Through the project-based work of this course, the student will:

• employ research as a basis for generating and discovering a non-fiction message that can be effectively communicated through digital video and audio.
• articulate the aesthetic and ethical challenges common to processes of documentary production.
• identify and engage in the pre-production activities that govern digital filmmaking: budgeting, scheduling, storyboarding, and location scouting.
• integrate transcribed interviews into a documentary script.
• articulate the responsibilities of and engage in various crew positions:  producer, director, writer, cinematographer, gaffer, editor (video), colorist, audio recordist, and editor (audio).
• articulate the principles that shape the grammar and mechanics of digital audio signal processing, editing, and mixing.
• articulate and practice the principles of project organization which facilitate collaboration in post-production.
• store and distribute a finished digital video.
• direct and respond to the direction of others.
• support creative collaboration with safety, protocols, and etiquette, in the studio and on-location.
• learn principles and terminology of media project planning and management.

The majority of Video Production coursework will take the form of practical performance and projects. If you are not present in class when your name is called to undertake a task, your work will be considered late. If your work is submitted incomplete or otherwise outside the assignment’s specified format parameters, it will be returned to you for correction. Upon resubmission, it will be considered late work.

Late work can earn no more than a maximum of 60 points. Work is considered late if it is submitted (or, in the case of e-mail, time-stamped) after lecture begins on the due date. If, because of extreme and prolonged sickness, you miss a deadline and are able to substantiate a claim of incapacitation with a note from a reputable doctor or College Health Services, the grades of your remaining assignments will be given greater weight to compensate. Otherwise, you will receive a zero for the assignment. Examinations must be taken when scheduled.

Quizzes may be given without warning to encourage attendance and affirm content competency throughout the term.

Participation will be evaluated throughout the semester by professor and peers based on student contribution to class community. Assigning the grade, I am chiefly concerned with the following questions:

1. To what degree and in what ways does the student demonstrate respect for his/her audience and co-laborers?
2. To what degree and in what ways does the student model dependability and responsibility?
3. In what ways has the student participated in work load, idea generation, and leadership — apart from the work necessary to complete his/her individual assignments?
4. Of what value are the student’s criticism and suggestions for improvement valued by his/her peers?

Edinboro University and its faculty are committed to assuring a safe and productive educational environment for all students. In order to meet this commitment and to comply with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and guidance from the Office for Civil Rights, the University requires faculty members to report incidents of sexual violence shared by students to the University’s Title IX Coordinator. The only exceptions to the faculty member’s reporting obligation are when incidents of sexual violence are communicated by a student during a classroom discussion, in a writing assignment for a class, or as part of a University-approved research project. Faculty members are obligated to report sexual violence or any other abuse of a student who was, or is, a child (a person under 18 years of age) when the abuse allegedly occurred to the person designated in the University protection of minors policy. Information regarding the reporting of sexual violence and the resources that are available to victims of sexual violence is set forth at here.

Can I leave early to get to my next class across campus? What happens when I miss a class?

If you write a good essay or fail a math exam, you do so as an individual. But the success of a video production is often a collaborative endeavor that begins with attendance. You jeopardize any group project for which you show up late (or not at all). Reflecting the emphasis Cinema professors place on collaboration, strict attendance is required.

Students are expected to attend each and every class meeting in its entirety, and will be penalized for late arrivals and early departures. Class absences are excused for medical reasons, university activities approved by the appropriate vice president or designee, and/or for personal exigencies. University activities appropriate to be considered as an excused absence include but are not limited to: scheduled athletic events, cultural events, academic competitions, etc., in which the student is a participant. Other appropriate situations include: military duties, auto accidents, death in immediate family, medical emergencies. Verification of such absences may be required by the instructor, and the student is responsible for make-up work as required by the instructor.

I’ve got tickets to leave early for spring break. Can I reschedule work to accommodate my travel plans?

Classes will not be held on holidays officially recognized by the college. All other days of the term are fair game for lectures, quizzes and assignments. Those students who plan to leave early for or return late from holiday breaks may not reschedule exams or other work.

Can I take class notes on my iPad? Can I film a lecture? What are the professor’s expectations for electronic etiquette?

You’re encouraged to use smart phones, tablets, and laptops in disciplined ways which accomplish the work of the course. It’s considered rude, however, to engage in private communiqués (facebook, twitter, IMs, texts) during class.

The classroom is a protected space where together students and faculty rehearse ideas that are often not yet ready to be shared with the wider world. Effective teachers adapt course content for a narrow audience of students, tailoring discussions on the fly to circumstances of the moment. Exchanges are necessarily fraught with controversy, challenge, and misunderstanding. Please safeguard the learning enterprise from surreptitious audio and video surveillance. Do not film, record, or share, audio or video images of anyone without a signed personal release.

Oops. My phone started ringing in class. Probably Mom calling…

The professor reserves the right to answer any cell phone call received by a student during class time. From a practical standpoint, you’d hate to ruin an otherwise fabulous take on location with a Kanye West ringtone.

I downloaded a great new song on iTunes. Can I use it in the soundtrack of my class film project?

• Cheating. Behaviors including, but not limited to, use of unauthorized notes or reference materials during examinations; copying answers from another student’s paper during an examination; the unauthorized possession of academic materials, including exams; the unauthorized exchange of course assessment materials, including exams; the unauthorized exchange of information or collaboration regarding tests, or other course assignments; aiding another to engage in cheating; and/or all other acts of academic dishonesty that any member of this academic community would reasonably understand to be a breach of this academic integrity statement will be considered cheating and an act of academic dishonesty.
• Plagiarism. Plagiarism may be defined as the act of taking the ideas and/or expression of ideas of another person and representing them as one’s own. This includes, but is not limited to, using ideas or passages from a work without properly attributing the source, paraphrasing the work of another without giving proper credit, and/or the sale, purchase, or exchange of papers or research. It is the student’s responsibility to know what plagiarism is and to properly cite the work of others. If a student is in doubt, it is their responsibility to resolve any ambiguity prior to submitting the work. Plagiarism is nothing less than an act of theft, and, as such, is subject to University disciplinary action.
• Copyright. While plagiarism involves appropriating someone’s ideas without credit, copyright infringement is taking or altering someone’s original created work without paying. Copyright enforcement is subject to a number of variables including the lifespan of the creator and his/her heirs as well as corporate ownership of works made for hire. Fair warning: burgeoning filmmakers often wrongly believe they must pay other creators for work used only if their film turns a profit. Not true.

The standards of integrity and the penalties of dishonesty apply equally to

• ideas, words, and speech
• visual images, recordings, performances, and files
• audio recordings, performances, and files
• all electrochemical means of storage and communication
• use of computing facilities and resources in violation of copyright laws

I will vigorously pursue prosecution of academic dishonesty to the very limit of sanctions allowed by the college, up to and including failure of the course and expulsion from the college. I will just as vigorously work with students to prevent even unintended lapses of integrity.

While student media producers retain copyright ownership of their respective work, enrollment in this course constitutes your permission to let the college, the department, the professor, their representatives, and successors, exhibit and distribute for promotional purposes those media projects submitted in fulfillment of course assignments. Without any effect on your grade you may withhold or limit such permission by indicating your wish to do so in a note to your professor signed, witnessed, and dated, before the course’s drop date.

How do I arrange to borrow equipment for this weekend’s shoot?  Can I borrow equipment to shoot my cousin’s wedding?

Cinema lab aides are available in Doucette Hall G-6 (hours posted here) to check out equipment for class projects.  It is often advantageous to alert them to your equipment needs several days in advance.

Governed by the following priorities, equipment and facilities are available to those students currently enrolled in cinema production classes:

1. Priority shall be given to equipment loans which support class project assignments and faculty scholarship initiatives.
2. Production equipment will support in-class instruction as well as out-of-class project work. Return deadlines will be carefully monitored.
3. Certain equipment is designated for use by each class. Thus, cameras, lighting, and grip equipment set aside for advanced instruction may not be available to students in introductory-level courses (and vice versa). Not even cinema production lab aides should assume free access to all equipment.

All students must produce a Cinema Access Card at the time of check-out.  No equipment will be loaned without a Cinema Access Card.

Students may borrow equipment according to the following schedule.  Equipment should be returned no later than one-half hour before closing time.

Check-Out		Return
Monday		Wednesday
Tuesday		Thursday
Thursday		Monday
Friday		Monday

Equipment due on Labor Day or Reading Day may be returned the following day without fine.  Equipment cannot be checked out over Thanksgiving, Winter, or Spring breaks.

There is one-day waiting period between equipment loans.

Students who return equipment late will be fined at a rate of $10 per day, per piece of equipment.  Cinema Access Cards will be held until all fines are paid.  Fines may be paid in person during open hours at the Equipment Room by check or money order made out to Edinboro University.

Instruction, scholarship, and maintenance priorities govern occasional exceptions to the more comprehensive version of these policies found on Film Equipment Rental Data Sheets, available from cinema lab aides.