Summary A Level Film Studies Winter's Bone + Carol Complete A* Notes
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Course
FM1 - Exploring Film Form
Institution
WJEC
This is a complete set of A* Carol and Winter's Bone revision notes for WJEC Eduqas Film Studies A Level. The document is organised into the following format:
- WINTER'S BONE NOTES
- CAROL NOTES
- SPECTATORSHIP
- IDEOLOGY
- IDEOLOGOICAL APPROACH - SPECTATOR POSITIONING A* essay plan
, WINTER'S BONE
- Contemporary American Independent Film
- Director - Debra Granik
- Neo-realistic documentary-like style
- Adaptation of Daniel Woodrell’s book Winter’s Bone
- Quest narrative - protagonist on a journey to do or find something
- Thriller, Realism, Mystery
Jennifer Lawrence - Ree
Music by - Dickon Hinchliffe
Cinematography by - Michael McDonough
Social Context
- Rural poverty, lack of opportunity and low educational outcomes.
- Sense of separation from USA infrastructure.
- Secretive and inward-looking with an emphasis on family loyalty and kin-based on patriarchal power but
dependent on resilient women
- Meth production and addiction
- The reality of financial insecurity, domestic violence and mental illness
- Ozark is relatively isolated and has a distinctive local culture of language or music
Representations
- Typical representations of Ozark communities are focused on the comical simple ‘Hillbilly’ or as residents
of an alien and threatening space within America
- Typified by poverty and poor education the population of the Ozarks have often been represented through
their distinctive ‘otherness’ to the rest of the USA
- Ree is both a maternal figure to her siblings and the key active character who drives the narrative in her
quest to find her father.
- Supporting female roles offer a strong representation of women as resourceful, stoic and problem solvers
in the community who navigate male power.
FILM AIMS
- Go against the stereotypes, show a more dignified portrayal of the community
- Family unity, “I’m a dolly bred and buttered”
- Independent films are often designed to make you think about certain subjects or issues and feature
challenging storylines that are more realistic and less escapist than in-studio films
- Aligning spectator with ree, female perspective
- Preffered - aligning spectator with ree and female perspective, navigating thourhgh male power, emphasis
on family loyalty and sacrifices people have to make in order to maintain family.
- Negotiated - Different cultures may disagree with what is being done. Why do you have to show a negative
female is it that hard.
- Oppositional - alienated community in poverty and lack of eduction. Why is she able to weaken the men.
,PRODUCTION HISTORY
- Deborah Granik’s second feature film
- Down to the Bone (2005) also features strong central female leads, both feature characters struggling to
overcome personal obstacles.
- Difficulty financing the film
- Originally wanted around a $4 million budget, and found a single investor willing to give them $2 million.
Cinematography
- Highly expressive minimal aesthetic
- The mise-en- scène cuts between natural, open, observational images
- Heightened sense of the morbidness of everyday objects e.g bottles lined up to shoot, fragmented
close-ups of a rocking horse
- Close-ups and obtuse angles heighten the mood in a style reminiscent of Sergio Leone’s famous westerns.
- A generally cool colour palette with flashes of vibrant or more expressionist colour at points of high
emotion.
- Frequent use of long shots allows you to look at the landscape
- The use of selective focus allows for all kinds of rich details to emerge at the surface even when the
camera isn’t moving
EDITING
- Events in the film take place over one week
- Time is compressed in the first third, making it repetitive and real
- Later scenes mix dreams and impressionistic moments such as the dream sequence with the squirrels
and ravens. Black and white
- Some longer than average takes to provide authority
- Rapid editing in violent scenes such as Teardrop threatening Ree
MISE EN SCÈNE
- Local people cast in supporting roles
- Costumes sourced from real people - painted and sequined deer head or sweatshirt that Ree wears in
several key scenes
- A generally cool colour palette with flashes of vibrant or more expressionist colour at points of high
emotion.
- Real/found locations e.g. the burnt-out meth house was real
SOUND
- Limited non-diegetic sound to give a realist tone
- Extended periods of silence add to the sense of realism
- Music in a more conventional way to heighten emotion and tension and direct audience response
- Music consultant Marideth Sisco contributed six songs and appeared in the film
- Soundtrack and musical performances affirm and validate the lives of marginal characters
OPENING SEQUENCE
- SInging overrides the general ambience or sounds they were making
- Characters trapped by their circumstances composition offence in front of Ashlee
- Stormy sounds
, - Camera follows ree
- Ree is the first person to speak
- Close up on what tree is doing eg cutting potato, making food
- The fridge has two handprints on it?? Maybe ree is not there
- Radio in background
- She gives dog food twig obstructing camera someone watching,
- Water dripping foley sounds
- Ree and mother reflection in a cracked mirror - makes the connection between mothers broken sense of self
- Pans to reflecting
- No closeups on mother
- Composition ree in the middle when walking
- FIlmed through glass, emphasises that she can’t go to school, behind glass, outside looking in
- Baby in the background on desk
- Point of view shot with the door as a barrier to ree
- zooms into cadets show she is interested
-
CATTLE SCENE
- Yellow tone
- Gates between the camera and busy cattle
- Baseball caps
- Dominated by men who are above ree
- Camera angled above ree
- Above Milton
- Camera changes to a blue tone
- Ree above all the caged cattle
- Rees silhouette
- Ree pov
- Sound of ree shouting next to her
- See ree from below can hardly hear her
- Very dreamlike and disorientating
- Camera tracking ree
- Echo, covered by cow moos
- Thump Milton either long shot or out of focus medium close up
- Drum in background
- Ree runs from the right of the screen to left
- High key lighting hight exposure very dystopian
- Shouting thump Milton full name
- Music drama
- Cow mooing danger
- Fades out to all diegetic sound but built up danger
- Establishing shot
- Showing cows being sold
- Rees entrance
- A fair number of shots, cows, ree
- Music builds in volume and intensity as the sequence continues
- Discordant notes no melody
- Characters behind bars, cows behind bars
- Camera favours fencing
- Linking the cows who are being sold and butchered to ree
- Cows are going the same way to ree
- Blinding light
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