ENGL 1065 (Telecourse)

Introduction to Film

Course Description:

This course helps students develop a better understanding and appreciation of movies. Lab hours are used for viewing of films. Students observe films more closely and become active participants in the art of the film experience. This course may be used as a Fine Arts and Humanities elective.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to American Cinema, our telecourse presentation of ENGL1065, Introduction to Film.  You are beginning an interesting course that will enrich your appreciation of films and strengthen your analytical thinking and writing skills as well.  And if you enjoy films as I do, you’ll find a lot of pleasure in the course.

Your learning in the course will grow primarily from your study of the textbook, John Belton’s American Cinema/American Culture, and the learning that develops from your own informal and formal writing.  Your learning will be supported and supplemented by the connected televised program, American Cinema, a series of presentations that weave together pieces of interviews with clips from representative films, and by the Study Guide for American Cinema by Ed Sikov.  You will also view and write about complete films that you select yourself, either at theaters or at home with rented videotapes.

If you haven’t taken a telecourse before, you may learn a lot from the extra freedom—and extra responsibility—of independent study.  You can adapt the presentations to your own schedule, repeat them if you need to (either through your own recordings of the programs, or through copies available at the college), and select your own feature films for study.  But please note that this route to learning also requires a fair amount of discipline, since you must keep up with the class without the support of regular classroom meetings or regular contact with other students in the same class. 

You’ll have plenty of help in your learning from this Course Guide; from a separate, detailed Schedule of Assignments; from Sikov’s Study Guide; from the main textbook, and from the broadcasts; and I’ll be glad to help you in any way I can.  I look forward to sharing the semester with you—I’m confident that you will find it rewarding.

                                                            Sincerely,

                                                            John Friedlander

Course Content: