Critical Perspectives (Introduction Lecture - 19/01)

Formalism: The elements that make up and structure the films form
Style:

•  Mise-en-scene 

Editing:

• Continuity editing (Hitchcock)
• Discontinuity editing (Soviet Montage - Sergei)
• Art House Cinema (Jean Luc Goddard)
• Avant-Garde/Experimental (Stan Brakhage)

Cinematography:

• Framing
• Composition
• Frame Rate

• Narration (Narratology - Bordwell, David - Narration in the Fiction Film(1985)
• Story and plot
• Characterisation

Sound: 

• Michel Chion
• Nolan (Batman fight scene, Dunkirk)

Realism and Social Realism: 

• Documentary Modes (Poetic, Expository, Observational, Participatory, Reflexive, Performative)
• Poetic Realism (e.g. deep focus photography, long takes in Citizen Kane)
• Neo-Realism (eg. non-proffesional actors, documentary affects handheld cameras, no editing - Rec) 
• British Realist (New Wave 1959-63)
• Social Realism (Social problem films Ken Loach, Mike Leigh)
• Sociology of Urban spaces, class systems etc

Auteurship

• Francois Truffaut (Auteur Policy, 400 blows)
• Andrew Sarris (Auteur Theory, three concentric circles)
• Rolan Barthes (Death of the auteur - viewer as author) 
• Auteur Structuralism (Wollen - Authorship as unconsciously channelling social conventions)
• Post-Auteur (As a head of collaboration with actors, producers, screenwriter, branding)

Genre Theory: 

• Formal Elements:
• Iconography
• Tone
• Narrative
• Plot
• Themes
• Archetypes

• Rick Altman
• Thomas Schatz
• Steve Neal

• Categories
• Subgenres and Hybridity
• Canon formation, Revisionism and Cycles
• Allegory and Metaphor
• Industry and Audience 

National Cinemas, Art Movements, Transnational Cinema

• British New Wave
• French Impressionism and Surrealism
• Soviet Montage
• Italian Neorealism
• German Expressionism
• French New Wave
• New German Cinema
• New Mexican Cinema
• New Hollywood and Independent American Cinema
• Hong Kong Cinema
• Iranian New Wave

• Where does the money hail from? The director? The story?
• Is Harry Potter British or American? Jame Bond?

Spectatorship:

Psychoanalysis

• Male gaze in Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958 - Laura Mulvey)
• Phallic Symbolism in slasher films (Carol Clover)

Cognitivism:

• Recognition, Alignment and Allegiance of Characterization in Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001 - Murray Smith, Engaging Characters)

Feminism:

• Male Gaze in vertigo
• Post-feminist and consumer 'choice' of branding, beautification and neoliberal exploration in New Femin0niities: Post-feminism, neo-liberalism and subjectivity)
• Androcentrism - Simon de Beaviour, Mary Ann, Doane, Film and the masquerade

Representation:

• Class
• Sexuality
• Gender
• Masculinity/Femininity 

Postcolonialism, Multiculturalism, Race and Ethnicity

• Orientalism - Edward Said
• Third Cinema versus Eurocentrism
• Racial Gaze
• Positive and Negative Stereotypes

Digital Cinema: 

• Manipulation of spaces and early effects - Melies, Lumiere Bros
• Perceptual Realism and Photorealism
• Persuasion Tactics and Paratexts
• Remidiation
• Motion Capture and Performance
• Humanness and technology
• Codes and contestable mapping
• Trandmediality
• Participatory Culture and Citizen Journalism
• Convergence and spreadable media 

Animation:

• Early Animation
• Disney
• Warner Bros and UPA
• Pixar
• Music and Abstraction
• Anime
• Stop-Motion

Industry, Production, Distribution

Commericialism, Globalization, Marketing, Ratings, Franchises, Money and Spectacle

Hollywood Studio System

Art and Fashion in Film and TV

• Art History
• Surrealism
• Dadaism
• Situationism
• Mannerism
• Cubism
• Abstract Modernism
• Deconstructionist
• Precisionist
• Renaissance linear perspective
• Rococo
• Punk, Mods, Grunge, Indie

Star and Stardom

• Star system
• Studio System
• Celebrity studies
• Star Personae

Audience Reception

• Gathering information and codes of behaviour
• Sources
• The hypodermic needle model 

Politics and Political Economics

• Globalisation, neoliberalism, Free Markets

• Marxism and the Frankfurt school
• -Ideology, base and superstructure
• Hyperdermic needle
• Hegemony(Gramsci)
• Varnivalesque (Bakhtin)

Structuralism and Post-Structuralism

• Semiotics - Signifier and signified
• Mythology - Levi Strauss
• Deconstructuralism - Derrider
• Postmoderism

Phenemenology and Embodied Spectatorship

• Haptic Visuality - sense associated with touch, smell, taste, eg of filmed textures

• Carnal Senses (Laura Marks) and Skin of the Film (vivian Sobchack)

Film and TV History, Cultures, Criticism, Festivals .. 

Shape of your proposal: 

Intro (Set up and prepare reader)

• Introduce and explain main focus and aim/question
• Clarify areas of research your dissertation (focus and aim of each chapter)
• Brief overview of the discussion order of your chapter by chapter

Chapter One - beginning

• Definitions of terms used in quetsion
• Basic theory
• Background information and/or historical ideas and context

Chapter Two - Middle 

• Utilises and builds on info from ch 1
• Application of theories, current discussions/context
• Any info and ideas that must be discussed before the question can be fully answered or the aim fully achieveed in final chapter

Chapter Three - End

• Question is fully answered or aim fully realised 

Conclusion: Very last, final response on discussion

• Reiterate the aims, reminding reader of any questions you wanted to answer
• Highlight key findings 

• Research and list progressive points (logical order, identify infor/evidence)
• Check the flow of your essay 

Expectations: 

• Clear, focused and research informed
• Theoretically informed
• Opportunities for analysing viewpoints/evidence
• your own conclusions
• focused and specific
• purpose

Don't:

• imaginary points
• already know the answer
• lots and lots of description
• broad,vague

Question should contain:

• Questioning term
• Enquiry, purpose/aim
• Specific theories or work

Structuring Paragraphs:

1. Para Focus
2. Intro of quotation
3. Context of quote
4. Quote
5. (Reference)
6. Interpretation of quote
7. Analysis and conclusions drawn from quote
8. Concluding point

• Inclusion of research and discussion/analysis of it
• does not include any unreferenced material
• evidence is key  Avoid blogs, youtubes or chat forums (unless to backup an academic point)

Ideas for analysis:

• Peaky Blinders (Mise-En-Scene, Post Modern music, representation)
• Black Mirror
• Misfits
• Luther
• Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson: Why His Movies Matter By Mark Browning

The Films of Wes Anderson: Critical Essays on an Indiewood Icon edited by P. Kunze

Cinema of Wes Anderson: Bringing Nostalgia to Life By Whitney Crothers Dilley

• Colour and costume 
• Visual Comedy EG Buster Keaton, Edgar Wright, Jacques tati

'How does a director use the camera as tool for visual comedy, with specific reference to both contemporary and classic material?'

'To what extent is the camera used a distinguishable tool for visual comedy, with specific reference to both contemporary and classic material?'

David Bordwell's essay on funny framings: http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2007/04/30/funny-framings/

David Chen's video essay on Wright's use of close-ups: vimeo.com/85311313

Politics and the American Television Comedy: A Critical Survey from I Love ... By Doyle Greene

Keeping Quiet: Visual Comedy in the Age of Sound By Julian Dutton

Animation - EG Looney Tunes 

• Costume and colour 
• Silence as choice - sound design
• Escapism
• Documentaries?
• Mockumentary?
• Increase of TV as a cinematic art