New Students

Welcome to all of you who are new to Film Studies. This year we have quite a few Upper Sixth students who have taken on the very particular challenge of doing AS and A2 in one year. Good luck to you especially.
Both Mr Fordom and Mr Reeh will place posts on this blog to help you in your study of film. On the right hand side there are also links to very useful film related sites and a large number of universities where you can do film.
The older posts will also be relevant to you so we suggest you check these out as well.

New members of staff

Hello to Mr Loizou and Mr Lewis who will be teaching in the Media and Film Department.

Last minute preparation.

It's just two days to the FM2 AS Film Studies exam. Remember this is worth 60% of your final grade so is very important in determining the overall grade you will get. It is a tough exam but you are all up to it if you prepare properly. Watch any of the four films again for sections B & C if you think this will help - students say it often does. Make sure you spend the right amount of time on each section which should be about 45 minutes after you've had time to consider the stimulus materials. Use the right terminology and think about your expression as it will really help you to push up your mark. Finally get some sleep, get hydrated and eat some fish - it's brain food. Good luck and see you in the exam. Mr Fordom & Mr Reeh

'It's never too late to surprise yourself' Lester Burnham.

A2 Film: Mulvey, Feminism and the 'Male Gaze'

Here are some clips that will definitely help you in a consideration of how particular films operate in a gendered sense with an explicit consideration of Laura Mulvey. Use them for revision and then apply the theory to your own films. Of course how gendered ideas are constructed, is a central aspect to how all films operate but it is interesting to find films that you fee challenge the dominant ideology.

AS Essay on Mean Streets/ Donnie Brasco

"Compare and contrast the messages and values conveyed by the narrative resolutions of your chosen films."

This is one of the questions from the January FS2 exam- I will mark it according to the mark scheme for that exam to give you a good idea of where you are up to at the moment.
750- 1000 words is an appropriate length.

Deadlines: Monday 23rd March or Tuesday 24th March (depending on what day your lesson is.

All class notes are now available on Eloreto.
Good luck!

A2 Gendered Film

This link should be useful in a reflection of what films be might consider as being feminist films.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Feminist_films

Dirty Pretty Things

Everyone should now have seen both Trainspotting and Dirty Pretty Things, the film texts you will use to answer the 'Borders and Belonging' part of the exam. As I said in class Trainspotting is more explicitly to do with the borders part of the unit and Dirty Pretty Things examines aspects of a sense of belonging to an idea of Britishness. However, they could both be use used to analyse and consider both the idea of national identity and borders and how film looks at outsiders in our country and nation. Tonight there is a programme on BBC1 at 8.30 which directly looks at illegal immigrants and their place in the workforce. It deals with some of the ideas we are considering in our unit and so will be helpful in your own understanding of the concepts and theory.