ABSTRACT

Screen Media offers screen enthusiasts the analytical and theoretical vocabulary required to articulate responses to film and television. The authors emphasise the importance of 'thinking on both sides of the screen'. They show how to develop the skills to understand and analyse how and why a screen text was shot, scored, and edited in a particular way, and then to consider what impact those production choices might have on the audience.

Stadler and McWilliam set production techniques and approaches to screen analysis in historical context. They demystify technological developments and explain the implications of increasing convergence of film and television technologies. They also discuss aesthetics, narrative, realism, genre, celebrity, cult media and global screen culture. Throughout they highlight the links between screen theory and creative practice.

With extensive international examples, Screen Media is an ideal introduction to critical engagement with film and television.

'Screen Media offers a systematic approach to film and television analysis. The examples chosen by the authors are both appropriate and timely, and are presented in a very lively and readable form that will appeal to an international readership.' - Rebecca L. Abbott, Professor of Film, Video + Interactive Media, Quinnipiac University, USA

chapter 1|29 pages

By design

Art direction and mise en scéne construction

chapter 2|33 pages

Cinematography

Writing in light and movement

chapter 3|26 pages

Soundscapes

The invisible magic of sound

chapter 4|31 pages

At the edge of the cut

Editing from continuity to montage

chapter 5|29 pages

Plotting and planning

Storytelling and reviewing techniques

chapter 6|29 pages

Screen narratives

Traditions and Trends

chapter 7|30 pages

Reality and realism

Seeing is believing

chapter 8|27 pages

Genre

‘Something new based on something familiar’

chapter 9|27 pages

Star struck

Fandom and the discourse of celebrity

chapter 10|28 pages

Skating the edge

Cult media and the (inter)active audience

chapter 11|30 pages

The crowded screen

Transcultural influences and new directions in visual culture