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Film Language, Stylistics and Photography

Study Course Description

Course Description Statuss:Approved
Course Description Version:6.00
Study Course Accepted:02.02.2024 12:25:30
Study Course Information
Course Code:KSK_174LQF level:Level 6
Credit Points:3.00ECTS:4.50
Branch of Science:Communication SciencesTarget Audience:Communication Science; Information and Communication Science
Study Course Supervisor
Course Supervisor:Dita Rietuma
Study Course Implementer
Structural Unit:Faculty of Social Sciences
The Head of Structural Unit:
Contacts:Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szfatrsu[pnkts]lv
Study Course Planning
Full-Time - Semester No.1
Lectures (count)6Lecture Length (academic hours)2Total Contact Hours of Lectures12
Classes (count)4Class Length (academic hours)2Total Contact Hours of Classes8
Total Contact Hours20
Part-Time - Semester No.1
Lectures (count)5Lecture Length (academic hours)2Total Contact Hours of Lectures10
Classes (count)3Class Length (academic hours)2Total Contact Hours of Classes6
Total Contact Hours16
Study course description
Preliminary Knowledge:
None.
Objective:
In the 19th century films were born as “animated photography” – a static image got the uniqueness of motion and the ability to “capture” the flow of time. Since the origins of film development film trends and stylistic searches have affected the visual culture of the 20th and the 21st century, and photography is also its component.
Topic Layout (Full-Time)
No.TopicType of ImplementationNumberVenue
1Introductory lecture.Lectures1.00auditorium
2Film and reality. Ontology of a photographic image. Elements of film language. Editing. Use of plans. Use of close-ups (Jeanne d’Arc by Theodor Dreyer, works of Sergei Eisenstein, etc.).Lectures2.00auditorium
3Set-up – use of deep set-up (works by Orson Welles – Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, etc.). Drama of the set-up (Alfred Hitchcock, Michelangelo Antonioni and other works). Conventions of the classical (Hollywood) film stylistics.Lectures1.00auditorium
4Genres and visual stylistics (musical film, melodrama, gangster film, western). Stylistics of film noir as an alternative to the classical Hollywood style conventions. Visual stylistics, lighting peculiarities of film noir. Post-modern reflection in the visual culture at the turn of the 20th and 21st century. Modernism trends (in the 20s of the 20th century), their visual and stylistic conventions – expressionism, impressionism, surrealism and their echoes in the modern visual culture.Lectures1.00auditorium
5Experimental culture – work of Maya Deren and Stan Brakhage. Quest of documentary films, their stylistics and impact on photography – modernism in Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov, totalitarian aesthetisation in Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl, etc. Watching and analysis of films.Classes2.00auditorium
6Italian neorealism, French New Wave, Danish Dogma realism trends genealogy in the 20th century. Stylisation – French New Wave and European art film experience (Alain Resnais, Jean-Luc Godard, Federico Fellini, Pedro Almodavar, etc.). Watching and analysis of films.Classes2.00auditorium
7Notion of look, narrative interaction between film art and photography (Blow-up by Michelangelo Antonioni, Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock, Peeping Tom by Michael Powell).Lectures1.00auditorium
Topic Layout (Part-Time)
No.TopicType of ImplementationNumberVenue
1Introductory lecture.Lectures1.00auditorium
2Film and reality. Ontology of a photographic image. Elements of film language. Editing. Use of plans. Use of close-ups (Jeanne d’Arc by Theodor Dreyer, works of Sergei Eisenstein, etc.).Lectures1.00auditorium
3Set-up – use of deep set-up (works by Orson Welles – Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, etc.). Drama of the set-up (Alfred Hitchcock, Michelangelo Antonioni and other works). Conventions of the classical (Hollywood) film stylistics.Lectures1.00auditorium
4Genres and visual stylistics (musical film, melodrama, gangster film, western). Stylistics of film noir as an alternative to the classical Hollywood style conventions. Visual stylistics, lighting peculiarities of film noir. Post-modern reflection in the visual culture at the turn of the 20th and 21st century. Modernism trends (in the 20s of the 20th century), their visual and stylistic conventions – expressionism, impressionism, surrealism and their echoes in the modern visual culture.Lectures1.00auditorium
5Experimental culture – work of Maya Deren and Stan Brakhage. Quest of documentary films, their stylistics and impact on photography – modernism in Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov, totalitarian aesthetisation in Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl, etc. Watching and analysis of films.Classes2.00auditorium
6Italian neorealism, French New Wave, Danish Dogma realism trends genealogy in the 20th century. Stylisation – French New Wave and European art film experience (Alain Resnais, Jean-Luc Godard, Federico Fellini, Pedro Almodavar, etc.). Watching and analysis of films.Classes1.00auditorium
7Notion of look, narrative interaction between film art and photography (Blow-up by Michelangelo Antonioni, Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock, Peeping Tom by Michael Powell).Lectures1.00auditorium
Assessment
Unaided Work:
To approbate the knowledge obtained at lectures and seminars when creating different photo works, to create in student groups the work on the given topic within the scope of set stylistics.
Assessment Criteria:
• Participation in lectures. • Participation and activity in seminars. • Creative project – photo work reflecting certain stylistics.
Final Examination (Full-Time):Exam (Written)
Final Examination (Part-Time):Exam (Written)
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge:After mastering the course students: • Will recognise, know, compare different film stylistics and analogues in photography. • Will recognise authors in film and photography, whose work reflects the most essential stylistic directions. • Will know, justify technical means used to obtain certain image characteristics.
Skills:After mastering the course students: • Will use certain stylistics for the creation of own photographic work. • Will define and use technical means to create certain stylistics. • Will make the selected stylistics suitable for the requirements of certain formats.
Competencies:After mastering the course students: • Will evaluate audiovisual works – film and photo works. • Will find one’s way around film culture heritage and its reflections in photography. • Will use a diverse stylistic palette in creating own work. • Will be able to show responsible and knowledge-based activity in creating own creative work.
Bibliography
No.Reference
Required Reading
1Robert Sklar. World History of Film. New York, Harry Abrahams Incorporated, 2002
2Rudolf Arnheim. From Film as Art. Film and Reality. The Making of A Film. Film Theory and Criticism, Edited by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999
3Stanley Cavell. From the World Viewed. Photograph and Screen. Film Theory and Criticism, Edited by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999
4Truffaut, Francois. A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema. In: Movies and Methods. Volume I. Edited by Bill Nichols. Berkley, Losangeles, London. University of California Press. 1976
5Bordwell, David. The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice. In Film Theory and Criticism. Introductory Readings (Fifth Edition). Edited by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999.
6Andre Bazin. From What is Cinema? The Evalution of the Language of Cinema. Film Theory and Criticism, Edited by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999
7Andre Bazin. From What is Cinema? The Ontology of the Photographic Image. Film Theory and Criticism. Edited by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999
8Stan Brakhage. From Metaphors of Vision. Film Theory and Criticism. Edited by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999
9Maya Deren. Cinematography. The Creative Use of Reality. Film Theory and Criticism. Edited by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999
10Bela Balasz. From Theory of the Film. The Close-up. The Face of Man. Film Theory and Criticism. Edited by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999
11Ervin Panofsky. Style and Medium in the Motion Pictures. Film Theory and Criticism. Edited by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999
12Ervin Panofsky. Style and Medium in the Motion Pictures. Edited by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999
13Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. In Film Theory and Criticism. Introductory Readings (Fifth Edition). Edited by Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1999
14Todd, Anthony. Autorship and the films of David Lynch. Aesthetic receptions in contemporary Hollywood, New York: I.B. Taurus Publishers, 2012
15Collins, Luke. 100% Pure Adrenalin. Gender and Generic Surface in Point Break. Gender Meets Genre in Postwar Cinemas. Edited by Christine Gledhill. Urbana, Chicago, Springfield. University of Illinois Press, 2012
Additional Reading
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Other Information Sources
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