Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An introductory course designed to facilitate a fundamental understanding of film technique, style and form in order to develop the skills with which to analyze films of all genres. Through lectures and screenings it will provide an overview of the social, aesthetic and technical development of motion pictures, introducing tools for the formal analysis of the elements of cinema: cinematography and lighting, art direction, performance, editing, sound and the screenplay. The formal and historical elements of documentary, avant-garde and dramatic films will be addressed. The course will involve the screening and discussion of several complete feature films and shorts, as well as excerpts from others. Students with credit for FPA 135 may not take this course for further credit. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Introduction to Cinema uses an interdisciplinary method for the study of cinema. The course will use historical and contemporary examples to engage with the formal analysis of film, which is part of the tools in the arsenal of a rigorous film studies education. The course will examine the history of the institutions and receptions of the movies and the new changes in exhibition practices that are changing the ways we experience the movies. Through a combination of class lectures, readings, film clips, and screenings, students will be introduced to the historical-cultural context of film cultures and become acquainted with the various theoretical and methodological approaches to cinema studies and become conversant with the language of cinema and its analysis. The course is divided into three interrelated sections: history, film art, and theory. The first section will focus on the history and development of cinema from Hollywood to other (trans)national sites of cinematic production. The second section will address film art or film aesthetics through the formal analysis of films such as the mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing techniques, and sound design that form the language of the cinema. Finally, the last part of the course will introduce students to film theory, from classical film theory to the rise of high theory in the 70s/80s/90s (including psychoanalytic theory, feminist film theory, queer theory etc.). Students will be exposed not only to films from North America and Europe, but to other national cinemas and film movements, and to key films and filmmakers from around the world.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

• understanding the ways in which films are produced, distributed, and exhibited
• understanding film history within a global context
• understanding the central terminology of film form and technique
• identify and analyze film form
• identify and understand different approaches to cinema studies
• learning to identify and apply central concepts in film theory
• developing critical thinking and writing skills about film from a film studies perspective

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

RECOMMENDED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: