Learning from FS1 coursework (formal components of editing and sound, movement and POV) and from FS2 (Producers and Audiences) should inform your responses in this exam.
Note the allocation of marks: more marks are given to Section A.
What to do:
Spend 10 minutes reading the questions. Take notes on what the question is asking and which Assessment Criteria (below) will be addressed. How will you structure your answer? Make sure you are answering the question - not simply saying all you know about that (or even another!) topic.
Assessment Criteria:
AS3 Identify messages & values through the
study of representation in
British & Irish cinema.
AS4 Show understanding through ...
the textual study of film.
Using your time wisely.
You can tackle the questions in any order you wish. BUT you should give 45 minutes to writing your answer to Section A and 35 to Section B. Watch the clock - put your watch on the table in front of you.
When the time is up for that Section - whether you have finished that question or not (and this is most important) - leave a space and start the next Section - use all of the allocated time for that section writing your response to your chosen question.
FINALLY
If you run out of things to say for your second question - and only if - then you can return to the space you left after your first question and finish it. But only if there is time. If there is no time then do not fret - you might jot down a few words to say what you would have said.
The key to this paper is Representation.
You must consider how aspects of national life are formally constructed (through character, story type, social issues, theme dealt with etc.).
Are they symptoms of national attitudes and values specific to a place at a particular time?
Or are these forms led by genre conventions of Hollywood (star, colour, music - the conventional pleasures of cinema)? How? Give specific example - use your FS1 knowledge of form here.
Are national values conveyed? Do they communicate to audiences through locations, character type, subject matter? Again, specific examples - use key sequences for Section B.
Who gets represented and why?
How does gender, race, class or age get played out? Who is missing from this? Who is given power? Who is ignored? What does this say about the values of the time?
How does this affect message and values? Or as Alfie asks, "What's it all about?"
