Introduction to Film Studies: The Grammar of Cinema
Introduction to Film Studies: Course Syllabus
⬅️ The Curriculum | Lesson 1 ➡️
Stop Watching. Start Seeing.
We all start as fans. We go to the cinema to escape, to feel, and to be entertained. But to study film is to move from Consumption to Critique.
This comprehensive 13-part course is designed to instill the Critical Faculty – the mental switch that allows you to stop looking at the screen and start looking through it. You will learn that a movie is not just a story; it is a machine. It is a constructed object where every cut, every light fixture, and every sound effect is a calculated choice designed to manipulate your emotions and perception.
Over the next 13 lessons, we will dismantle this machine. We will learn the vocabulary of the mechanic (The Grammar) and the questions of the philosopher (The Theory).
Course Syllabus
The curriculum is divided into two distinct phases.
Phase I: The Mechanics (The Tools)
In the first half of the course, we analyze the technical construction of the image. How is the illusion created?
- Lesson 1: The Critical Faculty
- Moving from "I liked it" to "How does it work?" The distinction between Form and Content.
- Lesson 2: Narrative Structure
- The architecture of time. Distinguishing between Plot and Story, and how directors manipulate information to create suspense.
- Lesson 3: The Principles of Form
- Viewing the film as a closed system. Analyzing function, repetition (motifs), and binary oppositions.
- Lesson 4: Mise-en-scène
- "Putting into the scene." How setting, costume, and lighting externalize a character's internal psychology.
- Lesson 5: Cinematography
- The camera as narrator. How framing, angles, and focus dictate the power dynamics of a scene.
- Lesson 6: Editing
- The invisible art. The Kuleshov Effect, Continuity vs. Montage, and the manipulation of emotional rhythm.
- Lesson 7: Sound
- The forgotten sense. Diegetic vs. Non-diegetic sound, fidelity, and the power of silence.
Phase II: The Theory (The Meaning)
In the second half, we move beyond the technical to the philosophical. We ask not just how the machine works, but what it is for.
- Lesson 8: Auteur Theory
- Who is the author? Examining the director as the sole visionary and the "signature" of style.
- Lesson 9: Realism vs. Formalism
- The battle for truth. Is the camera a transparent window into reality (Lumière) or a frame for fantasy (Méliès)?
- Lesson 10: Documentary
- The creative treatment of actuality. The modes of non-fiction and the ethics of filming real lives.
- Lesson 11: Genre
- The rituals of storytelling. How generic formulas (Westerns, Sci-Fi) function as cultural mirrors for societal anxiety.
- Lesson 12: Ideology and Representation
- The politics of the image. Analyzing explicit propaganda, implicit bias, and the construction of "The Other."
- Lesson 13: Synthesis
- The graduation. Bringing all disciplines together to read the screen as a Gesamtkunstwerk (Total Work of Art).
The Film & Philosophy Track
This course is Part One of our core curriculum.
While "Introduction to Film Studies" teaches you How to See, our upcoming companion course, "Introduction to Philosophy," will teach you How to Think.
The ultimate goal of this platform is to bring these two worlds together. Once you have mastered the grammar of cinema, you will be ready to engage with our advanced modules where we use film to dissect the great philosophical questions of existence, ethics, and metaphysics and use philosophy to better understand the medium of film.