Introduction to Screen Studies

This subject provides students with a comprehensive introduction to the study of film language and theory. It is organised around these two separate but related areas. The film language component covers two interrelated topics that are essential for an understanding of the cinema: film aesthetics and film history. The subject begins with the early cinema and progresses through to an analysis of contemporary screen cultures. Key topics of narrative, editing, sound, mise-en-scene and cinematography are studied both in relation to contemporary cinema and within their historical contexts. The film theory module introduces key theories including: narrative and formalist theory, auteurism and genre, feminist film theory and the influence of psychoanalysis, new screen media theory and contemporary research methodologies, all of which offer insight into the discipline of Screen Studies.