Film Genre

Module Provider: Film, Theatre and TV
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:5
Terms in which taught: Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Module version for: 2016/7

Summary module description:
With a particular focus on genre as an organising principle, this module plays a central role in the course by developing understanding of popular cinema ('Hollywood') around which some of the major discourses of film studies developed and which remains crucial to the understanding of many other filmmaking practices.

Aims:
The module aims: to extend students' knowledge and understanding of the cinema's dominant narrative tradition, including the contexts of industrial practice and change in US cinema; to develop their awareness of a number of major critical and theoretical approaches to the analysis of popular film, including but not limited to genre; to enhance skills of critical analysis, informed by appropriate analytical frameworks; to provide a secure basis for the comparative analysis of alternative cinemas, other moving image industries and for the consideration of ?Hollywood? within a wider and longer history of audio-visual production.

Assessable learning outcomes:
By the end of the module it is expected that students will be able to:
Demonstrate an understanding of genre as both a critical concept and a production category
demonstrate a critical understanding of foundational debates in the study of Hollywood cinema and related concepts central to narratives of historical change in Hollywood cinema;
discriminate between historically varied practices in Hollywood cinema;
demonstrate through sequence analysis the significance of different areas of detailed decision making in developing a film's effects and meanings;
develop extended critical arguments in which local detail is related to wider structures of individual movies and to groups of films;
employ critical understandings of the industrial and ideological frameworks the term 'Hollywood' encapsulates and reflect upon their relationship to wider filmmaking traditions;
make informed use of interpretative frameworks introduced or extended in the module (including, for instance, some of those developed to analyse ideological meanings of popular cinema);
relate analysis of films and groups of films to aspects of their contexts, showing a critical awareness of some of the problems and possibilities of relating text to context in Hollywood cinema;
evaluate the position of ?classical? Hollywood as ?the world?s mainstream film style? in comparison with practices and forms ?beyond? the studio period.
Additional outcomes:
The module plays a significant role in the development of other skills and competencies which are central to the course: oral communication and argument in group situations; appropriate deployment of research using printed and electronic resources; critical analysis and coherent argument; undertaking self-directed, independent work; presentation of written work using IT; identifying and addressing problems in the analysis of film.

Outline content:
The module explores significant aspects of the popular cinema of Hollywood, from the silent period onwards, allowing for consideration of film genre and a range of issues central to the study of popular US film production and building upon concepts and methods developed in previous modules, particularly the interpretation of film style and the role of ideological analysis in the study of films and their contexts.

Global context:
This module encounters American cinema, which has had an enduring global influence, and may include the study of European émigré directors working in Hollywood.

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
The teaching pattern will be one lecture and one seminar per week, plus two screenings in the Department's cinema.

Contact hours:
Lectures- 9
Seminars- 13.5
Supervised time in studio/workshop= 36
Guided independent study- 141.5
Total hours by term- 200.00
Total hours for module- 200.00

Summative Assessment Methods:
Written exam- 50%
Written assignment including essay- 50%

Other information on summative assessment:
One assessment point will typically be in the form of a ?takeaway exam?: an essay set with a deadline approximately 24 hours later, in response to a question and a screened sequence.

Formative assessment methods:
Length of examination:
See above

Requirements for a pass:
An overall mark of 40%.

Reassessment arrangements:
Resubmission of failed coursework.