FAVp015 Star Wipe: Videographic Approaches to Film Performance

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2022
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Jiří Anger (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Fri 29. 4. 16:00–19:40 C34, Sat 30. 4. 9:00–12:40 C34, 14:00–17:40 03019, Sat 7. 5. 9:00–12:40 C34
Prerequisites
There are none.
This course is limited for 20 students only.
The course should be ideally paired with FAVh040 / FAVkh019: Stars, Star Systems and Celebrity Studies
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 4/20, only registered: 0/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20
Course objectives
What fascinates us, provokes us, or drives us crazy about film and media performances are often elements that we cannot easily grasp in words. As much as the fields of star studies and performance studies have developed ways to analyze film acting and star image in detail, until recently, when investigating more ephemeral means of expression, they have had to make do with textual mediation. So-called videographic criticism – an approach in which film as an object of study becomes at the same time a means of that study – provides an opportunity to capture these nuances. By means of creative manipulation of images, sounds, and texts in editing software, it offers ways to slow down or zoom in on the most inconspicuous gestures, tics, and movements, to compare actors’ expressions with each other, or to recognize broader patterns of performance across audiovisual culture. But how can we ensure that the videographic approach does not end at crowd-pleasing supercuts or illustrative compilations of widely known motifs? And how can videographic analysis incorporate not only the films themselves but also a reflection on one’s own spectatorial/scholarly position and the ongoing transformations of film as a digital object?

The aim of this intensive three-day workshop will be to search for ways to videographically examine film performance and the star image, striking a balance between creative manipulation of audiovisual matter and critical argumentation. Students will work in pairs to create original videographic formats (audiovisual essays) in which they will confront actors/stars and their specific performances of their own choice (not only in film and TV series but also, for example, in conceptual art, music videos, TV talk shows, or TikTok) with existing scholarly literature. The resulting videos should offer a novel articulation of a research problem that would be impossible in purely textual form and a self-reflexive insight into the conditions that shape our encounters with stars of all kinds in the contemporary media landscape.
Learning outcomes
Students will be:
- introduced to both theory and practice of videographic film criticism; more so to the changing epistemology of film studies in the digital era
- learn how to use sounds and images as means of writing; also critically reflect audio-visual production by manipulating with the audiovisual objects itself
- acquire skills for analysing actorly performance and star image
- be able to include theoretical and methodological knowledge into the audiovisual language
Syllabus
  • Friday April 29th - Afternoon slot: lecture (introduction to videographic film criticism; intersections with star studies)
  • Saturday April 30th - Morning slot: seminar (discussion over texts and videos), afternoon slot: project consultations
  • Saturday May 6th - Morning slot: audio-visual essays presentation
Literature
  • Grant, Catherine. „Star Studies in Transition: Notes on Experimental Videographic Approaches to Film Performance“, in The Videographic Essay: Practice and Pedagogy, eds. Christian Keathley – Jason Mittell – Catherine Grant (Scalar, 2019): http://videogr
  • Hewko, Bryn – Aaron Taylor. „Thinking Through Acting: Performative Indices and Philosophical Assertions“, [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film and Moving Image Studies 3, č. 4 (2016)
  • Mulvey, Laura. Death 24x a Second: Stillness and the Moving Image (London: Reaktion Books, 2006).
  • Russell, Catherine. „Barbara Stanwyck Rides Again“, [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film and Moving Image Studies 8, č. 3 (2020): http://mediacommons.org/intransition/barbara-stanwyck-rides-again
  • Grant, Catherine. „The Audiovisual Essay as Performative Research“, NECSUS European Journal of Media Studies 5, č. 2 (2016): https://necsus-ejms.org/the-audiovisual-essay-as-performative-research/
  • Klevan, Andrew. „Živý význam: Plynulost filmové performance“, Iluminace 30, č. 2 (2018), 33–46.
  • Keathley, Christian – Jason Mittell – Catherine Grant, eds. The Videographic Essay: Practice and Pedagogy (Scalar, 2019): http://videographicessay.org/works/videographic-essay/index.
  • Anger, Jiří. „Cinefilie ve věku algoritmů: Úvod do současné videografické kritiky“, Film a doba 67, č. 4 (2021).
  • Kooijman, Jaap. „Success“, [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film and Moving Image Studies 2, č. 4 (2015): http://mediacommons.org/intransition/success
  • GMITERKOVÁ, Šárka. "Zamilovaný netykavka, nezkažený bohatstvím". Oldřich Nový jako filmový herec v letech 1936-1945. ("He is in Love and not Corrupted by Wealth". Oldřich Nový as a Film Actor between the Years 1936-1945.). Iluminace. Časopis pro teorii, historii a estetiku filmu. Praha: NFA, 2018, vol. 30, No 2, p. 59-75. ISSN 0862-397X. URL info
Teaching methods
- Theoretical lecture
- Discussion over texts and videos
- Projects consultations
- Audiovisual essays group creations
Assessment methods
In pairs, students will create audiovisual essay (cca 3 to 5 minutes) and one textual explanation (1 NS).
Deadline: May 4th
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
Teacher's information
Jiří Anger is a doctoral candidate in film studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, in Prague. He is also an editor for the peer-reviewed academic journal Iluminace and curator and researcher at the National Film Archive in Prague (NFA). Anger's research focuses on archival film, experimental cinema, and videographic criticism.

His texts and videos have appeared in journals such as NECSUS, The Moving Image, Film-Philosophy, [in]Transition or Studies in Eastern European Cinema. He is the author of the monograph Afekt, výraz, performance: Proměny melodramatického excesu v kinematografii těla (Affect, Expression, Performance: Transformation of the Melodramatic Excess in the Cinema of the Body). He is currently working on a doctoral thesis titled “Aesthetics of the Crack-Up: Digital Kříženecký and the Autonomous Creativity of Archival Footage.”

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