Film StudiesQ&A by dot point

British film since 1995 and ideology. Studying a British film made since 1995 through film form and narrative, with ideology (the values and beliefs the film carries, representations of class, gender, nation and region) as the specialist study area, and the contexts of recent British cinema.

British social realism and context. The social-realist tradition (kitchen-sink drama, the British New Wave, Loach and the recent generation), its conventions (naturalism, location shooting, ordinary lives), and the contexts of class, region and the British film industry.

The global film comparative study. Comparing two global films, one European and one from outside Europe, through film form, narrative and context, in Section A of Component 02, with attention to cultural specificity and how world cinema differs from Hollywood.

The narrative approach. How films organise and tell stories (story and plot, range and depth of narration, structure and order, Todorov's equilibrium, binary oppositions, open and closed narratives), and applying narrative analysis to set films.

World cinema contexts and distribution. National film industries and movements, state and co-production funding, the art-cinema and film-festival circuit, subtitling and how non-English films travel, and the cultural and historical contexts that shape global films.

Auteur, narrative and choosing critical approaches. How auteur and narrative work as critical approaches, how to match an approach to the question and the set film, combining approaches, and reaching the judgement the higher-tariff levels-of-response essays reward.

Ideology and representation in film. How films represent social groups (gender, ethnicity, class, nation), the values and ideology that representations carry, stereotypes and countertypes, and applying ideology and representation as critical approaches to set films.

Spectatorship theory. How films position and are received by audiences (alignment, allegiance, identification, the gaze, active and passive spectatorship, preferred and oppositional readings), and applying spectatorship as a critical approach across set films.

Analysing the set documentary. Bringing together film form, the documentary mode, a filmmaker's theory and the critical debates (realism, ethics, digital) into a single exam answer on the set documentary, and the levels-of-response essay skills the section rewards.

Documentary and a filmmaker's theory. What a filmmaker's theory is, examples (Vertov's kino-eye, Grierson's social purpose, Nichols on documentary), how to apply a chosen filmmaker's theory to the set documentary, and the specialist requirement of the section.

Documentary critical debates: realism and digital technology. The debate over documentary's claim to truth and realism, the ethics of representing real people, and how digital technology has changed documentary production, manipulation and distribution.

Documentary form and modes. What documentary is and how it constructs reality, the expository, observational, participatory, reflexive, poetic and performative modes (Nichols), and how documentary uses film form to make arguments.

Cinematography and lighting. Camera position and angle, shot distance, movement, focus and depth of field, lens choice, lighting design and colour, and how each makes meaning and shapes the spectator's response.

Editing and montage. The selection and ordering of shots, transitions, continuity editing and its conventions, montage and the Soviet tradition, rhythm and pace, and how editing makes meaning and shapes the spectator's response.

Meaning, response and the contexts of film. How film form makes meaning and shapes response, and the social, cultural, political, historical and institutional contexts that films are produced and received within, and how to weave context into analysis.

Mise-en-scene and staging. Setting and location, props, costume, hair and make-up, the staging and movement of figures, and composition within the frame, and how each makes meaning and shapes the spectator's response.

Performance in film. Acting style (naturalistic and stylised), movement, gesture, facial expression, the use of the body and voice, casting and star image, and how performance makes meaning and shapes the spectator's response.

Sound in film. Diegetic and non-diegetic sound, dialogue, sound effects, music (score and source), the use of silence, sound bridges and asynchronous sound, and how sound makes meaning and shapes the spectator's response.

The elements of film form. The micro-elements (cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing, sound, performance) and macro-elements (narrative, genre) that make meaning, and the analytical move from naming a technique to explaining its meaning and the spectator's response.

Producing the short film or screenplay. Applying cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing, sound and performance (or screenwriting craft and storyboarding) deliberately to make meaning, working through pre-production, production and post-production, and meeting the AO3 demands.

The evaluative analysis. Analysing your own production in relation to professionally produced set short films, using the language of film form, reflecting on your choices and their effect, and meeting the AO3 demands of the written element.

The Making Short Film NEA: the task and options. The production options (a short film of around five minutes, or a screenplay with a digitally photographed storyboard), the evaluative analysis, how the NEA is assessed (AO3, 30 per cent), and its relationship to the rest of the course.

American film since 2005 and spectatorship. Studying a mainstream and an independent American film made since 2005 through film form and narrative, with spectatorship (alignment, allegiance, identification, active and passive response) as the specialist study area.

Classical Hollywood and New Hollywood. The studio system, the classical style, the star system and the Production Code (1930 to 1960); and the collapse of the studios, the influence of art cinema and the auteur, and the looser style of New Hollywood (1961 to 1990).

The auteur approach. The director as the author of a film, the auteur theory and its origins (politique des auteurs, Sarris), recurring style and theme as a signature, and the critique that filmmaking is collaborative and industrial.

The Hollywood comparative study (1930 to 1990). Comparing one Classical Hollywood film (1930 to 1960) with one New Hollywood film (1961 to 1990) through film form and context, with either auteur or ideology as the specialist study area, in the highest-tariff Section A essay.

The ideology approach. Reading a film for the values, beliefs and assumptions it carries (dominant ideology, hegemony), how films reinforce or challenge ideology, and applying the approach to the Hollywood comparative study and British film.

Analysing silent film form. Reading the cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing, stylised performance, intertitles and musical accompaniment of a silent film, and writing the levels-of-response essay that the silent cinema section rewards.

Experimental film (1960 to 2000). What the study requires, what makes a film experimental (challenging mainstream conventions of narrative and form), the movements and tendencies of the period, and the specialist focus on auteur and narrative.

Applying auteur and narrative to experimental film. How the director's signature works in experimental film, how experimental narrative breaks classical norms (non-linearity, self-reflexivity, refusal of closure), and integrating both into the Section D essay.

Silent film movements: German Expressionism, Soviet montage and silent comedy. The aesthetics, key techniques, historical contexts and influence of the major silent movements, as the basis for studying a set silent film as part of a movement.

Silent cinema as a film movement. What the silent cinema study requires, studying silent film as a movement (its historical context, aesthetics and development), how meaning is made without synchronised dialogue, and the specialist focus on film movements and stylistic development.