The video essay has become a vibrant medium of both scholarly and popular communication in the digital era. The focus in this course is primarily on the scholarly video essay produced in film and media studies contexts and published in online academic journals, but the course will also consider popular forms of video essay typically found on platforms like YouTube. Students will be introduced to the theory of the video essay and to scholarly debates about it and will also develop their own video essay-making skills through a series of experimental audiovisual exercises and a video essay project accompanied by one or more prose texts setting out goals, process and outcomes.

Students will gain knowledge of the different methods, genres and modes of the video essay (videographic criticism, desktop documentary, poetic versus explanatory approaches, algorithmic and parametric procedures etc.) and become familiar with their origins in practices like experimental filmmaking and the essay film. Students will be able to critically assess the debates around the effectiveness and scholarly validity of the different video essay types, and be able to choose the appropriate methods, genre and mode to express their chosen themes and scholarly and communicative goals.

Technical training, support, facilities and equipment will be provided.