eduqas a level film studies

5

i’m sitting my a level in summer and i’m really struggling to get my marks up (i don’t know if it’s my teacher being a harsh maker or me just being bad) so has anyone got anything i can try to boost my grade? i’ve planned almost every past paper question and have learnt my key scenes and theories

Reply 1

nikiiiiiii

10

is there something specific that you need to improve? I've got some essays that I wrote that I could link that got good feedback, or I could take a look at some of your essays to give you specific tips.
general tips are:
make sure to have a few scenes from each film that you know very well rewatch these scenes and analyse them closely when revising. my advice would be to rewatch each film to find scenes yourself that you know you could get a lot out of as personally some of the scenes my teachers told me to use weren't the best. in your essays, analyse these scenes in detail with relation to the question.
for the questions that ask specifically about the importance/impact etc of a specific component like sound/lighting/etc I usually wrote at least one paragraph about a different device as well. eg if the question was if sound was the most important element then I would have paragraph 1 and 3 be about sound and paragraph 2 be about cinematography and my conclusion would be that while sound is important it works together with cinematography.
for the comparative questions my teachers said that you don't actually have to link the films in your analysis and can basically write about them separately. I still liked to have the same basic points of comparison though.
for the documentary, make sure you specifically analyse the film through the lens of the different modes of documentary even if the question doesn't specifically ask about it. I always talked about questioning the documentary genre and the idea of truth.
. I hope this helps. which films are you doing? maybe I can give more specific advice if we did any of the same films

Reply 2

rgrant

OP

5

Original post

by nikiiiiiii

is there something specific that you need to improve? I've got some essays that I wrote that I could link that got good feedback, or I could take a look at some of your essays to give you specific tips.
general tips are:
make sure to have a few scenes from each film that you know very well rewatch these scenes and analyse them closely when revising. my advice would be to rewatch each film to find scenes yourself that you know you could get a lot out of as personally some of the scenes my teachers told me to use weren't the best. in your essays, analyse these scenes in detail with relation to the question.
for the questions that ask specifically about the importance/impact etc of a specific component like sound/lighting/etc I usually wrote at least one paragraph about a different device as well. eg if the question was if sound was the most important element then I would have paragraph 1 and 3 be about sound and paragraph 2 be about cinematography and my conclusion would be that while sound is important it works together with cinematography.
for the comparative questions my teachers said that you don't actually have to link the films in your analysis and can basically write about them separately. I still liked to have the same basic points of comparison though.
for the documentary, make sure you specifically analyse the film through the lens of the different modes of documentary even if the question doesn't specifically ask about it. I always talked about questioning the documentary genre and the idea of truth.
. I hope this helps. which films are you doing? maybe I can give more specific advice if we did any of the same films

i’m doing vertigo and do the right thing for hollywood, get out and joker for american, we need to talk about kevin and mogul mowgli for british then mustang and city of god (global) sunrise for silent memento for experimental and sister in law for documentary- i’ve tried to find examples online but i can never find any for my films and it doesn’t help thag some of them are new to the spec for this year 😭

Reply 3

nikiiiiiii

10

Original post

by rgrant

i’m doing vertigo and do the right thing for hollywood, get out and joker for american, we need to talk about kevin and mogul mowgli for british then mustang and city of god (global) sunrise for silent memento for experimental and sister in law for documentary- i’ve tried to find examples online but i can never find any for my films and it doesn’t help thag some of them are new to the spec for this year 😭

for vertigo the scenes I'd usually like to use were:

•

Ernie's restaurant - the use of the colour red representing passion/love but also violence and Madeline in green which is her colour throughout the film. the frame within a frame of Madeline being framed by the doorways enhancing the implications of voyeurism. the mirrors in the scene foreshadowing the theme of duality and deception. the enhanced lighting/saturation as Scottie looks at Madeline.

•

the 'transformation' into Madeline - the experimental use of lighting to create a magical/surreal look to show that Madeline is just a fantasy, the return of the colour green in Madeline/Judy's wardrobe, the spinning disorienting camera

for dtrt I usually wouldn't analyse scenes as closely as with vertigo but talk about multiple examples of specific things used throughout the film:

•

canted angles used throughout to show a distorted/ heightened sense of reality, heighten the feelings of tension and unrest building in the film. an example of this is radio Rahim's initial confrontation at Sal's which uses lots of canted angles, but they're used often throughout the film

•

set design - the oppressive/entrapping feeling of the neighborhood on the hot day I'd heightened by the use of warm tones in the set design + costuming. graffiti throughout the film hints at conflict and provides real world context - "tawana told the truth" + "dump Koch". the pictures in Sal's pizzeria are crucial to the narrative and conflict in the film

•

music used throughout the film important in conveying the message- this is enhances by mister senor love daddy's speech. fight the power and the volume of the song is an important element in the film

•

breaking fourth wall - experimental element - radio raheem's speech - the camera moves in front of him as he talks to audience (also a reference to night of the hunter) + the racist stereotypes montage

for city of god I used:

•

the story of the tender trio - the warm colours and open space contrasted with the increasing claustrophobic atmospheres as the film progresses and the characters are seen in small alleys+apartments and the lighting gets colder and darker

•

Benny's death - the editing with the lights flashing on and off made to look like a series of photos being taken, linking to rocket. creates disorientation

•

the story of the apartment- clearly shows the changing nature of the favellas

•

opening scene- chaotic opening sets tone for film

hope this helped a bit. obviously there were more scenes and examples that I'd use but these are the main ones I remember

eduqas a level film studies

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