Film Studies

Course summary

As a student of Film Studies, you will undertake a systematic study of cinema and film. Film is arguably the most influential and culturally significant art form of the present. It is certainly the only new art form produced in the Twentieth Century. This course is ideal for students who want to explore how and why films are made. A Level of Film Studies focuses on the analysis and deconstruction of film over a wide historical time frame. It allows you to engage with films from early silent cinema to 1930s Hollywood films, to contemporary and experimental cinema. Film Studies A Level involves studying 12 different films. These are separated into set categories, which are; American, British, Independent, Global, Documentary, Experimental and Silent Film. These are analysed via several different study area frameworks, including film form, meaning and response, context, spectatorship, narrative, ideology, authorship, critical debates and theoretical debates. You work with your peers to debate and pull apart the set film texts and to develop a sophisticated contextual understanding of the world at the time these films were made. Film Studies requires that you develop an inquisitive mind and consider the deeper social, political and economic contexts of those films. You also explore the work of a wide range of influential film directors, such as Alfred Hitchcock, Spike Lee and the Coen Brothers. Film Studies A level also takes in the forefathers of cinema by evaluating the impact of key pioneers on the film industry including The Lumiere Brothers, DW Griffiths, Charlie Chaplin, and Sergei Eisenstein.