HUM 1041 - The Art of Film

Credits: 3
Hours/Week: Lecture None Lab None
Course Description: This course is an introduction to film as an art form. This course presents the study of film as a medium for portraying ideas, myths, human concerns, and aesthetic principles. Included in the course are an examination of film techniques, film theories, and artistic styles of film such as formalism, surrealism, expressionism, and neorealism.
MnTC Goals
6 Humanities/Fine Arts, 8 Global Perspective

Prerequisite(s): None
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: None

Major Content

1. Film Techniques
   1. Mise-en-scene
      1. Settings
      2. Subjects
      3. Composition
   2. Cinematography
      1. Film Stock
      2. Camera angles
      3. Lighting
      4. Moving Camera
   3. Editing
      1. Shots, Scenes, Sequences
      2. Parallel Editing
      3. Film Structure
2. Film Context
   1. Society, Politics and Censorship
   2. Cultural Factors
   3. Artistic Conventions
3. Types of Films
   1. Classical Hollywood
   2. Expressionism and Formalism
   3. Realism and Neorealism
   4. Documentaries and Mock-Docs
   5. Experimental Films
4. Film as Art
   1. Aesthetic Principles
   2. Artistic Movements
   3. Auteurs
   4. Semiotics

1. Demonstrate an understanding of filmic vocabulary, attributes, and principles related to mise-en-scene, cinematography, and editing.
2. Critically respond to film sequences with regard to film movements, theories, and aesthetic principles.
3. Identify specific films as examples of film types such as expressionism, neorealism, film noir, cinema verite, and formalism.
4. Articulate an informed personal reaction to film of various genres and types.
5. Recognize works of art and film as examples of fundamental art movements such as Impressionism, Cubism, and Realism.
6. Describe the elements of art films such as Dogma 95 as distinct from Classical Hollywood cinema.
7. List the elements of a work of art or a film that classify it artistically and aesthetically.
8. List some of the cultural and historical elements that contribute to the production of certain films and film types.
9. Give examples of how films reflect the cultures and time periods in which they were produced.

06. 02. Understand those works as expressions of individual and human values within an historical and social context.

06. 03. Respond critically to works in the arts and humanities.

06. 05. Articulate an informed personal reaction to works in the arts and humanities.
Theme Goals (MnTC Goals 7-10)
08. 01. Describe and analyze political, economic, and cultural elements which influence relations of states and societies in their historical and contemporary dimensions.

08. 02. Demonstrate knowledge of cultural, social, religious and linguistic differences.

08. 04. Understand the role of a world citizen and the responsibility world citizens share for their common global future.

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