Spring 2027

Introduction to Film

Introduction to Film explains how films work using classics like Citizen Kane and Vertigo. It covers major film types, film criticism approaches, and techniques like mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Kelley Conway3.9/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Kelley Conway

Assessment relied on multiple choice exams that tested subjective material, which one student found frustrating and difficult.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Use the basic analytical tools that are required for a sustained critical engagement with cinematic narrative and form

  • Examine the formal elements, historical and contextual specificities that shape film

  • Demonstrate how directors, actors, cinematographers, producers, sound engineers and VFX artist build up a film brick-by-brick

  • Analyze the aesthetic and stylistic aspects of film through form and content

  • Identify the vocabulary of film language and criticism

  • Combine course concepts to investigate contemporary media production in a sustained way

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
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BC
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing or COM ARTS 250

COMARTS 350 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.03/5 from 30 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 3.0/5 raw quality · 3.5/5 difficulty · 2 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Kelley Conway

Kelley Conway was described as articulate and intelligent, enhancing readings with useful clips. The reviewer noted she was poorly organized but very likable, assigning a high quality rating.

Another student found the class horrible, criticizing the content as nonsense. They complained about definitive multiple-choice exams for subjective material, resulting in a low quality rating.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2008: 3.05 GPA, 42.9% A/AB (n=126 letter grades); Fall 2011: 3.24 GPA, 56.0% A/AB (n=141 letter grades); Spring 2016: 3.09 GPA, 48.5% A/AB (n=130 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Maria Belodubrovskaya

Maria Belodubrovskaya provided review sheets for the two exams, a midterm and a final, and clearly explained what she expected for class assignments and papers. Students found her lectures interesting and noted that the course material was presented with a helpful amount of humor.

KAITLIN FYFE is recorded teaching in Fall 2019, Spring 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KELLEY ANN CONWAY is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2011, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARIA BELODUBROVSKAYA is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Online (some classroom)0 / 1000
DIS 601Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 604Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 605Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 602Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 603Classroom Instruction0 / 200
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 1000

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Kelley Conway

Students described Kelley Conway as articulate and intelligent, noting that her clips enhanced the course readings despite some organizational issues.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.53 GPA, 78.6% A/AB (n=117 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.66 GPA, 89.0% A/AB (n=100 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.80 GPA, 91.4% A/AB (n=81 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Kelley Conway

Assessment relied on multiple choice exams that tested subjective material, which one student found frustrating and difficult.

Past student reviews · Kelley Conway

One student found the course content nonsensical and disliked the grading style for subjective topics.

Topics

  • Major film types: silent, classical, and contemporary narrative cinema, art cinema, animation, documentary, and experimental film.
  • Film techniques: mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound.
  • Approaches to film criticism: authorship criticism and genre criticism.
  • Formal elements, historical, and contextual specificities that shape film.

Skills

  • Recognize and analyze film techniques including mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound; use analytical tools for critical engagement with cinematic narrative and form.
  • Apply authorship and genre criticism; identify the vocabulary of film language and criticism.
  • Examine formal elements, historical contexts, and aesthetic/stylistic aspects of film through form and content.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.17 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
COMARTS 350 · Spring 2027

Introduction to Film

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:250:003808",
    "course_id": "COMARTS 350",
    "course_uid": "course_d62926fc29c0acf6676528bd",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "003808",
    "source_subject_id": "250",
    "title": "Introduction to Film",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "6c0daa3164df50354db9b87c1038e21bad7d6e08c850bf83b47beb50e7f17f34",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}