Begin your practical task with a brainstorm of ideas. Think about the types of film you enjoy and what makes them enjoyable. You do not have to restrict yourself to attempting to create a new Hollywood product – you could create a more unusual film. Think about sequences from films that you have been impressed by and consider the cinematic ideas that made them impressive. You might decide on a genre of film that you enjoy and brainstorm a list of conventions which that genre uses. Don’t try to create a sequel to an existing film or try to copy too closely a film you admire. Be original.

FM1AS Film StudiesCreative Project–courseworkWJEC

 

Your task isto create a film sequenceand reflective analysis. Your storyboard should demonstrate how microaspects of film make meaning. It is made up of the following:

 

Aims and context: a clarification of the aims and context of the sequence whichmust be completed on the appropriate cover sheet. This is not marked but must be there to allow marking of your storyboard and reflective analysis.What should this include? Quite simply, whatever information will allow the examiner to make sense of your work. So, for example, the context may include reference to genre and audience, as well as a very brief statement as to where in the film the extract occurs. Aims may include the particular impact to be made onan audience (suspense, laughter, etc.), as well as the ways in which this extract carries forward the narrative. Indicate which micro element(s) that you have selected as your focus but don’t analyse or discuss them. This is done in the reflective analysis

 

 

 

 

THE NARRATIVE CONTEXTS NEED DETAILING ON THE AIMS AND CONTEXTS COVERSHEET. What is the genre and what stage of the narrative does your sequence come from. It may be advised that you submit a brief synopsis of your film.

 

To start consider the stage of your narrative you are illustrating in your Imaginary Film Sequence. Also, genre, as you can use the formula of repetition and difference to make meaning through conventions.

Perhaps your sequence provides the exposition. Usually, exposition sequences present the viewer with a situation that is calm, safe or at least predictable for the characters involved. You will need to identify not only what information is given in your exposition sequence, but how it is presented to the viewer. The setting might appear tranquil. It might create a positive mood through mise-en-scéne. It might show characters involved in the day-to-day workings of normal life. The equilibrium (safe, calm, predictable situation) of your exposition scene can be created through dialogue, setting, mise-en-scéne and sound elements.

Alternatively, you might choose a sequence that provides a development section. If so, you will need to consider how and why new characters are presented to the audience and what the impact is of new information given in this section. A new character who conflicts with the main character in some way (through an argument, for example) might be a disruptive force within the remainder of the film. Problematic information about the main protagonist given within the sequence might introduce a ‘flaw’ in the central character which will have an impact on later actions and events.

If your chosen sequence comes from the complication section of the film, you need to identify the central character’s reaction to the complication, the role of any disruptive characters and the viewers’ response to the complicating elements. You could discuss how the complicating factor is shown, whether it is within a parallel scene, showing the planning of the disruptive character, or introduced to the audience through a point of view shot, which allows the viewers to experience the complication as if they were the main character. Don’t forget that camerawork and editing along with mise-en-scène and sound, contribute to our understanding of narrative events.

If you have chosen part of the climax of the film, you need to identify the means by which the answers to the film’s narrative enigmas and questions are given. Does the protagonist have a revelatory conversation with another character? Is this a character whose previous position within the film has been one of trust? Are the answers given within an action sequence, in which the protagonist eventually kills the character who has provided the threat and complication within the story? Narrative ‘answers’ do not have to come in the form of information: events may halt the complicating factors.

 


Sequences from the resolution introduce a state of calm both to the characters and to the audience. The chaos and drama throughout much of the film are replaced by a new situation and a new kind of calm. The sequence may use mise-en-scéne to present this calm.  Maybe the colours and the setting in which you find your characters at the end of the film are associated with safety and peace. You could discuss audience expectations of endings. If viewers are given resolution, they have a sense of their expectations having been met.

Narrative helps to organise groups of events into a pattern of cause & effect. We see an event and are then given information about this event. The viewers see the consequences of actions that have occurred and feel that their expectations of the film’s narrative have been met. If viewers were not shown the effect of a crime or a character’s actions, they might feel cheated. They might be shown the consequences of an event through a close-up of a character’s reactions, for example, or through a conversation between two characters.

One of the functions of narrative is to organise time and space. Within a 3-hour film, years of story may have been compressed, but the way in which the narrative is handled makes this compression invisible to the audience. If the narrative omitted significant events within a compressed structure, the audience would question the sense of the film, and the artificiality of ‘film time’ would become more noticeable.

 Look out for any points within your sequence where there are leaps of time.
  Why don’t you see what happened in the time period that has been lost?

The ‘squashing’ of time to fit a 2- to 3-hour period requires the viewers to make a leap of faith and trust that the film is giving them all the information they need. Within the type of film you choose for your study, you will probably not find any complex time structures, but you might well find time compression, which you will need to discuss.

Discuss any ‘flashback’ or ‘flash-forward’ elements (narrative strategies that organise time) and try to identify their function. What information is given and what impact does that information have on characters and the audience? After reading this narrative section carefully, you should be able to write a detailed study of how narrative functions in your film sequence. Overleaf is a checklist of questions to use in order to make sure that you have covered all relevant information.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you answer these questions about your sequence?

 

1. In which section of my film does the sequence come?

2. What are the elements within my sequence which provide narrative information?

3. How does my sequence organise time?  

4. How does my sequence show the effect of actions that occur?  

5. How do the narrative elements I have identified help viewer understanding?