KHS IB FILM

The independent study is a research paper written in the style of a documentary. You are to pick a film related topic and research two (SL) to four (HL) films that explore that topic. You will use examples from your films/ analyze selections from your films as evidence of your topic.  Again, you write the paper as if you are producing a documentary film. You will be the narrator and you will write it in two column format. 

Good Topics are ones like "The Role of Diegetic sound in Romance movies" or "Horror Movies and Editing Tricks that Scare Us!" Stay away from topics that encourage you to spend all your effort on philosophical ideas that are hard to anaylze cinematically. 

"How not to Suck at the Independent Study"

http://blogs.osc-ib.com/2013/09/ib-teacher-blogs/dp_film/not-sucking-at-the-independent-study/

The oral presentation is where you really put your film analysis skills to the test. You will be required to speak for up to 15 minutes, analyzing a five minute selection of a film. Your presentation will be recorded and sent to IB for grading. Your teacher will give you three films from an IB list, and you will choose one of those films to analyze (just a five minute excerpt of the film, like one scene). You will need to thoughtfully analyze the scene through Mise en Scene. You can construct your presentation in any fashion, but you need to include these things:

            Director's intent: What was the director trying to achieve through certain shots, lighting, sound? What was their vision or what meaning  was he/she trying to get across to the audience?

           Sociocultural Context: What was happening in the world at the time this movie was made that could influence it? Was anything happening in the film industry in terms of styles, trends, technology, etc.

           Genre: How does it fit into its genre? What specific examples from the 5 minute excerpt can you point to that symbolize the genre? Can you think of correlations between it and other films from the same genre?

            Reason for Selecting the 5 minute Excerpt: Why did you choose this five minutes? 

            Relationship Between the Excerpt and the Film as a Whole:  How does these five minutes relate cinematically to the rest of the movie? Can you point to other areas in the movie where the Director uses the same music or lighting? Does it foreshadow another moment in the movie? Maybe it is the only flashback within the movie?

           Critic/Audience Response (HL2): What was audience and critic response to this movie? Find specific quotes from well known critics or magazine articles.

Your Production Portfolio is 50 percent of you IB grade. It includes a short film, a rationale,a commentary, and for HL2's a trailer.  Here is a description of this assessment.

You will need 4 months at least to properly produce your film. So, there is no time to spare! Here is a generalized schedule for your group to follow. By Christmas you should have production finished and should be handing the film over to the editor and sound designer.

Look Below to find some examples of forms your group should be creating at you start preproduction. It is important for the success of your film to create the preproduction paperwork. Also in your commentary you will be expected to provide examples of these documents.