Film and Screen Media
BA (Hons)

Year two

• Culture and Society in Modern Japan 

Culture and Society in Modern Japan

The module will explore aspects of contemporary Japanese society and specific forms of Japanese popular culture within this context. Students will be introduced to the concept of the family and continuing household, or ie, concepts of uchi (insiders) and soto (outsiders), honne (private feelings) and tatemae (public face), sempai (seniors) and kohai (juniors), shame and honour. It will examine how these and other specific cultural phenomena are introduced through the process of early socialization, the formal ducation system, class and status systems and employment structures to create a Japanese sense of identity. The module will interweave discussions of art forms, visual culture, and screenings of Japanese films and anime in order to develop a thorough and critical understanding of popular culture in Japanese society. The module examines the critical significance of Japanese popular culture as processes of cultural representation and as products of the Japanese media industry. The impact of cultural change and links between popular culture and national identity will be explored.

• Documentary Film 

Documentary Film

This module will examine documentary film as a continually mutating tradition that has been in constant dialogue with other forms of film, media, cultural and artistic production, for example the 'genres' of non-fiction film such as the news-real, amateur filmmaking (home movies/video), fiction film from Hollywood to the various forms of neo-realism and realism, modernist and avant-garde experimentation such as surrealism, animation, documentary photography and so forth. In short, it will explore the increasingly 'blurred boundaries' of documentary film practice and the contested space of the'documentary' today with its multiple platforms. The module will further examine documentary film in the context of technological, institutional, economic, social, cultural and political developments, focusing in paicular on the contemporary global and cosmopolitan dimension of documentary production, distribution and exhibition. In particular the role that documentary can play in contesting unjust forms of power and inequality will be emphasised.

• North American Cinema 

North American Cinema

This module explores the North American film industry and explores the history of Hollywood as a dominant mode of production together with subordinate modes of production. Students will consider the connection between production and aesthetics and style of the North American cinema (including alternative/independent film). The module aims to address the ways in which the North American/Hollywood film has represented and imagined America and other societies, together with the influence these films have had on the film industries of other countries. Particular focus will be placed on the relationship between Hollywood and North American independent cinema. Areas of study include the studio system and the Paramount decree; New Hollywood and independent cinema; key genres such as film noir, melodrama and action-adventure; classification and censorship; distribution, exhibition practices and film festivals (with an industry speaker); and African-American cinema. It provides a broad context for some of the genre-specific modules offered at Level 6 of the programme.

• Researching the Media 

Researching the Media

Research into any aspect of the media involves utilising one or more of a wide range of research techniques. The aim of this module is to provide an introduction to the key research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, in the study of the media. The module in particular will focus on the various ways of researching three key areas of mass media: media organisations; media content; and media consumption and audiences. The various research methods that will be considered include: interviewing; focus groups; content analysis; and analysis of images and text.

• Screen Theory and Criticism 

Screen Theory and Criticism

This module introduces advanced skills for analysing and interpreting screen texts, offering students the opportunity to build up key skills and competences in the theoretical methodologies of screen studies and to acquire advanced experience in the close analysis of films and television programmes. It introduces the critical approaches used to analyse screen texts and goes on to examine how meaning is produced and communicated in films and television programmes, not only through the products themselves, but also through their production and circulation contexts. The module introduces or builds on significant film and media theories, including classical film theory, spectatorship and apparatus theory, psychoanalysis and cinema, Marxist criticism, postmodern theory, queer theory, affect theory, film philosophy and postcolonialism.