Examples of Exam Questions
Exemplars
excellence
merit
achieved
not achieved
Question: Describe at least one idea that you thought was important in the text. Explain how visual/oral language features were used to show you the idea was important.
Breakdown of Detail based on excellence exemplar |
from NZQA website
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Clearly identify the idea in the intro-duction |
Schindler’s list is another cinematic masterpiece from World famed director Stephen Spielberg. The movie is based upon the great actions of a great man, Oskar Schindler and his successful attempts to save thousands of Jewish lives during the Holocaust. A main idea of the movie is to show how horrific the Holocaust was, how awful the mass extermination of six million Jews was. Stephen Spielberg emphasizes the images right before your eyes through his use of supremely effective visual and oral techniques, including colour, music and dialogue.
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central idea:
Horrific holocaust lists techniques of
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Explain the film technique and the intended effectProvide specific examples and discuss the technique |
Firstly is the use of colour. Colour is a simple and extremely versatile technique and yet is an integral part of any film. Schindler’s List is no exception, in fact colour has been used in a unique way in the film because the whole movie is produced in black and white which gives it the atmosphere of the time however there is a little girl in the move wearing a red coat walking round in the liquidation scene where all the Jews are getting forcefully evicted from the Krakow Ghetto. This colour links the girl as not just a girl but a symbol of the Jews. The next time we see her, she is dead, being wheeled towards a mountain of burning bodies. This use of colour helps to emphasize the idea of horror by linking the Nazi atrocities to this one innocent girl; she is the light of the Jews, snuffed out. In my opinion this unique use of colour binds a strong relationship between the viewer and the Jews and makes the crimes against her even more inhumane, it’s like the Jews are an old friend murdered.
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Jews forceful eviction
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Link specific film techniques
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The next technique is the use of music. Have you ever tried watching a movie with no music? All impact is lost which reinforces the importance of music as a technique. During the exhumation scene a sombre funeral dirge plays in the background as the bodies of thousands of dead Jews, including the little girl in red are being wheeled to the mountain of fire. “We have to get rid of everything, down to the last handkerchief” says Amon Goeth, General of the Plaszow Camp. In my opinion, the funeral music creates a mood where all the atrocities committed are thrown into sharp relief. The whole of the Holocaust and the armies corrupted well up inside, the mixture of emotion, anger, sadness, horrific amazement all brought back into focus.
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exhumation
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Reassert the central idea again in the conclusion |
Finally is the verbal technique of dialogue. Words can save lives and this comes so true in this movie as Schindler’s words saved thousands. When Schindler finally decides to save his Jews with the “What is a life worth to you?” These words signify one man’s ambitions, his life in one sentence. This technique though not directly but subtly shows how awful the holocaust was in fact if looked into deeper these words form the basis of the Nazi vision. They took away the Jews’ humanity, Nazi Germany ceased to see them as people but as objects, objects best to be killed, even sold. In my opinion the dialogue in this movie is absolutely effective and emphasises the horrors of the Holocaust.
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repeated central idea (reworded)
horrific holocaust technique - verbal dialogue |