LT243-5-SP-CO:
Low-Budget, Experimental and Independent Cinemas
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 5
Inactive
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
15
25 February 2021
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
This module takes as its starting point a diversity of modes of film production, and will go on to address such key questions as: to what extent do modes of production and personal choices determine a film`s form and meaning? How have different filmmakers negotiated with limited budgets, ideological scrutiny, and desires for personal expression over the course of cinema history? How are the form and style of a film born out of its relationship with ideology and history? Why are lower budget and `alternative` cinemas almost always conceptually to opposed to the `mainstream` - thereby presuming a status of alterity and marginality? What constitutes an `avant-garde` or experimental practice, and how have `alternatives` found themselves absorbed into and influencing popular cinema?
All the films we study have something to say - they are social documents, personal stories, and/or aesthetic experiments that have intervened in the conventions of cinematic storytelling in various ways. We will explore by what means or strategies, and to what ends, these films have responded in different ways to the specific conditions and contexts within which they were created. An while contexts and histories of these films are important, the primary focus will be on film analysis and a careful focus on the impressions, messages, meanings, and affects that these films engender.
1. To familiarise students with the diverse and changing modes of film production.
2. To facilitate a critical and reflective approach to a variety of film texts, and to explore the representational strategies put into practice by a range of lower budget and independent cinemas.
3. To engage with different formal dimensions of cinema such as narrative strategy and style.
By the end of the module, students will have:
1. engaged critically with different formal dimensions of cinema such as narrative strategy and style
2. critically examined a range of films in their social and political contexts
3. improved and further developed their skills of communication, problem-solving, text analysis and teamwork.
4. advanced their skills of film analysis and performing scholarly research.
Module Supervisor's Research into Subject Area
Professor Geiger has done extensive research into low-budget, amateur, and alternative cinemas, with a particular focus on non-fiction and documentary film. Recent lectures and publications have focused on amateur film before the Second World War and the development of Kodachrome colour. He is author and editor of numerous books and articles relating to film history, theory, and analysis, including Facing the Pacific (2007) and American Documentary Film: Projecting the Nation (2011).
This course is run without lectures – there are weekly film screenings, and attendance should be considered compulsory. If you have a timetable clash, and cannot make it to the screenings, it is up to you to get the film(s) for each week (most of them are available from the Albert Sloman Library) and watch them in your own time.
The principal learning environment for this course is the weekly seminar, during which you will be expected to make constructive contributions to class discussion, airing your ideas and responding respectfully to those of others. The role of the course tutor is to guide the discussion and keep it productive, summarising where appropriate, and indicating how the debates taking place in the seminar room fit in with the broader academic debates on these films and their place in their respective societies. You are unlikely to maximise the potential of this learning environment if you come along to classes unprepared – for this reason, it is vital that you familiarise yourselves with at least the compulsory weekly readings before each seminar, and are prepared to discuss the week's topic.
You will be expected to make one presentation either as individual or as part of a small group. This should last no longer than 10-15 minutes, and will be reflected upon by the whole group as a regular part of class discussion. Guidance on topics and delivery will be provided in the first weeks of the course, before any presentations take place.
The Department dedicates 5% of the overall coursework mark for each module to class participation. Attendance at classes and seminars is not optional and we expect excellent attendance from all our students. The participation mark awarded is not solely based on the number of classes/seminars you have attended but also appropriate contribution to class discussion.
The class participation mark for this module is based on three main criteria: attendance; preparation; contribution.
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
Additional coursework information
One essay (2,500 words) (65%), presentation, including slides with written explication (1,000 words) (30%), seminar participation (5%)
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Jeffrey Geiger, email: j.geiger@essex.ac.uk.
Professor Jeffrey Geiger
LiFTS General Office - email liftstt@essex.ac.uk.
Telephone 01206 872626
No
No
Yes
No external examiner information available for this module.
Available via Moodle
Of 47 hours, 20 (42.6%) hours available to students:
27 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
Disclaimer: The University makes every effort to ensure that this information on its Module Directory is accurate and up-to-date. Exceptionally it can
be necessary to make changes, for example to programmes, modules, facilities or fees. Examples of such reasons might include a change of law or regulatory requirements,
industrial action, lack of demand, departure of key personnel, change in government policy, or withdrawal/reduction of funding. Changes to modules may for example consist
of variations to the content and method of delivery or assessment of modules and other services, to discontinue modules and other services and to merge or combine modules.
The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will also keep students informed appropriately by updating our programme specifications and module directory.
The full Procedures, Rules and Regulations of the University governing how it operates are set out in the Charter, Statutes and Ordinances and in the University Regulations, Policy and Procedures.