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After completing this course, students can expect to have gained (1) a deeper appreciation for writing as a powerful tool in creative and intellectual endeavors, (2) a more sophisticated and critical understanding of video, as both producers and consumers of media, and (3) concrete skills as video authors.

Activities will consist of:

  • lots of directed writing: journal exercises, brainstorming, planning, evaluation, critique, and reflection
  • sustantial amounts of video production
  • short and long-term exercises and projects
  • training and proficiency sessions with relevant equipment and production software
  • discussion and critique
  • viewing relevant video and cinematic work; reading important texts
  • presentations expectations

The following will be expected of students in this course:

WORK
You should expect to spend as much as six hours a week outside of class on projects (or more if you wait until the last minute). Each week you will read, write, shoot, and edit. Your creative and intellectual skills will be challenged and stretched.

PATIENCE
Important to the success of this technology-intensive course is your willingness to adapt and problem-solve in the face of unexpected (even disastrous) technical snafus. You will be expected to demonstrate that you have done everything possible to achieve all projects. Creativity in the face of adversity (even, occasionally, at the expense of departing from stated project parameters) will help all of us in our attempts to explore these media. Also, remember that this is a new, experimental course. We are all students in this endeavor. Your instructors will undoubtedly make some mistakes. Students who require utter predictability, or omniscience and infallable teachers, should probably avoid this course.

PARTICIPATION
This is not a lecture course. Your presence and your voice is essential. You will be expected to contribute to class discussions and critiques through your thoughtful and relevant writing, questions, comments, challenges, and suggestions.