Johnston ENG 202.5801 M-F 1:30-4:50 Wintermester 2020 Room: Ansari Building 109 1 ENG 202: Film Analysis and Interpretation Instructor: Brendan Johnston Email: brendanj@nevada.unr.edu Office: Frandsen Hall 008 Office Hours: By appointment over Wintermester Course Description: This course is an introduction to the basic concepts of film analysis and topics in film studies. It operates on the premise that before you can explore more complex facets of film studies—such as advanced theory, criticism, and history—you must first develop expertise in analyzing the basic elements of film form and style. We will devote several weeks to building a precise vocabulary to describe mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound in film with the goal that you will learn to trace the function of style and form within a scene and across a film. With these skills, you can enhance your everyday viewing of film, television, and streaming series; build upon this knowledge in subsequent film studies courses; and generally become a more discerning consumer and producer of visual discourse. We will work through the nuts and bolts of film analysis (the grammar of cinema); but we also will explore various modes of filmmaking and introductory critical methods, focusing in particular on how we categorize different films and what these categories mean. This class is meant to teach us ways of reading cinema, but it also builds upon critical thinking, critical reading, and critical writing skills—forms of interpretation and analysis that you can apply to other areas such as literature, the broader humanities, and popular culture. The films for this class have been chosen to illustrate concepts in film analysis and to introduce you to a variety of types of filmmaking. While I hope you will enjoy the screenings, their primary purpose is to help you build your skills and expand the breadth of your knowledge. Approach these films with an open and attentive mind! You are expected to watch the films carefully from beginning to end, and you will be asked to recall specific details from them. You are expected to take notes during your viewing so that you can remember specific examples related to the use of sound, camera work, mise-en-scène, editing, and narrative structure/form.