper division language. course.
Native/Heritage speakers are no longer exempt from the requirement to take a UC course, but they can take the heritage-speaker version of their native language or another language. International students will be required to provide a copy of a high-school transcript from home to verify coursework in native language at the high-school level.
Select 16 units, from upper division film studies course offerings, or from the list of approved electives available every term. 4 units is acceptable as Pass/Not Pass
Summer Certificate Requirements
The 3-course Summer Sessions certificate in Film & Media Industries and Professions is designed for students interested in pursuing careers in film and media. The curriculum exposes students to industry structures that govern a broad range of media professions, fields, and practices. Individual courses introduce students to the various processes entailed in developing, pitching and producing media content; provide understanding of the roles played by various artists and professionals in the production, distribution, and exhibition of content; provide critical understanding of the key business and legal concepts relevant to intellectual property in our changing media landscape; and provide opportunities to learn about film and media practices from award-winning artists.
This certificate is not an official program offered by Undergraduate Education and will not be noted on a student’s transcript, but upon completion of the third required course, the student will receive a certificate from the Department of Film & Media noting completion of the summer program. Students are welcome to enroll in individual courses offered as part of the certificate program even if they do not intend to pursue the full certificate. Non-UC Berkeley students are also welcome to enroll in our summer courses.
Film & Media majors may count FILM 177 toward the upper division elective requirements for the major. This course satisfies the Philosophy & Values L&S breadth requirement.
Certificate Completion Form – Please submit this form by the end of Week 3 of your third certificate course.
Student Learning Goals
Learning Goals for the Major
After completing the film major, a student will have a working knowledge of the film-making process from concept to exhibition and will be able to interpret films through a variety of aesthetic, cultural, historical, and theoretical frameworks. The critical thinking skills promoted in the film major involve seeing beyond one’s immediate reactions to a film by developing a repertoire of productive interpretive questions and approaches that lead to more complex understanding and appreciation of the filmic experience. Analytic reasoning is encouraged in both oral and written assignments that require students to perform systematic analysis of film sequences, to construct careful, step-by-step arguments in larger research projects, or to create a coherently constructed film or script. Communication skills are developed through participation in classroom discussions, in the effective writing of critical essays and research papers, and in the articulation of creative ideas through film-making and scriptwriting.
More specifically, the successful graduate from the film major must be able to:
Do a shot-and-sequence analysis both orally in class and in a written form.
Creatively re-edit a sequence from a silent film.
Think beyond the surface impressions of popular films by developing a repertoire of critical questions and approaches that facilitate deeper understanding.
Analyze and write about alternative kinds of moving images (silent, avant-garde, documentary, foreign-language, art films).
Identify the major movements in film history.
Talk and write about how an individual film fits within this history and the mode of production from which it emerges.
Situate the major movements of cinema within a broader socio-historical context.
Describe the major cinematic genres and analyze an individual film as an example of one or more of these genres.
Summarize the arguments for and against the notion of film authorship, and talk knowledgeably about the work of at least one director.
Describe a number of different theoretical approaches to film.
Utilize this theoretical knowledge when analyzing a film, making a film, and writing a screenplay.
Write essays and papers that are clear, well-researched and organized, and that mount an original argument.
Organize ideas in oral presentations and general classroom discussions.
Courses
Film Studies
Terms offered: Fall 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2019
Rhetorical approach to reading and writing argumentative discourse with a film focus. Close reading of selected texts; written themes developed from class discussion and analysis of rhetorical strategies. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement. The Craft of Writing - Film Focus: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing Requirement
Requirements this course satisfies: Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 2 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Fall 2020, Summer 2020 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2020
Intensive argumentative writing stimulated through selected readings, films, and class discussion. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement. The Craft of Writing - Film Focus: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Previously passed an R1A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R1A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature and Composition. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English
Requirements this course satisfies: Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 4 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Fall 2020
This course will focus on the development of film art, technology, and industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Film History & Form: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Examines the development of film art, technology, and industry from the media environments and visual cultures of the late 19th century to the international conversion to synchronized sound cinema in the early 1930s.
Student Learning Outcomes: Acquire a conceptual vocabulary necessary for the examination of the relationship between film technology and adjacent media practices (photography, the panorama, vaudeville, etc.).
Acquire new informational content about the development of cinematic technologies within the media environment of late 19th-century visual-cultural and popular scientific interest in optical experiments.
Develop the analytic skills necessary to perform socio-historically grounded formal interpretation of film texts.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture, 1-1 hours of discussion, and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture, 2.5-2.5 hours of discussion, and 0-6 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2020, Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2020
This course is intended to introduce undergraduates to the study of a range of media, including photography, film, television, video, and print and digital media. The course will focus on questions of medium "specificity" or the key technological/material, formal and aesthetic features of different media and modes of address and representation that define them. Also considered is the relationship of individual media to time and space, how individual media construct their audiences or spectators, and the kinds of looking or viewing they enable or encourage. The course will discuss the ideological effects of various media, particularly around questions of racial and sexual difference, national identity, capitalism, and power. Film and Media Theory: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture, 0-1 hours of discussion, and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture, 0-3 hours of discussion, and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2020
The objective of this class is to provide a basic technical foundation for digital video film production while emphasizing the techniques and languages of creative moving image media from traditional story genres to more contemporary experimental forms. Training will move from pre-production-scripting and storyboarding, through production, including image capture, lighting and sound recording, to post-production with non-linear digital editing programs such as Final Cut Pro and editing strategies and aesthetics. The course will consist of lectures/screenings, discussion/critique, visiting artists, and production workshops in which students produce a series of exercises and a final project. Introduction to Digital Video Production: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Film 25A
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2-4 hours of lecture and 2-4 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 6-8 hours of lecture and 7-8 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2020, Fall 2019
From the beginnings through the conversion to sound up until World War II era. In addition to the development of the silent film, the course will conclude with an examination of the technology of sound conversion and examples of early sound experiments. The History of Film: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week 8 weeks - 6-6 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2020
This course will focus on topics in the history, theory and aesthetics of sound cinema. Film Aesthetics: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Examines the signifying strategies of selected cinema movements from the second half of the twentieth century to the present. Familiarizes the students with the major technological and aesthetic innovations of the past 80 years which have given rise to the cinema as we know it today.
Student Learning Outcomes: Acquire a conceptual vocabulary to describe and analyze the formal strategies of films and the way they construct meaning.
Develop tools for analyzing the way film texts not only provide entertainment, but also produce cultural meanings and generate modes of experience (for example, of race, class, gender, sexuality, nation) and of social interaction.
Foster students’ awareness of the aesthetic, economic, social and political contexts in which sound cinema developed and the impact which cinema had, in turn, on nations, cultures, and historical events.
Give students a clear sense of some of the major movements in sound cinema (including classical and post-classical Hollywood cinema, documentary, Italian Neo-Realism, the French New Wave, Third Cinema, Political Cinema of the 1960s-‘70s, and film in the era of global multimedia) and how those movements intertwined with critical, theoretical, and popular responses to the medium.
Introduce students to the theoretical frameworks that have shaped thinking about the cinema.
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for FILM 30 after completing FILM 25B. A deficient grade in FILM 30 may be removed by taking FILM 25B.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture and 0-6 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Not yet offered
This course will focus on introductory topics related to the field of digital media studies. Digital Media Studies: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Examines the ways in which digital media first developed and have come to shape our engagement with contemporary culture, with a particular focus on aesthetics, form, and politics.
Student Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify, analyze, and describe themes in contemporary media and digital culture.
2. Acquire a conceptual vocabulary necessary for the examination of digital media technology and to understand the advantages and limits of that approach.
3. Understand the influence of digital media technologies on contemporary culture, including digital software, hardware, platforms, and interfaces.
4. Develop the research tools for advanced undergraduate writing on film and media in the area studied in the course
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture and 0-6 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Enrollment limits are set by the faculty, but the suggested limit is 25. Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Fall 2020
This course will focus on the industrial, technological, and aesthetic history of television. Television Studies: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Examines how technological developments, industrial structures and practices, and cultural contexts determine the form and content of televisual texts.
Student Learning Outcomes: Acquire conceptual vocabulary necessary for examining the mutual influence of media practices and cultural values.
Acquire new informational content about the major phases of television history with emphasis on how changes in industrial practice influence form and style.
Develop the analytic skills necessary to produce historically-grounded readings of televisual texts that demonstrate critical insights into the relationship between cultural context, narrative, and aesthetics.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture and 0-6 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
An introduction to film art and film technique for students who are interested in exploring the history and aesthetics of cinema but do not intend to major in film. The course traces the development of world cinema from the first films of the 1890s to the 1970s, drawing on examples from American, European, Asian, and Third World cinema. Introduction to Film for Nonmajors: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1.5 hours of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 3 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course examines postmodernism as it manifests itself in film. We will begin with a general overview of the postmodern, and then look at how postmodernism reformulates certain theoretical issues: e.g., ideology, history, subjectivity and gender. Primary films will be juxtaposed not just with theoretical texts, but also with texts from architecture, photography, literature and classical Hollywood cinema. Requirements: take home mid-term, final exam. Postmodernism and Film: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Summer: 8 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Fall 2009, Fall 2006
Sophomore seminars are small interactive courses offered by faculty members in departments all across the campus. Sophomore seminars offer opportunity for close, regular intellectual contact between faculty members and students in the crucial second year. The topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 sophomores. Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: At discretion of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 5 weeks - 3-6 hours of seminar per week 10 weeks - 1.5-3 hours of seminar per week 15 weeks - 1-2 hours of seminar per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 2.5-5 hours of seminar per week 8 weeks - 1.5-3.5 hours of seminar and 2-4 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2015 10 Week Session, Summer 2015 Second 6 Week Session, Fall 2014
The study, from an historical perspective, of major theorists of film. History of Film Theory: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 25A or equivalent
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 3-4 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 2-4 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2020 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2020, Fall 2019
The study of films as categorized either by industry-identified genres (westerns, horror films, musicals, film noir, etc.) or broader interpretive modes (melodrama, realism, fantasy, etc.). Special Topics in Film Genre: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction. Students may enroll in multiple sections of this course within the same semester.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course considers how the American detective is represented in fiction, fil, and popular culture. We will examine how representations of the American detective are affected by diverse historican and socio-cultural factors, including the ideology of American individualism, paradigms of investigation and ordered knowledge, and competing discourses of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. After a brief consideration of early American detectives and detectives in the classic American hardboiled tradition, we will focus on many detectives from traditionally understudied groups, including female detectives, African American detectives, Chicana detectives, Asian American detectives, Native American detectives, and gay and lesbian detectives. This course may be used as an elective in the American Studies major. The American Detective in Fiction, Film, and Television: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Summer: 8 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Not yet offered
This course will focus on topics in documentary cinema, television, video, photography, and/or new media. Documentary Forms: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Examines the ways in which documentary impulses and forms are present in various media -photography, film, video, new media.
Student Learning Outcomes: Acquire a conceptual vocabulary necessary for the examination of documentary forms in different media.
Acquire new informational content about the media being studied, with an emphasis on the role and reason that the documentary impulse has in different media and art.
Develop the analytic skills necessary to interpret in a socio-historical and formal context the documentary forms in art and media objects.
Develop the research tools for advanced undergraduate writing on film and media in the area studied in the course.
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes. Students may enroll in multiple sections of this course within the same semester.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture, 1-1 hours of discussion, and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture, 2.5-2.5 hours of discussion, and 0-6 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Summer 2020 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2020, Fall 2019
A survey of the history, theory, and practice of the documentary film (including video). How have the forms and ethics of the documentary changed since the beginning of cinema? A range of practices and strategies will be covered: cinema verite, direct cinema, narrational documentary, autobiography, investigative documentary, and recent fictional styles that combine the essayistic with the observational. The course moves between classic works of the genre as well as highly experimental works that critique traditional approaches. Throughout, the emphasis will be on the formal analysis of the films focusing on their narrative structures and the ways in which they make meaning. Documentary: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 25A
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture, 0-1 hours of discussion, and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture, 0-2.5 hours of discussion, and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week 8 weeks - 6-6 hours of lecture, 0-2 hours of discussion, and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Fall 2019, Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session
This course is a survey of the history and aesthetics of the international film Avant-Garde from the 1920s to the present. The course explores the development of a range of experimental film forms and practices, situating them in relation to the larger artistic, social, and intellectual contexts in which they arise. We look at the ways artists have not only created new film languages in order to express their unique ideas and vision, but also how they inverted alternative modes of production, distribution, and exhibition for their work. We examine the major formal modes of Avant-Garde cinema, moving between historical and current developments. History of Avant-Garde Film: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 25A
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture, 0-1 hours of discussion, and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture, 0-2.5 hours of discussion, and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2020
This course is a survey of the history and aesthetics of experimental and alternative media forms and practices situating them in relation to the larger art historical, social and intellectual contexts from which they arise. Experimental and Alternative Media Art: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: The course explores the international development of artist made, experimental and avant-garde film, electronic or new media practices. It looks at the ways artists have invented new formal languages in order to express their unique ideas and vision, and also how they have created alternative modes of production, distribution, and exhibition for their work. The course examines major movements in experimental and alternative media that exist outside of the constraints of industrial and mass media forms, as it at once critiques and expands dominant forms of media. To broaden student awareness & understanding of the history of experimental & alternative film & media practices that exist outside of the dominant film industry, including fine art practices that have emerged from the visual & sonic arts rather than the dominant literary & dramatic forms. To study underground & marginal communities that have been under or unrepresented by the dominant film & media industries. The course will also look beyond the artwork itself to explore the kinds of creative sub-cultures communities that this approach to art making has produced.
While emphasis on medium and technology may vary from year to year, depending on the instructor, conceptually, the course will always focus on film and media art as a form of personal and creative expression with a philosophical position that emphasizes process and invention over product and professional mastery.
Student Learning Outcomes: Acquire a conceptual and aesthetic vocabulary necessary for the recognition and interpretation of experimental and alternative media practices in different media forms and technologies and to understand why experimental approaches to media practices have influenced, the dominant film and media world, the art world and academic film and media studies.
Acquire new informational content about the national/regional/global media landscape in question; with an emphasis on the role experimental film and media products play in the evolution of film and media language and form.
Develop the analytic skills necessary to interpret in a socio-historical and aesthetic context the art and media objects belonging to that area and learn about the cultural contexts in which those media practices are located.
Develop the research tools for advanced undergraduate writing on film and media in the area studied in the course.
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes. Students may enroll in multiple sections of this course within the same semester.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture, 1-1 hours of discussion, and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture, 2.5-2.5 hours of discussion, and 0-6 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternate method of final assessment during regularly scheduled final exam group (e.g., presentation, final project, etc.).
Terms offered: Not yet offered
This course examines contemporary scholarship and films about the migrant or immigrant experience in the US. The first half of the course investigates the complex geographies and temporalities of migrant transit and dwelling. Course texts describe the anthropology and cultural geography of border, city, and workplace; course films map them as sites of frustrated mobility, fractured identity, and fascinating connection. The second half of the course explores the many forms of between-ness experienced by immigrants through intergenerational or transnational family conflicts; those displaced by war, the slave trade, or the Holocaust; and those confronting the relationship between personal and geopolitical histories of displacement. Be/longings: Cinema and the Immigrant Experience in America: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Declared film major or consent of instructor
Requirements this course satisfies: Satisfies the American Cultures requirement
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 12 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Fall 2020
This course will focus on topics in national, transnational, and global cinema, television, photography, and/or new media. Global Media: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Examines the ways in which shared cultural discourses, institutions, histories, and modes of production are negotiated through various media practices within and between individual cities, nations, regions, and/or global networks.
Student Learning Outcomes: 1) Acquire new informational content about the national/regional/global media landscape in question, with an emphasis on the role media products play in articulating cultural affinities and differences.
2) Acquire a conceptual vocabulary necessary for the examination of media practices organized in large cultural categories and to understand the advantages and limits of that approach.
3) Develop the analytic skills necessary to interpret in a socio-historical and formal context the art and media objects belonging to that area and learn about the cultural contexts in which those media practices are located.
4) Develop the research tools for advanced undergraduate writing on film and media in the area studied in the course.
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes. Students may enroll in multiple sections of this course within the same semester.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0-3 hours of laboratory and 3-3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 0-6 hours of laboratory and 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
The study of films from the perspective of directorial style, theme, or filmmaking career. Auteur Theory: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Film and Media 25A
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Course Objectives: Examines the emergence and implementation of media technologies, the discourses surrounding them, their use by media institutions and/or artists, and the forms, styles, aesthetics, modes of address, and experiences they afford. Analyzes the histories of media technologies, their theorization by practitioners and scholars, and the various methodologies that have been used to understand their development, use, standardization, modification, and/or obsolescence.
Student Learning Outcomes: 1) Acquire new informational content about the technology in question, with an emphasis on the role technology plays in shaping media content, form, and aesthetics.
2) Acquire a conceptual vocabulary necessary for the examination of the production, exhibition, and/or display technologies and formats and an understanding of the advantages and limits of that approach.
3) Develop the analytic skills necessary to interpret in a socio-historical and formal context the art and media objects created with the help of specific technologies and their appeal.
4) Develop the research tools for advanced undergraduate writing on film and media technologies studied in the course.
5) Acquire an understanding of media transition and technological change within specific historical contexts.
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes. Students may enroll in multiple sections of this course within the same semester.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture and 0-6 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2020, Fall 2019
This course will focus on the cinema of a particular nation or region. National Cinema: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Declared film major or consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 6-6 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2020
The study of films as categorized either by industry-identified genres (westerns, horror films, musicals, film noir, etc.) or broader interpretive modes (melodrama, realism, fantasy, etc.). Special Topics in Film Genre: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction. Students may enroll in multiple sections of this course within the same semester.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-7.5 hours of lecture and 0-3 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2019 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2018 First 6 Week Session
Students are introduced to the basic concepts, terms and principles of producing so that they can effectively and efficiently develop their own project proposal and financial strategy. Unit topics include creating a “pitch” proposal/package, methods of fundraising/financing, legal and ethical issues, managing the production cycle, and securing distribution. This class will use a variety of case studies based on Bay Area films. Through these case studies the class will explore a range of projects and cover the diverse strategies used to produce them. Each week the class will focus on specific project-types. One or more guest speakers (filmmakers and/or industry experts) will hold a Q&A with the instructor and students.
Terms offered: Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session
The practice of entertainment law in the United States lies at the intersection of a number of legal disciplines, among them Constitutional law, tort law, copyright law, and trademark law, and applies those disciplines to the world of entertainment. This course will introduce you to basic principles of those disciplines and their use in entertainment law. The goal of the course is to equip practitioners in film and media with an understanding of entertainment law sufficient to recognize legal issues that may arise in their practice so as to either avoid problems or find their solutions. Entertainment Law: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2020 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session
This course is designed to acquaint film majors with a variety of professions in and around the Bay Area that are open to those wishing to pursue careers in film and media. A series of ten guest lecturers drawn from these professions will guide students through the opportunities and work experiences available in such fields as studio and independent film production, documentary production for film and television, film curating and archiving, programming film festivals, creating media content for art museums, and designing educational online content. This will be followed by question-and-answer sessions that give students a chance to interact directly with the speakers and explore specific areas of inquiry. Film & Media Professions: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Summer 2018 8 Week Session
We explore the use and abuse of sound and its relation to image in cinema. With emphasis on how sound influences our emotional
reactions, we analyze dialogue, music and effects from the perspectives of the writer, the director, and the audience, looking at the
factors that guide and constrain the creative process, as well as how changes in presentation have affected audience response.
Examples are shown from foreign and domestic feature, documentary and animated films. Understanding Film Sound: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Summer: 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2018
The course explores the art and craft of writing a feature-length, narrative screenplay. Participants present three story ideas to the class, develop one concept into a detailed treatment, and write the first act of the script in professional screenplay form. The focus is on rewriting, with regular presentations of outlines and scripts to fellow writers. The emphasis is on story structure, character development, and screenplay form. Introduction to Screenwriting: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of lecture and 0-2 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017
The course explores the art and craft of writing a feature-length narrative screenplay. Participants begin with a detailed outline of a narrative script and a portion of the script in proper form and develop it into a completed screenplay. The focus is on rewriting, with regular presentations of scenes to fellow writers. Participants also write short scripts and explore alternative story structure. The emphasis is on characterization, scene structure, visual story telling, dialogue, and creating a unified script. The class culminates with reading of completed scripts. Screenwriting: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2019
This course explores the art and craft of creating, developing and writing both a spec script (a script written for an existing series) and a pilot script (a script based on original material). In addition, the class will study 21st century serial TV construction by analyzing anthologies, procedurals, long narratives and serial melodrama. We’ll also consider how various platforms of delivery enrich viewer engagement and can shape content. TV Writing: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
This class focuses on practices and techniques of non-fiction digital filmmaking. The class examines important techniques of non-fiction film, such as research and writing for non-fiction, the observational camera, filming in public, the interview, voiceover, working with archival film and other documents, as well as editing techniques - working to find form and structure for non-fiction materials. This class also explores the different modes of the documentary genre including observational, ethnographic, biographic/historical, agit/prop and activist forms, as well as more expanded approaches essay, poetic, autobiography, and archival forms. Documentary and Nonfiction Film Production: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of workshop and 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Fall 2017
The essentials of film and video production--camera, sound, lighting, and editing. Drawing on previous study of narrative, documentary, avant-garde film and video, students gain a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between the visual and aural elements of moving-image through hands-on experimentation. Narrative Production: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Film 26 or by permission of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 6 hours of studio per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 15 hours of studio per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2019, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
This advanced studio course is designed for students who have mastered basic skills and concepts involved in digital video production and are interested in further investigating critical, theoretical, and creative research topics in digital video production. Advanced Digital Video: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 6 hours of studio per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2018 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2018
This course investigates special topics in, and special technologies of, media production: e.g., experimental film, documentary film, digital special effects, etc. This is a hands-on studio course designed for students who have mastered the basics of media production and are ready to pursue more specialized film or video production. Special Topics in Media Production: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Film 26 or by permission of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 6 hours of studio per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 15 hours of studio per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Prerequisites: Senior standing; completion of all lower division requirements and two out of three of the upper division requirements; GPA of 3.4 or better in the major
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar and 2 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2020
This course serves to instruct undergraduate Film majors in advanced film and media studies analysis, research, and writing. A variety of forms of writing will be undertaken, including film analysis, research scholarship, essay argumentation, film reviewing and criticism, and film festival programming notes. (F) Advanced Film Writing: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 5 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Fall 2018, Spring 2016
Students in the honors program are to take H195 for a letter grade to complete a senior honors thesis. Although the production of a film may be part of the preparation of the thesis and the film submitted as a documentation or example, it is expected that the thesis will be a substantial piece of writing of film criticism or film history. Film Honors Thesis: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Senior standing with a 3.3 GPA on all University work and a 3.5 GPA in courses in the major
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 1-5 hours of independent study per week 8 weeks - 1-5 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Fall 2014, Spring 2014, Fall 2013
Students will learn about film bibliography and research materials. Interns will get a thorough orientation to the Pacific Film Archive library through introductory lectures and training sessions. Then, for three hours per week, they will help organize materials for inclusion in the clippings files. Interns will gain experience in library organization and film bibliography, as well as a broad knowledge of the kinds of film reviews and criticism found in a variety of sources. Field Study at the Pacific Film Archive: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor; film majors only
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of fieldwork per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 5 hours of fieldwork per week 8 weeks - 4 hours of fieldwork per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Summer 2019 10 Week Session, Fall 2018, Summer 2018 8 Week Session
The supervised field program may include experience in a broad range of pre- and post-production film and video production related activities. The student will develop the field experience and its relationship to academic training with a member of the faculty on the Film Advisory Committee. Faculty sponsor and student will establish individual meeting times and academic requirements for acceptable completion of the course. Commitment to at least nine hours of field work per week. Field Studies for Majors: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor; film majors only
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Summer: 8 weeks - 5.5-16.5 hours of internship per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2014, Fall 2013
Experience "behind-the-scenes" at the Pacific Film Archive! Interns will learn about film curating through creating a program of works by UC Berkeley students to present at PFA the following spring semester. Students will solicit films and videos, preview them, and make a final selection as a group. Students will write short analyses of local film exhibition programs and will do projects related to PFA's ongoing exhibition program. Film Curating Internship: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Declared film study or art practice major, junior standing (60-unit minimum), and consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of fieldwork and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2019, Fall 2018, Spring 2018
Group studies of selected topics which vary from year to year. Field shall not coincide with that of any regular course and shall be specific enough to allow students to write an essay based on the study. Directed Group Study: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 25A or equivalent and consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of directed group study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
Reading and conference with the instructor in a field that shall not coincide with that of any regular course and shall be specific enough to enable the student to write an essay based upon his/her study. Supervised Independent Study for Advanced Undergraduates: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 25A or equivalent and consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 1-5 hours of independent study per week 8 weeks - 1-4 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Film and Media/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Weihong Bao, Associate Professor. Film theory and history, media archaeology, critical theory, visual and performance culture, Chinese language cinema, transnational genre cinema, comparative media history and theory.
Mark Berger, Adjunct Professor. Film studies, film production, film sound. Research Profile
Natalia Brizuela, Associate Professor. Photography, film, contemporary art, critical theory and aesthetics of Spanish America and Brazil .
Mary Ann Doane, Professor. Feminist theory, semiotics, cinema, media, cultural theory, archaeology of media technology, poststructuralism. Research Profile
Jacob Gaboury, Assistant Professor. Digital media, visual culture, media archaeology, queer theory, 20th century histories of technology and computation, computer graphics, and the intersection of contemporary art and technology .
Anton Kaes, Professor. Film studies, modern literature, literary and cultural theory, cinema, interdisciplinary and comparative aspects of Weimar culture, contemporary literature and film, literary theory, theory of cultural studies, film history, film theory, history of cinema. Research Profile
Russell L. Merritt, Adjunct Professor.
Anne Nesbet, Associate Professor. Culture, film studies, Slavic languages, early Soviet culture, Sergei Eisenstein, silent film, Soviet film, GDR history, children's literature and Stalinism, the Soviet Union, American minority movements. Research Profile
Mark Sandberg, Professor. Silent film, late nineteenth-century visual culture, theater history, comedy, Scandinavian design, serial television, film historiography, Scandinavian film history, Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian literature, Nordic literary history. Research Profile
Miryam Sas, Professor. Comparative literature, 20th century avant-gardes, Japanese literature, film, theater and dance, contemporary art, critical theory, gender theory. Research Profile
Jeffrey A. Skoller, Associate Professor. Film history, theory and practice of documentary, avant-garde film, film as art, activist media, Third Cinema , film/video production. Research Profile
Kristen Whissel, Professor. Cinema and technological change, computer-generated images and contemporary cinema, digital visual effects, the history and theory of special effects, cinema in transition, American film history, silent American cinema, modernity and early cinema . Research Profile
Damon R. Young, Assistant Professor. Digital media, global art cinema (with a focus on French and francophone), gender and sexuality studies, critical theory.
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