Courses

A required course in film and video production techniques which includes both lectures and studio practicum. Practical experience in production and production management is covered as is the language of production.

Process Cinema’ explores a creative tradition in alternative filmmaking that is improvisational and interactive. Through this process-driven methodology, the screenplay as governing document is replaced by a fluid integration of writing, shooting and editing, not necessarily in that order. Drawing upon a range of readings and screenings, students will explore this method of working through practical exercises and research projects.

Provides an advanced exploration of a range of issues in documentary theory and practice. Issues such as the ethics of representation, ethnographic practice, the status of evidence, voice and authorship, the proliferation of documentary styles and the social implications of documentary practice are explored through a range of readings, screenings and the production of a short documentary from concept through to treatment, filming, budgeting and post-production.

This hands-on studio course explores the meanings and methods of hybrid fiction techniques, as utilized by contemporary film/video artists working across a variety of genres. Students investigate a broad range of realist and non-realist dramatic modes: ‘dogme’ and melodrama, improv and mockumentary, re-enactment and split screen.

A production course which focuses on the learning, the comprehension and the creation of the signs and codes of new narrative cinema, understood as an exploration of psychological and societal breakdown through unconventional narrative structures.

Directing Actors is a studio course that critically explores the theory and practice of directing actors on screen. Each week in a hands-on workshop setting, graduate students study diverse methods for scene study, auditioning, rehearsing, visualizing relationships, blocking for the camera, directing and re-directing actors in a variety of filmed scenes.

A required course that analyzes the writing of fictional and non-fictional scripts from the perspectives of script idea, story, character, dialogue and background atmosphere and includes practical assignments in scriptwriting and student presentations of work in progress.

Selected Topics in Screenwriting. A workshop course primarily intended for students intending thesis work in screenwriting. The precise focus will be determined by those admitted to the course but will include advanced practice in the art of screenwriting including adaptations and original scripts.

Selected Topics in Screenwriting. A workshop course primarily intended for students intending thesis work in screenwriting. The precise focus will be determined by those admitted to the course but will include advanced practice in the art of screenwriting including adaptations and original scripts.

An intensive introduction for aspiring screenwriters to the subtle but encompassing problems they may expect to encounter when writing for series television. Students will study the form and format of half-hour and one hour episodic comedies and dramas intended to be encompassed as part of a television series. They will also undertake the pitching, outlining and drafting of a single episode; the creation and development of a series proposal; the make up and function of a story department; plus an overview of the industry as a whole. Long form drama including television movies and mini-series will also be examined. Prerequisite: Enrolment within the Graduate Program in Film (screenwriting) ; or enrolment within another graduate program at York and permission of the Graduate Program in Film Screenwriting Committee.

An intensive introduction for aspiring screenwriters to the subtle but encompassing problems they may expect to encounter when writing for series television. Students will study the form and format of half-hour and one hour episodic comedies and dramas intended to be encompassed as part of a television series. They will also undertake the pitching, outlining and drafting of a single episode; the creation and development of a series proposal; the make up and function of a story department; plus an overview of the industry as a whole. Long form drama including television movies and mini-series will also be examined. Prerequisite: Enrolment within the Graduate Program in Film (screenwriting) ; or enrolment within another graduate program at York and permission of the Graduate Program in Film Screenwriting Committee.

Seminars include presentations by faculty and visiting lecturers and presentations by students of thesis proposals and thesis research. All students are required to register in this course during their two years in the Program, but will register in it and receive a grade only in their second-year.

Students may earn academic credit for work experience (paid or unpaid) that is relevant to film & media. Students link theory with practice, conduct research, and learn about professional practices in cinema and media studies, production, and/or screenwriting. All Internship courses must be approved by the Graduate Program Director.

Students may earn academic credit for work experience (paid or unpaid) that is relevant to film & media. Students link theory with practice, conduct research, and learn about professional practices in cinema and media studies, production, and/or screenwriting. All Internship courses must be approved by the Graduate Program Director.

Students may design, in collaboration with other students in the Cinema and Media Studies program or Film program, a particular course of study with a faculty member(s) provided it is not available in the current curriculum and does not overlap significantly with a course previously taken. All Student Initiated Collaborative Inquiry courses must be approved by the applicable Graduate Program Director(s).

Students may design, in collaboration with other students in the Cinema and Media Studies program or Film program, a particular course of study with a faculty member(s) provided it is not available in the current curriculum and does not overlap significantly with a course previously taken. All Student Initiated Collaborative Inquiry courses must be approved by the applicable Graduate Program Director(s).

Students may design an individual course of study with a faculty member provided it is not available in the current curriculum and does not overlap significantly with a course previously taken. Students are normally allowed two half reading courses during their master’s tenure in the Program. All Directed Reading courses must be approved by the Graduate Program Director.

Students may design an individual course of study with a faculty member provided it is not available in the current curriculum and does not overlap significantly with a course previously taken. Students are normally allowed two half reading courses during their master’s tenure in the Program. All Directed Reading courses must be approved by the Graduate Program Director.

Methods and Research in Film Studies. A discussion of the various methodologies developed by film critics and historians to understand the moving image and its contextual relationship to the social world. Influential examples from the critical and historical literature are examined. The course also includes practical experience in bibliographical and research methods.

This course is intended as an in depth study of major theoretical schools and debates within contemporary film theory. The course is divided into three key units, each of which will focus on the historical development, methodological principles and philosophic underpinning of a specific school. This is a required course for all Critical and Historical Studies students.

This hands-on course gives students an opportunity to learn about new screen technologies, approaches and techniques in a lab environment. Students will work in the lab to build prototypes that will function as a testing ground for both new technology and future cinema theory. Our method is iterative: there is an urgent need for scholars in this field to be both theorists and practical experimenters, to research while doing, understanding that the process of exploring firsthand is an important step toward knowing what kinds of knowledges and ways of understanding these new digital tools and artefacts demand, encourage or make possible.

This research creation course engages graduate students in the theory and practice of worldmaking in cinema and media arts. We approach worldmaking as the construction of imaginary worlds for storytelling, as an orientation toward the possibility of new and radically different possible worlds, and as a form of socially transformative politics.

TBA

Explores key concepts, texts and debates in the field of contemporary cinema and media studies. While maintaining a focus on the intellectual and material histories of cinema studies and media studies as disciplines (and their recent convergence), including epistemological and ontological frameworks, methodological approaches, and institutional and technological supports, the course will emphasize recent developments in cinema and media studies. Three broad areas of study will structure the course: cinema and cultural theory; national and transnational cinema; cinema and technologies of the image.