Welcome Message
Welcome to the course COMM 319 Filmic Narrative, an entirely online, asynchronous course.
In this Welcome Message, I will discuss the contents of the course, the readings and other learning material, as well as the grading elements. In case you do not know, asynchronous means, in the context of online teaching, that we will NOT meet at regular times as a group. You will find online all the material you need to success in the course. You will have the flexibility to work whenever you can plan it in your schedule. It is, thus, very important that you regularly (at least once a day) log in to Blackboard Learn in order to keep up to date.
Personal Introduction
My name is Jose Carlos del Ama.
Although I originally come from Spain, I have spent the most important part of my life and academic career in Germany. I received my PhD from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.
Before I came to the United States in 2003, I had been teaching and researching in Spain at the Universidad de Navarra (Pamplona) and in Germany at the above mentioned university.
My emphasis areas of teaching and research are
- Public Opinion,
- Mass Communication Research,
- Filmic Narrative,
- Persuasive Communication,
- New Technologies and
- Web-publishing.
More information about the instructor, you can become in this link:
Course Contents
The most important content area in the course’s menu is dedicated to the “course contents”. Here you can find the online lectures, the readings, and the audiovisual material that you need to succeed in this course. I have divided the course contents in 11 learning units. At this point only 4 of them are available. To create a Web-site for the course is a tremendous effort that needs a considerable amount of time. I have been working on it for several months – and hope to finish the course contents area in the next two weeks. All the material you need for the midterm is already available, though. We organize each weekly schedule based on those contents. However, You should start exploring the contents as soon as possible. Since you have to start immediately doing research for your case study.
As I said in the syllabus, this online introductory course is reading intensive. You will find the contents in three main formats:
Online Lectures (HTML documents)
Readings (mostly PDF documents)
Streaming Media (videos)
Even though I am not using any official textbook for this course, I recommend you following book on narrative theory:
Narrative in Fiction and Film. An Introduction; Lothe, Jackob (2000); New York: oxford University Press.
Information contained in this book will be available in Blackboard Learn.
In every learning unit, you will find references to a variety of films. Of course, I cannot expect you to watch all of them. I show key scenes of those movies in my online lectures in order to illustrate the concepts and theories relevant for the course.
Still, there are four movies that will be mandatory.
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) – one of the essay questions in the Midterm Exam will be about this movie.
Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) – the first written assignment will be based on this movie.
Nosferatu (Friedrich W. Murnau, 1929) – necessary for the second written assignment.
Apocalyse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) – the third written assignment will be about this film.
Of those films, only Nosferatu can be watched online for free.
The other three movies are easily accessible. You can find them in most of the public libraries in our geographic area. You can also rent them in any of the popular video platforms (iTunes or Amazon Video) for a moderate price (around $3).
ALL THE CONTENTS OF THE LEARNING MODULES ARE IMPORTANT FOR THE COURSE AND WILL BE RELEVANT FOR THE WRITING ASSIGNMENT, THE WEEKLY DISCUSSIONS AND THE EXAMINATIONS.
About the Course Contents
As explained in the syllabus, this course studies the elements used in fictional filmic narrative to create meaning. On the basis of a selection of movies and movie sequences and scenes, students learn, first of all, the narrative function of time, space, mise-en-scène, dialogue, or sound. We explore the semiotic units and combinations that constitute the filmic grammar. Fictional characters are deconstructed in order to understand how they are created and how they fulfill their narrative function. Finally, we analyze recurrent narrative motives, themes and genres. Goal of the course is to create awareness of these narrative elements, so that student can both better understand the filmic narrative and actively use them to create meaning through filmic story telling. The course should further help students identify ideological contents behind and beyond the audiovisual discourse.
Grading Elements
| Exams: | |
| Midterm Exam | 20% |
| Final Exam | 25% |
| 1st Film Analysis Assignment | 15% |
| 2nd Film Analysis Assignment | 15% |
| 3rd Film Analysis Assignment | 15% |
| Participation | 10% |
Examinations
The midterm and the final exam will have the same format: Multiple choice and short essay questions. You can perfectly answer each essay question in 200 to 250 words. The final exam covers the contents of the whole course.
You will have 3 hours available to complete both the midterm and the final exam. All the examinations will be available the whole day scheduled for the exam in the corresponding folder in Blackboard Learn. Please, be aware that time starts running when you begin the assessment.
Written assignments
You will have to analyze in three different papers some key elements of filmic narrative in three different movies. The first one is about the function of the narrator. The second one focuses on the mise-en-scène. The final paper has the do with the creation of characters.
Participation
The participation grade will be based on the discussions forums and the quality and quantity of your entries. Every week, I will post discussion questions related to the main concepts and theories discussed in the course. The forums will be open Monday through Friday.
Interaction with the Instructor
Please, use the “Contact the Instructor” area in the course’s main menu to ask questions related to this course. I am in Blackboard Learn several hours every day and check regularly your messages.
I will also hold office hours for those students who want/need a face-to-face interaction with the instructor.
Office hours schedule:
- T: 1:30 – 3 pm
- W: 12:10 – 1:40 pm
- R: 8:30 am – 10:30 am
You can contact me anytime to make an appointment if you cannot make it during the office hours.
Please, check the announcements every day.
Good luck!
Technical Issues with Blackboard Learn
If you have any technical issue with the online learning system, please contact the help-desk at CCSU (860) 832 1720.