Studying FILM STUDIES and ENGLISH AND FILM at Salford
Martin and Kate (Event hub:
3 Your Lecturers Researchers who publish widely in the field, and are involved in various networks … .
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5 A LOOK AT JUST SOME OF OUR MODULES…
6 FIRST YEAR: CRITICAL APPROACHES (1&2) How film has been placed into intellectual frameworks… And also developing good From points of view of: habits about how we • Authorship and Genre approach film: • Institutions (>> several systematically, other mods) academically… • Audiences and • Who is presenting a film? Consumption • Theory • What do they hope to gain • Representation, inc. Race, from it? Gender, Sexuality
7 FIRST YEAR: FILM FORM & MEANING • How do films make meanings? • ‘Toolkit module’ of terms and concepts • Mise-en-scène • Editing/montage • Soundtrack • Cinematography • Narrative • Understanding whole visual and sound environment
8 SECOND YEAR: FILM JOURNALISM What are the different ways we may write about film? • Taught through a series of writing workshops where students will deploy skills of film reviewing, interviewing, feature writing, sub-editing. Attending screenings of films, students will then produce reviews which are discussed in class. Students learn to be concise and entertaining in displaying knowledge of film and the filmmaking process. • An overview of working as a freelance journalist and further training is included in the syllabus (indeed this module is taught by a freelance journalist). Key areas such as: • writing reviews and features • interviewing • working as a freelance • pitching, networking and making contacts • creating a portfolio of journalistic writing
9 SECOND YEAR: FILM DISTRIBUTION AND EXHIBITION Through a combination of classroom activities and guest lectures from industry professionals, this module explores and critically explains the connected fields of film distribution and film exhibition. Key areas such as : • The contemporary film industry in the UK • Film Distribution in the UK • Film Exhibition in the UK • The role of film festivals in the international distribution of new cinema • Advertising/the film industry
10 THIRD YEAR: FILM PROGRAMMING FOR CINEMAS & FESTIVALS The module focuses on creating programmes for independent cinemas and film festivals. The module is taught by Professor Andy Willis who has a wealth of experience in this area. He also currently works at HOME in this capacity. Key areas such as : • Programming festival retrospectives: case study in film at the Viva Spanish and Latin American Festival • Understanding the market and programming an independent cinema’s weekly list • Via assessment, students design a season for an independent cinema
11 THIRD YEAR: SEQUENTIAL ART – COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS We’ll study important examples of international comic strips, series & ‘graphic novels’ . A section of module will look at film/TV adaptations, evaluating the importance of comic-derived or inspired material to the modern media landscape. The unique ways in which comics can be said to create meanings will be highlighted via the study of several themes: • Comics and Childhood • The Graphic Novel Era: Comics ‘come of age’ • Comics, Ideology & Form: Case Study of 1970s British Comics • Fandom • Comics and Other Media • The ‘Indie’/ DiY Comics Scene • Practical Workshop Sessions
12 THIRD YEAR: HOLLYWOOD MASCULINITIES We will examine how notions of “idealised” or “preferred” masculinity are informed and influenced by history whilst exploring how these are played out and represented in Hollywood cinema.
13 THE DISSERTATION Some recent projects: • Guided independent study with • “Women directors: do they have a regular supervision meetings. characteristic approach? What is their place in the industry?” • A culmination of your studies and • “Did Classical Hollywood ‘exploit’ its stars? If so should focus on what you are so, how?” good at/what you are most • “John Ford: ideologies of race and gender” interested in. • “How are young female • The you’ll children/adolescents/teens represented in U.S. piece of work and Japanese animation?” remember and hopefully get most • “The ‘Uncomfortable Cinema’ of Steve satisfaction from. McQueen”
BA (HONS) FILM STUDIES Programme Outline (Options are examples)
15 LEVEL FOUR Film Form, Film Classical Hollywood Meaning (20 credits) Cinema (20 credits) Critical Approaches to Critical Approaches to Film (20 credits) Film II (20 credits) Film Histories, Film Film Histories, Film Movements (20 credits) Movements II (20 credits)
16 LEVEL FIVE British Cinema (20 Film Distribution & credits) Exhibition (20 credits) Contemporary Comedy and British Hollywood Cinema (20) Cinema (20) Cinema Asia (20) Film Journalism (20)
17 LEVEL SIX Elective x 3 from (at least four will run per year): Dissertation (60) • Hollywood Masculinities (20) • Film Programming for Cinemas & Festivals (20) • Film and Theory (20) • Sequential Art – Comics & Graphic Novels (20)
BA (HONS) ENGLISH AND FILM STUDIES Programme Outline (Options are examples)
19 ENGLISH AND FILM Level 4 / First year Semester One Semester Two Narrative, Fiction and The Novel (20 credits) Theory and Practice (20 credits) Popular Fictions (20 credits)
20 ENGLISH AND FILM Level 5 Cores and Options (examples) Semester One Semester Two The Romantic Period (20 Credits) Victorian Literature (20 Credits) CORE CORE And ONE of the following (eg): Attitudes to English (20 Credits) Option Revival and Revolution: Irish Literature 1890-1930 (20 Credits) Option Introduction to Children’s Literature (20) Option Intro. To Scriptwriting (Fiction) (20) Option
21 ENGLISH AND FILM Level 6 Cores and Options (examples) Semester One Semester Two Postmodernism (20 credits) CORE And TWO of the following (e.g.): Shakespeare and the Play of Thought (20 Credits) Option British Theatre Post-1950 (20 Credits) Option Descent into Hell: The Holocaust Survivor’s Story (20 Credits) Option
22 What sorts of skills do you gain on the degrees? Assessments and advice help you develop: • Powers of analysis and criticism; experience of constructing arguments. • Enhanced writing skills; valuable research skills (gathering/managing print and electronic information). • Communication: the ability to discuss your ideas in a non-intimidating group format. • Confidence in your own ideas; a sense that you have something to say and the means to say it. • Knowledge of creating presentations. • Experience of working in groups (including some work based on initiatives at HOME, Manchester)
23 Graduate Destinations • Teaching • Further study (MA/PhD) • Film journalism (web and magazines) • Festivals/Film Events: Grimmfest; Manchester Animation Fest; Pilot Light (also distribution and production) – Greg Walker (one of our alumni) is now a festival & events manager. He is also the creator of Pilot Light TV Festival • Working in distribution for a major studio • Various levels of involvement in production • From the English side..: Publishing; lecturer at NW uni.; local govt. and Civil Service administration (including the NHS); teaching English overseas; journalism; broadcasting • More generally, Film Studies graduates find work in managing arts centres, theatres, starting production companies, technical and front of house roles at arts centres like HOME (BFI Regional Film Hub), community cinema projects, archivists, event managers, marketing executives …
24 Greg’s PILOT LIGHT TV festival www.pilotlightfestival.co.uk Back in 2021!
25 English and Film Studies Contacts Dr. Martin Flanagan – Programme Leader in Film Studies m.j.flanagan@salford.ac.uk 0161 2952212 Dr. Pete Deakin – Admission Lead for Film Studies p.p.deakin@salford.ac.uk Dr. Glyn White – Programme Leader English and Film Studies g.white@salford.ac.uk
BREAK FOR QUESTIONS…
AVD “TASTER”
28 GENRE IN MOTION – Cultural instrumentality • ‘… perhaps more interesting, and probably more important, than what a film genre is is the question of what, in cultural terms, it does – its “cultural instrumentality”’ - Kuhn, Annette (1990) Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction , p. 1). • Cultural instrumentality – how does culture facilitate what is produced, mediated or understood (read) by audiences (become ‘an instrument’ of this) • How do changes in the textual and thematic conventions of the genre (or media story/text) relate to broader socio-cultural contexts?
29 GENRE IN MOTION – SCI-FI in the 50s • Susan Sontag in her 1965 essay, “The Imagination of Disaster,” found in the cycle of science-fiction movies of the fifties evidence of ‘a mass trauma ... over the use of nuclear weapons’ and technology. • For example, irradiated mutant ants in the sewer systems of Los Angeles in Them! (Gordon Douglas, 1954) ‘bear witness to this trauma and, in a way, attempt to exorcise it’ (218).
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