Yelizaveta Moss and Candice Wilson, Univ. of North Georgia, published by Affordable Learning Georgia, 2020. Organized into 9 chapters, including film history, analysis of film techniques such as narration, genres, and writing film analysis. Each chapter includes questions for consideration. Online, PDF, and editable Word file formats. CC BY (Creative Commons - Attribution) license. Eligible for Print on Demand.
Russell Leigh Sharman, University of Arkansas, 2020. "Textbook for 1000- level Communication course: Introduction to Films Studies." Organized into 10 chapters. Online, PDF, and EPUB formats. CC BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike) license. Eligible for Print on Demand.
Thomas Anderson and Elizabeth Lathrop, Georgia State University, 2018. "This open set of course materials for Film Aesthetics is a downloadable version of a course created for a learning management system. Included are learning modules and a quiz bank based on introductory film concepts including the following topics: Narrative Structure and Motifs, Mise-en-Scene, Cinematography, Sound Design, Music, and Visual Effects." Course download zip file. CC BY (Creative Commons - Attribution) license. Eligible for Print on Demand if materials are compiled into a print-ready format.
John Reich, Genesee Community College, Open SUNY, 2017. "The discussion covers theme, genre, narrative structure, character portrayal, story, plot, directing style, cinematography, and editing. Important terminology is defined and types of analysis are discussed and demonstrated. An extended example of how a movie description reflects the setting, narrative structure, or directing style is used throughout the book to illustrate building blocks of each theme." Organized into 8 chapter covering the major areas of film construction and production. Faculty peer reviews of the text available on this site. PDF, EPUB, and online formats. CC BY NC SA (Creative Commons - Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike) license. Eligible for Print on Demand.
Edited by Santiago Hidalgo, Amsterdam University Press, 2018. "This volume brings together a wide range of explorations of the ways in which technological innovations have established new and changing conditions for the experience and study of film. The book offers analyses by such leading figures in film studies as Tom Gunning and Charles Musser, who examine the ways in which technological changes have altered the ways how cinema is conceived and how it is approached as an object of study." PDF and online formats. Not openly licensed licensed, but open access and therefore freely available to link to.
Crash Course playlist of 25+ videos (each video around 10 mins.). "Learn about the nuts and bolts behind movie magic, media portrayals of adolescence, how Netflix decides which movies to recommend to you, and what the film industry looks like in different parts of the world." Crash Course videos are high-quality, with a mix of live-action and animated graphics. Not openly licensed but freely available to view, link, and embed into courses.
Students at Linn-Benton Community College, published by Open Oregon, [2021]. "An open pedagogy project of student-authored essays to help readers develop a better understanding of the ways that narrative media like movies and television represent issues of difference, power, and discrimination in American culture, both today and in the past." Student essays organized by film title presented in chronological order by film release date. CC BY NC (Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial) license. Eligible for Print on Demand.
"Classic Cinema Online provides film students with an excellent collection of movie serials to watch and study. Here you will find classic movie serials like Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Captain America, and more. In addition, several of the classic movies in their collection feature the promotional advertising billboards shown at movie theaters." Silent films, serials, and films in the public domain.
"Folkstreams provides a venue for independent film-makers to showcase their documentaries about American traditional folklore and cultural roots. Their film archival collection focuses on the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of unnoticed Americans from many different regions and communities." Film pages also include related links and introductory guides. All rights reserved copyright, but films are available to link to.
Robert Phillip Kolker, Open Book Publishers, 2009. "[C]overs a "golden age" of international cinema from the end of WWII through to the New German Cinema of the 1970s." Online, PDF, and HTML formats. CC BY NC ND (Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative) license. Eligible for Print on Demand.
Online textbook about American history, with several sections devoted to Film and history of film. Not strictly open but educational use and linking encouraged.
Yelizaveta Moss and Candice Wilson, Univ. of North Georgia, published by Affordable Learning Georgia, 2020. Organized into 9 chapters, including film history, analysis of film techniques such as narration, genres, and writing film analysis. Each chapter includes questions for consideration; for example, Ch. 3 includes "Questions for Consideration: Lighting for Gender and Race." Online, PDF, and editable Word file formats. CC BY (Creative Commons - Attribution) license. Eligible for Print on Demand.
Russell Leigh Sharman, University of Arkansas, 2020. "Textbook for 1000- level Communication course: Introduction to Films Studies." Organized into 10 chapters. Chapters 9 and 10 focus on Representation in Cinema, including Women in Cinema and African Americans in Cinema. Online, PDF, and EPUB formats. CC BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike) license. Eligible for Print on Demand.
Students at Linn-Benton Community College, published by Open Oregon, [2021]. "An open pedagogy project of student-authored essays to help readers develop a better understanding of the ways that narrative media like movies and television represent issues of difference, power, and discrimination in American culture, both today and in the past." Student essays organized by film title presented in chronological order by film release date. Could be used for readings and/or samples of student essays for writing assignments. CC BY NC (Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial) license. Eligible for Print on Demand.
Ana M. López-Aguilera, Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project, 2021. "This textbook aims to promote critical viewing of contemporary audiovisual products and thinking about the representation of Hispanic cultures in web series and music videos." A collection of 11 essays, provided in both Spanish and English language versions. Could be used for sample readings/analyses. Online (Pressbooks), EPUB, and PDF formats. CC BY NC SA (Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike) license. Eligible for Print on Demand.
Michael T. Martin, Indiana University, 2019. "More than one hundred years since it premiered on cinema screens, D. W. Griffith’s controversial photoplay, The Birth of a Nation, continues to influence American film production and to have relevance for race relations in the United States. While lauded at the time of its release for its visual and narrative innovations and a box office hit with film audiences, it provoked African American protest in 1915 for racially offensive content. In this collection of essays, contributors explore Griffith’s film as text, artifact, and cultural legacy and place it into both the historical and transnational contexts of the first half of the 1900s and its resonances with current events in America, such as #BlackLivesMatter, #HollywoodSoWhite, and #OscarsSoWhite movements." Organized into 3 main sections. Could be used for sample readings/analyses. Online format. CC BY NC ND (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivative) license. Eligible for Print on Demand if materials are compiled into a print-ready format.
Michael T. Martin, Indiana University, 2019. "More than one hundred years since it premiered on cinema screens, D. W. Griffith’s controversial photoplay, The Birth of a Nation, continues to influence American film production and to have relevance for race relations in the United States. While lauded at the time of its release for its visual and narrative innovations and a box office hit with film audiences, it provoked African American protest in 1915 for racially offensive content. In this collection of essays, contributors explore Griffith’s film as text, artifact, and cultural legacy and place it into both the historical and transnational contexts of the first half of the 1900s and its resonances with current events in America, such as #BlackLivesMatter, #HollywoodSoWhite, and #OscarsSoWhite movements." Organized into 3 main sections. Oline format. CC BY NC ND (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivative) license. Eligible for Print on Demand if materials are compiled into a print-ready format.
Students at Linn-Benton Community College, published by Open Oregon, [2021]. "An open pedagogy project of student-authored essays to help readers develop a better understanding of the ways that narrative media like movies and television represent issues of difference, power, and discrimination in American culture, both today and in the past." Student essays organized by film title presented in chronological order by film release date. CC BY NC (Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial) license. Eligible for Print on Demand.
Students at Linn-Benton Community College, published by Open Oregon, [2021]. "An open pedagogy project of student-authored essays to help readers develop a better understanding of the ways that narrative media like movies and television represent issues of difference, power, and discrimination in American culture, both today and in the past." Student essays organized by film title presented in chronological order by film release date. CC BY NC (Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial) license. Eligible for Print on Demand.
Robert Phillip Kolker, 2009. "Covers a "golden age" of international cinema from the end of WWII through to the New German Cinema of the 1970s." Online, PDF, and HTML formats. CC BY NC ND (Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative) license.
OER textbook published by Open SUNY, 2017. "The discussion covers theme, genre, narrative structure, character portrayal, story, plot, directing style, cinematography, and editing. Important terminology is defined and types of analysis are discussed and demonstrated. An extended example of how a movie description reflects the setting, narrative structure, or directing style is used throughout the book to illustrate building blocks of each theme." Organized into 8 chapter covering the major areas of film construction and production. PDF, EPUB, and online formats. CC BY NC SA (Creative Commons - Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike) license.
Georgia State University instructors, 2018. "This open set of course materials for Film Aesthetics is a downloadable version of a course created for a learning management system. Included are learning modules and a quiz bank based on introductory film concepts including the following topics: Narrative Structure and Motifs, Mise-en-Scene, Cinematography, Sound Design, Music, and Visual Effects." Course download file. CC BY (Creative Commons - Attribution) license. Eligible for Print on Demand if materials are compiled into a print-ready format.
Online textbook about American history, with several sections devoted to Film and history of film. Not strictly open but educational use and linking encouraged.
This course concentrates on close analysis and criticism of a wide range of films, from the early silent period, classic Hollywood genres including musicals, thrillers and westerns, and European and Japanese art cinema. It explores the work of Griffith, Chaplin, Keaton, Capra, Hawks, Hitchcock, Altman, Renoir, DeSica, and Kurosawa. Through comparative reading of films from different eras and countries, students develop the skills to turn their in-depth analyses into interpretations and explore theoretical issues related to spectatorship.
University of Arkansas, 2020. "Textbook for 1000- level Communication course: Introduction to Films Studies." Organized into 10 chapters. Online, PDF, and EPUB formats. CC BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike) license.
"This 2018 volume brings together a wide range of the ways in which technological innovations have established new and changing conditions for the experience and study of film. The book offers analyses by leading figures in film studies such as Tom Gunning and Charles Musser, who examine the ways in which technological changes have altered the ways how cinema is conceived and how it is approached as an object of study." PDF and online formats. Not openly licensed licensed, but open access and therefore freely available to link to.
Jill Olmstead (2022) Professor of Journalism at American University. This 11 chapter text contains audio and video clips and is available online and via PDF. The license is Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC.
The Video Production Handbook is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Steve Shlisky, Vina Cera, Misha Antonich, Christopher Clemens & Jennifer Vaughn (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)) .
A series of filmed conversations with directors, editors, screenwriters and more.
A series of filmed conversations with screenwriters, directors, and editors.