PERF06110 2019 Film Studies
This module introduces learners to the history of film within the wider cultural, aesthetic, and technological movements/contexts of the 20th and 21st centuries. Learners will study key filmmakers such as D.W. Griffith, Sergei Eisenstein, Leni Riefenstahl, Vittorio, de Sica, Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles, Lars Von Trier, Paul Thomas Anderson, Paul Haggis, Haifaa-alMansour, Kathryn Bigelow, Alejandro González Iñárritu, for example. Learners introduced to terms and concepts for "reading" of film and to key movements in cinematic history.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module the learner will/should be able to;
apply the terms and concepts of film studies to analysis of film text
analyse relationship of prescribed films to eachother and to their cultural, social, aesthetic and historical contexts
demonstrate analytical competency in understanding and reading film style in terms of cinematic movements
present ideas and lead class in discussion of prescribed film, using film clips
construct a written analysis of film demonstrating ability to "read" filmic elements and to engage in cultural analysis
research cultural, aesthetic and historical contexts of prescribed film as well as research readings/interpretations of the film text
Teaching and Learning Strategies
The teaching and learning strategy in this class is a mixture of seminar, lecture and workshop to maximise students engagement and participation in directing own learning.
Module Assessment Strategies
Assessments designed give learners opportunity to demonstrate learning across a range of activities: researched and documented essay; research journal that also provides evidence of attending screenings, contribution and participation ; presentation and led discussion; creative project
Repeat Assessments
Students provided with the opportunity to repeat projects should they fail the continuous assessment
Indicative Syllabus
1. Film Studies Grammar: film as theatre; exploring a material world; mise-en-scene; film as photography; film as collage; film as exposition, argument and experiment; film as storytelling
2. Film History: silent era, montage, expressionism, realism, italian neo-realism, auteur theory and french new wave, american new wave, digital
3. 20th Century Film and aesthetic movments: study of prescribed films in contexts of literary, theatrical and aesthetic movements
4. Cultural Analysis - ideology, hegemony, power - film as a medium that has played a role in the regulation of cultural hierarchies and film as form of cultural inquiry
Coursework & Assessment Breakdown
Coursework Assessment
Title | Type | Form | Percent | Week | Learning Outcomes Assessed | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Research essay | Coursework Assessment | Essay | 50 % | End of Semester | 1,2,3,5,6 |
2 | Individual Project Presentation | Coursework Assessment | Project | 50 % | OnGoing | 1,2,3,4,6 |
Full Time Mode Workload
Type | Location | Description | Hours | Frequency | Avg Workload |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tutorial | Flat Classroom | Tutor led discussions | 4 | Weekly | 4.00 |
Required & Recommended Book List
2014-10-14 Closely Watched Films Univ of California Press
ISBN 9780520279971 ISBN-13 0520279972
How do films work? How do they tell a story? How do they move us and make us think? Through detailed examinations of passages from classic films, Marilyn Fabe supplies the analytic tools and background in film history and theory to enable us to see more in every film we watch. Ranging from D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation to James Camerons Avatar, and ending with an epilogue on digital media, Closely Watched Films focuses on exemplary works of fourteen film directors whose careers together span the history of the narrative film. Lively and down-to-earth, this concise introduction provides a broad, complete, and yet specific picture of visual narrative techniques that will increase readers' excitement about and knowledge of the possibilities of the film medium. Shot-by-shot analyses of short passages from each film ground theory in concrete examples. Fabe includes original and well-informed discussions of Soviet montage, realism and expressionism in film form, classical and modern sound theory, the classic Hollywood film, Italian neorealism, the French New Wave, auteur theory, modernism and postmodernism in film, political cinema, feminist film theory and practice, and narrative experiments in new digital media. Encompassing the earliest silent films as well as those that exploit the most recent technological innovations, this book gives us the particulars of how filmarguably the most influential of contemporary forms of representationconstitutes our pleasure, influences our thoughts, and informs our daily reality. Updated to include a discussion of 3-D and advanced special effects, this tenth anniversary edition is an essential film studies text for students and professors alike.
2010 Film History: An Introduction McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ISBN STANFORD:36105133235429
This book introduce the history of film as it is presently conceived, written, and taught by its most accomplished scholars. However, this book is not a distillation of everything that is known about film history.
Module Resources
Wexman, Virginia Wright, A History of Film (Allyn Bacon, 2009)
Thompson, Kristen and David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction (McGraw Hill, 2009)
Sikov, Ed, Film Studies: An Introduction (Columbia UP, 2010)
Cook, David, A History of Narrative Film (Norton, 2008)
cahiers du cinema
moodle page for subject
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