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Film Studies?

LauraV88

Anybody starting the new undergrad Film theory course this September?

Reply 1

LauraV88

OP

hmmph...well is anyone doing joint honours film or modules at the moment and has any information/advice, ie is it good?

Reply 2

LauraV88

OP

hmmph...well is anyone doing joint honours film or modules at the moment and has any information/advice, ie is it good?

Reply 3

Zoecb

11

I did a module in it last year, it was good.

Film at KCL is amazing, the lecturers are at the top of their field. All the research you do seems to quote them all over the place, esp. Richard Dyer, he's awesome.

Reply 4

Giulia

I took a course from Film Studies last year, it was really good.

As someone else already wrote, the lecturers are great. Also, the facilities are very good: two seminar rooms which are reserved specifically for the department, fully equipped, and a film theatre with a big screen and 35mm projection.

Reply 5

LauraV88

OP

good stuff! I left Warwick to come to kings so im hoping the facilities are as good- more excited about being in London though really...what modules did you do?

Reply 6

Zoecb

11

I did the 'Introduction to Film: Contexts' module. The other introductory one is Forms, and the others are more specific areas - new wave, silent film, that kind of thing I think? I thnk you can see what they all are on the website.

Reply 7

aristademis

They only have 17 courses. It can't be that great.

Reply 8

LauraV88

OP

I don't mind that- gives more focus on each

Reply 9

LauraV88

OP

Do you do film at Queen Mary then?

Reply 10

Zoecb

11

aristademis

They only have 17 courses. I can't be that great.

That's quite a lot. Film is a very new subject. It's not like the materials you look at go back 1000 years like in Literature - more like 80. Any more than that would be suspicious, they might be getting you to study rubbish.
KCL's film courses are very well-structured and focussed.

Reply 11

LauraV88

OP

Indeed. I'm sure I'll get a similar reaction at Kings as I did at Warwick when I said I did Film Studies hehe, but I truly did find a lot of the film essays I wrote more challenging and interesting (and requiring more in depth research) than most of my literature essays (did film and lit last year). It is certainly not (in my opinion) a soft subject.

I noticed that on the online guide to the syllabus (which I have seen before, just wondering what people thought of the modules really), that there are a significant amount of presentations, as well as essays- this is different to Warwick. Did you have to do these, if so how were they? Is it easier to do well in a presentation or are they marked harshly?

Sorry to ramble just want as much information/tips as possible!

Reply 12

Zoecb

11

You have to do them - I did one which was worth 15% of my module. I don't know what I got in it yet, I haven't had my mark breakdowns! You usually do them in pairs - you get assigned one of the weeks of the course and you do a presentation on that film and that topic - the lecture is very often on the topic more than the film, so your job is to do a presentation mainly on the film, talking about the topic in terms of it (eg. for film contexts, one week we looked Ringu in terms of genre (horror)).

Reply 13

LauraV88

OP

Ah, OK- thank you. That doesn't sound too bad at all...

Reply 14

Zoecb

11

You present it to your seminar group, so it's only a dozen people or so, and it just gets used to kick start a discussion, it's pretty informal - you just have to do some extra research for that week really.

Reply 15

aristademis

Zoecb

That's quite a lot. Film is a very new subject. It's not like the materials you look at go back 1000 years like in Literature - more like 80. Any more than that would be suspicious, they might be getting you to study rubbish.
KCL's film courses are very well-structured and focussed.

I'll preface this by saying I'm not intentionally being smarmy, just giving you a bit of a reality check.

The school I go to has over 200 film courses, and you're telling me 17 is a lot? Please. The courses are just theory classes. Do you gain any practical knowledge of filmmaking from these courses? Not likely. Do you shoot any films (and I mean films, not videos with a mini DV cam)? 16mm? 35 mm? Most importantly, what level of skill would you have once completed? If you want to study film, go to a real film school. It's a waste of time and money, when you would have better chances while starting off as a P.A. (which you don't need a degree to do).

Reply 16

aristademis

LauraV88

Do you do film at Queen Mary then?

I go to a film school in the US. Queen Mary is just a vehicle for me to take a year off via study abroad. :biggrin:

Reply 17

Zoecb

11

aristademis

I'll preface this by saying I'm not intentionally being smarmy, just giving you a bit of a reality check.

The school I go to has over 200 film courses, and you're telling me 17 is a lot? Please. The courses are just theory classes.

Yes, theorising, analysis, that sort of thing.

Do you gain any practical knowledge of filmmaking from these courses? Not likely. Do you shoot any films (and I mean films, not videos with a mini DV cam)? 16mm? 35 mm?

#
Of course not, it's an ACADEMIC course, not a practical one. You study things like the French New Wave, or Italian Realism after a history of Fascism - learning about camera angles and such is incidental, it's not about how to create them, it's about their significance once people have.
Film Studies as KCL is a LITERARY and historical course, not a vocational one.

Most importantly, what level of skill would you have once completed? If you want to study film, go to a real film school.
No, that's if you want to study filmMAKING. Which is not what you sign up for at KCL.

Reply 18

LauraV88

OP

Film Studies here is not the same as it is in the States, is it? There are a few good vocational undergrad film production courses here(and obviously for specialisms such as animation), but the majority are broadly based "media" type courses.

Someone I know was involved in a British film recently, and was told by one of the people in production that the only places that people should really think of studying a film degree here are places like Warwick (or KCL), where the course is purely theory. This makes sense when you think that a History or Literature graduate (for example) would probably have as much chance as someone who studied Media (or indeed film) of breaking into film/tv type work in this country, if they had the same amount of work experience etc.

In the States things seem a bit different, with more vocational “film schools”, isn't that right?

Reply 19

aristademis

Zoecb and LauraV88, thanks for the clarification. I am curious, though as to what sort of field you would go into, other than film critiquing? I mean, studying film styles can be done from your living room with a book and a dvd.

Film Studies?

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