In addition to the core study areas, the following six specialist areas of study will be considered in relation to the films indicated.
Area 4. Spectatorship
Area 5. Narrative
Area 6. Ideology
Area 7. AuteurArea
Area 8. Critical debates
Area 6. Ideology
Area 7. AuteurArea
Area 8. Critical debates
Area 9. Filmmakers' theories
The following provides an overview of specialist study areas which will be considered in relation to specific film topics:
*The Hollywood 1930-1990 comparative study foregrounds contexts from the core study areas in addition to its specialist study of the idea of the auteur.
**The Global two-film study is a study of the core areas only and has no specialist study area attached.
Area 4. Spectatorship
A central part of Film Studies is exploring how films address individual spectators through, for example, particular shots, editing, music and performance as well as narrative and genre to engage their interest and emotions. Films are generally constructed to provide the spectator with a particular viewing position, most often aligning the spectator with a specific character or point of view. This in turn raises questions about how ‘determined’ spectators' responses to a film are and how far spectators can and do resist the position they are given. Learners will thus consider how far spectators are ‘passive’ or ‘active’ in their responses to film and how social and cultural factors, as well as the specific viewing conditions in which a film is seen, influence spectators' responses.
Learners study the following:
This area of study will be assessed through American film since 2005 (Component 1, Section B).
Area 5. Narrative
Narrative structure requires consideration of the whole film, most obviously in the way a story is told through plot. A practical approach to narrative is to be found in the practice of screenwriting with the idea of the narrative ‘arc' and the commonly used three-act structure. In addition, mise-en-scène, cinematography and sound can all have a narrative function.
Learners study the following:
Although not all films will necessarily follow an overt genre structure, the way some films conform to a genre structure will affect the way all the key elements of film are used, including the kind of narrative created for the film.
Learners study the following:
Area 6. Ideology
The concept of film as ideological involves exploring what ideologies are conveyed by a film as well as those which inform it which may, for example, reveal that a film reinforces or challenges dominant beliefs and attitudes within a society.
Learners study the following:
Area 7. Auteur
The idea of the auteur as a critical approach derives from an earlier period of Film Studies when critics aimed to demonstrate that films are ‘authored’ by individuals, most obviously the film’s director, rather than being generic products. Today, the concept of the auteur can be applied to a film or group of films in order to identify and explain its distinctive characteristics, arguing that these derive from a principal creative individual (most commonly the director, but it may also include cinematographers, performers or institutions).
Learners study the following:
(a) The idea of the auteur - Hollywood 1930 – 1990
This idea of the auteur places filmmakers within the context of the Hollywood film institution in which they worked.
Learners should consider:
This approach sees filmmakers as creative decision makers, responsible for the selection and construction process in films which experiment with narrative and film form.
Learners should consider:
Learners are required to study the following two debates in relation to the following:
The following provides an overview of specialist study areas which will be considered in relation to specific film topics:
*The Hollywood 1930-1990 comparative study foregrounds contexts from the core study areas in addition to its specialist study of the idea of the auteur.
**The Global two-film study is a study of the core areas only and has no specialist study area attached.
Area 4. Spectatorship
A central part of Film Studies is exploring how films address individual spectators through, for example, particular shots, editing, music and performance as well as narrative and genre to engage their interest and emotions. Films are generally constructed to provide the spectator with a particular viewing position, most often aligning the spectator with a specific character or point of view. This in turn raises questions about how ‘determined’ spectators' responses to a film are and how far spectators can and do resist the position they are given. Learners will thus consider how far spectators are ‘passive’ or ‘active’ in their responses to film and how social and cultural factors, as well as the specific viewing conditions in which a film is seen, influence spectators' responses.
Learners study the following:
- how the spectator has been conceived both as ‘passive’ and ‘active’ in the act of film viewing
- how the spectator is in dynamic interaction with film narrative and film features designed to generate response
- reasons for the uniformity or diversity of response by different spectators
- the impact of different viewing conditions on spectator response
- the analysis of narrative, visual, musical, performance, genre and auteur cues in relation to spectator response
- the possibility of preferred, negotiated, oppositional and aberrant ‘readings’ of film
This area of study will be assessed through American film since 2005 (Component 1, Section B).
Area 5. Narrative
Narrative structure requires consideration of the whole film, most obviously in the way a story is told through plot. A practical approach to narrative is to be found in the practice of screenwriting with the idea of the narrative ‘arc' and the commonly used three-act structure. In addition, mise-en-scène, cinematography and sound can all have a narrative function.
Learners study the following:
- how narrative construction reflects plot and expresses temporal duration and ellipsis
- narrative devices including voiceover, flashback, the framing narrative, the open ending, repetition and other forms of narrative patterning
- how the dramatic qualities of a sequence or scene are constructed, including through dialogue
- how narrative construction provides psychological insight into character ambiguity in narrative including the ambiguous relationship between cause and effect and uncertainty over character identification
- how narrative construction is used to align the spectator and how that alignment encourages the adoption of a particular spectator point of view
- the significance of narrative structures which are alternative to and/or in opposition to conventional narrative structures, particularly in regard to experimental film
- film poetics: what elements of film filmmakers select and how they combine them to create meaning
- the relationship between the screenplay and the realised film narrative
- narrative conventions of mainstream screenwriting, including the construction of dialogue, character and the use of images and sound to convey narrative
- the formalist conception of narrative based on the distinction between story and plot
- the structuralist conception of narrative based on binary oppositions
- how narrative can function as an ideological framework.
Although not all films will necessarily follow an overt genre structure, the way some films conform to a genre structure will affect the way all the key elements of film are used, including the kind of narrative created for the film.
Learners study the following:
- the concept of genre, genre conventions and genre in relation to narrative
Area 6. Ideology
The concept of film as ideological involves exploring what ideologies are conveyed by a film as well as those which inform it which may, for example, reveal that a film reinforces or challenges dominant beliefs and attitudes within a society.
Learners study the following:
- the connotations of visual elements and sounds binary oppositions, both those contained in the narrative and those contained in film’s use of formal elements
- the implications of spectator positioning and address ideological perspectives appropriate to the text (such as a feminist or a political perspective) an evaluation of the ideological critical approach to film.
Area 7. Auteur
The idea of the auteur as a critical approach derives from an earlier period of Film Studies when critics aimed to demonstrate that films are ‘authored’ by individuals, most obviously the film’s director, rather than being generic products. Today, the concept of the auteur can be applied to a film or group of films in order to identify and explain its distinctive characteristics, arguing that these derive from a principal creative individual (most commonly the director, but it may also include cinematographers, performers or institutions).
Learners study the following:
- how auteurs determine the look and style of a film in relation to the collaborative approach to film production within Hollywood cinema
- how auteurs, through the imprint of their ‘signature’ features, can make a significant impact on a film’s messages and values.
(a) The idea of the auteur - Hollywood 1930 – 1990
This idea of the auteur places filmmakers within the context of the Hollywood film institution in which they worked.
Learners should consider:
- to what extent it is possible to identify the distinctive contribution of creative individuals, most often directors, within a large industrial production process
- how far it is appropriate to talk about these individuals as auteurs
- how far it is more appropriate to consider filmmaking as a collaborative process.
This approach sees filmmakers as creative decision makers, responsible for the selection and construction process in films which experiment with narrative and film form.
Learners should consider:
- what ‘signatures’ can be identified for a film as a result of a more experimental approach to the film-making process.
Learners are required to study the following two debates in relation to the following:
Debate 1: The realist and the expressive (studied in relation to Film Movements: Silent Cinema, Component 2, Section C)
In the 1940s, the French film critic André Bazin set in motion a major debate when he argued that both German Expressionist and Soviet Montage filmmaking went against what he saw as the ‘realist’ calling of cinema. This opposition between the realist and the expressive has informed thinking about film from the beginnings of cinema when the documentary realism of the Lumière Brothers was set in opposition to the fantasy films of Méliès.
Debate 2: The significance of digital technology in film (studied in relation to Documentary film, Component 2, Section B)
The degree of the impact the digital has had on film since the 1990s is a developing debate. Some film commentators argue that, although digital technology could potentially transform cinema, so far films, especially narrative films designed for cinema release, have changed very little from pre-digital times. Others consider that the impact of digital filmmaking is only beginning to emerge, both in high concept Hollywood filmmaking and in much lower budget experimental work.
Area 9. Filmmakers' theories
The documentary film will be explored in relation to key filmmakers from the genre. The documentary film studied may either directly embody aspects of these theories or work in a way that strongly challenges these theories. In either case, the theories will provide a means of exploring different approaches to documentary film and filmmaking.
Two of the following filmmakers' theories must be chosen for study:
Peter Watkins
Watkins established his reputation with two docu-dramas from the 1960s, Culloden and The War Game. Both document events from the past using actors and reconstruction. In asking questions of conventional documentary, Watkins reflects his deep concern with mainstream media, which he has called the ‘monoform’.
Nick Broomfield
Broomfield, like Michael Moore, has developed a participatory, performative mode of documentary filmmaking. Broomfield is an investigative documentarist with a distinctive interview technique which he uses to expose people's real views. Like Watson, he keeps the filmmaking presence to a minimum, normally with a crew of no more than three. He describes his films as 'like a rollercoaster ride. They’re like a diary into the future.'
Kim Longinotto
Longinotto has said 'I don’t think of films as documents or records of things. I try to make them as like the experience of watching a fiction film as possible, though, of course, nothing is ever set up.' Her work is about finding characters that the audience will identify with – 'you can make this jump into someone else’s experience'. Unlike Moore and Broomfield, Longinotto is invisible, with very little use of voice-over, formal interviews, captions or incidental music. As the 'eyes' of her audience, she doesn’t like to zoom or pan. She says she doesn’t want her films to have conclusions but to raise questions.
Michael Moore
Moore, like Broomfield, is a very visible presence in his documentaries, which can thus be described as participatory and performative. His work is highly committed – overtly polemical in taking up a clear point of view, what might be called agit-prop documentary. He justifies his practice in terms of providing ‘balance’ for mainstream media that, in his view, provides false information. Part of Moore’s approach is to use humour, sometimes to lampoon the subject of his work and sometimes to recognise that documentaries need to entertain and hold an audience.
In the 1940s, the French film critic André Bazin set in motion a major debate when he argued that both German Expressionist and Soviet Montage filmmaking went against what he saw as the ‘realist’ calling of cinema. This opposition between the realist and the expressive has informed thinking about film from the beginnings of cinema when the documentary realism of the Lumière Brothers was set in opposition to the fantasy films of Méliès.
Debate 2: The significance of digital technology in film (studied in relation to Documentary film, Component 2, Section B)
The degree of the impact the digital has had on film since the 1990s is a developing debate. Some film commentators argue that, although digital technology could potentially transform cinema, so far films, especially narrative films designed for cinema release, have changed very little from pre-digital times. Others consider that the impact of digital filmmaking is only beginning to emerge, both in high concept Hollywood filmmaking and in much lower budget experimental work.
Area 9. Filmmakers' theories
The documentary film will be explored in relation to key filmmakers from the genre. The documentary film studied may either directly embody aspects of these theories or work in a way that strongly challenges these theories. In either case, the theories will provide a means of exploring different approaches to documentary film and filmmaking.
Two of the following filmmakers' theories must be chosen for study:
Peter Watkins
Watkins established his reputation with two docu-dramas from the 1960s, Culloden and The War Game. Both document events from the past using actors and reconstruction. In asking questions of conventional documentary, Watkins reflects his deep concern with mainstream media, which he has called the ‘monoform’.
Nick Broomfield
Broomfield, like Michael Moore, has developed a participatory, performative mode of documentary filmmaking. Broomfield is an investigative documentarist with a distinctive interview technique which he uses to expose people's real views. Like Watson, he keeps the filmmaking presence to a minimum, normally with a crew of no more than three. He describes his films as 'like a rollercoaster ride. They’re like a diary into the future.'
Kim Longinotto
Longinotto has said 'I don’t think of films as documents or records of things. I try to make them as like the experience of watching a fiction film as possible, though, of course, nothing is ever set up.' Her work is about finding characters that the audience will identify with – 'you can make this jump into someone else’s experience'. Unlike Moore and Broomfield, Longinotto is invisible, with very little use of voice-over, formal interviews, captions or incidental music. As the 'eyes' of her audience, she doesn’t like to zoom or pan. She says she doesn’t want her films to have conclusions but to raise questions.
Michael Moore
Moore, like Broomfield, is a very visible presence in his documentaries, which can thus be described as participatory and performative. His work is highly committed – overtly polemical in taking up a clear point of view, what might be called agit-prop documentary. He justifies his practice in terms of providing ‘balance’ for mainstream media that, in his view, provides false information. Part of Moore’s approach is to use humour, sometimes to lampoon the subject of his work and sometimes to recognise that documentaries need to entertain and hold an audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment