Get Started: OCR GCE Film Studies: Delivering the new specification

Do you have a key issue that you want resolved? What is it? How can we help?

Introduction/basic structure The Exams The Films The NEA Outline Introduction/basic structure The Exams The Films The NEA In this presentation I am aiming to cover these 4 areas and provide an outline of possible approaches to the new A Level, I will cover the use of existing practice and how you can and should transfer some of your existing practice across, how the exams will work, the NEA and changes that have occurred which may alter your approach to this element and finally some context about the choice of films and approaches you could take in this area.

Introduction/ Basic Structure As with any new specification there needs to be some careful planning and thought behind how best to deliver it to meet the needs of your own cohort of learners. This will depend on the size of your cohort, the amount of time that you have with them and the equipment available. Also added to this mix now is the potential for ‘co-teachability’ and the possibility that you may be teaching both AS and A level candidates within the same classroom.

What are the differences between this A-Level specification and the old specifications?

Linear structure 2 exams & NEA assessed at the end of 2 years Set films Topic areas The NEA

How do these elements influence your planning for the course? Have two minutes to chat to the person next to you about anything you need to consider when planning how you deliver the speicifcation. Feedback

This is the route through the qualification if you were to approach it in the order of the specification. It starts with the exam topics for ‘Film History’ and then onto the topics covered in ‘Critical approaches to Film’. It would leave the NEA to the end of the course which would mean that learners had watched all the different types of films and could arguably produce more interesting practical work.

This would be the approach I would take based on the way I would structure the year. We have no need to ‘co-teach’ so there is flexibility in the mixing of the areas. I would teach the NEA in the summer term and would focus on student producing a short film. There is better weather and without exams time to allow them to produce the work needed.

This would be the approach I would take based on the way I would structure the year. We have no need to ‘co-teach’ so there is flexibility in the mixing of the areas. I would teach the NEA in the summer term and would focus on student producing a short film. There is better weather and without exams time to allow them to produce the work needed. 6 films for the whole specification Elements of Film (Exam = 70%) Understanding British Film (NEA = 30%) Co teachability with A-Level

Exam- Elements of Film

The Exams

Paper one – Film History (2 hours) Critical debates = naturalism and realism and the expressive

Paper two – Critical Approaches to Film (2 hours) Critical debates in this context are (digital, Auteur, viewing conditions)

What are some of the different ways you could deliver the exam content?

Developing existing practice

Paper 1 – Film History (2 hours) Critical debates = naturalism and realism and the expressive

Focus is on micro-elements of film form, aesthetics and spectatorship Film Form in US Cinema Focus is on micro-elements of film form, aesthetics and spectatorship Focus is on micro-elements of film form (Cinematography, Sound, Editing, Misé-en-scene and Performance), aesthetics and spectatorship (response and positioning) Aesthetics = My thinking with the spec and the SAM's was that a films aesthetics impact upon the meaning of a film, the stylistic choices a director makes are meant to help a spectator make sense of what they are seeing and what it means in the wider context of the film.  An example would be the aesthetic choices made by Douglas Sirk in 'All that Heaven Allows' where the use of mirrors, frames and colour of outfit all help to develop meaning and the wider themes of the film. Structurally it is a conventional love story but on a separate level it critiques society's norms and challenges them, arguably it does this through Sirk's aesthetic choices. 

Paper 1 – Film History (2 hours) Critical debates = naturalism and realism and the expressive

European film movements Focus is on movements, aesthetics, contexts, film narrative, critical debates and experimental nature of the films Focus is on movements (Surrealism, German Expressionism & French New Wave), aesthetics, contexts (the social, cultural, political, historical and institutional contexts in which the films studied are made) , film narrative, critical debates and experimental nature of the films (including the formalist and structuralist conceptions of film narrative. The claims of naturalism and realism as against the expressive)

What skills do learners need to succeed on this paper What skills do learners need to succeed on this paper? How would you develop these?

Part 2 – Critical Approaches to Film (2 hours) Critical debates in this context are (digital, Auteur, viewing conditions)

Contemporary British & US Film Focus is on contexts, narrative, genre, representation and critical debates Critical debates in this context are (digital, Auteur, viewing conditions) The significance of the digital in film and new possibilities for cinema - how visual effects (created in postproduction) are used, including the way they are designed to engage the spectator and create an emotional response • how visual effects (created in postproduction) are used, including the tension between the filmmakers’ intention to create an emotional response and the spectator’s actual response. Context - how films studied can act as a means of reflecting social, cultural and political attitudes towards wider issues and beliefs explored within a film’s narrative, characterisation and representations • how films studied can act as a means of constructing social, cultural and political attitudes towards wider issues and beliefs explored within a film’s narrative, characterisation and representation show • films studied reflect their production, financial and technological opportunities and constraints. representations of: • cultures • societies • the ideological implications of representations in film

Part 2 – Critical Approaches to Film (2 hours) Critical debates in this context are (digital, Auteur, viewing conditions)

Documentary Focus is on contexts, conventions of documentary filmmaking, representation, spectatorship, critical debates and two contrasting filmmakers’ theories on documentary filmmaking

Part 2 – Critical Approaches to Film (2 hours) . Critical debates in this context are (narrative plus synoptic)

Part 2 – Critical Approaches to Film (2 hours)

Part 2 – Critical Approaches to Film (2 hours)

Ideology Focus is on a synoptic approach and requires learners to study the ways in which film shapes and is shaped by ideology Ideology how the micro-elements of film form are used to align the spectator and how that alignment relates to spectator interpretation of narrative how the micro-elements of film form contribute to the ideologies conveyed by film, including through narrative, representations and messages and values how narrative construction is used to align the spectator and how that alignment encourages the adoption of a particular spectator point of view the ideological implications of narrative construction and narrative structure and representations of different societies and cultures how the construction of narrative contributes to the shaping of ideologies and values in film, including how narrative structure can function as an ideological framework

Are different skills needed for learners to succeed on this paper Are different skills needed for learners to succeed on this paper? What are they? How can we develop them?

The Films

Film History

Critical Approaches to Film

Do you have any concerns about any of the films Do you have any concerns about any of the films? Will you screen the films sequentially?

The NEA Synoptic component – brings together student understanding of work covered.

Options Task set for life of specification One compilation of British short fiction films viewed in preparation for production. Learners may produce a short fictional production

Role of short films

Short Films Slap (Nick Rowland 2015) Tight Jeans (Destiny Ekharaga 2008) The Ellington Kid (Dan Sully 2012) Over (Jorn Threalfall 2015) Echo (Lewis Arnold 2011) Operator (Caroline Barleet 2015) Arrival (Daniel Montanarini 2016) The Fly (Jack Doolan 2014)

Planning

Screenplay & Stills A screenplay for a new short film (10 pages, equivalent to 10 minutes of screen time) Original production Must be correctly formatted Learners should understand story structure Description & dialogue John Yorke ‘Into the Woods’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0UZHUnB5pQ http://www.johnyorkestory.com

Screenplay & Stills A digitally photographed storyboard of a key section of the screenplay, illustrating, through careful construction of mise-en- scène and shot selection, how the screenplay would be realised (20 digitally photographed key frames). Properly formatted images [Landscape] Presented as intended on screen Variety of shot types Variety of mise-en- scène Comparable in effort & quality as a short film

Short Film

Evaluation

Outcome can be assessed as the work of an individual learner

What activities can you help support learners in producing high quality practical work?

From text to screen Double indemnity task – from text to screen.

Further Information Contact details: Email: media@ocr.org.uk Twitter: @OCR_Media_Film Contact centre: 01223 553998 http://ocr.org.uk/alevelfilmstudies http://ocr.org.uk/gcsefilmstudies OCR CPD Hub (training events and networks) Sign up for subject updates

Questions OCR still has context EDUQAS is more ‘Film Art’ Difference in choice of films Difference in length of exams