Film & Media Studies

This course explores the many ways in which theater and film are distinct but closely inter-related mediums. The bulk of the course focuses on close analysis of texts that have been adapted from the stage to the screen, examining performativity within those texts and how the essential properties that define the stage and the screen contribute to and facilitate particular ways for performing such texts. Notions of theatricality and the cinema are interrogated, especially in relation to how cinema can be 'theatrical' and the theatre 'cinematic'. 

The course analyzes the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis in the Middle East as presented in films, the point of view of the press, NGOs, international relations experts, and international law academics . Topics covered include the origin of the conflict, occupation of Palestinian territory, and Israeli national security.

This course examines the history and current state of the film and television industry. It focuses on and how information is produced, distributed, and consumed on a global level. Topics of study include: cinema and film as a cultural industry; cultural exception and national media policy; regulation and deregulation of the television industry; public service and financing in the European television realm; the Hollywood hegemony in film and television; the Big 5 networks; HBO and pay TV networks; the digital revolution and piracy; and the advent of IPTV. 

This course examines experimentation, concept implementation, editing, camera skills, styles and concept.

This course examines the various forms of photography; explores the relationship between visual communication and art; the collaborative process between light and graphic; concepts and skills; and influences of images and trends from visual media. 

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to video games’ technological and aesthetic forms of expression, and industrial and cultural contexts. It examines how games are similar to and different from other media, what the most important developments are in game history, and what their impact is on games, game development, and society. The course considers how games can be analyzed, interpreted, and understood; how games explore, reflect, and challenge culture through representations of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, ethics, politics, and ideology; and what the central possibilities and challenges are for contemporary game industry and game culture. It discusses theories, terms, concepts, and models from game studies and game design literature. It analyzes and interprets structure, content, meaning, and interaction in different types of video games and discusses critically the game industry and game culture. The course provides an opportunity to practice the ability to convey academic and professional knowledge about video games in discussions, presentations, and in writing. The course is well suited for those who want in-depth academic and professional insights into video games as a phenomenon and field of research and wish to work with or research games further.

This course is a survey of the history and aesthetics of film music from the late 1890s to the present day. It covers the dramatic function of music as an element of cinematic narrative, the codification of musical iconography in cinematic genres, the symbolic use of pre-existing music, and the evolving musical styles of film composers.

This course offers a critical examination of the resurgence of “folk horror cinema” in British cinema since the 2000s. Based on cultural references involving neo-pagan cults, witchcraft, and a largely fantasized rewriting of the national past in terms of pre-Christian heritage, this profoundly ambiguous tradition has variously been re-appropriated by feminist as well as masculinist discourses and has given rise to a range of aesthetic propositions, from exploitation cinema to “elevated horror,” and analyzes how British and American horror cinemas have both developed a subgenre based on stories that resort to some folklore deeply engrained in a country’s traditions. Using recurring themes like religion, hostile landscapes, and supernatural creatures, these films rely on man’s deepest fears, and they may also be a means for some artists to criticize the human tendency to act in some superstitious and harmful ways.

This course considers and seeks to understand contemporary Japanese media culture and urban culture mainly from the perspective of sociology and media theory. Specifically, it examines various cultural texts and phenomena along the themes of "time," "space," and "media." The course aims to enable students to develop the basic ability to examine modern culture.

This course explores the origins of cinema in Japan and its development up to the present day. It investigates cultural influences that shaped approaches to filmmaking as well as narrative conventions and genres. The course also investigates how Japanese films have shaped foreign views of Japan and Japanese culture. Particular attention will be paid to issues and problems of film study in relation to cinema from Japan, including the construction of the “Japaneseness” of Japanese films.