Studying FILM STUDIES and ENGLISH AND FILM at Salford

Martin and Kate

(Event hub:

Your Lecturers

Researchers who publish widely in the field, and are

involved in various networks….

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A LOOK AT JUST SOME OF OUR

MODULES…

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FIRST YEAR: CRITICAL APPROACHES (1&2)How film has been placed into

intellectual frameworks…

From points of view of:

• Authorship and Genre

• Institutions (>> several other mods)

• Audiences and Consumption

• Theory

• Representation, inc. Race, Gender, Sexuality

And also developing good

habits about how we

approach film:

systematically,

academically…

• Who is presenting a film?

• What do they hope to gain

from it?

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FIRST YEAR: FILM FORM & MEANING

• How do films make meanings?

• ‘Toolkit module’ of terms and concepts

• Mise-en-scène

• Editing/montage

• Soundtrack

• Cinematography

• Narrative

• Understanding whole visual and sound environment

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SECOND YEAR: FILM JOURNALISMWhat are the different ways we may write about film?

• Taught through a series of writing workshops where students will deploy skills of film reviewing,

interviewing, feature writing, sub-editing. Attending screenings of films, students will then

produce reviews which are discussed in class. Students learn to be concise and entertaining in

displaying knowledge of film and the filmmaking process.

• An overview of working as a freelance journalist and further training is included in the syllabus

(indeed this module is taught by a freelance journalist).

Key areas such as:

• writing reviews and features

• interviewing

• working as a freelance

• pitching, networking and making contacts

• creating a portfolio of journalistic writing

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SECOND YEAR: FILM DISTRIBUTION AND EXHIBITION

Through a combination of classroom activities and

guest lectures from industry professionals, this

module explores and critically explains the

connected fields of film distribution and film

exhibition.

Key areas such as:

• The contemporary film industry in the UK

• Film Distribution in the UK

• Film Exhibition in the UK

• The role of film festivals in the internationaldistribution of new cinema

• Advertising/the film industry

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THIRD YEAR: FILM PROGRAMMING FOR CINEMAS & FESTIVALS

The module focuses on creating programmes for

independent cinemas and film festivals.

The module is taught by Professor Andy Willis

who has a wealth of experience in this area. He

also currently works at HOME in this capacity.

Key areas such as:

• Programming festival retrospectives: case

study in film at the Viva Spanish and Latin

American Festival

• Understanding the market and programming

an independent cinema’s weekly list

• Via assessment, students design a season for

an independent cinema

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THIRD YEAR: SEQUENTIAL ART –COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS

We’ll study important examples of international comic strips,

series & ‘graphic novels’. A section of module will look at film/TV

adaptations, evaluating the importance of comic-derived or

inspired material to the modern media landscape. The unique

ways in which comics can be said to create meanings will be

highlighted via the study of several themes:

• Comics and Childhood

• The Graphic Novel Era: Comics ‘come of age’

• Comics, Ideology & Form: Case Study of 1970s British

Comics

• Fandom

• Comics and Other Media

• The ‘Indie’/DiY Comics Scene

• Practical Workshop Sessions

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THIRD YEAR: HOLLYWOOD MASCULINITIES

We will examine how notions of “idealised” or “preferred” masculinity are

informed and influenced by history whilst exploring how these are played

out and represented in Hollywood cinema.

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THE DISSERTATION

• Guided independent study with

regular supervision meetings.

• A culmination of your studies and

so should focus on what you are

good at/what you are most

interested in.

• The piece of work you’ll

remember and hopefully get most

satisfaction from.

Some recent projects:

• “Women directors: do they have a

characteristic approach? What is their place in

the industry?”

• “Did Classical Hollywood ‘exploit’ its stars? If

so, how?”

• “John Ford: ideologies of race and gender”

• “How are young female

children/adolescents/teens represented in U.S.

and Japanese animation?”

• “The ‘Uncomfortable Cinema’ of Steve

McQueen”

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BA (HONS) FILM STUDIES

Programme Outline

(Options are examples)

Film Form, Film

Meaning (20 credits)

Classical Hollywood

Cinema (20 credits)

Critical Approaches to

Film (20 credits)

Critical Approaches to

Film II (20 credits)

Film Histories, Film

Movements (20 credits)

Film Histories, Film

Movements II (20

credits)

LEVEL FOUR

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British Cinema (20

credits)

Film Distribution &

Exhibition (20 credits)

Contemporary

Hollywood Cinema (20)

Comedy and British

Cinema (20)

Cinema Asia (20) Film Journalism (20)

LEVEL FIVE

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Elective x 3 from (at least four will run per year):

• Hollywood Masculinities (20)

• Film Programming for Cinemas & Festivals (20)

• Film and Theory (20)

• Sequential Art – Comics & Graphic Novels (20)

Dissertation (60)

LEVEL SIX

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BA (HONS) ENGLISH AND FILM STUDIES

Programme Outline

(Options are examples)

Semester One Semester Two

Narrative, Fiction and The Novel (20 credits)

Theory and Practice (20 credits)

Popular Fictions (20 credits)

ENGLISH AND FILMLevel 4 / First year

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Semester One Semester Two

The Romantic Period (20 Credits)CORE

Victorian Literature (20 Credits)CORE

And ONE of the following (eg):

Attitudes to English (20 Credits) Option

Revival and Revolution: Irish Literature 1890-1930 (20 Credits)Option

Introduction to Children’s Literature (20) Option

Intro. To Scriptwriting (Fiction) (20)Option

ENGLISH AND FILMLevel 5 Cores and Options (examples)

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Semester One Semester Two

Postmodernism (20 credits)CORE

And TWO of the following (e.g.):

Shakespeare and the Play of Thought (20 Credits) Option

British Theatre Post-1950 (20 Credits) Option

Descent into Hell: The Holocaust Survivor’s Story (20 Credits) Option

ENGLISH AND FILMLevel 6 Cores and Options (examples)

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What sorts of skills do you gain on the degrees?

Assessments and advice help you develop:

• Powers of analysis and criticism; experience of constructing arguments.

• Enhanced writing skills; valuable research skills (gathering/managing print

and electronic information).

• Communication: the ability to discuss your ideas in a non-intimidating group

format.

• Confidence in your own ideas; a sense that you have something to say and

the means to say it.

• Knowledge of creating presentations.

• Experience of working in groups (including some work based on initiatives at

HOME, Manchester)

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Graduate Destinations • Teaching

• Further study (MA/PhD)

• Film journalism (web and magazines)

• Festivals/Film Events: Grimmfest; Manchester Animation Fest; Pilot Light (also distribution and production) –

Greg Walker (one of our alumni) is now a festival & events manager. He is also the creator of Pilot Light TV

Festival

• Working in distribution for a major studio

• Various levels of involvement in production

• From the English side..: Publishing; lecturer at NW uni.; local govt. and Civil Service administration (including

the NHS); teaching English overseas; journalism; broadcasting

• More generally, Film Studies graduates find work in managing arts centres, theatres, starting production

companies, technical and front of house roles at arts centres like HOME (BFI Regional Film Hub), community

cinema projects, archivists, event managers, marketing executives…

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Greg’s PILOT LIGHT TV festival

www.pilotlightfestival.co.uk

Back in 2021!

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English and Film Studies Contacts

Dr. Martin Flanagan – Programme Leader in Film Studies

m.j.flanagan@salford.ac.uk 0161 2952212

Dr. Pete Deakin – Admission Lead for Film Studies

p.p.deakin@salford.ac.uk

Dr. Glyn White – Programme Leader English and Film Studies

g.white@salford.ac.uk

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BREAK FOR QUESTIONS…

AVD “TASTER”

GENRE IN MOTION – Cultural instrumentality

• ‘… perhaps more interesting, and probably more important, than what a film

genre is is the question of what, in cultural terms, it does – its “cultural

instrumentality”’ - Kuhn, Annette (1990) Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and

Contemporary Science Fiction, p. 1).

• Cultural instrumentality – how does culture facilitate what is produced,

mediated or understood (read) by audiences (become ‘an instrument’ of this)

• How do changes in the textual and thematic conventions of the genre (or

media story/text) relate to broader socio-cultural contexts?

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GENRE IN MOTION – SCI-FI in the 50s

• Susan Sontag in her 1965 essay, “TheImagination of Disaster,” found in thecycle of science-fiction movies of thefifties evidence of ‘a mass trauma ...over the use of nuclear weapons’ andtechnology.

• For example, irradiated mutant ants inthe sewer systems of Los Angeles inThem! (Gordon Douglas, 1954) ‘bearwitness to this trauma and, in a way,attempt to exorcise it’ (218).

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GENRE IN MOTION – SCI-FI in the 80s

• Current anxieties (1980s) codified in future.

• Rise of communism and the East, particularly (then) Russia and

later, China.

• Human mastery over machine – this position being altered.

• fear of automation: job losses.

• fear of over-reliance on technology.

• fear that something human is being lost.

• Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987);

• Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982);

• Terminator (James Cameron, 1984).

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GENRE IN MOTION – post 9/11 SCI-FI

• Post 9/11 context.

• Sci-fi cinema that often have established set-ups that

seem to justify America’s proposed “war on terror”.

• Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005).

• Matt Reeves’s Cloverfield (2008).

• Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly (2006).

• Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns (2006).

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TASK

• Think about recent trends in film genre, subject matter, and

film consumption and production.

• Extrapolate… what projects do you think filmmakers and

Film students will be interested in in 2040? What changes

or events might they reflect? What kinds of narratives do

you think we are likely to see?

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