Introduction to Film Studies

This introductory module provides an analytic and creative approach to the study of films and film practices, and introduces you to some of the key features of film language and theory. In addition to contemporary and classical Hollywood, you begin to study experimental practices and products, and films and film-making contexts from a range of cultures. The medium of film is acknowledged as a distinctive language, art form and industry which has developed dramatically since its novelty beginnings in 1895. The use of film as ideological tool is investigated via consideration of the way in which films shape our beliefs and influence our behaviour through conforming with, (re)shaping or challenging the dominant. Via lectures, seminars and screenings, you learn to identify and debate the relative merits of different films and begin to develop the skills of critical judgement that are crucial to the subject. Visits to cinema venues and film festivals allow for first-hand experience of issues faced by the film industry, while seminar activities such as shot analyses and oral presentations encourage an appreciation of the links between conceptual and practical approaches.

Introduction to Video

History of Cinema

Film Reviewing

The module provides an introduction to film reviewing. You begin by exploring the nature and purpose of reviewing films, and then work through the various steps of the reviewing process. The module equips you to write original reviews for a variety of different readerships. Seminars are structured around exercises designed to illustrate - with the aid of carefully selected examples - review philosophies; planning and structuring of reviews; tailoring the review according to a brief and/or a particular audience; keeping film diaries; and developing a personal writing style. Seminars also help you understand how to respond critically to films by exploring aspects of genre, dramatic structure, performance and the technical background of film production, with examples from mainstream, independent and foreign language films. These explorations are reinforced by formative assignments, leading to the creation of a portfolio of reviews in a variety of styles and for a range of readerships.

Film and Genre

This module gives you the opportunity to study mainstream cinema by close study of the key features and development of genres of films such as the Western, Sci-Fi, Melodrama, Gangster and Horror. You are first introduced to the key characteristics of the genre system. This is followed by critical study of a range of classic and newly emerging genres. An address is made to the cultural diversity of the genre system with consideration, for example, of French Film Noir, Italian horror, Hong Kong martial arts, and Mexican melodrama. The module takes a critical approach to popular cinema and acknowledges the central role of formula, convention and reinvention in maintaining Hollywood's leading position in the film industry. It acknowledges the importance of genre in terms of developing audience expectation examine a variety of critical attitudes to genre, from attacks on the standardisation of the moving image as debasement of art cinema, to studies that investigate the complex ways in which popular cinema reinvents itself through absorption of a range of experimental and national cinema cultures. Attention is paid to the role of the genre 'system' as an intrinsic part of the cinematic institution, and to its value as primary commodity of the Hollywood system in particular in terms of the economies of repetition and reinforcement.

Introduction to Screenwriting

This module provides an introduction to the basic principles of screenwriting. You are guided through the various stages of developing and writing an original five-minute screenplay, and encouraged to find and explore your own creative voice in a supportive environment. You will develop skills such as: visualisation of action and character; translation of ideas into energetic writing; experimentation with metaphor and allusion; determining the appropriate characterisation and narrative structure for different genres; writing concise and effective dialogue. You are encouraged to create original stories and characters that deal with themes and issues that are meaningful to you. You are encouraged to consider the target audience for your film, and the form you envisage your screenplay would take on screen.