Titles from previous years:

Here are some examples from previous years. Remember if you do media studies you can focus on a topic that fits nicely into film studies! (Let's make life easy wherever possible!) You can, for example, focus on women in film or any other topic that you have previously focussed on. Remember it should be something that you are interested in.

You do not have to phrase your title as a question as in previous years. Here are some examples to get you thinking.

-Star/performer

• Area of investigation: the characteristics of Rhys Ifan's performance across different directors and production contexts.
• Focus film: Enduring Love
• Related films: Twin Town, The Shipping News, Notting Hill.

• Area of investigation: meaning(s) brought to a film by Juliet Binoche.
• Focus film: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
• Related films: Les AMants du pont neuf, The English Patient, Chocolat

Genre

• Area of investigation: the shaping of the gangster genre by the films of Martin Scorsese.
• Focus film: Mean Streets.
• Related films: Goodfellas, Casino

technology

• Area of investigation: development of CGI in animation and its impact on audiences
• Focus film: Toy Story
• Related films: Plan 9 from outer space, On the Beach.
  
  By the end of the month you must have produced a title and must have a minimum of 3 sources already. I will meet with you once a week when your topic is underway so I can check your progress and give you any help you may need.
  
  Please use the blog to post any of your research so I can follow your progress and give you any pointers.

For more information you can go to the WJEC website and have a look at this years exam notes. See the following link http://www.wjec.co.uk/uploads/publications/5288.pdf

Some starting points...

Tim Burton interview - The Corpse Bride

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8x7Tuvd2BE

Al Pacino - Scent of a woman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKAxnB6Ap4o

Pixar - Wall E Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e16U8UsT4I

Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2TVooUHN7j4

Howl's Moving Castle Trailer - Miyazaki

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw6mAR3JR7U

John Carpenter talks about Halloween

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EITEIvEIx5Q

Heath Ledger - Joker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3OueDLQ23o

Choices explained

Star/Performer:
focusing on an individual or group of individuals. It is envisaged that this will allow 'star-study' but will also engage with the historical developments, cultural features, fandom as well as issues of performance.

Genre:
this may focus on a single genre or a range of genres and is designed to develop investigations that consider film as a structured products that is designed to relate to other similar films. Approaches here may include genre-study (codes, conventions, stars etc), genre as a tool of industry, evolution in genres, genre as national cinema and genre as a cultural product.

Technology:
focusing on the impact or development of a particular technology. This will include direct approaches such as the development of CGI, the coming of 'the talkies', or the attempts at realising the world through colour as well as indirect approaches such as tracing Early Cinema's use of the Close-Up, following the impact of bullet-time editing or the adoption by Hollywood of wire-flying techniques.

Social and Political Contexts:
focuses either on the social and political contexts of procution (such as McCarthy era films) or on the commentary offered by films on particular social and political contexts (such as the Iraq war).

Auteur:
focusing on the auteur (in the broadest sense) either individual, collaborative, or any less conventional approach.

Institutional: this may focus on a national cinema context (paticularly one that is directly controlled or sponsored), a Studio context or a body of work produced 'institutionally' such as the films of the Empire Marketing Board.

Auteur

Auteur is a french word meaning 'author'. This part of the unit an auteur is an individual or a group who produces film texts with recognisable 'signatures', or characteristics.

The individual or group can be associated with any national cinema. You will be considering the relationship between the auteur and the texts they create. You can look at the director, performer or producer/production team.

Director
You will be considering whether or not that director has recognisable signature (stylistic, formal or thematic) that can be identified across a number of that director's films.There are thousands of directors to choose from for this unit, but it is important that you choose a director of whom you have some prior knowledge. Here are some examples:
*Tim Burton
*Jim Jarmusch
*Pedro Almodovar
*David Lynch
*Sally Potter
*Jane Campion
*John Woo
*Spike Lee
*Alfred Hitchcock
* Ethan and Joel Coen

The Performer
You will need to evaluate whether of not the performer brings their own particular style or signature to the films in which they star. Does the performer bring a recognisable element to films of particular genres? Does the performer have any control over the production process of the films in which they star?
*Cary Grant
*Robert DeNiro
*Jackie Chan
*Cate Blanchett
*Jennifer Aniston

The Producer
You can study a producer, a production team or a studio and consider whether there are consistent elements of style, form or theme within the films they have produced.

Referencing

You will be using a range of sources from books to magazines to websites to TV shows. Here are some examples of how to record your details. Remember, you will need to keep this for your final draft so it will be a good idea to record the details in you blog area where it won't get lost!

Book
Author name, book title (publishers, year)e.g. Geoff Andrew, The Film Handbook (Longman, 1989)The publisher and year is usually found at the front of the book

Magazine
Title and Volume, Issue, Datee.g. Sight & Sound Volume 9, Issue 4, April 1999

TV programme
Genre: Title (company, country, year) time and channele.g. Documentary: Long Live the New Flesh (Jillian Films, Canada/UK, 1987) Broadcast as part of Channel 4's Eleventh Hour scheduling.

Website
Website name and addresse.g. The Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/

Requirements of project

You are going to carry out a small-scale research project, based on ONE focus film, making appropriate references to at least two other relevant films. You should relate your chosen focus film to any one of the following contexts:

-star/performer

- genre

-technology

-social, historical and/or political context

- institution

- auteur in its broadest sense.



The project will be submitted in three parts:
1) An annotated catalogue of 10 to 15 items selected from your total research. Each catalogue item should be appropriately referenced and be accompanied by a brief note (around 5 lines) to explain the relevance of the item to the research. The catalogue will conclude with a brief paragraph which identifies significant items (e.g. between 3 and 5) not included in catalogue, offering rasons why.
2) A presentation script (around 1000-1500 words) in the form of notes for a presentation. This is not an essay but a presentation of research findings.
3) An evaluation of the research project (approx 500 words.)

IMPORTANT: You may not choose as a focus film either a film selected in your FS1 written analyses (macro or micro) or one which is identified as a focus or close study in FS3 or FS5.

Overview of FS4 Unit

You have to create two projects for FS4: one is a research based task and the other is a creative project.

The FS4 unit focuses on the relationship between those who create film texts and the film texts themselves.The work produced in this unit can reference any type of film: mainstream and indie. Your task MUST be based around particular films. You will choose a focus film and two other related ones.Your short film production should reflect your learning.

Skills required:
- close observation of particular features of particular films: their form, style and themes.- identification of particular recurring features across a group of films based on the input of auteur, performer or genre
- application of critical approaches used in film studies- carrying out a small-scale project which uses a range and variety of sources
- creative work which demonstrates study and appreciation of the chosen medium
- reflection and evaluation