Overview

This unit introduces students to the distinctive film-making practices of the Hollywood Cinema. The unit will examine a number of representative texts from an aesthetic and historical perspective. Students will be encouraged to evaluate seminal texts drawn from the classical Hollywood cinema as well as texts produced independently outside the studio system. Narrative strategies, stylistic norms and audience expectations will be examined in detail. Students will acquire an insight into production techniques, distribution and marketing strategies and the development of dominant and marginal stylistic approaches.

Requisites

Prerequisites
FTV30005 Hollywood Cinema

Rule

50 credit points

Teaching Periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 1
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
26-February-2024
26-May-2024
Last self-enrolment date
10-March-2024
Census date
31-March-2024
Last withdraw without fail date
12-April-2024
Results released date
02-July-2024

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Evaluate the functions of concepts such as text, context, subtext, narrative, medium and image in Hollywood cinema
  • Contrast narrative strategies and stylistic elements in a range of texts
  • Interrogate the production, distribution and reception processes that define Hollywood films
  • Distinguish different aesthetic approaches between Hollywood and independent American film genre
  • Appraise the historical development of dominant and marginal Hollywood cinema
  • Compose essays that develop clear arguments through research and analysis of selected texts and critical screening

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
On-campus
Class
3.00 12 weeks 36
On-campus
Class
1.00 12 weeks 12
Specified Activities
Various
3.67 12 weeks 44
Unspecified Activities
Various
8.29 7 weeks 58
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
AssessmentIndividual 40% 1,5,6 
Oral AssessmentIndividual 10% 1,2,3,4,5 
Research EssayIndividual 50% 1,2,3,4,5,6 

Content

  • Hollywood and the Studio System
  • Classical narrative structure
  • Pre-Code Hollywood and the Problem of Glamour
  • Cold-War Hollywood – HUAC
  • The Film School Generation and New Hollywood
  • Blaxploitation and Black Cinema
  • Blockbuster and High Concept Cinema
  • Hard Body Cinema and the Cinema of Attractions
  • Independent Cinema
  • Hollywood Today
  • Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Verbal communication
  • Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Communicating using different media

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.