Back to School Special: Imaginary Worlds

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This semester. I am teaching a large lecture class for the USC Cinema School focused on imaginary worlds and the craft of world-making. My core propositions are that there has been a shift across the entertainment industry towards more detailed, more fully elaborated worlds and towards undertanding franchising in terms of “worlds” and “universes.” As this happens, certain crafts, such as production design and costume design, take on new importante as they add so much information about the world, some of which is integrated into the narrative, some of which hints at other potential stories that pave the way for extensions. And certain contemporary filmmakers are more interested in their worlds than their stories, which does not totally break with the classical Hollywood system but does raise the possibility of other aesthetics and ways of watching, especially when coupled with greater control over the image flow and greater access to paratextual and metatextual information online.

The class starts with the prehistory of the cinema — with George Melies and the other magicians who saw film as an extension of their performances, with earlier immersive technologies including wax museums, panoramas and cycloramas, and magic lanterns, with the focus on travel across early films whether actualities or fantasies. From there, we will consider Thief of Bagdad as an immersive entertainment experience, thinking about it in the context of the age of movie palaces, theater orchestras, and live stage productions before movies. We will consider the tension between decorative and narrative use of setting in these early films. Across the term, I am interested in a comparative media approach, including the graphic Aerts, architecture, and various media. And we will be taking advantage of our LA location by bringing in all kinds of media professionals — especially art directors and costume designers, but also writers, game designers, activists and fans, etc. who will bring new perspectives to our appreciation of the worlds on screen.

There are more and more world building classes being taught, especially in the wake of Mark J. P. Wolf’s remarkable anthologies on sub creation and world-building. And I am making use of podcasts as secondary readings, especially episodes of Imaginary Worlds, a great podcast to which my course title pays tribute. So below you will see my syllabus which may give you some ideas about how to approach this topic.

The highlight of the course — other than my own stunning lectures, of course — are the guest speakers from our local industry — production designers, costume designers, game designers, writers, fans, and activists, etc. I am going to learn so much through these conversations. I had a great pre-interview last weekend with Rick Carter, who has done iconic work with Spielberg, Zemeckis, Abrams, and Cameron, among others and has two Oscars. I would love to hear from others teaching in this space. Write me at hjenkins@usc.edu.

CTCS 469: Imaginary Worlds

Prof. Henry Jenkins

Weds. 6-10pm

While the Cinema School rightfully stresses the importance of story in the Hollywood tradition, there has been an increasing recognition that worlds (and world-building) have always played important roles in shaping cinema and an aesthetic focused on rich world-building is central to understanding contemporary cinema movements around the world. In this class, we will be focusing primarily on forms of fantasy and speculative fiction to which world-building plays a central role, but we are also expanding outward to include historical fiction. We want to explore how the nature of world-building has changed through the years, how world building fits into the larger transmedia logics of the contemporary film industry, how media ranging from the architecture of movie palaces to contemporary games design has changed Hollywood’s world-building practices, why a focus on world-building helps us to better understand the creative contributions made by production designers and art directors, and why certain filmmakers are better received as world-builders rather than storytellers. Our class sessions will include frequent guest speakers, including production designers, art directors, costume designers, special effects artists, animators, and others. Screenings range from silent epics, such as Thief of Bagdad, to more contemporary works including Snowpiercer, Black Panther and Dune.

Henry Jenkins

ASC 101

Office Hours: By Appointment

For content questions: hjenkins@us .edu

For appointments: Amandafo@usc.edu (Amanda Ford)


Assignments:

Blackboard Forum: Each week students will write 2-3 paragraphs on the Blackboard Discussion Forum. These posts should reflect on points of comparison between the two films assigned for that week and should draw where appropriate on one or more assigned readings. Due Weds. afternoons by 3pm. (20 points)

Papers:

You can complete these assignments in any order but one should be due on each due date (Oct. 5, Oct. 20, Nov. 30) and all three topics should be addressed by the end of the term:

  1. Take one production design detail or costume and explain what it contributes to the film as a whole. (20 points)

  1. Visit one of the following exhibitions and share your thoughts on how it illuminates key issues from the class. Draw on course materials to provide some conceptual vocabulary for the assignment: (20 points)

  • Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum

  • Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising Museum

  • Rick Carter, “Time,” El Segundo Museum of Art



  1. Write a close reading of the world-building practices deployed by one film from the class. Assess the world based on criteria from Mark J.P. Wolf’s “Worlds Within the World”. Discuss specific elements from the film to illustrate your ideas. (20 Points)

Take Home Final Exam: Due on the exam date for the class. (20 points)


Assigned Books:

Deborah Landis, Film Craft: Costume Design

Week 1 (Aug. 24) Attraction, Illusion and Immersion in Early and Silent Cinema

Before Class:

Reading:

  • Leah Lehmbeck, Britt Salveson, and Vanessa R. Schwartz, City of Cinema: Paris 1850-1907

  • Mark J. P. Wolf, “World Design,” Routledge Companion to Imaginary Worlds

Guest: Vanessa R. Schwartz

Screening: Thief of Bagdad (1924, Raoul Walsh, 140 min, William Cameron Menzies, Mitchell Leisen)


Week 2 (Aug. 31) The Work of Production Design

Before Class: Thief of Bagdad (1940, Michael Powell et al, 106 min, Vincent Korda, John Armstrong et al)

Reading:

  • Lily Alexander, “Mythology,” in The Routledge Companion to Imaginary Worlds

  • Lucy Fisher, “The Silent Screen,” Art Direction and Production Design

  • Charles Affron, “Set as Artifice,” Sets in Motion: Art Direction and Film Narrative


Recommended Resources:

Guests: Rick Carter

Screening: Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale, 75 min, Charles D. Hall, Vera West)


Week 3 (Sept. 7) The Work of Costume Design

Before Class:

Reading: Deborah Landis, Film Craft: Costume Design

Guests: Deborah Landis

Screening: Wizard of Oz (1939, Victor Fleming, 101 min, Cederic Gibbons, Adrian)


Week 4 (Sept. 14) The Wonderful Worlds of Oz

Before Class:

  • Return to Oz (1985, Walter Murch, 113 min, Norman Reynolds, Raymond Hughes)

  • Lost in Oz (2016, Craig George, 30 min)

Reading:

  • Henry Jenkins, “‘All Over the Map’: Building (and Rebuilding) Oz,” Revisiting Imaginary Worlds

  • Henry Jenkins, “Matter, Antimatter, Doesn’t Matter,” World-Builders on World-Building

  • Gerard Hynes, “Locations and Borders” and “Geography and Maps,” Jennifer Harwood-Smith, “Portals,” Companion to Imaginary Worlds

Recommended Resources: 

Guests: Mark Warshaw

Screening:

  • Belle et Bete (1942, Jean Cocteau, 93 min, Christian Bérard, Antonio Castillo)

  • Salome (1923, Charles Bryant and Alla Nazimova 74 min, Natacha Rambova)


Week 5 (Sept. 21) Modernism, Surrealism, and Imagination

Before Class: 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953, Roy Rowland, 114 min, Rudolph Sternad, Cary Odell)

Reading:

  • Jessica Aldred, “Authorship,” Companion to Imaginary Worlds

  • Lily Alexander, “Fictional World Building as Ritual, Drama and Medium,” Revisiting Imaginary Worlds

Recommended Resources: Henry Jenkins, “A Person’s a Person, No Matter How Small,” Where the Wild Ones Were

Guests: Junot Diaz, Patrick Tatopoulos

Screening: Jason and the Argonauts (1963, Don Chaffey, 104 min, Jack Maxsted, Toni Starzi-Braga)


Week 6 (Sept. 29) Imagining and Re-Imagining the Adventure Genre

Before Class: 2000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954, Richard Fleischer, 127 min, Harper Goff, Emile Kuri)

Reading:

  • David Bordwell, from Film Art: An Introduction (on functions)

  • Seth Barry Watter, “On the Concept of Setting: A Study of V.F. Perkins,” Journal of Cinema and Media Studies

Recommended Resources:

Guests: Howard Rodman, Michael Green

Screening: The Masque of the Red Death (1964, Roger Corman, 90 min, Daniel Haller, Laura Nightingale)


Week 7 (Oct. 5) Camp, Pop and Excess in Film and Television

Before Class:

  • Batman (1966, Leslie Martinson, 104 min, Serge Krizman and Jack Martin Smith, Pat Barto)

  • Barbarella (1968, Roger Vadim, 98 min, Mario Garbuglia, Jacques Fonteray)

Reading:

  • William Urrichio and Roberta Pearson, “I’m Not Fooled By that Cheap Disguise,” Many More Lives of The Batman

  • Angelos Koutsourakis, “A Modest Proposal For Re-Thinking Cinematic Excess,” Quarterly Review of Film and Video

Recommended Resources:

  • Robin Blaetz, “The Auteur Renaissance,” Costume, Make-up and Hair

  • Henry Jenkins and Lynn Spigel, “Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel, The Many Lives of the Batman

Guests: Francois Audouy, Giovanna Melton, Marina Toybina

Screening: The Empire Strikes Back (1980, Irven Kirshner, 124 min, Norman Reynolds, John Mollo)


Week 8 (Oct. 12) World-Building in Spielberg and Lucas

Before Class: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg, 115 min, Leslie Dilley and Joe Jackson, Deborah Nadoolman)

Reading: 

Recommended Resources:

Guests: Richard LeMarchand, James Bissell 

Screening: Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott, 117 min, Lawrence Paull, Michael Kaplan and Charles Knode )


Week 9 (Oct. 20) Speculative Fiction and the Art of World-Building

Before Class: Minority Report (2002, Steven Spielberg, 145 min, Alex McDowell, Deborah Lynn Scott)

Read:

Recommended Resources:

Guests: Alex McDowell

Screening: The Fellowship of the Rings (2001, Peter Jackson, 178 min, Grant Major, Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor)


Week 10 (Nov. 2) Establishing, Expanding, and Sharing Worlds

Before Class: Pirates of the Caribbean: At The World’s Edge (2007, Gore Verbinski, 167 min, Rick Heinricks, Cheryl Carasik)

Reading: 

  • Mark J. P. Wolf, “Invented Cultures,” Benjamin H. Robinson, “History and Timelines,” and “World Completeness,” Companion of Imaginary Worlds

  • Dan Hassler-Forest,  “World Building and Convergence Culture,” Science Fiction, Fantasy and Politics

  • James Castonguay, “The Modern Entertainment Marketplace, 2000-Present,” Costume, Make-up and Hair

Recommended Resources:

Guests: Wynn Thomas; Bo Welch

 

Screening: Gangs of New York (2002, Martin Scorsese, 167 min, Dante Ferretti, Sandy Powell)


Week 11 (Nov. 9) World Building in Historical Fiction and Action Cinema

Before Class: John Wick (2014, Chad Stahiski, 101 min, Dan Leigh, Susan Bode)

Reading:

Screening: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011, Rupert Wyatt, 105 min, Claude Parre, Renee April)


Week 12 (Nov. 14) Solarpunk and Fictional Environments

Before Class: Spirited Away (2001, Hayao Miyazaki, 125 min, Norobu Yoshida)

Reading:  

Guests: Lauren Baumaroun, Stefan Dechant

Screening: Black Panther (2018, Ryan Coogler, 134 min, Hannah Bechler, Ruth E. Carter)


Nov. 23: Thanksgiving Holiday


Week 13 (Nov. 30) Afrofuturism, Fan Activism and Global Culture

Before Class: Snowpiercer

Reading: 

  • Kara Kennedy, “The Softer Side of Dune,” Exploring Imaginary Worlds

  • Scott Bukatman, “The Wakandan Dream,” Black Panther

Recommended Resources:

Guests: Panel of contemporary film costume designers (Deborah Landis), Terry Marshall


Screening: Dune (2021, Denis Villeneuve, 156 min, Patrice Vermette, Bob Morgan and Jacqueline West)