This is a test
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Film Studies For Dummies
Book details
Book preview
Table of contents
Citations
About This Book
Film Studies
From Hollywood to Bollywood, explore the fantastic world of film
Whether you're preparing to study film at university or you simply have a passion for cinema, you're bound to enjoy this book. Here's where you'll learn how people communicate ideas in films, how the industry works and who's on the team, the impact of film on popular culture, the different genres and styles, film theory, the joys of animation and so much more.
- Explore far-reaching effects â examine the narrative, artistic, cultural, economic and political implications of cinema
- Compare and contrast film and reality â explore conceptual frameworks for a film's relationship to reality
- Find out just how they do it â discover how stories are developed in movies and how a storyline is related to broader issues in society
- Work out what it's all about â get to grips with avant-garde cinema and find out what such films really offer
- Take the incredible world tour â sample the unique styles of cinema in Europe, Japan, India and other countries
- Go larger than life â learn about greats in the industry, venture into film analysis and look at the transitions into 21 st century cinema
Open the book and find:
- How people tell stories in film
- Ways film is used to explore current issues and attitudes
- Responsibilities of cinema tographers and producers
- The mysteries of mise-en-scene
- All about digital-age animation
- Auteurs from the 1930s to today
- What poststructuralism and postmodernism really mean
- Ten must-watch movies
Frequently asked questions
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlegoâs features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan youâll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, weâve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes, you can access Film Studies For Dummies by James Cateridge in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Film History & Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Part I
Getting Started with Film Studies
In this part âŚ
- Appreciate the art of storytelling on film.
- Differentiate the contributions of film professionals, including screenwriters, directors, cinematographers, editors and many others.
- Gaze at film stars and go behind their glamorous images.
- Analyse film narratives, dissect shots and sequences, and understand the editing process.
Chapter 1
Becoming a Fantastic Film Student
In This Chapter
Film studies is about appreciating, understanding and explaining the greatest art form of the 20th century, which despite repeated predictions to the contrary is still going strong. The discipline involves research into and analysis of films, first and foremost, but also film-makers, film cultures, the film industry and film audiences.
To fulfil its aims, film studies borrows the best methods and theories from other academic areas, notably literary (or other cultural) studies and philosophy, as well as political science, sociology and psychology. In addition, analysing films uses similar tools to analysing paintings and photographs, but with the essential addition of movement.
If you already love film and want to become a film student, youâve come to the right place. In this chapter, I take you through the basics of studying film: from learning how to watch films critically, to understanding the different types of film writing that you can use for research, to justifying the meaning and importance of cinema for the wider world. Everyone knows that film is important, but as a film student you need to develop ways to say why and how it matters.
Upping Your Cinematic Game
To study films, you have to do more than simply watch them; you have to try to understand them, which doesnât just happen â studying films requires time and effort. And put on your leggings, like the kids from Fame (1980), cos right hereâs where you start paying. In sweat.
Going beyond merely watching films
Luckily, many (if not most) people love watching films. But many people decide that simply enjoying movies is enough for them, or even worry that studying films may destroy the pleasure they take from them.
- Understanding cinematic narrative structures can make even the dumbest action movie seem quite profound (check out Chapters 4 and 5).
- Knowing about film history can make a 100-year-old silent film as fresh and exciting as the day it was first screened (see Chapter 2 to read about early cinema).
- Appreciating the many techniques, skills and creative decisions that go into creating a successful picture can keep you interested even when the story sags.
- Viewing a wider range of films builds up your reference points and helps you understand how the classics influence contemporary cinema.
- Reading and appreciating film criticism means that you always have an opinion about what you just saw. Prepare yourself to start winning pub debates with ease.
Film studies is fun, yes, but that doesnât necessarily mean that itâs easy. Youâve been watching films in your own particular way for most of your life, and making the effort to step back and analyse something so instinctive and pleasurable can be quite difficult. Like trying to explain why you love ice cream â or sausages!
Ask yourself what you enjoy about this film: the familiar storyline or the rewarding pay-off when the protagonists complete their journeys? Do you relate to one particular character or does the film showcase your favourite star (the person you want to be like or be with)? Or does the music â or the gorgeous images â keep you coming back?
Whatever your main reason (and be honest), focus on that and watch your film again, by yourself with no interruptions. This time, take notes. Doing so is really important. Write down every thought that occurs to you about how the film works and why you find it enjoyable. Even draw pictures if you want to. Stick men shooting each other can be a surprisingly effective way to capture and recall what is happening on screen.
If you can manage to view and take notes successfully with your favourite film, congratulations, youâve broken free from the chains of habitual watching and are now analysing, assessing and being critical. Thatâs where you need to start.
Connecting film studies to other stuff you can study
Film studies is inherently interdisciplinary, which means that it steals the best theories and research methods from other fields of study and applies them to films. This aspect of film studies is useful, because even if youâve never studied films before you may well have encountered a few film studies methods already.
I hope that the following experiences and related methods come flooding back to you as you read this book.
Studying stories
Analysing storytelling is a process thatâs very similar regardless of whether you find the story in a book, on the stage or on the silver screen. So if you spent any time grappling with literary classics at school, you have a basic understanding of concepts such as characterisation and narrative point of view, which you can apply to films.
Look a little deeper and you soon realise that some of the theories you use to understand books and those you use in film studies are strikingly similar. For example, you may be familiar with the notion that you can boil down all stories to seven (or even just three) basic universal plots, which have entertained humans throughout history.
- Boy meets girl. Boy hates girl. Boy falls for girl. Boy loses girl. Boy fights to get girl back. Girl gives in.
- Girl versus shark. Shark wins. Boy versus shark. Boy loses first round due to personality flaw. Boy tackles personality flaw. Boy beats shark.
- Cowboy rides into border town. Cowboy shoots bad people. Cowboy rides off into the sunset.
Breaking films down into basic plot elements â and implying that the same stories are repeated over and over with only minor changes â is pure structuralism. So you see, Hollywood isnât as stupid as it often seems. (For much more on structuralism, flip to Chapter 13.)
Studying people and places
Watching films is an enormously popular activity across the world, and like any large-scale human activity, you can use methods from the social sciences to analyse and explain the phenomenon. When you take a sociological approach to studying film, youâre less interested in the films themselves and more interested in the people who consume or produce them.
Audience research is an important branch of film studies, which gathers data from its human subjects in many different ways. You can achieve broad surveys by using simple questionnaires, or gain more detailed and nuanced analysis through individual interviews or focus groups. The data provided can be quantitative, such as percentages or charts, or qualitative, like explanations of behaviour or emotional responses.
Studying the past
To understand how cinema works in a particular place, you also need to think about how it developed over time. Therefore another important area of film studies draws from historical theories and methods. Historical research relies on traces of evidence to help illuminate the past, and so archives of material (including film archives) are vital.
Focusing on creativity, industry and technology
Film is such a rich, varied and important object of study because it exists at the intersection of three major forces of the modern era: creativity, industry and technology â each of which I explore in the following sections.
Considering creativity
Of course film is an art form, but stop for a moment to think about what that really means. What exactly are the creative decisions that make one film different from another? What makes films âartâ?
During the first few decades of film as it found its feet as a mass medium of entertainmen...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Part I: Getting Started with Film Studies
- Part II: Taking All Types: Genres, Modes and Style
- Part III: Travelling a World of Wonders: Global Cinema
- Part IV: Bringing In the Big Ideas: Theories and Beyond
- Part V: The Part of Tens
- About the Author
- Cheat Sheet
- More Dummies Products
- End User License Agreement