The Moving Image 2021
ESSAY QUESTIONS:
ESSAY 2
Answer ONE of the following questions.
The phrase “text from Block 2” means that your choice(s) of film(s)
and/or programme(s) MUST be taken from the list headed “Your Essay
2 must only discuss texts from this ‘Block 2’ list” at the end of this
document. Your essay must contain appropriate academic scholarship:
see the essay guidance.
Essay 2 Question 1
[but see the note ‘Duplication’ below]
“Grounding writing about film in observable detail should be
fundamental” (Gibbs and Pye). Critically assess the contribution that the
book Style and meaning makes to our ability to answer the question
‘How and why do we write about style and form?’ Demonstrate your
understanding of this through analysis of one text [film or television] from Block 2 in relation to one of the following:
(a) Editing or
(b) Sound or
(c) Music
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Essay 2 Question 2
“Good editing […] results from the editor’s intuition in choosing the right
length of each shot, the right rhythm of each scene, the right moment for
cutting to create the right spatial, temporal, visual, and rhythmic
relationships between shots A and B” (Barsam). Discuss in relation to
one of the following:
(a) Explain why Don’t Look Now is seen as an example of
associative editing or
(b) Analyse the rhythmic relationships within any one text from
Block 2 or
(c) Analyse the spatial relationships within any one text from Block
2 or
(d) Analyse the temporal relationships within any one text from
Block 2 or
(e) Analyse the interplay between spatial and temporal
relationships within any one text from Block 2 or
(f) Compare examples of graphic matching: one example each
from two texts from Block 2.
Essay 2 Question 3
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Altman described as “fallacies” the ways in which critics created a
hierarchy in which the image was more important than sound: instead,
there is a process “whereby the sound asks, ‘where?’ and the image
responds, ‘here!’” Challenge these “fallacies” by critically assessing film
scholarship on sound and/or music and explaining which scholar(s)
provide the best way forward. Support this with discussion of sound
and/or music in any one text from Block 2.
Essay 2 Question 4
Analyse the ways in which sound conveys Morvern’s subjectivity in
Morvern Callar. (It is not compulsory to discuss music but you may do so
as part of addressing sound design.)
Essay 2 Question 5
Critically assess the “endless circlings, recirclings, and suspensions”
(Sullivan) in Bernard Herrmann’s music for Vertigo.
Essay 2 Question 6
Discuss the ways in which one of the following has facilitated the discussion of television style. Demonstrate this through the analysis of one television programme from the Block 2 list.
(a) The Spaces of Television project or
FMSU9M2 2021 ESSAY QUESTIONS: ESSAY 1 Page 4 of 7
(b) Debates about the “cinematic” in Television aesthetics and style
[Your answer should focus on either editing or sound or music or sound
and music. However, you may briefly mention one element covered in
Block 1 provided that you did not discuss it in Essay 1.]
Essay 2 Question 7 [but see the note ‘Duplication’ below]
“Statistical style analysis is […] the quantification of style” (Olliver).
Conduct statistical style analysis in one of the following ways:
(a) Observe changes in editing or sound or music in any text from
Block 2 or
(b) Compare one element (editing or sound or music) in any two
texts from Block 2 or
(c) Bring together one element of style from Block 1 and one element of Block 2 in response to any text from Block 2.
[If you answer option (c), you must NOT use the element(s) of style you
discussed in Essay 1.]
Essay 2 Question 8
Write an analysis of one text [film or television] from Block 2. Write in the style of an article for the journal Movie. Your answer must make close
reference to methods used by scholars in Movie since 2010 and
