This is possibly the worst class and professor I have ever had at UCLA. The entire class is the workload of three classes(10+ assignments a week) the TA's grade overly harsh, the professor is unreceptive to student feedback and no one at UCLA is willing to help. Classmates are constantly venting in groupme about how much of a mental stressor this class is. Oh, and she says a slur in one of the lecture videos. I would not recommend this professor, this class, or any of the TA's to anyone. literally any other GE is better than this class.

sincerely,
a senior who's stuck in this GE.

super easy A. took this spring 2020, so all of this was online. basically you have to do quizzes each week on tuesday and thursday that had queastjons based on the lecture and the film that we were supposed to watch. i got an A in the class by basically googling the synopsis of the movie and didn’t watch any of the movies and averaged 9/10 on the quizzes. you also have to buy a textbook that have some of the info on the quizzes. you also need to do discussion questions once a week, which are about 250 words and you need to reply to 2 other people to get full question. depends on your TA, because some TA’s will grade discussion questions harder while others will basically give you full points if you meet the word count and do the assignment on time. if you notice your getting points taken off bc of no reason, GET ON YOUR TA’S ASS. when i took it, my TA was randomly taking off points for no reason that numerous students basically called her out to the prof, who told the TA in question to chill with her grading. you also need to do a two projects (one project anytime from weeks 1-5 and another project that was due anytime from weeks 5-10. that were incredicinlu easy and took me less than 1 hour each. there wasn’t a midterm and there wasn’t a final. bottom line, this is one of the easiest GE’s i’ve taken. highly recommend.

Professor Trice is incredible. She is devoted, respected, smart, knowledged. Her organization is on-point and the amount of detail and attention she puts into every single assignment instruction, rubric, syllabus, etc is second to none.
I am a STEM person so I really didn't find the content all that interesting, but I could tell that she was engaging. She really cares about what the students have to say and takes a good amount of class to have several students give their insight.
The class is very manageable. Her lectures give you everything you need to know from the readings, so you don't have to do those. The films are not the best, but they're interesting enough to pay attention to. You don't have to take notes during the screenings. Just bring a jacket because Melnitz is freezing!! The creative exercises are self-explanatory (she lays out the instructions so nicely for you), and you get to choose 2 of 5 assignments, so you really get to do projects that work better for you. The take home exams are kinda overwhelming at first glance, but they're really not that bad. The questions are easy to answer and they're obviously all open book, which is nice. We also got like practically a week with both exams, so there was enough time if you didn't leave it to the last minute. I don't know what I got on the final project, but it wasn't too bad if you manage your time well and choose an option that you know you can do well on.
My TA was Brittany Murphy and I absolutely loved her. She's hilarious, smart, and genuinely cares for the well-being of her students.
Easy A, but meh course content.

This class is a lot of work, even for a summer class. Prepare for 2-3 two hour movies, 2-4 hours of lecture videos each with a corresponding 10-12 question quiz, ~70 pages of textbook reading, two 300-500 word discussion posts, and two 100-word responses to each discussion a week + two long creative projects twice in the quarter. If this is the only class you are taking it isn't too bad, but it is made worse by the often tough discussion prompts (they are really just mini-essays) and unforgiving grading. However, Professor Trice's lecture videos cover interesting topics and the movies she has us watch are somewhat engaging. My TA, despite being a harsh grader, seems kind and is open to giving feedback on discussion posts. I overall liked the class but think there is significant room for improvement.

Even though the lectures cover interesting topics, Professor Trice is not a good lecturer. The lectures are filled to the brim with often pretentious film jargon, and she can't seem to communicate her point across effectively. Her Q&A sessions with prominent cinematographers and filmmakers were, in my opinion, the worst. The questions she asks are often uninteresting, and sometimes you can visibly see the guest's confusion with Professor Trice's convoluted questions.

This class was pretty easy. The structure is each week you need to watch lectures, skim the reading, and watch a film or two to answer the questions on the quizzes, which are pretty straightforward. You also have to write short responses to questions on the discussion forums. Grades are 50% discussion forums/ replies, 15% for two projects, and 35% for the quizzes. It's kind of a lot of work but if you do it all you should get an A :). I enjoyed the lectures and I thought the subject material was pretty interesting.

NOT AN EASY GE!!!
NOT AN EASY GE!!!
NOT AN EASY GE!!!

Had more cumulative writing word count than my ACTUAL writing II class this quarter. Readings are LONG.
If you don't have a burning passion for film, do NOT expect an easy quarter!

On the sunny side of things lectures were eye opening and actually interesting to watch.
On the bad side lectures are async and I did not see Professor Trice in her corporeal form even once.

Was recommended this class because it was supposed to be easy and a light workload, but apparently that's different for the summer sessions. Though the class isn't very hard content-wise, the amount of busy work and content you need to watch every week is unreasonable. Taking this class ruined the last 6 weeks of my summer, but I'm sure the class is much better during a 10-week quarter.

I took this class in the summer, as an online course.

I've taken so many online classes, and barely do the professors care if they haven't seen you in person, but Professor Trice is a HUGE exception. She responds to. every. single. student. within a day or two, and is very concerned about our learning. She explains her content well, and the quizzes and discussion essays are straightforward if you have listened to her lectures well. The class requires effort, but you're guaranteed an A as long as you do all the work and submit things on time. Professor Trice, with all her devotion and care, is the best it can get for this course!

First and foremost, I would like to mention that I took this class asynchronously so my experience with it might be very different from someone who would take it in person. Overall though, I genuinely enjoyed this class and was interested to the extent that it inspired me to take on a film minor. It goes over the techniques of filmmaking and different filmmakers really well, as well as different movies and themes across film history to take into consideration. I would recommend this class for someone who wants to have a basic understanding of film and to explore it on a literary level as well. The workload wasn't insane but since the entire course was basically self paced with deadlines, if you're taking it online I would REALLY recommend not doing everything last minute. Taking online classes in general is all about time management and I leaned it very quickly with this class. Holistically I think the work load was manageable and it's not a hard class at all. Prof Trice explains everything really well and my TA was really nice too. Again I'm not sure if the class will be structured differently in person (very likely) but if you take it online, try to do most of the assignments in the beginning of the quarter (for most categories, you only have to do a certain number of discussion posts for the course and not all of them) but DON'T leave them for last minute. You will regret it but I was very thankful I did most of the stuff for the course in the beginning. Grading is also very fair. Great course overall.

You show up to lecture and learn about how movies are made and different types of critical lenses to apply to watching movies. You write an essay or two, watch a movie or two every week, and skim through a very simple textbook. Occasionally, you're hit with some odd texts, but Professor Trice's lectures are the most helpful and comprehensive I think I will ever encounter at this school. Her slides are digestible, her engagement is impeccable, and she frequently gets students to participate just to clarify that we're all on the same page. The subject matter is fairly easy and fun, and if movies and art interest you at all, I think you're in for a treat. It's UCLA after all -- as a film major, I can attest to the quality of the program, and this intro class is just a tiny peak into what the rest of us are going to be spending our time grinding out. I hope I don't sound pretentious calling it all "easy," as there was a very very large amount of shit that I learned about for the first time in this class. Lots of techniques, terms, and movies I'd never even heard about came from here, and many of those movies or styles are now some I can call my favorites. Take this class for the GE if it interests you, and film majors, don't worry too much about it! It's not hard nor boring.