25SP MW SCHEDULE
| M Jan 13 - W Jan 29 | CONTINUITY & COVERAGE |
| M Jan 13 | Discuss & Demo: Groups, Spaces & Equipment |
| W Jan 15 | Discuss & Demo: Using Critique to Set Course Priorities Participation 1115a (group): We Ate Together. Submit photo to D2L. Assignment 1115a (indy): That's Better. Submit film to server. |
| M Jan 20 | MLK - No Classes |
| W Jan 22 | Assignment 1115a (indy): That's Better 2. Submit a second version of your film to the server. Work to incorporate improvements from our recent class discussion and critique. Discuss: Empathetic Listening for Screenwriters Demo: Editing Timeline |
| M Jan 27 | Assignment 1115 (indy): Upload the unedited footage from That's Better 2 andThat's Better 3 to the appropriate server folders Demo: Leader, Assembly, Rough |
| W Jan 29 | Assignment 0145p (indy, in class): Shooting and editing for coverage and continuity, prepare a frame-accurate Rough Cut of a third iteration of That's Better 3. |
| M Feb 03 - W Feb 19 | STORY & SOUND |
| M Feb 03 | Participation 1115a (indy): Conversation Participation in class (group): Table Reads |
| M Feb 24 - W Mar 19 | CAMERA & LIGHTING |
| M Mar 03 | SPRING BREAK |
| W Mar 05 | SPRING BREAK |
| W Mar 19 - W Apr 09 | POST-PRODUCTION |
| F Mar 28 | Last Day to Withdraw |
| M Mar 31 | 25SU & FA Registration Opens |
| M Apr 14 - M Apr 28 | FINAL FILM |
| M Apr 28 | GROUP PROJECT - Completed Film |
| W Apr 30 | FINAL EXAM 1000-1150a |
| R May 01 | WEINKAUF FILM FESTIVAL 0800p Pogue MPG |
The class will generally convene Mondays and Wednesdays in room 109 of the Doucette Building of the Edinboro Campus. Section 200 meets 1115a-0145p.
The schedule above should be interpreted as a general timetable governing the subjects to be covered in this course. Class discussion, pace – even fluctuations of student attendance and enrollment – often dictate additions, deviations, and omissions. You are advised to frequently consult the most recent version of this schedule; assignments, lecture topics, and links to resources, will be detailed and added throughout the term. Assignments and their due dates are further specified in D2L.
25SP TR SCHEDULE
| T Jan 14 - R Jan 30 | CONTINUITY & COVERAGE |
| T Jan 14 | Discuss & Demo: Groups, Spaces & Equipment |
| R Jan 16 | Discuss & Demo: Using Critique to Set Course Priorities Participation 1115a (group): We Ate Together. Submit photo to D2L. Assignment 1115a (indy): That's Better. Submit film to server. |
| T Jan 21 | Assignment 1115a (indy): That's Better. Submit a second version of your film to the server. Work to incorporate improvements from our recent class discussion and critique. Discuss: Empathetic Listening for Screenwriters Demo: Editing Timeline |
| R Jan 23 | Assignment 1115 (indy): Upload the unedited footage from Shoe 2 to the appropriate server folder Demo: Leader, Assembly, Rough |
| T Jan 28 | Assignment 1115a (indy): Shooting and editing for coverage and continuity, prepare a frame-accurate Rough Cut of a third iteration of That's Better. Demo: Location Recording Basics |
| R Jan 30 - T Feb 18 | STORY & SOUND |
| R Jan 30 | Participation 1115a (indy): Conversation Participation in class (group): Table Reads |
| R Feb 20 -T Mar 18 | CAMERA & LIGHTING |
| T Mar 04 | SPRING BREAK |
| R Mar 06 | SPRING BREAK |
| T Mar 25 - T Apr 08 | POST-PRODUCTION |
| F Mar 28 | Last Day to Withdraw |
| M Mar 31 | 25SU & FA Registration Opens |
| R Apr 10 - T Apr 24 | FINAL FILM |
| R Apr 24 | GROUP PROJECT Completed Film |
| R May 01 | FINAL EXAM 0800-0950a |
| R May 01 | WEINKAUF FILM FESTIVAL 0800p Pogue MPG |
The class will generally convene Tuesdays and Thursdays in room 109 of the Doucette Building of the Edinboro Campus. Section 201 meets 1115a-0145p.
The schedule above should be interpreted as a general timetable governing the subjects to be covered in this course. Class discussion, pace – even fluctuations of student attendance and enrollment – often dictate additions, deviations, and omissions. You are advised to frequently consult the most recent version of this schedule; assignments, lecture topics, and links to resources, will be detailed and added throughout the term. Assignments and their due dates are further specified in D2L.
25SP MW CREW
| 20th Cent | Teletubbies | Alexander | Ensinger | Johnston | Lee | Stadtler |
| Europa | Food | DiTullio | Kauffman | Martin | McGuire | Parker |
| Hengdian | Crustacean | Cuneo | Hare | Rokosz | Terkel | Yaremcho |
| Paramount | Pork | Brenan | McCormick | Sciullo | Snyder | Stepnowski-Shields |
25SP TR CREW
| Eon | Teletubbies | Edwards | Frost | Saunders | Smathers | Taber |
| Essanay | Food | Brooks | Coleman | Conway | Cravener | Mitchell |
| Nordisk | Crustacean | Brown | Daley | Pirker | Urbanik | Whitcroft |
| Orion | Pork | Cianfarano | Josephs | Lovison | Salloum | Voogd |
CONTACT THE PROFESSOR
| e-mail at [email protected]. Check these quick tips for emailing a professor. |
| by phone at 616.498.4336 (49.VIDEO). Texting? Remember to identify yourself by name and course. |
| in person. I welcome your visit during these student consultation hours. Seriously, this is my favorite way to get stuff done. |
| I will usually respond to most messages within 12-24 business hours (weekends, holidays, breaks, and the hours between 5pm-9am don't count). The classroom setting is such that not all needs can be met within it. I encourage you, therefore, to visit my office often. It is my pleasure to discuss grades, attendance, notes, lectures, or anything else which will make you a better student. Your grades can only benefit from regular communication with your professors. I will gladly work with you to arrange meeting times convenient to us both. |
DESCRIPTION & OBJECTIVES
3 sem. hrs. Demonstrative lectures, studio exercises, and collaborative tasks, expose students to rudimentary principles and practices governing formal elements of the moving image. Project-based instruction balances historical context, aesthetics, technique, and safety. Equipment provided. This course is approved for General Education designation of Computer Competency.
OBJECTIVES
- Students will recall discipline-specific terminology, employing that vocabulary to identify and describe filmmaking processes and principles.
- Students will analyze exemplars of the moving image art form. They will recognize the contributions of artisans. They will describe, compare, and evaluate, the creative choices of film artists.
- Students will safely operate filmmaking equipment. They will plan and produce project work to demonstrate foundational competence in three-point lighting, composition, camera movement, scriptwriting, dual-system audio recording, and editing.
- Students will justify their own creative choices and critique the choices of their peers.
- Students will schedule, delegate, and execute tasks appropriate to the work of collaborative enterprise.
ASSESSMENT
- In studio exercises and collaborative projects, students will demonstrate foundational competence in three-point lighting, composition, camera movement, scriptwriting, dual-system audio recording, and editing.
- In classroom discussion and examination, students will define filmmaking terminology.
- In classroom discussion and examination, students will identify, classify, and appraise, exemplars of the moving image art form.
- In classroom discussion and essay, students will justify their own creative choices and critique the choices of their peers.
- In regular peer evaluation, students will reflect upon the value and challenges of collaborative enterprise.
GRADES, PENALTIES, & APPEALS
Coursework will be weighted as indicated:
| Projects | 50% | |
| Assignments | 25% | |
| Participation | 25% |
In life and in the classroom, I encourage you to work hardest on the things that count most.
Assignment grades will be based on the following scale:
| 93-100 | A | 73-76 | C | |
| 90-92 | A- | 70-72 | C- | |
| 87-89 | B+ | 67-69 | D+ | |
| 83-86 | B | 63-66 | D | |
| 80-82 | B- | 60-62 | D- | |
| 77-79 | C+ | < 60 | F |
| Coursework in Digital Filmmaking frequently takes 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 may 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 submitted or time-stamped after deadlines posted in the syllabus (usually specified by date and time). 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 Student 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. Because there are sometimes no “right” and “wrong” answers in this field of study, I am open to a certain amount of discussion with regard to the grade awarded any given assignment. Appeals should be made in a timely fashion, within two class periods of grade notification/posting. Appeals should be offered with rhetorical and presentational clarity, preferably face-to-face or via video conference. Appeals are more likely to be successful if students have solicited the professor's input on at least two intermediate versions of the project (see "Feedback & Revision"). |
FEEDBACK & REVISION
| Syllabus deadlines are the date and time an assignment is due in its final version. The nature of filmmaking is such, however, that the most successful students typically solicit professor feedback on intermediate versions of major projects. While this is not a requirement, you ignore the Academy’s proven “draft-and-revise” rhythm at significant peril to your grade. Responding to students’ desire for the most immediate feedback on their project work, grades and comments are typically reported online, usually within seven days of submission. It is therefore the responsibility of students to regularly consult D2L, PennWest’s classroom management software, for the most current report of their grades. |
QUIZZES & PARTICIPATION
| Quizzes may be given without warning to encourage attendance and 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? |
SUBMISSION FORMAT
| Substantiating documentation (storyboards, lighting plots, scripts, talent releases) tends to be rewarded with higher grades if presented professionally. Written work submitted electronically should be free of surface errors (use Grammarly and spell-check/auto correct software) and formatted as .pdf files, with multiple pages combined in a .pdf binder. Video footage, audio recordings, and Adobe project files must be stored and shared on the PennWest Media Server according to established protocols of nomenclature and file structure. |
ATTENDANCE & ETIQUETTE
| Students are expected to attend each 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. Classes will not be held on holidays officially recognized by the university. 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. Cellphones are both blessing and curse. Students are encouraged to use phones, tablets, and laptops in disciplined ways which accomplish the work of the course. It’s considered rude and unprofessional, however, to play games or to exchange private communiqués during class. As preparation for the adult working world, your professor may employ strategies governing constructive use of technology. 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. This legal warning applies explicitly to video conferences, class lectures, and studio activities. To honor the ownership of intellectual property, lectures are not recorded; Keynote and PowerPoint presentations are not stored or distributed. Major concepts will be repeated frequently, both verbally and visually, using the Harvard Outline Format for easy note-taking. Silence your phones during class meetings and project work. You’d hate to ruin an otherwise fabulous take on location with a Kanye West ringtone. |
HONESTY & OWNERSHIP
| It is expected that all work submitted through this course is the student’s original work, generated for the express purpose of completing the requirements of this course. Students are to be aware that academic dishonesty is not tolerated in this course and should be familiar with the following definitions: • 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 Professors may vigorously pursue prosecution of academic dishonesty to the very limit of sanctions allowed by the university, up to and including failure of the course and expulsion from the university. I will work just as vigorously with students to prevent even unintended lapses of integrity. Potential sanctions associated with academic dishonesty may be found in the University’s Student Code of Conduct and Judicial Procedures. While student media producers retain copyright ownership of their respective work, enrollment in this course constitutes your permission to let the university, the department, the professor, their representatives, and successors, exhibit and distribute for promotional purposes those media projects submitted in fulfillment of course assignments. Your enrollment further implies consent to be photographed in class or while working on class projects. 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 university’s last day to drop-add. |
EQUIPMENT & EXPENSES
Equipment loan and campus facilities are available to students enrolled in face-to-face offerings of this course.
In case of a shift to remote learning, students are responsible for access to specified equipment.
In lieu of a required textbook, students should set aside $75 for production expenses.
ACCESS & TITLE IX
| Pennsylvania Western University offers services to meet the accommodation needs of students with many types of disabilities. The Office for Students with Disabilities provides services to students based upon documentation of a disability and a request for accommodations based on this disability. Please refer to PennWest’s Reasonable Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Policy for additional information. This policy is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Pennsylvania Western 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, Title IX requires University faculty members to report incidents of sexual discrimination, including sexual violence, shared by students to the University’s Title IX Coordinator. Accordingly, if a student shares information about any incidents of sexual discrimination or sexual violence during a classroom discussion, in a writing assignment for a class, or in other contexts, faculty must report that information to the Title IX Coordinator. This information will only be shared with the Title IX Coordinator, who is the individual on campus designated to respond to reports of discrimination or sexual violence. While the Title IX Coordinator is not a confidential source of support, they will address matters reported to them with sensitivity and will keep your information as private as possible. Additionally, 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’s 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: https://www.pennwest.edu/equity-title-ix. |