Embedded Files
Film provides an understanding of the self, culture, and humanity through the exchange of viewpoints. From initial pitches to the final edit, students develop creativity, self-management, and collaboration through the filmmaking process. By understanding how to analyze, create, and shape films, students learn how to express their personal identities, explore diverse perspectives, and create change in the world. By becoming savvy consumers and creators of this modern media art, students can critically examine the societal effects of film and how they can harness this power to unite people and promote peace.
Course Aims
Course Aims
Work by Grade 9 Film student, 2024-25
Promote an understanding and appreciation of how identity informs storytelling
Explore the impact of cultural context on filmmakers, films, and genres and develop a lifelong appreciation of film
Understand and collaboratively employ cinematic techniques to impact an audience
Empower students to develop their own voice in film to creatively communicate their personal perspective and culture and reflect on their filmmaking process
Foster interdisciplinary use of film skills to create change in the local, national, and global community
Develop critical thinking and research skills through individual presentations and written analysis of films to learn from the process of master filmmakers
Course Outline
Course Outline
The Grade 9 and 10 Film Courses facilitate understanding of the filmmaking process through the study of film production, theory and history. Students will examine the key concepts of mise-en-scéne, the production cycle, narrative, authorship, and viewership. Students will then be able to draw links between the creative intention of each filmmaker’s role, how filmmakers create meaning, and how the audience as spectators, create a new meaning from the finished film. By becoming critical consumers of film, students are able to create and appreciate the connections between film, their other subjects, and the media they consume.
G9 Course: Filmmaking and Analysis
G9 Course: Filmmaking and Analysis
Mise-en-Scéne
How do we communicate in the language of film?The Production Cycle
Film is collaborative by nature. How do filmmakers collaborate to create a film?Storytelling
How do filmmakers use narrative to create a film's storyworld?Story Structure
How does structure of a narrative inform audience expectation?
Work by Grade 9 Film student, 2024-25
Work by Grade 9 Film student, 2024-25
G10 Course: Directing the Frame and Creating the Storyworld
G10 Course: Directing the Frame and Creating the Storyworld
Genre Theory
Genre as cultural memories. Have you ever wondered why we as an audience identify certain films as Horror, Drama, or Comedy? Genre theory helps us categorize films and reveals more about cultural norms than we realize.
10G Dystopian Video Essay - Ezra.mp4Genre Deep-Dive, Horror
Vampires, werewolves, and ghosts. How is the Horror genre a form of myth-making? Fear is a universal emotion, one that can reflect our cultural values. How do horror films address our deepest anxieties about life and the nature of being human? How do the great filmmakers create suspense? We'll examine Hitchcock's directing style and compare how modern filmmakers like Jordan Peele transcend the Horror genre. Since the start of Film as an art form, the Horror genre has been there, expanding on the rich literary history of gothic novels like Frankenstein, The Vampyre, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, all the while evolving with time and culture into modern Horror films like Get Out, and Us. We will explore what makes up the Horror genre film. Is the Horror genre only monsters and slasher films?Auteur Theory and Film Style
Who gets to be an auteur, what makes an auteur, can only directors become auteurs? One look at Studio Binder's list of Auteur Directors and you will notice that there are no female directors and only one director of color, Spike Lee. Not only that, but their list specifically only acknowledges the Director as the author of a film, creating is narrow definition of the collaborative art form of Filmmaking and Auteur Theory. We'll explore Auteur Theory, and its problematic history, and demystify the auteur to analyze how a writer, editor, director, and even an actor can be an auteur. After all, the Mission Impossible franchise wouldn't be the Mission Impossible franchise without Tom Cruise.Multi-genre Films and Modern Storytelling
Over a hundred years of filmmaking, and millennia of storytelling, have taught us one thing: there is no one way to tell a story, no one plot that will unlock an Academy Award. But, we have learned that mixing genres can make for great films. Why has the multi-genre film become the norm of modern storytelling? We'll explore multi-genre films and analyze why some genres seem to go together, and in the process start the creative process of subverting genre.G10 Exhibition
Grade 10 learners will curate their work made in the G9/10 UWC Film program and exhibit their work to the UWCSEA East public at the High School Library. This exhibition is meant as a celebration of the films they have created in the UWCSEA East Film Program. Click here to view the May '24 G10 Exhibition press packets and films.
Skills developed
Skills developed
Creative thinking and problem-solving
The production cycle
Thoughtful communication
3-point lighting
Non-linear editing
Sound design
Storytelling
Presentation skills
Directing
Camera blocking
Grade 9 students exploring lighting and cinematography, 2023-24
Grade 9 students documenting their creative process, 2022-23
Work by Grade 9 Film student, 2022-23
Assessment
Assessment
Students will create a film journal comprising various collaborative and individual projects completed throughout the course. This film journal demonstrates the student's understanding of their filmmaker's intentions, along with reflections on challenges and achievements, feedback, critical analysis of films and sequences watched, short cinematic experiments, and film projects. Film is collaborative by nature, and students will have the opportunity to collaborate with peers in most units, though formal assessments will be predominantly individually assessed.
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