Doing Film Studies examines what it really means to study film, encouraging the reader to question the dominant theories as well as understanding the key approaches to cinema. This book provides an overview of the construction of film studies - including its history and evolution - and examines the application of theories to film texts. Important questions discussed include:
Why does film studies need a canon? What is the relationship between authorship and genre theory? What is screen theory? How do we read a film text? Why is the concept of the spectator important to film? How is film involved in national identity? What is meant by a ‘film industry’?

Aimed at students in their final year of secondary education or beginning their degrees, Doing Film Studies equips the reader with the tools needed in approaching the study of film.

Contents

Introduction 1. The Canon in Practice 2. The History of the Discipline or How it Became Possible to Study Film 3. The History of the canon: The Development (and deconstruction) of the film studies canon 4. Key Approaches: Genre Theory 5.Competing Approaches: Screen Theory 6.Reading a film 7. Film Studies and Narrative Theories 8. Spectatorship and Audience Studies 9. Creative Engagement 10. Film and Identity 11. Postmodernism and Cultural studies 12. Film as Industry Index

Author Bio

Sarah Casey Benyahia is a teacher of Film and Media Studies. She is the author of Crime (2011), Teaching Contemporary British Cinema (2005) and co-author of several film and media studies text books.

Claire Mortimer is a teacher of Media and Film Studies. She is the author of Romantic Comedy (2010) and co-author of AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction for WJEC (2011).