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Academic Year 2004/2005

Color in the Cinema
FILM 344 SP

The goals of this course are to help students come to terms with color as an element of film style, and to develop tools to analyze and understand color in the cinema. The class will include an introduction to color theory and to attempts by art historians to characterize and understand color. We will also attend to the writings of filmmakers and film scholars who have tried to define and describe color's contribution to the moving image. Most of our energy, however, will be devoted to intensive viewing and reviewing of films. We will consider tinting and toning, two-color processes, three-color Technicolor, and photochemical processes. At least half of the class will be devoted to studying norms and techniques of color design in the classical Hollywood cinema. The final portion of the seminar will be devoted to case-studies of films that take up color in particularly interesting ways. Filmmakers might include: Ray, Minnelli, Houston, Godard, Demy, Bresson, Kurosawa, Wong Kar-wai, and Kitano.

MAJOR READINGS

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: NONE    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: FILM304 OR FILM310

SECTION 01

Instructor(s): Higgins,Scott    

Times: ..T.R.. 09:00AM-11:50AM;     Location: AWKS010;

Reserved Seats:    (Total Limit: 19)

Special Attributes:

Curricular Renewal:    Reading Non-Verbal Texts

Permission:    Permission of Instructor Required

Last Updated on MAR-21-2005

Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459