Cinema and Media Studies Major (SLLC)

College of Arts and Humanities
3215 Jiménez Hall
Phone: 301-405-4025
https://sllc.umd.edu/fields/cinema-media
 

Program Director: Eric Zakim, Ph.D.

Cinema and Media Studies is an interdisciplinary program in the humanities that enables students to explore all types of moving-image media in their aesthetic, cultural, economic, historical, and technological dimensions. The major is committed to engaging students intellectually in the critical analysis of culture and cultural forms, while at the same time preparing them for the workforce by developing their skills and fluency in written, oral, and visual communication.  Students critically analyze cinema and moving-image media as a cultural experience that spans the entire globe, seeking to understand the ways that this experience might be different and similar across cultures, languages, socio-economic conditions, and historical periods. The program includes two tracks: the Critical Studies Track and the Film Production Track. In both tracks, students will acquire a solid background in theoretical, critical, and aesthetic aspects of the study of cinema and media, including the history of moving image media and the analysis of national and international cinemas, always keeping in view questions of how new media have changed both cinema itself and the study of cinema. The Critical Studies Track focuses on the critical analysis of genres, forms, and theories in the field of cinema and media, bringing together courses in cinema from varied nations, languages, and cultures, and challenges students to understand the systems of transnational exchange that have characterized this medium from its inception. The Film Production Track introduces students to filmmaking techniques and practices, enabling them to apply this analytical training to their personal and creative approach to filmmaking with the support of current technology and with an emphasis on team-building, and providing them with skills they will use in their professional environment as well as for artistic and/or social purposes. Courses offered by this program may be found under the following prefixes: CINE, ENGL, and SLLC.

Program Objectives

The major in Cinema and Media Studies teaches the fundamental skills required for a range of professional careers: critical thinking, historical awareness, research, information and production management, cogent development of ideas, and strong written, oral, and visual communication. Students will work toward competence in film and media analysis, critical viewing and writing, and visual literacy at a time when our culture is becoming increasingly dependent upon visual communication.

Program Learning Outcomes

1. Broad Foundation: Students will demonstrate critical fluency and knowledge of the basic conceptual framework and lexicon of analysis--namely the concepts and terms used in describing and critically analyzing the four main areas of cinematic structure: editing; cinematography; mise-en-scène; and sound--by deploying this analytical lexicon in the audiovisual analysis of a scene. Students enrolled in the Film Production Track will be able to apply basic concepts and terminology in cinema and media analysis to their filmmaking practice.
2. Close Analysis: Students will produce analyses of media that integrate knowledge of how the material production, technologies, and cultural practices of diverse types of media shape meaning, by deploying close analysis of formal structures of moving-image media for the purposes of developing critical arguments about cinema and media. Students enrolled in the Film Production Track will use formal structures of moving-image media in their production of audiovisual material in various media.
3. Contextual analysis: Students will be able to demonstrate a critical understanding of cinema and media's relation to contexts that originate outside of the formal history of the development of cinematic aesthetics and technique. CMS defines "outside" as discourses, discussions, and histories surrounding those issues that have always engaged cinematic media: race; gender; ethnicity; sexuality; politics; social activism and change; violence and war; disabilities and social stigma; climate and the environment. Whether making fiction films or producing documentaries, students in the Film Production Track will be able to address, develop, and comment on issues and discourses that have always engaged cinematic media (such as race; gender; ethnicity; sexuality; politics; social activism and change; violence and war; disabilities and social stigma; climate and the environment) through their narrative and aesthetic choices.
4. Diversity: Students will be able to identify and analyze genres and movements in the history of film; identify formal and cultural components of films produced in various parts of the world; understand film as a transnational visual medium; and analyze the ways that cinema and media express cultural, social, and political diversity. Students in the Film Production Track will demonstrate how they are able to express, implement, and champion issues of diversity, equity, and justice in their own practice according to the specificities of their medium of choice.
5. Exposure: Students will demonstrate their breadth of exposure in watching and encountering a broad diversity of representations of people, places, and lived experience. Students will display facility in comparing cinematic representations of diverse experiences in the world-- and how cinema would enable the expression of different lived experience. Students in the Film Production Track will be able to work in a team and assume various responsibilities and positions on shooting sets throughout the semester regardless of their own professional aspirations, personal inclinations, and performing abilities. Students will learn to practice collaboration and fruitful exchanges on diverse cultural, aesthetic, and ethical perspectives.
6. Communication Skills: Students will demonstrate their ability to convey effective critical and analytical arguments in writing and through video presentation geared toward myriad target audiences (both academic and popular), as well as to communicate through oral presentation leadership in directing critical conversations in the classroom. Students in the Film Production Track will be able to improve their writing expression and narrative in the screenwriting course, and practice communication through the audiovisual medium in the filmmaking/sound/editing courses.
7. Technical Skills: Students in the Film Production Track will be able to use effectively basic skills in cinematography and screenwriting, update their knowledge as the technology evolves, and apply these skills in various contexts, for various purposes, and towards diverse objectives required by the professional field as well as their own creative engagement.
8. Creative Engagement: Students in the Film Production Track will demonstrate their use of media and film production as a source of innovation, challenge, and change in their social environment, and will be able to combine knowledge and skills acquired in their training with their personal motivations and commitment. Students will be able to produce individual work and participate in collective projects that demonstrate their new training in a concrete and effective manner.

Director: E. Zakim (SLLC)

Professors: C. Accilien (SLLC), H. Baer (SLLC), C. Eades (SLLC), S. Giovacchini (HIST), J. Kuo (ARTH), V. Orlando (SLLC)

Associate Professors: V. Anishchenkova (SLLC), L. Arsenjuk (SLLC), O. Gaycken (ENGL), E. Papazian (SLLC), M. Resmini (SLLC), E. Zakim (SLLC)

Lecturers: M. Bainbridge (CINE), P. Cote (ENGL), Y. Inbar (CINE), S. Pramschufer (ENGL), D. Richter (HIST), S. Sapienza (MITH), N. Stevens (JOUR)

Professors Emeriti: J. Auerbach (ENGL), P. Beicken (SLLC), A. Eckstein (HIST), J. Hallett (CLAS), R. Harrison (SLLC and CMLT), R. Igel (SLLC), A. Karimi-Hakkak (SLLC), M. Lounsbury (AMST), R. Oster (SLLC), P. Verdaguer (SLLC)

The Cinema and Media Studies major offers two tracks: the Critical Studies Track, and the Film Production Track. Both tracks begin with the same three-course Foundation Sequence, made up of a prerequisite course in Film Form (ENGL245/CINE245), a course in Media History (CINE301), and a Theory Foundation course (CINE302). The Foundation Sequence assures that students have the necessary analytical tools and historical background to interpret diverse global cinematic traditions. The Foundation Sequence is followed by a Core Sequence of 4 courses in Cinema and Media Criticism that offer all students the opportunity to explore genres, themes, and movements across different historical periods, and to develop their skills in analysis, writing, and research.

Students pursuing the Critical Studies Track select 2 additional courses in Cinema and Media Criticism from the Core Sequence, and 4 Cinema and Media Studies Electives, which may be taken outside the program in consultation with the Advisor.

Students pursuing the Film Production Track select 4 Film Production Required Courses: CINE376 (Screenwriting) CINE310 (Introduction to Filmmaking), formerly CINE319M, CINE415 (Advanced Filmmaking), CINE499 (Capstone Course), and two Cinema and Media Electives, which may be taken outside the program in consultation with the Advisor.

General Policies

• The Cinema and Media Studies major requires 39 credits (13 courses).
• A grade of "C-" or better is required in each of the courses making up the 39 credits of the major.
• Up to nine (9) credits may be taken at the 2xx-level.
• At least 6 of the 39 credits must be at the 4xx-level.

The Cinema and Media Studies major requires 39 credits, distributed as follows:

Core Program

 Critical Studies Track (18 Credits)

Film Production Track (18 Credits) 

¹

Fulfills Gen Ed req. in Humanities. Cinema and Media Studies majors must take ENGL245/CINE245 before they take other 3xx or 4xx-level Cinema and Media Studies courses. We recommend that it be taken no later than sophomore year.

²

Students may take the two courses in any order.

³

At least one course in this category must be taken at the 4xx-level. The courses must be selected either from the pre-approved CINE rubrics or from a list of film electives available from the Cinema and Media Studies Advisor. Please consult the full list of courses accepted for the major: https://sllc.umd.edu/fields/cinema-media/courses/.

⁴

Up to two courses may be taken at the 200-level. Students select either two courses from pre- approved CINE rubrics and two courses in this area from other programs with the approval of the advisor; or four courses in consultation with the Cinema and Media Studies Advisor to explore a specific area of interest or an area related to their future academic or professional plans.

⁵

Up to two courses may be taken at the 200-level . Students select select two CINE courses (CINE315, CINE317) or two courses from other programs in a similar area of studies with the approval of the Cinema and Media Studies Advisor.

Other Requirements for the Major

In both the Critical Studies Track and the Production Track, CINE245 is a prerequisite for many 3xx-level courses in the major.  Students are advised to complete that course early in their academic careers. Successful completion of CINE245 allows students to proceed to two courses required for both tracks: CINE301 and CINE302.

Students in both tracks are required to take 4 program core courses in the following four rubrics: National/International Cinemas; Film Theories; Genres/Authors/ Movements; Documentary, Animation, Experimental Cinema and Other Media.

Students in the Critical Studies Track are required to take 1 additional course in National/International Cinemas and 1 additional course in Genres/Auteurs/Movements, as well as 4 Cinema and Media Studies electives. Students in the Film Production Track are required to take 4 courses: CINE376 (screenwriting), CINE310 (introduction to filmmaking), CINE415 (advanced filmmaking) and CINE499 (capstone course), as well as 2 Cinema and Media electives. 

Click here for roadmaps for graduation plans in the College of Arts and Humanities.

Additional information on developing a graduation plan can be found on the following pages:

• http://4yearplans.umd.edu
• the Student Academic Success-Degree Completion Policy section of this catalog

Academic advising is available throughout the year. Departmental academic advising is mandatory for all Cinema and Media Studies majors before registration for classes. Students should check Testudo (http://testudo.umd.edu) for their registration date and schedule an advising appointment for at least one week in advance of their date. Advising appointments can be made at: https://sllc.umd.edu/fields/cinema-media/advising

To review the academic plan for this major, go to http://arhu.umd.edu/academicsadvising/academic-plans/.

Internships

Cinema and Media Studies offers students the opportunity to earn academic credit in connection with an internship, through CINE388 (Experiential Learning). Admission to CINE388 is by application only. See https://sllc.umd.edu/fields/cinema-media/courses for more details.

Scholarships and Financial Assistance

The Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) administers all types of federal, state, and institutional financial assistance programs and, in cooperation with other university offices, participates in the awarding of scholarships to deserving students. For information, visit: http://financialaid.umd.edu.