Film, Television and Moving Image MA

This module introduces the key terms to the study of moving images and surveys some of the major theoretical discussions that established film and television studies. We will explore discussions on genre, authorship, narrative, spectatorship, ideology and realism, as well as issues on sound in relation moving images. We will tackle key texts and their intellectual, technological, social and historical contexts and reconsider our relationship to images and the assumed knowledge gained by looking.

This module surveys recent theoretical developments and contemporary debates in the field of screen studies. We explore the ways in which our experiences of moving images have been changing in the contemporary period, and we engage with theoretical works reflecting on the scale of transformation of moving image production, circulation and spectatorship. Among some of the questions we will discuss are: What are the continuities and changes in the ways images are produced, exhibited, consumed and discussed? How is the digital turn reckoned with in contemporary discussions of realism, spectatorship, mediated experience and spectacle?

This module provides you the opportunity to independently research an aspect of film, television or moving image. Its flexibility allows you to complete a substantial piece of research suited to your career aspiration. You will design and develop your project with supervisory support and within a structured timetable of progress. You can choose between completing an in-depth piece of academic writing or a theoretically informed professional project. By the end of the module you will accomplish one of the following: a) an academic dissertation; b) a blog or web exhibition site accompanied by a substantial commentary; c) a film/moving image curation project, accompanied by a substantial commentary (curation suggested pathway only); d) a screenplay for a 30 minute film or TV programme, or episodes of a web series, accompanied by a substantial commentary (screenwriting suggested pathway only)

The production, dissemination and viewing of moving images take place within historically variable circumstances. We will explore different infrastructures, spaces, contexts, platforms and institutions of moving image distribution and exhibition. In the process you will be introduced to key theories of distribution, spectatorship and exhibition. This module will encourage you to think about some of the ways different models of distribution and exhibition can shape the practice of filmmakers and moving image artists and, indeed, our viewing and appreciation of moving images.

What roles do film programmers and moving image curators play in film culture and art? What considerations and practices are involved in programming films or curating moving images? This module introduces core professional research skills in making film exhibition programmes or curating moving images in non-cinematic contexts of exhibition. You will have the opportunity to develop competencies in communicating about/with moving images within a curatorial context. We will also survey key issues and debates in histories of film programming and curating, and explore key theories of moving image curation as well as relevant debates in curatorial studies. The module builds on concepts and issues addressed in the module Cinema Distribution and Exhibition.

A module that will enable students to gain practical experience of planning a 30-minute screenwriting project or a series concept and producing the necessary documents – a short pitch and an approximately seven to ten-page treatment. The module will place key creative issues (including premise, theme, character, genre and story structure) within the context of professional script development and industry practice. It will build on and develop key concepts and elements of screenwriting practice introduced in the first semester Introduction to Screenwriting module.

A module that introduces the screenwriting pathway. It will enable students to gain practical experience in writing a short script as well as a theoretical understanding of screenwriting practice, professional context, conceptual approaches and form. The programme will include lectures, seminars and tutorials, involving screenings, analysis of short films, clips and web series, analysis of screenplays and discussion of student work from initial idea to first draft screenplays.

The module introduces key theoretical and methodological issues in Asian cinema in relation to questions of time, history and memory. It explores how film scholars, film industries, and film texts respectively have constructed or represented time, memory and history. The module uses case studies from different periods and several contexts of film production and exhibition in Asia, including original research conducted in South, East and Southeast Asia by the module’s tutors. We will explore the politics of film historical scholarship and representation; the relationship between film aesthetics, cinematic practices of exhibition and spectatorship, and multiple political, artistic, economic, institution, technological and cultural contexts; the interplay between cinema, time and modernity in Asia. Students considering continuing onto post-graduate research on any area of screen studies or Asian cinema should find this module especially relevant.

An examination of contemporary fictional television programmes, including ‘quality’ drama and comedy from the US and UK, with a focus on programmes distributed by cable, satellite and Internet platforms, the aesthetics and representational strategies of such programmes, especially their representations of diversity, and the nature of their address to their audiences. The module will also explore alternative approaches to television form, both in broadcast and online contexts.

This module is a survey of documentary film aesthetics and theoretical issues concerning sites of documentary film exhibition and spectatorship. We will explore the historical role of non-fictional film, analyse the form and content of historical and contemporary film/moving image examples, and consider the ethical, social and political debates and implications of documentary film. We will consider the role of non-fiction moving images within cinematic and wider noncinematic contexts of image circulation and exhibition, especially television broadcasting as well as online journalism, museums and art galleries, or grassroots and informal contexts of moving image dissemination. With the proliferation of sites and institutional contexts of documentary film/moving image exhibition, we will also explore the implications of these changing contexts of exhibition on documentary aesthetics and spectatorship.

This module maps the development of a European cinema culture from the post war period to the present day. It considers the place of cinema in the rebuilding of national identity after the war, and examines the growth of an art cinema, with thematic and aesthetic attributes distinct from the thriving domestic markets particular to individual countries, as well as the film industry epitomised by Hollywood. Looking across the diverse social and political contexts of the continent, from France and Italy to Scandinavia, Soviet Russia and Turkey, the course will examine some of the different figures and films which have defined and defied the often fragmented notion of European and national identities, to create a cohesive film culture with its own modes of distribution, production and dissemination.