Explore Fiction through the Works of the Beloved Jane Austen
This course analyzes the techniques of prose fiction, including such elements as plot, characterization, setting, narrative voice and the use of dialogue, using four major novels by Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion - as exemplary.
Anne K. Mellor is a Distinguished Professor of English. Her scholarly interests focus on eighteenth and nineteenth century British literature, women's writing, feminist theory, and the visual arts. Her most recent book, Mothers of the Nation - Women's Political Writing in England, 1780-1830, argues that women writers were instrumental in shaping public opinion during the Romantic era. She is the recipient of the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, the Keats-Shelley Association Distinguished Scholar Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships, three NEH Summer Seminar for College Teachers Directorships, and ACLS, NEH, Rockefeller and Australian National University Fellowships in the Humanities.
The Later Works of the Bard
An intensive study of Shakespeare's representative plays of the later (Jacobean) period including problem plays, tragedies, and romances. The course focuses on Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, and The Tempest.
Michael J.B. Allen is a Distinguished Professor of English and is the recipient of the Eby Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching. Besides lecturing on the Bard from China to Peru, he has taught at the University of Birmingham's Shakespeare Summer School in England, and at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. In 2011, he was the dramaturg for the film Three Days of Hamlet. He has published essays on Shakespeare and his contemporaries and co-edited Shakespeare's Plays in Quarto and Sir Philip Sidney's Achievements. He is also an authority on Renaissance Platonism.
The Fundamentals of Moving Image Production and Aesthetics
Students acquire understanding of practical and aesthetic challenges undertaken by artists and professionals in making of motion pictures and television. Examination of film as both art and industry: storytelling, sound and visual design, casting and performance, editing, finance, advertising, and distribution. Exploration of American and world cinema from a filmmaker's perspective. Honing of analytical skills and development of critical vocabulary for study of filmmaking as technical, artistic, and cultural phenomenon.
Lecturer Rory Kelly is an independent filmmaker who teaches at the UCLA Dept. of Film, Television & Digital Media.
Lights, cameras, pixels!
Film clips and videotaped on-site demonstrations by Professor Tom Denove highlight this exploration of the principles and practices of digital cinematography. Examine how tools and techniques affect the visual storytelling process.
Topics include formats, aspect ratios, cameras, lenses, special effects, internal-menu picture manipulation, lighting, composition, coverage, high definition, digital exhibition, multiple-camera shooting and more.
Professor Tom Denove is Vice Chair of the MFA Production/Directing program at UCLA/TFT.
Choose 2 or 4 units of beginning screenwriting
C132 - 2 units - Learn the fundamental elements of effective storytelling for the screen. Lectures, readings, screenings and 2 short papers. Offered in Session A and Session C.
133 - 4 units - Follow the same lectures and readings as C132. Work with a TA from the UCLA MFA screenwriting program to develop a short treatment for your own original feature-length screenplay. Offered in Session A and Session C.
The writing credits of Professor Richard Walter's students include Sideways, Milk, Meet the Fockers, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and more.
Write your original screenplay - three courses - one act at a time!
Three 8-unit workshop courses guide you through writing a complete feature-length screenplay.
Work in small groups with an instructor who is an alumnus of the UCLA MFA screenwriting program. Students begin with the treatment they developed in 133 (formerly 130B). Write Act I (the first 30 pages) in Film TV 135A, Act II in 135B, and Act III in 135C. Film TV 133 and 135A-B-C is an ideal program to get your screenplay written.
Film TV 133 (formerly 130B) is a prerequisite for this course.
So you want to make a movie?
An overview of the development, production, and distribution of feature films for the worldwide theatrical market. Topics include identifying material, attaching elements, and understanding the basics of financing for both studio and independent feature films.
Professor Barbara Boyle is Associate Dean and Professor at the School of Theater, Film and Television. Her company, Sovereign Pictures, has financed and distributed 25 films internationally, including My Left Foot and Phenomenon.
From script to budget: the creative producer
Learn how to prepare a real-world budget for a feature length screenplay. Emphasis on the role of the producer and on the creative and organizational techniques employed in planning the production of a film.
Professor Myrl Schreibman teaches producing and directing at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. He has extensive credits as a producer and director for stage, film and television.
What makes movies & television happen?
This course, also known as Navigating Hollywood, is an institutional analysis of the American film and television industry.
Examine Hollywood's economic structures and business practices. Special emphasis on marketing and distribution systems, the history and operations of studios and networks and their relationships to independent producers, talent and agencies. Know as much as - or more than - the savviest Hollywood insider.
Professor Denise Mann is Vice Chair of the UCLA MFA Producers Program.
Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation Europe
An introduction to the development of western society circa 1000 AD to the early stages of the Enlightenment and the death of Louis XIV of France in 1715. Emphasis is placed on specific historical topics, including the structures of medieval society, the changes in Western Europe during the Renaissance and Reformation, the establishment of new cultural paradigms in early modern Europe, and the encounter between the Old World and the New.
Teofilo Ruiz is a Distinguished Professor of History as well as a Guggenheim Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and Recipient of the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award from the Carnegie Foundation. He received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2012, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013. His research focuses on late medieval and early modern Spain.
The Enlightenment, Revolutions, Imperialism, World Wars, And Globalization
An introduction to Western history in the modern period. Explore the rise of democracy and human rights, industrialization and urbanization, and nationalism and imperialism. Examine important historical events including the Napoleonic Wars, unification of Italy and Germany, World War I, the Russian Revolution, the rise of fascism, World War II, the Cold War, and Globalization.
Lynn Hunt is a Distinguished Professor of History and the Eugen Weber Endowed Chair in Modern European History. Her specialties include the French Revolution, gender history, cultural history and historiography. She has been awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Getty Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellowship, the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, and has served at the President of the American Historical Association.
This course examines how the struggles of workers, women, racialized groups, artists and intellectuals, and the wealthy and powerful altered U.S. democracy starting at the beginning of the twentieth century. The main themes that are covered include the emergence of the U.S. as a world power, immigration, organized labor, the New Deal state, WWII, Civil Rights, feminism, ethnic nationalisms, the Cold War, decolonization, the Vietnam conflict, the global war on terror, and the current era of growing income inequality and privatization.
Robin D. G. Kelley is the Gary B. Nash Professor of American History. His books include the prize-winning Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original; Race Rebels: Culture Politics and the Black Working Class; Yo' Mama's DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America; and Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Kelley's interests range widely, covering the history of labor and radical movements in the U.S., the African Diaspora, and Africa; intellectual and cultural history (particularly music and visual culture); urban studies, and transnational movements.
From the Neolithic to the Roman Empire
An examination of the earliest civilizations of Asia, North Africa, Europe, and the New World from the development of settled agricultural communities until about 600 AD: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, India, China, Mesoamerica, Greece, and Rome. A number of central themes are explored: the emergence of cities and states; the organization of society; the nature of kingship; writing and the growth of bureaucracy; the varieties of religious expression; social, gender, and cultural hierarchies; empire as a political system; and the linkage between culture and society.
Ronald Mellor is a Distinguished Professor of History whose research centers on ancient religion and Roman historiography. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment from the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the American Academy in Rome, among others.
This historical and scientific study of genetic engineering focuses on contemporary applications in medicine, agriculture, and the law. The course examines the social, ethical, and legal issues raised by new technology using video lectures with custom animations.
NOTE: MCDB 70, HNRS 70A, and Philosophy 3 are the three UCLA Summer Sessions online courses with required live weekly video conferences. Choose the time that works for you when registering. Students seeking Honors Collegium credit enroll in HNRS 70A. MCDB 70 and HNRS 70A cannot both be taken for credit.
Professor Robert Goldberg is an Elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a National Science Foundation grant recipient, and has won numerous awards for excellence in teaching and research. He is listed as having made one of the "top 15" scientific discoveries in UCLA history.
Live Sections: Visit the FAQs to learn about technical requirements before enrolling.
Language: The Most Complex Thing You'll Ever Do
This course explores the shared experience of language. Everyone speaks a language, notices different accents, is aware of everyday "grammatical mistakes", and makes jokes that use language in clever ways. Professor Schuh examines of the nature of language, how the science of linguistics analyzes language data, and how language is integrated within culture and history. Contemporary mass media materials are used as sources for analysis and, in some cases, as ways to draw attention to common myths about language.
Russell Schuh is a Professor of Linguistics and African Languages and served as Chair of the UCLA Department of Linguistics for five years. His research focuses on the Chadic family of languages, spoken in Niger, northern Nigeria, northern Cameroon, and east-central Chad Republic. Since 2000, he has returned to his Nigerian research roots in Potiskum, Nigeria, supported by three grants from the National Science Foundation.
Math Refresher for New Graduate Students
Management 400 is designed to help incoming MBA students at the Anderson School of Management refresh their math skills. It is also open to any student interested in a comprehensive review of mathematics. Topics include algebra, differential calculus, logarithmic and exponential functions, probability, and statistics. Management 400 has no prerequisites but is a graduate-level course intended for advanced students.
Lecturer David Ravetch of the UCLA Anderson School of Management has extensive experience teaching Principles of Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Cost Accounting and Special Topics in Accounting.
Designed primarily for non-science students, this course gives an overview of the science of genetics and the sometimes-controversial applications of genetic engineering in contemporary society. Video lectures featuring custom animations make the material easy to understand and review.
NOTE: MCDB 70, HNRS 70A, and Philosophy 3 are the three UCLA Summer Sessions online courses with required live weekly video conferences. Choose the time that works for you when registering. Students seeking Honors Collegium credit enroll in HNRS 70A. MCDB 70 and HNRS 70A cannot both be taken for credit.
Professor Robert Goldberg is an Elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a National Science Foundation grant recipient, and has won numerous awards for excellence in teaching and research. He is listed as having made one of the "top 15" scientific discoveries in UCLA history.
Live Sections: Visit the FAQs to learn about technical requirements before enrolling.
From Plato to Hume
This historical introduction to Western philosophy is based on classical texts dealing with major problems including properties of rational argument, existence of God, problem of knowledge, nature of causality, relation between mind and body, possibility of justice, and others.
NOTE: Philosophy 3 and MCDB 70 are the two UCLA Summer Sessions online courses with required live weekly video conferences. Choose the time that works for you when registering.
Professor Brian Copenhaver is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Getty Scholar, and a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He holds the Udvar-Hazy Chair of Philosophy and History at UCLA; he also directs UCLA’s Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
Live Sections: Visit the FAQs to learn about technical requirements before enrolling.
Inequality, Identity, and Institutions
Sociology is the systematic examination of society. This course explores its fundamental assumption that social life has sufficient regularity and logic that, like biology, physics, and geology, its operation can be explained by systematic observation and reasoning. Whether the subtleties of a conversation, the banalities and emotions of the family, the tensions of the workplace, the paradoxical inequalities of race, gender and class, the surprises of globalization, or the rise and fall of civilization, sociology offers the conceptual apparatus and methodological tools to explain what happens in society.
William Roy is a Professor of Sociology whose specializations include corporate growth and state formation, political sociology, comparative-historical methods, social construction of reality, sociology of culture, and sociology of music. He is the recipient of the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, the American Sociological Association's Distinguished Contribution to Teaching, a National Science Foundation grant, and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.
The great american plays of the 20th century
Survey of key works of American dramatic literature and landmarks of American theater history. Plays explore America at war and the promise of the American dream.
Professor Gary Gardner is a nationally recognized teacher, historian, playwright and director. His past students include actor/director Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption), Susan Egan (Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast), Christopher Gorham (Ugly Betty), Nancy Cartwright (The Simpsons), Jack Black (School of Rock) and many more.
He is chair of the UCLA Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program.
Music, dance & drama on the american stage
Follow the evolution of the American musical from its roots in British music halls, comic opera, Viennese operetta and African American jazz to the Broadway stage. Explore a popular art form with its own culture, traditions and identity.
Professor Gary Gardner is a nationally recognized teacher, historian, playwright and director. His past students include actor/director Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption), Susan Egan (Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast), Christopher Gorham (Ugly Betty), Nancy Cartwright (The Simpsons), Jack Black (School of Rock) and many more.
He is chair of the UCLA Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program.
The blockbuster course is now online
An exploration of screen performance from an artistic, historical and cultural perspective. Examine the Stanislavski "method" and other techniques advanced by famed acting teachers such as Uta Hagen, Stanford Meisner and Stella Adler.
Experience this extraordinary class online, with video lectures featuring scenes from memorable film performances as presented by Professor Joe Olivieri, Vice Chair of the UCLA Bachelor of Arts in Acting.
120A, 120B and 120C explore different elements of screen performance and can be taken in any order.
Legendary actors, legendary performances
Examine challenges confronted by actors in ten film genres from the 1930s to the present. Streaming lectures and film clips illustrate skills required of performers in epic films, science fiction, musicals, comedies, action/adventure, Westerns, crime and gangster films, horror and suspense, war and anti-war films and dramas.
120A, 120B and 120C explore different elements of screen performance and can be taken in any order.
Taught by Professor Joe Olivieri, Vice Chair of the UCLA Bachelor of Arts in Acting.