Course: Cinema Production 1 (CNPH 11100)
Professor: Bradley Rappa, Associate Professor Cinema and Photography & Documentary Studies
Attributes and Designations: CCCS – Core Curriculum Communication Studies
When do students enroll:
This course is offered Fall and Spring. Registration is restricted to students in the BS Cinema and Photography, the BFA in Film, Photography, and Visual Arts, or the BA in Documentary Studies and Production degrees.
What it covers:
During this intensive production experience, students learn the rudiments of creating a motion picture. Aspects of preproduction such as idea conception, budgeting, production with camera work and directing, and postproduction with sound and picture editing are introduced. Students create multiple works of cinema art.
How it is taught:
Cinema Production I introduces students to basic theories related to film production followed by practice-based learning. The classroom alternates between the computer lab and the studio space. Students learn skills required in all the stages of production.
This course introduces the student to a focused yet diverse experience of filmmaking. A primary goal, the course demystifies filmmaking and empowers students to develop their own distinctive cinematic voices and unique visions.
Why I teach this course:
One of my primary roles as a professor is to teach media production students a wide range of formal, conceptual, and technical skills so to assist them in becoming critically literate content producers across variety of genres including animation, experimental, fiction, and non-fiction. I teach a broad range of courses that cover the full spectrum of media-making practices that provide students with experiential learning that produce both immediate and impactful educational outcomes.
Interesting backstory about this course or me:
Cinema Production one is one of my favorite courses to teach. It immerses students in a highly collaborative production experience that generates synergies between individual and group work.
Students form crews with clearly defined production roles to work together to produce a film. In the process, they learn to depend on their teammates in order to complete their projects with proficiency. The more they practice, the faster they build valuable planning and problem-solving skills which propel improvements in competence and quality with each assignment.
Cinema Production I students quickly learn that judicious self-reflection and dedication are required to master the technical skills, critical literacies, and cultural competences needed to create works of distinction. Throughout the course, students continue challenge themselves and each other. As a result they make significant strides toward becoming the next generation of influential content creators.