डॉ. बी. आर. अम्बेडकर विश्वविद्यालय दिल्ली 
| Course Type | Course Code | No. Of Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation Core | SCC2FS102 | 4 |
Semester and Year Offered: Monsoon
Course Coordinator and Team: Dr Rajan Krishnan and team
Email of course coordinator: rajan[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in
No pre-requisites.
Course Objectives/Description:
The course aims at a thorough understanding of the ways in which sequences are constructed in cinema and subsequently understand how the sequences build the whole narrative. It is an exercise in training a conscious attention to film form as the basis for understanding cinema.
It is a practice based course in training students to break down a film into sequences and sequences into individual shots.
The course will train the students to look at how shots are composed and edited to make a film sequence as a basic narratalogical unit. The second part explores how these sequences together build a “script” as evinced in the completed film. This prepares the student to understand questions like the compression of time and space in cinema and the basis of cine-aesthetic experience.
Course Outcomes:
- Enable students to understand historical and theoretical ways of thinking about cinema. Thus, producing disciplinary knowledge of film studies.
- Given that this course engages with cinema in a practical form it allows for digital literacy and self-directed learning.
- This course allows for an engagement with a variety of transnational forms of cinema, prompting discussions of various aesthetic values and an appreciation thereof.
Brief description of modules/ Main modules:
See reading list below.
Assessment Details with weights:
- Class Participation – 30%
- Presentations and Assignments – 40%
- Final Exercise – 30%
Reading List:
Week 1 to 7: Analysis of a wide range of film sequences as in-class exercise and as assignments. A wide range of samples from international and Indian cinema are offered. The examples presented by Stefan Sharff in his classification film sequences thoroughly discussed.
Reading: Stefan Sharff. Elements of Cinema: Towards a theory of kinesthetic impact. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.
Week 8 to 14: Students are asked to read short stories, plays, novels which were made as films to understand how the script was conceived. Different versions based on the same film are closely studied and compared.
Novels, Short Stories and their film versions watched and discussed. Examples: Postman Always Rings Twice, Solaris, White Nights, Duvidha and Paheli etc. The exact list of films are also chosen in consultation with students.