Communication Arts (CMM 253) / Fine Art 253 Introduction to Digital Video Production and Human Rights

Transcription

1 Communication Arts (CMM 253) / Fine Art 253 Introduction to Digital Video Production and Human Rights Fall or Spring Semester (3 credits) This course may be cross-listed as a Fine Arts core class pending advisor s approval. Professors: Reda Zine (afnorock@gmail.com) Spaccucci (spaku@yahoo.com) Course Background: Communication Arts 253 (also can be credited as Fine Art 253) explores the history and theories of documentary filmmaking. The course provides introductory theory as to documentary filmmaking. Students will view a range of human rights films as a backdrop to help each team to develop their own ideas for producing a short documentary. The majority of the time spent in this course will focuses on techniques. Students will learn a variety of techniques for working in a foreign setting and gain a better understanding of the impact such media can have on both local and international communities. Course Objectives: To examine one s role in the local Bologna community and as a citizen of the world. This requires producing an 8 10 minute documentary film in the Bologna community. Films are to focus on a pressing political or cultural concern facing Bologna. Class Dates (a short pause will be included in each class to allow students to eat dinner): Week 1 Reda & This class will include a review of prior Italy Center student films Week 2 Week 3 Reda Film Review ( words / 12 point font) due at start of class Week 4 Week 5 1 First interviews to completed and shown in class Week 6 Reda Week 7 50% of Film to be completed and shown in class Week 8 Tuesday 7:00 9:30 PM Week 9 80% of Film to be completed and shown in class

2 Week 10 Evening Event at Poggeschi Center Final Screening for Spring Hill Community Assignments & Grading: 1. Due Week 3 / (20 points) Film Review ( words / 12 point font) a hard copy is due at start of class 2. Due Week 5 / (20 points) First interviews to completed and shown in class 3. Due Week 7 / (20 points) 50% of Film to be completed and shown in class 4. Due Week 8 / (20 points) 80% of Film to be completed and shown in class 5. Due Week 10 / (20 points) Final Screening for Spring Hill Community Please note: Failure to meet any of the above deadlines will result in automatic loss of points. Assignment 1: 1600 words please include word count at the top of the page. At the beginning of class a hard copy (printed version) of the assignment will be due to Dr. Zine. You are asked to produce a short film review (what you like and did not like) pertaining to each of the following films which you will have reviewed on your own: Films to be Viewed: Africa 50 (René Vautier) Texting While Driving This is my Story. Or Ours? Screening The Battle of Algier Film to be produced: Please Note: Each Semester teams are provided with a different film topic to be produced. Prior semester topics are listed below to provide a sample of the themes often pursued in the film class. The class will be divided into three teams. Each team will take on one of the following film projects: a) Topic: Occupy Bologna The City of Bologna owns a number of abandoned apartments. In recent years, students, immigrants, citizens and activists have moved into vacant apartments and are demanding that housing be respected as a basic human right. 2

3 b) Topic: Piazza Verdi This Piazza represents the most controversial piece of land in the City of Bologna. The Symphony argues for its centrality to the cultural life of the City. Students for nearly 1000 years have claimed it as their own. During the 1970 s student protestors were shot down in the Piazza during a protest. All living in Bologna will have strong opinions about the purpose, use and future of Piazza Verdi. c) Topic: Soccer in John Lennon Park The small soccer field (calcetto post) behind our Camplus Alma Mater dorm is a gathering place. On Sunday afternoons, immigrants primarily from Arab nations play soccer. Italy Center Professor Sean O Neill also plays on Sundays. The soccer pitch represents a common ground for immigrants. d) Topic: Saving Bologna Independent Cinemas Similar to the way in which small bookstores have vanished in the United States, Bologna is quickly losing here art house cinemas that have been an important part of the vibrancy of this City. This film will explore a group if concerned citizens fighting to preserve the arts in our City. e) Topic: Human Rights: Many in the Italy Center are working with immigrants. IF, and only if we as professors agree, you are given the option of designing and creating a film on a human rights topic. This will take extra work on your behalf due to the time devoted to creating relationship with immigrants and other community leaders in the City. Course Requirements: Consistent class attendance, willingness to commit to filming and editing on weekends and during evenings. If you miss more than one class (without an excused absence) you will be marked down one entire grade point. Teams will also be evaluated. If one person on the team does not produce at the same level as the others his or her grade wall be marked down. Your grade will be based on the following assignments and corresponding points: Grades Chart: Evaluation: A = 930 up A- = 914 up B+ = 871 up B = 828 up B- = 785 up C+ = 742 up C = 699 up C- = 656 up D+ = 613 up 3

4 1. Technical Competencies: Student teams will be graded according to the originality of their approach to the medium, technical competence in using the equipment, as well as over-all understanding and progress demonstrated in assignments, projects and discussions. 2. Team Presentations: Each team will have two opportunities to formally share findings. Be prepared to discuss: Story Structure and authentic representation of the community with whom you are working Style and Approach Editing Credibility Ethics Overall Impact on a human rights cause Teaching Strategies: Our strategy is to meet you where you are at and bring you to a higher level of knowledge and skill through hands-on experience and thoughtful, interesting, and provocative lectures. Classroom activities will advance and challenge your skills while placing them in their historical context and role in today s culture, both in the U.S and here in Italy. Your skills in film production will improve through hands-on work and you will leave with a solid platform for launching into advanced work in the field. Course assignments are rigorous, technical, and determined. If this is the first time you have made a film, you are now forewarned that this course will require extensive editing lab hours in the final weeks of the semester. If you plan to travel, during the final two weeks of the semester, you may not want to take this class. You will need to be here on campus, in the editing lab for extensive periods of time in order to assure a quality product is produced. Your professors have a trained eye and can quickly determine which projects were thrown together at the last minute. Faculty Bios: Reda Zine Ph.D: Reda is a filmmaker, musician and producer born in 1977 in Casablanca who lives in Italy. He studied arabic media at the Sorbonne University in Paris and script & direction at the Cineteca di Bologna, Italy. He has been performing and teaching between United States (Dickinson College, Pennsylvania), France (INA, Panos Institute), Sweden (University of Lund - Oriental Studies), Italy (Museo Ara Pacis, Rai3 TV, RADIO Rai 3, Ivan Illich School), Morocco (Boulevard, Boultek), Tunis (Nejm Azzahra), Lebanon (Freemuse, Orient Institut-Beirut), and Turkey (House of Music). He is the artistic director of transnational musical opensource project "Sharing the Spring" produced by Creative Commons; see: He worked with the Hip Hop band Public Enemy on a documentary about the life of Malik Farrakhan (aka Tony King), (Suttvues Prod. and Special Jury Mention. July 10, 2009 at Premio Gianandrea Mutti, by Officina Cinema Sud-Est in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna). He is currently directing the Amitie project which entails 4 documentaries to be produced for the E.U. office on Awareness on Migration, Development and Human Rights. Spaccucci is an editor, director of production who has been involved in many projects since in the last 15 years, from cinema to TV production, videoclips and advertising. Since 2011, responsible production and video editing at Dreamed Srl, Lavino Mezzo, Bologna. From 2008 to 4

5 2010 Assistant Director Live as Video Technician at ASA Audiovisivi srl Castelnuovo di Casalecchio Bologna. Video Editor for various videoclips and DVD, including live for Vasco Rossi, Stadio, Marco Travaglio,Talks with Ermanno Olmi by Tatti Sanguineti. Since 2004 editor for Zoomworx soc.coop. for several TV and cinema film productions, including Tu te souviens d Adil? by Mohammed Zinnedaine, and the FilmTv L ispettore Coliandro 2, directed by Manetti Bros. Professional training in editing on AVID Xpress, at Accademia delle Arti Cinematografiche di Bologna. Excellent knowledge of editing software: Adobe Premiere, Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Movie Magic, AVID Xpress, Motion in their various versions. Experienced in the field of film production, elaboration and distribution of audiovisual products on digital, analogical and film format. Wide knowledget of cinema and TV culture. Writer of film subjects and scripts. Additional Resources: The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook The Documentary Film Makers Handbook: A Guerilla Guide Directing Motion Pictures by Terence St. John Marner (1972) The Last Word: Definitive Answers to All Your Screenwriting Question by Tom Lazarus Cutting Edge: the Magic of Movie Editing (DVD) Final Cut Manual Extracts from these texts: Bronkhorst D. (2004) Human Rights Films, Churchill W (2000) Fantasies of the Master Race: Categories of Stereotyping of American Indians in Film in Stam, R. & Toby M. (eds.) Film and Theory: An Anthology, Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Das T. (2007) How to write a documentary script Unesco Ginsburg F. D. (2002) Screen Memories: resignifying the traditional in Indigenous Media in Ginsburg F.D., Abu-Lughod L. & Larkin B. (2002) Media Worlds, University of California Press Grassilli M. (2008) Migrant Cinema: Transnational and Guerrilla Practices of Film Production and Representation in a Special Issue of Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 34, nr. 8 Grassilli M. (2007) Anthropology and Cinema: Visual Representations of Human Rights, Displacement and Resistance in Come Back Africa, by Lionel Rogosin in Visual Anthropology: vol. 20 (2 & 3) Special issue: The Frontiers of Visual Anthropology Naficy, H. (2001) An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, Shohat, E. & Stam R. (1994) Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media, London and New York: Routledge Sontag. S. (2003) Regarding the Pain of the Others, New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux Hall S. (2000) Cultural Identity and Cinematic Representation, in Stam, R. & Toby M. (eds.) Film and Theory: An Anthology, Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Turner T. (2002) Representation, Politics and Cultural Imagination in Indigenous Video: General Points and Kayapo Examples in Ginsburg F.D., Abu-Lughod L. & Larkin B. (2002) Media Worlds, University of California Press 5