SEMESTER I

Module L
The Birth of Cinema. Thomas Alva Edisqn's Kinetograph (Camera) and
Kinetoscope [projector) to Cinematograph of Lumidre brothers, which
functioned as camera, printer and projector.
Silent Cinema. The Cinema of Attraction from primitive mode of representation
(PMR) to institutional mode of representation IMR).
This transition from PMR to IMR to be demonstrated by showing the Silent films
of Edison, Lumier Brothers, Georges M6lids, Williamson (An interesting story,
1905), Hepworth (Rescue by Rover,1905), Pathe Freres (Un Cheval Emballe.
1907) and finallyto a clip from D.W. Grifith's Birth of a Nation [1915) [Gus stalks
Flora sequence)

Reference Articles
The Cinema of Attraction: Early Film, Its spectators and the Avant-Garde.
By Tom Gunning

An Aesthetics of Astonishment: Early film and the (ln)Credulous spectator

By Tom Gunning

Reference Books
Life to Those Shadows by Noel Burch

A Companion to Early Cinema

Andr6 Gaudreault [Editor), Nicolas Dulac [EditorJ, Santiago Hidalgo [Editor)

Module 2
How a film is made from Script to Screen.
a) Pre-production
b) Production
c) Post-production
d) Marketing & distribution
The impact of Digital Technology on the above mentioned stages.

Module 3
Film Form
The signification of film form
Narrative form.

Module 4.
Components of film craft
The Frame
The Shot & Mis-en-scene
Lighting & Setting
Editing
Sound design
Assessment: Attendance, Classroom test, Written assignment on film sequence
analysis.

Film Sequence Analysis: From a given list of films the stuilent has to choose a
film and from the film the student has to choose a scene or sequence, study it
closely and note the following formal aspects
aJ Narrative
b) Composition
t) Photography
d) Editing
-Sound
e) design.
0 Other consideration

* a reference worksheet for the assignment is-attached.

Practical: Audio-visual project on any topic from Module 4.

(lt will be a group proiect with 4 -5 students per group. Maximum number of
shotwill be 10).

SEMESTER II

Module 1.
Film Theory I
Introduction to Film Theory: 'Film theory' is best thought of as a substantive
field oi inquiry in which are clustered a number of discrete theories of cinema.
No one system of propositions governs the entire field - in other words, there is
no single, monolithic 'film theory' that film scholars unanimously endorse. In this
module we will focus on two basic tendency that has been observed in the
development film theory right from its beginriing. The "Formalist" Film Theory
and the "Realist" film theory. The "formalist" focus on cinema's artificiality where
as the'realists'call attention to the [Semi) transparency of the filmic medium
which ostensibly turns us into direct witness. Sergei Eisenstein, Rudolf Arnheim,
the Russian formalists and the American neo-formalists all advocate cinemas'
artificial materialistic nature while Bela Balaz, Seigfried Kracaure and Andre
Bazin holds up the banner of "ontological" realism.
It is the formalistic concerns that gave rise to the Montage Theory in Russia,
which was radically opposite to the style evolved by D.W. Griffith and the
American films.
Within Russian filmmakers also the concept of Montage differed. A comparative
study of three Russian silent films namely The Battleship Potemkin [1925, Dir S.
Eisenstein), Mother (L926, Dir. V. Pudovkin) and Earth [1930, Dir A Dovzhenco)
we shall see the different forms of Montagd theory at work.

Module 2
German Expressionism
Expressionism had begun around L90B as a style in painting and the theater
appearing in other European countries but finding its mo,st intense
manifestations in Germany. Like other modernist movements, German
Expressionism was one of several trends around the turn of the century that
reacted against realism. Its practitioners favored extreme distortion to express
an inner emotional reality rather than surface appearances.
A close look at two post WW I German silent films, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
(7920, Dir. R. Wiene) and Nosferatu (1922, Dir. F. W. Murnau) will show the
salient features of German Expressionism and its impact on later cinemas to
come, specially what is known as "Film Noir" will be discussed.

Module 3
Italian N eorealism (1,9 42-L9 5 t)
One of the most influential movements in film history, Neorealisp has somewhat
. diffuse origins. The label first appeared ih the writlngs of Italian critics of tl-re

1940s. From one perspective, the term represented a younger generation's

desire to break free of the conventions of ordinary Italian cinemd.
Reference films: Umberto D (1952, Dir. V. De Sica) and the anthology film
Boccaccio' 70 (1,962)

Module 4
The-French New Wave
(7ese-1.964)
The late 1950s and early L960s saw the rise of a new generation of filmmakers
around the world. In country after country, there emerged directors born before
World War II but grown to adulthood in the postwar era of reconstruction and
rising prosperity. Japan, Canada, England, Italy, Spain,Brazrl, and the United
States all had their new waves or young cinema groups-some trained in film
schools, many allied with specialized film magazines, most in revolt against their
elders in the industry. The most influential of these groups appeared in France.

Reference films, The Mischief Makers [1958, Dir. F. Truffaut) and All the Boys
Are Called Patrick U.959, Dir. f ean-Luc Godard)

List of books & Articles

Reference Articles

TheCinema of Attraction: Early Film, Its spectators and the Avant-Garcle,

By Tom Gunning

An Aesthetics of Astonishment: Early film and the In)Credulous spectator

By Tom Gunning

Reference Books
Life to Those Shadows by Noel Burch

A Companiori to Early Cinema

Andr6 Gaudreault IEditor), Nicolas Dulac [Editor), Santiago Hidalgo IEditor)
Film Art:An Introduction by David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson, Jef Smith [11,h
edition)
Major Film Theories By f.D. Andrew
Bogks in Bengali Language
Film Studies Porichoy (prothom khando) by Sumonto Bondopadhyay
Film S.tudies Porichoy (dwitio khanda) by Sumonto Bandopadhyay
Cinema kotha by Gastom Roberge
Cholochitra Nirman O Porichalona by Dhiresh Ghosh

Assessment: Attendance, Written assignmentl ancl Class Tests

4
 Sequence Analysis Work Sheet

NARRATIVE
What "happens" in the selected sequence on the level of plot?

What is the function of this sequence within the larger narrative action
[foreshadowing, climax, transition, exposition, etc,)?

How do the various channels of information used in film--visual image, print,

speech, sound, absence--interact to produce meaning?

Divide the segment into individual scenes [(indicated for instance by shifts of
location, changes in time, etc.) and shots

COMPOSITION
Frame [open form: frame is de-emphasized, has a "snapshot" quality; closed
form: frame is composed and self-contained, the frame acts as a boundary and a
limit)

signifies:

space fcluttered or empty; is space--landscape or interior--used as a "comment"

on a character's inner state of mind; does space overwhelm the human beings in
its midst; does it figure as a character-like presence; does it exude a certain
atmosphere, etc.)

signifies:

Sets [studio,location; are props used symbolically; do certain objects stand out,
things like mirrors. crosses, windows, books, articles of clothing, etc.J

signifies:
Design (symmetrical or asymmetrical; balanced or unbalanced; stylized or
natural; does it belong to a certain period or artistic style)

signifies:

View of characters [isolated or closed-in; center or off-center; backgror-rnd or

foreground; obscured by objects or linked to them; do they move toward or
away from the camera; are they stationary; do they exchange gazes with other
characters)

signifies:

SOUND
Music [what kind: popular, classical, familiar;.diegetic or extra-diegetic, i.e,, on-
or offscreen source; is it linked to a certain character; does it comment on the
action; does it irritate, etc.)

signifies:

Sound effects [artificial or natural sound; on- or offscreen solrrce; does the sound
belong to the action; is there subjective sound, etc,)

signifies:

Dialogue/silence (stilted or artificial language; different characters use different

kinds oflanguage; slang; allusions to other texts; do certain characters speak
through their silences, etc.]

signifies:
Voice-over/Narration who is speaking and from where; are they part of the
action or outside of it; what do they know and what is their relationship to the
action; are they reliable, ominiscient, unreliable, etc.)

signifies:

PHOTOGRAPHY
Shot [extreme long shot,long shot, medium shot, close-up, extreme close-np,

",..]

signifies:

Lens [normal, telephoto, wide angle, distorting lens, macro)

signifies:

Focus (who or what is in or out of focus; deep focus; soft focus; rack flocus; sharp
focus)

,igiifi"r,

Camera movement (panning shot, tracking shot: from above, below,

in/out/circular; zoom in or out, slow or fast; 4ip pan; tilt shot; handheld shou
camera on vehicle)

signifies:

Angle (high angle, Iow angle, eye-level, oblique angle, extreme angle, etc.]

signifies:
 Lighting (realistic, high contrast, high key/lor,y key, special lighting effects,
natural Iighting)

signifies:

Color [black and white/color/sepia; warm/cold/strong/washed-out colors;

symbolic use of colors; subjective use of colors; colors Iinked to certain
- characters; progression of the use of colors throughout a film)

signifies:

Special effects [freeze frame/sl ow / f ast/ r ev er se m oti ons/ filters/o dd or

impossible point of view/matting/computer-generated images, etc.J

signifies:

Types of shot [establishing shot/point-of-view shot/reaction shot/shot-counter

, shot/insertshot/subjective cutaway/flashbackshot)

signifies:

EDITING
Position of segment [what comes before and what comes after)

signifies:

Transition techniques [cut/dissolve/fade in or out/wipe/jump cut/iris in or out)

signifies:

4
How do the images flow together: cutting for continuity, thematic or dralectical
montage, cutting on motion, invisible cutting, shock cutting, cross-cutting, etc.

signifies:

Length of individual shots [do shots seem extremely long in duration or

particularly short, does the director hold on a certain face or landscape after the
action has been played out, etc.)

signifies:

Rhythm/pace (flowing /jerky /disiointed/more panning shots than cuts/fast-

paced/slow-paced/unusually long takes/ do certain sequences "feel" different
than others in terms of their rhythm?)

signifies:

AUDIENCE ADDRESS
Does the film acknowledge the spectator, or do events transpire as if no one
were present? Do characters look into the camera or pretend it iS not there, for
instance?

signifies:

How does the film position the spectator vis a vis the onscreen events? Are we
made to favor certain characters, to respond in certain ways to certain events
[say, tfrrough music that "tells" us how to respond or distances us from the
action),

signifies:
 Does the film appeal to certain expectations, i.e. generic conventions? [We expect
a man dressed in black shrouded in a shadow to be sinister, for instance.) Does
the film subvert these conventions or conform to them? What kind of
conventions are they?

- signifies:

Does the film address contemporary social issues? Does it intend to convince its
audience? Does it dare to divide its audience and present an unpopular or
controversial view?

signifies:

oTUER CONSTDERATIONS
- Acting [stylized/natur;rl/idiosyncratic; does one actor use a different style than
otherl

signifies:

. Costumes (social coding; symbolic use of clothin-g; clothing as an extension of

personal style; clothing as an extension ofde-or)

signifies:

social and cultural coding (contemporary/historical/foreign/strong or weak

sense of time and place, etc,)

signifies:
OTHER MATTERS TO KEEP IN MIND
This inventory for the most draws attention to formal concerns, to matters
grounded in the work of the text. Every text, though, is a function of certain
contexts, the context in which it was made, the context in which it is received.

Eve-ry text speaks in a number of different ways, i.e., it recycles the givens of
traditi_on, engaging various forms of discourse, putting them together in a way to
produce an aesthetic whole. These texts are something like a stringing together
of quotations, of reworking conventions, of adding together a number of-
impulses from the world in which one lives, appropriating various elements in a
way that leads to something different, and in that sense, new.

The work that goes into ferreting out the different voices in a te4t involves,
-among otherthings, an awareness of historical situations, the assumptions and
background of an artist and his/her co-workers, the motivation behind a certain
production

Beyond that, to talk about a filmic text means that we engage in a clialogue that
brings us into the scene as a participant in an exchange: we make certain
assumptions, both methodological and theoretical ones. Even the statement "l
didp't like this film" carries with it a decisive amount of discursive baggage, even
if we are loath to admit it.

Any thorough-going analysis of a film involves the following:

the socio-historical background to the film, economic and political factors that
conditioned its making;
the traditions out of which a given film arisesithe sorts of cultural quotations it
partakes ol the conventions it makes use of, the degree to which it participates
-in certain specifically national patterns bi expression;
the institutional positioning of a given film: its statLls in the public sphere in
which it is received;
the director/author's larger body of work, of which the film is part of a larger
whole;
scrutiny of the "\A/ork" of the text, never forgetting, though, that films issue from
a larger extra-filmic whole;
the4uestion of a film's reception in time and how this has preshaped our own
expectations as well as the film's place in history.