VSA2240

Cinema institutions

Constantine Verevis

8 points
* 4 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton
* Prerequisite: VSA1040, VSA1050 or VSA2190

Objectives By the completion of this subject students will be expected to recognise that meaning is not simply an intra-textual property of a particular text but an effect of historically specific extra-textual, material technologies or institutions; demonstrate an understanding of historically specific material technologies of production, distribution, exhibition and reception, in relation to a range of classical and contemporary Hollywood films; translate the particularity of Hollywood institutions into a methodology for investigating the material-social, historical and political-difference of other national cinemas.

Synopsis Cinema Institutions will enable students to recognise that meaning, particularly in a mass cultural situation, is not so much the intrinsic property of a particular text but the effect of historically specific material technologies (of production, distribution, exhibition and reception). The subject will take as examples a range of mainly classical and contemporary Hollywood films. Cinema Institutions will consider a number of institutionalised, and unofficial, public and industrial discourses, such as: film industry publicity and marketing; advertising and commercial tie-ins; media coverage of stars and directors; film censorship and studio self-regulation; motion picture palaces and suburban multiplexes; film reviewing and academic film criticism; the impact of television and wide-screen technologies in the fifties; the impact of home video and cable television in the seventies; and new media technologies in the nineties.

Assessment First essay (2000 words): 35%
* Second essay (3000 words): 45%
* Tutorial presentation (1000 words) and participation: 20%

Recommended texts

Balio T (ed.) Hollywood in the age of television Unwin Hyman, 1990
Brantlinger P and Naremore J (eds) Modernity and mass culture Indiana U P, 1991
Wasko J Hollywood in the information age U Texas P, 1995