Useful websites

A quite brilliant list of websites that may be of use to anyone taking Film Studies. Especially useful for the Small Scale Research project in A2. I'd advise you to make the document full-screen however so that you can see the document clearly.

FM3 - Film Studies - Website database from South Sefton Sixth Form College

A2 Film Studies FM3 Research Project

Below you'll find an embedded version of the guide to the first part of the A2 coursework we looked at in lesson.

Small Scale Research Booklet

The death of the film industry?

Last week Steven Spielberg and George Lucas gave an address to the University of California upon the opening of a new building for the famous USC School of Cinematic Arts. Their talk made international headlines as Spielberg in particular, suggested that he believed a massive crash was on the horizon of the film industry, with a radical change in the industry coming soon. One of the most interesting, if perhaps fanciful, suggestions from Spielberg was that Hollywood films may have to charge prices at the cinema that are reflective of the budget of the film. He cited an example whereby the audience "[are] gonna have to pay $25 for the next Iron Man, you're probably only going to have to pay $7 to see Lincoln". 

To an extent, this already happens: you pay significantly more to see a 3D IMAX presentation that you for a 2D film, but will this soon be effected by the cost of the film to make? An interesting point of discussion certainly and one that brings in a lot of ideas for FM2 of the AS Level. 


Have a read of what was said:

Hollywood Reporter article

Huffington Post report

Why a meltodown would be good, from The Guardian

GCSE Exam Practice: Questions 1 and 2

Use this clip to help you practice Questions 1 and 2 of Paper 1. There are also some good examples of editing here to revise from. 

Revision: Editing Techniques

GCSE Paper 1 Practice: Superhero films

Below you will find copies of the Practice Exam Paper that we looked at in class.

The clip you need for questions 1 and 2 can be found on the link above the exam paper.
Remember: you can only watch it 3 times when answering questions 1 and 2 and when answering, you CANNOT watch the clip. Obviously, I can't control that here, but it's excellent practice for the exam to follow these instructions.

There is also a resource for Question 3 to be used as well.

Film Extract for questions 1 and 2

How NOT to make a film: The curious case of World War Z

Below is a link a fantastic article by Vanity Fair on Zombie-apocolypse film World War Z which is just about to be released in the UK. Based on a book of the same name, this $200million Blockbuster was originally to be released 6 months ago and despite Brad Pitt starring and producing, seems to be headed for an uncertian performance at the Box Office. Vanity Fair recently published the story of how the rights to adapt such a highly regarded book (Simon Pegg said that it's "An absolute must have ... Brooks [the author] infuses his writing with such precise detail and authenticity, one wonders if he knows something we don't') into a film went so wrong and so quickly.


There is some wonderful insight here and would be a great case study and example for AS Students studying Hollywood, the film industry and the pre and post-production issues that can beset a film.


This is well worth a few minutes of your time and worth bookmarking for later use.

Vanity Fair: The Making of World War Z