This practice based course focuses on a specific topic in media production. Students will explore the propensities and challenges of a particular production approach, model, technology, or aesthetic practice through the creation of a series of media projects. Classes will include screenings, readings, and discussion that situate these practices conceptually, ethically, and culturally but the emphasis is on hands-on project creation as a means of understanding the production topic at hand.
Documentary Animation
A hands-on course in the fundamentals of animated media production examined through the lens of the history, techniques, and methods of documentary animation. What realities might be uniquely explored or represented using varying modes of animation, either as part of a larger documentary project or as the entire project itself? Students will explore creative strategies for designing form and content across experimental, abstract, and character based approaches. A series of collaborative, hands-on media projects will be supplemented by discussions of theoretical readings, screenings, and technical workshops. Recommended (though not required): MAC 110 and MAC 210.
Process-Based Mediamaking
A hands-on media production course in which the final result of each project is, to some extent, outside of the creator’s control. The vast majority of traditional film and television is intentionally scripted or planned in advance and the production/filmmaking process is focused on capturing images and sound that perfectly execute that script or plan. Process-Based Mediamaking is an alternative to this system. It is rooted in the idea of developing a process, methodology, or set of rules ahead of time and then letting that open-ended, exploratory, and in some cases even random, approach generate media art. This course will consider historical and current examples of Process-Based mediamaking but the main emphasis of the course is the creation of this kind of media. No prior mediamaking experience is required.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Film and Media Creation
This hands-on media-making course will explore the emerging practice of using generative AI and other artificial intelligence tools to create cinematic media. In just a few years, AI tools have gone from barely useable to being able to create highly realistic images, video, and audio. Established and emerging artists (and production companies and studios) are increasingly using these tools in both artistic and commercial contexts. Students will complete a series of creative assignments that will examine the affordances and limitations of current AI tools. A major focus of the course will be the legal and ethical questions raised by the technology, particularly in relation to intellectual property, deception/deep fakes, labor, the environment, and what it means to make art. Students who are skeptical about the use of AI are welcome in the course but must be willing to use these tools to complete assignments.
Micro-Budget Feature Film Development
One of the most common ways for aspiring directors to break into feature filmmaking is to produce and direct a so-called “micro-budget” feature film, a varyingly defined category of film that costs “very little money” and that it is possible to produce in an entirely independent manner. This is a hands-on class where each student will focus on the creative and logistical development of a concept for a micro-budget feature film. There are many approaches to micro-budget filmmaking and students will analyze a series of case-studies to better understand the history and current state of this film genre. The micro-budget form has, historically, been a way for filmmakers to break into the feature film world and also a form that allows for a high degree of personal expression. The primary work in the class will be each student brainstorming an idea for a micro-budget feature film and creating an aesthetic and producerial plan for the film. A screenplay will not be written in this course but the plan created in the class could guide the writing of a screenplay after the course. Ideally, students will have taken at least one MAC class with a media production or screenwriting component prior to taking this course.