Hi everybody. Look at me, it's your professor!
I'm not just a faceless set of text on a screen. I'm actually a real person.
I'm Professor Keller and I'm going to be your instructor for Cinema 120
Film Aesthetics, this fall semester.
So, a little bit about me and a little bit about the course.
I actually grew up in the Santa Clarita Valley.
I went to Meadows Elementary School, Placerita Jr. High, Hart High School
And COC. I'm actually an alumnus in addition to being a professor here
A member of the faculty. After my time at COC, I went to UC Berkeley, where I got a
B.A. in Film Studies and then I went to Chapman University, down in Orange County
to get an M.F.A. in Film and Television Producing. So what do those degrees mean?
Well, the B.A. is in the analytical side of filmmaking and the M.F.A. is in
the production side of filmmaking, so I have background in both
But what we're really going to focus on today, this semester, not today, is the
analytical side because that's what film aesthetics is. We're going to spend the
next sixteen weeks looking at the various parts of the filmmaking process
both individually and how they come together to create a final product.
These include narrative, which is the writing process.
Mise-en-scene, which is essentially a fancy term for production design.
Cinematography, the lighting, the camerawork, all of that sort of stuff.
Acting, pretty self explanatory.
Editing, how do you take all that raw material you've shot and cut it together
in such a way that it creates mood, emotion, and tone, etc.
And lastly, sound, which, to most, seems like a fairly simple process but is
actually, potentially, the most complicated and complex part
of the filmmaking process.
The goal is, by the end of the semester for you to have a better understanding
of these individual processes and elements and how they come together and, in the end
what I really want is for you to become a more active viewer, somebody who tries
to understand the intent of the artist, to understand their meaning, and interact
with the art itself, because that's what it's there for. You're meant to interact
with it, in addition to enjoying it.
So, we've got a lot of fun movies ahead. We've got a lot of interesting ground to
cover, and I hope you're as excited as I am for all of it.
Alright, let's get going. It's going to be a good semester.