The goal of this course is to develop students' abilities to view films critically and to deepen their understanding of the film experience. The course first teaches analysis of narrative strategies, shot properties, mise-en-scene, editing, acting, and the use of sound in film, particularly classical Hollywood cinema. The course then focuses on the study of different genres of films and how cinematic elements create meaning.

This course explores the major genres of U.S. film. Historically, the most popular and finanacially-lucrative movies follow the narrative patterns, characterizations, and iconography of genre filmmaking. This class takes a comparative approach to genre filmmaking, including the study of melodramas, gangster films, film noirs, screwball comedies, horror films, musicals, and Westerns.

This course provides an historical overview of the development of the Hollywood studio system in U.S. popular culture. The course focuses on history, economics, and film aesthetics. We’ll examine a range of films and readings to address issues such as the following: How did the studio system evolve and what roles did it play in shaping the content of American movies and the images of screen actors? What does the popularity of certain movies and actors reveal about different moments in American history?

This course addresses and analyzes a range of latter 20th–early 21st century cinematic developments in the context of major transitions in the American film industry and in society. Among the trends we’ll examine are the dominant stylistic and ideological models of classical Hollywood, the influence of the French New Wave on American cinema in the late 1960s; the emergence of the New Hollywood and the early film school generation of the 1970s, as well as the eventual emphasis on blockbusters and independent filmmaking. Typically offered: Spring.

This course provides an in-depth study of a small number of major topics. Typically, the coverage will involve one unit each on a director and/or genre. One feature film is seen and discussed each week. Sample topics include the films of Sydney Pollack, the films of Kathryn Bigelow, the Film Noir genre, James Cagney and the Gangster Film, John Ford and the Western, and so forth. Typically offered: Autumn.

This course examines the meanings and visual composition of works produced by documentary directors. Documentaries often aim to capture unmediated social reality, and this course explores the strategies taken by filmmakers to achieve their desired goals.

This course explores a range of international films. We will take a comparative, case-study approach to show how movies variously represent the vision and values of filmmakers around the world. Thus, this course is a grand survey of movies that aims through viewing, discussing, reading, and writing about foreign films to teach critical thinking about and appreciation of film art and international filmmaking. Typically offered: Summer, Spring.

This course will provide students with an understanding of the fundamentals of film production and will facilitate competency in writing, producing and editing fiction and nonfiction moving image production projects. Students will learn the craft of visual storytelling and the process of video production.

This course develops students' abilities to think, write, and express ideas effectively and creatively through the study and practice of film criticism. Film criticism at best is an activity that engages the critic, aesthetically, psychologically, morally, emotionally, and politically. Our study of aesthetic and critical practices will provide valuable tools in our larger exploration of the relationship between knowledge, values, artistic expression, and vocation choices. We will examine reviews by leading U.S. film critics whose work has appeared in wide-circulation periodicals over the past 75 years, as well as associated films.

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Los Angeles Film Studies Center. Taught through semester-long program of the Coalition for Christian Colleges and Universities in Los Angeles. Students participate in an internship experience in some aspect of the Hollywood film or television industry. These are non-paying positions primarily in an office setting such as development companies, agencies, personal management companies, production offices, etc. Students work 20 to 24 hours a week throughout the length of the semester. The internships do not include positions on actual filmmaking locations. Instead, students work in offices as support personnel to producers, writers, directors, agents, post-production personnel, and others involved in the total process of producing and distributing a major motion picture. The LAFSC provides interns to many of the major companies within Hollywood.

This course will have a rotating topic, for example: Women in Film - This course provides an examination of films directed by women. Starting from the 1920s to the present, the course considers themes, aesthetics, historical contexts, and cultural discourse presented in movies directed by women.