A Short Guide to Writing About Film

1
A Short Guide to Writing About Film

• Chapter 2
• Beginning to
• Think, Watch, and Write

2
What are you going to analyze?

• Characters?
• Technological innovations?
• Effect on audience?
• Auteur theory?
• Formal elements?
• Cinematography
• Lighting
• Art Direction

3
Movies Context

• Film, literature, music, dance, architecture
• Film industry and technology
• Cinerama
• IMAX
• The Matrix
• Film as commercial enterprises
• Usually requires more research
• Awareness of audience

4
Subject Matter Meaning

• Films not just about a story, character, a place
  or a way of life, but also about a way of seeing
  these elements in our live.
• Films are constructed according to certain forms
  and styles that arise from many historical
  influences.
• A confluence of art, technology, and commerce.

5
Starting an Analysis

• Look for key moments, patterns, or images
• Note which elements of the movie strike you as
  unfamiliar or perplexing
• Note which elements are repeated to emphasize a
  point or a perception

6
Starting an Analysis II

• What does the title mean to the story?
• Why does the movie start the way it does
• When was the film made?
• Why are the opening credits presented in such a
  manner against this particular background?
• Why does the film conclude on this image?

7
Starting an Analysis III

• How is this movie similar to or different from
  the movies I have seen recently or from those of
  an older generation?
• Does this film resemble any foreign films I know?
• Is there a pattern of striking camera movement,
  perhaps long shots or dissolves or abrupt
  transitions?
• Which three or four sequences are the most
  important?

8
Starting an Analysis IV

• Infinite variety of questions, but you must first
  learn to jot down information about props,
  costumes, camera positions, and so on, even
  during a first screening, and then choose the
  most telling evidence.

9
Taking Notes

• Look for dramatic moments or major themes
• Citizen Kanes Rosebud
• Mookie breaks the window of the pizzar parlor in
  Do the Right Thing
• What about Unforgiven or How the West Was Won?

10
Taking Notes II

• Cardinal rules
• Preliminary research
• Cant write everything
• Sooner the better
• Find a take
• Patience
• Discuss! Discuss!

11
Exercises

• Choose a single short sequence froma film and
  annotate it as precisely as you can. Describe
  those annotations in clear, precise prose. Are
  there any conclusions you can draw or
  interpretations you would make about the
  sequence? (See also Looking at Movies (211,
  214-216)