COM 251 Course Schedule
Summer II 2005

Return to COM 251 Syllabus

DateTopics Readings
June 27 It's All Fake: Creativity in the Media
"Shadowplay" Twilight Zone
"Waiting For The Electrician" Firesign Theatre
Clark, Chaps 1 and 5
June 28Computer Presentations and Games
Case Study: How to build a Web Site
In-class Presentation
Meet in NF B41
(Basement Computer Lab)

Study Questions:

  1. What consitutes an "effective" website?
  2. What are your favorite websites?

Clark, pp. 167-172
Dr. Dixon's Web Page Instuctions
June 30 Sounds and Images in the Creative Process:
The art of mass production

Class Screening: The Making of Master and Commander
Class Screening: The making of Homicide
Clark, Chap 4
Benjamin, The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction
July 4 Independence Day
July 5The Senses: Sound
Class Exercise: Boxes

The Senses: Sight
The Statue (a series of photographs)
Class Screening: Narc-The Visual Trip
R. Murray Schafer, Electronic Revolution
Powerpoint Presentation: The Soundscape

Paul Martin Lester,
What the Brain Sees: Color, Form, Depth, and Movement
Powerpoint Presentation: Sight

July 7
Semiotics: Encoding/decoding
TV ad (to be announced)

Case Study: What does Friends mean to you?
"The One With the Candy Hearts" Friends
Hall, Encoding/Decoding
Barthes, The rhetoric of the image
July 11-12 Narratives and Dramatic Structure
Case Study: The Sitcom
Class Screening: Fast Times (1986)
Aristotle, Poetics
Clark, pp. 30-43
July 14CITIZEN
KANE


Study Question: How does the opening sequence"set up" the rest of the film?
July 18 Sound and Audio
Examples of mixes
Case Study: It's in the Mix: From the radio to the dance floor

Semiotic Analysis of an Advertisement Due
Tankel, Remixing as recoding
July 19-21 Film and Video
(July 19) Case Study: Visual design and editing in Homicide
Homicide (pilot episode)
(July 21) Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography
Clark, pp.15-29
July 25-26 Sight, Sound, and Story: The Creation of the Illusion
Case Study: Four versions of the Gunfight at OK Corral
Clark, pp. 59-91
July 28Genres and Styles To be announced
August 1
PSA Presentations

Opening Sequence Analysis Due
August 2-4 Final Examination and Class Screening: Frank's Place (August 2)
My Media World Website
August 4
(In class presentations)