Opinions about Film Studies IB

[Nena]

What do you do in Film Studies? Is it hard? I want to study film when i go to college but unluckily my school doesn't offer it for IB

What projects do you usually do? Short films and that kind of stuff?

Is the internal assesment practical? As in making a movie?

Thanks!!

[Berns099]

I beonged to the first IB Film class in my school. It was a very cool course, even though I think it is not structured correctly. (I think a subject like this one should have a written exam)

In Year 12, we studied film history and theory. We obviously covered film language, narrative theories, genre conventions and representation and did in-depth studies of Film Noir, Neo-Realism, French New Wave and Documentaries. We also did a couple of short films and started planning our Independent Study.

In Year 13, we finished our Independent Studies, filmed our Practical Projects and constantly did Mock presentations.

The course is assessed like this:

1. Independent Study (25%)

An investigation on any film topic of your choice, with close analysis of at least 4 films (2 at SL) from different cultures. It is structured like a documentary script. 15 pages long! I did mine on Coming of Ages in Fantasy and analysed Fanny and Alexander, The Wizard of Oz, Pan's Labyrinth and Spirited Away.

2. Practical Project (50%) (IA)

You make a 5-7min (HL) or 4-6min (SL) short film. You are assessed as director, writer, sound designer, editor or cinematographer. You also have to write a 1750 word explanation on the filmmaking process and your artistic and logistic decisions. Mine was a school drama based on the Greek myth of "Icarus". I was assessed for directing.

3. Oral Presentation (25%)

A 15 minute (10 mins at SL) oral commentary on a 5-min extract from a film (chosen by the IBO). The extract is examined in a broader sociohistorical context and in terms of the film as a whole. You need to discuss the various aspects of film theory that you learned in the course.

It's not a difficult course, but the courseworks are a lot of work.

[DartfordIB]

What do you do in Film Studies? Is it hard? I want to study film when i go to college but unluckily my school doesn't offer it for IB

What projects do you usually do? Short films and that kind of stuff?

Is the internal assesment practical? As in making a movie?

Thanks!!

Hey, I'm late, but this could be useful for anyone else who reads this.

I just finished the IB yesterday (hurrah!) and was in my school's first Film batch. I enjoyed it at times, loathed it at others, but I'm still on the fence about the merits of actually studying film as a way to get into it as opposed to actually just getting hands-on experience (I'd been doing a lot of film before the course, too.)

I did it differently to the first person who replied here: we did the Independent Study last, as we felt it would then have the best chances of incorporating everything we'd covered throughout the course, and it did. It's a lot of work, and it was good to do it later when we didn't have other coursework to worry about. As film has no written exam, the weeks spent revising for other subjects remain coursework lessons for film.

Our short film was a different take on the zombie genre, and we liked it. It was great fun, though our school was grossly under-equipped for editing. They didn't realise RM PCs wouldn't be nearly enough! Plus they were using some really old version of *squirm* Pinnacle. In the end, I had to edit at home, but it was a good excuse to fastrack the shiny new Mac my parents were going to help pay for!

Doing Film Studies kept me sane. It sounds menial, but having film viewing as a homework and lesson task really helped to break up the monotony of my other subjects. Plus, it's mostly an easy 7. Except in my case, as my school possibly wasn't prepared for some of what was required, I may only be getting a 6. My teachers still seem confident of a 7, though.

If you fancy watching our film, feel free: