Radio/Tv/Film Authorship (321-0-20)
Topic
Meet David Lynch
Instructors
Jacob Arnaud Smith
Meeting Info
Louis Hall 119: Mon, Wed 1:00PM - 2:20PM
Louis Hall 119: Mon 6:00PM - 8:50PM
Overview of class
We know very well that media texts are collaborative projects: when we see the credits roll at the end of a major film for example, we see hundreds of names and numerous specialized tasks. And yet the idea of an individual creator still has a powerful hold over the way most of us think about and experience the media. What does it mean to be an "author" in the creative industries? What is the nature of creative work? How are artistic reputations constructed and understood? What role do critics and audiences play in that process? Why so some media texts have authors and others don't? How does collaboration work in the creative industries? In this course we will investigate these and other questions through the analysis of the transmedia career of David Lynch.
Instead of writing research papers, students will engage with Lynch's career by making videoessays using Adobe Premiere. As such, this course will be a hands-on introduction to the videographic essay as a mode of media analysis. Students will undertake several exercises in video editing with the goal of developing an audiovisual analysis of Lynch's work. The course will serve as an introduction to basic video editing skills, and no previous experience in editing is required.
Lynch's output covers a remarkably wide range of production contexts and media forms, encompassing visual art, film, television, photography, furniture design, popular music, online films, digital cinematography, and virtual reality. Lynch has occupied a wide range of positions in the field of cultural production, moving moved from underground cult filmmaker to the creator of a hit network television series ("Twin Peaks") and winner of the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. Starting his career as a painter, he emerged as an avant-garde filmmaker in the early 1970s. After his first feature Eraserhead achieved the status of a cult classic on the "midnight movie" circuit, Lynch jumped into mainstream filmmaking, and has become one of the rare directors to find success with general audiences, cult fans, and academics. Films such as Blue Velvet became touchstones for film theorists during the 1980s, and are still discussed in academic circles today. Lynch has never been without his critics, and his work has come under fire for its depiction of women, sexual violence, race, and class. Lynch has often had creative control over his projects, and yet his distinctive "Lynchian" signature was forged through long-standing collaborative relationships with a cohort of actors, composers, editors, casting directors, costume designers, and sound designers. Lynch is thus a remarkably fertile case study for a consideration of media authorship, modes of collaboration in the creative industries, the history of film culture since the 1970s, the various logics of film, television, and digital media production, the importance of sound design in audio-visual media, the representation of race, class, and gender, and a range of other issues.
Evaluation Method
Students will be assessed through: 1) several short response papers; 2) several videographic essays made using Adobe Premiere; 3) in-class reading quizzes; 4) a critical review of the "Twin Peaks" VR experience.
Class Materials (Required)
Chris Rodley ed., Lynch on Lynch
Bernard Pomerance, The Elephant Man: A Play
Other readings available on Canvas.
Class Attributes
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area