Module Code - Title:
CS4040
-
ADVANCED VIDEO PRODUCTION
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
N
Prerequisite Modules:
CS4053
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
This module explores the key roles technological innovation has played in the development of moving image aesthetics, including visual music, experimental film, music video, and contemporary live visuals. Practical instruction in animation techniques, visual effects, and advanced compositing are provided.
Syllabus:
1. Early film as visual music
2. Animation chronology and techniques
3. Aesthetics and techniques of experimental film and signal art
4. History of the music video and the VJ
5. Digital video techniques: compositing and masking, chromakey and green screen, motion tracking
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
1. Describe the history of visual music as a practice based on evolving technologies.
2. Take a critical approach to audiovisual aesthetics.
3. Analyse an animated film in terms of colour, form, and movement.
4. Recognise and contextualise artistic approaches to film-making, from the personal to the political.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
1. Produce desired affects (aesthetic and emotional responses) in the viewer, using creative film-making techniques.
2. Identify use of empathetic/anempathetic and diegetic/non-diegetic sound and appreciate how this shapes viewer impressions in film.
3. Develop an appreciation for experimental film techniques and aesthetics, identifying their use in contemporary production (e.g. music videos).
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
1. Create a timeline animation using keyframes and motion tweening.
2. Create a VFX animation using spline editing and property expressions.
3. Build a video using multiple layers, compositing, and masking.
4. Chromakey a user interface onto a second video, using motion tracking.
5. Shoot video footage suitable for an animated production.
6. Shoot green screen footage suitable for post-production use.
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
Lectures introduce concepts, technical information, historical context, and guidelines on best practice. Labs focus on camera techniques, post-production using DaVinci Resolve, and experimental digital processes. These are supplemented by screenings of short films in a critical historical context.
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Chion, Michel (1994)
Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen
, Columbia University Press
Chion, Michel (2011)
Film: A sound art
, Columbia University Press
Youngblood, Gene (2020)
Expanded cinema, 50th anniversary edition
, Fordham University Press
Other Relevant Texts:
Frith, Simon, Andrew Goodwin, and Lawrence Grossberg, eds. (1993)
Sound and vision: the music video reader
, Routledge
High, Kathy; Sherry Miller Hocking; Mona Jimenez (2014)
The emergence of video processing tools: television becoming unglued
, Intellect
Mollaghan, Aimee (2015)
The visual music film
, Palgrave Macmillan
Smith, Vicky and Nicky Hamlyn, eds. (2018)
Experimental and expanded animation: new perspectives and practices
, Palgrave Macmillan
Lund, Cornelia and Holger Lund, eds. (2009)
Audio. Visual: on visual music and related media
, Arnoldsche Art
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
BSMMPTUFA - MUSIC MEDIA AND PERFORMANCE TECHNOLOGY
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Spring
Module Leader:
robin.parmar@ul.ie