:: School of Film @ Ohio University

M.A. Course Distribution Requirements

A minimum of 31-34 credit hours in core courses and a minimum of 41-44 credit hours in elective courses must be taken. The combined minimum credit hours for core and elective courses is 75 hours.
M.A. students must receive Program Coordinator approval for their planned course registration each term. Students are required to have a balance among electives in history, theory, and criticism, with a minimum of two in each category.
A maximum of four courses is allowed from outside the School of Film.

MA Required Core Courses

Film Studies I
Film Studies II
Theory and Criticism I
Film History I
Film History II
Film History III
Experimental Film or Experimental Video
Film Symposium (3-6 credit hours)

Elective Courses*

Theory and Criticism II
Experimental Film or Experimental Video (whichever one not taken for core)
Issues in Documentary
Documentary Film
National cinemas electives
Women in Film
Masculinity in Film
African-American Film
Race and Film
Genre studies electives
Authorship studies electives
Film Topics Seminars
Festival Practicum
Independent Study

*The above list is representative of some School offerings; not all are available every year.

M.A. Thesis

The M.A. thesis is a formal, original scholarly essay, generally between 50 and 75 pages in length. It is written under the direction of a member of the film faculty with approval from a selected thesis committee and the Director of the School. The Thesis Committee is to be made up of the Thesis Advisor, a second faculty member from the School of Film, and a third faculty member from a discipline outside the School.

The twenty hours of the variable-credit “Written Thesis” course are generally concentrated in the final quarters of the student’s program of study.

Language Requirement (does not count towards required credit hours)

For native speakers of English, basic reading competency in a modern language other than English, demonstrated by three quarters of approved graduate-level coursework in the language (or the equivalent) or by passing of a proficiency exam given through the School of Film or through an Ohio University language program; other forms of proof of competency (e.g., coursework and/or exams completed previously at another institution) may be considered on a case by case basis, upon petition to the program coordinator within the first three quarters of the student’s course of study. For non-native speakers of English, sufficient English for the start of full-time coursework in the MA program in film.

In Ohio University’s Departments of Modern Languages and of Linguistics, the required three quarters of coursework would typically be available as a course sequence numbered 511-512-513, which is a graduate-level reading or language sequence generally offered in conjunction with a corresponding undergraduate sequence. Most language programs offer these sequences over the course of the regular academic year, and some (specifically French and German) may also make them available as summer language intensives in alternate years (that is to say, you would be able to complete the equivalent of the entire three-quarter sequence in a single summer quarter).

While, in recognition of the international nature of cinematic discourse, the School of Film will at present accept any modern language for fulfillment of this requirement, we also would advise students to consider the concrete benefits of the language being learned for future study or research in the field. Those planning future study at the doctoral level in particular are advised that many doctoral programs will expect competence in French or German.

Course descriptions

Film Studies I: An in-depth examination of the various formal dimensions of the film text for both Ma and MFA students, which also introduces selected key junctures and movements in film history and selected texts in classical film theory. The primary aim is to provide students with a descriptive vocabulary and analytical tools which can facilitate future work in film production, film criticism and/or film-historical research; a secondary aim is to develop a general awareness of the kinds of critical, historical and theoretical issues addressed in the film studies field. The primary text is Bordwell nad Thompson's Film Art.

Film Studies II: An advanced introduction to key methodologies and central issues and debates within the film studies field, again for both MA and MFA students, in recent times utilizing Graeme Turner, ed., The Film Cultures Reader (Routledge, 2002), as the main text. Give that the emphasis is on the practical application of a range of critical methodologies currently in use, the selections in the reader tend to be essays illustrating specific employments of contemporary methods (rather than strictly theoretical essays, more focus on Theory and Criticism I, below). Topics to be covered include issues of gender-race-class-sexuality and cinema, stardom, nationhood and globalization, postmodernism, “trash” and cult cinema, debates over historical methodologies, and the place of film studies with respect to other critical disciplines. Students are expected to study a particular area of research early in the quarter in order to allow time for a more sustained utilization of an appropriate analytical method or methods, to culminate in oral and written presentations; requirements include a reading report, a literature search, and a fully developed research proposal.

Theory and Criticism I: Readings of key primary texts in classical and contemporary film theory, utilizing Braudy and Cohen’s Film Theory and Criticism anthology. Course combines both historical and conceptual organizational schemes, starting with earlier writings on the nature of the medium, its relationship to reality, its relationship to other media, and the nature of film language; going through auteurist approaches, genre criticism, semiotics, and narratology; and continuing, on to feminist theory, psychoanalytic criticism, issues of race/gender/sexuality, and apparatus theory.

Theory and Criticism II: In-depth readings of primary texts in a selected area of film theory. Topics vary; may be repeated for elective credit. Not offered every year.

Film History I: International film history (including documentary) from 1890s through the coming of sound (covering through chapter 9 of Thompson & Bordwell’s Film History, 2nd ed.)

Film History II: International film history (including documentary) from after the coming of sound until the late 1960s (Thompson & Bordwell ch. 10-21)

Film History III: International film history (including documentary) from the late 1960s to the present (Thompson & Bordwell ch. 22-28)

Written Thesis: Supervised work on the MA thesis. MA students are required to register for at lleast 20 hours, generally in their last 3 quarters (in addition to other 75 hours of required coursework for the degree).

MA Course Scheduling

Even-numbered years:

Fall
Film Studies I Film History I Experimental Film Electives

Winter
Film Studies II Electives

Spring
Film History II Theory and Criticism I Electives

Odd-numbered years:

Fall
Film Studies I Electives

Winter
Film Studies II Film History III Electives

Spring
Theory and Criticism I Electives