TLÜ ÕIS

Film Language

Course code

BFM6130.FK

old course code

BFM6130

Course title in Estonian

Filmikeele alused

Course title in English

Film Language

ECTS credits

4.0

Assessment form

Examination

lecturer of 2026/2027 Autumn semester

Dirk Hoyer (language of instruction:English)

lecturer of 2026/2027 Spring semester

Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.

Course aims

The course “Basics of Film Language” aims at giving the students a better theoretical and conceptual understanding of the translation of text (screenplay) into audiovisual text (film). In a step by step approach the learner should be enabled to understand the basic construction of films, film characters and film script. Once this understanding is acquired the course focuses on the translation into film form under different constraints (generic conventions, different film styles and different directing approaches). The final exercise is a group work in which two students have to collaborate on copying an scene from an existing film in order to practically understand even the smallest units of filmic storytelling.

Brief description of the course

Introduction and Technology: Course structure and the technical elements of film language.
Historical and Experimental Forms: The language of silent cinema and experimental approaches to audiovisual creation.
Character and Story: Principles of character creation, stages of screenplay development, and storyboard production.
Directorial Choices: Original versus remake, genre limitations and possibilities, and the role of subtext in film.
Style and Form: The visual form and stylistic unity of film and their systematic analysis.
Practical Output: Film analyses and a collaborative group project completed by the end of the course.

Learning outcomes in the course

Upon completing the course the student:
- Conducts in-depth analysis of the formal elements, structure, and the developmental trajectory of a screenplay from script to screen;
- interprets and explains the technical and creative complexity of the filmmaking process, taking into account different directorial strategies and choices;
- applies components of film language (e.g. character creation, storyboard, subtext, form, and style) in practical analyses and creative exercises;
- distinguishes and compares different forms and styles of film language, including silent cinema, genre film, and experimental film language;
- produces and presents, in collaboration with another student, an audiovisual group project that demonstrates the practical application of the theoretical concepts studied in the course.

Teacher

Dirk Hoyer

The course is a prerequisite

Directing (Fiction) (BFM6098.FK)

Study programmes containing that course