FI114-15 Film and Television Analysis
Introductory description
The module has been designed to offer stduents a thorough introduction to the close analysis of film and television. The first part offers a chance to explore a range of film texts from different historical periods and national contexts in order to experience, and compare, different approaches to the expressive use of film form and mise-en-scène. The interest is always to explore the ways in which choices made in relation to film form and mise-en-scène create meaning, and how this then impacts upon interpretation. The second part will explore the theorisation of television as a medium through the study of ideas of television flow, address, and narrative. It will develop the skills of critical textual analysis related to television and enable students to describe, discuss, and analyse what might be understood as a ‘televisual aesthetic’. By the end of this section of the module, students will be able to offer clear and precise critical analyses of a wide range of television programming, be familiar with several key critical approaches within Television Studies and also have an understanding of the historical and national contexts in which different programmes have been made and broadcast. This section of the module will concentrate largely on UK and US television, but it will also compare and contrast the objects of study with those made and broadcast outside of the UK and US.
Module aims
- It aims to provide intensive practice in looking at and listening to a wide range of film and television texts.
- It aims to teach the basic technical and analytical vocabulary of textual analysis and film and television criticism so that students can describe accurately what they see and hear when they watch and listen to a film.
Outline syllabus
This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.
Week One
Screening: Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, US, 1950)
Topic: Introduction to Film: Sound and Image
Week Two
Screening: Elephant (Gus Van Sant, US, 2002)
Topic: What is Mise-en-scène?
Week Three
Screening: La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, France, 1939)
Topic: The Shot I: Framing and Composition
Week Four
Screening: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong
Weerasethakul, Thailand, 2010)
Topic: The Shot II: Movement and Duration
Week Five
Screening: Edge of Heaven (Germany/Turkey, Fatih Akin, 2007)
Topic: Editing: The Organisation of Space and Time
Week Seven
Screening: M (Fritz Lang, Germany, 1931)
Topic: Music, Voice and Silence
Week Eight
Screening: episodes from The West Wing (NBC, 1999-2006) and Miranda (2009-2015)
Topic: Television and Style
Week Nine
Screening: excerpts from BBC News and This Morning (ITV, 1988- present)
Topic: Television and Flow
Week Ten
Screening: episodes from The Wire (HBO, 2002-2008)
Topic: Television and Narrative
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Students will be able to make reasoned and carefully argued interpretations of individual film texts. Students will have gained confidence in the practice of audiovisual analysis. Students will feel able to make reasoned and carefully argued interpretations of individual film and television texts. Students will be able to reflect upon the validity of other accounts and interpretations within the critical scholarship.
Indicative reading list
- Richard Dyer in Oxford Guide to Film Studies (eds. Church Gibson and Hill) pp. 3-10
- John Gibbs and Douglas Pye in John Gibbs and Douglas Pye (eds.) (2005) Style and Meaning: Studies in the detailed analysis of film, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp.1-15
- Bordwell and Thompson Film Art. An Introduction (5th edition) Chap. 6 (‘The Shot: Mise-en-Scene’), pp. 169-209
- Corrigan and White The Film Experience. An Introduction Chap. 2, pp. 42-74
- Gibbs Mise-en-Scene. Film Style and Interpretation Chap. 1, pp. 5-26
- Aumont et al Aesthetics of Film Chap. 1, pp. 31-7
Butler, Jeremy (2012) Television: Critical Methods and Applications 4thEdition (New York and London: Routledge)
Mitchell, Jason (2015) Complex TV: The Politics of Contemporary Television Storytelling (New York and London: New York University Press)
Williams, Raymond (1990) ‘Programming: distribution and flow’ in Television, Technology and Cultural Form (London: Fontana), pp. 78-118
Ellis, John (1982) Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television (London: Routledge)
Subject specific skills
This module develops skills of audio-visual literacy, through close textual and/or contextual analysis in relation to the moving image and sound. It may also develops understandings of historical, theoretical and conceptual frameworks relevant to screen arts and cultures.
Transferable skills
- critical and analytical thinking in relation
- independent research skills
- team work
- clarity and effectiveness of communication, oral and written
- accurate, concise and persuasive writing
- audio-visual literacy
Study time
Type | Required |
---|---|
Lectures | 9 sessions of 1 hour (6%) |
Seminars | 9 sessions of 1 hour (6%) |
Other activity | 18 hours (12%) |
Private study | 14 hours (9%) |
Assessment | 100 hours (67%) |
Total | 150 hours |
Private study description
wider viewing and reading, and research in preparation for assessment
Other activity description
screenings
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You must pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group C3
Weighting | Study time | Eligible for self-certification | |
---|---|---|---|
1500 Essay | 50% | 50 hours | Yes (extension) |
Examination | 50% | 50 hours | No |
~Platforms - AEP
|
Feedback on assessment
Detailed written feedback will be given essay, along with individual tutorials (if requested) and group oral feedback after grading.
Post-requisite modules
If you pass this module, you can take:
- FI111-15 Film and Television Criticism
- FI329-15 Screenwriting
- FI310-30 Dissertation Option in Film and/or Television Studies for Final Year Students
- FI336-15 Science Fiction: Theory as Film
- FI358-15 The Art of Animation
- FI331-30 Film Production
- FI208-15 Silent Cinema
- FI211-15 Audio-visual Avant-gardes
- FI359-15 Biopics
- FI328-15 The Practice of Film Criticism
- FI350-15 Television History and Criticism
- FI347-15 Film and TV Stardom
- FI209-15 Television History and Criticism
- FI265-15 Two Filmmakers
- FI204-15 World Cinema
- FI249-15 Hollywood Cinema
Courses
This module is Core for:
- Year 1 of UFIA-W620 Undergraduate Film Studies
- Year 1 of UFIA-QW25 Undergraduate Film and Literature
- Year 1 of UITA-R3W5 Undergraduate Italian with Film Studies