Film Studies

Film Studies is part of the Expressive Arts Faculty

• Ms C Curling - Head of Expressive Arts
• Mrs S Oldfield - Head of Film Studies

Click here to view the Film Studies Learning Journey

 

Please click below for detailed Programmes of Study:

The Curriculum

The Film Studies curriculum is an exciting and inclusive two-year exploration that incorporates all of the school’s intentions to deliver a wide-ranging curriculum that develops learning, loving and living in a modern world. Film studies requires critical thinking skills by way of film analysis, breaking down both historical and modern film into its key elements in order to decipher how meaning is created and spectators may respond. Students study a broad range of films, eleven over the two years that include: Global film, silent movies, films from the ‘Golden Era’ of Hollywood as well as contemporary US and British films. All students apply their knowledge and understanding of these elements to their own production work that culminates in either a short five-minute film, or the screenplay for a short film with an accompanying digital storyboard.

KS5 Curriculum

The A level is synoptic and Year 12 students work hard to gain the skills and knowledge needed to deconstruct a film in order to focus on the five key elements: cinematography, sound, editing, performance and mise-en-scene. Students learn to use and apply these key elements both in their own production work and in the analysis of the work of others’. This leads to a firm understanding of how meaning is created which is combined with an appreciation of historical and institutional context in order to understand a directors’ intent. Students also learn and apply Auteur theory alongside Spectatorship theory to a selection of six films in Year 12. Narrative theory is also explored as preparation for Year 13.

Year 13 continues to build on the key elements, context and combines the study of specialist areas in Auteur and Spectatorship Theory with the understanding of Ideological analysis. Ideology in film aims to explore the representation of specific groups or individuals within a variety of films and to question this representation alongside issues of diversity, or lack of diversity in mainstream film. Documentary film form is also introduced with the students gaining knowledge in to four prolific documentary film makers. The Year 13 students study a further five films and complete their production work. Two final examinations ask the students to apply everything they have learnt over the two years, to the micro analysis of all 11 films.