Film & Television Studies: Art of Fiction

Topics in film and video production. May repeat for credit with different content. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years. Prerequisite: FTS 2650 or FTS 2655.

Prereqs enforced by the system: FTS 2650 or FTS 2655; Prereqs: FTS 1300 and 1320 PACE students by permission and override

The Art of Fiction is an advanced hands-on production class. Students will learn the art of fiction by producing short films. Tasks will include development through pre-production, production, post-production and distribution. The class will explore how to create their own fictional scripts. These scripts will move from page to storyboard to explore fictional forms of storytelling. This pre-production phase will help the class decide how they will move forward with production on projects. Fictional production can rely on crews and roles, so the middle part of the class will be putting this into practice. Post-Production will deal with editing and distribution, culminating in a final screening. The goal of the class is to understand the art of fiction through video production and result in a screening and work sample for students to add to their portfolio.

Building off Production Foundations, students will continue to scaffold their technical skills while also specializing in one of the many forms of the art of fiction. Students will build their repertoire in the four phases of production; Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production, and Distribution. Skills gleaned will be from scripting to storyboard, producing, review and critique, editing, with the final outcomes resulting in a final screening. Students will consider the question that we always ask in FTS, what does it mean to make media that unfolds over time, and address this with intentional approaches to fictional filmmaking by making conscious decisions about how they use (or challenge) conventions, by experimenting, and developing their own voice. Through fictional practices students will develop technical skills such as, advanced video and lighting equipment. Specific concepts will include (but not be limited to) the lens (exposure, shutter speed, focus, primes vs zooms), advanced field sound and audio recording, editing and visual effects tools and distribution (hosting their own screening). Skills will be developed through hands-on experience. Learning goals can be achieved through active participation in class sessions and outside of class work! THIS CLASS WILL BE EXTREMELY INDEPENDENT AND WILL REQUIRE LOTS OF WORK OUTSIDE OF CLASS TO PRODUCE YOUR PROJECTS. Outcomes for the FTS major and minor can be viewed here: https://www.uvm.edu/cas/filmtv/fts-program-outcomes Awareness of these programmatic outcomes will help you understand how this course fits into a bigger picture that makes up your liberal arts education.

Students will be evaluated on a points system that includes, attendance, participation, exercises, reflections, assignments and invoices, work/hours outside of class, and their contribution to the distribution of the work, including a screening at the end of the semester. They will be evaluated on their individual goals. At the beginning of the semester, students will lay out their own expectations for the course and create their individual spreadsheet for the Instructor. Students will co-create an individual experience.