Instructor: Wendy Levy
Second Life Avatar: Shayna Capalini
Instructor Email: wendylevy@comcast.net
CLASS BEGINS AUGUST 18! GETTING STARTED The information below is only applicable to students who are officially registered in the class. If you have already registered, please be sure to do the following: 1. Send me an email (wendylevy@comcast.net) verifying your registration in CINEMA 19 (I also teach Cinema 18). I have not received emails from all registered students yet - please just let me know you are registered and plan to take the class. 2. Log into the course by the end of the first week of the semester to secure your spot in the course. You may be dropped if you do not show your intent to take the course by logging on by the end of the first week of classes. Instruction begins August 18, and you should be logged on and participating no later than August 22. Once you are enrolled and registered, you will access all the course information over the Internet using your web browser through a system called WebCT. You'll need to log in to the website with a username and password. First, go to CCSF online. If you have taken an online course at City College of San Francisco, you can use your old username and password. If you have not taken an online course, you will use your Student ID (for example, W88888888, or if your Student ID number is @888888, then you'll use X888888.) Your initial password is set to "changeme". You will be required to change your password the first time you access the system.
I'm Wendy Levy - your instructor this semester. I've been teaching film and media studies and production for many years in the Bay Area at San Francisco State, College of San Mateo, UCBerkeley Extension, and City College. I'm the Director of Creative Programming at Bay Area Video Coalition (www.bavc.org), and a documentary filmmaker.
Please don't take this class if you think it is less work than an in-person class. I really try to create an engaging and compelling format and a very interactive structure for the course, but you actually have to be VERY self-motivated to succeed. You have to write a lot, analyze a consistent stream of web-based media, add to the class blog and online channel regularly, read and analyze the texts, participate regularly in online discussion boards, and create a final project that synthesizes your experience this semester. You won't actually have to create video content (although you can if you want); the key to this course will be your ability to filter and negotiate the media noise that is everywhere and aggregate content and commentary that is meaningful in the context of the documentary filmmaking movement, social advocacy, and emerging technologies.
There are no required in-person meetings for this class. Everything is online. By request, I am available for in-person office hours during the semester.
You are welcome to email me at wendylevy@comcast.net if you have any pre-registration questions or issues.
COURSE OVERVIEW and INFORMATION
This online class explores the field of political documentary cinema in a digital context. Using new multiplatform technologies, filmmakers are now circumventing traditional gatekeepers and reaching viewers directly, building core personal audiences and achieving true global distribution. The lines between art, activism, and advocacy are blurred beyond recognition. In the class, we will study documentary form, screen a new documentary each week, read and discuss issues and theories related to digital cinema and emerging media tools, and use both traditional and multiplatform documentaries to understand the concerns of new “digitized Hollywood” and a struggling Public Broadcast System with new players and new rules. Each film will be considered in light of emerging technologies: blogging/vlogging, social networks, virtual communities, mobile applications, interactive television, gaming, and other alternative media forms. What does the serious documentarian make of all this? Is traditional documentary filmmaking in crisis, or in the center of a rebirth? In addition to readings and screenings, students will utilize web-based and mobile platforms to communicate with one another, share ideas, critical analyses, and creative work.
QUESTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE CLASS:
§ What is political documentary and how does it function in a cultural, aesthetic, and historical context?
§ How has political documentary filmmaking changed over time?
§ What is the relationship between documentary filmmaking and journalism?
§ How has documentary storytelling changed in light of digital technologies?
§ How are new technologies altering the aesthetic and business models of the film industry?
§ How will these new models affect the role of documentary and the ways in which stories are told?
§ Are digital distribution technologies really opening up new audiences new sources of funding, and a deeper level of engagement?
§ Why should documentary filmmakers care about mobile and cross-platform
distribution? Does the technology impact the story and or its ability to reach communities? How?
§ How do we understand the relationship of nonfiction storytelling to emerging technologies?
HOW TO SUCCEED IN THIS COURSE
1. Log into the Homepage of the class (that is where you are now) on Monday each week. Read the homepage carefully; I will post information about the assignments that week along with links to interesting new video, blogposts, or relevant news items.
2. Check the Schedule and Assignments page for the work due that week.
3. Review the Learning Objectives.
4. Watch the assigned film early in the week so you have some time to complete the reading, web research, and writing assignments.
5. Post your weekly writing assignments by Sunday at 11PM. Blogposts go to www.new politicaldocumentary.blogspot.com. Discussion posts go to the Discussion Board on this WebCT site. Posts to the class channel (www.cinema19.blip.tv) on blip are also due on Sunday at 11PM.
WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS
The classes will consist of 3 – 5 “action items” each week. Consider each action item as an assignment for that week, due by Sunday at 11PM. All Action Items are listed in the Schedule and Assignments page on Web CT in the week that they are due.
ABOUT THE ACTION ITEMS: READ, WATCH, NAVIGATE, CONNECT, and CREATE
READ: refers to chapters in the texts, or online articles listed on the Assignements page.
WATCH/LISTEN: refers to the feature film for the week that you can rent/download or watch in the library, along with any other optional web videos I post on our channel on blip.tv. You will also find video mini-lectures from me on selected topics, as well as podcasts from national media conferences and relevant panel discussions that relate to our work in class.
NAVIGATE: refers to relevant websites or other digital media that I will post that you must click through, think about, and/or write about in the context of the film and the other assignments that week.
CONNECT: refers to a writing assignment where you show how you've connected with the material, how you've made connections between theoretical concepts, media, visual and technical ideas. It will be an online discussion question you must answer in a short essay, or a blog entry you post for that week. This is a very important action item – it’s really the only way I know that you are showing up to class and doing the work.
CREATE: refers to a larger project I ask you to create – could be a midterm essay, or your final project – a paper, a website, an online video, or a community engagement plan for a political documentary. There will be three CREATE projects during the semester.
Textbooks
Required reading: Aufderheide, Patricia Documentary Film, A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press 2007
Required reading: Kirsner, Scott The Future of Web Video (e-book) http://stores.lulu.com/kirsner
Required reading: Taylor, Thom and Melinda Hsu Digital Cinema: The Hollywood Insiders Guide to the Evolution of Storytelling Michael Wiese Productions 2003