-
The Craft of Writing: Coming to Life – Animation and History
R1B - 005 | CCN: 31629
Patrick Ellis and Jennifer Alpert
Date and Time: MW 4-530P, 185 BARROWS (effective 02, 03, 16)
4 Units
This class focuses on the history of animation, broadly conceived. Our elastic approach to the form will consider not only hand-drawn, cel, and forms of digital animation, but sequential art, animated objects, and special effects. In weekly screenings, we will trace the arc of animation from the earliest years of cinema to the very present, pausing along the way for thematic considerations such as gender, modernity, music, race, and science, among others.
Implicit in the course structure is the idea that animation reveals a shadow history of cinema. In researching this history, students will be equipped with the skills to complete short, archivally investigative projects, as well as larger writing assignments that weave together primary and secondary materials.
Our focus will, by and large, be on French and American animation. Films screened will include work from Chomet, Cohl, Disney, the Fleischers, Iwerks, Jones, Méliès, McCay, O’Brien, Reiniger, Spielberg, Švankmajer, and Zemeckis.