TMAS

The most important aspect here is to start getting into readiness for the Project - although the first two TMAs are standard OU format you will be very accustomed to by now. You are led down a path - told to read this or that and asked to think about x or y. Then you have to demonstrate that you have done the reading, grasped the facts and arguments and can deploy them in your own words to address a particular question.

Starting with TMA3 you have to decide what is the appropriate reading and set yourself the question - you 'fly solo'

I would expect that you can get a high pass 2 for the first two TMAs without going beyond the course material (but very unlikely a pass 1). BUT even if you are not aiming for the heady heights of a pass 1 you must do further reading for TMA3 and of course the Project - so try to start doing that right from TMA1.

As you go through the Study Guide Tony Aldgate gives lots of hints on what might be an area for a Project - so don't wait until TMA4 to think about what your Project topic will be - and start that Research Diary.

And don't forget the audio cassettes - they are quite 'easy listening' but very informative - try to relate them to the video I recommend Typically British

If you attempt the censorship question, do try to read ahead to the second part of the Study Guide where the case of Peeping Tom is discussed. On the video Typically British you should find the trailer for Room at the Top.

If you attempt the New Wave question I would ask you to think how New Wavey was Room at the Top? As with my introduction - consider who were the producers (look up Romulus Films and Remus Films on IMDB), who was the director, who were the stars - what had they done before or after that was so NW?

Do select your film sticking very clearly to the period and to BOT approved 'British' films - see comments in introduction

The Corrigan book is useful now for visual analysis and a grasp of auteur and genre theory. Also the Pam Cook's The Cinema Book has a good section on 'Auteur Theory and British Cinema' pages 264-282

Here you really 'fly solo' - so just be certain to provide all that is listed in the TMA & Project Guide.

Markswise this is hardly worth considering - BUT this is the TMA where you should get the most valuable feedback - so add questions and problems that worry you. And do share them on the OUSA A420 FirstClass conference and/or your own self help group.

There are basically two types of projects - one that is academically based on texts and the other on field work - interviews. archives (such as the BFI's Special Collections or Mass Obsevation at University of Sussex or PRO and local record offices). The second is more challenging but can achieve the highest marks for originality and research skills.

Here is a short list of some Project titles that obtained a Distinction - so it might guide you on how to formulate your title (or topic). By the way do not be put off by thinking 'oh, that's been done before' - books still get written on Shakespeare - so why not on New Wave?

From 'New Wave' women to Sixties Swingers: the representation of women and conflict between men and women in British films in the early and late '60s

Sixties in the Cinema : A Machereyan structuralist study of the (mis)representation of class in the British 'New Wave'