Introduction To Film

This concise introduction to the study of film offers an integrated and carefully paced overview of the issues and perspectives that contribute to a full understanding of the medium. It starts simply with a range of filmic examples, theoretical terms and analytical strategies chosen to reflect students' likely motivations for studing film in the first place. Its unified narrative line and student-centered philosophy create a layered approach, where greater complexity is built in stage by stage. It is enriched by a fund of diverse examples, handled as extended case studies or briefer vignettes, that offer a sensitive mix of the familiar, classic and more unusual.

Nick Lacey is Head of Media Studies at Benton Park School in West Yorkshire.

List of figures

x

List of film stills

xi

List of tables

xiii

Acknowledgements

xiv

Preface

xv

Introduction

1

(4)

Film language

5

(41)

Introduction

5

(1)

Introduction to mise en scene

5

(2)

Production design: sets, props and costumes

7

(3)

Lighting

10

(2)

Performance

12

(4)

Sound (and music)

16

(6)

Framing: position; depth of field; aspect ratio; height and angle (but not movement)

22

(6)

Camera movement

28

(3)

Editing

31

(10)

Film stars as texts

41

(5)

Film genre and narrative

46

(53)

Introduction

46

(1)

Defining genre

46

(2)

The repertoire of elements

48

(5)

Generic evolution

53

(4)

Approaches to genre

57

(2)

Twelve uses of genre

59

(17)

Genre and audiences

76

(1)

Introduction to narrative

77

(1)

Todorov and Propp

78

(6)

Story and plot

84

(4)

Roland Barthes' narrative codes

88

(2)

Other approaches

90

(3)

Postmodern narratives

93

(6)

Film as industry

99

(48)

Introduction

99

(1)

The beginning of cinema

99

(1)

Hollywood -- the formation of the major studios

100

(4)

Hollywood and censorship

104

(2)

Hollywood -- the coming of sound

106

(2)

Hollywood decline: the Paramount decrees and the baby boom

108

(1)

New Hollywood? The early 1970s

109

(2)

Package Hollywood

111

(2)

Hollywood: conglomeration to media corporation

113

(3)

The importance of Jaws

116

(3)

Hollywood and the high concept

119

(4)

The independent sector in North America

123

(2)

The arthouse sector

125

(4)

Selling cinema

129

(2)

Genre and industry

131

(4)

How new is contemporary Hollywood?

135

(1)

Stars

136

(3)

The publicity circus

139

(3)

The DVD revolution

142

(1)

Film festivals

143

(1)

Conclusion: the shadow of Hollywood

144

(3)

Film and theory

147

(61)

Introduction

147

(1)

Film and realism

147

(8)

The auteur theory

155

(1)

Structuralism and auteurism

156

(5)

Screen theory -- ideology

161

(13)

Screen theory -- psychoanalysis

174

(3)

Screen theory -- feminist analysis

177

(3)

Spectatorship

180

(9)

Third cinema and post-colonialism

189

(8)

Postmodernism and poststructuralism

197

(6)

Audience pleasures

203

(5)

Film and history

208

(45)

Introduction

208

(1)

German Expressionism

209

(5)

Avant-garde

214

(5)

Soviet cinema in the 1920s

219

(3)

The British documentary movement

222

(1)

Italian neo-realism

223

(4)

The French New Wave (nouvelle vague)

227

(4)

The British New Wave (1959--63) and the `Swinging Sixties'

231

(6)

Other 1960s new waves

237

(3)

May '68

240

(2)

New German cinema

242

(3)

Chinese cinema: fifth and sixth generation

245

(3)

Iranian cinema

248

(2)

Denmark's Dogme

250

(3)

Appendices

253

(55)

Australia and New Zealand -- the role of the aboriginal

253

(2)

The Balkans -- civil strife

255

(1)

Canada -- engulfed by America?

256

(2)

Hong Kong -- (not) a national cinema?

258

(1)

Mexican Cinema -- renaissance on America's doorstep

259

(4)

Film and representation

263

(32)

Introduction

263

(1)

Representation and types

263

(3)

African-Americans and Hollywood

266

(6)

National cinema

272

(2)

British cinema

274

(19)

State-of-the-nation films

293

(2)

Film and technology

295

(13)

Introduction

295

(1)

Precursors

295

(1)

Projecting frames

296

(1)

Aspect ratio

297

(2)

Lenses and filmstock

299

(1)

Sound and colour

300

(1)

Animation

301

(1)

Special effects

302

(3)

Digital distribution

305

(1)

Conclusion

306

(2)

Bibliography

308

(21)

Film index

329

(3)

Subject index

332

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

FREE SHIPPING

Rent More, Save More! Use code: BBRENTAL

5% off 1 book, 7% off 2 books, 10% off 3+ books

Introduction To Film

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials

Digital License