Film Industries: From Wales to Hollywood

What Film Industries: From Wales to Hollywood covers

Film Industries: From Wales to Hollywood is examined in AS Unit 1, Investigating the Media. It covers film language: camerawork, mise-en-scène, editing and sound, genre codes, iconography and Neale's repertoire of elements, narrative construction and Todorov's equilibrium, film production and funding in Wales, co-productions, festivals and national cinema, Hollywood ownership, vertical integration and diversification, distribution, marketing and exhibition in a digital age, regulation of film in the United Kingdom and the BBFC, film audiences: targeting, positioning and reception, Don't Knock Twice and Drag Me To Hell, Submarine and Clueless, The Machine and Blade Runner, Y Llyfrgell/The Library Suicides and Shutter Island and Yr Ymadawiad/The Passing and The Village.

The 14 subtopics

Each one has its own page. WJEC AS Media Studies students sit this topic in the first year.

• Film language: camerawork, mise-en-scène, editing and soundShot distance, effect of a high-angle shot on a character and effect of a low-angle shot on a character.Open →
• Genre codes, iconography and Neale's repertoire of elementsGenre in film, steve Neale and neale's idea of a repertoire of elements.Open →
• Narrative construction and Todorov's equilibriumFive stages of Todorov's narrative model, linear narrative and effect of a flashback on the audience's understanding.Open →
• Film production and funding in WalesNational development body for film in Wales, economic benefit of an inward production filming in Wales and independently distributed film.Open →
• Co-productions, festivals and national cinemaFilm co-production, national cinema and difficulty of deciding a film's nationality.Open →
• Hollywood ownership, vertical integration and diversificationVertical integration in the film industry, horizontal integration and diversification in a media conglomerate.Open →
• Distribution, marketing and exhibition in a digital ageWide release, platform release and prints and advertising spend.Open →
• Regulation of film in the United Kingdom and the BBFCBoard's main age categories for cinema release, how the Board decides where a film's category boundary lies and challenge that online distribution poses for film regulation.Open →
• Film audiences: targeting, positioning and receptionWhat is meant by targeting an audience for a film, four-quadrant film and how a film positions its audience.Open →
• Don't Knock Twice and Drag Me To HellWhy the horror genre suits low-budget film production and what comparing these two films shows about the two industries.Open →
• Submarine and CluelessRecall questions on the directors, sources and protagonists of both films, the conventions of the coming-of-age film, voice-over and the audience's relationship with the protagonist, Submarine's Welsh coastal setting, Clueless and costume, and what the pairing shows about national cinema against Hollywood.Open →
• The Machine and Blade RunnerTwo iconographic elements of science fiction present in both films, how a low-budget science fiction film creates a future world and what the case of Blade Runner shows about release windows.Open →
• Y Llyfrgell/The Library Suicides and Shutter IslandTwo conventions of the psychological thriller used by both films, how a confined setting works in the psychological thriller and what an unreliable narrative does to the audience's position.Open →
• Yr Ymadawiad/The Passing and The VillageRecall questions on the directors and premises of both films, the conventions of rural and folk horror, landscape as a character, the twist ending and its risk, the effect of the Welsh language, marketing a film whose premise cannot be revealed, and the single remote location as a budget decision.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Film Industries: From Wales to Hollywood further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• National cinema vs Co-production

  National cinema: the body of films a country makes as an expression of its own culture. Co-production: a single film financed jointly by companies from more than one country.

• Iconography vs Mise-en-scène

  Iconography: the recurring imagery by which a whole genre is recognised. Mise-en-scène: everything arranged inside the frame of one particular shot.

• Equilibrium vs New equilibrium

  Equilibrium: the settled state before the story's problem appears. New equilibrium: the changed order the characters reach after acting on it.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is meant by shot distance?

   Model answer

   Shot distance is how much of the subject the frame contains, from an extreme long shot showing a whole landscape to an extreme close-up filling the frame with one detail.

2. 2

   Explain the effect of a high-angle shot on a character.

   Model answer

   A high angle looks down on a character and makes them appear small, vulnerable or under observation.

3. 3

   Explain the effect of a low-angle shot on a character.

   Model answer

   A low angle looks up at a character and makes them appear dominant, threatening or powerful.

4. 4

   What is a point-of-view shot?

   Model answer

   A point-of-view shot shows what a character is looking at from approximately their position, which aligns the audience with that character's experience.

5. 5

   How does a film's mise-en-scène establish its world in the opening minutes?

   Model answer

   Location, period detail, costume, lighting and colour tell the audience where and when they are and what kind of film this is before the plot has started.

6. 6

   Explain how a location can carry meaning in a film.

   Model answer

   A location brings its own history and associations, so a derelict farmhouse, a national library or a rain-soaked city street contributes meaning before any character speaks.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Film Industries: From Wales to Hollywood revision questions

Is Film Industries: From Wales to Hollywood examined at AS in WJEC Media Studies?

Yes. It sits in AS Unit 1, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.

What does Film Industries: From Wales to Hollywood cover in WJEC AS-Level Media Studies?

14 subtopics: film language: camerawork, mise-en-scène, editing and sound, genre codes, iconography and neale's repertoire of elements, narrative construction and todorov's equilibrium, film production and funding in wales, co-productions, festivals and national cinema, hollywood ownership, vertical integration and diversification, distribution, marketing and exhibition in a digital age, regulation of film in the united kingdom and the bbfc, film audiences: targeting, positioning and reception, don't knock twice and drag me to hell, submarine and clueless, the machine and blade runner, y llyfrgell/the library suicides and shutter island and yr ymadawiad/the passing and the village. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Film Industries: From Wales to Hollywood organised?

By the WJEC 603-1976-8 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.