This page directs readers to
- the five courses that I have designed and led while Guest Lecturing in U.S. Film and Media at the John F. Kennedy Institue of North American Studies, Freie University of Berlin.
- the five courses in US & British Cinema while at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
- the `KINWORDS`programme in US mainstream cinema at the New Bulgarian University, Sofia.
Course website pages are on the sidebar right:-
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Spring/Summer, 2009: Hollywood`s Lonely Place.
| (32 103) - VS/PS - |
Hollywood’s Lonely Place: Screenwriting Cultures since the 1920s (BA, Vertiefungsmodul A, Vertiefungsseminar) ; (im Magisterstudiengang ist dies ein PS, 2 SWS, 7 ECTS-credits) Mo 18.00-20.00 - ZI JFKI Lansstr. 7-9, 340 (Hörsaal) | (20.4.) | Alan Taylor |
| In terms of its ideological and cultural influence, ‘Hollywood’ is arguably the world’s most influential global industry. As that industry has rhetorically positioned itself as only ‘entertainment’, so, since the 1920s, the work of its writers have been cast by producers as marginalised features of its industrial process.However, the recent Hollywood writer’s strike of 2008 confounded this assumption, highlighting as it did how the multi-billion dollar enterprise still relies on a sequential pipeline that starts with a pen, pencil, keyboard and Union affiliation.This course is a timely opportunity, therefore, to centre stage the screenwriting process – from the 1920s to the present. At its core, participant’s three short essays and shared round table deliveries will focus on developing skills in media literacy by way of analysing the interpretative process from script to screen, and via a critical engagement with the work of case study writers and changing working practices – from film and television to contemporary New Digital Media.In addition, one aim of in-course review and feedback on such essays is to develop and enhance student’s own written skills in precision, drafting and editing.
Our work overall will build upon student’s interests in American culture, politics, and history and can lead to a 20-page Research Paper.” |
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Winter/Spring 2008-2009: Hollywood Snoops.
Newly arriving prospective students should be interested in this 2-page document which was the basis of our introduction session: at-snoops-jfk-i-intro-0809
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Spring/Summer 2008: Amercian Yodas.
The practical and ideological role of American formal education is pivotal in articulating the nation’s democratic assumptions and in forwarding its aspirations towards equal opportunity, a fact not lost in Presidential Election Year 2008.
This course included but then advanced beyond these genre-specific accounts to consider American film form and narrative in general and through the prism of contrasting learning theories (from Watson/behaviorism, through Bruner/cognitive to Gigerenzer/heuristics).
• In keeping with certain behaviorist principles, schein/credit rewards were gained for 80% + attendance and the completion of two short essays. These were written, and subject to written feedback during the course.
• Research Paper opportunities were designed to attract the professional interest and intellectual ambitions of students of psychology, pedagogic practice, and applied film/ media theory.”
http://www.fu-berlin.de/vorlesungsverzeichnis/ss08/jfki/013003002001001001.html
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Winter/Spring 2007-2008: Hollywood on Hollywood.
“Aims & Objectives:
- celebrate student’s skills in critical thinking, powers of analysis and individual initiative
- introduce students new &familiar to film studies to U.S cinema history &working practices
- explore aspects of genre, narrative &representation in mainstream film
- pinpoint and explore key moments in film theory
- critically engage with present U.S / international digital filmmaking production, exhibition and distribution networks
Course Content
The spine of the course will focused on key aspects of mainstream American cinema – the most influential and pervasive form of global mass media in the 20th Century. The course balanced introductory sessions on traditional industry, studio working practices and storytelling paradigms with core features of post-1958 film theory. Applied practical criticism focused on two renowned films on Hollywood itself – Vincent Minnelli’s The Bad and the Beautiful (1954) and Robert Altman’s The Player (1992) -, which we will share as seminar texts. Documentary excerts on film history, technology, genre and certain directors (Fuller, Hopper) supported the programme.
Close reference to contemporary global developments in digital filmmaking as emerging from the United States informed our enquiries. Amongst other things, therefore, we considered the viability & relevance of traditional film practice, industry and criticism in the 21st century.
Requirements
- Attendance credits were granted to 80% PLUS attendance, minimum 11 sessions;
- A full credit were gained via 80% attendance plus a Research Paper (20 pages) as inspired by Film Studies / American Studies global conference lists for 2007/2008 and as then chosen by the student”:
http://web.fu-berlin.de/vorlesungsverzeichnis/ws0708/jfki/013003003001001001.html
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Spring/Summer 2007: Framing News.
“George Clooney’s “Good Night and Good Luck” (2005) takes its significant and timely place in a Hollywood genre lineage that, since the 1970s, has assumed to represent the development of U.S. television. The film’s critical and commercial success – as topped by 2006 Oscar recognitions – confirm how relevant these issues remain for present-day audiences. This course places “Good Night and Good Luck” in a deep historical context by focusing critically on former Hollywood films that, from the 1970s to the 1990s, also assumed to represent the working practices of U.S. broadcast news, cable news media and Reality TV. The spine of the course will therefore explore how ten corporate intertextualities – from Network (20th Century Fox, 1976) to The Insider (Touchstone, 1999) – reflected public disquiet about media ownership, gender representation, corporate mergers, free speech, new technologies, war coverage, and even the influential powers of market journalism itself. In addition, our study was enriched by contextual histories, which, since the 1920s, consider relevant legal, institutional and political interventions in the early development of the U.S. public media. This le to a Case Study analysis of cable news coverage post 9/11. The course was an update of a book publication by the Course Leader which itself became the focus of intense public and on-air debate during 2005 General Elections in Eastern Europe:
http://www.fu-berlin.de/vorlesungsverzeichnis/ss07/jfki/013003003001001001.html
More information: http://wethemedia.edublogs.org/hello-welcome/“
See links on the left side bar for the on-line details of each course.
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