In a pluralistic and multicultural society, it is important to provide individuals with the appropriate tools to develop balanced and integrated personalities that are capable of social interaction with sensitivity and a wide understanding. A skillful communication creates positive relationships and working teams as well as social groups including individuals from different cultures, religions beliefs, sexual preferences, age and physical characteristics. In order to arrive at this form of intercultural communication, it is necessary to acquire basic competencies and psychological knowledge of the lotic – verbal, intuitive and creative areas. Course topics analyze the subjectivity of perception, the influence of cultural patterns on identity, the interdependence of contemporary life and working contexts, and the capacity to acquire useful skills and experience for effective communication.
This module focuses on the ways in which non-fiction media such as news, documentary, lifestyle journalism and popular factual television articulate and explore contemporary experiences of profound social change. It focuses especially on the changing landscape of social class, race, ethnicity and gender and asks how the media engages with these changes and presents them to its publics.
Topics include: narratives of social aspiration and social mobility, class labelling, depictions of the upper and elite classes, rhetorics of race, immigration, home and belonging.
Museums have featured on film – comedies, dramas and documentaries – in both starring roles and bit parts, from the dawn of cinema to the present. In this course, we will explore the way filmmakers have presented museums and the ways in which films both reflect and help define the place of museums in societies around the world.
PREREQUISITES: None
Course syllabi are provided as a guide only. Class timetables are released closer to program start date.
This course is a survey of Japanese popular culture with particular topics covered such as anime manga, fashion, music, art and food. Part of the course will focus on Japanese animation within a historic and popular cultural perspective. Both anime and manga will be examined with particular emphasis on the art, culture and national and international popularity.
The object of this course is the encounter between fashion – one of the oldest but ever-changing mode of communication – and contemporary tools for influencing other people’s decisions – digital social networks. The two are strictly intertwined: fashion needs social media influencers as much as social media influencers need fashion. Digital media has completely reconfigured the fashion world: bloggers have usurped famous magazine editors at fashion shows, the retail industry is shifting to online shopping, platforms such as Instagram create new forms of social status and power. Yet, while digital media creates new jobs, it brings forth also unexpected negative consequences and issues.
This course examines how interconnected fashion and influencers are, and guides students to master the potential of social networks regarding the fashion world. Topics will range from an overview of the evolution of fashion trends to the digital tools needed to succeed as a social media influencer. Students will be able to understand the evolution of fashion, its intrinsic relation with the notion of influence, as well as new trends of digital marketing through social networks. To provide students with a hands-on approach, there will be visits to local museums and/or shops as well as an encounter with a Florentine-based influencer. This course encourages independent explorations in Florence, including those for research and content collection for course projects (i.e. Blending Magazine assignment). Students will also analyze high-impact Case Studies related to the course topic. Successful completion of the course requires regular visits and interaction with the FLY CEMI: students will interact with an Instagram Fashion Account for applying concepts related to merchandising and promotion.
This course examines the context in which the Italian fashion system was born. Topics begin from the evolution of fashion from the post-WWII period to the present and address the role and influence of media and culture on factors such as economic and social status, the arts, and other issues that influenced fashion. Students explore fashion’s connection to identity, body, politics, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and how fashion and media are interrelated with these aspects of culture.
The first of a two-part series on magazine production, this course gives students a professional magazine production experience as an academic course. Students, under the supervision of faculty members, will curate every phase of production brainstorming, design, writing, photos, editing, layouts, production, and distribution of a professional lifestyle magazine produced by the institution. The magazine and its semiannual format will represent the student’s approach to living in Florence and topics such as the arts, gastronomy, travel, style, city scenes, etc. from a cutting edge perspective that seeks to challenge and go beyond the surface of a city. Course projects and activities will interact with the journalism activities of Blending, the magazine of FUA’s campus press Ingorda. This project requires additional hours outside of regularly scheduled class times. This class includes experiential learning with CEMI.
The basis of this course is the development of creative writing skills by focusing on the genre of travel writing. Students will read and discuss extracts from the great classics of travel writing as well as current travel journalism published in newspapers, magazines, and online. Assignments will focus on developing an individual voice, and honing ideas through revision and drafting. Topics will cover how to write for different audiences and publishing formats. Course projects and activities will interact with the journalism activities of Blending, the magazine and newsletter of FUA’s campus press Ingorda. This class includes experiential learning with CEMI.
Analysis of how following personal lives of media-created celebrities impacts self-esteem, connectedness, and personal relationships from cultural studies and social sciences perspectives, and how entities cultivate celebrity for financial gain. Topics include celebrity gossip and privacy, news sharing, public relations, and impact of social media on fan support, image construction, and damage control.
Pre-requisite: Course 10 or Linguistics 1 or Sociology 1 or Psychology 10.
Examination of fundamental principles in human communication science. Topics include models of communication, levels of analysis in the behavioral sciences, cultural evolution, new media and big data, political communication, and the nature of art.
With lectures, screenings, and demonstrations, study of principles of digital cinematography. How tools and techniques affect visual storytelling process. Topics include formats, aspect ratios, cameras, lenses, special effects, internal menu picture manipulation, lighting, composition, coverage, high definition, digital exhibition, filtration, multiple-camera shooting.
Lecture, four hours. Study of entrepreneurial communication from foundations in internal and external communication and development of data analysis, interpretation, and presentational skills utilized in existing, as well as in development of, contemporary innovative businesses. P/NP or letter grading.
Practical application of film editing techniques, how they have evolved, and continue to evolve. Examination of history of editing, as well as current editing trends, terminology, and workflow.
Through discussions, screenings, demonstrations, and guests, exploration of script, previsualization, directing actors, directing camera coverage in relationship to story, practical on-set directing, and directing for camera.
Students acquire understanding of practical and aesthetic challenges undertaken by artists and professionals in making of motion pictures and television. Examination of film as both art and industry: storytelling, sound and visual design, casting and performance, editing, finance, advertising, and distribution. Exploration of American and world cinema from filmmaker’s perspective. Honing of analytical skills and development of critical vocabulary for study of filmmaking as technical, artistic, and cultural phenomenon.
Structural analysis of feature films and development of professional screenwriters’ vocabulary for constructing, deconstructing, and reconstructing their own work. Screenings of films and selected film sequences in class and by assignment.
Pre-requisite: Satisfaction of Entry-Level Writing.
Examination of foundations of communication and public speaking. Consideration of number of basic theories related to study of communication and development of skills to enable composition and delivery of speeches in accordance with specific rhetorical concepts. Improvement of ability to analyze, organize, and critically think about communicative messages while becoming better equipped to articulate ideas.
Musical experience helpful, but not required. Brief historical survey of film music, with strong emphasis on recent development: Japanese animation, advertising, and MTV, as well as computer tools and digital scoring methods. Designed to inspire and inform those interested in movie music.
From sparkly vampires to blockbuster monsters, gothic tropes appear to be all-pervasive in contemporary culture. As Catherine Spooner claims in Contemporary Gothic (2006), like ‘a malevolent virus, Gothic narratives have escaped the confines of literature and spread across disciplinary boundaries to infect all kinds of media, from fashion and advertising to the way contemporary events are constructed in mass culture’. What this course aims to do is to introduce students to Gothic’s literary expression in the British nineteenth century, before exploring the many ways in which this dark heritage continues to affect contemporary cultural production.
Focusing on three key texts from the nineteenth century, Frankenstein (1818), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Dracula (1897), this class will discuss their adaptation, appropriation and influence on popular narratives such as those found in fiction, film, tv, fashion and music video. Some of the contemporary texts we will be drawing upon will be Twilight (book & film), True Blood (book & tv), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film & tv), Scream (film), Supernatural (tv), Marilyn Manson (music), Interview with a Vampire (book & film), Blade (film), Blairwitch Project (film) etc.
Excursion(s): A visit to Edinburgh Dungeon and a gothic themed bar are included.
This course is designed to introduce students to key theoretical debates that have emerged in the study of Scotland’s relationship with the film and television industries. Important questions we will consider include: Who is responsible for constructing Scotland’s identity onscreen? How are Scotland and Scottishness depicted? Why do certain representations dominate over others?
The course will begin by exploring ‘Hollywood Scotland’, concentrating on the commercial cinematic representation of Scotland and Scottishness found in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart (1995). This will then be contrasted with a more local construction of Scotland found in the long running television show Taggart (ITV, 1983-2011). The final weeks will conclude by considering filmmaking in contemporary Scotland, first through contemplation of the importance of short films in the Scottish context, focusing in particular on the shorts and careers of Lynne Ramsay, Peter Mullan and Morag McKinnon, and second through examination of the Scottish/Danish co-produced ‘Advance Party’ initiative.
Excursion(s): You’ll have the opportunity to visit a celebrated screen location or meet a Scottish filmmaker.
Post-production is the phase in the film production process where stories come together. Images and sound are combined to build the narrative and craft what the viewer will experience. Editing involves technical skills, but crucially it is a creative process, in which each decision will impact the style and substance of the completed film.
In this module, you will learn both the creative and technical aspects of editing. You will be taught by an experienced industry professional, who will guide you through the art of post-production. You will be taught in a small group, using industry standard software and equipment, and working with material both from broadcast shows and award-winning student work. By the end of the module, you will have a confident grasp of technical skills, the techniques of visual storytelling and how sound and pictures come together to create an impact for a viewing audience.
This course is a survey of Japanese popular culture with particular topics covered such as anime manga, fashion, music, art and food. Part of the course will focus on Japanese animation within a historic and popular cultural perspective. Both anime and manga will be examined with particular emphasis on the art, culture and national and international popularity.
