A Level Film Studies: Coursework Blog

Over (2015) Dir. Jorn Threlfall Narrative: It's about an asylum seeker who hides in the wheel hatch(?) of a airplane, near freezes, and then falls out when the wheels come out for landing, falling onto a street in a neighbourhood where he is then found by a man walking his dog. The police then come and take his body/investigate the crime scene, eventually clearing all evidence of the event by the end of the day. We follow this story going backwards. Structure: We follow the story moving backwards, starting at 11:30, when everything is cleared, moving backwards through time till the beginning where the man lands on the car. This structure works well for the story as the most intense part is the beginning and so by moving backwards in time, we build up the tension. Representation: Although not obvious, the representation here is of the dramatic lengths that people will go to to escape their own countries, commenting on a hot political top...

Operator (2015) Dir. Caroline Bartleet Narrative: The film is about a operator for the fire service, and follows her through a 999 call made by a mother who woke up to find a fire in her house and her child stuck up stairs. The film is very intense throughout and is a glimpse into a side of the emergency services which are glanced over. Structure: It has a linear structure and follows the one phone call from start to finish. In the beginning there are some establishing shots of the call centre. You can argue that it could actually be a cyclic structure as at the end she answers another call and it start over again. Representation: The representation within this film is for the hidden faces of the emergency services, and brings light to how big a part they actually play in helping people in danger, by helping them to keep calm and instructing them what to do. Micro Elements: The film is relatively simple. The majority of the film is close ups of the operators ...

Tight Jeans (2008) Dir. Destiny Ekharaga Watch the film! Narrative: The film is about three black teenage friends, who are chatting while waiting for their friend. While they are chatting one of the characters starts a long ambitious story about his take on the history of slavery after they see an emo guy wearing tight jeans (roll credits). Structure: It has a linear structure. There are no jumps in time within the film and the film is just one long conversation from start to finish. Representation: Director Destiny Ekharaga said she wanted to show a representation of black youth that was not negative or derogatory, so to help give them the positive representation in media they deserve. Micro Elements: The film is very simple technically. At the beginning we have some establishing shots of a market with some music playing in the background. When the friends are chatting the camera simply pans left and right slowly. And when the two other men ...

Echo (2011) Dir. Lewis Arnold Narrative: The story follows a teenage girl, Caroline, as she re-lives a phone call where she finds out her dad has been in a severe accident, which she performs in public to get the attention and money off of strangers on the street. There are three phone calls within the film. During the first one we are observing her from a distance as an objective observer, as if we were a member of the crowd around her. At this point we don't know whether she is being honest or not. Throughout the film we discover more about her personal life and her character. From this we can see that Caroline feels isolated and does not believe that the other members of her family are grieving, when really they all are but in different ways. Caroline's failure to see this means she pushes them away and uses re-living the phone calls as equal parts a coping mechanism, as well as self-harm. Structure: The structure of the film revolves around three p...