Art Film	Mainstream Film	Historically Significant Film
Once Upon A Time In The West	Love, Simon	Battleship Potemkin
Fitzcarraldo	A Bugs Life	The Seventh Samurai
Alphaville	The Shape of Water	The Wizard of Oz
The Shape of Water	The Breakfast Club	Fitzcarraldo
	The Wizard of Oz

Inquirers: Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Question director’s techniques and choices to broaden your understanding. 

Knowledgeable: Having knowledge of films and directors, along with learning certain terminology. Be able to exchange ideas. 

Thinkers: Exploring unique and creative ways to film, coming up with scripts and possible movie/scene ideas. Be able to analyse your own work and think the best way improve it. 

Communicators: It’s important to effectively communicate with people especially in a group environment. Don’t be scared to ask questions or make suggestions. Listen and respect other people’s choices and views. 

Principled: Take responsibility for your work and your actions. Try not to let others down especially when working with a group you must be committed and do your part, specifically, when filming a group project. 

Open-minded: Exploring and harnessing other people’s methods and ideas especially in a group setting; being flexible when working as a group or with feedback. Listen and respect other viewpoints.  

Caring: Act positively to others and try to assist them when they are visibly struggling (e.g. not understanding something.) 

Risk-takers: Don’t be afraid to try something out of your comfort zone when filming or coming up with new ideas. Try to make your work unique to you. 

Balanced: Make sure you evenly distribute work between people when working as a group. Also make sure to balance your own workload so you’re not overwhelmed. 

Reflective: Be able to reflect on your own work and take constructive criticism in order to improve the result. Try to understand your strengths and weaknesses and how to better yourself in order to up your standard of work. 

In Moulin Rouge, many of the scenes are presented as if on a stage. The Moulin Rouge cabaret itself is presented as flamboyant and extravagant along with Satine’s elephant designed room. This is further demonstrated through theatrical costumes worn by those in the cabaret and the bright lighting within the Moulin Rouge.  

Lighting 

The Red interior contrasts the blue exterior (Paris). As Zidler remarks at one point, “outside it may be raining, but in here it’s entertaining.” The Moulin Rouge is a place where one goes to escape reality (the blue reality). The Juxtaposition of these two colours is utilized though out the film. Perhaps the red implies a warm, lustful and heated atmosphere with the blue being sad, cold and bitter.  

These two colours are also used during ‘El Tango de Roxanne’ where Satine is seen drenched in blue light up in the Dukes tower whilst Christian is below drenched in a red light. The high and low angles with Satine above and Christian below accentuate the distance between them both physically and emotionally. 

Costume 

Satine is dressed in grand and extravagant costumes to highlight her as the most beautiful and successful woman of the Moulin Rouge. Many costumes worn by her at the cabaret heighten this image of her as a man’s ultimate fantasy. It was important to make the costumes historically accurate (around 1889) whilst also incorporating fresh modern elements to help the audience connect whilst feeling enthralled. 

Costumes were fabulous and bold accentuating the theatrics of the cabaret showground whilst enthralling the audience guiding their attention. 

Movement 

During the performance of ‘Spectacular Spectacular’ the characters move at hyper speed creating a hectic and confused atmosphere, this is reflected by the Dukes reaction and this same overwhelming and bewildered feeling pervades the audience.  

In contrast, when Santine faints the speed deliberately slows showing her gradual descent in order to increase dramatics.  

Cinematography 

Almost the entire film was shot on stage, using elaborate scaled sets of the Moulin Rouge club in Paris built for the film. An anamorphic lens was used whilst shooting to give an opulent and grand visual. For scenes such as ‘El Tango de Roxanne’ and other performance numbers multiple cameras were used to capture the frantic energy, furthermore the endless coverage of cameras at various angles could result in amazing, unpredictable shots. However, most of the drama was shot single-cam. In certain shots you can see Satine encircled by men (during performances) not only does this result in a stunning picture it also suggests how Satine is seen as this temptress with a strong appeal to men. 

There is a clear repetition of some features that make it onto the most popular films. Some of these consist of the genre, the distributor and what the film is about.

As we can plainly see, 9/15 of the top films in 2022 cinemas were sequels of either series like the Marvel Universe or independent films like Sonic the Hedgehog. Not only that but 2/15 of the films were based on other things, such as Uncharted (based on a videogame) and Elvis (Based on a person). This shows that the majority of the top films are not original or solo ideas.

Moving on to the Distributor, we can see that they are all big household names and that there are no independent film companies on the list. The largest distributor to make it onto the top 15 movies was Universal, with Disney and Paramount falling shortly behind.

Lastly, genre plays one of the biggest roles in the films that make it on the most popular list. As we can distinctly see, Action is in the majority with 6 in the top 7 movies. This shows that this is the most viewed genre in cinema.

All of these things play a big role in what makes the top 50 list of movies which made the biggest income.

Mise-En-Scene is what is placed in a scene. This may include setting, lighting, spatial relationships between actors, casting, costume, make-up and props.

GENRES –  

Art Films: 

The Shape of Water 

Alphaville 

Mainstream Film:  

A Bugs Life 

The Breakfast Club 

The Wizard of Oz 

Love Simon Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 

Historically Significant Film:  

Battleship Potemkin 

The Seventh Samurai 

The West 

Fitzcarraldo 

IB LEARNER PROFILE 

Knowledgeable: Learning terminology, e.g. Mise-En-Scene, Lighting, Cinematography. 

Risk-Takers: Choosing to create or study films you do not usually go for. 

Balanced: When creating a film, focus on more than just one genre or filming type.  

Open-minded: Be open-minded to different ideas and thoughts, especially when working in a group. 

Reflective: When watching films try to reflect on what you are watching and the techniques that the director used in the film.  

Caring: Care about the feelings of others in your class.  

Principled: Admitting to your wrongdoings and being open-minded to the ideas of others.  

Communicators: Be open to communicating openly with teachers and students in your class—organising group projects.  

Inquirers: If you have writer’s block or do not understand something in class, do not hesitate to ask for help and speak up.  

Thinkers: Having to think of film ideas and being creative with your scripts and cinematography. 

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Mise En Scene is the arrangement/setting of the background and scenery in a film or any sort of theatrical production.
Mise en scene can be anything you can see on the screen when watching a film; this can be any props that actors handle during scenes.
The colour and state of the props and the overall aesthetic all adds a hidden/deeper meaning to the scene.

A film can be placed in categories such as Mainstream Film, Art Film or Historically Significant Film. An example of an Art film could be Alphaville; art films typically portray the work of artists in the form of a documentary and they are independent films rather than mass market films such as “Love Simon” which is a mainstream film.

BOX OFFICE HITS- This is also a way that films can be categorised based on economical contexts and budget and also based on the most popular and viewed genres/types of film.
From the top ten 2022 films based on worldwide box office returns we can see that sequels and franchises such as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse and Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

The way these categorisations work depends on the target audience the films are aimed at but also on the cultural context which could be:
Geographical- where the movie is directed/produced and the actual location within the film

Economic- The budget needed/used for the film and profit made

Historical- what historical events take place within the film or the time it is made (past)

Institutional- the specific film studio or streaming company that produced/released the film eg Netflix

Technological- this includes development of technological advance during years eg. black & white films, CGI, aesthetics, high definition movies; these all helped to make the audience feel as if they are in that specific place and enhance their experience.

Social- this could refer to any social interaction between people in film eg. body language between the characters that could indicate a deeper meaning which can be used to analyse the social context of that film.

Political- this could be any political references in the film and what impact the film might have on the political opinions of the audience.