Film study is designed to explore the history of filmmaking while introducing students to a variety of film genres. In addition, students will be exposed to stylistic innovations, narrative techniques, and specific cinematic terminology. The three tiered approach to the class enables students to become familiar with the use of interpretive language, while cultivating the reading of films as texts and generating arguments through critical analysis.
Students will read text, and write compositions that reflect an understanding of that text and a clear grasp of the films that have been viewed in class. Students will also be expected to write informally in reaction journals class notebooks. Throughout all written work, attention will be paid to conventional writing skills in terms of grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure.