Students put the focus on movies

Work is well under way on the creative course work for Year 12 film studies students at the Duchess's Community High School, Alnwick, writes Gabriel Brown.
Brought to you by the Northumberland Gazette.Brought to you by the Northumberland Gazette.
Brought to you by the Northumberland Gazette.

While the first half is the written analysis of a film extract in terms of cinematography or sound, the creative part is where students really get excited.

Students have the opportunity to create either an extended step outline representing five to eight scenes, a photographed storyboard of between 10 and 25 shots or, the most popular option, creating a film sequence/short film.

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What has been allowed this year is the making a full film – whereas before students had been restrictued to about four minutes as a maximum.

The full short film will be watched by the class. Students are marked on both their created piece and a reflective analysis on their short film, which can be presented as writing, a web-based format such as a blog, or even a DVD commentary.

The variety of the films groups are making is certainly an achievement in itself, especially since it is hard to come up with good material in the film nowadays.

A group consisting of myself and fellow students Brad Aaron Hedley and Ethan Henderson are creating a short film based around the tragic lives of three teenagers who meet and party to forget their troubles, before waking up to find out the world is about to end due to a meteor strike.

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Another film, by Ewan Wilkes, focuses on the struggle and eventual agreement between a teacher and student. He said he decided to do this ‘afer watching many teen movies from 80s director John Hughes’.

We all look forward to seeing each other’s projects and seeing how they are all graded.