Media and film studies

Analysing Film (E) - Year 1

Module code: P3082B
Level 4
15 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Film, Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework

Look. Look again. What do you see? Film Analysis equips you with the key skills in examining film texts in close detail, and thinking about how they create meanings. You will analyse the creative choices available to film-makers as well as the potential they have for generating meaning and pleasure when combined together. Considering contemporary film texts, you will explore the diverse ways in which film-makers use key techniques of cinematic expression such as - Narrative - Cinematography - mise-en-scène - editing - sound - tone Film Analysis includes significant examples of contemporary cinema, such as Get Out (Peele, 2017), Carol (Haynes, 2015), and Sicario (Villeneuve, 2015). You will find it indispensable for more advanced Film Studies electives such as British Cinema and American cinema, as well as for electives dealing with cinematic contexts that go beyond these Western frames of reference, such as Chinese Cinema.

Module learning outcomes

• Identify and accurately describe a range of filmic methods of story-telling, and audio-visual techniques of expression, at an appropriate introductory level.
• Demonstrate an understanding of connections between technological change and film aesthetics, at an appropriate introductory level.
• Deploy the above concepts and knowledges in the critical analysis of the meanings, impacts and affects generated in selected film sequences, at an appropriate introductory level.