In this topic, students will:

• Explore a variety of film texts (including narrative, documentaries, television shows and shorts) that originate from various cultural contexts, gaining an understanding of how film elements combine to convey meaning.
• Research and respond to a variety of film texts, using both primary and secondary sources, identifying how the film texts are constructed and the ways in which choices in film elements convey meaning.
• Acquire and develop technical and critical film vocabulary to support their analysis.
• Experience discussing film sequences and film texts through a variety of key film concepts.
• Document their own interpretations of how meaning is constructed through film elements in film sequences and how these relate to the entire film texts from which they belong.
• Analyse and deconstruct a variety of film sequences and film texts, showing an awareness of the cultural contexts from which the film texts originate.
• Consider and link film elements and cultural contexts within film texts they have studied, as well as to other films they have experienced.
• Reflect on their analysis of film elements and film texts in both formal and informal presentations.
• Experience presenting work as a written textual analysis.

In Topic 1, students are required to explore the following films:

• The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966) - the showdown sequence
• Breathless (1960)—the drive through Paris sequence
• A recording of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and a profile of Zhang Yimou (b. 1951)
• Casablanca (1942)— the concluding airport sequence.
• The Age of Stupid (2009)
• Blancanieves (2012)
• Yojimbo (1961)
• Citizen Kane (1941)— opening sequence up to “News on the march”
• Run Lola Run (1998) or a film chosen by students.
• Bladerunner (1982)— extracts chosen by students.
• An episode from the Anatomy of a Scene series from the New York Times.