Choosing the Question
The question for Section C in the FM4 exam is worth slightly less than the questions in Sections A and B - 30 marks instead of 35. It is therefore advisable to leave this question until last (if you find yourself running out of time, there are fewer marks to lose) and also to spend less time on it than you have for Sections A and B - roughly 45 minutes rather than 1 hour.
Timings and the order in which you answer the questions aside - what is most important is that you select the right question to answer. Unlike other units in the exam where you will have a choice of two questions, here you have a choice of three. Often I am quite specific about which question I would encourage the students to answer but with Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song I feel that you will have the opportunity to choose from all three.
Questions 17 and 18 are general questions that can be applied to any of the movies available for study for Section C, including Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. As such, they must be on topics that can be linked to such a diverse range of movies. Questions 17 and 18 are therefore very similar from year to year and we have a good idea of the subject areas that these questions will deal with, how the questions are worded and what is expected from the student. In many ways, these questions are the easiest to prepare for and limit the amount of information about Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song that you have to learn.
Question 17 will always ask you to discuss the movie in the context of a CRITICAL APPROACH, encouraging you to debate that relative usefulness of that critical approach in enhancing your understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. There are many critical approaches that could be fruitful in enhancing your appreciation of any film, though those best suited to the study of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song are genre, auteur, a social/political/cultural approach, gender, ethnicity and institution. Each of these will be dealt with on separate posts.
Question 18 will always ask you to discuss the CRITICAL RECEPTION of the movie - how it was received and judged at the time of release compared with how it is perceived today. Frequently there is a marked difference in current attitudes towards a film in comparison to those found upon initial release and you will be encouraged to explore the contextual reasons for any changes.
Here, you need to consider what journalists, theorists and film specialists (as well as fans) felt or feel about the movie - it will be essential to gather reviews, articles and features regarding the film from a variety of sources. I will have access to many but you will definitely find it useful to visit the British Film Institute at the National Film Theatre on the Southbank near Waterloo to gather articles.
There will also be a specific question on each of the films available for study (in the paper earlier in this post it is Q23). Often these questions are very specific and may be on an aspect of the film that you haven't really studied in extensive detail (above, it is about movement and sound in Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song). Often I would tell you to avoid this question unless the question is about a particular aspect of the film that you feel incredibly confident about. With this question the focus is almost entirely on the chosen film, whereas Questions 17 and 18 offer the opportunity to discuss other films in relation to Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song - such as other blaxploitation movies if you choose a genre critical approach, other movies by Melvin Van Peebles if you choose an auteur critical approach or a discussion of different critics' appraisals of the film if you choose the critical reception question.
With Question 17 in particular, this means that often half of the essay will be about supplementary films, relating elements of style, narrative structure, character types and mise-en-scene to the focus film, rather than writing exclusively about that focus film.
With Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song the specific question tends to focus on very similar areas from year to year and often cover areas similar to those studied for Critical Approaches and Critical Reception questions - as you will see when looking at the past papers on a future post. These have included the ways that perceptions of the film have changed, representations of gender, the film's messages and values, the experimental nature of the film, audience response, representations of race/ethnicity, and stylistic choices made by the filmmaker in relation to performance/movement and sound.
Ultimately, the choice of question is yours - make sure that you are prepared to answer questions on at least one critical approach, the critical reception of the film and various contexts such as political meaning, gender and ethnicity. By doing this you will cover all bases and will be able to use the scenes you have prepared for whichever question you choose.
Question 18 will always ask you to discuss the CRITICAL RECEPTION of the movie - how it was received and judged at the time of release compared with how it is perceived today. Frequently there is a marked difference in current attitudes towards a film in comparison to those found upon initial release and you will be encouraged to explore the contextual reasons for any changes.
Here, you need to consider what journalists, theorists and film specialists (as well as fans) felt or feel about the movie - it will be essential to gather reviews, articles and features regarding the film from a variety of sources. I will have access to many but you will definitely find it useful to visit the British Film Institute at the National Film Theatre on the Southbank near Waterloo to gather articles.
With Question 17 in particular, this means that often half of the essay will be about supplementary films, relating elements of style, narrative structure, character types and mise-en-scene to the focus film, rather than writing exclusively about that focus film.
With Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song the specific question tends to focus on very similar areas from year to year and often cover areas similar to those studied for Critical Approaches and Critical Reception questions - as you will see when looking at the past papers on a future post. These have included the ways that perceptions of the film have changed, representations of gender, the film's messages and values, the experimental nature of the film, audience response, representations of race/ethnicity, and stylistic choices made by the filmmaker in relation to performance/movement and sound.
Ultimately, the choice of question is yours - make sure that you are prepared to answer questions on at least one critical approach, the critical reception of the film and various contexts such as political meaning, gender and ethnicity. By doing this you will cover all bases and will be able to use the scenes you have prepared for whichever question you choose.
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