IB Group 6 · The Arts
Film
2023 syllabus · Second edition
A four-area core syllabus — exploring film production roles, reading film, contextualizing film and, at HL, collaboratively producing film — feeding four assessment tasks. No films are prescribed beyond the annual list of ten, so the examinable content is the guide’s own terminology plus every task requirement and criterion, each on its own card with its exact limits and marks.
A1. A1 Core syllabus
The four taught areas and the terminology the guide prescribes for each, the vocabulary every assessment task is written in.
FIA1.1 — The course and its cycle
FIA1.1.1 · The four core syllabus areas — The film syllabus consists of four core areas: exploring film production roles, reading film, contextualizing film, and, at HL only, collaboratively producing film.
FIA1.1.2 · Inquiry, action, reflection — The film course is intended to be taught through dynamic cycles of inquiry, action and reflection.
FIA2.1 — Exploring film production roles
FIA2.1.1 · What the area requires — Students explore various film production roles through engagement with all phases of the filmmaking process in order to fulfill their own filmmaker intentions.
FIA2.1.2 · The six film production roles — Students are required to experience working in a variety of film production roles: cinematographer, director, editor, sound, writer, and one other clearly defined role.
FIA2.1.3 · Filmmaker intentions — Filmmaker intentions are specific aims that students formulate in order to guide their work in each chosen film production role.
FIA3.1 — Reading film
FIA3.1.1 · What the area requires — Students examine film as an art form, studying a broad range of film texts from a variety of cultural contexts and analysing how film elements combine to convey meaning.
FIA3.1.2 · Film elements — Film elements is an umbrella term covering factors broadly associated with film language, formalist film analysis and vocabulary pertaining to the creation and reception of film texts.
FIA3.1.3 · Cultural context — Cultural context refers to the conditions that influence and are influenced by culture, and appears in both the taught syllabus and the assessment tasks.
FIA4.1 — Contextualizing film
FIA4.1.1 · What the area requires — Students explore the evolution of film across time, space and culture, examining areas of film focus in order to recognize similarities and differences between films from contrasting cultural contexts.
FIA4.1.2 · Areas of film focus — Film focus is an umbrella term for the frameworks that exist to help understand and categorize films in order to identify connections, links and relationships between them.
FIA4.1.3 · Culture across time and space — For this course, culture is defined as learned and shared beliefs, values, interests, attitudes, products and all patterns of behaviour created by society.
FIA5.1 — Collaboratively producing film
FIA5.1.1 · What the area requires — HL students focus on the collaborative aspects of filmmaking and experience working in core production teams in order to fulfill shared artistic intentions.
FIA5.1.2 · Core production teams — A core production team is a group of students fully responsible for defining the scope of original completed films and ensuring all creative and logistical aspects of pre-production, production and post-production are carried out successfully.
B1. B1 Internal assessment
The film portfolio: the one task both levels share, and the only internally assessed component.
FIB1.1 — Film portfolio
FIB1.1.1 · What the task is — Students undertake a variety of filmmaking exercises in three film production roles, led by clearly defined filmmaker intentions, and create at least one completed film.
FIB1.1.2 · Formal requirements — Each student submits portfolio pages (9 pages maximum: 3 pages maximum per film production role) with a list of sources, and a film reel (9 minutes maximum: 3 minutes maximum per role).
FIB1.1.3 · Choosing the three roles — Students must work in three discrete film production roles selected from the prescribed list.
FIB1.1.4 · The inquiry, action, reflection process — Students undertake a defined process of inquiry, action and reflection to generate the portfolio.
FIB1.1.5 · Gathering evidence — During the two-year course students must participate in a variety of original production activities in their three chosen roles in order to generate numerous clips of evidence.
FIB1.1.6 · Structuring the portfolio pages — The portfolio pages present an edited collection of key learning experiences showcasing intentions, approach, planning work and development of skills.
FIB1.1.7 · Structuring the film reel — The film reel is submitted as one single video file containing three chapters, one for each discrete film production role.
FIB1.1.8 · Non-original materials — Students are expected to be the creators of the vast majority of audio-visual materials, but may submit some non-original materials where deemed necessary by their filmmaker intentions.
FIB1.1.9 · Working with others, and ethics — Students may work independently or collaboratively, subject to strict rules on who may participate and what content is permitted.
FIB1.1.10 · Criterion A: Portfolio pages — To what extent does the student evaluate how their research, creative explorations and production work, led by filmmaker intentions, have shaped their understanding of the chosen film production role?
FIB1.1.11 · Criterion B: Film reel — To what extent does the student demonstrate skills in the chosen film production role?
C1. C1 Assessment tasks
Textual analysis, comparative study and, at HL, the collaborative film project, plus the rules that govern every submission.
FIC1.1 — Textual analysis
FIC1.1.1 · What the task is — Students demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of how meaning is constructed in film through a written analysis of a prescribed film text based on a chosen extract.
FIC1.1.2 · The prescribed film list and choosing a text — The IB releases a prescribed list of 10 films each year, valid for two years for each individual year group.
FIC1.1.3 · Formal requirements — Each student submits a written textual analysis of 1,750 words maximum and a list of all sources used.
FIC1.1.4 · The extract and the process — Each student identifies an extract of up to five minutes that must be a single, continuous sequence of the film.
FIC1.1.5 · Supporting visual material — Students may use carefully selected and relevant illustrations such as screen-grabs, visuals or annotated diagrams.
FIC1.1.6 · Criterion A: Cultural context — With reference to research from appropriate sources, to what extent does the student demonstrate an understanding of the cultural context of the film text?
FIC1.1.7 · Criterion B: Film elements — To what extent does the student evaluate how the extract makes use of film elements to convey meaning, supported by the appropriate use of film vocabulary?
FIC1.1.8 · Criterion C: Relationships within the film text — To what extent does the student demonstrate an understanding of how the cultural context and film elements relate to each other, and how film elements relate to the film text as a whole?
FIC2.1 — Comparative study
FIC2.1.1 · What the task is — Students carry out research into a chosen area of film focus, identifying and comparing two films from within that area and presenting their discoveries as a recorded multimedia comparative study.
FIC2.1.2 · The three task components — Each student identifies, selects and researches one area of film focus, two films for comparison, and a clearly defined topic.
FIC2.1.3 · The recorded commentary — The comparative study must contain a recording of the student’s voice throughout.
FIC2.1.4 · Audio-visual material and copyright — On-screen text, keynote slides, still images, animations, audio recordings and relevant clips from the selected films are all permitted.
FIC2.1.5 · Criterion A: Task components — To what extent does the student justify the choice of task components, demonstrate knowledge of them and the cultural context of the two films, and support the work with relevant sources?
FIC2.1.6 · Criterion B: Comparing and contrasting — To what extent does the student make connections between the two films and the chosen topic, make observations regarding similarities and differences, and support the work with accurate film vocabulary?
FIC2.1.7 · Criterion C: Assembling the comparative study — To what extent is the study organized with attention to balance between the two films and the logical communication of ideas, and how effectively are audio-visual elements integrated?
FIC3.1 — Collaborative film project
FIC3.1.1 · What the task is — HL students work collaboratively in a core production team to plan and create an original completed film, each writing a project report on their one film production role and their collaboration.
FIC3.1.2 · The core production team — Students work in core production teams of two to four students from within the school community, each taking one discrete film production role.
FIC3.1.3 · Formal requirements and the black slate — Each student submits a completed cover sheet, a completed film of 7 minutes maximum, and a project report of 2,000 words maximum with a list of sources.
FIC3.1.4 · Structuring the project report — The project report is a written account of the student’s involvement, ordered under two headings given equal weight.
FIC3.1.5 · Non-original materials and music — Students are expected to be the creators of all audio-visual materials: the submitted film must not contain any non-original materials.
FIC3.1.6 · Criterion A: Demonstration of skills — To what extent does the student demonstrate skills in their one chosen film production role that successfully contribute to the overall effectiveness of the completed film?
FIC3.1.7 · Criterion B: Justification of creative work — To what extent does the student justify the creative choices made in order to convey meaning in their one film production role during the production phases?
FIC3.1.8 · Criterion C: Reflection on collaboration — To what extent does the student reflect on the successes and challenges of participation in the core production team?
FIC4.1 — Rules across the tasks
FIC4.1.1 · The assessment model — Students complete three tasks at SL and four at HL, with different weightings at each level.
FIC4.1.2 · Limits, anonymity and appendices — Where submitted materials exceed the maximum limits, examiners and moderators will only assess the work that falls within the prescribed limits.
FIC4.1.3 · No reuse across tasks — Films, extracts and production work used in one assessment task may not be reused in another, nor in the extended essay.
FIC4.1.4 · Academic honesty and the teacher’s role — All sources must be acknowledged following the protocol of the referencing style chosen by the school, and teachers must authenticate all work.
D1. D1 Study resources
A teacher-curated collection of external film resources, mapped onto the guide’s own terminology, with a clear warning about what it predates.
FID1.1 — Using the resources binder
FID1.1.1 · What the collection is — A large teacher-curated LiveBinder of DP film resources, organised into roughly 27 tabs covering the course, its tasks, and the craft and context behind them.
FID1.1.2 · What it predates: check before you trust — The binder was built for the previous edition of the film course and its assessment rules are out of date in verifiable ways.
FID2.1 — Craft and vocabulary resources
FID2.1.1 · Film vocabulary and terminology — Glossaries, quizzes and reference sites for the technical and critical vocabulary the written tasks are marked on.
FID2.1.2 · Craft by production role — Deep tabs on cinematography, directing, editing, sound and scriptwriting, each with technique explainers and worked examples.
FID2.1.3 · Production paperwork — Shot lists, shooting schedules, call sheets, shot and production logs, release forms and role-specific templates.
FID3.1 — Contextualizing resources
FID3.1.1 · Film movements — Overview surveys plus dedicated material on German expressionism, French New Wave, Italian neorealism, British New Wave, surrealism, Dogme 95 and others.
FID3.1.2 · Film genre and style — Genre theory plus extensive material on film noir, horror, science fiction, romantic comedy, wuxia, Southern gothic and subgenre classification.
FID3.1.3 · Film theory — Auteur, feminist, Marxist, formalist, realist, psychoanalytic, structuralist, genre and gender theory, including the male and female gaze.
FID4.1 — Directors and auteur study
FID4.1.1 · The directors tab — Around forty directors with video essays, interviews and technique breakdowns, from Hitchcock, Kubrick and Ozu to Cuarón, Waititi, Wong Kar-wai and Lulu Wang.
FID5.1 — Exemplars and worked examples
FID5.1.1 · Written task exemplars — Marked samples of textual analyses and comparative studies, plus scene-analysis models and topic banks.
FID5.1.2 · Production task exemplars — Marked film portfolios and collaborative films with reports, presented by production role.
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