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, and modular narration), rhetorical form in the documentary film, associational form, and abstract form in avant-garde cinema. In both parts of the module students study a wide range of filmmaking practices across international cinema taken from throughout the history of 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:

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 students with an opportunity to discuss issues raised in the lectures and to voice their own responses to the screenings.
The module runs across two semesters to (1) expand student’s knowledge of cinema through showing a range of films; (2) to support the practice-based modules running as part of the Film programme; and, (3) to allow time for students to bed into university and to develop as learners through the acquisition of key academic skills. The extra time afforded by a year-long module also allows students to complete directed activities based around developing analytical skills through a series of veiweing and research tasks.

Lecture
Hours: 22
Intended Group size: cohort

Screening
Hours: 44
Intended Group size: cohort

Seminar
Hours: 22
Intended Group size: 15

Guided independent study
Hours: 112

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.
Internationalisation
Students permitted to take a half-module for the award of 10 credits in semester 1 or 2 will be assessed by the form of assessment specified for that semester. This includes satisfactory completion of the directed activities for that semester:
Semester 1 - Portfolio of stylistic analyses 2,000 words (90%) and Directed Activities (10%)
Semester 2 - Formal Analysis 2,000 words (90%) and Directed Activities (10%)
• 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.
Internationalisation
Students permitted to take a half-module for the award of 10 credits in semester 1 or 2 will be assessed by the form of assessment specified for that semester. This includes satisfactory completion of the directed activities for that semester:
Semester 1 - Portfolio of stylistic analyses 2,000 words (90%) and Directed Activities (10%) Internationalisation
Semester 2 - Formal Analysis 2,000 words (90%) and Directed Activities (10%)