I've taught at a number of institttions where separate film screening times are the norm for film stduies classes, and I haven't encountered an attendance problem. The places I've taught have all treated screenings exactly like other sorts of labs, which means they're officially scheduled and included on the student's final university class schedule. I'm not sure what the situation is where you teach, Aaron, but I hope there is some sort of official aupport for your screenings. I still put a statement on the syllabus that film screenings are required, and explain that watching a film actively for a class is different from watching it at home where it's easier to forget it's a class text (and you don't get audience response from class peers, etc.) just to make the importance of attendance that much clearer, but I really do think that the culture of the schools is a primary factor. -----Original Message----- From: Film and TV Studies Discussion List on behalf of Delwiche, Aaron Sent: Sun 8/21/2005 7:06 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [SCREEN-L] Viewing policy for film studies courses? Hi, I'm putting the finishing touches on a syllabus for an introductory film studies course. According to the university course bulletin, students are expected to attend weekly film viewing sessions on Tuesday evenings. What policies have other instructors adopted with respect to mandatory film viewings? Do you take roll during viewing sessions? Do you force students to attend the viewing sessions, or are they allowed to watch the films at their own leisure? Do you require students to attend a certain percentage of evening sessions? I would be grateful for any thoughts from other instructors who teach courses with a film component. What approaches have you found to be successful? What approaches have not worked? Thanks, Aaron ________________________________ From: Film and TV Studies Discussion List on behalf of Ying Zhu Sent: Sun 8/21/2005 12:23 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [SCREEN-L] new book on Chinese Television Drama Qu Chunjin & Ying Zhu (eds), "Television Drama: Chinese and US Perspectives" (Shanghai: Shanlian Press, 2005) For those of you who are interested in research on Chinese teleivison drama and can access books written in Chinese, the first academic book on Chinese TV drama came out in China early this summer. The volume "Television Drama: Chinese and US Perspectives" was co-edited by Chunjin Qu (China) and Ying Zhu (US). With a foreword from Robert Allen and contributions from leading television scholars in China, the US, and Asustralia, this landmark volume witnesses a serious attempt to spotlight the significance of television drama as a narrative form, social discourse and commerce in China within a framework of comparative study that foregrounds the similarities and differences between TV drama and the study of TV drama in the PRC and the US. ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.ScreenSite.org ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.ScreenSite.org ---- For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives: http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html