Undergraduate Course: Contemporary Cinema (DESI08010)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | We are moved by the moving image: the cinematic medium shapes our individual and collective experiences and understanding of the world around us in powerful and profound ways. This course helps students to better appreciate and understand the contemporary cultural and socio-political importance of film, through weekly case studies of a series of nine international films released in British cinemas over the past decade or so. |
| Course description |
Contemporary Cinema takes the form of nine weekly case studies of international films released in British cinemas over the past five years. Those chosen films are drawn from a wide range of cinematic traditions and instantiate a diverse range of key aesthetic, ideological and industrial contexts that twenty-first century filmmakers both contribute to and challenge through the work they produce.
Each weekly case study is taught in such a way as to equip students with some of the foundational critical skills and forms of knowledge associated with the academic study of film. These include: an understanding of the relationship between authorial intent, audiovisual technique and audience experience; an ability to locate and critique individual films within appropriate comparative contexts, such as directorial oeuvre and traditions of film genre; and an informed understanding of the varied range of critical traditions and methodologies that scholars past and present have brought to the study of cinema as both social institution and art form.
The course teaching contact is delivered via two hours of lectures and a weekly one-hour seminar group.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: 300 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
166 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 2 assessment components:
- Essay proposal (750 words) 20% (weeks 6 ¿ 7).
- Final Essay (2500 words) 80% (December or May exam diet, depending on whether the course is delivered in sem 1 or sem 2)
Component 1 will require the student to create a draft essay proposal for their final essay on a contemporary film of their own choosing. It will be equally assessed against LO1, LO2 & LO3.
Component 2 will require the student to create a final essay on a contemporary film of their own choosing. It will be equally assessed against LO1, LO2 & LO3. |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback:
Feedback is regularly communicated verbally through weekly seminar group meetings, where ideas are discussed with both peers and tutor. Both peers and tutors generate feedback that individual students can apply to their own learning journey on this course, as all students practice, week-by-week, the critical skills and forms of awareness that they are asked to explore and display within the course¿s two summative assessment tasks.
Summative feedback:
Students will be provided with individual written feedback, organised by Learning Outcome, from their course tutor on both summative assessment tasks on this course. Summative assessment task 1 takes the form of a detailed proposal for summative assessment task 2 (the latter is a 2500-word essay exploring one contemporary film of the student¿s choosing). Thus, tutor written feedback on summative task 1 directly informs students¿ learning journey towards completion of summative task 2. All summative feedback will be provided according to University regulations. |
| No Exam Information |
|
| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: 270 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
166 )
|
| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
3000 written case study 100%. mid semester formative feedback via 10 mins viva
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 2 assessment components:
- Essay proposal (750 words) 20% (weeks 6 ¿ 7).
- Final Essay (2500 words) 80% (December or May exam diet, depending on whether the course is delivered in sem 1 or sem 2)
Component 1 will require the student to create a draft essay proposal for their final essay on a contemporary film of their own choosing. It will be equally assessed against LO1, LO2 & LO3.
Component 2 will require the student to create a final essay on a contemporary film of their own choosing. It will be equally assessed against LO1, LO2 & LO3. |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback:
Feedback is regularly communicated verbally through weekly seminar group meetings, where ideas are discussed with both peers and tutor. Both peers and tutors generate feedback that individual students can apply to their own learning journey on this course, as all students practice, week-by-week, the critical skills and forms of awareness that they are asked to explore and display within the course¿s two summative assessment tasks.
Summative feedback:
Students will be provided with individual written feedback, organised by Learning Outcome, from their course tutor on both summative assessment tasks on this course. Summative assessment task 1 takes the form of a detailed proposal for summative assessment task 2 (the latter is a 2500-word essay exploring one contemporary film of the student¿s choosing). Thus, tutor written feedback on summative task 1 directly informs students¿ learning journey towards completion of summative task 2. All summative feedback will be provided according to University regulations. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an informed understanding of the possible social, emotional and intellectual effects of selected elements of audiovisual technique
- Analyse the complex interactions between audio visual technique and industrial and ideological context within contemporary film culture
- Articulate a formally, industrially and socially aware written case study critique of one contemporary film of their own choosing
|
Reading List
Cook, Pam (ed.) (2019). The Cinema Book, 3rd Edition. London: Bloomsbury.
Dix, Andrew. Beginning Film Studies (2008). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Donald, James and Michael Renov (eds) (2008). The SAGE Handbook of Film Studies. London: SAGE.
Nelmes, Jill. (ed.) (2012), An Introduction to Film Studies, 5th Edition. London: Routledge. |
Additional Information
| Course URL |
http://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/newelectives2014 |
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Mindsets
Students will look to identify and apply processes and strategies for individually meaningful forms of both set and self-directed learning.
Students will look to actively contribute to the collective learning and individual learning journeys of their peers through weekly seminar attendance and verbal contribution.
Students will approach and understand popular cultural forms and traditions as legitimate and valuable objects of sustained academic study and enquiry.
Skills
Students will further develop their abilities to identify, define and analyse problems and identify or create processes to solve these.
Students will further develop their abilities to search for, evaluate and use information to develop their knowledge and understanding of course subject matter and themes.
Students will further develop their abilities to make effective use of oral, written and visual means to critique, negotiate, create and communicate both individual and collective forms of scholarly understanding and insight. |
| Keywords | Cinema; Film Studies; popular culture; animation; documentary |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jonathan Murray
Tel:
Email: jonny.murray@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Aidan Cole
Tel: (0131 6)50 2306
Email: acole33@ed.ac.uk |
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