Art Film	Mainstream Film	Historically Significant Film
Once Upon A Time In The West – Release date: December 21, 1968 (Italy) Director: Sergio Leone	A Bugs Life – Release date: November 15, 1998 (USA) Directors: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton	Battleship Potemkin – Initial release: December 21, 1925 Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Alphaville – Release date: May 5, 1965 (France) Director: Jean-Luc Godard	The Shape of Water – Release date: December 1, 2017 (USA) Director: Guillermo del Toro	The Seventh Samurai – Release date: April 26, 1954 (Japan), Director: Akira Kurosawa
Fitzcarraldo – Release date: October 10, 1982 (USA) Director: Werner Herzog	The Breakfast Club – Release date: February 15, 1985 (USA) Director: John Hughes	The Wizard of Oz – Release date: August 25, 1939 (USA) Director: Victor Fleming
	Love Simon – Release date: March 16, 2018 (USA) Director: Greg Berlanti

Knowledgeable – Having knowledge of films and directors and their techniques aids towards studying those films in more depth and gaining more understanding. 

Risk Takers – In creating films during the course it will be important to try new things that may not be easy or comfortable but will give the best and most amazing results.  

Caring – As the course offers teamwork it is necessary to consider others opinions and ideas caringly.  

Reflective – By being reflective and being able to give yourself constructive criticism on previous work you will excel further.  

Principled – Having strict principles when it comes to committing to your work will pay off. 

Communicators – Having good communicating skills will be needed as working groups may become difficult in the film course. 

Inquirers – Staying curious and questioning techniques in film helps expand your knowledge in this course. 

Balanced – Balancing the work load of essays and practicle work  

Open minded – Being open minded to people in your groups ideas or any new and interesting uses of cinematography  

Thinkers – Delving deeper into the meaning of films and the underlying messages shown. 

Film Studies Summer Task 

What makes a film good? 

Macro elements: story, characters, plot and genre  

Micro elements:  
 

• cinematography – This refers to the ‘shot’. Filmmakers control the cinematographic qualities of a shot, including, how the shot is framed, how long the shot is held for and what it looks like in terms of colour. This control that the filmmaker has over what we as a spectator can see is a key element of how we understand and make sense of film and relates directly to both the film’s narrative development and the conveying of the film’s messages and values. 
   

• mise-en- scène -This refers to what is in the scene and it includes setting, costume, make-up and how characters are positioned within the scene.How a filmmaker chooses to use the principal components of mise-en-scène (setting, props, costume and make-up) can generate multiple connotations and suggest a range of possible interpretations. 
   
• editing – At its most basic editing is the placing of one shot next to another usually as a ‘cut’ however this does not cover the complexity or importance of editing which also covers the graphic relationship, the rhythmic relationship, the spatial and temporal relationships which are present in the majority of narrative filmmaking. How the shot-to-shot relationships of continuity editing can be used to create meaning and generate response for the spectator. 
   
• sound – Film sound is often considered both as a whole and broken down into its constituent parts.  

This includes: 

• diegetic sound – sound that the characters within the film world can hear and react to 

• non-diegetic sound – sound that is added afterwards and should generate a response 

within the audience. 

It will also include contrapuntal and parallel sound: 

• contrapuntal sound is sound which contrasts with the mood, image and even genre of the sequence 

• parallel sound fits the spectators expectations for the sequence in terms of mood, image and genre 

• performance –  This relates directly to the performance of the cast and how meanings and responses are generated through their individual and collective performance. It considers the staging of a scene, how the cast are positioned within a set up as well as the type of performance being given. This would include the use of acting approaches such as method acting or improvisation 

The balance and combination of all of the above creates a well-produced and highly rated film. 
 

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