Eduqas New GCSE Film Studies: An approach to Component 2, Global Film.

Teaching ‘Aesthetics’ at
GCSE Level
Component 2:
Global Film
35%

Section A:
Global (English Language)
Section B:
Global (non-English
Language)
Section A: Contemporary
UK
Close Study
(One Film)
Close Study
(One film)
Close Study
(One Film)
FOCUS: Narrative FOCUS: Representation FOCUS: Aesthetics (Film Style)
Options:
• Rabbit-Proof Fence
• Slumdog Millionaire
• District 9
• An Education
• Song of the Sea
Options:
• Tsotsi
• Let the Right One in
• The Wave
• Wadjda
• Spirited Away
Options:
• Submarine
• Attack the Block
• Skyfall
• My Brother the Devil
• Brooklyn
Component 2

Section A:
Section B:
Global (non-English
Language)
UK
FOCUS: the key elements of ﬁlm form (cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing and sound)
the contexts of film (social, cultural, historical, political, technological and institutional)
including key aspects of the history of film and film technology.
FOCUS: Narrative FOCUS: Representation FOCUS: Aesthetics
Options:
• District 9
• An Education
• Song of the Sea
• Options:
• Tsotsi
• Let the Right One in
• The Wave
• Wadjda
• Spirited Away
Options:
• Submarine
• Attack the Block
• Skyfall
• Brooklyn
Component 2

Section A:
Section B:
Global (non-English
Language)
UK
Close Study
(One Film)
Close Study
(One film)
Close Study
(One Film)
FOCUS: Narrative FOCUS: Representation FOCUS: Aesthetics
Options:
• District 9
• An Education
• Song of the Sea
• Options:
• Tsotsi
• Let the Right
One in
• The Wave
• Wadjda
• Spirited Away
Options:
• Submarine
• Attack the
Block
• Skyfall
• Brooklyn
Component 2

Skyfall Submarine
Attack the Block
Context

Skyfall Submarine
Attack the Block
Context
Much in the same way that we (as Film teachers)
would go to the cinema, we’re aware of the
marketing and the production but haven’t seen the
film. We don’t know what to make of it as we
haven’t see it and we have no frame of reference
for possible analysis (do we watch films for the first
time with an eye specifically on aesthetics?), instead
we watch and make a judgement as we watch, as
we consider and we discuss afterwards.
Give students the chance to do the same.

Skyfall Submarine
Attack the Block
Component 2: context

Skyfall Submarine
Attack the Block
Component 2

Skyfall Submarine
Attack the Block
Carefully study the posters.
What do the images
suggest that the films
will be about?
What does any written
information suggest that the
films will be about?
Do you recognise any
names?
Does any of this affect your view of the film before even watching?
How do the images
help with this?

Ask students to research
different aspects of social and
historical context

Skyfall Submarine
Attack the Block
Attack the Block trailer

Skyfall Submarine
Attack the Block
From the trailer:
What does the trailer tell us?
Did you recognise any
conventions or tropes?
Is it persuasive or engaging?
Do you want to watch the film as
a result?

Skyfall Submarine
Attack the Block
Social context for Attack the Block also happened
the year after release, in terms of iconography.

Skyfall Submarine
Attack the Block
Provide marketing details such as posters, key
articles or interviews. If appropriate explore details
regarding production including cast, crew and any
issues arising from production. You could also
consider expectations based on the genre, the
franchise and/or the cast and crew. This is also
useful as it allows students to develop a knowledge
bank that allows them to add details to reviews and
to extended writing about the film in the way that a
detailed review would do.

Skyfall Submarine
Attack the Block
During/after
viewing

Component 2: during/after viewing

Provide challenging or complex
vocabulary beforehand and ask
students to identify examples
whilst watching.

Boo-
urns

District 9 Trailer

Focus: Narrative
District 9 (2009) Dir. Neil Blomkamp
Consider the differences
between provided narratives
from different sources.

Focus: Narrative
…and don’t forget production details
to find interesting social context.

Focus: Narrative
In an alternate 1982, an alien ship inexplicably stops over Johannesburg. When investigation teams enter the ship, they discover a population of sick and
malnourished extraterrestrials, who become nicknamed "prawns". The South African government confines the aliens to "District 9", a government camp
that is located outside of Johannesburg. Twenty-eight years later, in 2010, following periodic conflict between the aliens and the locals living near District
9, the government hires private military company Multinational United (MNU) to relocate the aliens to a new internment. Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto
Copley), an Afrikaner bureaucrat, is appointed by Piet Smit (Louis Minnaar), an MNU executive and his father-in-law, to lead the relocation.Meanwhile,
three aliens — Christopher Johnson (Jason Cope), his son, and a friend — scavenge pieces of their technology from which they distill a fluid of their native
provenance, and store it in a small canister. Wikus confiscates the canister from the shack of Christopher's friend, but accidentally sprays some of the fluid
onto his face. Christopher's friend is subsequently killed by Koobus Venter (David James), a sadistic mercenary soldier employed by MNU.Under the fluid's
influence, Wikus' body, starting with his injured left arm, begins to deteriorate and become alien tissue. After the extent of the infection becomes
apparent at a local hospital, he is immediately detained and transported to MNU headquarters for experimentation, where it is discovered that Wikus'
chimeric DNA grants him the ability to use alien weapons, which are biologically restricted to work for alien users only. Realizing the potential fortune to
be made from Wikus' tissue in its current state, Smit and his scientists decide to vivisect Wikus; but he overpowers them and escapes the facility. Smit
orders Venter and his men to hunt Wikus down, while a smear story is published that claims Wikus has been engaging in sexual activity with aliens and is a
fugitive infected by an alien STD. Everyone believes the story, even, for a time, Wikus' wife (and Smit's daughter) Tania (Vanessa Haywood).Wikus finds
refuge in District 9 and stumbles into Christopher's shack, where he learns that Christopher is hiding the lost command module of their spacecraft
underground, and comes to understand from Christopher that the fluid in the canister would be able to reactivate the command module and the dormant
mothership, in which he claims he can reverse Wikus' mutation. To recover the canister from MNU headquarters, Wikus obtains alien weapons from
superstitious Nigerian arms-dealer Obesandjo (Eugene Khumbanyiwa) and his gang, then he and Christopher attack the MNU offices, retrieve the canister,
and flee to District 9 with MNU forces in pursuit.Appalled by the illegal experiments on his fellow aliens at MNU headquarters, Christopher decides to get
help before curing Wikus, which will take three years as he will need to use as much fluid as possible in order to reach his destination and get help.
Frustrated, Wikus knocks out Christopher and attempts to fly the command module to the mothership, but is almost immediately shot down by Venter
and his men. They capture Wikus and Christopher, but Obesandjo's gang intervene and seize Wikus, acting on Obesandjo's belief that eating Wikus'
transformed arm will enable him to use alien weaponry. Obesandjo's base is then attacked by MNU.In the command module, Christopher's son remotely
activates the mothership and an alien mechanized battle suit in Obesandjo's base which kills Obesandjo and his men. Wikus takes control of the battle suit
and rescues Christopher, who promises to return in three years with a cure. Wikus kills all the attacking soldiers before Venter cripples the suit, which
ejects Wikus. As he corners Wikus, a group of aliens kill Venter by tearing him apart. The command module with Christopher and his son is lifted into the
mothership, which they use to leave Earth, and Johannesburg's residents celebrate its departure.A series of interviews and news broadcasts are shown
speculating about Wikus' whereabouts and the potential return of Christopher and the spacecraft, and what it may entail. MNU's illegal experiments are
exposed by Wikus' friend and assistant Fundiswa (Mandla Gaduka), and District 9 is demolished; all the aliens are subsequently moved to the larger District
10. Tania finds a metal flower on her doorstep, giving her hope that Wikus is still alive. The final scene shows a fully transformed Wikus in a junkyard,
crafting a similar flower.

Focus: Narrative
Watch this clip from
District 9.
Summarise the clip in a
variety of lengths, perhaps
using the resources on the
next few slides

Focus: Narrative

Focus: Narrative
Aristotle
Vladimir Propp Tzvetan Todorov
Christopher Vogler

In what order do these screenshots occur?

How does the mise-en-scene reflect the
development of the narrative?

Focus: Film style
(aesthetics)

Focus: Aesthetics
Fan art provides a variety of responses into
the style of a film in terms of influences.

Focus: Aesthetics
Attack the Block (20011) Dir. Joe Cornish

Focus: Aesthetics

Focus: Representation
Why representation matters:

Let the Right One In (2009) Dir. Tomas Alfredson
What type of character can we see here?
How is our understanding constructed?

Let the Right One In, a Swedish horror
film set in the early 1980s, uses the
vampire genre to raise several issues
about young people and the problems
of integrating. Like Attack the Block, it
uses genre to explore social and
political issues.

Try to describe these characters. What
are they like? How can we tell?
Refer to aspects of mise-en-scene to do
so.

How is genre constructed in these shots?
How do the props and the effect represent
the idea of horror?
Do the images refer to any other film you
can think of in the same genre?

How would you describe their friendship is
represented in this scene?
What elements of film help in the
construction of their friendship?

How is this scene constructed to
show that the kids are bullies?
How does the scene construct the
sense that Oskar is isolated and
vulnerable?

Stay in touch:
@Moreno_Melgar
S Slideshare.com/ianmorenomelgar
ianmorenomelgar@icloud.com
facebook.com/groups/filmstudiesteachers

Eduqas New GCSE Film Studies: An approach to Component 2, Global Film.

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Eduqas New GCSE Film Studies: An approach to Component 2, Global Film.