Film & Media Studies

This course focuses on theater and film in the 20th and 21st centuries. The first part of the course explores the representation of masculinities in crisis since 1945 in the major film genres (thriller, melodrama, horror, social realism, war film) of British cinema. The concept of hegemonic masculinity in British cinema is also explored. The course consists of watching and discussing short clips from films, with additional readings and a final paper. The second part of the course engages in theatrical, film, and textual analysis by providing an understanding of the issues of mise-en-scéne, adaptation, and transsemiotizing. It focuses on recent adaptations of British texts, canonical or not, to navigate between the close analysis of text, stage, and film, and the more comprehensive approach to works within their contexts. Starting with the analysis of Canadian-Armenian director Atom Egoyan’s adaptations of two of Samuel Beckett’s shorter plays, the course questions the issue of fidelity in the light of poststructuralist theories. It then focuses on different recent scenic versions of Shakespeare’s RICHARD III, one British and two Continental ones, to show how cultural contexts and aesthetic conventions impact the receptions of the text(s). Finally, the course considers a successful contemporary play and how it was transformed to meet the demands of filmic conventions and the film industry when adapted for the big screen.

This video production course is intended for students who have acquired basic cinematography and video production skills. With ENG shootings, students create short films or music videos based on their preferences.

This course provides a study of the elements, systems and construction processes of mise-en-scéne in film and television. Topics covered include: models, styles and movements; art design (lighting, framing, camera movements, artistic direction); dramaturgy and direction of actors; film editing resources; staging and sound space.

This course focuses on directors and producers of the French New Wave. It explores the aesthetic, historical, social, and economic context of films from Africa, Germany, Hollywood, England, Italy, Spain, and Japan beginning in 1959.

This course introduces theoretical, analytical, and critical-reflexive approaches to cultural and creative industries (CCI) in an international perspective, emphasizing the field’s global implications on cultural, commercial, and media-specific transformations. The course covers various manifestations of CCIs from across the world, how they are structured and function within particular (trans)national contexts, and the production and circulation of cultural artifacts at varying geographic scales. The course examines the characteristics and components of several ‘models’ of CCI practices and interrogates topical issues in CCI research, such as structural challenges in the international division of cultural labor, and national and transnational CCI strategies. This course includes an excursion to a (European) metropolis with visits to relevant CCI organizations as well as related academic and research institutions to gain insights on how CCI practice and research are conducted in a different cultural and socio-political setting.