Communication (CMM)
CMM 120. Introduction to Visual Design. 3 Credit Hours.
This course introduces the elements of art and principles of design that create the language of visual communication. Through a variety of projects, in-class exercises, and homework assignments, students will engage in a rigorous creative process: brainstorming, conceptualizing, sketching, refinish, and producing. Students will be introduced to a variety of media and techniques and will become more conscious of the conceptual, expressive, and perceptual qualities of their aesthetic decisions, so they can effectively communicate visually. Through exposure to everything from Grand Masters to Madison Avenue ads, students will learn from examples of artists and designers from the past and present who have contributed to the visual landscape, to foster an awareness of visual systems of different cultures, time periods, and contemporary artists and to develop the ability to ask critical questions. Slide presentations and sketchbook assignments will introduce a variety of interpretations on how visual thinkers have perceived and used visual concepts and elements in their own artwork.
CMM 123. Web Design & Development. 3 Credit Hours.
This course focuses on the design and development of web pages, including client-side web-based applications. Topics covered include Web concepts, interaction and user experience design, process used to develop web pages, usability and accessibility practices, techniques for testing and evaluating a web design, simple analytics of user behaviors, and an introduction to client-side scripting. Tools used include HTML, CSS, Web editors, imaging software, and JavaScript.
Cross-listed Courses: CTS 123
CMM 201. Fundamentals of Speech. 3 Credit Hours.
Essentials of voice production, oral interpretation, speech organization and use of supporting materials; preparation and delivery of speech materials; group and panel discussion. Prerequisite or
Corequisite: WRT 101.
Cross-listed Courses: ENG 201
CMM 202. Design Thinking and the Next Step. 1 Credit Hour.
This practicum will allow participants to apply design thinking practices to explore solutions to determined problems and then take the same approach to reflect on current vocational goals, explore possible applications of these goals, prepare a plan for accessing the discovered opportunities, and ultimately, pursue vocational goals by connecting with and implementing possibilities. Participants will utilize Design Thinking strategies to enable the reflection, exploration, preparation, and pursuit of determined vocational goals. Pass/Fall only. Open to all majors.
CMM 203. Communicating Connections. 1 Credit Hour.
This practicum will allow participants to learn and apply professional communication practices in order to explore and develop connections to professional industry experts. Students will prepare a plan for accessing discovered industry-related contacts, develop and practice interview techniques, create questions for informational interviews, reach out to potential contacts, and ultimately, pursue vocational goals by connecting with industry experts. Participants will practice for and execute phone, email, and written communication to establish professional, industry-related connections in order to complete informational interviews. From the resulting interviews, students will reflect, explore, prepare and pursue determined vocational goals. Throughout the six classes, industry experts will be invited as guests to offer professional acumen and insights for students pursuing opportunities to further connect to potential careers. Pass/fail only. Open to all majors.
Cross-listed Courses: PSF 203, ENI 203, CYS 203, CSC 203, BUS 203
CMM 205. Intro to Video Production. 3 Credit Hours.
This course is a general introduction to video technology and the methods of studio operations, field production and video editing. The student will gain an understanding of how video and audio systems work and will develop basic mastery of the tools of production. The course will consist of lectures, hands-on experience and production exercises. **There is a lab fee associated with this course.** Fulfills Core requirement(s): VPA.
CMM 208. Frame to Frame: Concepts in Motion. 3 Credit Hours.
FRAME TO FRAME: CONCEPTS IN MOTION is an introductory media course designed for students interested in visual media and storytelling as it applies to their own academic and professional pursuits. Whether storyboarding a film scene, realizing a marketing scheme, or designing a website, FRAME TO FRAME: CONCEPTS IN MOTION introduces the student to the history, theory, and aesthetics underlying sequential art and time-based media while challenging them to employ those concepts in a project-based environment. This course asks the students to grapple with the power and influence of images, narrative, and media making in the digital age as they conceive, create, and present their own media projects.
CMM 221. The Photo Essay. 3 Credit Hours.
This is a course about the theories and methods of creating a photo essay. Students will learn about the history of the photo essay by studying the work of some of the masters of the genre, and they will shoot and edit several photo essays of their own. **There is a lab fee associated with this course.**.
CMM 224. Environmental Journalism. 3 Credit Hours.
This course looks at how print and broadcast journalists have attempted to investigate and report upon all aspects of contemporary environmental use and/or abuse: from climate change to air pollution, from genetically modified crops to urban sprawl. Besides studying the work of professional environmental journalists, students will have an opportunity to produce at least one piece of environmental journalism themselves.
Prerequisite: WRT 101.
CMM 225A. Contemporary Latin American Film. 3 Credit Hours.
Contemporary Latin American cinema has gained international attention in both major film festivals and the mainstream industry. Settled in a region of sharp contrasts that hosts some of the most populated cities in the world along with the largest rainforests in the planet, contemporary Latin American moviemakers tackle the most urgent debates in the world today, from ecological sustainability to migration, inequality, and violence. This course will explore the major themes of Contemporary Latin American cinema in dialogue with significant debates in today's world. Through film discussions and short readings, students will reflect on topics such as indigenous cultures and the global search for more environmentally friendly societies, social justice and migration, and race and uneven urbanization, among others. The films will not only provide a window for students to witness Latin America's complex worlds but also to observe their own reality from a not-so-far perspective.
CMM 226. Introduction to Film Studies. 3 Credit Hours.
The function of this course is to provide students with the tools to be in a position to respond fully to the movies they see. Responding fully to movies requires knowledge of how they are made, so the course will cover all the basic elements involved in the filmmaking process. We will talk some about the film industry, comparing various models of film production. We will talk at length about film technique and film structure; and students will acquire, over the course of the semester, a fairly extensive vocabulary for describing the ways filmed narratives unfold and the ways filmed images are constructed, arranged, and deployed. In the course of working their way through the reading (that is, the interpretation) of a dozen or so movies--both classical and contemporary, from both Hollywood and abroad--students will gain an understanding of such central film features as cinematography, editing, production design, sound design, and performance style. They will learn what critics and scholars mean when they talk about mise-en-scene and montage and the tension between the two. They will learn to identify different modes of screen reality. Most importantly, they will learn that responding fully to movies requires active critical engagement with films as purposive texts. Fulfills Core requirement(s): VPA.
Corequisite: WRT 101.
CMM 227. LGBTQIA+ Film: Cinema Against the Grain. 3 Credit Hours.
In the archaic sense of the word, "queer" means to be outside of what society directs, to be against the grain. The verb "to queer" suggests the act of reorganizing what is organized; questioning our world and exploring other possible ways of being; reshaping the structures that shape us. In this class, "queer identity" and "queering" are necessarily tied up with one another when discussing lesbian, gay, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual etc. film and identity in film and film history. We will look at queerness in early film history, representation in Hollywood and popular culture, documentary processes, experimental film, and contemporary cinema, media art, queer utopia, and queerness it intersects with disability, race, and transnationality. We will acknowledge that, as technological and cinematic conventions are invented and change over time, and as cinema sexuality, both are appropriated by the status quo, how "queers" have been represented changes across locales and centuries. Emphasis will be put on considering on whose terms queer cinema is made and exposing students to the cinematic voices that pave the way for dialogue on their own terms, summoning more just possible futures through cinematic practice. Readings in literature, poetry, film criticism, and theory compliment short and feature films and historical and contemporary media objects. In response to the readings and films, students will be asked to write one short paper and one long paper. Additionally, in small groups, students will present on two readings to the class and facilitate a short discusssion.
Prerequisite: WRT 101.
Cross-listed Courses: GWS 227
CMM 228. Special Topics: Leadership in Documentary Film. 3 Credit Hours.
Students will analyze portrayals of general leadership in documentary films according to leadership principles set forth by prominent African-American figures from business, academia, politics and religion. The course endeavors to help students engage with the documentary tradition in American film and move students toward an understanding of ethical leadership. Leadership in Documentary Film also encourages conversance with a broad, yet often overlooked, body of literature on leadership written by African-American leaders and thinkers.
Prerequisites: WRT 101; sophomore standing.
Cross-listed Courses: BUS 228
CMM 250. Mass Media and Society. 3 Credit Hours.
This course explores some of the ways in which the media form and reflect our society and culture. It examines the ways in which audiences use media and how, in turn, they are used by the media. It also considers how new technologies change both the form and the content of the media as well as how the government and other institutions affect media output.
Prerequisite: WRT 101.
CMM 274. Reporting and Writing. 3 Credit Hours.
This course is designed to hone the student journalist's abilities to observe closely, to research deeply, and to report accurately. Students practice developing fresh story ideas, use multiple modes of research (face-to-face interviews, Internet resources and databases, digital media, etc.), and write articles in narrative, explanatory, and investigative styles, for both print and online outlets. There is practice on fact-checking and an introduction to multi-media news reporting. In all assignments, the focus is on how to present complex information with precision and clarity and to do so on deadline. Also, an introduction to the history of American journalism and wide reading in contemporary news reporting allows students to complement their growing technical skills with considerations of the profession's ethical and philosophical aspects. Prerequisite or
Corequisite: WRT 101.
CMM 276. Women, Film and Hollywood. 3 Credit Hours.
The course Women, Film and Hollywood will have a strong historical dimension, beginning with an exploration of early/silent film, then moving through the classical Hollywood period, the contradictory decades of the 1950s and 60s for women in film (when there were no female directors, while pinups and the male gaze dominated in film at the same time as powerful female actors often subverted masculine assumptions through their performances). During the height of the 1960/70s feminisms, women directors emerged out of a political fight within Hollywood to allow female filmmakers to tell their stories. In the 90s and up to the resent, women filmmakers have been rewriting male-defined genres, such as film noir and the western, and in the 21st century, we face contradictory dynamics in Hollywood, which is supporting women in film more (in part following the MeToo movement, while women still struggle to find funding for projects and to gain power within the Hollywood system. The course will focus on the multiple creative contributions of women to the history of American film, from star, to writer, producer, and director. Women, Film, and Hollywood will aim to show the ways in which women participated fundamentally in Hollywood by navigating images and often subverting a sexist system that generally aimed at excluding them.
Prerequisite: WRT 101.
Cross-listed Courses: GWS 276
CMM 303. Italian Culture and Cinema. 3 Credit Hours.
An encounter with Italian culture from World War II to the present, this course will trace the evolution of modern Italy through a representative selection of Italian literature and films by both male and female authors. The readings will be in English translation, while the films will be in Italian with English subtitles. (Texts will be available in Italian for language minors.)
Prerequisites: WRT 101, and ENG 210, ENG 218 or HON 111.
Cross-listed Courses: ITL 403
CMM 307. Communications Photography. 3 Credit Hours.
An introductory level course in photography as a communications medium. The course includes lectures, demonstrations, visual presentations, group critiques and supervised lab work. Material covered includes; the digital camera and its components, camera exposure techniques, digital editing and printing, commercial studio lighting, and electronic flash. The work of photojounalists and commercial photographers are shown and discussed in class. Assignments are geared toward the development of students' awareness of photography as a medium of mass communication. A compact digital camera or digital SLR camera is required. **There is a lab fee associated with this course.** Fulfills core Visual and Performing Arts requirement. (VPA).
CMM 308. Media Layout and Design. 3 Credit Hours.
Students will develop the skills to design and construct effective visual messages appropriate to specific media formats for specific target audiences. Students will produce camera-ready art for advertisements, newsletters, brochures, and web pages. The rhetorical elements that inform design choices will be discussed. Fulfills Core requirement(s):VPA.
CMM 309. American Culture and Art of Johnny Cash. 3 Credit Hours.
Students will be asked to engage in an interdisciplinary investigation of the varied contexts--media, religious, political, historical, economic and geographic--that helped define the creative world of Johnny Cash, a major songwriter and musician. Fulfills core Visual and Performing Arts requirement.(VPA)
Prerequisites: WRT 101,and ENG 200, ENG 210, ENG 218, or HON 111.
Cross-listed Courses: ENG 309
CMM 314. Journalism and American Literature. 3 Credit Hours.
This course will survey the rich history of American journalists who have either produced creative works or who have relied upon literary techniques in their journalistic endeavors. Beginning with Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, the course will move through the revolutionary period of essayists and pamphleteers, proceed to the nineteenth century and the romantic writings of political activists like Margaret Fuller and Henry David Thoreau, and the realist and naturalist fictions of writers like Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The course will end by surveying the works of black and white writers of the early twentieth century--W.E.B. Dubois, Zora Neale Hurston, Ernest Hemminway, and H.L. Menken, who negotiate their critiques of modern American culture and political life both as journalists and creative writers. Throughout the course, we will be exploring the relationship between the world of the American journalist and his or her subsequent influences upon American literature.
Cross-listed Courses: ENG 322
CMM 316. Studies in Small Screen Narrative. 3 Credit Hours.
This course features analysis of television and web narrative. Shows under consideration will rotate from semester to semester, but could include epic cable-television series such as The Sopranos, Mad Men, Fargo, Breaking Bad, and/or Game of Thrones; web-based shows, such as Americana and The Lizzie Bennett Diaries; and online series such as Transparent, House of Cards, and Orange is the New Black. Reading these series from the perspective of cultural and textual studies, the course aims to give students the tools to analyze the narrative structure, thematic concerns, cultural significance, and visual techniques of these series. The course will help students better understand popular media representations of social roles and the place of seriality in contemporary culture. Prerequisite(s): WRT 101.
CMM 318. Intro to Audio Production. 3 Credit Hours.
This course introduces students to the basics of recording, mixing and editing audio for various media, such as radio, TV, film, and the internet. The class provides a "hands on" approach to learning the skills, terminology, and equipment used to record music, make radio spots, andproduce audio for broadcast, the web, and the theater.
Prerequisite: WRT 101.
CMM 320. Documentary Film. 3 Credit Hours.
Emphasis on the study of important documentary filmmakers, influential documentaries, and major schools of documentary film, as well as issues such as the role of the documentary filmmaker, the notion of objectivity in documentary, ethics in filmmaking, and the influence of the camera.
Prerequisites: WRT 101 and ENG 210 or HON 111.
Fulfills Core Requirement(s): Visual and Performing Arts (VPA.
Cross-listed Courses: ENG 320
CMM 330. Studio and Remote Production. 3 Credit Hours.
This course will explore the methods involved in live multi-camera broadcasts-both in the Studio and from remote locations. The students will plan and produce news and talk programs in the studio, and cover live campus events-athletic, cultural, religious, etc.-which may be streamed over the Internet. The skills that will be developed in this course include producing, directing, lighting, camera work, switching, audio control, and live on-camera commentary and reporting. Fulfills core Visual and Performing Arts requirement. (VPA) ***There is a lab fee associated with this course.***.
Prerequisite: CMM 205.
CMM 331. News and Documentary Production. 3 Credit Hours.
This is an advanced production course and is intended to develop the student's ability to explore and report on the world around him or her using mobile production technology and investigate journalistic techniques. Students will create traditional news packages, longer feature stories, and a documentary. While the main focus of the course will be on effective storytelling, students technical skills-particularly editing-will be enhanced. **There is a lab fee associated with this course.** Fulfills Core requirement(s): VPA.
Prerequisite: CMM 205.
CMM 332. Dramatic Video Production. 3 Credit Hours.
This is an advanced production course that is intended to develop the student's ability to work with actors and scripted material. Students will learn how to break down dramatic and comic scenes in preparation for shooting. They may have the opportunity to work with actors enrolled in THR 306: Topics: Acting for the Camera, when it is offered at the same time as CMM 332. Fulfills core Visual and Performing Arts requirement. (VPA) ***There is a lab fee associated with this course.***.
Prerequisite: CMM 205.
CMM 337. Cut To: Advanced Non-Linear Editing. 3 Credit Hours.
Cut To: Advanced Non-Linear editing introduces students to the more sophisticated and complicated editorial challenges typically found throughout the film, television, and advertising industry including advanced media management, large project organization, dialogue and picture editing, montage fundamentals, sound design and music editing. Whether working on documentaries, features, commercials, or new content, the course emphasizes post-production workflow fundamentals, in-depth exploration of non-linear editing , and the theory and practice of visual storytelling. Prerequisite(s): CMM 205.
CMM 338. Writing in the Real World. 3 Credit Hours.
This course calls on the practices of professional and business communication to offer students practice with writing in "real world" contexts. In this class, students will develop strategies for responding to professional and community-based writing scenarios, reaching internal and external audiences, designing both print and digital/online texts, and composing application materials. Students will engage writing and revision processes, provide feedback to peers, compose collaboratively as part of a team, and learn the standards and conventions of non-academic communication. the genres studetns encounter may include memo, letter, e-mail, resume, cover letter, flier, pamphlet, and website. The course will also address digital-visual communication tools including Twitter, PowerPoint, and other emerging platforms.
Prerequisites: WRT 101, and ENG 200, ENG 210, ENG 218 or HON 111.
Cross-listed Courses: ENG 338
CMM 339. Down These Mean Streets: Men, Women, and Film Noir. 3 Credit Hours.
This course examines the group of films that have come to be called "film noir," the dark cinema chronicling postwar American anxieties concerning place, politics, and gender that emerged most prominently in the 1940s and 50s. In these films, the "mean streets" of the city are an extension of the distressed men and women who inhabit them. The women of film noir struggle with shifting gender expectations, and the men returning from the war confront overpopulated urban areas (e.g. The Blue Dahlia, 1946). The city and noir's characters morph through the decades, but men and women continue to be traumatized by changing social roles and political challenges (e.g., the "red scare" [the threat of Communism in the 1950s]; the rise of modern capitalism; and, later, the Civil Rights movement, feminisms, and the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s (Cape Fear, Chinatown, Taxi Driver). Prerequisite(s): WRT 101.
CMM 350. Communication Ethics. 3 Credit Hours.
Prepares students to face the ethical dilemmas they will inevitably confront in their professional careers. This is a case studybased course which teaches the ability to recognize and analyze ethical problems, move beyond "gut reactions" by gathering relevant facts and considering the loyalties involved and reason one's way to a defensible course of action.
Prerequisite: WRT 101.
CMM 353. Government and the Mass Media. 3 Credit Hours.
The interaction between the United States government and the "Fourth Estate" will be studied through an examination of theoretical works, descriptive narratives, empirical studies and current events. Issues studied will include how the government attempts to control and regulate the media.
Cross-listed Courses: PSC 353
CMM 358. Representations of the Media in Film. 3 Credit Hours.
This course is designed to explore ways in which films present myriad images of the mass media when they take as their subject matter the news, documentaries, radio, television, and the film industry itself. The course will develop students' understanding of the nature and function of mass media in American culture and the relationship between power structures and representations of gender in media industries.
Prerequisites: WRT 101, ENG 210, ENG 218 or HON-111.
Cross-listed Courses: GWS 358
CMM 370. American Film Abroad: Il Cinema Ritrovato (Bologna Film Festival). 3 Credit Hours.
This course focuses on a 9-10 day trip to Bologna, Italy in June/July of each year to attend the Cinema Ritrovato, an international film festival focused on American silent and sound film and music. The Festival specializes in screening classic films that have restored in Bologna at the Cineteca di Bologna, a major site for the film restoration in the world. Students will attend many screenings each day and evening of the Festival, as well as participate in group meetings with the instructor to analyze film and discuss and write about the events, such as the silent film/live music events taking place throughout the week at night in the central square of Piazza Maggiore. The students will have the unique opportunity to watch celluloid films as part of events introduced by film scholars, filmmakers, and/or restoration technicians. In the spring semester at Le Moyne, students will attend meetings with the instructor every two weeks and attend and write about two required film events. Enrollment by permission of the instructor. Course may be repeated once.
Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
Cross-listed Courses: ENG 370
CMM 371. Practicum in Radio. 1 Credit Hour.
This course is designed to offer students the opportunity for hands-on radio experiences by becoming a staff member of Le Moyne's student radio station, WLMU, for one semester. Fulfills Core requirement(s): VPA. Pass/Fail only.
CMM 372. Practicum in Video. 1 Credit Hour.
This course is available to students who have taken or are currently enrolled in a video production class. It is designed to offer students practical experience by working on Le Moyne College Television (LCTV)productions. Pass/Fail only. Fulfills Core requirement(s): VPA.
CMM 373. Practicum in Journalism. 1 Credit Hour.
This course will provide hands-on newspaper experience in the area of the student's choice: editing, production, photography or writing/reporting. Students will make a semester-long commitment to work for The Dolphin, the weekly campus newspaper, under the supervision of the faculty advisor. The course will be graded pass/fail only and may be taken up to three times for credit.
CMM 374. Beyond Breaking News: Telling the Big Stories. 3 Credit Hours.
In this class, students will learn how to tell journalistic stories on subjects of deep and lasting significance, such as racism, climate change, health, and economic inequality. The goal will always be to go beyond what is newsworthy in the moment, and to explore and illuminate issues of long-lasting social significance. Students will have opportunities to tell stories through a variety of media-written, audio, and/or visual-though they can choose to work in a single medium. It is preferred but not required that students have already taken CMM 274. This class, however, will provide a review (or introduction, or those new to journalism) of basic journalistic methods, such as interviewing and note-taking. Students will generally be assigned to complete several short pieces of reporting and at least one longer piece, each built upon relevant interviews and other research. Given the richness and complexity of the subjects about which students will tell stories, they should expect to bring to their work in this class interdisciplinary knowledge from their other classes, especially those in the College Core. Texts will include a wide sampling of professional journalism chosen to serve as models for the students' own work.
CMM 375. Sports Journalism. 3 Credit Hours.
This course teaches students how to report on all aspects of sports- from game stories to features to opinion columns. To familiarize students with the scope and history of sports journalism and to provide models for reporting, texts will be drawn from a wide range of sports journalism in various media: newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, and podcasts. The class will consider the ways in which sports journalism has evolved in response to digital technologies. It will also cover the ethical dilemmas common to sports journalism. Students will produce numerous pieces of original sports journalism of various lengths and in different media, as well as analyses of published sports reporting. Prerequisite(s): WRT 101.
CMM 376. Introduction to Advertising. 3 Credit Hours.
The course explores the elements of effective advertising messages, as well as advertising's historic roots. It considers the legal and ethical environment within which advertisers operate and advertising's place in the marketing communication mix. It examines the importance of research informing effective messages for specific target audiences and the ways advertisers shape promotional appeals and strategies. It introduces students to the changing face of advertising and the impact of the internet and social media on advertising today.
Prerequisite: WRT 101.
CMM 377. Introduction to Public Relations. 3 Credit Hours.
The theory and practice of public relations in the United States today. The class will define public relations and examine case studies. The class will also look at public relations and research, planning and creativity and the application of public relations to business, financial, government and non-profit sectors.
Prerequisite: WRT 101.
CMM 378. Creative Advertising. 3 Credit Hours.
A requirement for all advertising concentrators, this production course engages students in the process of developing and producing advertising for print, video, audio, web and other applications. Fulfills core Visual and Performing Arts requirement. (VPA)
Prerequisite: WRT 101.
CMM 379. Music Journalism. 3 Credit Hours.
This writing course teaches students how to report on all aspects of music--from concert reviews to performer profiles, from musician retrospectives to articles about non-performance aspects of music (e.g., the recording industry, instrument makers). To familiarize students with the history of music journalism and provide models for writing, readings will be drawn from prominent music magazines such as Rolling Stone, Creem, Crawdaddy!, Blender, and others--as well as from places where music journalism frequently appears today, especially blogs and podcasts. The class will consider the ways in which music journalism has changed in response to the technologies through which music is made available to listeners. Students will write several pieces of original music journalism of various lengths. Fulfills core Visual and Performing Arts requirement. (VPA)
Prerequisites: WRT 101.
Cross-listed Courses: MUS 379
CMM 380. Critical Approaches to Film. 3 Credit Hours.
An introduction to film genre, genre theory and film criticism, the course will examine the generic conventions that govern production and reception of film texts. Film genres may include the screwball comedy, the melodrama, the western, the musical, the gangster picture, film noir and others.
Prerequisites: WRT 101, and ENG 200, ENG 210, ENG 218 or HON 111.
Fulfills Core Requirement(s): Visual and Performing Arts (VPA).
CMM 381. History of Film: Beginnings to 1940. 3 Credit Hours.
This course will survey major developments in cinema from the advent of the medium near the end of the nineteenth century, through the emergence of a syntax for narrative film during the silent era, to the arrival and entrenchment of the sound film in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The nature of the course is such that our concerns will be manifold, but they will surely include attention to the following: the work of several pioneers of the medium-the Lumiere brothers, Thomas Edison (and his major collaborator William Kennedy Laurie Dickinson), George Melies, and Edwin S. Porter; D. W. Griffith's central role in the creation of a "language" for moving images and and his equally significant role in turning film into a popular medium; some of the formal experiments that took place in Germany in the 20s-German expressionism, in particular, as well as the Kammerspielfilm; Sobiet montage; French impressionism and surrealism; the great Hollywood comics of the 20s; the development of sound technology and its impact on film form; the importance of genre in the development of the film industry; and French poetic realism. Without scanting attention to such historical matters, we will also, however, want to engage particular film texts: thus much of our time in class will be spent discussing individual films.
Prerequisites: WRT 101, ENG 200, ENG 210, ENG 218 or HON 111.
Fulfills Core Requirement(s): Visual and Performing Arts (VPA).
CMM 382. History of Film: 1940 to Present. 3 Credit Hours.
A study of the development of film since 1940. The course will examine social, technical, and artistic aspects of important films by influential directors, addressing in particular the well-made Hollywood film, Italian neo-realism, French new wave, and the rise of auteurism.
Prerequisites: WRT 101 and ENG 200, ENG 210, ENG 218 or HON 111.
Fulfills Core Requirement(s): Visual and Performing Arts (VPA).
CMM 383. The Films of Alfred Hitchcock. 3 Credit Hours.
In this course, we will examine whether Hitchcock's films can be said to constitute a coherent 'body" of work - identifying in the process potential stylistic idiosyncracies and thematic preoccupations. And we will try to come to some understanding of what is gained and what lost by thinking in these terms. We will use Hitchcock's desire to develop a rigorously cinematic mode of presentation as a means of opening a discussion about the ways films "speak". And we will wonder, along with a handful of contemporary critics, what kind of viewer the films seek to construct. We will take the films' explicit interest in watching as a point of departure for an analysis of voyeurism and its centrality in contemporary western culture. Finally, and not incidentally, we will use the occasion the course provides to spend time watching a number of engaging films.
Prerequisites: WRT 101, ENG 210, ENG 218 or HON 111.
Fulfills Core Requirement(s): Visual and Performing Arts (VPA).
CMM 384. The Film Sound Track. 3 Credit Hours.
Throughout recorded history, music has been an important part of human dramatic expression in ways that transcend mere spoken words and visual imagery. For more than a century of the motion picture art, music has played an integral, yet often unnoticed, role in defining the filmgoing experience. The main objective of this course is for students to develop skills in analyzing the sound track of a film, music's role in the sound track, and the relation of non-diegetic sound to image (especially relating to music) on small-scale and large-scale (narrative) levels. The course develops critical listening and viewing skills, but it also offers a particular extension of film history scholarship, one that focuses on the three nodal points in the history of film sound: the introduction of sound, the introduction of stereo, and the introduction of digital sound. We will explore the ways in which each of these technological advances affects the structural realtionships that occur among three relatively autonomous components of the soundtrack--dialogue, music and sound-effects--with particular focus on non-diegetic music.
Prerequisite: WRT 101.
Cross-listed Courses: MUS 384
CMM 387. Scriptwriting. 3 Credit Hours.
This course provides study and practice in the special requirements of writing fictional works for television and film. This course will focus on: basic dramatic structures and story telling, the premise, the pitch, character development, writing the treatment, story outlines, writing the master scene and completing the script. At semester end, students are expected to produce full-length tele-plays, radio dramas or film scripts. Fulfills Core requirement(s): VPA.
Prerequisite: WRT 101.
CMM 390. Independent Study. 3 Credit Hours.
A student who wishes to pursue an independent project for academic credit must submit, prior to registration, a proposed plan that includes a description of the project and its goals, the methods to be followed, a schedule of work and supervision, the end product, an evaluation procedure and the number of credits sought. The proposal must be approved by the supervising faculty member, the department chair and the academic dean. It will be kept on file in the academic dean's office.
CMM 397. Writing Nonfiction. 3 Credit Hours.
In this class, well learn the art of brevity. How to craft great sentences. How to write a powerful tweet and a stunning short essay. How to use sentence fragments effectively. Our writing will be nonfictiontrue stuff, some of it narrative, some expository, some experimental. Topics will range widely. Our goal will be to be get good at writing that is zippy yet fulfilling. This class is appropriate for all students who want to use the English language more dynamically.
Prerequisite: WRT 101.
CMM 401. Multimedia Storytelling. 3 Credit Hours.
This course explores--through critical analysis and production--the ways in which text, image, and sound can be combined to tell stories in ways not possible through a single medium. The focus of the course will vary from one semester to the next; some possibilities include journalistic investigation, advertising campaigns, documentary, and fictional narrative. An emphasis will be on collaborative production work, to simulate the production processes common in the professional media industry. This course is designed for junior and senior Communications majors or minors who have completed course work in one or more areas of media production, such as video, photography, and/or digital illustration. Others who wish to register for the course may do so with permission of the instructor.
CMM 433. Contemporary Latin American Film. 3 Credit Hours.
Contemporary Latin American cinema has gained international attention in both major film festivals and the mainstream industry. Settled in a region of sharp contrasts that hosts some of the most populated cities in the world along with the largest rainforests on the planet, contemporary Latin American moviemakers tackle the most urgent debates in the world today, from ecological sustainability to migration, inequality, and violence. This course will explore the major themes of contemporary Latin American cinema in dialogue with significant debates in today's world. Through film discussions and short readings, students will reflect on topics such as indigenous cultures and the global search for more environmentally friendly societies, social justice, and migration, and race and uneven urbanization, among others. The films will not only provide a window for students to witness Latin America's complex worlds but also to observe their own reality from a not-so-far perspective. Fulfills Core Requirements: Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and Diversity (DIV).
Cross-listed Courses: SPN 433
CMM 435. Advanced Production Seminar. 3 Credit Hours.
This is a specialized advanced production seminar for students who are ready to produce self-directed work. The course is intended to provide the most experienced and motivated students with the opportunity to produce a professional quality video on their own. Students must submit a written proposal before they may enroll in the course. Students may repeat this course for credit. **There is a lab fee associated with this course.**.
Prerequisites: CMM 205 and CMM 330 or CMM 331 or CMM 332, Senior standing and Permission of the instructor.
CMM 474. Reporting Syracuse. 3 Credit Hours.
In this class, students venture beyond the Le Moyne campus and write both hard news and feature pieces about the Syracuse community, the mix of the two determined partly by assignment and partly by the students' own interests and projects.The goal is for each student to produce a portfolio that has range and cohesiveness, and for the class as a whole to produce multi-faceted document that sheds new light on the everyday lives of central New Yorkers and on local angles to topics such as immigration, ethnicity, work, energy use, income, culture, and education.
Prerequisite: CMM 274 and CMM 330, CMM 331 or CMM 332 and ENG 210, ENG 218 or HON 111.
CMM 476. Advanced Advertising. 3 Credit Hours.
Students will study ads in various media, applying current advertising theories. They will work in creative teams, conducting appropriate research prior to creating and presenting an advertising campaign. Students will learn to constructively criticize both current campaigns and other students' work.
CMM 477. Advanced Public Relations. 3 Credit Hours.
Students will implement principles and practices of public relations introduced in CMM 377. Specifically, student will work with a client - a non-profit organization in the Syracuse, New York area - to develop a public relations plan that supports the client's general mission. The plan will represent the core of the class work, around which discussion of PR issues will take place.
CMM 490. Communications Internship. 1-6 Credit Hours.
Participation in a field learning experience related to the area of communications. the student intern reports as required to the faculty member assigned to supervise this field experience and will be expected to evaluate the experience and relate it to his or her academic program. Enrollment by permission of the internship director. Credits earned range from one (1) to six (6) credit/s per internship with a total number of credit hours a student can earn being capped at nine (9).
CMM 491. Communications Internship. 1-6 Credit Hours.
Participation in a field learning experience related to the area of communications. the student intern reports as required to the faculty member assigned to supervise this field experience and will be expected to evaluate the experience and relate it to his or her academic program. Enrollment by permission of the internship director. Credits earned range from one (1) to six (6) credit/s per internship with a total number of credit hours a student can earn being capped at nine (9).
CMM 492. Communications Internship. 1-6 Credit Hours.
Participation in a field learning experience related to the area of communications. the student intern reports as required to the faculty member assigned to supervise this field experience and will be expected to evaluate the experience and relate it to his or her academic program. Enrollment by permission of the internship director. Credits earned range from one (1) to six (6) credit/s per internship with a total number of credit hours a student can earn being capped at nine (9).