The most eloquent of cuts

March 19, 2014

My students were asked to comment on which of the areas of film language they found most attuned to and which they found most difficult to get to grips with, many remarked on how difficult it seems that lighting is to read, others editing.. The truth is that even your...

Steven Soderbergh and Geurrilla Film making

January 31, 2014

Steven Soderbergh is always an interesting commentator on contemporary trends in film making and has been instrumental in the growing legitimacy of digital video  through his early adoption of it and his advocacy of  the development of RED camera system. In his last...

Stars in the Hollywood studio system

January 16, 2014

The following blog entry is an attempt to offer a perspective from which students might evaluate films made within the Hollywood studio system rather than just view the study of this as an historical topic. I should make a minor disclaimer here, in that the variables...

Genre evolution/history in the Holywood studio system

November 24, 2013

Genre offers a enormous range of approaches in critical studies, so much so that once one begins to study this area, one can begin to question whether genre itself is indeed relevant any longer. One thing is clear, audiences believe a films generic location is one of...

Examination Report 2013 part 2 The oral presentation

A colleague of mine when our team were to introduce our grade eleven students’ first practice presentation produced a document he called ‘How not to suck at the oral presentation’, I guess his point in doing this is that it’s all too easy for...

Seeing Whale Rider in an Asian context

September 12, 2013

After some years since first I first saw Whale Rider (Niki Caro, New Zealand, 2002) I watched it again recently, and apart from the obvious pleasures of such a well-made and moving film, something struck me which might be extrapolated to reveal something of a pattern...