Module Identifier TF10220  
Module Title STUDYING FILM  
Academic Year 2005/2006  
Co-ordinator Miss Kate E Egan  
Semester Semester 2 (Taught over 2 semesters)  
Other staff Dr Ernest Mathijs, Dr Jamie Sexton, Dr Kevin J Donnelly, Professor Martin J Barker, Dr Mikel Koven  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Exam2 Hours For information on due dates for submission of assessed work, please refer to the departmental web pages at http://www.aber.ac.uk/tfts/duedates.shtml50%
Semester Assessment one essay of 2500 words 25%, and one textual analysis of 2500 words 25%  50%

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Examine a range of different films, and explore the ways in which individual film form and content may be related to wider contexts.

2. Reflect critically on the relevance of the study of film to personal, social and historical understandings.

3. Understand and deploy some key methods of analysis of films.

4. Draw critically uopn a range of reading from the field of film studies, both for the knowledge of films it offers, and for its understanding of the purposes and importance of film studies.

Brief description

The module will explore a variety of answers which have been given to the question; why is film worth studying? Students will be invited to explore the way different ways of attaching significance to films, connect with different accounts of films in general and particular films, and to encounter different ways of examining and analysing films. The course will cover, among other aspects:

1. Moral debates about films.
2. Academic vs other kinds of film analysis
3. Film theory, and film art and film aesthetics
4. Issues of narrative
5. Filmic story-worlds
6. The concept of representation and its importance in understanding film.
7. National cinemas
8. This module will introduce methods of close analysis of elements of film form (for instance, cinematography, the relations of sound and image, editing practices, mise-en-scene, and narrative structure).

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
Bordwell, David (2001) Film Art: An Introduction New York: McGraw-Hill
**Barker, Martin with Thomas Austin (2000) From Antz To Titanic: Reinventing Film Studies London: Pluto Press
Barker, Martin & Julian Petley (eds) (1997) Ill Effects: The Media/Violence Debate London: Routledge
**Hill, John & Pamela Church Gibson (1997) The Oxford Guide to Film Studies Oxford: OUP
Kolker, Robert (2002) Film, Form and Culture NY: McGrawHill

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 4