Screen StudiesWeekly Topics

• Film and history

• Film as a technological record

• The birth of cinema

• Film as social and political history

• Elements of film form

• Communicating story, ideas and meanings through form

Want to know more? Further reading:

Kolker, R. (2015). The building blocks of film II: The cut. In Film, form, and culture (4th ed., pp. 85-110). Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sae/reader.action?docID=2166387&ppg=108.

• Elements of film narrative

• Analysing film for subtext

• Writing about film

• Communicating and reflecting on meanings, messages and subtexts in film

Want to know more? Further reading:

Bordwell, D., & Thompson, K. (2013). Narrative Form. Film Art: An Introduction (10th ed., pp. 72-110). New York: McGraw-Hill. (available in your library)

• Ways of identifying genres

• Textual conventions

• Audiences

• Critical approaches

Want to know more? Further reading:

Neale, S. (2000). "Definitions of genre". Genre and Hollywood. (pp. 7-26). London: Routledge.

• Different types of documentary production

• Issues in contemporary documentary - truth, objectivity, subjectivity, and drama

Want to know more? Further reading:

Nichols, B. (2010). How can we differentiate among documentaries?. Introduction to Documentary (2nd ed., pp. 142-171). Bloomington, IN, USA: Indiana University Press.

• Form and narrative in short films

• History of short films

• Industry perspectives and debates

• Early avant-garde cinemas: Europe/America

• Experimental film techniques

• Influences and oppositions to mainstream cinema

Want to know more? Further reading:

O'Pray, M. (2012). The Avant-Garde film: Definitions. Avant-Garde Film: Forms, Themes, Passions (pp. 1-7). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

• Representation in cinema

• Political dimensions of film - race, gender, class

• Analysing meaning in film representations

• Making and supporting arguments

Want to know more? Further reading:

Branston, G. (2000). Identifying a critical politics of representation. Cinema and Cultural Modernity (pp. 155-176). Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press. (available in your library)

• Representations of national identity

• Case study focusing on Australia, its cinema and industry

Want to know more? Further reading:

Corrigan, T., & White, P. (2012). Contemporary Film Cultures. The film experience: an introduction (3rd ed., pp. 369-380). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's. (available in your library)

• Auteurism

• The function of the film author

• Collaborative/industrial approaches to filmmaking

Want to know more? Further reading:

Watson, P. (2012). "Cinematic authorship and the Film Auteur". In J. Nelmes (Ed.), Introduction to Film Studies (5th ed. pp. 142-165). London; New York: Routledge.

• How audiences engage with film

• Targeting audiences

• Audiences and identification

Want to know more? Further reading:

Phillips, P. (2012). Spectator, audience and response. In J. Nelmes (Ed.), Introduction to Film Studies (5th ed., pp. 113-141). London; New York: Routledge.

• Contemporary and emerging cinematic technologies

• Enhancing spectacle and the impact on narrative

• Changes in industry organisation

• Production, distribution and exhibition

• Globalising narrative structures (post-classical narration)

Want to know more? Further reading:

Lehman, P., & Luhr, W. (2008). Globalization, Digitization, Covergence: Current Trends. Thinking about movies: watching, questioning, enjoying (pp. 364-397). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. (available in your library)