Course Syllabus

Spring 2024 | FLM-1050-VO01 - Digital Filmmaking I

Online Class

Online courses take place 100% online via Canvas, without required in-person or Zoom meetings.

Faculty

Stephen Pite
View Faculty Credentials

Hiring Coordinator for this course: Dana Lee

General Education Requirements

VSCS Arts & Aesthetics

Note

Many degree programs have specific general education recommendations. In order to avoid taking unnecessary classes, please consult with additional resources like your program evaluation, your academic program catalog year page, and your academic advisor.

Courses may only be used to meet one General Education Requirement.

Course Description

In this hands-on course, students are introduced to the basics of filmmaking. Students gain basic skills through technical exercises and then create short film projects. Topics include script development, pre-production planning, directing, lighting, cinematography, sound recording and editing. Visual storytelling practices and the history of film works will supplement student projects.

Essential Objectives

1. Demonstrate proficiency in the basic use and vocabulary of camera, lighting, sound recording, and editing skills through short exercises.
2. Develop story ideas and draft scripts for short films, focusing principles and practices of story development for various short-form filmmaking (commercial, public service announcements, experimental, narrative, documentary).
3. Apply skills of filmmaking, including camera work, lighting, sound recording, and editing by creating compelling and professionally executed 1-3 minute films.
4. Analyze short films from historical, social, personal, ethical, and cultural perspectives and how they have impacted social change.
5. Analyze the impact of global and/or cultural diversity on the development of short film.

Required Technology

More information on general computer and internet recommendations is available on the CCV IT Support page. https://support.ccv.edu/general/computer-recommendations/

Please see CCV's Digital Equity Statement (pg. 45) to learn more about CCV's commitment to supporting all students access the technology they need to successfully finish their courses.

Required Textbooks and Resources

*** This is a no cost textbook or resource class. ***

FLM-1050-VO01 Link to Textbooks/Resources Information for this course in eCampus.

The last day to use a Financial Aid Advance to purchase textbooks/books is the 3rd Tuesday of the semester. See your financial aid counselor at your academic center if you have any questions.

Methods

"The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories” Mary C. Bateson linguist and anthropologist Film is the medium of today’s storytelling, messaging, and promotion of all kinds in Inspiration. Emotion. Entertainment, and Marketing. In this class we will focus on “short form for small screen” such as music video, public service announcement, product/service promotion, experimental video art, as well as narrative fiction and creative documentary, writing and creating two short films. But we learn can also "scale up "to festival- and feature-length. You will learn how to write films, make films, and watch films… and because filmmaking is 50% incredibly hard work, 50% incredibly fun, and 50% interesting as all get-out (yup, I know that 150% but that's show biz). Most of all I hope it's entertaining. - for each of you. THIS IS A FAST-PACED, HANDS ON, TIME DEMANDING COURSE IN WHICH YOU WILL CREATE THREE SHORT FILM EXERCISES, GAIN TONS OF EXPERIENCE, AND LEARN THE BASCIS OF PROFESSIONAL METHOD AND PRACTICE FOR MOST FORMS OF CONTEMOIRARY FILMMAKING. This course examines visual storytelling, writing for short films, video and audio capture, and editing. You will work on projects that address message construction and film production through project-based assignments, discussion, readings, and in-class screenings. Critical analysis of short-film genre will be explored through and screenings and readings. TECHINCAL EXPECTATIONS Software: Photoshop and Premiere (requires Adobe Creative Cloud subscription). Your computer (Mac or Windows) should have 16GB of RAM (and a dedicated graphics card if a Windows machine) although you can work with 8GB; it just takes a bit longer to render large files. Reliable broadband is imperative. Chromebooks and iPads are NOT sufficient. Hardware: cell phone video capture is acceptable although a DSLR camera is preferred; external microphone, computer to run Premiere and external hard drive to store media. Don’t let the equipment requirements stop you if you have an interest in this form of creative expression. We can work with cell phone video and audio capture; we just have to tailor the projects to what you have to work with. SKILL ACQUISITION Storytelling, video creation for experimental or commercial interests; advertising, promotion, and marketing practices; greater fluency with time-based media creation and critique; career exploration. Basic cinematography, lighting, and editing for short-form digital filmmaking.

Evaluation Criteria:
	Filmmaking can be breathtaking, impactful, challenging, rewarding, frustrating…making movies will challenge every aspect of your creative communications because film is the medium of contemporary expression that most fulfills our ability to make emotionally truthful statements that connect with - and move – others. Films make us laugh, cry, think, remember – even change us. We identify with characters, story lines, and respond to plots. It’s how we are wired; and film adds layered visuals and sounds to our experience of story in ways that literature cannot. Filmmaking is a complex creative process. In this class we will try to break the complexity into digestible nuggets, and let you discover your own process through exercises and short film projects. The process itself may seem awkward and prescriptive at first, but I am drawing from the knowledge that comes from over 200 years of filmmaking that offer many lessons that will help you achieve the film you want to make. Filmmaking is not as simple as pushing the record button on your camera and then selecting the moments that seem to make some kind of sense when you edit the footage. That kind of filmmaking has its place in amateur production but the skills I hope you will learn in this class with be ones you can build on as a professional (and innovative and creative and personal) approach to an a powerful art form that also offers many practical - and employable – opportunities. ASSESSMENT CRITERIA I do not approach learning or creative project development as a “check the box” activity. Learning, especially learning creative filmmaking, is a process. There are no “absolute” answers; only investigations of a set of highly complex activities that results in a combination of crafts each of which has measurable attributes and characteristics. I do not expect everyone to be an expert in all the areas of creative filmmaking, but for each of you to incrementally improve. You each start at a different place in terms of these learning outcomes and will approach each project differently and apply different skills. But hopefully you all learn to make interesting, compelling and important films. The only way to incrementally improve is to follow a process, a roadmap, and to constantly seek feedback and respond creatively to that. The learning rubric below is a way for me to explain to you how I approach assessment of your projects. There are four major learning outcomes I assess. The rubric below is an outline that helps you think about your projects and places emphasis on the outcomes, hopefully offering you ways to improve and to achieve some economy of resources as you work. It is not a point-system for awarding a final grade; but an outline of what you should be thinking about as you follow your creative process. Allow yourself to “make mistakes” – in the realm of creative expression and interpretive innovation is the path to breakthroughs. Your work will be assessed along 5 intersecting criteria, plus timely submission of assignments and willingness to engage in iterative development Storytelling Language of Film Continuity and Visual Impact Editing and Soundtrack Professional formatting and finish

Evaluation Criteria

Grading Criteria

CCV Letter Grades as outlined in the Evaluation System Policy are assigned according to the following chart:

	High	Low
A+	100	98
A	Less than 98	93
A-	Less than 93	90
B+	Less than 90	88
B	Less than 88	83
B-	Less than 83	80
C+	Less than 80	78
C	Less than 78	73
C-	Less than 73	70
D+	Less than 70	68
D	Less than 68	63
D-	Less than 63	60
F	Less than 60
P	100	60
NP	Less than 60	0

Weekly Schedule

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential for success in and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. A student's failure to meet attendance requirements as specified in course descriptions will normally result in a non-satisfactory grade.

• In general, missing more than 20% of a course due to absences, lateness or early departures may jeopardize a student's ability to earn a satisfactory final grade.
• Attending an on-ground or synchronous course means a student appeared in the live classroom for at least a meaningful portion of a given class meeting. Attending an online course means a student posted a discussion forum response, completed a quiz or attempted some other academically required activity. Simply viewing a course item or module does not count as attendance.
• Meeting the minimum attendance requirement for a course does not mean a student has satisfied the academic requirements for participation, which require students to go above and beyond simply attending a portion of the class. Faculty members will individually determine what constitutes participation in each course they teach and explain in their course descriptions how participation factors into a student's final grade.

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/
2. Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan.
3. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process.

Academic Integrity