Audiovisual Analysis

In an increasingly mediatized world where screen technologies occupy a central presence in our everyday lives, the capability to understand how audiovisual media create meaning has become a vital skill.

The purpose of this course is to equip students with foundational knowledge in film analysis and to familiarize them with the mechanics of audiovisual communication.

While the course will introduce students to the main methodologies in the analysis of film, particular attention will be paid to the organizational structures and formal compositions informing cinematic works. In doing so, the course will prepare students for further work in the field of film studies, providing them with the skills needed for a careful and discriminating analysis, interpretation, and discussion of moving-image works.

To achieve this goal we will move in four directions:

• we will work to develop precise analytic vocabulary that will guide our “close readings” of individual works;
• we will examine the ways in which historical and industrial contexts have shaped specific case studies;
• we will attend to the cultural dynamics that inform the creation and reception of films;
• we will develop ways of articulating our experience of moving images and the skills required for scholarly writing about film.