Instructor: Hisham Bizri
Email: hb@hishambizri.com
Voice: 617-452-2484
Office Hours : W 2-3
Office Location: 918A
Course Hours : M & W 12-1:45
Course Location: 180 Tremont Street, Room: T809
 

Course Description
This course is an introduction to the study and practice of electronic cinematography techniques. The main focus of the course will be practical, affording students ample time to produce original works. In doing so, students will begin to master the use of the computer as an artistic tool and to explore how they might draw on other media (music, painting, theater, and sculpture) in their productions. We will inform this practical focus by attending, as well, to the theoretical and historical context of digital cinema in order to better understand the current problems facing the genre and the role that digital technology might have in expanding cinematic language and tradition.

Course Pre-requisite
Previous experience with Photoshop, animation, video, and/or filmmaking is required.

Course Requirements and Grading

        1. Regular class attendance.
        2. Timely completion of all production assignments (60%).
        3. Timely completion of all reading assignments (20%).
        4. Participation in class critique and discussion (20%).

Please note that absences will negatively affect your participation grade, as will failure to prepare the assigned readings in advance. The production grade will be based on the 5 assignments (4 account for 40% and the final for 20%) .

Course Format
Introduce concept + viewing/screening + in-class workshop + weekly journal.

Course Objectives
Students will acquire the practical skills necessary to produce digital cinematic projects by being required to complete a series of weekly production projects that use both optical and computer-generated imagery. The specific technical skills that students can expect to learn touch on all technical aspects pertaining to digital multimedia, our goals here being to:

        1. master digital post production
        2. experiment with 2D and 3D compositing and environments and
        3. learn Macromedia Flash and Adobe After Effects

The course will provide theoretical and historical context by means of assigned readings and viewings. We will critically reflect on the fruits of our labor in the course of in-class critique and discussion pertaining to the nature of digital cinema and its place within traditional cinematic. Our goals here will be to:

       1. cultivate constructive criticism of our own artistic products and those of others
       2. place digital art, including our own, within the tradition of contemporary culture and aesthetics

Required Texts
Bhangal, Sham; Farr, Amanda; & Rey, Patrick, Foundation Flash 5, Friends of Ed, 2000.
Meyer, Trish & Meyer, Chris, Creating Motion Graphics with AfterEffects, CMP Books 2000.
Laybourne, Kit,  The Animation Book, Three Rivers Press, 1998.
Katz, Steven, Film Directing: Shot by Shot, Michael Wiese Productions, 1991.
Manovich, Lev, The Language of New Media, MIT Press 2000.

Optional Texts
Bhangal, Sham, Foundation Action Script, Friends of Ed, 2001.
Rand, Paul, A Designer's Art, Yale University Press, 2000.
Meyer, Trish & Meyer, Chris, After Effects in Production, CMP Books 2001.
Musser, Charles, The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907, Vol. 1, University of California Press, 1994.
Bordwell, David & Thompson, Kristin, Film Art: An Introduction (5th edition),  McGraw-Hill Companies, 1996.
 
 
Weekly Schedule

1.28 M	Course Introduction	screenings: computer graphics
1.30 W	Concepts in 2D motion graphics (motion graphics using FLASH 1)	screenings: early cinema	Discuss assignment 1 (design a stroyboard using 15-20 scenes in FLASH) Present your work Read pp. 1-46 in The Animation Book
2.4 M	Principles of Animation (motion graphics using FLASH 2)	screenings: computer graphics	FLASH topics 1 Read Ch. 1 in LNM
2.6 W	Forms of Animation	screening: Ladislas Starewicz & Jan Svankmajor	FLASH topics 2 Present your preferred FLASH topics Read pp. 47-113 in The Animation Book
2.11 M	Class discussion	Students present their work	Assignment 1 due Assignment 2 (animate & create interactivity for the FLASH storyboard) Read Ch. 2 in LNM
2.13 W	Intro to After Effects (interface, importing, etc.)	screenings: early abstract films	Prepare parts 1 & 2 in CMG Read pp. 114-170 in The Animation Book
2.18 M	President's Day (no class)	President's Day (no class)	President's Day (no class)
2.20 W	Story boarding	screening: Orson Welles' Falstaff	Read pp. 23-84 in Film Directing Read pp. 171-249 in The Animation Book
2.25 M	AE modes, masks & mattes		Assignment 2 due Prepare part 3 in CMG Read Ch. 3 in LNM
2.26 W	Topics in 2D compositing	screening: Abel Gance & F.W. Murnau	Read pp. 229-258 in Film Directing
3.4 M	AE nesting & transformations	Guest lecturer	Assignment 3 (mid-term, create & animate mattes using AE) Prepare part 4 in CMG Read Ch. 4 in LNM
3.6 W	Topics in 3D compositing	screening: Zbig Rybzcynski & Christian Boustani	Read pp. 250-296 in The Animation Book
3.11 M	Spring Recess	Spring Recess	Spring Recess
3.13 W	Spring Recess	Spring Recess	Spring Recess
3.18 M	AE keying & effects	screening: Hollis Frampton & Michael Snow	Assignment 3 due (mid-term) Prepare part 5 in CMG  Read Ch. 5 in LNM
3.20 W	Optical and computer-generated environments	screening: Gianni Toti
3.25 M	AE plug ins & sound	screening: technical excerpts	Assignment 4 (optical and CG environments) Prepare parts 6 & 7 in CMG Read Ch. 6 in LNM
3.27 W	Technology of the image	screening: Jack Smith, Stan Brakhage, & Jordan Belson	Read P. Adam Sitney (hand outs on experimental film)
4.1 M	AE time & tracking	Guest lecturer	Prepare part 8 in CMG Final project topics
4.3 W	Light & motion	screening: Norman McLaren &  Paul Driessen
4.8 M	AE format & rendering		Assignment 4 due Prepare part 9 in CMG
4.10 W	The symbolic image	screening: Patrick Bokanowski
4.15 M	Patriot's Day (no class)	Patriot's Day (no class)	Patriot's Day (no class)
4.17 W	Individual workshops
4.22  M	Individual workshops
4.24  W		Student presentations	Final assignment due
4.29 M		Student presentations