Spring 2027

Film Genres

Film Genres explores six major film genres (musical, thriller, comedy, horror, drama, melodrama), investigating their narrative and stylistic conventions and underlying principles.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Ben Singer

The final exam was a take-home assignment lasting just over six hours, while the first half of the term was described as straightforward.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Explain and evaluate theories on the nature, functions, and appeals of popular storytelling

  • Define the concept of genre

  • Summarize various types of conventions informing classifications of film by genre

  • Describe primary earmarks of specific major genres

  • Recount historical developments, cycles, and variations shaping particular genres

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
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Prerequisites

Course map

COM ARTS 350

COMARTS 354

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

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

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

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

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Ben Singer

The course focused on analyzing humor in various movies, with a structure that was initially clear but became less predictable after the midterm.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2021: 3.15 GPA, 65.0% A/AB (n=20 letter grades); Fall 2023: 3.19 GPA, 50.0% A/AB (n=36 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.24 GPA, 55.3% A/AB (n=38 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Ben Singer

The final exam was a take-home assignment lasting just over six hours, while the first half of the term was described as straightforward.

Past student reviews · Ben Singer

Students reported that attending every lecture and paying attention led to an easier path toward a high grade, despite mixed feelings about the final study period.

Topics

  • Six major film genres: musical, thriller, comedy, horror, drama, and melodrama.
  • Narrative and stylistic conventions and underlying principles of film genres.
  • Critical, historical, and theoretical approaches to definitional criteria, key elements, functions, goals, effects, subgenres, cycles, and trends.

Skills

  • Explain and evaluate theories on popular storytelling and define the concept of genre.
  • Summarize conventions for film classification and describe primary earmarks of major genres.
  • Recount historical developments, cycles, and variations shaping particular genres.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2024— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2024

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2024 · 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

1330 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

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

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Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "1ed4dfde523fe58ad6d87e71026cf8796b6214ba3e845542ec60350190ec0d89",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}