It's a pretty straightforward GE with your grade coming from writing assignments throughout the year. I think how much one enjoys this class will really depend on the TA they take it with, but if you get a good TA, then it's really fine. The lectures are fairly dry, and you don't have to attend them. Discussion is mandatory but it's just 1 hour a week, and it's mainly focused on the writing assignments, so it is helpful to go. The essays are fairly trivial analyses of a film assigned in class through a lens gone over in class, so all you really have to do is put the pieces together. Solid class to take for a GE.

Professor McHugh is well-versed in the topics she lectures. Her teachings are captivating and always very informational. I never felt like I wasted my time attending lectures and always learned about narrative or cinematic techniques. She was also very considerate of students despite the demanding workload. It is quite the workload though, about 4-5 essays per quarter (2-3 critical exercises, midterm, and essay). It depends on the grading scale of your TA, do not take Scott Bransford if you want a good grade.

For context I took this class as a lower div for the film minor.

Useful for learning some film basics and learning to close read scenes. However, the intersectionality of disability with the technical film analysis does add a decent bit of complexity. Weekly readings are dense and often long winded but you have to at least skim them because she randomly calls on people during lecture and asks about them. You have to be in attendance or you might miss participation for the week. 5 weeks of study questions (about an hour of work) and two papers for midterm and final. I blew through every other writing requirement with zero issue but this class was tricky for me. I ended up spending a disproportionate amount of time polishing my final paper compared to the other more important classes I was taking. I would recommend this class but it is work. I will say the caveat to this is it’s heavily TA dependent. There’s no rubrics for papers so if you get an easy TA you’ll probably have a much easier time than I had.

Before taking this class, I never thought about my disability at all. I was initially very uncomfortable during the first week and was planning on dropping the class just because I was never used to discussing disability in such a new and positive light. However, my feelings gradually changed and by the end, this was one of my favorite classes I have ever taken at UCLA. The material is so interesting. We watched films and discussed readings on disability. Some films included Die Hard, The Piano, and Margarita with a Straw. Professor McHugh is incredibly well-spoken and really cares about her students.

I absolutely loved this class! Watching movies and films has always been a hobby of mine ever since I was young, but I have never learned about film and visual culture in a classroom setting before this class. This class was the one class that I actually enjoyed learning more about as the professor did a great job w/ explaining the basics of film. Screening on Wednesdays, I believe, was "mandatory" to attend, but as long as you were able to bs the attention diary, you really do not need to waste 2-3 hours of your Wednesday afternoons. McHugh did scare the students by telling us she would take attendance by randomly calling out students to answer her questions, but I don't think that really worked out b/c she kinda stopped doing that by the end of the quarter. Emma was such an understanding and kinda TA who did a great job leading the discussion section and explaining class materials. I believe the 5 exercises, which you only had to do 4, was reasonable homework b/c it didn't require students to waste a lot of time on it, incorporated class material well which helped me understand the class better, and was actually kinda fun to do. The final group project required the group mates to visit a museum & write a report about it which was super easy as well. Film MTV M50 w/ McHugh & Emma was such a fun class to take, and I ended up deciding to pursue a film minor after this class so I definitely do recommend this class to anyone who might be interested in learning more about film.

For intro to Film and T.V., she did a good job of presenting the material in a very organized, systematic manner. Because it is an intro class, there is a lot of material and general terms and not many conceptual ideas. She organizes the material and uses really helpful Powerpoints and examples. The movies we watch in class are not the best, which she does on purpose so most people haven't seen them and watch them without bias.