Module Identifier TF10220  
Module Title STUDYING FILM  
Academic Year 2004/2005  
Co-ordinator Professor Martin J Barker  
Semester Semester 2 (Taught over 2 semesters)  
Other staff Dr Ernest Mathijs, Dr Jamie Medhurst, 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 2000 words 25%, and one textual analysis of 2000 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. The economic significance of the film industry.
3. Processes of marketing and distribution and their impact on the meaning of films.
4. Issues of genre.
5. Debates around stardom.
6. The module will introduce methods of close analysis of elements of film form (for instance, the relations of sound and image, editing practices, mise-en-scene, and narrative structure).
7. It will also explore related concepts of representation.

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
Kolker, Robert (2002) Film, Form and Culture NY: McGrawHill
Bordwell, David (2001) Film Art: An Introduction New York: McGraw-Hill
Altman, Rick (1998) Film/Genre London:BFI
**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

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 4