FTM5220 - Experimental screen culture

Leader: Deane Williams

Offered

Clayton First semester 2008 (Day)

Synopsis

This unit approaches experimentation in screen culture (including cinema, video, TV and digital) not as an activity that is "marginal", but absolutely central to the formation, development and critical questioning of all screen/media practice. The unit tracks major modes in screen practice ie storytelling, representation, poetics, image-sound relations, the audiovisual "essay" back to historic and ongoing experiments with the essential elements of screen language. Works studied will include examples from the entire history of international screen culture; and a practical production element will be included so that students can discover the living process of experimentation for themselves.

Objectives

By the completion of this unit students will be expected to demonstrate:

1. an understanding of the historical formation, development and critical appraisal of audio-visual experimentation;
2. a critical understanding of the formal, social and political functions of experimentation in screen media;
3. an ability to define and critically engage with specific forms experimental screen culture criticism on an international scale;
4. an understanding of how the notion of experimentation relates to notions of storytelling, representation, poetics, image-sound relations and the audiovisual "essay".
5. an ability to engage with written and audio-visual (screen) texts in a clear and confident manner in both written and oral presentation;
6. an ability to develop and employ research skills in data collection in the service of advanced critical writing;
7. An ability to understand the practical implications (Digital Video) for experimentation in audio-visual forms.

Assessment

+ Essay (3000 words): 30%
Research essay (4500 words): 50%
practical production exercise (digital video) (1500 words): 20%

Contact hours

One 2-hour seminar and one 2-hour screening per week

Prerequisites

Honours degree (or equivalent) in Film and television or approved discipline