Music and Documentary Filmmaking (Winter 2011)

Classes: Tuesday and Thursday 2:00PM – 3:20PM

Location: HC 2-26

Instructor: Federico Spinetti www.ualberta.ca/~spinetti

Office: 3-34A Arts & Convocation Hall; office hours: Tuesday 11:00AM – 1:00PM; tel. 492-7534; email: spinetti@ualberta.ca

Course description

This course examines a variety of experiences, techniques, philosophies and understandings of documentary filmmaking through the specific lens of music. It considers both documentaries about music and the use of music in documentary films on other subjects. Spanning TV productions, art films and film ethnographies, the course draws on film studies, visual anthropology and ethnomusicology to provide an interpretive frame and a critical forum for students to engage thoughtfully with documentary filmmaking. In particular, music will be taken as the vantage point to look at issues of representation in audiovisual media as well as to explore documentary filmmaking as both a creative and a research process. Class instruction will include discussion of assigned readings, and in-class viewings and analyses. Media:Spinetti_Music_466-566_Winter_2011_Syllabus.pdf

Prerequisites

This course is for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. No previous knowledge of music notation, ethnomusicology, music scholarship in general, film studies or visual anthropology is required to take this course and to effectively complete its assignments/requirements.

Objectives

To familiarize students with the technical and creative process of documentary filmmaking, with an emphasis on issues of representation of real life.

To encourage students to take up a critical understanding of documentary filmmaking.

To consider the socio-political, cultural and technological contexts of the production of documentary films, and to appreciate their significance for the making, direction and philosophical approach of specific documentary films.

To examine the representation of musical life, music making and musicians in documentary films from a variety of periods and artistic/research perspectives.

To explore documentary filmmaking as a research process, research output and art form, and to assess its significance for the ethnographic study of music.

To address the role of music soundtrack in the representational and narrative strategies of documentary film.

Requirements/assignments

Attendance and participation, including completing weekly readings and participating in class discussions. Completing weekly readings before coming to class is an essential requirement for this course. You may be invited to take turns in leading the discussion on specific readings, topics or in-class film screenings.

Film excerpt analysis (approx. 500–750 words). Take a 5 to 7 minute excerpt (e.g a scene or a chapter) of a documentary film of your choice (from the Library online databases) and analyze it according to two main tasks: 1) compile a comprehensive list of all shots contained in your excerpt and provide a short, but fairly detailed description of their visual and audio content; 2) Respond to the following questions: What information does your excerpt convey (i.e. what do we learn from it)? How does your excerpt convey such information (i.e. how do we get to learn what we learn)? In order to address this second question, pay particular attention to representational mode and treatment of sound/music (e.g. how does sound help us to see what we see (i.e. to “audioview”)? How is sound combined (empathetically or not) with visual materials? What is the sound’s “added value”?). This assignment due in Week 4 (Thursday, Feb 3).

EITHER a Reading review (500–750 words) of a reading of your choice taken from the bibliography for this course (only readings marked with + in the bibliography below). Though short, your review needs to be polished and show some critical acumen. It should summarize the reading in question as well as identify and briefly critique its main arguments and themes. The review is due in Week 7. Unjustified late submissions will be penalized by one full point on the letter grading scale (i.e. from A to A-, from A- to B+, etc). Please submit your piece by email (in .doc or .docx format).

OR a Comparative review (500–750 words) of 2 documentary film reviews of your choice. One review must be taken from an ethnomusicology journal (such as Ethnomusicoloy, Ethnomusicology Forum or Yearbook for Traditional Music), while the other one must be taken either from an anthropology/film studies journal (such as Visual Anthropology Review, Visual Anthropology, Film Criticism, Film & History, or Film Quarterly) or from a journalistic film criticism publication (whether printed or online). Your review should detect the critical focus, interpretive moves and theoretical interests of the reviewed authors, highlighting similarities and contrasts when relevant. This review is due in Week 7. Unjustified late submissions will be penalized by one full point on the letter grading scale (i.e. from A to A-, from A- to B+, etc). Please submit your piece by email (in .doc or .docx format).

Film review (undergraduate: 1,000–1,500 words; graduate: 1,500–2,000 words) of one documentary feature film or two to three short/medium length films of your choice. You must choose your film/s from the course filmography. Before undertaking your writing, please discuss with me your film choice. Your review should be polished and show critical acumen. It should provide a synopsis of the film in question and identify and critique its main representational, narrative and stylistic features, with special consideration for how music is used and/or represented. The review is due in Week 10. Unjustified late submissions will be penalized by one full point on the letter grading scale (i.e. from A to A-, from A- to B+, etc). Please submit your piece by email (in .doc or .docx format).

Film presentation – starting from Week 7, each of you will be required to give one 15-minute class presentation on a film of your choice. This must not be the film chosen for your review and must be chosen from outside the course filmography. In your presentation, you should play some excerpts of the film for the class and comment on the pro-filmic, stylistic, representational, interpretive and narrative choices of the filmmaker, with special consideration for how music is used and/or represented. The time devoted to film excerpts should not exceed that of your commentary. The schedule of presentations will be determined before reading week.

Final creative/research paper. An original proposal for a documentary film on a subject of interest to you. Like a director, you should describe your chosen topic and reflect on the filmmaking choices with which you would approach your work. You should pay particular attention to illustrating your philosophical/conceptual standpoint, your cinematography and editing choices, your treatment of sound and/or music, and your envisaged working relationships with research subjects (whether participants or places/objects). Your paper should show familiarity with the topics and issues tackled in the course, and draw pertinent connections to and actively engage with course readings and viewings to support and illustrate your choices. Length of paper: undergraduate: 2,500-3,000 words; graduate 3,000-3,500 words. This paper is due on April 20. No unjustified late submissions will be accepted. Please submit your piece by email (in .doc or .docx format).

Assessment

Each assignment will be marked according to the numeric scale of evaluation given below. Individual assignment marks will be combined to obtain a final numeric grade, which will be rounded so as to obtain a corresponding final letter grade as shown below.

A = 4.0

A- = 3.7

B+ = 3.3

B = 3.0

B- = 2.7

C+ = 2.3

C = 2.0

C- = 1.7

D+ = 1.3

D = 1.0

D- = 0.7

F = 0.0

The relative weight of each assignment on the overall grade is as follows:

Attendance and participation: 10%

Film excerpt analysis: 15%

Reading review OR Comparative review: 15%

Film review: 20%

Presentation: 15%

Final creative/research paper: 25%

Resources

There are no required textbooks for this course. Class readings will be on reserve at the Music Library or available online through the Library databases. Relevant bibliographic materials that may not be available on reserve will be handed out in class or included in this course mediawiki page. I will use the course mediawiki to post updated reading assignments and changes of schedule.

Most films viewed in class will be available on reserve at the Music Library or online. The following online film databases will be particularly useful:

NFB.ca (National Film Board of Canada). Access through UofA Library databases here

Films on Demand. Access through UofA Library databases here

Europa Film Treasures. Access through UofA Library databases here

Culture Unplugged online festivals (http://www.cultureunplugged.com)

Academic integrity

You should be familiar with the Code of Student Behavior as published in Section 26 of the 2009-2010 Calendar and available online at http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/governance/studentappeals.cfm. “Policy about course outlines can be found in section 23.4(2) of the University Calendar”. (GFC 29 SEP 2003) “The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/governance/studentappeals.cfm.) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.” (GFC 29 SEP 2003)