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.

Mean Streets essay help

This is due in either Monday 2nd or Tuesday 3rd, depending on the day of your lesson.

All the class handouts are on Eloreto now. The most important one is the "different approaches to narrative" handout.

As a general guide you should concentrate on the following areas in your essay:

• comparing the narrative of Mean Streets to a traditional Hollywood narrative. Explain why Mean Streets does not fit into the classical Hollywood narrative structure and why it doesn't conform to Todorov's narrative model.
• Suggest some reasons why Scorsese has not followed a traditional narrative structure in Mean Streets.
• Discuss the different primary and secondary narratives present in Mean Streets
• Consider other approaches to understanding the narrative such as the 'ever increasing violence' narrative and the 'religious redemption' narrative.

It is well worth clicking on the picture on the previous 'Mean Streets' post and reading 'A Cinema of Loneliness' (pages 184- 195) to find more information on Mean Streets.

Trainspotting essay help.

I know it's only three days to the deadline and you may well be well on with this or have even finished it but here are a few pointers. For both essays you need to spell out the nature of the identity that is constructed in the film through location, characters, themes and subject matter, narrative, etc You obviously need to explore the going to 'the great outdoors' and Renton going to London to come to particular conclusions about what the film is saying about national identity and being British. Clearly the film challenges many of our preconceptions about a shared Britsh identity and gives us a very distinctive set of representations.
For the second essay you will need to analyse how the stories of the characters are distinctive and/or challenging. You should include how characters such as Begbie are developed in the narrative of the film as well as any of the other characters. Tommy, Sickboy, Spud and Dianne all have something to say about being Scottish and clearly Renton, as the protagonist, is particularly important.

This information may be useful:


Trainspotting

Class
Essentially deals with an underclass
Class here represents a social trap: the notion that one cannot escape ones class
An underprivileged class
A marginalized class

Work (ethic)
The ‘world of work’ is a largely absent institution
There is no sense of a strong work ethic
Success is not tied to work
Material wealth is not a goal achieved through work

Morality
A free floating morality regarding almost everything
Heroin use is not placed within a moral framework: it is not put forward as right or wrong
Crime is seen as an inevitable consequence of drug use
It challenges what might be described as widely held morality regarding many aspects of social behaviour.

Gender
A demasculinated representation of the males
Inadequate in many ways: sexually, socially mentally etc
Challenges the status of men in the wider society
Puts forward some strong representations of women
The female character, Diane, is strong, articulate, confident, purposeful and insightful despite her young age

Nationality (nationhood)
The film challenges a sense of Britishness
Examines a sense of Scottishness
Renton tells us that it’s ‘shite being Scottish’
Is critical of the conventional notion of Scotland
Arguably challenges the significance of the nation state

AS Mean Streets Essay

With reference to detailed, specific examples from the film, discuss different ways of understanding the narrative of Mean Streets.

Deadline: Monday a.m. group- Monday 2nd March
Tuesday p.m. group- Tuesday 3rd March

Click on the image to access an extract from Robert Phillip Kolker's book 'A Cinema of Loneliness'. Pages 184- 195 are all about Mean Streets.

All recent handouts on Mean Streets can be accessed on Eloreto, in the FM2, British and American Cinema folder

AS Trainspotting Essay

Here are several parts to the documentary about Trainspotting on BBC 1 recently. It give some useful background context for the film. It shows how in many ways it is a Scottish film.

AS Film - Trainspotting Essay

British Cinema: Identity Study – Borders and Belonging.

Discuss to what extent Trainspotting contributes to a shared sense of British belonging.

or

How far do the narratives of the films you have studied for this topic explore questions of belonging and exclusion?

800 words.

Deadline: Thursday 26 February 2009.





We will continue with our analysis of the film next week but you may wish to consider the essay title from your own understanding and the work we have already done on how the film constructs a sense of Scotland and Scottishness. If you click on the picture of Renton and Spud above a research paper will open which talks about how the film constructs ideas about identity. It's quite a complex document but you might find it useful.

A2 Film - City of God - Essay

Choose one of the following real exam questions as the title for your essay.
1000 words. Deadline Friday 27 February. Click on the picture of Rocket to see some interesting articles about the film.

Discuss one or more aspects of film form [for example, sound, mise-en-scene, editing and cinematography] in your Close Study film, which contributes to the impact the film has had on you.

By what means is the contrast between the characters of bene and Li’l Ze shown in City of God?

Discuss some of the particular challenges presented by your Close Study film when you saw it for the first time. Make detailed reference to at least TWO sequences.

How to use this site.

Welcome to the Loreto Film Studies blog. The site provides many links to other sites and resources which will help you in your studies. It will also evntually include past exam questions and give guidance on essays and homeworks. Hopefully you will also be able to discuss your studies with other students and share your love of film. Links are also made to possible Film Studies courses at university.

Borders and Belonging

This topic is concerned with basic questions of identity and belonging in relation to a place which is called the United Kingdom but in which "British" is an increasingly contested term.

TRAINSPOTTING
Scotland, Scottishness and British Identity.

• How do we define Scottishness and its place within a British identity?




• What are some of the cultural clichés and stereotypes?




• How is it defined in opposition to Englishness?




• The Shortbread and Tartan Myth of Scotland.




• The Clydeist Myth of Scotland

AS Film Studies

AS Film Studies January-May 2009


FM2 British and American Film


Section B: British Film Topics
Jan-March
Mr Fordom



Section C: US Film – Comparative Study
Jan-March
Mr Reeh


Section A: Producers and Audiences
March-May
Mr Fordom & Mr Reeh



Exam: 13 May (3 questions in 2 ½ hours) 60% of AS mark