WRITING AN EXCELLENCE FILM ESSAY

Christine Wells

EXPLAIN HOW FILM TECHNIQUES HAVE HELPED YOU TO UNDERSTAND A CHARACTER.

Key words

Explain - describe and support your ideas with detail

Film techniques - camera work, costume, editing, lighting, symbolism and sound

Understand - what did realise or learn about the character? Link your understanding to the driving question

Character - which character will you write about? Choose a main character.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT THE CHARACTER?

What sort of person are they? What are they interested in?

What kind of relationships do they have?

How do they relate to others?

What challenges have they been faced with?

How did they over come those challenges?

How has the character changed during the course of the film?

What did they learn from their experiences?

CHOOSE 3 SCENES FROM THE FILM

View each scene and gather evidence to support the answers to the questions from the previous slide.

Your evidence could be: camera work, costume, editing, lighting, symbolism and sound.

CHOOSE 3 MAIN POINTS

From the information you have, choose the 3 main points that you will make in your essay.

Tip: choose what you have written the most about or what you feel you know the most about.

Style tip: Find a quote that links to your essay and the driving question to begin your essay with. This will go before the introduction and will be a hook for the reader to help gain their interest.

WRITE YOUR INTRODUCTIONInclude:

The name of the film, the year it was produced, and the director's name

The 3 main points - these will include the film techniques and a brief explanation of how they helped you to understand a character

The director's intention - a brief explanation of what the director wanted the viewer to learn from this film. You can link this to the driving question.

WRITE YOUR 3 BODY PARAGRAPHS

For each paragraph include:

Your point and a description of the scene which helps to illustrate the point

The film technique(s) and what it(they) showed you about the character

An explanation of what you learnt about the character from this film technique

A link to the driving question, the director's intention and/or the wider world.

Point

Example

Explanation

Link

CONCLUSION

Summarise the 3 main points

Explain what you have learnt overall from this character and/or the use of film techniques

Briefly explain what the director wanted the audience to learn from this film

Make a link to the driving question - this could be in the form of a rhetorical question.

PUBLISH ON YOUR BLOG

On your blog, publish the following:

The scene(s) you have used from YouTube

The specific shots you have analysed

Your essay!