H68.2247.901_improv       4 Credits

This course is designed to challenge the student filmmaker to fully and fearlessly engage with the world. At the beginning of the semester each student will be assigned a location unfamiliar to them -- a noodle factory, a TCM clinic, an old age home, a prison cell etc. Students will spend the rest of the semester unearthing and investigating the real-life narratives existing in the assigned environment, then craft stories from their discoveries.

Students are encouraged at all times to focus on “pure-cinema;” rejecting expensive and spectacular special effects, post-production modifications and other gimmicks, favoring instead the core elements of narrative film: character; story; performance.  

The student is expected to devote themselves to their location and the people that they meet there. After extensively documenting the environment, the individuals and their relationships, the filmmaker will develop a fictional scenario occurring at that location. Story development will continue with extensive participation of the cast vis a vis improvisation and rehearsal.  

In addition to screening student work in progress and work-shopping the evolving scripts, the class will screen and discuss the major works of British social realism, Cinema Verite, Dogma 95, and Neorealism.