Film and Media Studies focuses on the historical, aesthetic, cultural and social significance of cinema, television and new visual technologies and their interconnections. It is concerned with the teaching of visual literacy as it applies to moving images since the advent of modernity and beyond, and looks at dominant practices (Hollywood cinema, global media, mass-entertainment), and alternative practices (art-film and avant-garde, local and indigenous media).
The Bachelor of Arts (BA) programme in Film and Media Studies at Otago is designed to give students a thorough grounding in the analysis of film, television and new media. It is offered through the Department of Media, Film and Communication.
From the emergence of cinema at the end of the 19th century to the Internet revolution, the production and consumption of moving images has changed every aspect of our lives and cultures. The major emphasises a range of approaches to media texts and events that include aesthetics, history and sociology while stressing a strong theoretical understanding of the subject.
Students in Film and Media Studies develop a range of skills based on the content of the course, the development of research and presentation methodologies and multimedia literacies and skills. These skills will enable students to:
Analyse individual film and media texts and present their ideas in a written or oral form
Understand the forces at work behind the production and consumption of these texts
Appreciate the inter-relationship between the wide variety of media which operate in the modern world
Have the historical, cultural and theoretical knowledge necessary to engage critically with film and media texts
Engage with students and lecturers in a variety of contexts such as lectures, tutorials, virtual classrooms.
As such, it can be fruitfully combined with the study of a wide range of other subjects, including Communication Studies, Visual Culture, English, History, Gender Studies, Theatre Studies, Marketing and Psychology.
Students in Film and Media Studies will have access to a range of material and facilities which include resources through the programme's website, an audio-visual study centre in the Central Library, a digital recording and editing facility, as well as a screening room in which film prints, brought from within and without New Zealand, are displayed in theatrical conditions. This is the only programme in New Zealand which displays films in all formats: 35mm, 16mm, VHS and DVD.
