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EDUQAS: A Level Film Studies

Please note: Specification changed in Sept 2017. To read  sample assessment materials please click here.

Film Studies

An enjoyment of films, film making and discussing cinema is essential for this course. We study a range of films from old Hollywood to foreign language, focusing on analysing them through key concepts such as narrative, ideology and design. Documentary, Silent cinema and experimental film are also studied. Students are also eligible to enter the Moving Image Awards, a partnership competition between EDUQAS and the BFI, with the winners receiving their prizes at a ceremony held at the BFI headquarters in London. Your coursework (a 4-5 min short film or screenplay accompanied by a photographed storyboard) can be submitted to the competition if you wish.

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At the root of all film studies is a recognition that films are made: they are constructed using a range of elements – cinematography, mise-en-scène, sound, editing and performance (the key elements of film form) – which are organised structurally in terms of narrative and often genre (the structural elements of film form). How filmmakers use these elements, frequently in complex and highly artistic ways, is a
large part of what constitutes the formal study of film.

 

Equally important is how spectators respond to the work filmmakers create and how learners interpret the films with reference to spectator response, relevant contexts, critical approaches and debates. In turn, these formal studies have a direct impact on your own work as a filmmaker and screenwriter.

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Component one

Section A: Hollywood 1930 - 1990 (comparative study)

 

Two Hollywood films will be studied for comparison, one chosen from group 1 and one chosen from group 2:

 

Group 1: Classical Hollywood (1930-1960)

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 Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942), U

 The Lady from Shanghai (Welles, 1947), PG

 Johnny Guitar (Ray, 1954), PG

 Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958), PG

 Some Like It Hot (Wilder, 1959), 12

 

Group 2: New Hollywood (1961-1990)

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 Bonnie and Clyde (Penn, 1967), 15

 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Forman, 1975), 15

 Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979), 15

 Blade Runner (Scott, 1982), 15*

 Do the Right Thing (Lee, 1989), 15.

 

*Learners study Blade Runner in the Director's Cut version, released 1992.

Section B: American film since 2005 (two-film study)

 

Two films will be studied, one chosen from group 1 and one chosen from group 2:

 

Group 1: Mainstream film

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 No Country for Old Men (2007), 15

 Inception (Nolan, 2010), 12A

 Selma (Duvernay, 2014), 12A

 Carol (Haynes, 2015), 15

 La La Land (Chazelle, 2016), 12A

 

Group 2: Contemporary independent film (produced after 2010)

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 Winter's Bone (Granik, 2010), 15

 Frances Ha! (Baumbach, 2012), 15

 Beasts of the Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012), 12A

 Boyhood (Linklater, 2015), 15

 Captain Fantastic (Ross, 2015), 15.

Section C: British film since 1995 (two-film study)

 

Two of the following British films will be studied:

 

 Secrets and Lies (Leigh, 1996), 15

 Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996), 18

 Sweet Sixteen (Loach, 2002), 18

 Shaun of the Dead (Wright, 2004), 15

 This is England (Meadows, 2006), 18

 Moon (Jones, 2009), 15

 Fish Tank (Arnold, 2009), 15

 We Need to Talk about Kevin (Ramsay, 2011), 15

 Sightseers (Wheatley, 2012), 15

 Under the Skin (Glazer, 2013), 15.

Component two

Section A: Global film (two-film study)

 

Two films will be studied, one chosen from group 1 and one from group 2:

 

Group 1: European film

 

 Life is Beautiful (Benigni, Italy, 1997), PG

 Pan’s Labyrinth (Del Toro, Spain, 2006), 15

 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Schnabel, France, 2007), 12

 Ida (Pawlikowski, Poland, 2013), 12A

 Mustang (Ergűven, France/Turkey, 2015), 15

 Victoria (Schipper, Germany, 2015), 15

 

Group 2: Outside Europe

 

 Dil Se (Ratnam, India, 1998), 12

 City of God (Mereilles, Brazil, 2002),

 House of Flying Daggers (Zhang, China, 2004), 15

 Timbuktu (Sissako, Mauritania, 2014), 12A

 Wild Tales (Szifrón, Argentina, 2014), 15

 Taxi Tehran (Panahi, Iran, 2015), 12.

Section B: Documentary film

One of the following films will be studied:

 

 Sisters in Law (Ayisi and Longinotto, Cameroon/UK, 2005), 12A

 The Arbor (Barnard, UK, 2010), 15

 Stories We Tell (Polley, Canada, 2012), 12A

 20,000 Days on Earth (Forsyth and Pollard, UK, 2014), 15

 Amy (Kapadia, UK, 2015), 15.

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Section C: Film movements - Silent cinema

 

One of the following film options will be studied:

 

 One Week (1920), U and The Scarecrow (1920), U and The 'High Sign' (1921), U and Cops (1922), U, (Keaton, US)

 Strike (Eisenstein, USSR, 1924), 15

 Sunrise (Murnau, US, 1927), U

 Spies (Lang, Germany, 1928), PG

 Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov, USSR, 1928), U and A Propos de Nice (Vigo, France, 1930), U.

Section D: Film movements -

Experimental film (1960-2000)

 

One of the following film options will be studied:

 

 Vivre sa vie (Godard, France, 1962), 15

 Daisies (Chytilova, Czechoslovakia, 1965), 15 and Saute ma ville (Akerman, Belgium, 1968), 15

 Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, US, 1994), 18

 Fallen Angels (Wong, Hong Kong, 1995), 15

 Timecode (Figgis, US, 2000), 15.

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