107-082 The Entertainment Experience

Usually 25 points of first-year cinema studies, see Prerequisites. For cultural studies students 50 points of first-year arts including at least 25 points from a specified list of subject areas, see Prerequisites.

This subject will look at the interconnection between various entertainment industries. The focus will be on the emergence and significance of 'high concept' as a production and marketing strategy. The implications of the crossover between the film, television, comic book, computer game and theme park industries will also be explored. Students who complete this subject should be able to evaluate critical and theoretical frameworks in response to the shape of entertainment structures. Students will examine the central role played by new technologies in the cinema; the science fictional nature of the film medium; computer games and the collapse of linear narrative flow; the applicability of film spectatorship/identification theories in relation to these more interactive media forms, and explore alternative models of analysis, including entertainment media's relationship to the silent 'Cinema of attractions'.