Course Catalogue

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The basic project of the option is to establish a series of overlapping but distinct critical perspectives on technical elements contributing to the cinema experience, and to develop a comparable analysis of the television medium. Focussing on the operation and understanding of film and television technology at a series of suggestive stages between conception and consumption, the course aims:

a) to scrutinise accounts of technical 'invention' offered as conventional starting-points for histories of cinema and television

b) to illustrate the diffusion of selected technical 'assemblies' at pivotal moments in the history of cinema and television

c) to assess the roles that the recognition of technical 'apparatuses' have played in the development of the historiographies, theories and criticisms of Film and Television Studies

d) to propose that the operation of 'new' screen technologies since the early 1990s has significant implications in terms of the manufacture of moving image products, and their critical evaluation within Film and Television Studies

Ten x 2-hour sessions, each of which will combine lecture and seminar elements.

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

The basic project of the option is to establish a series of overlapping but distinct critical perspectives on technical elements contributing to the cinema experience, and to develop a comparable analysis of the television medium. Focussing on the operation and understanding of film and television technology at a series of suggestive stages between conception and consumption, the course aims:

a) to scrutinise accounts of technical 'invention' offered as conventional starting-points for histories of cinema and television

b) to illustrate the diffusion of selected technical 'assemblies' at pivotal moments in the history of cinema and television

c) to assess the roles that the recognition of technical 'apparatuses' have played in the development of the historiographies, theories and criticisms of Film and Television Studies

d) to propose that the operation of 'new' screen technologies since the early 1990s has significant implications in terms of the manufacture of moving image products, and their critical evaluation within Film and Television Studies

At the end of the course, students will be able to demonstrate:

a) a clear sense of the synthetic character of film and television technologies, and their origins in pre-cinema, and pre-television apparatuses

b) an understanding of the 'standardisation' of selected film and television technologies, and be aware of their impact on industrial, experiential and textual form at particular conjunctures

c) a familiarity with the historical, theoretical and critical literatures devoted to questions of film and television technology, and have deep knowledge of selected areas of those literatures

d) an ability to engage with non-critical technical sources, and draw upon them productively as forms of evidence in the production of scholarly essays, and examination answers

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.