FILM: THE AMC WEBSITE

Great resource for the analysis and research of films.

http://www.filmsite.org/

GCSE FILM STUDIES YEAR 10

Here is an example of a completed Film Industry form. This forms part of your first coursework.

Industry Form Exemplar

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Study Guides, Notes, School Work gcse film studies in

WATCH WATCHMEN

"Who watches the Watchmen? " ask the concerned citizens of the USA during the film. Anyone who enjoys bringing their brain into the auditorium instead of leaving it by the popcorn counter would be my reply.

If you go to see this film expecting Spiderman teen-angst, Superman heroics or Batman pseudo-Freudian trauma, then this is not the movie for you. However if you want a film that stimulates the mind as well as the senses I recommend it without reservation.

It's pointless giving you a synopsis of the film - you can find this at IMDB or in Total Film or Empire magazines and their sister sites. I can only tell you my personal response and that was to be gripped by an intelligent storyline and not feel that the two and half hours of my life I had invested in this movie had been wasted. Also, I wanted to watch it again.

Whether seeing Watchmen on an IMAX screen contributed to such a positive experience will remain a matter of conjecture until I see it on a standard screen or on Blu-Ray in 6 months time. It is a film that's made for IMAX: epic and bold, visually stunning and riveted together by a savvy, intelligent script. The casting is crucial here: not one real-headlining, big-batter star but highly skilled and accomplished ensemble. Fine actors all. Most of them are familiar but would not instantly spring to mind to be of blockbuster, high budget calibre. Of course whether this is a blockbuster is debatable. The audience is limited in terms of box-office as it received an 18 certificate in the UK. Is this reasonable? Probably.

Arguably it is no more extreme than Zack Snyder's two earlier outings: Dawn of the Dead and the choreographed violence of 300 but where it oversteps the mark in the censors' eyes has to be two graphic scenes involving firstly an attempted rape and one in which a pregnant woman is shot dead. Again this is a film with very adult themes, deeply political and visceral. This is not to say that it is not entertaining - it has a deep sense of irony and dark humour which is refreshing and characters who are not insular, brooding navel searchers which I find so irritating about the glut of Marvel manifestations appearing on our screens.

Special mention to the opening credits which are stunning and a lesson in how to provide the audience with back-story with brevity and without the use of text or the dreaded voice over. For a moment I thought I was watching a Saul Bass sequence such was its refinement and story-telling energy that complemented the narrative moving it forward without one wasted shot.

The theme of anti-hero is timely and it is sobering to remember that this "unfilmable" film has taken nearly twenty years to be realised going through a sway of screen-writers, directors and
actors penciled in for the parts including Arnold Schwarzenegger. The creator of the graphic novel Alan Moore told Terry Gilliam as he (Gilliam) gave up on the project that the "War and Peace" of graphic novels was impossible to film as this art-form was impossible to emulate in terms of film and literature. Even if the film must undoubtedly be Watchmen-Lite, the spirit and the themes within the original novel are realised and all credit to the screenwriters David Hayter and Alex Tse in achieving this.

As for the IMAX. I pity anybody who sits on the first six rows. The cinema announcer welcomed us to the evening's screening and gave advice on what to do if anyone should feel dizziness or nausea or perhaps a combination of the two. I can't see how anybody positioned so close to the front can gain a positive experience of the screen. I think you would need the eyes positioned like a bullfrog or a chameleon to benefit from such proximity.

Ticket prices were £9.00 and £10.00 for the central VIP seats. The seats are comfortable with plenty of leg-room. One issue with The Printworks cinema I attended: the escalators are inadequate for the volume of people exiting the cinema at the end of the performance especially as the screen is housed at the top floor. This leads to a bottle-neck and a delay when leaving and potential crushing if other screens are exiting at the same time.

YEAR 10 FILM STUDIES: COURSEWORK

Your second homework for tomorrow is to choose the film you will use for the micro analysis of a scene. Make sure your scene is able to include all the ideas and concepts we discussed in class today.

One of the early sequences from "Saving Private Ryan" when the troops land on the Normandy beaches is a particular favourite of mine however harrowing its subject matter and imagery.

The last minutes on board The Titanic in the James Cameron film of the same name is equally capable of promoting good critical and analytical writing from you.

Others might include the "stand off" in the film "The Good The Bad and The Ugly" or the fight in the trees in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" or the bamboo battle in "House of Daggers".

Maybe a romantic moment from a romcom or a great musical number from a....musical!

It's your choice but make sure you think carefully when choosing the scene.

YEAR 10 FILM STUDIES

Following on from Friday's lesson "Why Silent Films Were Never Silent" I've posted Wamsleydesigner's imagined trailer for Nosferatu 1922 F. W. Murnau. There were no film trailers as such in 1922 especially for the international market but if there had been I think this one would have been excellent.



Can you remember why the name Dracula is never used in the film? Can you remember the name of the Count (Graf) in Nosferatu?

FILM STUDIES

Disaster Movie Quiz

As you are aware you are studying the genre of disaster movies. Try the disaster movie quiz at the Guardian Unlimited website. I would say a score of less than three could be seen to be more than a little... of its own.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questions/0,5952,1226014,00.html

JAMES BOND

Trailer for the new Bond film "Quantum of Solace" at

GCSE FILM STUDIES: FIRST LESSONS

In the first lessons we will be looking at the key concepts of genre, conventions and audience. The genre of films we will be studying is disaster movies. You are required to study this genre of film by the examining body (the people who have created the course you are studying) which is the Welsh Board.

Disaster movies can be broken into sub-genres including natural disasters, monsters, viral, science fiction, documentary etc. It is important to be able to identify the main conventions (features) of a disaster film and to be able to compare and comment on the films you "read". The films we will be featuring in our studies will include:

Godzilla

Quatermass and the Pit

World Trade Centre

The Towering Inferno

Dantes' Peak

The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

The Poseidon Adventure (2006)

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

The Day after Tomorrow

Cloverfield

28 Days Later

It is essential that you carry out independent research and "read" as many disaster movies as you can to expand your knowledge and understanding of this genre but also to enable you to comment in much more depth and gain the highest grades. I will shortly be listing useful websites to help you with your research. Be prepared for a quiz in October too!

VISUAL METAPHORS

In your studies of disaster movies (films) you will "read" many visual metaphors (VMs). A number of important VMs appear in "War of the Worlds" (2005) and "Cloverfield" (2007) and involve paper floating down from the sky. What does this represent and where do you think this idea has come from: that falling paper paper represents destruction and mayhem?

In "Superman Returns" (2006) Superman prevents a large passenger plane from crashing into a baseball park. Again, what is the VM here and what is it representing? Why baseball?

The dates of these films are all very important in developing your answers. In the 1980s and 1990s with a few exceptions, disaster movies as a genre fell into decline. However, following a real disaster, this genre has found a new lease of life, a new connection with audiences around the world.

Questions.

1. What event prompted the increase in disaster movie production?

2. What does this tell us about the attitudes of our present society?

3. What other VMs could you design and place in your own film to represent disaster/destruction and to tie it to the "real-life" disaster that affected the whole world?

Link to "War of the Worlds" trailer below