This course offers an introduction to the language and practice of film analysis.
Each ... This course will also introduce the key critical and ... The Film Experience
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FS1006: Introduction to Film 15 Credit Points University of Aberdeen School of Language and Literature
Course Coordinator Dr. Katherine Groo Telephone: 272644 Email:
[email protected] Office: Old Brewery F13 Office Hours: Monday 12-‐1 + Appt. Course Content This course offers an introduction to the language and practice of film analysis. Each week, we will explore a different element of film form and study the ways in which it shapes the moving image. This course will also introduce the key critical and theoretical frameworks that have shaped the discipline and our understanding of cinema. Rather than offering a survey of film history or a small collection of classics, this course invites students to think about formal elements within and across a wide range of genres, styles, historical moments, and national contexts. By the end of this course, the successful FS1006 student will have acquired the necessary tools to continue coursework in Film Studies. Students will be able to recognize, analyze, and communicate the ways in which meaning is made in cinema. Meeting Times and Places Lecture: Tuesday 16:00-‐17:00, St. Mary’s 105 Thursday 15:00-‐16:00, MacRobert Lecture Theatre Tutorials begin in Week 2. You will meet once per week thereafter for fifty-‐minute tutorial sessions. You must self-‐enroll in a tutorial group on MyAberdeen. Screening, Lecture, and Tutorial Policies Assigned films will sometimes include strong language, nudity, sexual situations, and/or scenes of violence. If you are uncomfortable viewing or discussing such material, please reconsider your enrollment in this course. Cell phones must be turned off before you enter lecture or tutorial. Unless otherwise specified by your instructor, laptops are allowed only for taking notes or accessing course readings. Students who use laptops to check email or conduct business unrelated to the course will be asked to leave. You must bring hard copies of assigned readings to tutorial. You can either download and print each essay from MyAberdeen, or purchase a complete set of supplementary essays from the School Office (Taylor A13). (MA) MyAberdeen Virtual Learning Environment MyAberdeen should be your first point of contact for course materials and questions. It is important that you log on to the site and familiarize yourself with its content as soon
as possible. When you enter the FS1006 site for the first time, select “tutorial groups” from the menu bar on the left. There, you can self-‐enroll for your tutorial group. Your first short assignment is due during WEEK TWO. You must submit this assignment to your tutorial’s discussion board 24 Hours BEFORE you attend your first tutorial. Instructions for this assignment can be found in “Course Materials.” Course Aims This course aims to: 1. Introduce students to the language and process of formal film analysis. 2. Analyze how film constructs and communicates meaning. 3. Explore film form across a range of genres, styles, national contexts, and histories. 4. Frame cinema as an artistic, industrial, and global practice. 5. Invite questions and intellectual curiosity. Learning Outcomes Students will learn to: 1. Identify and analyze film form through close reading and critical engagement. 2. Use the language of film analysis to describe, discuss, compare, and interpret film. 3. Write frequent short responses. 4. Read film theory and criticism carefully. 5. Evaluate and discuss abstract claims. 6. Ask questions that locate an interesting tension, problem, or pattern. 7. Respond to questions with evidence. 8. Develop a thesis. 9. Defend a thesis with evidence. 10. Write a coherent and convincing argument. Required Texts (FE) Timothy Corrigan. The Film Experience. Second Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2006. (MA) Supplementary essays will be available for download/printing from MyAberdeen. You can also purchase the complete set of supplementary essays from the School Office (Taylor A13)
Recommended Texts Timothy Corrigan. A Short Guide to Writing About Film. New York: Longman, 2009. Pam Cook. The Cinema Book. 3rd Edition. London: BFI, 2008. Geoffrey Nowell-‐Smith. The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford: OUP, 1997. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. Film Theory and Criticism. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Amy Villarejo. Film Studies: The Basics. New York: Routledge, 2006. Course Requirements and Assessment Essay 1,500-‐2,000 words 40% Final Cumulative Exam 50% Tutorial Assessment 10%
Essay / 40% The essay is due FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18 at 5:00 PM. You must submit (1) copy to the School Office in Taylor A13 and (1) copy to Turnitin. Complete assignment details will be distributed during WEEK FIVE. Final Exam / 50% The final exam for this course is cumulative. It is three hours long (to accommodate clips). A comprehensive review will be conducted during the last week of class. Tutorial Assessment Mark (TAM) / 10% TAM will be determined by: Regularity of Attendance: Course Regulations state that attendance at each meeting of every course is compulsory. Students may miss no more than one tutorial if they are to be awarded a first-‐class TAM; two missed tutorials and the maximum TAM will be 17; three missed tutorials and the maximum TAM will be 14; four missed tutorials and the maximum TAM will be 11; five missed tutorials and the maximum TAM will be 8. Further absences will result in a TAM of zero. Frequency of participation: It is expected that all students will participate voluntarily in open forum and group work as appropriate. Participation includes asking questions of the tutor or of other students, responding to questions posed by the tutor or others, challenging the views presented during discussion, offering relevant examples, etc. To obtain a first-‐class assessment for frequency of participation, regular participation in each class is required; to obtain a 2i grade, regular participation in a majority of classes attended will be expected; those who contribute to discussion only occasionally will be awarded a 2ii grade, while persistent silence will merit a 3rd class grade. Quality of participation: The quality of participation will be measured by the strength and clarity of contributions to the seminar; evidence of the care with which the text or film has been read; evidence of having prepared the assignments; willingness to initiate and/or guide discussion. Short Assignments You will be asked to submit five (5) short written assignments to your tutorial leader. Each assignment is worth 1 point towards your participation grade. These assignments include shot breakdowns, scene analyses, short response papers, and drafts. Details for each of these assignments will be distributed in lecture, tutorial, and on the MyAberdeen. These assignments should be submitted to your tutorial discussion group AT LEAST 24 hours before your tutorial session. This will give your tutor and your peers enough time to engage with your ideas before class. Points will be distributed as follows: 1: Assignment completed (perhaps with one or more minor flaws). 0: Assignment not completed or completed with major flaws (no evidence of reading/screening, incoherent claims, messy/illegible presentation, etc.)
Week 1 Reading
Week 2 Screening
Sep. 26-30 / Introduction: What is Film (Studies)? FE: Chapter 2, “Preparing Viewers and Views: Production, Distribution, Promotion, and Exhibition” MA: Amy Villarejo, “Introduction to Film Studies” MA: André Bazin, “The Myth of Total Cinema” Oct. 3-7 / Narrative Forms The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, USA 1903; 12 min.) Borom Sarret (Ousmane Sembène, Senegal 1966; 20 min.) Chungking Express (Wong Kar-‐wai, Hong Kong 1994; 102 min.) FE: Chapter 7, “Telling Stories About Time” (227-‐269) FE: Chapter 12, “Global and Local: Inclusive Histories” (405-‐423) Short Assignment 1 due
Reading Writing ***Short Assignment 1 must be submitted to MyAberdeen before your first tutorial*** Week 3 Oct. 10-14 / Mise-en-Scène Screening A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès, France 1902; 8 min.) Darkness Light Darkness (Jan Svankmejer, Czechoslovakia 1989; 8 min.) L’Avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy/France 1961; 141 min.) Reading FE: Chapter 3, “Exploring a Material World: Mise-‐en-‐Scène”(61-‐93) MA: Louis Aragon, “On Décor” Week 4 Oct. 17-21 / Cinematography Screening Lumière and Company (France / Denmark / Spain / Sweden 1995) Wasp (Andrea Arnold, UK 2003; 26 min.) Suzhou River (Lou Ye, China 2001; 83 min.) Reading FE: Chapter 4, “Seeing Through the Image: Cinematography” (95-‐133) MA: Rudolph Arnheim “Motion” MA: Gilles Deleuze, “The Construction of Any-‐Space-‐Whatevers” Week 5 Oct 24-Oct. 28 / Editing I: Continuity Screening 4 Vertigo (Les Leveque, USA 2000; 9 min.) La Jetée (Chris Marker, France 1962; 28 min.) Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, USA 1958; 128 min.) Reading FE: Chapter 5, “Relating Images: Editing” (135-‐172) FE: Chapter 11, “Conventional Film History” (371-‐391) Writing Short Assignment 2 due ***Essay questions will be distributed at the end of Week Five*** Week 6 Oct. 31-Nov.4 / Sound and Image Screening Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy (Martin Arnold, Austria 1998; 15 min.) Removed (Naomi Uman, USA/Mexico 1999; 6 min.) Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, USA 1952; 103 min.) Reading FE: Chapter 7, “Listening to the Cinema: Film Sound” (185-‐223)
Suggested:
MA: Mary Anne Doane, “The Voice in Cinema” MA: Bela Balazs, “Educating the Ear” FE: “Genres” (332-‐341; 359-‐363; 469-‐473) FE: “Musicals” (350-‐352)
Week 7 Screening
Nov. 7-11 / Editing II: Montage NOW! (Santiago Alvarez, Cuba 1965; 5 min.) Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, USSR 1925; 74 min.) FE: Chapter 5, “Disjunctive Editing” (172-‐183) MA: Sergei Eisenstein, “A Dialectic Approach to Film Form” FE: “Soviet Montage” (453-‐456) Short Assignment 3 due
Reading Suggested Writing Week 8 Reading
Nov. 14-18 / Reading Week FE: Chapter 14, “Writing a Film Essay” (507-‐543) *** Essay due FRIDAY NOVEMBER 18th by 5:00 pm*** ***Submit (1) copy to the School Office and (1) copy to MyAberdeen***
Week 9 Screening
Reading Week 10 Screening
Reading Writing
Week 11 Screening Reading Writing Week 12
Nov. 21-25 / Film Style and the Auteur Five Dedicated to Ozu (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran 2003; excerpt) 10 on Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran 2004; excerpt) The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami, Iran 1999; 118 min.) FE: Chapter 13, “Reading About Film: Theories and Methods” (457-‐483) MA: Andrew Sarris, “Notes on the Auteur Theory, 1962” MA: Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author” Nov. 28-Dec. 2 / Documentary Modes Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, USA 1962; 13 min.) Slaves: An Animated Documentary (David Aronowitsch and Hanna Heilborn, Sweden 2008; 15 min.) Bus 174 (José Padilha, Brazil 2002; 122 min.) FE: Chapter 8, “Representing the Real: Documentary Films” (271-‐299) MA: Michael Renov, “Towards a Poetics of Documentary” Short Assignment 4 due Dec. 5-9 / Movement and Movements Ballet Mécanique (Fernand Léger, 1924; 19 min.) A Study in Choreography for the Camera (Maya Deren, USA 1945; 4 min.) Weekend (Jean-‐Luc Godard, France/Italy 1967; 102 min.) FE: Chapter 9, “Experimental Screens” (301-‐329) MA: Jean-‐Luc Comolli and Jean Narboni, “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism” MA: Maya Deren, “The Creative Use of Reality” Short Assignment 5 due Dec. 12-16 / Conclusion and Exam Review Final Exam details TBA
