INTRODUCTION

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Aims and objectives

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Film is one of the main cultural innovations of the 20th 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 a medium of representation and as an aesthetic medium. The WJEC Eduqas specification is designed to introduce A level students to a wide variety of films in order to broaden their knowledge and understanding of film and the range of responses films can generate. This specification therefore offers opportunities to study mainstream American films from the past and the present as well as a range of recent and contemporary British films, American independent films and global films, both non-English language and English language. The historical range of film represented in those films is extended by the study of silent film and significant film movements so that learners can gain a sense of the development of film from its early years to its still emerging digital future. Studies in documentary, experimental and short films add to the breadth of the learning experience.

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Production work is a crucial part of this specification and is integral to students' study of film. Studying a diverse range of films from several different contexts is designed to give learners the opportunity to apply their knowledge and understanding of how films are constructed to their own filmmaking and screenwriting. This is intended to enable learners to create high quality film and screenplay work as well as provide an informed filmmaker's perspective on their own study of film.

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The WJEC Eduqas A level in Film Studies aims to enable learners to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

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• a diverse range of film, including documentary, film from the silent era, experimental film 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.

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It also aims to enable learners to:

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• apply critical approaches to film and apply knowledge and understanding of film through either filmmaking or

• screenwriting.

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The specification is additionally designed to reflect the diversity of film culture through both filmmakers and the films they make. The wide choice of films offered includes films by women directors and films which represent particular ethnic and cultural experiences. Over sixty films are offered from which eleven feature-length films will be chosen. In addition, a compilation of short films will be studied.

 

WJEC's Eduqas A level specification 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.

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