The course covers a wide range of production work, theory, and lectures in photography, sound design, film/video, animation, and new media. Students are also trained to effectively structure, create and communicate a strong creative narrative in their work.
Next semester's syllabus includes:
Week 1INTRODUCTION TO MEDIA
• Class introduction; review of syllabus and semester projects; equipment guidelines
• Phillip Morris "Commerical Media Purge" Presentation Project
• Personal Blog
Week 2
LIGHTING THE IMAGE
• History of Photography Lecture
• Photography Primer: Aperture, Depth of Field, Shutter Speed
• ZETTL: "Applied Media Aesthetics", "The First Aesthetic Field:
Light" and "Structuring the First Aesthetic Field: Lighting"
(Ch. 1, 2 and 3)
• 15 images to illustrate Zettl's lighting characteristics [collect in media
log]
• Reading: 
Camera
Lucida by Roland Barthes [media log entry: notes from Barthes reading]
Week 3
INTRODUCTION TO PHOTOGRAPHY
• Cultural Anthropology or Faceless Portrait (lighting and composition)
• [media log entry: 2 paragraphs about the photo shoot experience]
• [media log entry: describe how your images illustrate Zettl's lighting
characteristics]
• ZETTL: "The Two-Dimensional Field: Area","The Two-Dimensional
Field: Forces Within the Screen" and "Structuring the Two-Dimensional
Field" (Ch. 6, 7, and 8)
Week 4
PHOTOGRAPHY AND PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP 1
• Introduction to Adobe Photoshop and iPhoto
• Digital collage and doctored photograph
Week 5
PHOTOSHOP WORKSHOP 2 AND INTRODUCTION TO NARRATIVE
• Review of Photoshop projects
• Reverse-engineering narrative from still images
• Film Screening: La
Jetee (1962) by Chris Marker
• ZETTL: "The Five-Dimensional Field: Sound" and "Structuring
the Five-Dimensional Field" (Ch. 17 and 18)
Week 6
FILM WORKSHOP 1 (Still Images)
• Review of narrative projects
• Introduction to iMovie using still images
• Collecting literal sounds for narrative projects
• ZETTL: "The Four-Dimensional Field: Motion" and "Structuring
... Timing and Principal Motions" (Ch. 13 and 14)
Week 7
FILM WORKSHOP 2 (Production, Sound and Video)
• Cinematography Workshop and in-class film production shoot
• iMovie Workshop 2
• Film Screening: When
the Days Breaks (1999), animated film by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby
• ZETTL: "Structuring ... Continuity Editing" and "Structuring
... Complexity Editing" (Ch. 15 and 16)
Week 8
FILM WORKSHOP 3 (5 Obstructions)
• Screening: The Five Obstructions (2003) by Jörgen Leth
and Lars Van Trier
• ZETTL: "Building Screen Space: Visualization" and "The
Four-Dimensional Field: Time" (Ch. 11 and 12)
Week 9
FILM WORKSHOP IV (Post-Production, Special Effects)
• Film compositing, animation, and special effects workshop using Adobe After-Effects
Week 10
ANIMATION WORKSHOP
• Introduction to Adobe Flash
• Aesop's Fable Project
• ZETTL: "The Extended First Field: Color" and "Structuring Color:
Function and Composition" (Ch. 4 and 5)
• Wabi-Sabi
for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers
Week 11
WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP I
• History of Web Technology Development Lecture
• Web Design/Development Lecture
• Create your own web site with selected writings and class projects;
sitemap and design comps for next week
• Web Production Processes:
1. Sitemapping and Information Architecture
2. Content Development
3. Design Comps
4. Test Site Production and QA
5. Site Launch
6. Site Promotion/Search Engine Optimization
7. Site Maintenance
Week 12
WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP II
• Introduction to HTML and Macromedia Dreamweaver
• Text formatting, links, and HTML tables
• Directory, folder, and file hierarchies
• Using FTP applications
• Browser and platform compatibility
Week 13
WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP III
• Quicktime video optimization for the Web
• Flash and HTML integration
• Intermediate Macromedia Flash: Interactivity and Actionscripting
•
Bridge to next semester
