Film Studies is the name given to an academic field of study that analyzes the critical appreciation of cinema as an art together with the role it plays in society and culture. Film theorists argue that the discipline concerns itself with how best to view movies and understand all their meanings. The subject forms part of the larger disciplines of media and culture studies.
The discipline is a relatively new one dating back to the second half of the twentieth century. The growth of cinema studies as a discipline following the end of World War II has spawned a number of academic peer-reviewed journals. Examples include the influential British journal Screen, Cinema Journal and the Journal of Film and Video.
Academic cinema journals have introduced many important concepts in film theory over the years. For example, prominent cinema theorist and British academic Laura Mulvey (1941-stillliving) published her famous 1975 article titled Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema in Screen. That influential article adopted a Freudian psychoanalytic analysis of the portrayal of women in cinema. It is one of the earliest articles to combine cinema theory, psychoanalysis and feminism and remains widely read today.
The Hollywood studio and star system have operated to dominate movie making and marketing in terms of its influence on pop culture. Given this commercial success, some people may perhaps be surprised at the prominent early historical influence that Europe and Russia have had on both the technical aspects of filmmaking and cinema theory. The clearest example of this point is perhaps the Moscow Film School. Founded as early as 1919, the school was the first organization to focus on the technical aspects of movie making.
Similarly, the first serious cinema theorist is widely acknowledged to be Frenchman Andre Bazin (1918-1958). He started writing on the subject in 1943, during the World War II, and was a co-founder of the prominent magazine Cahiers du cinema in 1951 (together with Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca). His writings remain a major force in cinema theory and criticism today.
A 4 volume set of Bazin writings was published and released after his death. Those volumes were titled Qu’est-ce que le cinema? (What is Cinema?) and released over the years 1958 to 1962. A selection of those essays was translated into English and published as two volumes, the first in the late 1960s and the other in the early 1970s.
Bazin also favored films that presented an objective reality rather than indulging in blatant fake manipulations of reality. He supported documentaries and films crafted on the lines of Italian neorealism. From a technical viewpoint, he encouraged directors to render themselves invisible in their films; he supported advocated deep focus shots and wide shots; he discouraged adding meaning through montage favoring instead continuity via mise en scene.
Bazin argued that the best objective for films was to attempt to present an objective reality. He therefore favored documentaries and films in the style of Italian neorealism. From a technical perspective he argued that directors should seek to make themselves invisible; advocated the use of deep focus or large depth of field (favored, for example by Orson Welles) and wide shots (Jean Renoir). Bazin also supported lack of montage, that is, extended continuity through mise en scene rather than montage editing and special effects. All of these Bazin viewpoints are challenged by the modern film studies community. Bazin is nevertheless celebrated as having been an original thinker in his time.
Tarintino had to start somewhere. Film school can open the door to a lucrative and enjoyable career. The industry requires hard work and long hours so get started at a Canadian Art Institute. If film does not interest you then try taking web design courses or photography courses.
