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Course Number and Title
GEN 230 Creative Expression: Performing Arts
Section 03
CRN 20207 Monday, Wednesday,
Friday 10:20 AM - 11:20 AM, ADOWN Lecture Hall
Semester Spring 2012
Number of Credits 3
Prerequisite GEN
110 and ENG 110
Instructor Douglas Anderson
Office 85 Humboldt
upstairs at the end of the hall
Hours after our class -
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 11:30 - 12:30, Tuesday
Thursday 12:30 - 2
email anytime at gen230s12 at gmail.com
Please note: Grading of student papers will reflect standard English usage. The MLA and APA bibliographic styles are generally used at Medaille.
This course explores forms of creative expression in visual, performing, and literary arts. Students will acquire abilities and perspectives about these arts and interrelationships among them. In addition, through exploring, developing, and demonstrating their creativity in multiple art forms, students will enhance their understanding of artistic expression.
After completing this course, you will be better able to:
apply
visual, performing and literary art concepts in the creation of works
of art
demonstrate
an understanding of various forms of artistic expression
recognize
relationships among different forms of creative expression
appreciate
the visual, performing, and literary arts
recognize
the roles of creative expression in society
apply
visual, performing, and literary art concepts in the analysis of works
of art
This course will
guide you through the
common creative process. Specifically, you will go through the process
of making a short scripted video.
At various times during the process,
you will function as writer, editor, actor, director, producer, camera
operator, technician, and film editor. The process will involve
pitching your ideas, proposing your
project, developing the treatment, and using equipment and computer
tools to produce
and distribute your video. In short, this is very much a hands-on course. You learn by doing,
not by listening to me talking about doing.
Your final film will be approximately 5 minutes long and include opening titles and closing credits. In late April, we will watch everyone's film in the Lecture Hall with the big screen and powerful speakers and you will get some oral and written feedback. You will then post the final cut to our YouTube channel, where you can see a range of videos produced by students in previous semesters of this course.
You will start to look closely, reflect on, and
evaluate your work and that of your peers. This course should make you
less fearful of creative projects and more likely to go through the
process again. It will also change how you think about the video you
see on the various screens you watch.
I try to engage each of you in an ongoing discussion of your learning. If you aren't getting enough feedback from me, ask for more. As you'll see, I'm big on formative feedback and Socratic questioning.
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This course takes you through a process. The process takes time, and we don't have enough in one semester as it is. Thus, it is more important that you do the assignment than that you do it well, or as well as you could have if you had more time. To get full credit for these assignments and presentations, you must do them when they are due and your process must have integrity and cohesion.
As you can see by comparing these tasks to the objectives above, the first objective is the most important: creation.
Note that this course asks for two skills that are not directly taught or evaluated but can make all the difference: file management and time management. You will generate more computer files and more large files for this project than you probably ever have for one project before. You also have a process to follow that must be done in order and that must have time to be done well. If you put it off and get behind, catching up will be very difficult.
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GEN 230 centers around your projects, your performances, your decisions, your problem solving (aka creativity), not around my ability to lecture. You hardly ever have a course where such a small percentage of your attention is supposed to be directed toward the teacher. The burden is on you to learn by making mistakes, not on me to instruct. The content is visual, not verbal. The proces is the same, but the videos are always different. We laugh often. What's not to like about all that? |
You will complete all eight written assignments by sending each to me as an email (not attached to an email). The five during pre-production are the concept, script, treatment, and two pre-production documents. They build on one another, and the most important is the treatment. Without the treatment and the script that accompanies it, you can't go any further. Within certain constraints (copyright, budget, etc.), you will get full credit for just for doing these assignments completely and in good faith. In other words, whether or not I like your concept, etc., you're still going to get full credit. Think risky!! Go for it!!
During post-production, you will write two other documents. One will be the description and tags for YouTube that will help draw viewers to your video.
The final document, you will send to me personally via email. I will not share it with your classmates. This self-assessment will give you a chance to reflect on the process that you go through this semester.
To help you with the challenges of file management, you
need to show me your media assets (raw video, still images, music,
voice-over, sound, and titling) to pass the second gateway. In
addition, to help you make the crucial distinction between project
files (the instructions for how to treat the media assets) and rendered
(exported) movie files, you need to show me your project files for your
director's final cut as well as your mixed soundtrack.
Finally, I need to see the rendered movie files for your title/credits
sequence and your final video.
Presentations. You will make one presentation to the class to pitch your video concept. Other opportunities for performances will involve acting roles in classmates' scripts.
Public performances. I highly recommend that you attend some live scripted performances. Yes, you've seen a trillion performances on TV, in movie theaters, etc. And you've seen many live musical performances, often quite spectacular productions. But you will get great insight into your project by going to a stage play. As you can see during class, one takes place in our classroom during September. True West, the January 27 - February 12, 2012, production of Kaleidoscope Theatre. In addition, Buffalo is full of live theater every weekend.
You may have to buy a ticket for these productions, but it's less than the price of a ticket at the Regal, and there's no textbook to buy for this course, so it doesn't seem unresonable.
You will also act a role or roles and help with the crew work (camera, sound) for your classmates' productions.
You will write, produce and edit a short video (4 to 5 minutes), with opening titles and closing credits. You will upload it to YouTube, which will re-format it into a .flv file. For viewing in the Lecture Hall, you may want to provide a hi-res file.
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assignments |
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| list of ideas |
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concept |
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presentation of concept (oral pitch) |
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script |
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treatment |
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production list |
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shot list |
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direction |
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cast/crew |
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media assets |
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title / credits sequence |
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director's cut project file |
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| director's cut media file |
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soundtrack |
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youtube description and tags |
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| producer's cut project file |
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| producer's cut media file |
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arts community participation |
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timely completion of assignments |
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attendance, especially during 2 Showtimes in May |
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genny ballot (self-assessment) |
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The course grading system emphasizes process, not product. It is designed to reward behavior that is professional and responsible in order to better prepare you for participation in group creative processes whether at work or in the community. It discourages behavior that is random, late, and hasty, that is, amateurish. A careful, thoughtful process is more likely to produce an attractive, engaging video.
I have not assigned point totals to the above
assignments because they are sequential and contingent -- you must do
them in order and you must do them all. If a student complains about a
grade, I always send him/her right back here to this page, which I try
to follow as closely as possible. You can always view your progress on
the reports page and help me keep it
accurate and up-to-date.
What does it take to
get an A in this course?
If you are sufficiently engaged, you come to almost every class, you do everything on this assignment list on or before its due date, you pass through all four gateways, and you follow the process exactly, you will get an A or A- for the course.
An A- will have a helpfully tagged and described video on YouTube that is the result of a unified process: concept, script, treatment, shot list, video production with attention to light and sound, and a final video with opening titles, closing credits and a listenable audio mix as a soundtrack. Also, you did at least some acting or crew work for other students' projects.
An A will do all that with flair and enthusiasm.
If you have a concept, script, treatment, and shot list for one video and then switch at the end to another video for which you did not go through the process (or went through it "in your head" quickly on the fly), you will not be able to get more than a B.
How come I got a B in this
course?
If you are sufficiently engaged, come to most of the classes, and don't do one or more assignments or don't do them in a timely manner, or, worst of all, you are late for a gateway, you will get a B or lower. B- for unproduced documents and undocumented final video or a unified production missing one or more documents. B+ for acting or crew work, perhaps even a lot of it, for other students' projects.
If you aren't sufficiently engaged, even if you do everything else, you won't get an A or probably even a B.
How to get a C in this
course.
If you aren't going through the process in a timely, engaged manner, you are heading for a C or lower. That is, not only are your deliverables late but, worst of all, you are late for a gateway. You will probably have received at least one official Academic Warning.
C- for missing two or more documents or if you
don't get to gateway 4. C+ for doing at least some acting and
crew work. If you see yourself headed in this direction, which almost
always means you're missing a lot of classes, too, then the two of us
should discuss your situation to see how we can optimize your learning.
How to get a D in this
course.
If you end up with a final video but have few documents finished when due or documents that don't relate to your final video, or conversely, you did everything except the final video on YouTube, you will get a D. D+ for being engaged in the process and for acting in other videos.
In other courses, the most important thing to do is get
a high score on the tests. The equivalent in this course is passing
through the gateways on or ahead of schedule. The worst thing you can
do, like flunking a test, is to miss those gateways.
There are four gateways
in
this course, one in late September to look at your script and shot
list, another in late October to look at the raw tape that you made, a
third one in mid-November to view your completed video, the director's
cut, and a final gateway in early December to view the candidates for
the
Genny awards.
In your mind, aim for that day in mid-April to "finish" your video.
You're the director, and that's what you're going to post to YouTube
for the world to see.
If you do not pass a gateway, that is, if you do not have a script and shot list to show me in September and taped scenes in October and a completed video on YouTube by late November, I will send an official Academic Warning report to your advisor because I will be having serious doubts about whether you will be able to successfully complete the course at an A or B level. Depending on how far behind you are in February or March, I may recommend that you drop the course at that point.
Showtime, the two Showtimes,
first for the director's
dut in late November, and the second for the producer's cut and Genny
Awards in early May, is mandatory
attendance. If you miss one or more
of those, your course grade will suffer by at least one step (letters
including pluses and minuses).
In addition, for the regular MWF class sessions:
0 absences, add 2 points to final grade
1 absence for any reason, add 1 point to final grade
2 or 3 absences for any reason, no change
4 or more absences for any reason, subtract points from final grade for
each absence
During production, you can help each other by being actors and crew for someone else's video. To reward such behavior, which is crucial to the quality of the process, I do two things. One is the Genny Awards, for which there will be winners in acting and production categories like lighting, sound, costumes, and set. I may at my discrection award extra credit for extraordinary participation in acting and crew work in other students' videos. What that comes down to is this -- if you do more crew work than anyone else, I'm very likely to raise your final grade a notch or two should it need it.
For example, if you miss that first gateway or if you don't show up for an acting assignment, you can make up for it by being very helpful on the set of other students' projects.
On the other hand, if you say you'll show up for class
to act or crew for someone, and then you don't, you can really mess up
someone else's process. To discourage such behavior, I am ery unlikely to
raise your final grade a notch or two should it need it if you have been unreliable.
1 or 2 assignments late, no change
3 or more late, subtract one point from final grade for each late
assignment and one more for each late week
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Did I emphasize that enough? Let me try again. Careful and effective people are, at times, very self-conscious. I highly recommend that starting now you write about your work in some form of journal or file. After you have done everything else for the course, answer three questions:
what
did you learn?
how
did you learn it?
what
could you have done better?
Go through all the hats you wore: actor, writer, director, producer, editor. Reflect on the experiences of the past three months:
choices
you made; lessons you learned
difficulties
you encountered, how you solved the problems, and
the conclusions you reached as a result
successes
you achieved, the parts of your video you're proudest of, and the
new insights you gained
things
to do differently next
time and why
interesting
ways the course
relates to previous work, especially unexpected or conflicting results
strong
emotions you experienced
and why
This reflection should be more than simple lists of activities, reactions without explaining the reason for them, or complaints about external conditions that kept you from doing your best.
You must email this self-assessment to me. It's your way of telling me that you have finished the course. When I have the self-assessment, I will turn in your course grade based on everything you did before that date.
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