Media Arts Initiative
The Bentley English Department is in the process of developing a Media Studies major and related initiatives in the area of Media Arts. The major will combine the technical, creative, analytical, and business aspects of media studies and will offer courses in film, video, digital photography, screenwriting, principles of design, communication theory, e-government, entertainment law, and media management.
A few highlights of the curriculum include:
Introduction to Video Production
This course highlights the creative process and serves as a foundation for students to learn the technical and artistic aspects of digital video production. Working in teams, students produce group projects, with each crew position playing a vital role in the project’s conception, production and post-production. The fundamentals of screenwriting, visual conceptualization, cameras, lighting techniques, sound recording, and nonlinear editing are covered through rigorous hands-on demonstrations and lectures. The end result is a short video that is assessed alongside each project’s original conception, which includes a business plan. These plans determine the types of projects to be produced and serve to outline the final distribution outlets and prospects, such as to the Web or DVD. Proposals coincide with the students’ entrepreneurial and artistic interests as well as their major area of study at the college. The course thus introduces not only the creative and technical aspects of video production, but also teaches the ability to visualize written concepts, to employ media as an effective form of communication, and to work in a creative team, skills that are critically important in business today.
Digital Photography
This course examines three important and extremely useful fields of visual communication that are continuously applied in the rapidly expanding digital world: the art of photography, digital image manipulation, and applications for digital images. Students shoot and edit all their own digital photographs and create a Web-based portfolio of their work.
Creative Writing: Drama/Screen Writing
“The play’s the thing...” says the Prince of Denmark in a well-known drama by a well-known English playwright. And this course of study is all about the play — whether written for the stage, the screen, or television. In it, we will experiment with dramatic form and substance, and with matters of structure and art. While we will explore the necessary practical applications and protocols, we will focus primarily on the universal elements of the drama— story, dialogue, and action; character, plot, and atmosphere; love, compassion, and treachery— and on evolving the student’s unique and accomplished voice and vision. Course work will include in-class writings, discussion of student work, analysis of the scripts of noted playwrights and screenwriters, and technique exercises. Students should expect regular reading and writing assignments culminating in a final scriptwriting project. While no previous experience is required, students should come equipped with abundant enthusiasm, substantial self-discipline, a bit of imagination, and a healthy curiosity about the drama.
Introduction to Acting
Acting is the art of creating something out of nothing by building a new reality for the audience before its very eyes. Skillfully performing this art demands a strong imagination, incisive intelligence, focus, and discipline. These skills not only lead to success in theatre, but also to a greater understanding of human nature and broad success interacting with people throughout life. In this class we will explore the art of acting, developing a shared vocabulary and reflecting our experience of each other’s work. Students will be expected to show self-discipline, working independently and demonstrating improvement in the class. Students will be given assignments with specific memorization and performance dates. Students will produce a monologue and a scene, which will be shown at a public performance at the end of the semester. In addition, students will attend Boston professional performances and will discuss them in class.
Introduction to Cinema Studies
Though it's barely a century old, the medium of cinema has quickly become one of the most popular and influential of all the arts, and has played a major role in shaping modern civilization. Because it shares many of the main qualities of novels (it tells stories); of painting (it involves framed images); of theater (actions are presented before an audience); and even of dreams (it gives us fantasies while we relax in the dark), it is also perhaps the richest of all art forms. Surveys the first 100 years of movie making with emphasis on four related issues: the characteristics of the cinema medium; cinema history; authorship in literature and film; and implications of cinema as a cultural institution. Films may include foreign and American films of both the silent and the sound eras.
Design as Communication
Visual elements can communicate persuasively a given message, emotion, or feeling to a targeted audience. This course focuses on the cumulative effect of typography, color, photographic images and layout. Students also examine the interaction of the visual image with the written copy and their combined effect on the message. While this course focuses on print media, students are encouraged, where applicable, to generalize from the print medium to visual images in the electronic media.
Mass Communication
Through printed texts and film, radio and television broadcasting, and electronic information networks, mass communication plays a central and worldwide role in distributing both information and ideas. Focusing primarily on electronic and print media, this course surveys the major theoretical perspectives on three aspects of mass communications: the means of production, the form and content of mass media messages, and the reception and use of those messages by audiences.
Fundamentals of Visual Communication
The business world is dominated by visual images, and this course explores how to choose and present them. Build your visual literacy as you learn about typography, color, layout, pictures, and symbols. Learn to master principles such as rhythm and balance. You will redesign pages and screens, prepare corporate identities, and develop brochures and quick references, which are all intended as potential portfolio pieces.
The media arts curriculum is supported by state-of-the-art equipment and lab facilities including the most recently added video production lab. To facilitate the technical processes of relevant courses, Bentley provides students with state-of-the-art production and post-production equipment. Students learn to shoot with Panasonic AG-DVX100A 24P Mini-DV Camcorders and record sound with Fostex FR-2 Flash Field Recorders. An array of microphones, audio accessories, lighting, grip, and professional production tools are also at their disposal. For post-production, a new Media Arts Lab with Mac G5s enable students to edit with Apple’s newest version of Final Cut Pro, as well as utilize the many industry-standard software programs for screenwriting, sound mixing, graphic design, and DVD authoring.
