Film Making: Essay and Assignment Questions
FVC1 ASSIGNMENT 2011
Essay Questions
Please write a properly referenced, 2,750-3,000-word essay answering one of the following questions
(submission deadline: 23:55, January 08, 2012)
1.
Broadcast television operates primarily on a regime of “distraction” rather than the “voyeurism” of cinema. Discuss with reference to concepts of “flow” and “fragmentation” (J. Ellis: Visible Fictions) as descriptions of televisual texture.
2.
“Today, it is important to discuss how images work, because they “make” us more than ever before”
(Frieda Grafe in W. Wenders, The Logic of Images). Discuss with reference to the source text.
3.
Jean-Luc Godard’s use of sound in his films can be described as a mixture of conventional and contrapuntal strategies. Give an account of how this particular mixture affects the act of film viewing.
4.
Sound in film is often considered as secondary in importance to the image as a communicator of narrative information. Discuss whether and why you agree or disagree with this implicit hierarchy, giving examples from films that you have been shown on this course to support your point of view.
5.
Assess the value of generic conventions as an explanation for the success of film as a popular art form.
6.
Compare and contrast the narrative structures of any two films viewed on this course, considering also how the differences you identify influence the viewing experience respectively.
7.
Consider whether you think the conventions of realism employed by Martin Scorsese in Raging Bull or the stylisation of Natural Born Killers by Oliver Stone is a more effective way of treating the theme of violence in film. Responses must be based on adequate research conducted.
8.
Do you see any contradiction in the use of the term “realist” to describe the “illusionism” of classical
Hollywood films?
9.
Give an account of the differences in the ways the narrative spaces in Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now and in
Essay Questions
Please write a properly referenced, 2,750-3,000-word essay answering one of the following questions
(submission deadline: 23:55, January 08, 2012)
1.
Broadcast television operates primarily on a regime of “distraction” rather than the “voyeurism” of cinema. Discuss with reference to concepts of “flow” and “fragmentation” (J. Ellis: Visible Fictions) as descriptions of televisual texture.
2.
“Today, it is important to discuss how images work, because they “make” us more than ever before”
(Frieda Grafe in W. Wenders, The Logic of Images). Discuss with reference to the source text.
3.
Jean-Luc Godard’s use of sound in his films can be described as a mixture of conventional and contrapuntal strategies. Give an account of how this particular mixture affects the act of film viewing.
4.
Sound in film is often considered as secondary in importance to the image as a communicator of narrative information. Discuss whether and why you agree or disagree with this implicit hierarchy, giving examples from films that you have been shown on this course to support your point of view.
5.
Assess the value of generic conventions as an explanation for the success of film as a popular art form.
6.
Compare and contrast the narrative structures of any two films viewed on this course, considering also how the differences you identify influence the viewing experience respectively.
7.
Consider whether you think the conventions of realism employed by Martin Scorsese in Raging Bull or the stylisation of Natural Born Killers by Oliver Stone is a more effective way of treating the theme of violence in film. Responses must be based on adequate research conducted.
8.
Do you see any contradiction in the use of the term “realist” to describe the “illusionism” of classical
Hollywood films?
9.
Give an account of the differences in the ways the narrative spaces in Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now and in