CLOSE-UP 01 Filmmakers' Choices / The Pop Song in Film / Reading Buffy

The Close-Up series is an innovative and accessible annual series devoted to the close analysis of film and television. Each volume contains three extended individual studies all dedicated to the detailed investigation of the many practical choices from setting and performance to camera position and movement, from lighting and colour to editing and the multiple possibilities of sound that create a film's form and determine its meanings.

Filmmakers' Choices  John Gibbs

Designed for the launch of the Close-Up series, Filmmakers' Choices explores different areas of decision-making within film production, focusing on each in the analysis of a film. The discussion of Talk to Her (2002) examines the detailed construction of point of view; the account of Lured (1947) is simultaneously a reflection on narrative construction and a look at the creative possibilities of coincidence. Other films under investigation include Candyman (1992), The Reckless Moment (1949) and Unforgiven (1992).

The Pop Song in Film  Ian Garwood

The Pop Song in Film offers a series of detailed interpretations of moments in films where the pop song adopts a decisive storytelling role. The study focuses on both on-screen musical performances and the use of the song as a kind of musical voiceover. It features close commentary on examples ranging from the Frank Sinatra star-vehicle musical Young at Heart (1954) to the opening of Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997).

Reading Buffy  Deborah Thomas

Buffy looks at Joss Whedon's acclaimed television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, through a close-reading approach more usually applied to films. The series is seen not just to create a richly detailed and satisfying fictional world, but to be an abundant source of complex meanings. Several aspects of Buffy are examined: its visual intelligence, the playful sophistication of its narrative strategies and the interest the series takes in its relationship with its many fans.

256 pages

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978-1-904764-66-3 (hbk)	£50.00	£42.50 with 15% online discount add to basket

Certainly the achievements of each contributing author impart significant weight to Close-Up’s thesis that “bottom-up” methods of analysis can help us to reach a deeper understanding of the processes by which meanings are constructed in film and television … The birth of an intelligent and highly valuable new publishing strand.
Deborah Allison, Senses of Cinema