Functions and effects of cinematography
- Discuss how, and to what effect, any one film screened on the course employs framing and composition.
- Contrast the ways that any two of the following films develop the theme of “seeing”: Jaws, Don’t Look Now, Psycho, The Shop Around the Corner, On the Waterfront.
- Alfred Hitchcock claimed that “actors should be treated like cattle,” maintaining that it is the director who creates the actor’s performance on screen. Discuss this claim in relation to the performances of the main actors in any two of the following films: Psycho, On the Waterfront, The Limey, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.
- Show how the ordering of narratives is crucial for the effect of particular moments. Discuss in relation to one or two films screened on the course.
- Following a tradition of thinking about film sound and music, one critic remarks that we often hear film music, but rarely listen to it (Kathryn Kalinak, Settling the Score, p.3). Discuss with reference to one or two films screened on the course.
- Discuss how any one film screened on the course explores time as a structural, thematic, and/or expressive element.
- Examine the functions and effects of cinematography or editing in one film screened on the course.
- To what extent does postclassical narrative differ from classical narrative? Your answer should compare and contrast one classical film and one postclassical film screened on the course.
- Examine the functioning of colour as an aspect of mise-en-scène in one or two films screened on the course.
- Should a theory of genre be able to account for differences, as well as the similarities, between films? Discuss with reference to one or two films screened on the course.
- Discuss the significance of cause and effect in classical Hollywood narrative, with detailed reference to one classical film screened on the course