Asst. Professor
Sasha Waters
w 233 Adler Bldg.

Office Hours:
T & Th 2:30-4
& by appt.
tel. # 353.2922

What to Expect:

The goal of Advanced Video is to get you to think critically about video as a distinct media with a unique aesthetic - it’s not just "cheaper-than-film." Class time will be spent screening and discussing work, participating in technology workshops and developing your critical skills. I will also encourage you to begin thinking about how/where you identify your own interests and practices as a video maker in relationship to the multiple strategies of video art/video production adopted by a range of contemporary artists and producers.

My role will be that of a facilitator, one who will focus discussions, ask questions and summarize. I will offer a critical response to your work in class, but not until the class has spoken. I will also introduce you to the technology and resources required to complete the assignments. Finally, I will provide additional information on film festival deadlines and other screening, funding or job opportunities as they arise, and will update the list of resources that appears on the links page of this web site.

It is assumed you know the general flowpath for the kind of production you are pursuing, but we want to use our time to learn as much as we can; to that end we will have Technical Workshops that play into your interests as they emerge. If there is specific training or technology you would like to focus on, please let me know in class as early as possible in the semester so we can get right on it. Although there are clip screening days built into the schedule, the tech training will take priority as needed. By the end of this course you should feel, and indeed BE, prepared to work independently in the department; Advanced Video is a pre-requisite for Advanced Production Workshop where you work on a single project all semester and there is little to no technical training.

Each of you has paid a $40 course fee that will go towards mini-DV tapes for shooting the assignments. You may need to purchase a few extra mini-DV tapes, plus 1-2 DVDs for your final project. VHS/SVHS videotape may be needed as well for the Video Collage assignment. There will also be a master mini-DV tape onto which you will regularly put your projects. This master will be archived in check-out at the end of the semester.


What You Will Be Doing:

For the production component of this class, you will create one short individual Video Collage plus two additional projects of your own design. The parameters for these assignments are explained in greater detail below. The two independent projects require a short proposal which you will also pitch in class early in the semester. The point is that you identify your orientation to the medium (fiction, non-fiction, experimental, video art, etc.) and your principal concerns and then stick with them through the end of the semester.

To supplement the production component you will also:

Make a 20-25 minute presentation on the theme of "Diary of a Relationship with an Image." Our first reading assignment is an essay by Lucy Lippard so titled, which we will read and discuss in class. For your presentations, you will turn in a written "diary"entry/essay of 750-1000 words (typed) and discuss your "Image" - its meaning, the conditions of its production, its legacies and problems, its history or relationship to memory. Ideally, this activity will strengthen our critical vocabulary as a class as it pertains especially to the visual. Plan to address issue(s) of content, technique, style, composition, social context/consequence that you feel we should know about. You should be prepared to ask and answer questions from the class and discuss the relationship between your 'Diary Image' and your own ideas and videomaking practices.

Lead the class in one discussion of a reading. There are readings assigned to the class throughout the semester. I will lead the discussion for the first of these readings, the remaining discussions will each be led by a member of the class. The coursepack is on Reserve at the Main Library, and a list of the the Readings appears here.

Attend Class. Active participation in workshops and discussions and well-prepared presentations will ensure a complementary participation grade. You do not earn points by merely showing up, but you can lose them for missing class. YOU WILL LOSE 2 POINTS off your final grade for every unexcused absence, and late work will be penalized.

How You Will Be Graded:

Attendance & Participation - 20 points
Project # 1 - Video Collage Assignment - 15 points
Proposal for Independent Projects - 10 points
Project # 2 - Independent - 15 points
Project # 3 - Final Video Project - 20 points
Diary of an Image Presentation - 10 points
Reading Presentation - 10 points

The Production Assignments:

Assignment #1

Video Collage 3-4 min.
DUE WEEK 6
The use of "found footage" - home movies, newsreels, even photo-montage -has a long and rich history in film and video. Often this type of collage is used to critique or satirize conventional or dominant historical representations (as in The Atomic Café) but it can also be deployed in poetic explorations, personal narratives (true or false), even portraiture. This project encourages you to explore both the relationship between shots - spatial, graphic, temporal - and the sound/image relationship. To that end, your short collage may take any form - autobiographical, biographical, historical, cultural critique - but you may only use pre-existing media. Your collage must use both diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The latter can be added music (but not too much!), voice-over narration, dialogue, sound effects. The idea here is to investigate the potential for counterpoint and juxtaposition - both visually and in the image/sound relationship - and to think about how the sound track and image track inform, reciprocate and mediate each other.

One caveat: you may not use "pre-existing media" that you "found" in your home video camera from two weeks ago. I also urge you to beware the multiple cliches surrounding the use of home movies and/or childhood family videos.

Assignment #2
First Independent Project - under 6 minutes
Rough cuts DUE WEEK 8
FINISHED VIDEO DUE WEEK 10
This project should be a 4-6minute video in your self-identified genre/style as specified by your proposal. We will have a proposal writing workshop in class, and you will be expected to share and critique both proposals and work-in-progress in class.

Assignment #3
Independent Final Project - under 10 minutes
Rough Cuts DUE WEEK 13
FINSIHED VIDEO DUE WEEK 16
Your Final Project should be a longer, more deeply-realized piece utilizing all new material yet working in the same area of interest as your first independent project, again as specified in your proposal. This project is worth 20% of your grade for the class and as such should reflect 20% of the time, energy, labor and love for video you devote to the class over the course of the semester.

The Policies:

Freedom of Expression
In this class, you are free to express whatever you like, both in the content of your work, and in class discussions. Of course, since everyone else is free to express their opinions as well, be prepared for disagreement and be prepared to defend your ideas, work, etc. If a work screened in class shocks or offends you and you feel you must leave the classroom, please let me know. Do not simply leave the class without returning, as this will be counted as an absence. Be prepared to share your response as a part of class discussion.

Plagiarism & Cheating
Plagiarism is, among other things, the unacknowledged use of the intellectual property of another person. Cheating is, among other things, copying from someone else's work or downloading work from an electronic database without citation. I also interpret this to mean representing as your own work that actually done by others. An instructor who suspects a student of plagiarism and/or cheating must inform the student (preferably in writing) as soon as possible after the incident has been observed or discovered. Instructors who detect cheating or plagiarism may decide, in consultation with the Departmental Executive Officer, to reduce the student's grade for the assignment or in the course, even to assign an F. Fuller details of this policy are available from the Office of Academic Programs, in the Schedule of Courses, and in the Liberal Arts Bulletin.

Complaint Policy
If you feel that I have treated you unfairly or acted unprofessionally or otherwise failed to meet my responsibilities as an instructor, please bring the matter to my attention so that we can work together to resolve the problem. If you remain unsatisfied you may contact the chair of my department, Steven Ungar. If your concerns have still not been resolved at that point, you may submit a written complaint to the Associate Dean for Academic Programs, 120 Schaeffer Hall (335-2633) (for undergraduates), the Graduate College, 205 Gilmore Hall, 335-2137 (for graduate students).

Disability Policy
I would like to hear from anyone who has a disability that may require some modification of seating, testing, or other class requirements so that appropriate arrangements may be made. Please talk with me after class or during my office hours. In order to receive accommodations, students must contact Student Disability Services (335-1462) and obtain a Student Academic Accommodation Request form. The form will specify what accommodations are judged reasonable for that student.

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