European Cinema History: German Cinema of the 1920s

Introduction

One of the most rewarding aspects of Film Studies is to be found in recognising how films produced at one, quite distant moment in time often made long ago, continue to influence more contemporary films with which we might all be more familiar. This is certainly true of the impact of some examples of German cinema produced in the 1920s. If you watch Edward Scissorhands (1990), Bram...

So what do we need to do for students and teachers to perform brilliantly?

Our resources are a guide to producing critically autonomous students who gain a wide range of skills in the study of film and truly make the transition from film fan to film student.

Reading film

• Examine film as an art form, studying a broad range of film texts from a variety of cultural contexts and analysing how film elements combine to create meaning.

Contextualising...

The Edusites programme of study for A Level Film has been designed to provide a Core Unit for each term to help students develop the right level of knowledge and understanding of the key critical approaches and all the framework concepts of narrative, genre, representations, and spectatorship. 

Our NEA Support Materials will focus on Making a Short Film for OCR NEA and Production for Eduqas NEA.

Edusites A Level Film Programme of Study:

• Unit 1...

Would you like to see an example of an A Level Film Lesson from Edusites Film?

Below is a link to a single lesson online slide show focusing on Cinematography using The Bourne Identity. The Cinematography lesson from both the teacher guide (scheme of learning) and student workbook are below to illustrate the breadth and depth of the resources being published on Edusites Film.

• Film Representation Unit 2 Lesson 17: 12 Slides

For fast and optimum...

All work refers to the Edusites Lesson Resource Slides Pack.

Lesson One: The Tool Kit

13 Slides

Objectives

• Knowledge : To start acquisition of the Film Studies Film Language tool kit
• Learning : To build ideas of how to study film through its products
• Understanding : To consolidate understanding by completing analysis of products

Starter/Loop Activity (5 minutes)

Slide 3 Task 1A Pupils asked to respond to the task from the Lesson Resource:...

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This is the First A Level Unit

To Film Students

This booklet is to support you in your preparation for the A Level Film Studies Examination Papers 1 and 2 and the Non-Examination Assessment....

Guide Navigation

• OCR H410 A Level Film Studies Unit 1 Film Language+ SOL Teacher Lessons 1-14

Lesson Fifteen: Narrative

Slides 1-15

Objectives

• Knowledge : To develop ideas about how sound constructs mood and tone
• Learning : To evolve higher level ideas of how to study film through its products
• Understanding: To develop understanding by completing analysis of products

Starter/Loop Activity (5 minutes)

Resource Pack Slide 2 Task 15A Pupils asked to...

Guide Navigation

• OCR H410 A Level Film Studies Unit 1 Film Language+ SOL Teacher Lessons 15-25

This is the First A Level Unit

The purpose of this unit is not to tell anyone ‘what you must do’ or ‘this is the way that you must do it’. The work here is based on over twenty years of teaching Film Studies at A Level in a very large (2,500 pupils) urban comprehensive in what was once described as one of the most deprived areas in the UK. It is based...

• Dirty Harry (1971, Don Siegel)
• Gran Torino (2008, Clint Eastwood)

Centres can choose from a range of different American film texts: the three main areas of study are Messages, Themes and Values, Narrative and Genre, Representation of Time and Place (often linked to messages and values) and Representation of Character. You can compare in Section B but in Section C you must. The above choice of texts reflects films belonging to the same genre but it is...

• Goodfellas (1990, Martin Scorsese)
• American Gangster (2007, Ridley Scott)

Centres can choose from a range of different American film texts. The three main areas of study are Messages, Themes and Values, Narrative and Genre, Representation of Time and Place (often linked to Messages and Values) and Representation of Character. You can compare in Section B but in Section C you must. The above choice of texts reflects films belonging to the same genre but...

Across the varied and diverse ways in which a film text can encode and emphasise meanings and a specific viewpoint on or presentation of a subject, realism is a key aesthetic and formal choice and approach that has functioned as a key creative direction of so much western expression across literature and the visual arts. This resource, then, explores the characteristics of a particular film style that we call neorealism. It stems from post World War Two...

Introducing our DVD & Book Resources for Film & Media

Editsense & Filmsense £69.00+VAT (30% off)

‘Editsense is a new approach to learning about film language and film-making’.

This is an interactive DVD with excellent, practical examples of film - perfect for teachers of moving image, be it English, Creative and Digital Media or Film Studies.

It has over fifty video examples and includes materials for the introduction and revision of film. There...

Superman (1978): First recognised, and globally successful superhero film of the modern era.

Marvel: American publisher of comic books, frequently pertaining to the superhero genre founded in 1939 e.g. Hulk, Thor, Fantastic Four, Spider-man, Iron Man and Wolverine. Disney acquired (bought and owned) Marvel in 2009.

Stan Lee: At age 92, Stan Lee is president and chairman of Marvel Comics and co-creator and writer of Spider-man, the Fantastic Four, Iron...

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd5Pz8KJeU4

Copyright © 2018 Edusites. All rights reserved. Permission granted to reproduce for educational use within the subscribing school only. Copying or lending of any part of this document in any form or by any means to external bodies and / or individuals is prohibited.

In 2010, The Guardian newspaper published a story entitled “Algeria (national football squad) prepare for World Cup battle by...

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There are key areas of study that WJEC recommend are explored for FM4 Section C – Solaris, and they are as follows:

• As a philosophical film about identity and memory

• The role and function of Hari

• The undemonstrative character of Kris and the reasons for this

• Issues of representation in relation to conventions of the Sci-Fi genre

• The significance of the earth sequences – including the emphasis on nature
• The...

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FM4: Varieties of Film Experience – Issues and Debates Section C: Single Film – Critical Study

Introduction

Lynne Ramsay, the director of the film Morvern Callar has made the valuable observation that “I love to see great dialogue in the cinema but I hate to see ‘Film TV’. When I go to the cinema I want to have a cinematic experience….I like dialogue when it’s used in a way where the body language says the...

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Sample Questions

• How far does cinematic style support themes and ideas in the films you have studied for this topic?
• Discuss how far the development of your chosen international film style can be seen as the work of particular creative individuals?
• Discuss characteristic features of casting and/or performance, exploring how far these features contribute the overall effect of the films you have studied.
• What is the relationship...

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By comparing the cinematic styles used in the films you have studied for this topic, is it possible to identify a distinctive ‘National Cinema’?

Indian cinema means different things to different people and there are a lot of different cinematic styles originating from the Indian subcontinent. Stereotypically, when western audiences without cultural capital or knowledge think of Indian films the iconic name ‘Bollywood’...

The purpose of this unit is to assess students’ ability to independently research, investigate and analyse a film based topic and present the findings; secondly, to assess the students’ application of knowledge and understanding to the planning and construction of a creative realisation; and finally, to assess candidate’s application of knowledge and understanding in evaluating their own work.

1. Research

• Independent Research Project: 40 marks
...

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Understanding the relationship between the micro and the macro elements of a film is an essential part of our analysis of movies. Every shot, every sound accumulates to form the expression of an idea. Thinking about movies in this way might prompt us to acknowledge that a camera move for example, can express a character’s psychology, sometimes more forcefully and memorably than a line of dialogue could ever do. In the opening...

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Introduction

Lynne Ramsay’s film Ratcatcher is a key British production of the late 1990s and is notable for its thoughtful and sensitive focus on the representation of a young person. The film explores the representation of childhood, guilt and atonement in a dysfunctional environment. Although on the paper 2, GCSE list of films, Vicky LeBeau’s analysis of the narrative and ideological function that children typically...

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The first image that we see in Modern Times is of a clock - a symbol of the workplace and productivity as Chaplin’s Little Tramp struggles in the modern, industrialised world of which he is so critical during the time of the Great Depression, see more on that here. As such the image is emblematic of the entire film. Modern Times is a silent film comedy that is as ideologically rich and meaningful as a wide range of far more...

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In this resource we will consider the film Talk To Her (2002) and explore some aspects of its film style, by which we mean the choices made by the filmmakers in their deployment of sound and visual elements in the construction of the narrative. As such, we are considering how storytelling devices express a range of meanings and values embodied within the drama. Talk To Her offers an opportunity for us to think about how film...

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In this resource we will consider the film Rabbit Proof Fence (2002) and explore some aspects of its film style, by which we mean the choices made the filmmakers in terms of how they deploy sound and vision. As such, we are considering the storytelling devices with which the film expresses a range of meanings and values embodied within the drama.

Through the way that the stylistic choices of the film’s producers’...

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The movies: flickering images running past our eyes at 24 frames per second. They have the power to make us cry, make us sit on the edge of our seat, exhilarate and infuriate but how? The narratives that unfold in front of us are products, made up stories. The events we see on screen are just actors pretending to be other people, increasingly a lot of what we see is so devoid of reality that it is created on a computer through...

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Section B: British Film Topics

Choose one question from this section.

British Film and Stars

You should discuss a minimum of two British films in your answer and base it on one of the following:

Julie Christie or Ewan McGregor.

5. What are the star qualities that your star brings to the roles they play in your chosen films? [40]

Example Answer

The big five studios were vertically integrated during the Hollywood Studio era...

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Section B: British Film Topics

Choose one question from this section.

British Film and Stars

You should discuss a minimum of two British films in your answer and base it on one of the following:

Julie Christie or Ewan McGregor.

5. What are the star qualities that your star brings to the roles they play in your chosen films? [40]

Example Answer

Stars have much more freedom today, as they used to be part of a 7-year contract...

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Answer three questions – one from each section

Section A – Producers and Audiences

Study the items in Part B of the resource material, which include:

• Poster for Cowboys & Aliens, released in 2011
• Extract from a blog discussing film genre
• Forum discussion on movie genres.

Use this material, together with your own studies, to answer the following question:

How important is genre for audiences and producers? [40 marks]

Item 1:...

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WJEC A2 Film Studies FM4 Section A World Cinema: Aspects of National Cinema

This section of FM4 Section A: World Cinema does not require a comprehensive study of the period as long as there is some significance in the films chosen, and their relationship to the national cinema to which they belong. It is expected two principal films will be chosen, supplemented by briefer reference to one or two other films. As such, this...

OCR A2 Film Studies Unit F633: Global Cinema and Critical Perspectives Section A: Messages and Values in Global Cinema

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The study of “two contrasting non-English language texts that derive from different countries of origin?:

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China, Honk Kong, Taiwan) 2000
• Russian Ark (Russia, Germany) 2002

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Both films, one a Wuxia martial arts/romance hybrid and the other a...

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WJEC GCSE Film Studies Paper 1 Superhero Film Codes and Conventions

It was not until Superman in 1978 that the superhero film genre took off with the film securing critical and commercial success and for many years creating a genre template. This is why when we talk about historical examples of the genre it is difficult to cite examples before 1978 as in terms of cinema the genre has only featured broadly since the late 1970s....

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WJEC GCSE Film Studies Paper 2 Exploring Film Outside Hollywood: The Wave (2008 – Germany)

Introduction

Exploring films that have been produced outside of those made and distributed globally by the Hollywood film studios offers us an exciting opportunity to broaden our horizons: in terms of storytelling (the way of telling, or organizing the elements of a story), the stories themselves become of broader interest in other...

WJEC GCSE Film Studies Paper 2 Exploring Film Outside Hollywood: The Devil’s Backbone (2001 – Spain/Mexico)

Introduction

In his book The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim writes that “The deep inner conflicts originating in our primitive drives and our violent emotions are all denied in much of children’s literature, and so the child is not helped in coping with them. But the child is subject to desperate feelings of loudness and isolation,...

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WJEC A2 Film Studies FM4 Section A World Cinema Aspects of a National Cinema: Iranian Cinema 1990 - Present

Introduction

Let us start with a piece from what could serve as possible further reading beyond this resource as it suggests the complexity of the subject we are exploring: “for many pious families, going to the cinema was tantamount to committing a sin. The main reason for this was that cinematic representations of...

WJEC GCSE Film Studies Paper 2 Exploring Film Outside Hollywood: Persepolis (2007)

Introduction and Synopsis

Persepolis (2007) is based on a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi’s called The Complete Persepolis and is a coming-of-age memoir that tells of the author’s experiences growing up during and in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. Persepolis was also adapted into a 2007 animated film of the same name, written and directed by...

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While we often first think and refer to contemporary examples of film stars when we study film, it’s useful and valuable to consider film stars whose work has featured across several decades. More specifically for us as British audiences, it’s of particular interest to consider British film stars both in terms of the interest of their performances, and also in terms of how these performances offer representations of...

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Students need to produce one Film Exploration and one Production broken into:

Film Exploration (must be the same film for both tasks)

• Industry Research: 10 Marks
• Micro Analysis: 20 Marks

Production

• Pitch: 10 Marks
• Pre Production: 20 Marks
• Production: 30 Marks
• Evaluative Analysis: 10 Marks

Total: 100 Marks:  50% of GCSE

NB

. The Controlled Assessment

must not

be based on the examined topic, 2013-2015: The Superhero Genre.

Clips

• Tsotsi Opening Sequence
• Tsotsi End Sequence

Further Reading

• Studying Tsotsi: Judith Gunn (Auteur Publishing)

Awards

• Best Foreign Language Film - 2006 Academy Awards

Institutional Factors and Representation of People, Places, Events and Issues

Tsotsi (urban slang – thug) is a film based on a novel by Athol Fugard set in the impoverished township of Soweto, Johannesburg in South Africa – Fugard is best known for his plays with political...

Semiotic terminology applied to moving image media.

Semiotics/Semiology

The study of signs that help us to deconstruct film e.g. Technical and Symbolic Codes in Film

Technical Codes

Constructed codes e.g. Camera angle, types of shot, types of edit, type of lens, SFX, Sound, Framing, Focus

Symbolic Codes

Cultural Representations – in film the mise en scene can be described as symbolic codes ie they ‘stand’ for something

Mise En Scene

The Mise en...

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The British Film Industry is successful and thriving but as Jill Nelmes identified in An Introduction to Film Studies can be defined on a number or levels and by a range of “disparate films, genres and movements?. In addition to this there are arguments over what is a British Film and as such, there have been many attempts to define British Film over the years. A useful definition that the BFI proposed in 1996 was that films...

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One of the key issues to be explored in our study of film is that of representation. As such, it’s fair to say that there’s an established, and largely agreed upon, understanding that film, like other media and forms of cultural expression, can reflect back to us aspects of the conditions in which we live or have lived with. Certainly, there’s scope for us to think about how British cinema has, in more or less...

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World War Two impacted ferociously on Great Britain: cities were attacked by German bombers, air battles were fought and daily life was severely tested over the six years of conflict. It’s understandable though, if the war seems a long, long time ago to you. Cinema, however, offers us a meaningful way to reconnect with, and reflect on the event and to develop a sense of the relationship between World War Two and British...

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Cinema is now nearly 120 years old and it’s a magnificently broad, deep, complex and exciting subject.

It’s understandably easy to think that the way films are now is how they have always been, in terms of their technology and particularly how they organize (tell) their stories. However, this isn’t the case and so it’s important for us to be aware that all forms of cultural expression evolve across time and that they...

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Film is technology. It’s an obvious point, and an essential one.

Film established itself as a symbol of the modern, mechanical age of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and so it is particularly interesting to now witness how the medium is moving into the digital age. Indeed, we should perhaps talk not of new technology but of now technology because it is so quickly ever changing and evolving. In Western Europe...

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WJEC A2 Film Studies FM4 Section A World Cinema: Aspects of National Cinema

Japanese cinema can be understood as a major presence in the international film style context, not only in terms of its own achievement but also for the influence it has exerted on cinema far beyond its borders.  It’s a national cinema with a very specific set of concerns and stylistic traits and with a number of particular contexts that allow the...

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Definition and Introduction

As one might expect the term experimental cinema is difficult to define clearly and by its very nature avoids simplistic categorisation. Within the movement itself there has been frequent debate over its definition. Fred Camper discusses experimental film-makers such as Peter Kubelka and Stan Brackage who questioned titles like ‘Avant-garde’ for suggesting experimental cinema is intrinsically...

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All films manipulate audiences and this is one fundamental reasons why we choose to watch a film. It is because we want to experience a change in our emotional condition - we may want to be provoked into laughter, tension, sadness, fear or happiness.

One of the key issues underpinning our exploration of film and the experience of an emotional response to it is the understanding that emotions can be argued to be culturally...

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With reference to the films you have studied for this topic, how far can it be said that different kinds of documentaries offer different kinds of spectator experiences?

The spectator experience is dependent on a number of factors including environment of reception for example (where it is seen) and specifically purpose, whether to entertain, inform, educate or persuade. Documentaries are diverse in content and can suggest...

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‘A common experience for the spectator when watching a documentary is to be manipulated by the filmmakers’. How far do you agree with this statement? (35)

Generally, documentaries are created in order to impart information and, in the main, to persuade the audience into believing a particular viewpoint. The contract between audience and filmmaker is considered along with the code of ethics with regard to documenting the real....

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Students can find studying spectatorship challenging.  There are many theories of spectatorship, but starting with the theory can lead students to list theoretical ideas rather than engage with the texts. Let’s not forget this A2 Film Studies unit is about “emotional responses? more than critical ones.

This is a good place to start with students. What is “emotion?? What is “popular film?? And what elements of the film...