MFC4082 - Analysing Film

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Comprehend the concepts of film style and film form.
Identify the key features of the four elements of film style (mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound).
Identify the four forms of a motion picture (narrative, rhetorical, associational, and abstract).
Describe the four elements of film style and the four formal types using appropriate technical, critical, poetic, and graphical vocabularies.
Analyse the functions of film style in a motion picture.
Analyse the formal structure of a motion picture and the functions of its component elements.

Content:

The module explores the form and style of motion pictures. The first part of the module introduces the concept of style in the cinema and examines in detail the four elements of film style (mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound). The second part of the module looks at the different forms of motion pictures: narrative cinema (including classical and post-classical Hollywood narration, art cinema narration, modular narration, and post-modern narratives), rhetorical form in the documentary film, associational form, and abstract form in avant-garde cinema.

In the course of the module students acquire essential analytical, research, and communication skills so that they can identify the key features of film form and film style, describe those features using appropriate vocabularies, and communicate the results of their analyses.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Scheduled learning and teaching activities
The scheduled learning and teaching activities include lectures, screenings, and seminars. The lectures provide the necessary historical-cultural context for that week’s topic, and will introduce relevant theoretical-analytical concepts or critical writing. Screenings provide examples of the critical and analytical concepts introduced in lectures, and the broad range of films used in this course will expand your reference base of films. Seminars provide you with an opportunity to discuss issues raised in the lectures and to voice your own responses to the screenings.

Guided independent learning
Students are expected to take an active role in the module and to develop their own perspectives on the topic through guided independent learning. Guided independent learning will help students develop independent learning habits and to adopt an enquiry-led approach to learning. Guided independent learning includes preparing for scheduled learning and teaching activities, follow-up work arising from scheduled learning and teaching activities, completing tasks set by the module co-ordinator, and wider reading on the subject.

Over the course of this module students will be given some tasks to complete and submit online for which they will receive generic feedback via Moodle. These tasks will give students an opportunity to develop skills and learn concepts before starting work on the assignments. Each task will have a set deadline after which all the submitted responses will be made public for you to read. Students will only be able to receive feedback and see all the responses if they have completed the tasks set by the module co-ordinator.

Lecture
Hours: 22
Intended Group size: 30-45

Screening
Hours: 44
Intended Group size: 30-45

Seminar
Hours: 22
Intended Group size: 10-15

Guided independent study
Hours: 66

Assessment
Hours: 46

Further details relating to assessment
Directed activities These consist of weekly tasks that must be completed and submitted for inspection at timetabled sessions each week. The assessment will be on a pass/ fail basis with a pass requiring at least 75% of all weekly tasks successfully completed. A pass mark will lead to the full award of 10% towards the final mark. A fail in directed activities will contribute 0% to the final mark.

Portfolio of stylistic analyses
The portfolio of stylistic analyses comprises four pieces of written work, each 500 words in length. Students are required to analyse the four elements of film style (mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, sound) in four films chosen based on the following criteria:
• Early silent cinema: one film in the portfolio should be a silent film produced prior to 1935.
• European cinema: one film in the portfolio should be a European film from any country (including the UK) and from any era.
• International cinema: one film in the portfolio should be a non-English language film from outside Europe and may be from any era.
• Free choice: the final film in the portfolio is the student’s choice and can be from any era and any country.

Students may not analyse any film shown in full as part of the learning and teaching activities for this module.

Formal analysis Students may not analyse any film shown in full as part of the learning and teaching activities for this module.