Courses - CMS Winter 2025

Listings for future quarters are tentative and subject to change. For the most up-to-date information, including instructor and location, please consult the UW Time Schedule. For a listing of all courses potentially offered, see the Course Catalog.

Winter 2025

CMS 240 A: Writing in Cinema and Media Studies

T 10:30am - 12:20pm
Th 10:30am - 12:20pm

SLN: 12605

Department Requirements Met:

Composition and W-courses

GE Requirements Met:

A critical approach to film and/or media texts and a workshop on writing papers in English. Topics vary. Offered: AWSpS.

CMS 270 A: Perspectives on Film: Introduction

TTh 10:30am - 12:20pm

SLN: 12608

Department Requirements Met:

Pre-req to Declare Cinema & Media Studies Major

GE Requirements Met:

Introduction to film form, style, and techniques. Examples from silent film and from contemporary film. Course equivalent to: BIS 261 and T FILM 201.

CMS 272 A: Perspectives on Film: Genre

MW 4:30pm - 6:20pm

SLN: 12609

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Introduction to study of film and/or television genre. Literary, mythic, and historic aspects of film and/or television genre.

CMS 295 A: Study Abroad

to be arranged

SLN: 12610

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Equivalency for 200-level CMS courses taken on UW Study Abroad programs or direct exchanges.

CMS 301 A: Film and Media Studies: Analysis

MW 12:30pm - 2:20pm

SLN: 12611

Department Requirements Met:

Cinema & Media Studies Core

GE Requirements Met:

Introduction to the analysis of film. Covers major aspects of cinematic form: mise en scene, framing and camera movement, editing, and sound and color. Considers how these elements are organized in traditional cinematic narrative and in alternative approaches.

CMS 302 A: Media Arts and Cultures

TTh 12:30pm - 2:20pm

SLN: 12612

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Examines cultural expressions and aesthetic formations across media forms, with an emphasis on electronic and digital media. Media arts analyzed vary, including but not limited to comics, cell-phones, mash-ups, games, electronic literature, video installations, photography, and soundscapes. Topics vary.

CMS 310 A: History of Film: 1895-1929

TTh 10:30am - 12:20pm

SLN: 12613

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Film history from its beginnings in the 1890s through the golden era of silent film in the 1920s. Topics include the invention of major film techniques, the creation of Hollywood and the studios, and movements such as expressionism, constructivism, and surrealism.

CMS 321 A: Oppositional Cinema/Media

WF 12:30pm - 2:20pm

SLN: 22259

Department Requirements Met:

Cinema & Media Studies Core

GE Requirements Met:

Approaches film and related media as socially and politically engaged practice, with focus on screen media produced or received in "opposition" to dominant cultural and entertainment industry norms. Topics vary.

CMS 370 A: Basic Screenwriting

MW 2:30pm - 4:20pm

SLN: 12614

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Students develop collaborative critical and creative skills; studying screenwriting manuals and techniques; adapt stories for screenplays; and/or write synopses, treatments, and first acts of their own screenplays.

CMS 395 A: Study Abroad

to be arranged

SLN: 12615

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Equivalency for 300-level CMS courses taken on UW Study Abroad programs or direct exchanges.

CMS 470 A: Advanced Screenwriting

MW 10:30am - 12:20pm

SLN: 22125

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Students hone their understanding of screenwriting techniques; enhance their editing/critiquing skills; and develop their own screenplays, synopses, and treatments of various genres, including but not limited to silent, poetic, dramatic, and news-based scripts. Course overlaps with: T FILM 450. Prerequisite: CMS 370.

CMS 480 A: Senior Capstone

MW 2:30pm - 4:20pm

SLN: 12617

Department Requirements Met:

Capstone for Cinema

GE Requirements Met:

Capstone course in cinema and media studies. Includes research, creative, and/or reflective project. Topics vary. Prerequisite: CMS 301.

CMS 490 A: Directed Study or Research

to be arranged

SLN: 12618

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Individual study of topics in cinema and media studies by arrangement with the instructor and the Comparative Literature, Cinema, and Media Department advising office.

CMS 491 A: Internship

to be arranged

SLN: 12619

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Supervised experience in local businesses and other agencies. Open to upper-division cinema and media studies majors with approval of departmental internship supervisor.

CMS 497 A: Special Topics in Cinema and Media Studies

TTh 11:30am - 1:20pm

SLN: 22578

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Varying topics in cinema studies. Offered by resident or visiting faculty.

CMS 520 A: Methods and Issues in Cinema and Media Studies

TTh 3:30pm - 5:20pm

SLN: 12620

Department Requirements Met:

GE Requirements Met:

Provides a basic grounding in the theory, history, and criticism of film and media studies, and introduces central debates, topics, and methods in the field.