Component 1: Varieties of film and filmmaking (exam - 35%)
Section A: Hollywood 1930 – 1990. A comparative study of two Hollywood films from
different eras. We currently study ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Bonnie and Clyde’.
Section B: American film since 2005. Two films studies; one a mainstream film,
the other a contemporary independent film produced after 2010. We currently study
‘Inception’ and ‘Captain Fantastic’.
Section C: British film since 1995. A study of two British films. We currently
study ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Sightseers’.
Component 2: Global filmmaking perspectives (exam – 35%)
Section A: Global film. Two films studied, one European, one produced outside
Europe. We currently study ‘City of God’ and ‘Victoria’.
Section B: Documentary film. One contemporary documentary film will be studied.
We currently study ‘Amy’.
Section C: Film movements – Silent cinema. One silent film from the 1920s/1930s
will be studied. We currently study ‘Sunrise’.
Section D: Film movements – Experimental film (1960 – 2000). A film that experiments
with one or more aspects of its form will be studied. We currently study ‘Pulp Fiction’.
All films will be studied through the framework for studying film:
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The key elements of film form – cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing and sound, which have significance both individually and in combination with one another
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The structural elements of film form – narrative and the processes of narration, including the role of the screenplay in providing narrative structure, and genre (where relevant to the film studied)
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How film creates meaning and generates response, including how it functions as a medium of representation
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Film as an aesthetic medium
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The spectator and spectatorship
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The social, cultural, political, historical and institutional, including production, contexts of film
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Critical approaches to studying film – arising from the idea of film as 'constructed' and including different conceptions of narrative, ideology and the idea of the 'auteur'
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Key debates (the realist versus the expressive in film and the digital) and filmmakers' theories of film.
Component 3: Production (Non-Examined Assessment – 30%)
A short film (4-5 mins) that highlights narrative construction OR a screenplay for a
short film (1600 – 1800 words) and digitally photographed storyboard of a key
section from the screenplay.