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Term I: Film as Collaborative Art
(Course # 1.7)
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Type: |
B Track |
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Instructor(s): |
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Language: |
English |
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Contact hours: |
48 Contact Hours |
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Credit Points: |
4 credit points |
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Capacity: |
18 |
Resources
Course description
Despite the internationally recognized auteur theory (politique des auteurs/auteurism), no artistic activity appears more reliant on the talents of so many diverse people and special capacities as the making of a film. The great German movie producer and boss of the UFA (Universum Film Co.), Erich Pommer, articulated this clearly as early as during the Twenties when he claimed: "Film production has always been based on a collective effort, on a colourful multitude of components which flow together from opposing directions."
Those journalists, historians and theorists who, in contrast to this opinion, backed auteurism during the 1950s and 1960s were shocked by how quickly their new aesthetic ideal degenerated into a commonplace. The phrase "a film by…" has become the rule and nowadays all too often merely serves to create an illusion of at least some way of categorization in an ever-growing global maze of film production. The director appears to be the undoubted star behind the camera.
In such a way of looking at and thinking about films, the "colourful multitude of components" of which Erich Pommer was speaking seems to have all but vanished. The selective view that only looks at the topical and stylistic idiosyncracies of a director misses the richness of a film: the precision of a series of cuts, the coherence of a production design or the power of expression of a tune. To enlarge our view and to render it more sensitive to these different facets is the aim of a treatment of film as collaborative art.
During the course students will create a number of presentations based on collective viewings, group discussions and individual readings. With the help of real examples - historical ones (e.g. films of the Nouvelle Vague or films from the era of the classical Hollywood studio system) as well as contemporary ones (e.g. TROPICAL MALADY, BABEL, I'M NOT THERE) - we will find out together how audiovisual achievement can be seen as the result of extremely diversified and planned production processes which will nonetheless always require an "alchemistic" extra so that the final result is more than the sum of the individual contributions involved.
We will visit some Berlin-based film institutions and companies, have discussions with the curators in charge of the Berlin Filmmuseum during their preparations for the upcoming exhibition starting during February 2010, and we have the opportunity to participate in exclusive press screenings of selected festival films (sections "International Forum of Young Cinema", "Panorama", "Perspective German Cinema", and "Retrospective").
Since students are in Berlin at the onset of the biggest German cinematic event, the International Berlin Film Festival 2010 aka Berlinale, this course offers them insights beyond those directly related to their in-class work. They will be thoroughly prepared, sensitized and having their views enlarged to get the very most out of the annual cineastic feast which the Berlinale provides, and thus to see film through different eyes.Student profile
Students interested in unprejudiced film reading and training of their way of viewing films. The material covered in the seminar includes both the very old and the brand-new. Our working hypothesis will be that working with very popular projects can be just as rewarding as analyzing extremely marginal or fringe enterprises.Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of how a film production works. Basic knowledge of film history. Basic knowledge of scientific methods of film analysis.
Course requirements
The willingness to watch and analyze films of all kinds thoroughly, i.e. also patiently.
Grading
Regular and active attendance (30%),
presentation of a topic connected to the course's content (40%),
written final exam (30%).
Reading
A course reader will be provided.
Optional Preparatory Reading (Selection):
Donald Chase: Filmmaking – the collaborative art. Boston 1975.
Michel Chion: Le cinéma et ses métiers. Paris 1990.
John Hill/Pamela Church Gibson: The Oxford Guide to film studies. Oxford 1998.
Roy Paul Madsen: Working cinema. Learning from the masters. Belmont 1990.
Linda Seger/Edward Jay Whetmore: From script to screen. The collaborative art of filmmaking. Hollywood 2004.
Alison Smith: "The other auteurs. Producers, Cinematographers, Scriptwriters." In: The French Cinema Book. Edited by Michael Temple and Michael Witt. London 2004.
