Film Studies

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:

1. The key elements of film form – cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing and sound, which have significance both individually and in combination with one another
2. 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)
3. How film creates meaning and generates response, including how it functions as a medium of representation
4. Film as an aesthetic medium
5. The spectator and spectatorship
6. The social, cultural, political, historical and institutional, including production, contexts of film
7. 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'
8. 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.

Component 1 35%: American and British Film

Classical Hollywood, Hollywood since the 1960’s, Contemporary American Independent Film and British Film

Component 2 35%: Varieties of Film

Film Movements, Documentary Film, Global Film and The Short Film

For BOTH components, learners must study:

For this specification, these underpinning elements have been used to create a framework for studying film, which learners will be able to apply to all the films they explore:

1. The key elements of film form – cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing and sound, which have significance both individually and in combination with one another
2. 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)
3. How film creates meaning and generates response, including how it functions as a medium of representation
4. Film as an aesthetic medium
5. The spectator and spectatorship
6. The social, cultural, political, historical and institutional, including production, contexts of film
7. 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'
8. Key debates (the realist versus the expressive in film and the digital) and filmmakers' theories of film.

Component 3 30%: Cross-Media Production

A complete short film (4-5 minutes) or a screenplay alongside an evaluation.