| Module Identifier |
TF10220 |
| Module Title |
STUDYING FILM |
| Academic Year |
2006/2007 |
| Co-ordinator |
Dr Kate E Egan |
| Semester |
Semester 2 (Taught over 2 semesters) |
| Other staff |
Professor Martin J Barker, Dr Jamie Sexton, Dr Ernest Mathijs, Dr Mikel Koven, Dr Kevin J Donnelly, Dr Jamie Medhurst |
| Course delivery |
Other | VIEWING |
| |
Lecture | 20 x 1 hour lectures |
| |
Seminars / Tutorials | 10 x 1 hour seminars |
| Assessment |
| Assessment Type | Assessment Length/Details | Proportion |
|---|
| Semester Exam | 2 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.shtml | 50% |
| 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.
Aims
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.
4. Issues of narrative
5. Film genre and authorship.
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
Altman, Rick (1999) Film/Genre
British Film Institute
Ashby, Justine and Andrew Higson (eds) (2000) British Cinema, Past and Present
Routledge
Barker, Martin & Julian Petley (eds) (1997) Ill Effects: The Media/Violence Debate
Second. Routledge
Barker, Martin with Thomas Austin (2000) From Antz To Titanic: Reinventing Film Studies
Pluto Press
Bordwell, David (1985) Narration in the Fiction Film
Routledge
Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson (2004) Film Art: An Introduction
Seventh. New York: McGraw-Hill
Brannigan, Edward (1992) Narrative Comprehension and Film
Routledge
Gledhill, Christine (ed) (1991) Stardom: Industry of Desire
Routledge
Hill, John (1986) Sex, Class and Realism: British Cinema 1956-1963
British Film Institute
Hill, John & Pamela Church Gibson (1997) The Oxford Guide to Film Studies
Oxford University Press
Hollows, Joanne, Peter Hutchings and Mark Jancovich (eds) (2000) The Film Studies Reader
Arnold
Kuhn, Annette (ed) (1990) Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction
Verso
Lacey, Nick (1998) Image and Representation: Key Concepts in Media Studies
Macmillan
Lay, Samantha (2002) British Social Realism: From Documentary to Brit Grit
Wallflower Press
Neale, Steve (2000) Genre and Hollywood
Routledge
Penley, Constance et al (eds) (1991) Close Encounters: Film, Feminism and Science Fiction
University of Minnesota Press
Staiger, Janet (1992) Interpreting Films: Studies in the Historical Reception of American Cinema
Princeton University Press
Staiger, Janet (2000) Perverse Spectators: The Practices of Film Reception
New York University Press
Stokes, Melvyn and Richard Maltby (eds) (2001) Hollywood Spectatorship: Changing Perceptions of Cinema Audiences
British Film Institute
Thompson, Kristin (1999) Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique
Harvard University Press
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 4