What films do you like and why you like them
Once you have an idea about the film or type of film you want to focus on then you have to fit that idea into one of the areas of investigation.
The area of investigation can be chosen from:
The area of investigation should be placed within the context of an issue chosen from one of the following:
The area of investigation can be chosen from:
- any type of cinema, mainstream or 'arthouse'
- any period (contemporary, historic or a mix)
The area of investigation should be placed within the context of an issue chosen from one of the following:
- Star/performer – focusing on an individual or group of individuals. It is envisaged that this will allow 'star study' but will also engage with historical developments, cultural features, fandomas as well as issues of performance.
- Genre – this may focus on a single genre or a range of genres and is designed to developinvestigations that consider film as a structured product that is designed to relate to other similar films. Approaches here may include genre-study (codes, conventions, stars, etc.),genre as a tool of industry, evolution in genres, genre as national cinema and genre as a cultural product.
- Technology – focusing on the impact or development of a particular technology. This will include direct approaches such as the development of CGI, the coming of “the talkies”, or the attempts at realising the world through colour as well as indirect approaches such as tracingEarly Cinema’s use of the Close Up, following the impact of bullet-time editing or the adoption by Hollywood of wire-flying techniques.
- Social, Historical and Political Contexts – focuses either on the social and political contexts of production (such as McCarthy era films) or on the commentary offered by films on particular social and political contexts (such as the Iraq war). Topics dealing with representation issues most obviously suggest a social, historical and/or political context.
- Auteur – focusing on the auteur (in the broadest sense) either individual, collaborative, or analysis conventional approaches. It is important to realise that ‘auteur’ is the context for an area of investigation and not an area of investigation in itself. Thus, being an auteur affects the way‘auteurs’ perform their creative role and it is an aspect of this creative role that may become the area for investigation (such as Hitchcock’s continual use of the blonde). Themes andRepresentations are easily addressed by this context.
- Institutional – this may focus on a national cinema context (particularly one that is directly controlled or sponsored), a Studio context or a body of work produced ‘institutionally’ such as the films of the Empire Marketing Board.