Even as cinema is an aesthetic experience, a commercial institution, and a social practice – it is first and foremost a mode of using machines. This course surveyed the history of cinema as technology from its origins within the machines of 19th century visual culture to its digital manifestations in the present. The moving image originally came into being from experiments measuring motion, before film technicians around the world (most prominently in Hollywood) created a language for narrating stories through techniques and tricks of camera, editing and eventually, sound. The post-World War II new cinemas and revolution in documentary would not have been possible without the miniaturization of cameras, better film stock, and ease of sound recording. As cinema moved from film to video, and now to digital, what has not changed is the urge to experiment with the means of production, that is the material equipment of movie making. In this course, we watched and read about movies where the story content was not so much our focus, but the technologies that allow us to experience the magic of cinema. We started the course with discussing the multiple origins of cinema, followed by watching and learning about early cinema. Next, we moved on to Classical Hollywood Cinema, where we discussed camerawork, lighting, amateur film, and the coming of sound and color. Discussions on documentary, television, and home video were also on our list. The course ended with materials central to contemporary times like videogames, Netflix, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. In wrapping up the course, students were asked to write short essays on any topic of their choice, related to media technology. Here they are, arranged alphabetically as per the last names of the authors. Enjoy.

The goal of this lesson to raise students’ awareness and understanding of what deepfakes are, how they can cause harm, and how they could be regulated. The lesson also encourages students to question their own manipulation of images and video.

This fluent and comprehensive field guide responds to increased interest, across the humanities, in the ways in which digital technologies can disrupt and open up new research and pedagogical avenues. It is designed to help scholars and students engage with their subjects using an audio-visual grammar, and to allow readers to efficiently gain the technical and theoretical skills necessary to create and disseminate their own trans-media projects.

Exploring Movie Construction & Production contains eight chapters of the major areas of film construction and production. The discussion covers theme, genre, narrative structure, character portrayal, story, plot, directing style, cinematography, and editing. Important terminology is defined and types of analysis are discussed and demonstrated. An extended example of how a movie description reflects the setting, narrative structure, or directing style is used throughout the book to illustrate building blocks of each theme. This approach to film instruction and analysis has proved beneficial to increasing students’ learning, while enhancing the creativity and critical thinking of the student.

This open set of course materials for Film Aesthetics is a downloadable version of a course created for a learning management system. Included are learning modules and a quiz bank based on introductory film concepts including the following topics: Narrative Structure and Motifs, Mise-en-Scene, Cinematography, Sound Design, Music, and Visual Effects.

A free and open-source introduction to the art and science of cinema. From the earliest iterations to the latest innovations, this introductory text explores the tools and techniques of mise-en-scene, narrative form, cinematography, editing, sound and acting, how each has contributed to the evolution of cinematic language, and how that evolution implicates critical issues of representation in mass media. Moving Pictures offers in-depth examination of how cinema communicates, and what, exactly, it is trying to say