How and why do scholars write about form and style?

ESSAY QUESTION: ESSAY 1

Question: How and why do scholars write about form and style?

Instructions: To answer this question, select ONE element from Block 1: (a) Camera or (b) Mise-en-scène or (c) Cinematography (lighting). You must: • write textual analysis of that element in one film, programme or sequence chosen from the ‘Essay 1 Text List’ contained in this document and • use academic sources to inform your textual analysis of that specific element. o Think: how does that source help you to understand why we as scholars need to study that specific element and how does that source help you to know that your analysis of that FMSU9A2 2022 ESSAY QUESTIONS: ESSAY 1 Page 2 of 10 element is accurate in terms of technique and appropriate in terms of analysis? and • use academic sources to help you discuss why we as scholars must study style and form. Note on sources: there are penalties in place for not using enough eligible academic sources in your essay. Later in this document there are instructions about which sources are eligible for this essay. Further guidance can be found in the Topic 1 folder. Your essay MUST comply with the essay guidance provided for this module in the document ‘FMSU9A2 2022 Academic sources, referencing, essay guidance – Essay 1 and Essay 2’ in the Topic 1 folder. Your essay will be graded on the assumption that you are familiar with this guidance. The Topic 1 folder also provides a list of ‘grade penalties’: what they are and how to avoid them. (They can reduce your grade or even lead to your failing your essay.) Familiarise yourself with that guidance. For guidance on this specific essay, read the rest of this document. For essay writing advice, consult documents in this module’s Topic 1 folder on Canvas. FMSU9A2 2022 ESSAY QUESTIONS: ESSAY 1 Page 3 of 10 Essay 1 Text List: You may select any ONE of the following as the set text for your essay. They are listed in chronological order of release. • A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1945) • Black Narcissus (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1947) • The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) • The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955) • Yield to the Night (J. Lee Thompson, 1956) • Zuckerbaby [Sugar Baby] (Percy Adlon, 1985) [only to discuss Johanna Heer’s cinematography] • Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai, 1997) [only to discuss Christopher Doyle’s cinematography and you must not choose the sequence discussed by Greenhalgh although your essay must be informed by Greenhalgh’s findings from that sequence] • Shooting the Past (Stephen Poliakoff, 1999) • A Single Man (Tom Ford, 2009) • Doctor Who: ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’ (Euros Lyn, 2006) [note: Essay 2 gives you the opportunity to write about the Doctor Who FMSU9A2 2022 ESSAY QUESTIONS: ESSAY 1 Page 4 of 10 episode ‘Heaven Sent’, which we will study for a seminar, but if you write about Doctor Who for Essay 1 you cannot write about Doctor Who for Essay 2, not even a different episode] • Call the Midwife series 2 episode 5 (China Moo-Young, 2013) [note: this is a text from Block 2, when we study it in relation to editing. If you use this programme for Essay 1 you cannot use it for Essay 2] • Mudbound (Dee Rees, 2017) [only to discuss Rachel Morrison’s cinematography] • Small Axe episode 2: ‘Lovers Rock’ (Steve McQueen, BBC1, tx. 22 November 2020) • Black Narcissus (dir. Charlotte Bruus Christensen, three episodes, BBC1, tx. 27-29 December 2020)