History Theory Methods

• Credit value: 60 credits at Level 7
• Convenors: Professor Ian Christie, Janet McCabe, Professor Laura Mulvey (subject to change)
• Assessment: four essays of 3000 words (each worth 25%)

This core module begins with theories of spectatorship and histories of the audience. Next a case study of London explores the social, spatial and temporal sites of exhibition. The second term examines film collections and how the archive is exhibited, followed by an exploration of the practical and critical skills involved in programming the moving image for an audience. In the summer term, you undertake the placement, in a work environment related to aspects of film programming, archiving or exhibition.

Indicative module content

• Early attempts to identify the film spectator
• The era of the mass audience and classical Hollywood
• The rise of the European 'New Waves'
• Studies in the sociology of the film audience: from the 1930s to now
• Identifying audiences in the multi-platform era
• Spatially mapping film culture and sites of exhibition
• London's picture palaces
• Researching a lost cinema
• Film programming at the BFI, ICA and Tate Modern
• Independent programming
• Pop-up film programming
• Understanding copyright and marketing
• Tracing and acquiring film prints
• Programming for a specific audience