Writing a thesis is essential for academic development and fulfillment. It is inconceivable that students would graduate without having written a solid, extensive and very critical academic work which would be compliant with international standards. The end result of the course will be a long paper on a topic related to their graduation field which would discuss a new angle for an established topic.

The course will explore the implications of new media on culture, business and other major industries. The esthetic possibilities for a society invaded by social media, smart phones, video and digital cameras, computer interfaces, search engines, and video games will be analyzed and their convergence/divergence from ‘traditional’ media. Through discussion, reading, screenings, and creative experiments, we will critically reflect on everyday new media practices, such as surfing, sharing, uploading, emerging technologies, and their historical origins to understand changing relations of the human­ computer interaction (HCI).

The advertising industry has experienced significant transformations in recent years as digital, social media and interactivity have changed the shape of media and advertising. This course will explore the effects and impact of digital media in advertising, how to understand users, and explore different modes of delivery for advertising and methods of audience measurement within an online, mobile and social media environment.

Instruction in creation, preparation and production of a complete original computer animation film, with emphasis on organization and operation of postproduction process.

Advanced problems in the field of documentary writing, with emphasis on research and preproduction, Conception, development and writing a documentary script.

Students will discuss in class issues related to films and other arts, plus weekly film screening. Studies in interrelationships between on the one hand film and on the other painting, dance and theater, through examination of such issues as the different modalities of presence in film and theater, the various functions of the frame in film and painting, the correspondence of the freezing that is part of the cinema apertures (frozen frames), and the diegetic freezing of the dancer. May be repeated twice for credit.

Through advanced problems in the field of screenwriting, students will acquire professional know-how in documentary and feature film writings, using discussions and exercises with an emphasis on research and preproduction.

Story of film theory, mainly through the theoretical work of Michel Chion (in particular his concept of acousmetre) and through the films of Starub­Huillet, Tati, Duras, Lynch, Syberberg, etc.

Students will participate in discussions in class, screenings to be arranged. Studies of several critical discourses that have influenced the analysis of film: Walter Benjamin’s “work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction”; Althusser’s interpellation; Lacan’s mirror’s stage; Virilio’s dromology and logistics of perception; Debord’s society of spectacle; Edward Said’s orientalism, etc.

Advanced techniques and applications of English copywriting, specifically in all advertising and communication forms and the best way to insure a catchy, readable and effective way of selling whatever the product or the social cause is.

Advanced techniques and applications of French copywriting, specifically in all advertising and communication forms and the best way to insure a catchy, readable and effective way of selling whatever the product or the social cause is.

In this course, the student will explore the commercial and socio-graphics parameters that influence the commercial communication. He will study as well the psychological factors that influence the advertising message impact and pertinence.

The advertising industry has undergone significant transformations in recent years as interactive and digital media have changed media and advertising. This course will explore the implications for media content, audiences, modes of media consumption and production, modes of delivery for advertising and methods of audience measurement within an online environment. Students will gain practical skills in how to use online environments for advertising, in how to target particular audiences and reach them with a wide variety of ads, and prompt them to act.

Politics are very closely associated with campaigns, or how to best express the convictions of a political entity through messages which vary across countries, allies, enemies or culture and society. Students will be introduced to the notion of decision-making in a world full of rivalries, hostilities, concepts, budgets and wars. The role of propaganda will be scrutinized vis-à-vis its target audiences and how they pass overt and clandestine messages.

The Final project is a semester-long endeavor in which each student develops an Advertising Campaign that materializes her/his exploration of a topic of interest.