Film Studies

You will study and work creatively with the major art form of the 20th century, and one finding new modes of expression and exhibition in the early years of the 21st.

This A-level builds on the informal familiarity with film and cinema language that we all develop from childhood. Your own experience as a spectator and fan, interacting with key films of the past and present, is an important source of pleasure and motivation in the work we do.

Exam Board: WJEC

45% Coursework portfolio for AS and A2

The study of cinema as a medium, an art form, and a social and economic institution takes place alongside your own production work. This develops your skills and power as a ‘maker of meaning’ in your own right, as well as preparing you to tackle the theoretical, cultural and ethical debates that Film Studies advances.

The AS-level

Unit 1: Exploring Film Form

You will produce a portfolio including:

• An analysis of how technique produces meaning and responses in a sequence of your choice.
• A creative project where you produce a short sequence or complete short film.

Unit 2: Producers and Audiences

You study the film industry and the interrelationship between film audiences and film producers, comparing American and British cinema. You will prepare a topic study of British film (e.g. Identity in British Cinema), and a comparative study of two American films for the external exam.

The A2-level

Unit 3: Film Research and Creative Projects

You will conduct research into an area of your choice using some of the critical approaches we will introduce. You will also produce a short film or other creative project.

Unit 4: Varieties of Film Experience: Issues and Debates
In this final synoptic paper you will work on Contemporary Iranian Cinema, explore a spectatorship topic like documentary or popular cinema and emotion, and prepare a critical study of a single film. This unit is externally assessed.

Both A2 and AS combine creative work with research and analytic tasks. Equally, there is a balance between production work and external exams.

The one-year course

For some students, this has worked as a very successful intensive one-year course with AS and A2 complementing one another. Equally, it is possible to transfer for A2 having taken AS at another school. Please contact us for advice on one-year options.

Background needed

No prior qualification is required, although a C at GCSE English is helpful.

Suitable combinations

Whatever your other subjects, Film Studies offers you an opportunity to work on what is for many people the principal source of imaginative and aesthetic pleasure in contemporary culture.

After A-level

Although by no means a vocational qualification, the practical work on this course is a major component (45%), and provides skills for confident individual engagement with the creative industries of the future.

Equally, the emphasis on personal response and research within more theoretical debates and frameworks is an excellent preparation for university level academic work.