95575 - LINGUAGGI E PRATICHE DELLA COMUNICAZIONE AUDIOVISIVA

Learning outcomes

The workshop provides an introduction to the main specialized practices linked to audiovisual and visual communication. By the end of the course, the students are expected to: - be able to analyze, in regards to all kinds of different audiovisual and visual media (meaning both new and traditional, digital and analogical media), the languages and tools of contemporary communication, such as fiction and non-fiction storytelling, transmediality, the web and social networks, interactivity, offline media, performative and experiential narrative; - be familiar with the fundamental steps of audiovisual production, from organization and pre-production to publishing/distribution planning, in regards to the procedures, needs, positioning and rights connected to a specific communication output; - be able to properly read and interpret audiovisual images and signs in both narrative/symbolic and functional terms; - have acquired practical skills regarding technical equipment and audiovisual production softwares (such as Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Motion, Affinity) and be able to sort them by each specific use in a production system and to each specific use in different genres or fields, such as film and television fiction, television formats, documentary and investigative production, journalism and reports, electoral campaigns, logotypes, payoffs.

Course contents

The course consists of a theoretical part made of lectures (although with a practical-oriented approach) and is complemented by a training workshop. The students will receive introductory but exhaustive notions regarding audiovisual communication, which will serve as a preliminary overview concerning both the different techniques in audiovisual production and today’s forms of narrative construction and audiovisual storytelling. The course contents will be centered on the production and distribution on old and new media (television, web, social networks, cinema and so on), on production methods (such as interactivity, transmediality, crossmediality) and to all existing product formats (documentary film, investigative report, journalistic reportage, tv series and so on).

The students will be provided with both practical and analytical tools, so that they may develop skills as image creators and narrative image creators on the one hand, and learn how to develop a more aware fruition of audiovisual products on the other hand. The class will thus analyze the use and characteristics of all the elements composing the audiovisual language in relation to the world of mass media and especially to the communicative requirements in the political sphere.

The combination of class lectures and a workshop that constitute the course aims at providing the students with a theoretical basis of knowledge that will be complemented by a practical training experience. Divided into groups and guided by their teacher/trainer, the students will become familiar with technological equipment such as cameras, audio kits, iMacs and so on, and with the production and post-production softwares available in the lab’s editing room. All the students, on their own or in groups, will then be required to create audiovisual outputs that will be broadcast on Forlì Campus WebTv and elsewhere and will be reviewed alongside the teacher.

Between the first and second semester, the students will have received the necessary theoretical notions and will be trained on how to present a pitch. They will then design, develop and present their nre format idea for MMPWebTV (Forlì Campus WebTv). The students will become part of the editorial staff of the web tv, working in all departments in rotation and curating the whole television channel schedule with the support of the editors-in-chief.

The final in-class exercise of the second semester consists of training simulations related to communication and audiovisual political storytelling. The students will run a political television format named “the Students’ Mayor”, simulating live web or television streaming.

A minimum of 70% of course attendance is mandatory.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Technical handbooks for Panasonic cameras and Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve editing stations are available in the lab’s editing room.

In addition, the students will have access to lecture slides and to video tutorials related to the use of cameras, equipment and video editing.

Text

Mandatory textbooks for the midterm exam and optional oral exam (alongside lecture slides provided by the teacher)

L'ABC del digitale. Le nuove tecnologie di ripresa, di G. Conversano, Dino Audino Editore, 2013

Introduzione al linguaggio del film, di M. Ambrosini, L. Cardone, L. Cuccu, Carocci editore, 2017

Besides the above mentioned textbooks, the oral exam will require students to choose between one of the following textbooks:

Screenwriting

Story, di R. McKee, Omero, 2010.

Manuale di sceneggiatura cinematografica. Teoria e pratica, di L. Aimeri, UTET Università, 2012.

Film directing

Manuale di regia cinematografica, di G. Chiesa, UTET Università, 2011.

Gli strumenti della regia, 2 voll., di S. Scafidi, Dino Audino Editore, 2021.

 Direction of Photography

Parole illuminanti. I linguaggi del cinematographer, di E. Visconti, UTET Università, 2010.

Laboratorio di fotografia cinematografica, di M. Schiavon, Dino Audio Editore, 2021.

Film editing

Manuale del montaggio. Tecnica dell'editing nella comunicazione cinematografica e audiovisiva, di D. Cassani, UTET Università, 2006.

Serial television

Complex TV, di J. Mittell, minimum fax, 2017.

Scrivere le grandi serie tv, di P. Douglas, Dino Audino Editore, 2006.

Television

I generi televisivi, di G. Grignaffini, Carocci, 2021.

Televisione e radio nel XXI secolo, di E. Menduni, Laterza, 2016.

Documentary film

Fare un documentario. Scrivere, girare e produrre cinema del reale, di S. Aleandri, R. Molinterni, Dino Audino Editore, 2020.

Introduzione al documentario, di B. Nichols, Il Castoro Editore, 2009.

Production

Corso breve di produzione audiovisiva, di C. Biondi, Dino Audino Editore, 2014.

Web and new media

Fare webserie, di C. Bressa, Dino Audio Editore, 2015.

-*-

Recommended non-mandatory reading:

L’immagine-movimento. Cinema 1, di G. Deleuze, Einaudi Editore, 2016.

L’immagine-tempo. Cinema 2, di G. Deleuze, Einaudi Editore, 2017.

 

Teaching methods

Frontal teaching, practical exercises, screenings, audiovisual production lab activities (writing, shooting, editing, distribution), analysis of audiovisual outputs.

Assessment methods

The students will take frequent written, oral and practical tests. By the end of the first half of the course, at the end of the first semester, all students will take a midterm written exam. Divided into groups, by the end of the second semester they will be required to design and produce one or more audiovisual outputs for each group.

At the end of the course, the overall final mark will take into account:

• The midterm written exam mark (five multiple-choice questions and one open-ended question on the analysis of an audiovisual product)

• The evaluation of all tests taken - and resulting skills acquired - regarding: product design and writing, directing and production, promotion and distribution of audiovisual outputs;

• % of attendance, commitment and participation to workshop activities;

• quality of group outputs.

The students may improve their final mark through an optional oral exam.

Teaching tools

The lab’s editing room is equipped with Panasonic AVCHD (fullHD e 4K) cameras, with other supporting equipment such as tripods, radiomicrophones, booms and lights and with Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve editing stations.

Each student is requested to take to class a portable Hard Drive with Mac formatting or, as an alternative, a USB flash drive that should be at least 32 Gigabytes in size.

Office hours

See the website of Matteo Lolletti