Film & Media Studies

From their very beginnings, cinema and then television have taken hold of French history. These productions for both the small and the big screen are the fruit of artistic and aesthetic choices, as well as the bearers of a certain historical perception. Sometimes taking a stand in debates about history and memory, they reflect the past as much as the context in which they were made. This course demonstrates how the history of France has been perceived in works of fiction broadcast on the big and small screens. It also looks at how these works contribute to social and memorial issues.

This course examines Spanish and Latin American film studies while exploring the tensions, negotiations, and complex flows of influence from a transatlantic angle. Comprising history, theory and criticism through the exploration of 'national' cinema industries, it explores sites of production and circulation, by examining the role co-productions and film festivals play in the conceptualization and consumption of Latin American and Spanish cinema.

This course discusses the various types of audiovisual media on the internet. Topics include: concepts and challenges posed by internet information and communication technologies-- digital impact on audiovisual media; video, film, and television on the internet; case studies of the creation of apps, web pages, and other audiovisual content.

In the course expressions of modern advertising in different media forms are studied using theories derived from semiotics, rhetoric and image analysis. Advertising is defined as a form of communication. Its intermedia concept is analyzed in relation to, for example, music videos or other means of popular culture. Questions concerning branding, gender, or globalization are treated in relation to visual, verbal, or musical means of advertising. The main emphasis is on an intermedia analysis of concrete examples of advertising in newspapers, television, Internet, buzz marketing, and brand hacking. The focus is on analyzing but also creating different forms of advertising in the twentieth century, as a manifestation of modern popular culture.

This course focuses on camera, sound, acting and practical producing questions in making short films. It analyzes all the aspects of various short films and discusses how to write a short film, how to deal with the dramaturgy of the short film, and how to direct it. The course covers not only some masterpieces created by the best directors in the history of cinema, but also about contemporary ones.