Jordan Ilan A-Level Film Studies

Ideology: - Films are believed to reflect fundamental beliefs of a society - Ideologies (Phillips, 2005) - Ideology can be thought of as the main messages & values conveyed by a film as well as those which inform it - Commonly mainstream cinema presents dominant ideologies that exist within society - The teaching of ideology overlaps with the other specialist area Starter Questions: - What are the main messages & values of the film? - How are these messages conveyed through the use of key elements of film form? - Does the film reinforce, challenge or reject dominant attitudes within the society it is made in? - Which characters are the spectators encouraged to align themselves with & what is their dominant belief system? Critical approaches to Ideology: - For purposes of the specification, should study films in relation to critical approaches to ideology - Recommended either political or feminist critical approach studied in relation to these films - From its

Nine study areas for A-Level Film Studies 1. Film form 2. Meaning & response 3. Contexts 4. Spectatorship 5. Narrative 6. Ideology 7. Auteur 8. Critical debates 9. Filmmakers' theories The study ares for We Need To Talk About Kevin: 1. Film form 2. Meaning & response 3. Contexts 5. Narrative 6. Ideology Pictures show Kevin and Eva are more distant from each other than usual mother and children are WNTTAK Questions: - What do Eva & Franklin sacrifice in order to have children? - On the rare occasions all 4 members of Eva's family are together, how do they interact? Who seems to be 'in charge'? - What important things do Eva's family not do that might have led them to falling apart? - How has Kevin changed in the final scene? Consider costumes, make-up, acting, plot & dialogue - What answers do Eva, the film or any other character offer in explanation for Kevin's violent acts? Eva - an unreliable narrator? - Common devic

Suture: Suture: - A medical term, meaning to stitch up - In film theory, the process whereby the spectator is 'stitched up' in the filmic text - One application of this is the shot/reverse-angle shot - This series of shots establishes the viewpoint of 2 characters, allowing the spectator to adopt first one & then another position - Thus the spectator makes sense of off-screen space & becomes 'stitched' into the film Suture & Ideology: - Notion behind suture is that it renders the film's signifying practices invisible; therefore, the spectator's ability to read or decode he film remains limited - It's therefore theorised that the system allows the film's ideological messages to be slipped in unnoticed & become absorbed by the spectator - Film is thus hegemonic rather than a reflection of reality - So in Hollywood, we are presented with an unquestioning idea of the idealness of American values Suture & the shot/reverse

Fish Tank & WNTTAK: Narrative Theories Continued Popular Narrative Theories: Vladimir Propp: - Russian & Soviet formalist scholar - Analysed plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their basic narrative elements - Looked at 100 folk tales & came to conclusion all made up of 31 plot elements, he called them functions - Found despite large no. of character appearing in folk tales, only 8 character types 8 characters types: - Villian - Helper - Princess or Prize - Her father - The Donor - Hero - False Hero - The Dispatcher Todorov's Theory: - Tzevtan Todorov proposed a basic structure for all narratives - States films & programmes begin with an equilibrium, a calm period. Then agents of disruption cause disequilibrium, a period of unsettlement & disquiet. Followed by renewed state of peace & harmony for the protagonists & new equilibrium brings chaos to an end Todorov's Equilibrium Theory: 1. Equilibrium 2. Disruption o

Fish Tank: Narrative & ideology: Fish Tank explores aspects of 'growing up' within a social realist narrative We Need To Talk About Kevin explores families and the 'secrets' their harbour Section B: British film since '95: Additional notes on Narrative: - Concept of narrative largely concerned with story of a film - Several distinctions need to be made between narrative, story & plot - Narrative: Largely the practise or art of telling stories; a representation of a particular situation or process in such a way as to reflect or conform to an overarching set of aims or values - Storyline: plot of film or other narrative form - Plot: Main events of narrative form, devised & presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence - Study of narrative is one way of examining the story of a film & exploring how it is structured, ordered & why this has been done - Narrative asks the viewer to consider whose viewpoint were experiencing the st

https://nofilmschool.com/2016/04/andrea-arnold-tribeca -> Link to article Andrea's character are like herself, restless spirits Trapped in lives that are too small for them, they push boundaries to break open their worlds Arnold has a compassion for women with a devil-may-care attitude & the desire to live an untethered life "I never imagined my life like this," Arnold, who grew up with a single mother in a large working-class family 'every once in a while I just think, Wow this is weird' - 'One thing I learned from film school was to trust myself, Being at AFI allowed me to listen to everyone and then work out my own way' - 'I made my first short & didn't quite get the camera right. But I look at that now & I think there were lots of things I did that were really me, like the images & the way I filmed' Life can be an important inspiration: - Arnold said 'a lot of my filmmaking hasn't come from other films,