Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts

I've taken several film studies classes while in college and this book makes an excellent reference guide. The information she provides is to the point, easily accessible and supplements any film class. Sure, it's not a very interesting cover to cover read because it's a reference guide. It will help you when you forget specific terms and vocabulary in film studies, and terms are easy to look up quickly before you get called on in class!

Routledge Key Guides are typically succinct, thorough, and extremely useful - and this is no exception. The articles cover a broad range of topics from simple editing techniques to sophisticated Lacanian theory. Hayward's tone is authoritative, but never pedantic. These entries are not excessively wordy and are thus useful to beginning film students, or even regular film buffs. That is not to say, however, that the book isn't useful to more advanced students. While most film students will probably own Bordwell's "Film Art", you may need to do a little digging before you find exactly what you need. This guide is very straightforward to use, so you never have to hunt around for, say, how the concept of "agency" relates to the cinema. This isn't really a replacement for a larger volume on film theory and technique, but it is a nice companion for easy access to lots of information. The articles range from one paragraph for terms where a straightforward definition will suffice to 21 pages on psychoanalysis. Again, Hayward's goal is communication, not a dazzling display of erudition. Nothing against dense scholarly texts - this is just easily accessible by comparison. The book is cross-indexed and each entry includes helpful tips for further reading. Add to that an extensive list of references, and three indices (films, names, and terms) and you've got a handy reference that you'll return to again and again. Whether you're trying to get a handle on the rapidly expanding world of film studies, or you're working on a paper and you need a quick reminder of what a "parallel reversal" is, this is worth picking up.

A good book which gives an overveiw of the various topics of cinema. If you want to know what one of the ideas are, read this book. Great for writing papers in the sense that it is concise and accurate. However, if you want a real in depth understanding of the topics covered, you'll need to look farther. This is a great starting place for any of hundreds of topics covered in the ook!

Now in its revised, updated, and expanded third edition Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts is an encyclopedia-style A to Z guide of critical cinematic concepts, from "action movies" and "art direction" to "Italian neo-realism", "lap- dissolve", "30-degree rule", "widescreen" and much more. Each accessibly-written entry summarizes the concept in an amount of text ranging from half a page to several pages, and a thorough bibliography, name index, and subject index encourage quick reference. Enthusiastically recommended for students of film, anyone seeking a career in the movie industry, and even seasoned professionals looking for an easy-to-use refresher reference.