AMERICAN CINEMA

 

Sets of DVDs are made available to students enrolled in the course. Students must sign out their own set from the campus library and should view them in the order indicated on the syllabus. These must be returned at the end of the semester or all your grades will be encumbered.


As an alternative, students can view the programs online with a broadband connection. A free sign up is required for first-time users. To hear the sound and view video, you should have Windows Media Player (this can be installed on a Mac), DSL, a cable modem, or a LAN connection to a T1 line or greater, and have Javascript enabled. For more information, please visit the site’s broadband FAQ.


To sign up go to http://www.learner.org/vod/login.html?pid=210

Email assignment = 2%

Online quizzes completion = 8%

Exam #1 = 45%

Exam #2 = 45%



American Cinema is offered as a Cinema Studies course at Suffolk Community College and hundreds of other colleges across the nation. It is an introductory course in film studies that surveys the American film industry as an art form, as an industry, and as a system of representation and communication. The course explores how Hollywood films work technically, aesthetically, and culturally to reinforce and challenge America's national self-image.

What’s it all about?

What am I going to learn?


Upon completion of this course a student will be able to:

  1. 1.Summarize American film history from the silent era to present day movies.

  2. 2.Compare the developing technology in film to its evolving aesthetics.

  3. 3.Interpret the basic technical and critical vocabulary of motion pictures.

  4. 4. Evaluate the changing economic structure of the film industry.

  5. 5.Assess the different genres, film grammar, and editing and lighting styles used in films and rate how successfully these techniques are employed.

  6. 6.Appraise their role as moviegoers and increase their ability to watch films critically.

  7. 7.Examine how the tools of camera angles, lighting, editing and sound manipulate how we feel about a filmed subject.

  8. 8.Distinguish and contrast the styles of different filmmakers.


What do i have to do?


During class meetings, students are expected to demonstrate an active and critical viewing of the programs and readings  assigned. The readings will be from American Cinema/American Culture (2nd edition or 3rd edition) by John Belton  and American Cinema/American Culture Study Guide (2nd Edition)  by Ed Sikov.  The video programs are entitled American Cinema and total over 12 hours of viewing


During these class meetings, the instructor will present lecture material, screen and analyze films, and encourage class discussion. Also, two examinations will be completed and reviewed. Each of the exams requires the out-of-class completion of five 200 word essays and a 100 question objective section completed in class. 


In preparation for the objective section of the exams, students are required to complete 16 online quizzes from the textbook website and two online quizzes based on the study guide.


With permission and approval of the instructor, an extra-credit assignment may be completed.

How will i be graded?