Prof Siegel was entirely unhelpful when I had to miss a midterm due to a medical issue. Ended up with C due to this. His lectures were actually interesting however, so I'll give him that.

Greg is a professor I would highly encourage avoiding at all costs. He has a reputation for being extremely unpredictable and honestly, I find that the most terrifying aspect of him. With professors, I can gauge their attitude. With Greg, he is fake nice one day and insensitive and be at odds with the next. Never again!

The course is broken up into 4 categories, section attendance and "participation", Quizzes, a midterm, and a final. The course wasn't necessarily difficult, but you were given a lot of readings that you need to complete every week. The problem is that there is no section syllabus and you just have to "hope" you are doing okay to "participate".

Very interesting class. Professor Siegel is very charismatic and made the long lectures interesting. Also just a great subject matter. Hard though! You gotta read a lot and you gotta remember it all!

FAMST 70 is a super interesting class and Siegel is a great professor! The only people that complain about the class are people that don't attend lecture or do the readings. He provides study guides for the midterm and final that contain the exact questions that are on the actual tests. Basically: do your work and the class is super manageable.

Greg's lectures are really interesting, but extremely dense. Lots of reading coupled with pop quizzes worth 15% of your grade that you'll fail if you don't read thoroughly. The format of the midterm and the final is 2 essay questions and a few short answers out of a deck. Must engage with reading and the TAs grade very harshly, don't expect an A.

Buckle up for Film 70. He assigns probably 80 pages a week that take a long time to read, not to mention understand. He gives pop quizzes that are on material he hasn't taught yet so essentially it's on your ability to read dense articles. The midterm was insane, even though he gave us the questions we needed to cram. Thinks he's a cool teacher. ha

theres too much writing/reading for this not to fulfill the writing req but the assignments were so easy and the midterm/final are just the assignments expanded. you dont need to read much bc he goes over it in long lectures. basically just the grind but its not hard if you want it

This class is the hardest I've ever taken so far. There is a ton of readings, so don't procrastinate, or you won't do well on midterm and final. The professor and TA are accessible outside the class.

Prof Siegel can be interesting but his lectures go on and on and the reading is awful. No textbook, but many articles to read. Reading can be as much as 150 pages/week of small print academic texts that take hours and hours to decipher. A few of the many articles were interesting but most were just dreadful. Tests hard - 25 - 30 hours to complete

Really great professor, he made himself available outside of class and brough interesting guest professors to join his lectures! The course material in general is very difficult, abstract, and requires lots of reading and writing. Wouldn't recommend as a GE, but if youre taking it as a prereq for FAMST make sure to do the readings most importantly

Just thinking of this class makes me wanna cry. He doesn't use Gauchospace. Super difficult to take notes in his class, he just writes each concept on the chalkboard and jumps from topic to topic. Screenings are super weird and confusing. Pay attention!!! If you're a FAMST major you have to take FAMST 70, so prepare for the worst, hun. DO READINGS!

Almost dropped this course when I read the reviews on here but I'm glad I didn't. This class was so fun and I'm not even a film major! It is pretty difficult, be prepared, but I learned so much. Siegel is so funny, knowledgeable, and kind. Midterm/finalin class essays w topics given beforehand. One research paper on any media topic you'd like.

He does have a very serious demeanor but is helpful when needed. Definitely read up as best you can because the midterm and final consist a lot of that. He does give you a study sheet for each, which has exactly what is going to be on the tests.

Siegel made this class awesome. Lectures were generally interesting usually let out at least 20 minutes early. Lots of clips and very engaging lectures. There was the occasional bore, though. Readings are crucial; both readings and the lectures are on the midterm/final(essays). TAs were very helpful. Theres a 10-pager but sounds harder than it was.

Serious. Extremely knowledgeable about the material. Quite funny and very interactive with the students. He likes to be challenged himself so you can ask many questions and he does not sting you for them. He is hard because he expects you to do the work. Reading is necessary but interesting. One of the best teachers that I have had, to be honest.

He was cool and knows how to speak but garners the kind of cult-y following. The class is very convoluted and based on obscure social trends from the mid/late 1900s. The tests are ridiculous, have to study multiple prompts with like 10 questions each and its in-person essays that you have to prep for. He's like really unempathetic

i felt extremely on edge every time i went to class. he's a nice guy, but he didn't have much empathy for students. did not accept any assignments online, everything was turned in on paper and there was a reading response once a week. a student asked to have subtitles on films and he refused. very interesting class, but don't take it with siegel.

heavy workload to be expected for a theory class, lots of readings and you need to know all of them for the midterm/final + popquizzes. he's kinda in his head about the class but he knows what hes talking about and he makes lecture interesting. go to office hours he loves to chat about non class culture stuff too. section attendance graded.

I'm not sure why Professor Siegel has iffy reviews, I really enjoyed this class! He does assign a lot of readings, which are the foundation of the exams and quizzes, but they are interesting and dissected many times both in lecture and section so that you can fully understand them. Recommend!

(Spring 2020) Honestly this has been the hardest quarter for me due to the current social circumstances that everyone is facing. I expected him to be more lenient and understanding but that was the opposite for me. We had to buy 3 instead of making it accessible to all for free. Midterm and Final was hard asf and the TA didn't make it any better.

Do you like to cry? do you like to be confused all the time? Do you like to feel intimidated for your political choices in class? do you like to hear about his personal life choices and plans for the weekend? then take his class. You will not be enriched in education but be very confused and very weary of your major because of him.

I broke down crying almost every time I did homework. The readings are extremely confusing, and you can't even google terms from them because they are made up by the authors. Essay prompts are vague and based on the readings(which are never explained in lectures). This class sets up students to fail. I have never worked so hard for a C in my life.

Siegel is hands down one of the best professors I have ever had at UCSB. He was willing to meet with me on a Sunday to talk about some ideas I had on a paper. If you show that you're interested in the material, he will love you. Its pretty simple. Relatively easy grader. Very smart man. 10/10 I would definitely take another class with him.