Syllabus

Introduction to Film Studies

FMS 1 – Winter 2015

Alex Fine – akfine@ucdavis.edu

A07 Wednesday – 10-10:50am, Veihmeyer Hall, Room 116

A08 Wednesday – 11-11:50am, Wellman Hall, Room 105

Office Hours:

Location TBD [tentatively; Women and Gender Studies Suite in Hart Hall on the 1^st floor]

Mondays, 11am to 12:30pm

Thursdays, 12pm to 1pm

Expectations:

Attend class on time, be prepared to discuss the material, and contribute to a respectful classroom environment through your punctuality, listening, and participation.  If you find an issue or have concern with your TA, another student, or a comment or aspect brought up during discussion, please reach out to me privately or during office hours rather than taking this up during class time.

Participation (within the classroom and through the section blog) is a part of your grade.

Bring all reading materials to class as we may refer to them in discussion.

Technology:

Laptops, tablets, or cell phones may be used for school purposes only.  If technology becomes disruptive to your learning or to the learning of others, you will be asked to no longer use your device(s).

Email:

I check email daily, however, I may not get to your email immediately. Please be patient, and I will get to your email within 48 hours.

Attendance:

You are expected to attend all sections of class.  If for some reason you are unable to make class, it is your responsibility to reach out to another student to get notes and materials.

Late Assignments:

Late assignments will not be accepted, and will only be considered for extreme documented circumstances.

Academic Dishonesty: 

No plagiarism or other academic dishonesty will be tolerated.  Plagiarism consists of copying text from a website, book, fellow student, or other source without crediting that source.  It also consists of copying ideas without crediting them.  If you plagiarize you will receive a zero for the assignment.

Electronic Assignment Submission: 

If you submit assignments electronically, please submit one document titled as follows: “LastName_FirstName_AssignmentName_Date.” 

Grade Questions: 

Feel free to email me if you have questions about your grade.  Please wait 24 hours after receiving your assignment back before emailing me.

Blog – http://fms1finesectionwinter2015.blogspot.com/

Part of your participation grade includes your posts and comments on the class section blog. 

You are required to make three posts throughout the quarter – one in the first three weeks of the quarter, one in weeks 4-6 and one in weeks 7-9. 

You are also required to make three comments on your classmates’ posts throughout the quarter – one in the first three weeks of the quarter, one in weeks 4-6 and one in weeks 7-9. 

Your posts should relate to that week’s readings, films, or discussions from lecture, drawing upon the topics or themes from the text.  You must bring in an example from media (i.e. from a film we watched together or from any other video/film you have seen on your own outside of class) and write a short paragraph critically analyzing and assessing it.