ATS2535 - Storytelling in film and television: From classical narrative to art cinema - 2017

This unit analyses texts that are representative of the stylistic diversity found in film and television. The aim is to develop in students an awareness of film and televisual form and style, and of how communication is organised within certain structured ways. The areas of film and television used to exemplify topics will be major innovatory phases including the development of film form in the continuity editing system 1895-1920, Russian formal experiments in the 1920s, alternative formal systems in Asian film, and post-war developments, including Italian neo-realism, European art cinema, avant-garde film, Third World filmmaking, and contemporary Hollywood and World film and television.

On successful completion of the unit students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of issues of spatial construction in film;
2. Demonstrate an understanding of a range of editing styles, in particular the continuity editing system and alternatives to it;
3. To comment on a number of other parameters of filmic and televisual communication, for example use of body language, sound mixing, and different kinds of narrative organisation and culturally specific iconography.

Within semester assessment: 100%

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

See also Unit timetable information

Dr Janice Loreck

Film and screen studies

Twelve credit points of first-year Arts units.

ATS3535, FTV2190, FTV3190