Course Information:

Instructor Information:

Name:                                   Ubaidullah A Qazi
Email:                                    ubaid.qazi @ fui.edu.pk
Office Location:                  Room 10, First Floor, Jinnah Block
Office Phone:                      Ext: 217
Office meeting Hours:       Mon, Tue, Thu 1245-1500

Course Objectives:

This course is helped at enabling participants to:

·        Study Cinema as an Art Form, especially as an extension of literary expression

·        Locate characteristics of style, genre, and auteurism within a context of screen viewings.

·        To provide an increased understanding of the art of filmmaking and the way it is influenced by artistic and technological decisions.

·        To research and discuss the textual, historical, and theoretical discourses that surround cinema and inform its future.

·        History and Development of Film making techniques, and philosophy

·        Critical Evaluation of Form & Content, Implicit and Explicit Meaning

·        Write critical film reviews

·        Research representation/reflection/promotion of cultural norms in movies

Weekly Distribution of course contents:

Part I: Theory

Research Essay

You will write an approximately 2,000-word research essay (ten-twelve double space pages) selected from the topics below. It is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, 20 May 2014. Your essay must be guided by a specific argument and contain citations and references from a variety of sources, which must be listed in a bibliography (works cited). You will integrate research from least three types of sources, including books, journals, Internet sites, commentaries or bonus features on DVDs, and other sources as you see pertinent. All references, including Internet sources and the films themselves, must be rigorously documented with references. Follow MLA format.  You are also expected to give a 5-7 minute presentation to your classmates on your chosen topic.

Essay Topics:

1.      (Formal analysis of) Italian and American Narrative Style and Musical Motifs in Fellini’s 8 1/2 (1963) and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954).

2.      (Formal analysis of) Mise-en-scène, and cinematography in Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood For Love or Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.

3.      Film History. Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane as an economic history and moral commentary of the American newspaper industry.

4.      Ideology. The promotion of political beliefs and ideological values in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (1964) and/or Jennifer Baichwal’s Manufactured Landscapes (2003).

5.      Auteur Criticism. Three films by Alfred Hitchcock as a study in narrative structure, fear, and suspense.

6.      Future Film Trends: Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) and Akira Kurosawa’s Rashoman (1950) as precursors to interactive cinema.

7.      War Film: Black Hawk Down. Historic Truth vs Film Version,  Saving Private Ryan

8.      Topic:  Film Impact: Fahrenheit 911.

·        What issues does the film present?

• What did you learn from this film?
• Did this film change your opinion about any of the issues it addressed?
• If so, what features of the film did you find most persuasive? If not, what features of the film did you believe were not persuasive and why?
• The film uses different methods to convey messages. Give an example of each of the following methods: dramatic, humorous, factual, and shocking. How/why were these effective or not in your view?
• Why was humour used in the movie?

9. More Topics may be added here

Film Review

All students are supposed to write at least ONE film review. The length should be anywhere between 600-1000 words.  Preference should be given to recent films.  Extra credits/marks will be awarded to those reviews that get published in national newspapers.

Note: This outline has been created as a resource for course participants, but the faculty reserves the right to make changes and modifications, if deemed necessary.

Grading Model:

• Mid-Term – 30 Marks
• Final Term – 50 Marks
• Attendance – 5 Marks
• Sessional – 15 Marks
• Quiz x 2              
• Assignment & Presentations
• Film Review

Required Books

·        Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies, Second Edition. New York: Norton. 2007. (PDF available, please contact your course tutor)

1.      Giannetti, Louis D., and Jim Leach. Understanding Movies: Third Canadian Edition. Toronto: Prentice Hall, 2005.

2.      Filmmakers on Film: Six Cases of Real Film Professionals. CDROM contained in Understanding Movies textbook.

3.      The Owl at Purdue: Free Writing Help. APA and MLA style tips and samples. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl

6.      Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.. http://www.wikipedia.org  (guidelines on citing Wikipedia are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_Wikipedia)

7.      Online citation creator. http://www.citationmachine.net

Other Online resources

1.      http://guides.library.yale.edu/content.php?pid=9130&sid=59331

2.      http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/

• Articles:
1. To be added here