Film theory 1

Subject is not scheduled Not scheduled

Code	Completion	Credits	Range	Language Instruction	Semester
306FT1	ZK	2	26S	English	winter

Subject guarantor

Name of lecturer(s)

Learning outcomes of the course unit

The course aim is to introduce students to the changes in editing from the beginnings of cinema to the advent of sound.

Mode of study

Discussions, analyses of media recording samples, Analyses of texts.

Prerequisites and co-requisites

Awareness of the significance of editing theory knowledge for one's own creating.

Course contents

The course applies structural and semiotic theories to analyses of a specific film work or part of a work. It introduces students to the connotations and methods of using the concepts of language, speech, code, sign, meaning, the signifier, the signified, text, metatext, narrative, message. It deals with the categories of signs and the typology of signs (icons, symbols, etc.).

Topics:

1.The beginnings of film composition (the Lumière brothers, Méliès, the Brighton School, Porter, Hepworth, Zecca, etc.)

2.D. W. Griffith – founding father, structural methods of narration (linear montage, parallel and cross editing, retrospective montage, film punctuation, relation between the visual composition and subtitles); European steps in the Griffith direction

3.Lev Kuleshov (periodization of work, basis, analysis of work – until 1930)

4.V. Pudovkin (periodization of work, basis, analysis of work – until 1930)

5.S. M. Eisenstein (periodization of work, basis, analysis of work – until 1930)

6.A. Dovzhenko (periodization of work, basis, analysis of work – until 1930)

7.Dziga Vertov (search for kinogram as an elementary unit of film; periodization of work, basis, analysis of work – until 1930)

8.FEKS group and other selected personalities of the Russian school – G. Kozintsev, L. Trauberg, F. Ermler, B. Barnet, M. Kaufman, etc. (basis of work, analysis of work – until 1930)

9.The contribution of Russian Montagers to the content and form of film (schools, directions, important personalities and works – synthesis) and Russian formalism (Shklovsky, Jakobson, Tynianov, etc.)

10.Manifesto of sound film and its practical realizations in Soviet film (The Symphony of Donbas, The Deserter, etc.)

11.Structural methods of avant-garde in film in the 20s and 30s (directions, classification, differences between French and German avant-garde, a photogeny)

12.Structural analysis of documentaries until the arrival of sound (Cricks and Martin, Pathé, Flaherty, Vertov, Cavalcanti, Grierson, Ivens, Ruttmann, Vigo, etc. – periodization, main directions and their classification based on their structure)

13.Specifics of structural analysis of Czechoslovak avant-garde in film (and photography) in the 30s on the background of European development

Assessment methods and criteria

Activity in lectures

Completion of on-going tests

Completion of the final exam.

Note

none

Further information

No schedule has been prepared for this course

The subject is a part of the following study plans

Montage-1920 (required subject)