Statement of Intent

The intent of Film Studies is to cultivate critical thinking and analytical skills by engaging with film as an art form and a cultural product. Students explore the technical aspects of filmmaking (cinematography, editing, sound etc), analyse narrative structures, and examine the social, historical and cultural contexts that shape film. This involves developing an understanding of how films create meaning and influence audiences, as well as fostering an appreciation for the diverse landscape of global cinema. Ultimately, Film Studies aims to equip students with transferable skills valuable for various academic and professional pursuits, including media-related fields. At the end of Year 13, Film students will have developed the skills requisite for a career in the Creative Industries from research, pre-production, production and post-production to critiquing. 

Purpose

Film is one of the most significant cultural innovations of the 20th century and a major art form. Those who study it characteristically bring with them a high degree of enthusiasm and excitement for what is a powerful and culturally significant medium, inspiring a range of responses from the emotional to the reflective. Film Studies consequently makes an important contribution to the curriculum, offering the opportunity to investigate film as an aesthetic medium, and how film communicates ideas of representation.

The KS5 curriculum in Film Studies aims to enable learners to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• a diverse range of film, including documentary, film from the silent era, experimental film, European and short film
• the significance of film and film practice in national, global and historical contexts
• film and its key contexts (including social, cultural, political, historical and technological contexts)
• how films generate meanings and responses
• film as an aesthetic medium
• the different ways in which spectators respond to film

It also aims to enable learners to:

• apply critical approaches to film
• apply knowledge and understanding of film through either filmmaking or screenwriting
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The curriculum is additionally designed to reflect the diversity of film culture through both filmmakers and the films they make. Our curriculum consequently provides a framework for the systematic study of a broad range of film, as well as providing opportunities for creative work, an integral part of film study. Most of all, it offers the opportunity to explore a range of important ideas and emotions, reflect on art and technology and connect theory and creative practice in ways which are designed to provide an absorbing and motivating educational experience.