GCSE Film Studies

This is a new GCSE for Wellfield for students choosing their options in 2013.  Film is widely acknowledged as the major art form of the 20th century and today film continues to be an important part of most people’s cultural experience. This course is designed to build upon students’ own experience of film – as consumers and creators – and to encourage a recognition of the complexity of this experience within an increasingly globalised, interconnected environment.

Starting with familiar mainstream films, the specification allows students to study films and the ways in which they are experienced, the importance of visual representation in today’s global society and the place film has in communicating ideas, attitudes and cultural beliefs, both now and in the past.

The course approaches this through three inter-related study areas, which act as a framework for studying and creating film:

• the ‘language’ of film;
• the organisations which produce, distribute and exhibit films; and
• the audiences for film.

Students studying this GCSE will be encouraged to:

• develop their interest and enjoyment of film in its national and global contexts and begin to develop an appreciation of cultural diversity through the close study of a wide range of films;
• develop a critical and investigative approach to films, the film industry and film audiences;
• study patterns of similarity and difference across a range of films;
• recognise the ways in which films represent people, places, ideas, issues and events to different audiences;
• recognise the ways in which film technologies shape film productions;
• recognise and explore the creative possibilities of film and film products;
• engage with aesthetic, technical, economic, ethical and moral issues as they arise in their study of film, film audiences and the film industry.

Students are assessed via two written papers.  Paper One (1.5 hours) is based on ‘Exploring Film’ and students will learn how to analyse a specific genre of film.  Paper 2 (1 hour) requires students to explore films outside of Hollywood.

The two exam papers make up 50% of the marks available, with the remainder allocated to Controlled Assessment made up of Film Exploration (2 tasks) and Film Production (4 tasks).  Students will be encouraged to develop skills in a range of new technologies including digital film and editing.