Film and Media Studies - BA (Hons)

The course introduces students to the language of film, from aspects of mise-en-scène (setting, performance, costumes, props, lighting, frame composition) to framing (camera movement, shot scale, lenses), sound (fidelity, volume, timbre) and editing (from requirements for spatial orientation through matches on action, eyeline matches and shot-reverse-shot structures to temporal manipulations through ellipsis and montage). The study of these elements enables students to understand the spatial and temporal construction of films, as well as the stylistic, expressive and/or dramatic functions of specific strategies

This module introduces students to the ways in which meaning is created and communicated across various media. The primary focus will be upon a range of key forms across the historical continuum of media practice. These trends will span both traditional and new forms of media content, such as print, radio, television, the Internet and user generated content. Media are therefore studied in this module as processes of transmission that shape and constrain what can be communicated through previous generations and into the future.

This module approaches the "big questions" that have surrounded film and the moving image and puts them into historical context. Although specific topics will vary, representative topics may address competing definitions of film and its constitutive elements, the effects that cinema has on spectators, the social, cultural and political implications that moving images reproduce, and the status of the medium between art and entertainment. Students will debate seminal writings on the nature of film and bring their arguments to bear on exemplary film productions.

This course examines film history and historiography through a series of case studies. In carrying out this investigation students will be invited to work with secondary and primary sources held in the library and will be encouraged to evaluate the aesthetic, technological, economic, social and political histories presented in this module. Students will understand the role and value of the contextual study of film and will be given the opportunity to research and write on selected aspects of film historiography. The choice of case studies will depend upon the expertise of the module convenor and is not restricted to a particular national cinema or period; case studies may include, for instance, the history of film by means of the study of a particular theme and cultural context in the history of film.

This module examines perceptions of media audiences and their social and economic power through the study of key theorists, themes and case studies. Students will consider the audience as an object, the audience as an institution, the audience as a user and more laterally, as a producer of media in the digital age. This module also considers fandom, public opinion and ratings, and how these once fixed concepts have been blurred in the age of Web 2.0, troubling traditional notions of audiences as passive receivers or at times even victims. Through real-world contemporary examples and students' own experiences with media, this module seeks to make audience theory relevant and accessible to the study of personal and public media consumption.

One of the assessment methods employed on this module is a Digital Portfolio. The Digital Portfolio platform allows theoretical modules to create practical implementations of scholarly ideas and interactive forms of assessment, which may include blogging, video essays, and other forms of trans-media content.

This introductory module examines the concept of 'identity' through the prism of cultural capital. Students will be introduced to key concepts and theories surrounding issues of gender, class, race, ethnicity and sexuality. These topics are considered through a series of case studies that may include theories of aesthetics, taste formations, sub-cultural theories, film and representations of class, teenage fan cultures, online streaming platforms and consumer choice, identity politics and cultural production. Students will be asked to consider the role that media processes play in constructing identity, community, inclusion and exclusion.