FT2FFC-Film Forms and Cultures

Module Provider: Film, Theatre and TV
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:5
Terms in which taught: Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2021/2

Module Convenor: Dr David Foster
Email: d.foster@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

The module Film Forms and Cultures is designed to broaden students’ knowledge of the variety of film forms in historical and contemporary global cinema, and to deepen their understanding of the relationships between films and their artistic, social and cultural contexts. The module is structured as two case studies, which will be chosen each year from an indicative list including: Art Cinema, Experimental Cinema, the Essay Film, Found Footage and Appropriation, Intermediality and Cinema, Ecocinema.

Aims:

The module aims: to develop students’ awareness of the variety of film forms, and of form as a critical and conceptual issue; to introduce theoretical perspectives on questions of form and meaning; to introduce debates about the politics of form; to develop students’ analytical and critical skills and knowledge; to enrich students’ knowledge of film cultures.

Assessable learning outcomes:

By the end of the module it is expected that students will be able to: discuss and analyse a variety of film forms, using appropriate critical language; develop critical arguments based on formal analysis; ?theorize relationships between form, meaning and cultural context; situate their critical thinking in relation to relevant scholarship.

Additional outcomes:

The third year Advanced Practical Project or Dissertation may draw on knowledge and ideas introduced by this module, and its topics often inform the Practical Project or Dissertation at Part 2. Furthermore, the module extends skills and competencies that are central to the degree. It is expected that the level of skills and competencies achieved in the following will be appropriate to the level of study: oral communication and debate in a group context; library usage to assist in self-directed, independent work; appropriate deployment of research using a wide range of printed and electronic resources: critical analysis and coherent argument; presentation of written work using IT; identifying and addressing problems which have a relationship to both film and theatre texts and contexts.Ìý

Outline content:

The module is structured as two case studies, chosen from an indicative list including: Art Cinema, Experimental Cinema, the Essay Film, Found Footage and Appropriation, Intermediality and Cinema, Ecocinema. Case studies will be structured as surveys of the topic or the history of a particular form, taking a different film as the main text each week.

Global context:

The module explores film and media in an international context. It refers to forms of practice and examples of work from across the world.Ìý

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

Lectures will introduce the students to new historical contexts, theoretical concepts and critical approaches that will be tested out in seminars in the exploration of film texts. The weekly screenings are an integral part of the module.Ìý