RTV 3228C SPRING 2014 Course Syllabus

MY PHILOSOPHY ON UNIVERSITY LEARNING
You find yourselves immersed in a four-year, liberal arts university environment.  A small minority of this country’s adults possess a bachelor’s degree.  Put these things together, and you begin to get a picture that this whole college thing isn’t really very easy.  That’s the way it should be.  If something is of value, you most often will have to work hard to obtain it.  So it is with knowledge.  This course will tax you intellectually.  There’s a lot of stuff covered here, and you’ll have to dedicate yourself if you wish to achieve a “good” grade.  This isn’t just an accident; I intend it to be difficult.  That’s what university learning is supposed to be.  I design my classes to be difficult but fair.  To that end, I stand prepared to assist you in anyway I can to get that result you want in class, but the work must always come from you.  I can guide your efforts, but the learning will be the product of your labor.

CELLPHONE POLICY
Cellphones may not be visible, in use or exposed in any fashion during class time.  Additionally, turn them off or use the vibrator mode; ringing or ring tones in class are prohibited.  Also, I regard texting the same as conventional calling.  Repeated infractions in any of these areas may result in a point deduction from your overall final score for the class.

CLASS EMAIL COMMUNICATION
Email communication is most often inherently more informal than a hard-copy letter, yet when you communicate via email with a professor it is nevertheless different than when you communicate with your friends or family.  To that end, in your correspondence with me you need to avoid the type of errors I list below or risk no response to your communication:

• common texting abbreviations
• inappropriately casual grammar such as no appropriate capitalizations at the front of sentences or in uses of the first person subjective pronoun, “I,” lack of closing punctuation
• scriptural, religious or any kind of reference to your personal belief system that is not the subject of the email

Additionally, all UCF students must have an active Knight’s E-Mail account; I can only send university e-mail communication to Knight’s E-Mail accounts.  To sign up for your free account, please visit www.knightsemail.ucf.edu . If you have questions about an existing account, please call (407) 823-5117.

PREREQUISITES
RTV 3000, RTV 3200 and RTV major status.

REQUIRED TEXT

• Zettl, Herbert.  (2009).  TELEVISION PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 11th ed.  Belmont, CA:  Wadsworth Publishing.

COURSE DESCRIPTION/OBJECTIVES
This course will furnish students with a basic understanding of, and familiarity with, the technical requirements and aesthetic ideals of studio, multi-camera video/audio pre-production and production.

COURSE WORK AND GRADING
Assignment #1 (radio spot/PSA)…………………………….100 points
Assignment #1 Script………………………………………………25 points
Assignment #2 (studio production #1)……………………..100 points
Assignment #2 Script………………………………………………25 points
Assignment #3 (studio production #2)………………………100 points
Assignment #3 Peer Evaluation…………………………………50 points
Class Presence……………………………………………………….50 points
TOTAL POINTS…………………………………………………450 points

(Class Presence includes involvement/preparedness in classroom discussion, willingness to respond to fellow students’ production needs, general class attentiveness, attendance, punctuality, reliability, etc.  Students are required to attend every class on time, fully prepared with assignments due and having performed the assigned readings prior to class time. This is the only way to obtain the full benefit of the course. This also includes your mandatory attendance at each orientation you’re scheduled for.  There is an additional concern in this class because so much of your assignments depend on collaboration with your fellow classmates. Therefore, understand that each instance of poor or late attendance and poor collaboration in this course will severely affect your final grade.)

MISSED FINAL EXAM
There is no make-up or early administration of the final exam except in extreme circumstances (to be determined by the instructor).  If you feel you will not be ale to take the final exam, you must meet with me sifficiently prior to the exam’s scheduled date to determine whether your reason justifies adminstration of the exam outside normal time/date, and whether some other arrangment can be made.
In cases of unforeseen circumstances that prohibit you from taking the final exam, you must contact me at the very earliest possibility (timeliness of informing me will factor into the consideration) once you determine you can’t meet the final exam date/time so that I may determine whether you reason justifies an alternative to the scheduled final exam date/time.  You must also furnish me with appropriate documentation/verification of the incident or circumstance that prohibits your attendance (car incident on the way to class or a severe and incapacitating illness, for example).  Documentation may come from such things as a doctor’s note, traffic ticket, towing receipt, etc.) and must be accompanied by a typed, brief (confined to one page), formal request containing the following:

• explanation of the incident/event
• why you think it justifies the policy outlined below (doubling credit)
• the date of both the class(es) missed and the particular quiz or exam missed
• your contact information (name, PID and email address)

These documentations must be stapled together in upper left-hand corner and are subject to verification.  Your personal work requirements don’t qualify here.

USE OF OUTSIDE PRODUCTION GEAR
All production assignments will be conducted in the UCF RTV production facilities, unless otherwise stipulated.  Productions not using the RTV facilities and gear exclusively, will receive a score of “0” for the assignment and referral to the UCF Office Of Student Conduct.

MISSED ASSIGNED PRODUCTION DAY
With respect to a missed assigned production day for your project, the same expectation applies as described in cases of missed final exams (above), including appropriate documentation and a typed explanation.  In cases where you know in advance that you will be prohibited from making your assigned production day you MUST meet with me prior to your assigned production day to determine if other arrangements can be made.  In all cases of a missed assigned production day, once I approve your grounds for missing that day, we’ll have to negotiate a solution for you.  For instances where you do not receive that approval from me you will receive a “0” for the assignment.

MISSED ORIENTATION/CONSULTATION DAYS
Course expectation is that you will be present an punctual for all assigned orientation or consultation days.  Problems with either of these will result in a substantial lowering of your Class Presence grade.

LATE ASSIGNMENTS
Assignment #1 has an accompanying due date and time posted in the RTV 3228C Course Schedule.  Late submissions for this assignment delivered to me within 24 hours after the posted deadline will receive a mandatory 50% reduction in the total score for that assignment.  Assignments will not be accepted later than 24 hours after the assignment’s posted deadline except under extreme circumstances that satisfy the same criteria as Missed Final Exam (above).  For Assignments 2 & 3, refer to the policy in “Missed Assigned Production Day” above.

ASSIGNMENT COLLABORATION
Some of your assignments require collaboration with your classmates.  There is value to this.  In the real world of video and audio production, virtually everything you do will be done in collaboration.  Thus it’s important that you learn how to collaborate.  All collaborators in a given group will receive the same grade for the assignment given them.  Cases of insurmountable problems between collaborators, such as undependability, will be dealt with individually after consultation between me and one or more of the collaborators.  (Insurmountable problems do not include personality or creative differences.   Solve these on your own.)

GRADING
The final grade will be determined from the following formula:
     A………..405-450
     B+………390-404
     B………..375-389
     B-……….360-374
     C+………345-359
     C………..330-344
     C-………315-329
     D………..285-299
     D+………300-314
     D-……….270-284
     F…………….0-269

COURSE POLICY ON ETHICAL BEHAVIOR
It is unethical to use someone else’s writing, notes, VIDEO/AUDIO or ideas as your own, or to allow someone else to use yours. This includes abstracting material from other sources like magazines, the Internet, newspapers or prerecorded material without proper attribution.  To do so is cause for immediate failure and referral to the UCF Office of Student Conduct for appropriate disciplinary action. Don’t let yourself get caught in this scenario; always be prepared with your own original work or, if you wish to use outside content, clear it with me prior to your production execution.

Additionally, I have a real problem with cheating during tests, quizzes or anywhere else.  Don’t let poor study habits or anything else put you in a position where you feel the need to cheat.  Be assured, I’ll prosecute instances of cheating to the fullest extent possible as defined in the UCF GOLDEN RULE, which may include expulsion from this class or from the university.  Additionally, the University of Central Florida Undergraduate Policy and Curriculum Committee of the Faculty Senate has approved the use of the Z designation policy.  As a result of academic dishonesty in a course, an appropriate grade will be assigned to a student that is preceded by the letter Z.  For more information on the Z grade, see http://z.ucf.edu/.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Students with disabilities who need accommodations in this course must contact the professor at the beginning of the semester to discuss needed accommodations. No accommodations will be provided until the student has met with the professor to request accommodations. Students who need accommodations must be registered with Student Disability Services, Student Resource Center Room 132, phone (407) 823-2371, TTY/TDD only phone (407) 823-2116, before requesting accommodations from the professor.

POLICY ON RECOMMENDATION LETTERS
While I’m happy to write recommendation letters for present or former students, I also reserve the right to deny such requests.  My policy on these letters is that I have to know something about you which justifies such a letter.  In other words, simply because you were in my class doesn’t justify a recommendation letter from me.  Moreover, such a recommendation letter under these terms would be meaningless for you.  Consequently, I may excuse myself from your request.  Please don’t take offense at this; it’s just that I have simply not witnessed in a classroom or other setting enough of you to draft a meaningful recommendation letter.

RTV ListServ
RTV majors and prospective majors are encouraged to subscribe to the RTV ListServ.  The listserv is the official email communication vehicle of the Radio-Television division. Announcements about class schedules, changes in classes, as well internship and job opportunities are made through “the list.”  You may view the procedure for subscribing to the RTV ListServ at: RTV LISTSERV INSTRUCTION

NOTE: This syllabus may be altered, at the instructor’s discretion, during the course of the term. Students are responsible for informing themselves of changes announced in class.