Undergraduate Program
Descriptions for each course will be made available soon. For class times, locations, and registration information, go to the University’s Registrar website.
RTF f316M – Communication and Ethnic Groups – Sanson, K
The purpose of this course is to help students learn the fundamentals of media issues related to ethnic groups and their interrelations in the U.S.
RTF f342 - Music Television and Global Culture - W - Kumar
Music television is a unique form of contemporary popular culture that strikes a resonant chord of subversion among many young people around the world. With the rise of global television networks like MTV and STAR TV, music television has crossed national boundaries, and has reached out to global youth cultures. However, many argue that the implicit immorality, suggestive sexuality, and crass commercialism in music television is a terrorizing influence on age-old traditions, national institutions, gender relations, and youth cultures. In this course, we will critically examine the horror and fantasy that music television induces among many cultures around the world. We will look at music television as a form of popular culture with peculiar potential and pressing problems visible in family relationships, youth cultures, urban identities, and rural communities. We will also discuss how the images and icons of music television have been used by marginalized youth groups to imagine "alternatives" to both national and transnational institutions of political and patriarchal power.
RTF f346 - Intro to Editing – Howard
Introduction to editing is intended to build confidence in and understanding of editing. We will discuss aesthetic and practical approaches, and consider how they might be applied to a variety of challenges in editing narrative and documentary pieces. This class includes lab work with a series of exercises. Students will learn to: analyze and critique examples of narrative and documentary editing; approach material and construct it into meaningful sequences; and perform a variety of basic edits.
RTF f346C - Intermediate Editing – A. Lewis
This course is a further elaboration of the principles and techniques of editing that students will have encountered in RTF 346, but it will shift away from Final Cut Pro and toward Avid, building a broader technical background for professional development. We will discuss aesthetic, technical, and practical approaches within the cinematic and allied traditions and consider how they might best apply to some (provided) editing challenges. In particular, we'll address the concept of editing style in all types of media.
RTF f365 - Privilege and Prejudice - W – Wilkins
In this course we explore the complexity of contemporary power dynamics in terms of privilege and prejudice. The implications of positions of privilege and prejudice build from a dynamic system, in which our individual connections to collective identities become manifest in our experiences, offering opportunities in some instances and harming our potential in others. In the first section of the course, we consider theories of oppression and of privilege, as well as specific patterns and processes of social inequality in US society. Next, we explore specific instances, in relation to social class, gender, race & ethnicity, and sexuality. Following discussions of these as particular conditions, we recognize the connections across these categories. In the next section of the course, we consider how inequalities, in relation to race as well as national identity, are legitimized through our social institutions and processes, particularly through popular culture and news. We then discuss how these processes of inequity become manifest in concerns with crime and justice. Finally, we discuss strategies of resistance against prejudice and oppression, recognizing our own responsibilities in the process of social change.
RTF f366K – Introduction to Documentary – Henry
This class introduces students to single-camera field documentary video production. Basic instruction will be provided on digital cameras and digital off-line editing. Individual exercises and group projects will be assigned throughout the summer session. As with every production class, students are expected to work many additional hours on production outside the actual class times.
RTF f369 - Advanced Writing: Features - W – Orillion
This course is intended as a gateway course to the professional level of writing for the screen. Students entering this course should already have sufficient experience in this specialty to have high confidence in their own potential as screenwriters. Focus of the course therefore will be on the further exploration of screenplay structure, analysis of movies during class screenings, and intensive writing every week toward a completed future screenplay. This course will require creation of synopses, treatments, outlines, and script- together with practice in critique and editing of class screenplays in progress. There will be no incompletes.
RTF n369 - Advanced Writing: Features - W – R. Lewis
This course is intended as a gateway course to the professional level of writing for the screen. Students entering this course should already have sufficient experience in this specialty to have high confidence in their own potential as screenwriters. Focus of the course therefore will be on the further exploration of screenplay structure, analysis of movies during class screenings, and intensive writing every week toward a completed future screenplay. This course will require creation of synopses, treatments, outlines, and script- together with practice in critique and editing of class screenplays in progress. There will be no incompletes.
RTF w178 – Radio-TV-Film Internship - Strover
The purpose of this course is to provide professional internship experiences with television and radio stations, film, video, and new media production companies, governmental agencies and production units, audio recording studios, and new media industries. Students are responsible for securing their own internship position. Resources and position listings are available in the College of Communication Career Services (CCS) office, CMA 3.104 / (512) 471-9421. At the end of the semester, you will be required to submit an Internship Report consisting of: A weekly journal; work samples or a portfolio; your evaluation of the internship; your supervisor's confidential evaluation of your performance. Students should read the detailed course description before registering.
RTF w330L – Internship - Strover
The purpose of this course is to provide professional internship experiences with television and radio stations, film, video, and new media production companies, governmental agencies and production units, audio recording studios, and new media industries. Students are responsible for securing their own internship position. Resources and position listings are available in the College of Communication Career Services (CCS) office, CMA 3.104 / (512) 471-9421. At the end of the semester, you will be required to submit an Internship Report consisting of: A weekly journal; work samples or a portfolio; your evaluation of the internship; your supervisor's confidential evaluation of your performance. Students should read the detailed course description before registering.
RTF w330L - Digital Media Leadership Program/Internship - Strover
The Digital Media Leadership Program is a structured internship program administered through the Department of Radio-Television-Film. Selected students will be placed in one-semester or summer internships with digital media (e.g., video gaming, web design) companies in Austin. The program aims to place students at companies that can provide close mentoring relationships with people who are interested in working with students and who are able to provide substantive work projects for the duration of the internship. By completing the program, students will not only gain work experience, but also professional confidence, abilities, leadership skills, and connections that will serve them well as they transition into their professional careers.
RTF w336 – Special Projects in Radio-Television-Film
Instructor solicited by student. In this course, the student undertakes intensive research, or a production or writing project in an area of special interest to the student. The course is developed and executed independently by the student under faculty supervision. The work must be equivalent to the work undertaken in a 3-hour credit course. A production project is possible ONLY if the student has access to equipment elsewhere—the RTF Department’s equipment is NOT available for RTF 336 students. Assistant Instructors (PhD students) may not be faculty supervisors for RTF 336 projects. It is recommended that students work with Assistant Professors, Associate Professor, or full Professors. This class must be taken for a letter grade; it may be repeated only once for credit. It CANNOT be used as internship credit. Before enrolling in this class, DOWNLOAD AND COMPLETE THE SPECIAL PROJECTS FORM, obtain the supervising professor's signature, and bring the form to the RTF Office in CMA 6.118.
RTF 305 - Intro to Media Studies - Cunningham
This course is an introduction to the field of media studies—that is, the critical academic study of media. Radio, television, film, telecommunications and the Internet are major aspects of contemporary culture, politics and everyday life, yet we rarely pause to think about them critically. This course provides you with that opportunity.
RTF s346 - Intro to Editing - Kocher
Introduction to editing is intended to build confidence in and understanding of editing. We will discuss aesthetic and practical approaches, and consider how they might be applied to a variety of challenges in editing narrative and documentary pieces. This class includes lab work with a series of exercises. Students will learn to: analyze and critique examples of narrative and documentary editing; approach material and construct it into meaningful sequences; and perform a variety of basic edits.
RTF s351C - Digital Animation and Graphics – Marslett
This course will introduce the student to the art and mechanics of two-dimensional animation in film and in digital media. Weekly exercises will be required, with an emphasis on animation as personal expression.