Film

Advice on choosing a topic in film

- Look for an area that really interests and engages you - you're going to dig deep into your topic and read and watch a lot of material around it for several weeks...

- Make sure the scope of your topic will comfortably fit around 3-4 films max. so the scope is neither too broad nor too narrow. We will advise you here.

- Your topic must have a film focus to it i.e. you will analyse through genre or another film theory, via film production techniques or the cinematic style and influence of a film movement.

- Find an area of film history or theory that is off the beaten track or outside your cultural 'comfort zone' i.e. avoid contemporary Hollywood mainstream

- Your research question should have an explicit comparative element to ensure you will do more than simply describe a film movement or a director's work

- Ensure that the topic has been covered by some academic research to support or to counterclaim your arguments. So many new releases fall outside of this description

- Look for a topic that connects powerfully with cultural context eg post-9/11 genre so that your study has some kind of significance beyond a microscopic analysis of a camera or lighting technique

- Read through some exemplary film EEs from previous years to get a sense of what an excellent film EE looks like - look particularly for how the arguments are structured around a film-focused topic.

Advice on research in film

- Mindmap how you will break the topic down into manageable sections - then how you intend to compare and contrast to ensure an analytical/evaluative quality to the study

- Break your research into a wish-list of primary (key films, director/producer interviews) and secondary sources (credible academic sources or authoritative film critics)

- Use Jstor as your first port of call for sources. Learn to read abstract or extract to gauge whether a text will be helpful to you. Keep a record of your search paths so you can retrace your steps - one text may lead to several others which are even more relevant

- Bookmark and keyword search film pages from credible news websites such as NY Times, The Guardian, BBC, LA Times as well as academic film sites or online journals such as sensesofcinema.com

- Avoid trivial fan sites or blogs which are very likely to contain factual errors - unless of course you are actually studying the fanfiction web 2.0 area of film audience response

- Download and save images that will support your arguments in the body of the essay

- Keep a continuously updated list of sources for your bibliography and to ensure comprehensive academic sourcing of any reference - academic honesty is paramount!

Advice on write-up in film

- Read through some exemplary film EEs from previous years to get a sense of the register and layout of the essay

- Plan extensively before writing - as you would for a TOK or History essay - don't wing it!

- Have a well sketched-out idea of what you will say in your conclusion to ensure your points in the body of the essay cohere and are leading logically towards this.

- Ensure before writing that your points are equally balanced between the films you are analysing.

- Make sure to incorporate visual evidence (screen shots, floor plans, lighting set-ups, graphics) into the body of your essay (expected in a film EE) and that you reference these images in your writing - don't just throw in images for the sake of it. They should be correctly referenced fig. 1 etc and briefly captioned.

- Use a formal academic style and make sure to use correct (and correctly spelled) film terminology throughout.