Courses

This course provides an in-depth look at television as a mass medium with particular financial and cultural constraints. Students examine the decision-making process behind television programming, learn criteria for viewing television critically, and ask how Christians may respond to television responsibly.

This course considers the social and cultural impact of video games in contemporary culture from a Christian perspective. Students play, read about, write about, and critically engage a wide variety of computer and video games.

Prepares students to use social media professionally and to culturally engage these same tools of communication with a critical perspective. The course invites students to discover and analyze best practices in social media marketing and community building, as well as to apply theory to critical investigations of the cultural roles and impacts of current digital media, both in North America and around the world, with the goal of helping students become both effective communicators and highly-ethical and faithful global citizens who can positively impact their profession and their society.

This course explores the nature and development of the Superhero figure and myth from its ancient origins to the contemporary Hollywood blockbuster craze. Emphasis will be placed upon exploring the Superhero as myth, archetype, icon, moral hero, and anti-hero, and investigates why the Superhero type figure has been a perennial character and what the current emphasis on superheroes might tell us about contemporary social, moral, political, gender, and cultural concerns.

Emphasizes the role films and filmmakers have played in impacting culture and reflecting their historical milieu, especially as they relate to the events and traumas of World War II and the Cold War. Students explore key post-World War II film movements including Neo-Realism, the French New Wave, the rise of art house and nationalist cinemas, and the moral and social rebellions of the 1960s and 70s.

This advanced production course focuses on the key components necessary for making creative and compelling narrative and non-narrative short films. Topics include concept and script development, cinematography techniques, effective mise-en-scene integration, and production workflow. A key component also includes writing, producing, shooting, and editing short films.

This course examines the art and theory of digital film editing and the post-production process. The goal is to help students understand the role editing plays in the filmic and television viewing experience, especially the way shot selection, pacing, rhythm, sound, etc., impact a scene's development and how various editing techniques and aesthetics relate to dramatic and narrative storytelling. Historical, theoretical, and critical dimensions are addressed as students research seminal examples of film and video editing. This intense workshop offers a real world simulation component as students work under strict deadlines to edit and complete digital film projects.

An introduction to various aspects of the recording arts with emphasis on working within the digital (virtual) studio environment with Cubase and other Virtual Instrument software.

This course explores the conception, production, and analysis of imagery in graphic communication design, including photos, illustrations, and graphic marks. Imagery-based problems are investigated in multiple design contexts and formats. Specialized rendering techniques, digital studio practices, and iconographic style development are considered.