15 films in 15 weeks

Enjoy watching movies as a pastime? There is a communications course where you can watch movies and get credit for it. Communications professor, Tom Galli is the professor for this three-credit course.

Communications Through Cinema (COM 380-02) is a unique course in which students will watch 15 films in a matter of 15 weeks. Anyone who has taken Introduction to Communications (COM 101) can register.

The movies chosen by the professor are broken down into three genres with each genre containing five films. Last semester the three genres that were selected are American classics, contemporary blockbusters, and anti-hero films.

“In COM 250 (Introduction to video production), a part of what we do is we watch five movies throughout the semester and critique them,” Galli said. “For years I’ve had students tell me they really liked that part of the class and that they wanted me to offer a class that did just that.”

For this upcoming spring semester, Galli is toying with the possible genres being creature features, then and now, and evolution of films.

The then-and-now films will consist of films that were once made in the ’40s or ’50s and then remade in more contemporary times.

If the evolution of films is a genre that is chosen, the majority of the movies would be films made by Akira Kurosawa, showing a possible three original Kurosawa films and another three films that were the remakes of the following films.

Galli said that the goal of the course is to increase students’ ability to critically look at cinema.

“I had the students critique the movies from an analytical standpoint,” Galli said.

The grading will come from three analytical papers doing a compare and contrast of the five films, one for each genre.

“It teaches you to pay attention to small details such as camera movement and lighting,” said communications major Jolica Domdom, who enrolled in the class last spring semester and said the course taught her to watch movies differently.

The class will meet on Wednesday nights from 5:30 p.m. to 8:20 p.m. in Eiben Hall. After watching the film, Galli will hold a small discussion about how it is relevant and what was liked or disliked.

“This is a great class for anyone who is interested in film, videos and movies,” Domdom said. “Although it is a later class, it is definitely worth taking, and Tom makes it very enjoyable.”