Film Studies

AS and A Level

Erwin Panof­sky wrote in 1934 – “If all the seri­ous lyrical poets, composers, paint­ers and sculptors were forced by law to stop their activ­it­ies, a rather small frac­tion of the general public would become aware of the fact and a still smal­ler frac­tion would seri­ously regret it. If the same thing were to happen with the movies, the social consequences would be cata­strophic.” Film going is still one of the most common and popu­lar forms of enter­tain­ment outside the home and watch­ing videos is one of the most popu­lar home enter­tain­ments, so it is a sens­ible idea to think about study­ing it. It is also Fun!

The Film Stud­ies course, whether for the A level or just for the AS, is inten­ded to deepen your under­stand­ing, enjoy­ment and appre­ci­ation of film as the major art form of the 20^th century. You will study Cinema as a medium, as an art form and as a social and economic insti­tu­tion. Films will never be the same again…

Specific­a­tion: WJEC Film Stud­ies AS 2181 A level 3181
Click here to down­load the current specific­a­tion for this A level course.

AS level - there are 2 courses:

FM1 Explor­ing Film Form - 40% of AS - Internal assess­ment
FM2 Brit­ish and Amer­ican Film - 60% - Exam 2hrs 30mins

You will need to know…

FM1: Explor­ing Film Form
How films work form­ally and styl­ist­ic­ally to commu­nic­ate mean­ing and engage audi­ences; develop the skills to identify and explore your own responses as a spec­tator to examples of films. You will need to demon­strate in a prac­tical sense how film is repres­en­ted in story­board­ing or screenwriting.

FM2: Brit­ish and Amer­ican Film – This larger unit comprises three parts:

Section A - Produ­cers and Audi­ences
This exam­ines the nature of Holly­wood, its power as a busi­ness model and its popular­ity as an enter­tain­ment giant. Aspects of finance, organ­isa­tion, produc­tion, distri­bu­tion and exhib­i­tion will be stud­ied, as will what audi­ences require or demand from those who satisfy their needs. Thus we look at the appeal of film on the big screen, the home cinema altern­at­ive and the social force that the visual medium exer­cises.
Case stud­ies are used to explore these features, and these change each year.

Section B - Brit­ish Film
We look at a range of issues from Brit­ish cinema that encom­pass genre, star, produc­tion compan­ies, culture, polit­ics and iden­tity. Each year, the group will exam­ine the altern­at­ives, explore most of them and chose the one with which they feel most comfort­able. Each option requires the study of two Brit­ish films in detail and, again these are chosen collect­ively with guid­ance from the teacher.

Section C - Amer­ican Film
Again, two films are selec­ted from a specific genre or theme from the hundreds of possib­il­it­ies avail­able from the Amer­ican cata­logue. The object­ive is to compare and contrast two films on a similar theme, or the same film remade in a later period with a differ­ing emphasis. There is great poten­tial for each year to choose widely vary­ing examples.
Success­ful candid­ates are likely to have a grade C in English Language and at least ‘success­ful exper­i­ence’ in English Liter­at­ure. Study­ing another Arts or Social Science AS or A level is highly desirable.

A2

Should you want to go on to A2 level in 62 - and three-quarters of all have done so since the course began in 2000 - you will take courses in Foreign Cinema (mean­ing foreign language but with subtitles), course­work on topics of your choice and a synop­tic paper cover­ing academic issues which combine all that you have learned with your own, devel­op­ing views of the film world. You can ask for more details now, or wait until nearer the time.

Films will be shown once a week and will run during period 6 and after School. Attend­ance is essential.

Assess­ment Summary for Film Stud­ies A level:

Unit 1: FM1 20 % (40% of AS) Explor­ing Film Form
Internal Assess­ment
One analysis of how the micro aspects of a chosen extract from a film of candidate’s choice produce mean­ings and responses (1500 words) (30)
One creat­ive project based on a film sequence or short film
(50: sequence or short film [40] / reflect­ive analysis [10])
Paper UMS total: 80

Unit 2: FM2 30% (60% of AS) Brit­ish and Amer­ican Film
External Assess­ment - 2½ hours Writ­ten Paper
Three ques­tions, one from each section:
Section A: Response to stim­u­lus mater­ial set by Award­ing Body based on produ­cers and audi­ences of film (40)
Section B: Topics in Brit­ish Film (40)
Section C: US Film - Compar­at­ive study of two films (40)
Paper UMS total: 120

Unit 3: FM3 25 % Film Research and Creat­ive Projects
Internal Assess­ment
a small-scale research project (40)
creat­ive project (60 - 45 product / 15 reflect­ive analysis)
Paper UMS total: 100

Unit 4: FM4 25 % Vari­et­ies of Film Exper­i­ence: Issues and Debates
External Assess­ment - 2 ¾ hour Writ­ten Paper
Three ques­tions, one from each section:
Section A: World Cinema topics (35)
Section B: Spec­tat­or­ship topics (35)
Section C: Single Film - Crit­ical Study (30)
Paper UMS total: 100

Recent Students’ Comments
“I remem­ber the descrip­tion of the course being ‘You watch a film then write an essay on it’, so the course appealed to me as my main strength is English. However, the course never became mono­ton­ous as it contains so much vari­ety. It comple­ments most subjects. With touches of history and creativ­ity, none of the lessons could ever be classed as repetitive.”

“Study­ing film is an insight into another world’s real­ity, as well as an insight into the real­ity of our world’s film industry. Films can be full of innov­at­ive ideas and AS level Film Stud­ies is made for a fresh but thought­ful pair of eyes. I never felt restric­ted by the course and was partic­u­larly taken by the thought that every day there was some­thing new to learn in an ever devel­op­ing industry, as well as an endless field of creativity.”