I just finished a class related to film and in the process of writing what i saw there to the resources thread. You might find some of the notes ok for an introduction to themes i surely hope you guys will see
>advice on things
Making a quick note on what i wanted to say later about my personal journey, and similar to other anons from what i've seen, is that i found myself with crippling anxiety when doing homework after years of tense studies in college. If you come from high school and you were decent/average enough in terms of discipline you will find yourself comfortable with the initial load but if you come already from some tough shit either in college or in some other thing like reform school or a forced, timed trade you might find that you simply can't start doing anything at all, you will always find an excuse and procrastinate indefinitely, due to this also advance very little.
This happened to me and thanks to this course i learned the medium hard way that it is a fear which comes unfounded when i do things nowadays after them college days, fucking hell i even suffered it when thinking about writing or posting around here. The trick is that when you do get a massive grip and start to work you will realize you are enjoying yourself and time goes fast working and learning, at least in the initial quick homeworks. Never stop working even if it just doing basic research like looking at pictures and writing a very quick note or doddle recreating your visual thoughts, and when the medium to long one works start you will already find your timing and pace of work.
What i discovered that happened to me in introspection was that i felt a sudden dread about starting something because i felt it wouldn't end soon, our university works lasted months to even a year-long (along with being cross-inspected by a board of vampires) so this feeling was unconsciously prospected when i tried to do even inane assignments like doing an initial single page of a short story, which can be made in 5 minutes. I used anything to procrastinate, imageboards included, to the point that when i read every single board i was slightly interested in along with many local news articles i ended up doing stuff that i usually don't do like cooking batches for days in advance or clean my entire apartment sans bathroom, when i still didn't find force to start i decided to fap a cheeky bit to relax and there were days that i would fap 5 times in a couple of hours until i gathered strength or felt asleep which made me restart the same process the next morning
It's a special kind of hell but i recently realized what it was after thinking long and hard about it as another form of procrastinating lol that's the first step to fight it.
Many anons have explained similar things to this and i fully relate to them, it's silly dumb to call it PSTD but it is something that works mildly similar with milder results. The only way to overcome it :^) is knowing what it is and starting to work without thinking about it until you realize you are liking what you do.
TL;DR try to enjoy researching your subjects without stressing it out and merely immerse yourself when you start doing the easy initial assignments, don't even attempt to think about when you will finish when you start doing them if you come from a previous intensive education form, you will probably enjoy it soon enough and your focus will be naturally high. And don't stop doing this, you will chew the harder works later on without realizing it, it will be a relatively smooth difficulty curve.
>what to expect/learn in advance
Film studies wildly vary in curriculum, it will depend on your teacher/cadre of professors. Popularly he will be either a liberal theoric (highly contemplative, subjective cinema) or a classical worker with field experience (entertaining, explicit cinema), rarely the liberal with field experience (money launderer scam artist or hidden genius) and sometimes the conservative theory teacher who goes for the tried-and-true things (the standard old time teacher). You can learn a variety of things depending on the man but i recommend doing a concise list of works you like and start thinking what you really like about them, you will probably find a bunch of common traits (both visual and narratively) and based on those you might probably want to take special interest when they appear later on but this is mostly important to understand your own tastes which build up your own style; that is one of the most important things to have and despite what many believe you can develop it from very early on, just don't force it and let it form naturally.