Film is one of the main cultural innovations of the twentieth century and a major art form of the last hundred years. 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 how film works both as an agency of representation and as an aesthetic medium.

Film Studies is an academic discipline that explores various theoretical, historical and critical approaches to the understanding of films and how they generate meaning and response in spectators. Pupils will study narrative storytelling and the artistic and culturally historical implications of movie-making across different global cinemas. Pupils will develop their analytical skills in addition to developing an enhanced theoretical application of new ideas through the study of the film text and major film movements. Pupils will also have an opportunity to engage in the creative processes of either screenwriting or filmmaking.

Over the two-year Eduqas/WJEC course, pupils study the semiotics of film at micro and macro level in order to understand the roles of both producers and audiences. The specific films studied will require pupils to engage with various cultural representations, over different periods, in order to gain an understanding of the development of technique, style, technology and artistic movement.

A summary of the specification is divided into the following assessment components:

Component 1: Varieties of film and filmmaking exam: 2 ½ hours

Section A: Hollywood 1930 – 1990 (comparative study)

Section B: American film since 2005 (two-film study)

Section C: British film since 1995 (two-film study)

Component 2: Global filmmaking perspectives exam: 2 ½ hours (35%)

Section A: Global film (two-film study)

Section B: Documentary film (single-film study)

Section C: Film movements – silent cinema (single-film study)

Section D: Film movements – experimental film 1960-2000 (single-film study)

Component 3: Production: non-exam assessment (30%)

One production and its evaluative analysis from the following: a short film (4-5 minutes); a screenplay for a short film plus a digitally-photographed storyboard of a key section from the screenplay.