Professor Leaf is really awesome! It's clear that he cares a lot about his students and the class content. You are expected to watch several music documentaries each week which can kind of become a drag, but the accompanying written assignments are super easy as long as you paid attention to the films. Grading in this class is lenient, so as long as you answer the homework questions thoroughly, you should do very well. There are no tests in this class, just a major report and a final project. Overall, I would highly recommend taking this class. Just be sure to spread watching the documentaries out each week (unless binge-watching is your thing). Is the workload somewhat tedious? Yes. But is it easy and interesting? Also yes.

Super easy GE honestly. Yes the 3 hour long lecture can be a drag but when you realize it's just once a week with online discussions, it is not too bad. He assigns a lot of films to watch but you can get away with not watching them or at least speeding through them. He brings in a ton of directors and producers from movies which is super cool if you're a film junkie.

Great class, super easy, engaging, good GPA booster and super interesting

Class is pretty easy, weekly three hour lecture was sometimes interesting sometimes not. The weekly quizzes and discussion were very easy too, and just don't procrastinate the big essay on Bob Dylan. I chose to do the 10 essays for the final project and did some extra credit (watching a documentary and summarizing it) just because I missed some discussions. Def an easy GE and would highly reccomend if you're at least somewhat interested in the music industry.

EASIEST GE EVER. This class is essentially a free A+. Just go to class and finish the quiz at the end, show up for weekly discussions (online), and write literally 150 words/week. There is a major essay that is also graded very easily (practically for completion) and a final project where you can write short summaries of each documentary or make a trailer with a group. The only down side of the class is that not all may find the subject interesting... but still, I think the 3 hours/boredom a week were worth it as I essentially did work from other classes in lecture anyway. Professor Leaf is really nice and understanding, too. I definitely recommend this class.

Great class! Very interesting and knowledgeable professor who worked with some members of the Beatles. While the number of hours in documentaries to watch can be taxing, the class itself is great (especially if you're a big Beatles and music fan). A lot of guests are brought in who knew or worked with the Beatles.

Love this class!! I highly recommend if someone is interested in songwriting, but I can imagine the class could be boring if you are not a songwriter - there is a lot of writing but some of the videos are so cool

While I expect to get an A in this class and the professor was very kind and granted extensions/ offered extra credit opportunities etc. the workload of this class is extremely dense and repetitive to the point that even if you are interested in songwriting you will be extremely bored in this class. every single week you do the same assignment, and twice a week. While you do get better at the questions over time it becomes painfully repetitive . By the end of the class on week 5 of the summer course you do 4 of the assignments in one week as the professor crams them in. However, it is not "hard" to get an A it will just take you endless hours.

Very Easy GE. Take this class if you want an easy GE. No final/midterm. Class is once a week and class is off during holidays. Only have to do 1 major essay around week7, a final project which is a 2-4 minute trailer to a music documentary you would make, and weekly essays in class based on that days lecture.

Class is interview style where professor asks a director questions's about life, job etc. Near finals week a major paper/essay on a famous artists(Bob Dylan) is due. Final Project is a 2-4 minute trailer on a music documentary you would make.

Class:
Professor brings a guest director to class each week and asks interview style questions to the guest for 3/4 of the class. The remaining 1/4 of the class is student qna and the professor gives out extra credit to those that ask questions to the guest by taking attendance. Near the end of class professor releases the password to access that weeks paragraph prompt that is about the weeks guest and weekly assigned documentaries. These essay/paragraph prompts are due by the end of class so you have to finish before you leave (these are really easy).

HW prior to class:
Professor assigns 3-4 weekly videos (around 1-2 hr long). Yet you can survive in the class without watching the whole thing, as long as you pay attention to the guest in class.

Discussions:
Discussions are mandatory as the TAs take attendance. The first half of the quarter the TA asks a couple questions based on the videos assigned in class and has a conversation with the students about different topics. Near the second half of the quarter, discussion is for working on your final project.

Final Project:
You have plenty of time to work on it and Professor is pretty lenient with grading. The TA's are also really helpful during discussion. Any form of video editing is allowed for the trailer and there is no set rules/rubric for the assignment.

Major Essay Project:
This was a essay on whether Bob Dylan was famous or not. The professor assignes 3 different videos and 3 different articles about Bob Dylan. Your essay needs evidence from atleast 2 videos and a couple of these articles. Prompt is assigned pretty early and you have a long time to work on essay.

Overall this is an easy GE and a great class(you get to meet famous directors(some even won Oscars) from Hollywood).

This class is so intriguing. There's guest speakers every week and they talk about the documentaries that they produced and who they documented and how it was meeting them. For one of the weeks, one of the film producer's (R.J. Cutler) of Billie Eilish's documentary came in and talked about working with her as well as just how it is filming documentaries. You can ask questions the second half of the class and gain great insight on how to go about things to end up where they did, etc. It allows you to see what it takes to get there since they share how they got there and their life story. Some weeks can be a little more boring then others but it's still worth it! You have a mini 3 to 4 question quiz at the end of each class which basically consist on your take aways from the guest speaker to make sure to be paying attention at least a little bit. Overall the class isn't hard but it can be a little disorganize honestly so utilize the TA's and ask questions if you don't understand something. Lastly, the final project was so fun!!! you make a 2-3 minute documentary trailer on an artist of your choice and pitch it to the professor, explaining why he should give you money to film this documentary. It's cool practice to learn how to pitch ideas and he gives great feedback. I recommend taking this class!!!