Postgraduate Film And Visual Culture 2017-2018

This course will begin by taking a historical perspective to discuss some of the key interventions which have helped define visual culture as a field of enquiry, including work by Benjamin, Barthes, Burgin, Mitchell and Rosler among others. It will move on to explore some key theoretical concepts and paradigms, such as authorship, spectatorship, materiality, semiotics, digital culture and the archive.

This theory-led practice-based course will investigate different narrative forms of image making, including paintings, photographs and films by different artists from a range of historical periods.  We will be considering narrative form and content as shaped by subject selection, composition and framing, use of colour or black and white, and control of light.   These themes will be considered from aesthetic, historical and theoretical perspectives.  Through a series of seminars, video production and post-production workshops and screenings, students will learn approaches to moving image making that will culminate in the completion of a practice-based video project. 

Students will gain practical experience in the film industry and/or visual culture organisations, providing real work experience in preparation for the next steps following their degree.

This course  is designed to allow the creation of a programme of individual study where other appropriate course options at masters level are not available. It will run at the discretion of the programme co-ordinator. In discussion with a designated supervisor students will be able to identify and design a programme of research and study, which may include the completion of an undergraduate course, with assessments appropriate to masters-level work, or which may be consist of a short programme of research conducted over one semester. This programme of study will be subject to approval by the convener of the relevant M.Litt programme. Where appropriate courses at masters level are available, this course will not run.

Students will be introduced to the critical analysis of visual culture through discussion of classic studies from secondary literature across film, photography and visual culture.  Students will identify and define a corpus of primary visual material in consultation with the course leader, to serve as the basis for student-led workshops and subsequent assessed coursework. Workshops will involve close analysis and discussion of specific examples, by way of preparation for the assessed essay and blog post. The latter will focus on a single image and will train students in writing for a non-academic audience.

This course will explore the history of the documentary film and theoretical approaches for interpreting its context, allowing students to engage in production by putting into practice methodologies they have studied through a series of seminar discussions, workshops and screenings. Students will work in teams to research and video a project, utilizing the Media Lab’s facilities to complete the work through post-production.

Students will gain practical experience in the film industry and/or visual culture organisations, providing real work experience in preparation for the next steps following their degree.

This course  is designed to allow the creation of a programme of individual study where other appropriate course options at masters level are not available. It will run at the discretion of the programme co-ordinator. In discussion with a designated supervisor students will be able to identify and design a programme of research and study, which may include the completion of an undergraduate course, with assessments appropriate to masters-level work, or which may be consist of a short programme of research conducted over one semester. This programme of study will be subject to approval by the convener of the relevant M.Litt programme. Where appropriate courses at masters level are available, this course will not run.

Candidates will be required to research and write a 12,000-word dissertation on a subject and in an area approved by the Programme Co-ordinator.