COURSE DESCRIPTION AND APPLICATION INFORMATION
| Course Name | Code | Semester | T+A+L (hour/week) | Type (C / O) | Local Credit | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Film Language and Criticism | RTC 204 | Spring | 02+02+00 | Elective | 3 | 5 |
| Academic Unit: | Faculty of Communication |
| Mode of Delivery: | Face to face |
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Language of Instruction: | English |
| Level of Course Unit: | Undergraduate |
| Course Coordinator: | - - |
| Course Lecturer(s): | Defne TÜZÜN |
| Course Objectives: | The students are expected to:
• Enhance skills in writing critically about film in an academic tone. • Develop a familiarity with the fundamental elements of film language and cinematic narration. • Be equipped with analytical lens to identify the formal elements and stylistic characteristics of film. • Develop a fundamental understanding of concepts and terms relevant to film criticism. • Acquire critical thinking skills as applied to the analysis, interpretation, and critical assessment of films. • Engage actively in discourses and discussions about films. |
| Course Contents: | This course gives a detailed account on the development of film language and cinematic narration in its many-sided and exciting forms. Starting with the general aspects of the Classical Narration, the course moves on to examine following forms of cinematic narration: Self-Consciousness, Self-Reflexivity, Intertextuality, Hyper-textuality and other meta-discursive practices such as Mise-en-abyme. Thus, this course offers students an advanced examination of structural dimensions in film, including space, time, causality, image, and sound. The course prepares students with a critical understanding of filmic techniques and skills to analyze what has been seen. Learning about film language will help students to critically appreciate films, and to engage actively in discourses and discussions about films. |
| Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit (LO): |
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| Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods: | The course consists of fundamental 3 modules gathered under overarching themes that would guide students to understand, evaluate and critically engage with the film form, language and various modes of cinematic narration. Attendance and active participation are monitored by the mentor and count up to 5%. There is a total of 3 module projects composed of written reports and presentations which count up to %. There will be a midterm exam (% 30 of grade), and a final project (% 40 of grade). |
WEEKLY SUBJECTS AND RELATED PREPARATIONS
| Week | Subjects | Related Preperation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orientation Week (Introduction, course plan) | |
| 2 | Basics of Narration Key Concepts: Film as system, repetition and contrast, expectation and convention, narrative motivation, narrative and narration, diegesis, non-diegetic and extra-diegetic, prologue and epilogue, in medias res and set-up, resolution, climax and open-end. | Reading and Research. Viewing assigned audiovisual material. |
| 3 | Flow of Information in Narration-I: Key Concepts: Range of Knowledge (Restricted and Unrestricted Narration) | Reading and Research. Viewing assigned audiovisual material. |
| 4 | Flow of Information in Narration-II: Key Concepts: Depth of Knowledge, The Problems of Subjectivity, Point of View Structure (Objective, Subjective and Impossible Point of View Shots) | Reading and Research. Viewing assigned audiovisual material. |
| 5 | Time and Space in Narration Key Concepts: Fabula and Syuzhet, Flashback and Flashforward | Reading and research. Viewing assigned audiovisual material. An oral or audiovisual presentation about the module. |
| 6 | Framing: Key Concepts: The construction of on-screen and off-screen space, the geometric properties of the frame, split screen, frame within frame, frame composition. Angle, level, height and distance of the camera. | Reading and Research. Viewing assigned audiovisual material. |
| 7 | Camera Movements and Editing: Key Concepts: Shot transitions, graphic match, montage sequence, parallel editing, and ellipsis. | Reading and Research. Viewing assigned audiovisual material. |
| 8 | Narrative and Spatiotemporal Properties of Sound Key Concepts: Diegetic sound, non-diegetic sound, on-screen sound, off-screen sound. Sound editing, sound-bridge, film music. | Reading and research. Viewing assigned audiovisual material. An oral or audiovisual presentation about the module. |
| 9 | Invisible Narration | Reading and Research. Viewing assigned audiovisual material. |
| 10 | Self-Conscious Narration | Reading and Research. Viewing assigned audiovisual material. |
| 11 | Self-Reflexive Narration | Reading and Research. Viewing assigned audiovisual material. |
| 12 | Intertextuality and Hypertextuality | Reading and Research. Viewing assigned audiovisual material. |
| 13 | Mise-en-abyme | Reading and research. Viewing assigned audiovisual material. An oral or audiovisual presentation about the module. |
| 14 | Review Week |
At Kadir Has University, a Semester is 14 weeks; The weeks 15 and 16 are reserved for final exams.
REQUIRED AND RECOMMENDED READING
| • David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction. • Robert Stam, Reflexivity in Film and Literature: From Don Quixote to Jean-Luc Godard. • David Bordwell, Narration in the Fiction Film. • Film Sound: Theory and Practice edited by Elisabeth Weis and John Belton. • Edward Branigan, “Formal Permutations of The Point-of-View Shot.” Screen vol. 16 no. 3 (Autumn 1975). (pp. 54-64). |
OTHER COURSE RESOURCES
ASSESSMENT METHODS AND CRITERIA
| Semester Requirements | Number | Percentage of Grade (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance / Participation | 14 | 5 |
| Project | 3 | 55 |
| Presentation / Jury | 3 | 10 |
| Midterms / Oral Exams / Quizes | 1 | 30 |
| Total: | 21 | 100 |
WORKLOAD
| Events | Count | Duration (Hours) | Total Workload (hour) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course Hours | 14 | 3 | 42 |
| Project | 3 | 17 | 51 |
| Preparation for Presentation / Jury | 3 | 6 | 18 |
| Midterms / Oral Exams / Quizes | 1 | 14 | 14 |
| Total Workload (hour): | 125 | ||
1 ECTS = 25 Hours Workload
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES (LO) AND PROGRAM QUALIFICATIONS (PQ)
| # | PQ1 | PQ2 | PQ3 | PQ4 | PQ5 | PQ6 | PQ7 | PQ8 | PQ9 | PQ10 | PQ11 | PQ12 |
| LO1 | ||||||||||||
| LO2 | ||||||||||||
| LO3 | ||||||||||||
| LO4 | ||||||||||||
| LO5 | ||||||||||||
| LO6 |
Contribution: 1 Low, 2 Average, 3 High