FILM BC3250

Readings, 4 essays, and a midterm with the most horribly hard to understand, misspelled, grammatically incoherent questions you will ever see.

In Adaptation, I learned how different filmmakers in different films that were adapted from books and other source materials were made into films. We broke down each film's narrative structure through the traditional three-act structure graph and examined how they brought the source material to the screen and externalize the story. We then adapted our own short stories and tried our hand at making an outline.

There are only two papers, one is an incredibly short shot analysis and the other is a somewhat lengthy research paper. These can be a little difficult if you didn't set time for them/didn't watch the films, but otherwise, as long as you watched at least one of the movies before/after the midterm you'll be fine. As mentioned, the exams were really light and often don't take even close to the allotted time to complete. Just make sure you pay attention during the lecture portion of the class as half of the exam quizzes you on your knowledge of film terms and the other half is an essay portion structured around a key topic covered in the readings/lectures. The readings themselves are quite long but for the most part, the lecture covers what you need to know so you can skim them.

Jane Gaines is possibly the worst professor or educator of any kind I have ever had the complete misfortune of taking a class with. She is not a good teacher; her exam questions are wordy and usually riddled with genuinely astonishing grammatical errors, which make them near impossible to understand. She has opinions about movies, which are usually grounded in solely her own personal feelings and rarely give a nuanced understanding of a film. Furthermore, and honestly, most importantly, she is horribly racist. She has a preoccupation with China that often derails the class and makes everyone extremely uncomfortable. She calls on any student who could even possibly be of Asian descent (of any kind) and asks them about China. She also makes racially motivated comments about Chinese people. She is rude to all students and cannot let a student speak without rudely interrupting by yelling and taunting them as soon as they say something she doesn't completely agree with. Her overall demeanor is simply insufferable, and I hope to never speak to her again. This class felt like a social experiment. I would rather take this course over the summer than take it with her again.

I learned about linear story structure and how it applies to adapting other works into a filmic medium.

Very solid course for an introduction to film; a great start for those who have a genuine interest in the field as the course delivers on important topics such as film production, cinematography, the anatomy of a camera, important eras/filmmakers, narrative styles, etc. and does a good job of balancing modern film theories with classic principles. Professor LaRiviere is also an interesting lecturer and does a good job of keeping the course content engaging and encouraging participation from the students. He also is just a genuinely nice guy and if you enjoy film, it's definitely worth it to take the time to strike up a conversation with him. On the flipside, if you're just taking it to fulfill a gen-ed (me), it's a pretty light class. The midterm/final were not difficult in the slightest and, as long as you spend at least an hour studying the terms on the cheat sheet and are at least somewhat familiar with the readings, you'll be fine. The worst part is by far the runtime of the class; it's difficult to stay engaged for the entirety of the 3 hour block, especially when it gets to the actual showing of the movie (which are primarily older films).

okay, you don't really have to do the readings, 1 midterm (two weeks before finals)

If one wants to learn how films are adapted for the big screen, then I would recommend them to take this class. Adapting for the big/small screen is not easy, as film/TV is a visual medium. How does one go from an internal medium like novels to an external one? This is what this class is for. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2024 Course: FILMAF6055_001_2024_3-Adaptation : FILMAF6055_001_2024_3 - Adaptation Instructor: Galt Niederhoffer

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS! Unless you enjoy spending four hours, once a week, hearing one ignorant and racist comment after another avoid taking this class at all cost. Not only has she proven incredibly ignorant in a number of situations, the actual lectures are convoluted and confusing at best, at worst she makes up her own terms for things and seems to even confuse herself, often changing what she's saying in the middle of a sentence and rambling on about irrelevant things that not even the TAs seem to comprehend. She often neglects to speak in proper, coherent sentences. I learned more from the TA lead discussion sections than from the actual lecture. The essays are all graded by the TAs so it really depends on who you get.