Course Description
Music Industry 4: Reel Beatles: Understanding the Beatles through Film and Media, MSC IND 4
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Designed to tell story of the Beatles through visual media. Covers over 80 years of their lives, their journey, and enormous impact they had on world. Focus on how the Beatles were seen on television and in film. Examination of their most impactful filmed performances, movies they made as group, their promotional videos, their landmark broadcast moments, documentaries made about them while still they were still together, television interviews they did after group broke up, best documentaries made about them since 1970, and official multi-part documentary history of the Beatles they did together as well as Peter Jackson's 2021 documentary. Letter grading.
Key Information
Credit: 5 quarter units /
3.33 semester units credit
UC Los Angeles, Music Industry
Course Credit:
Upon successful completion, all online courses offered through cross-enrollment provide UC unit credit. Some courses are approved for GE, major preparation and/or, major credit or can be used as a substitute for a course at your campus.If "unit credit" is listed by your campus, consult your department, academic adviser or Student Affairs division to inquire about the petition process for more than unit credit for the course.
UC Berkeley:
Unit Credit
UC Davis:
Unit Credit
UC Irvine:
Unit Credit
UC Los Angeles:
Unit Credit
UC Merced:
units toward your degree (see your Academic Advisor)
UC Riverside:
Unit Credit
UC San Diego:
General Education: TMC 1 course toward upper division disciplinary breadth if noncontiguous to major; Warren - May be counted depending on major/PofC/AS; Revelle - Fine Arts, ERC - Fine Art; Sixth - 1 course towards NAHR
UC San Francisco:
Unit Credit
UC Santa Barbara:
General Education: Area F-Arts
UC Santa Cruz:
General Education: IM
More About The Course
“The Reel Beatles” is a course designed to tell students the story of the Beatles through visual media. This ten-class journey compresses the 80+ years of their lives and the enormous impact they had on the world.
Through their most impactful television performances, the movies they made as a group, their promotional videos, their landmark broadcast moments, the documentaries they made while still together, the television interviews they did after the group broke up, the dozens of films made about them and using their music made since 1970, and the official multi-part documentary history of the group they did together....that will make up the greatest portion of the homework for the course.
While this course comes from the Herb Alpert School of Music and will appeal to Music History/Musicology majors and Music Industry minors, it is designed for anybody who loves music, loves studying revolutionary forces in cultural history and the kind of once-in-a-century phenomenon that resonates forever. This course, by telling the visual presentation of music through visual media, will also show how those subjects all came together in the story of the Beatles as they changed the course of the 20th century.
Course Creator
D.A. Leaf
David Leaf is a Peabody and WGAW award-winning writer, director and producer best known for his work in feature documentary, live event specials and a series of highly-regarded pop culture profiles and retrospectives. For more information about Professor Leaf, visit his website, www.leafprod.com. Since 2010, Leaf has been teaching undergraduate courses at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in documentary (“Docs That Rock, Docs That Matter”) songwriting (“SONGWRITERS ON SONGWRITING: Killer Hooks, Essential Songs & Songwriters of the Rock Era”) and has served as the intern supervisor for the Music Industry minor.
Professor Leaf ‘s Beatles-related work includes writing and producing the Beatles' documentary, “You Can’t Do That: The Making of ‘A Hard Day’s Night,” co-writing/producing/directing the feature documentary, “The U.S. Vs. John Lennon” as well as writing the Beatles' chapter for Capitol Records 50th anniversary book. Leaf also interviewed Paul McCartney for the liner notes of the Q Magazine award-winning reissue of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, and McCartney appeared in Leaf’s documentary feature, “BEAUTIFUL DREAMER: Brian Wilson & The Story of SMiLE.” Most recently, Leaf hosted the Beatles' edition of “The Rock Godz Must Be Crazy” at McCabes in Santa Monica and wrote an essay for the UK press on the 50th anniversary of the Beatles “White Album.”
David Leaf is a Peabody and WGAW award-winning writer, director and producer best known for his work in feature documentary, live event specials and a series of highly-regarded pop culture profiles and retrospectives. For more information about Professor Leaf, visit his website, www.leafprod.com . Since 2010, Leaf has been teaching undergraduate courses at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of ...David Leaf is a Peabody and WGAW award-winning writer, director and producer best known for his work in feature documentary, live event specials and a series of highly-regarded pop culture profiles and retrospectives. For more information about Professor Leaf, visit his website, www.leafprod.com. Since 2010, Leaf has been teaching undergraduate courses at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in documentary (“Docs That Rock, Docs That Matter”) songwriting (“SONGWRITERS ON SONGWRITING: Killer Hooks, Essential Songs & Songwriters of the Rock Era”) and has served as the intern supervisor for the Music Industry minor.
Professor Leaf ‘s Beatles-related work includes writing and producing the Beatles' documentary, “You Can’t Do That: The Making of ‘A Hard Day’s Night,” co-writing/producing/directing the feature documentary, “The U.S. Vs. John Lennon” as well as writing the Beatles' chapter for Capitol Records 50th anniversary book. Leaf also interviewed Paul McCartney for the liner notes of the Q Magazine award-winning reissue of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, and McCartney appeared in Leaf’s documentary feature, “BEAUTIFUL DREAMER: Brian Wilson & The Story of SMiLE.” Most recently, Leaf hosted the Beatles' edition of “The Rock Godz Must Be Crazy” at McCabes in Santa Monica and wrote an essay for the UK press on the 50th anniversary of the Beatles “White Album.”
