Film Theories

Here's what we learned about Film Theories during class~! Of course it'll be based on notes we have written down. :)

Film Theory - provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relation to reality, the other arts, individual viewers and society at large

FILM THEORIES

Structuralist Film Theory

• emphasizes how films convey meaning through the use of codes and conventions not dissimilar to the way languages are used to construct meaning in communication

Formalist Film Theory

• focused on the formal or technical elements of the film: lighting, scoring, sound and set design etc.
• considers the synthesis (or lack of synthesis) of the multiple elements of film production

Feminist Film Theory

• theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory
• analysis on how women are portrayed in the film related to the broader historical context, the stereotypes depicted, the extent to which women were shown as active or passive and the amount of screen time given to women

Auteur Theory

• a director's film reflect that director's personal creative vision
• "Auteur" is the french word for "author"

Apparatus Theory

• derived from Marxist film theory, semiotics and psychoanalysis
• maintains that cinema is by nature ideological because its mechanics of representation are ideological
• argues that cinema maintains the dominant ideology of the culture within the viewer

Genre Studies

• refers to the method based on similarities in the narrative elements form which films are constructed
• a system of codes, conventions and visual styles which enables an audience to determine rapidly and with some complexity the kind of narrative they are viewing
• categorizing films according to their setting, theme, topic, mood, format etc.