To prospective CINE200/CINE202, or CINE203 students:
I know there is a lot of anxiety about getting into these courses, and
a good
number of you are unable to register for these classes via the
automated-system
(e.g., transfer students). The Cinema Faculty recognize this and we try
to
accommodate as many students as we can; but please realize that despite
our
best efforts we simply cannot accommodate everyone – it’s just not
possible.
If you’re a first year student your chances of getting into either of
these
courses is minimal at best. I strongly advise that you direct your
energies
towards finishing your General Education requirements (e.g., Segment I&II
and
English214/JPET). The Cinema Faculty is going to be highly
demanding when
it comes time to write proper papers, and production proposals. During
the
course of completing your General Education requirements, take
advantage of
this time to develop your writing and critical thinking skills.
In response, in part, to the California Budget Crisis of 2009, the Cinema Department has consolidated CINE200 and CINE202 into one class: CINE203 Introduction to Cinema Studies and Production. The following information equally pertains to CINE203: If you are thinking that CINE200 is going to be an easy course,
something that
you can just breeze through, think again. If you imagine that CINE200
is going
to be a ‘cinema appreciation course,’ again, think again. This is going
to be a
highly demanding course; perhaps one of the hardest of you will take at
SFSU.
If you are looking for a general survey of cinema, you might want to
consider
taking CINE102 Introduction to Contemporary Cinema; CINE200 is NOT a
general
survey course.
CINE202 is also a challenging course. This course teaches film
technologies,
including the mathematics and optics of exposure, film composition, and
color
as well as teaching the use of technical knowledge in support of
creative
proposal writing.
CINE200 and CINE202 are our gateway courses into the Cinema Major and
are
intended to introduce basic cinematic concepts to prospective Cinema
Majors.
CINE203 is a consolidated gateway course (i.e., it replaces CINE200/CINE202) into the Cinema Major and is a very challenging course; students should be prepared to read and retain a lot of material. Falling behind, or not be academically prepared for this course will be determental to your success in the Cinema Major.
If you have read this far, and have determined that CINE200/CINE202, or CINE203,
are
still classes you would like to get into, AND you cannot – for whatever
reason
– enroll via the automated-system, the only advice that I can give to
you is to
show up on the first day. As I stated earlier, we try to accommodate as
many
people as we can within the enrollment limit.
Also be aware that there is an
Exemption Exam given at the beginning of every Fall and Spring
Semester, which
is given, typically, the first, or second Tuesday of the Semester, in
Coppola
Theatre (FA101) at 12:00. Please check with the Cinema Office for the
exact
date and time. No reservations or sign-up is required. Students passing
the
Exemption Exam for CINE200 and/or CINE202 will have the respective
course
waived. We encourage students to study the latest edition of Bordwell
and
Thompson’s Film Art for
the
CINE200 Exemption Exam, and the latest edition of Ascher
and
Pincus’s Filmmaker’s Handbook
for the
CINE202 Exemption Exam.
Whatever academic path you take – good luck!
Aaron Kerner
See my website for more information:
http://online.sfsu.edu/~amkerner/