Film studies

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Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various theoretical, historical, and critical approaches to cinema as an art form and a medium. It is sometimes subsumed within media studies and is often compared to television studies.

Film studies is less concerned with advancing proficiency in film production than it is with exploring the narrative, artistic, cultural, economic, and political implications of the cinema.{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/42835361 |title=Film Studies: Critical Approaches |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-874280-0 |editor-last=Gibson |editor-first=Pamela Church |location=Oxford |pages=1–8 |chapter=Introduction |oclc=42835361 |editor-last2=Dyer |editor-first2=Richard |editor-last3=Kaplan |editor-first3=E. Ann |editor-last4=Willemen |editor-first4=Paul}} In searching for these social-ideological values, film studies takes a series of critical approaches for the analysis of production, theoretical framework, context, and creation.Sikov, Ed. 2010. "Introduction." Pp. 1–4 in Film Studies: An Introduction. New York: Columbia UP. Print. [https://books.google.com/books?id=zbCK8ETCWzwC&q=film+studies Google Books] Also, in studying film, possible careers include critic or production. Overall the study of film continues to grow, as does the industry on which it focuses.

Academic journals publishing film studies work include Sight & Sound, Film Comment, Film International, CineAction, Screen, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Film Quarterly, Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind, and Journal of Film and Video.

History

Film studies as an academic discipline emerged in the 20th century, decades after the invention of motion pictures. Rather than focusing on the technical aspects of film production, film studies are concentrated on film theory, which approaches film critically as an art, and the writing of film historiography. Because film became an invention and industry only in the late 19th century, a generation of film producers and directors existed significantly before the academic analysis that followed in later generations.

Early film schools focused on the production and subjective critique of film rather than on the critical approaches, history and theory used to study academically. The concept of film studies arose as a means of analyzing the formal aspects of film as the films were created. Established in 1919, the Moscow Film School was the first school in the world to focus on film. In the United States, the USC School of Cinematic Arts, established in 1929, was the first cinematic-based school, which was created in agreement with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It was also the first to offer an academic major in film in 1932, but the program lacked many of the distinctions associated with contemporary film study. Universities began to implement cinema-related curricula without separation of the abstract and practical approaches.

The German Deutsche Filmakademie Babelsberg was founded during the era of the Third Reich in 1938. Its lecturers included Willi Forst and Heinrich George. Students were required to create films in order to complete their studies at the academy.

A movement away from Hollywood productions in the 1950s turned cinema into a more artistic independent endeavor. It was the creation of the auteur theory, which examines film as the director's vision and art, that broadened the scope of academic film studies to a worldwide presence in the 1960s. In 1965, film critic Robin Wood, in his writings on Alfred Hitchcock, declared that Hitchcock's films contained the same complexities of Shakespeare's plays.Grant, Barry Keith. Film Study in the Undergraduate Curriculum. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1983.15. Print. Similarly, French director Jean Luc Godard, a contributor to the influential magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, wrote: "Jerry Lewis [...] is the only one in Hollywood doing something different, the only one who isn't falling in with the established categories, the norms, the principles. [...] Lewis is the only one today who's making courageous films."{{cite book|editor=Jim Hillier|title=Cahiers du Cinema 1960–1968 New Wave, New Cinema, Re-evalutating Hollywood (Godard in interview with Jacques Bontemps, Jean-Louis Comolli, Michel Delahaye, and Jean Narboni)|year=1987|page=295|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674090651}}

A catalyst in the success and stature of academic film studies has been large donations to universities by successful commercial filmmakers. For example, director George Lucas donated $175 million to the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2006.{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/education/highered/la-125highed-11,0,2054908,full.story?coll=la-home-right2 |title=LA's Screen Gems |first=Rachel |last=Abramowitz |work=Los Angeles Times |year=2010 |access-date=18 October 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100124180156/http://www.latimes.com/news/education/highered/la-125highed-11,0,2054908,full.story?coll=la-home-right2 |archive-date=24 January 2010 }}

Approaches to film studies

Modern film studies

Today, film studies are taught worldwide and has grown to encompass numerous methods for teaching history, culture and society. Many liberal arts colleges and universities, as well as American high schools, contain courses specifically focused on the analysis of film.{{cite web

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}} Modern-day film studies increasingly reflect popular culture and art, and a wide variety of curricula have emerged for analysis of critical approaches used in film.Grieveson, Lee. "Cinema Studies." Inventing Film Studies. Durham: Duke UP, 2008. 67. Print. Students are typically expected to form the ability to detect conceptual shifts in film, a vocabulary for the analysis of film form and style, a sense of ideological dimensions of film and an awareness of extra textual domains and possible direction of film in the future.Dix, Andrew. Beginning Film Studies. Manchester UP. 2-14. Print.[https://books.google.com/books?id=kScbAQAAIAAJ&q=beginning+film+studies Google Books] Universities often allow students to participate in film research and attend seminars of specialized topics to enhance their critical abilities.{{Cite web|url=http://gsh.uva.nl/content/masters/film-studies-media-studies/film-studies.html|title=Film Studies (Media Studies) - GSH - University of Amsterdam|last=Amsterdam|first=Universiteit van|date=2019-07-02|website=gsh.uva.nl|language=en|access-date=2019-02-07}}

=Common curriculum=

{{See also|List of film schools|List of film schools in the United States}}

The curriculum of tertiary-level film studies programs often include but are not limited to:{{cite web |year=2010 |title=Film Studies Program |url=http://www.yale.edu/filmstudiesprogram/courselisting.html |access-date=25 October 2010 |publisher=Yale University}}{{cite web |year=2010 |title=Film and Media Studies |url=http://filmandmediastudies.georgetown.edu/ |access-date=25 October 2010 |publisher=Georgetown University}}{{cite web |year=2010 |title=USC School of Cinematic Arts |url=http://cinema.usc.edu/students/schedule.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618065454/https://cinema.usc.edu/students/schedule.htm |archive-date=18 June 2010 |access-date=25 October 2010 |publisher=University of Southern California}}

Introduction to film studies
Modes of film studies
Close analysis of film
History of film/media
Analysis with emphasis

Attention to time period
Attention to regional creation
Attention to genre
Attention to creators

Methods of film production

=American film studies=

A total of 144 tertiary institutions in the United States offer a major program in film studies. This number continues to grow each year with new interest in film studies. Institutions offering film degrees as part of their arts or communications curricula differ from institutions with dedicated film programs.

The success of the American film industry has contributed to the popularity of academic film studies in the U.S., and film-related degrees often enable graduates to pursue careers in the production of film, especially directing and producing films.Polan, Dana, and Haidee Wasson. "Young Art, Old Colleges." Inventing Film Studies. Durham: Duke UP, 2008. Print. Courses often combine alternate media, such as television or new media, in combination with film studies."History of Film Studies in the United States and at Berkeley." Film Studies. Web. 11 Nov. 2010. <{{cite web |url=http://filmstudies.berkeley.edu/About_us.html |title=Film Studies |access-date=2010-11-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100824061159/http://filmstudies.berkeley.edu/About_us.html |archive-date=24 August 2010}}>.

=Worldwide film studies=

Film-studies programs at all levels{{Cite web |last=Studyportals |title=PhD Programmes in Film Studies in Europe |url=https://www.phdportal.com/search/phd/film-studies/europe |website=PhD Portal}} are offered worldwide, primarily in the countries in the Global North. In many cases, film studies can be found in departments of media studies or communication studies.{{Cite web |title=Communication & Media Studies |url=https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2017/communication-media-studies |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=Top Universities |language=en}} Film archives and museums such as the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam{{Cite web |title=Academic |url=https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/academic |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=Eye Filmmuseum |language=en}} also conduct scholarly projects alongside educational and outreach programs.

Film festivals play an important role in the study of film and may include discourses on topics such as film style, aesthetics, representation, production, distribution, social impact, history, archival and curation. Major festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival{{cite news|url = http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/cannes_international_film_festival/index.html|title = Cannes International Film Festival|work = The New York Times| first=Manohla | last=Dargis}} offer extensive programs with talks and panel discussions. They also inform film historiography,{{Cite journal |last=Vallejo |first=Aida |date=2020-05-03 |title=Rethinking the canon: the role of film festivals in shaping film history |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17411548.2020.1765631 |journal=Studies in European Cinema |language=en |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=155–169 |doi=10.1080/17411548.2020.1765631 |issn=1741-1548}} most actively through retrospectives and historical sections such as Cannes Classics.

Film festival FESPACO serves as a major hub for discourse on cinema on the African continent.{{Cite journal |last=Aveh |first=M. Africanus |date=2020 |title=FESPACO—Promoting African Film Development and Scholarship |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/article/780256 |journal=Black Camera |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=117–128 |issn=1947-4237}}

Prominent scholars

Academic journals

{{Main|List_of_film_periodicals#Scholarly_journals|l1 = List of film journals}}

References

External links

{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20191103092343/http://filmdrippink.com/ FILMdrippink.com - Database providing academic & journalist texts about film & TV]}}
[http://filmstudies.berkeley.edu/ Main website for the Berkeley film studies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191103092336/http://filmstudies.berkeley.edu/ |date=3 November 2019 }}
[http://cinema.usc.edu/ Main website for USC School of Cinematic Arts]
[http://www.lafilm.com/ Main website for the Los Angeles Film School]
[http://www.nyfa.edu/ Main website for the NYFA Film School]
[http://www.film-tvstudies.com Film Studies in New Delhi, India]
[http://www.filmconnection.com/Metro-WashingtonDC.html Film Connections in Washington D.C.]
[http://www.filmsite.org/film100_3.html Website dedicated to the introduction to film art]
[http://education-portal.com/top_ranked_film_universities_in_united_states.html List of the Top US Film Schools]
[https://screensite.org/data/data_colleges.php Screensite listing of college film programs]

Category:Film

Category:Media studies