FILM ANALYSIS – A Brief Guide

DECONSTRUCTION & FORMAL ANALYSIS

A formal analysis of a film or films, what IB expects you to do, requires that the viewer breaks the film down into its
component parts and discusses how those parts contribute to the whole. Formal analysis can be understood as taking apart
a tractor in a field: you lay out the parts, try to understand the function and purpose of each, and then put them back
together. This si also called deconstruction.

In order to do a convincing formal analysis, you'll need to be familiar with certain key terms (outlined for you in the
“glossary of film terms handout” and each chapter overview). Returning to the tractor analogy: it's helpful to be able to
understand and to use terms like "carburetor" when you take a tractor apart - especially if you hope to explain your
process to an onlooker.

Think Beyond the Frame

So far, we've been advising you to consider the formal aspects of a film's composition. However, as we pointed out
earlier, you can write about film in several ways. Sometimes you will want to "think beyond the frame," and to consider
questions about how the film was made, its historical context, and so on.

For example, ask yourself: Who made the film? Find out who directed the film, and what other films this director
made. If you've seen some of these other films, you'll have a better understanding of the themes and genres that the
director is interested in.

What is the production history of the film? See if you can find out anything about the conditions under which the film
was made. Apocalypse Now, for example, has an interesting production history, in terms of its financing, casting, writing,
and so on. Knowing something about the film's production can help you to understand some of the aesthetic and
cinematic choices that the director has made.

What do the critics and scholars say? Reading what others have said about the film before you see it may help you to
focus your observations. If a film is particularly well known for the editing of a certain scene (the shower scene in
Hitchcock's Psycho, for example), you'll want to pay close attention to the editing when you view the film.

What can you learn from the film's genre? Before you see the film, think a bit about the norms and limitations of its
genre. When you view the film, you can then consider how these limitations are obeyed or stretched. For example, Clint
Eastwood's Unforgiven is a western that challenges its genre's typical notions of good guy vs. bad guy. Knowing how this
dynamic plays itself out in other westerns helps you to understand and to appreciate Eastwood's accomplishment.

Does the film reflect an interesting cultural phenomenon? Sometimes a professor will ask you to watch certain films
because he wants you to examine a cultural phenomenon - for example, the phenomenon of stardom. Accordingly, you
might watch The Scarlet Letter with the idea of viewing it as a "star vehicle," contributing to Demi Moore's star persona.
Note that this sort of paper may also be a discussion of formal analysis: for example, you might discuss how Demi Moore
was lit in certain scenes to emphasize her position as Hollywood star.

Cinematic techniques-general concepts

From: http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Cinematic_techniques

Cinematic techniques are methods employed by film makers to communicate meaning, entertain, and to
produce a particular emotional or psychological response in an audience. Cinematographic techniques
such as the choice of shot, and camera movement, can greatly influence the structure and meaning of a
film.

Distance of shot
The use of different shots can influence the meaning which an audience will interpret:
 Close-up: May be used to show tension;
 Extreme close-up: Focuses on a single facial feature, such as lips;
 Medium shot
 Long shot
 Establishing shot: Mainly used at a new location to give the audience a sense of locality.

Camera angles
These are used extensively to communicate meaning and emotion about characters:
 Low angle shot: Looking up at a character or object, often to instill fear or awe in the audience;
 Straight angle shot
 High angle shot: Looking down on a character, often to show vulnerability or weakness;
 Canted or Oblique: The camera is tilted to show the scene at an angle. This is used extensively in
the horror and science fiction genre. The audience will often not consciously realize the change.

Mise en scene
"Mise en scene" refers to what is colloquially known as "the Set", but is applied more generally to refer to
everything that is presented before the camera. With various techniques, film makers can use the Mise En
Scene to produce intended effects.

Movement and expression

Movement can be used extensively by film makers to make meaning. It is how a scene is put together to
produce an image. A famous example of this, which uses "dance" extensively to communicate meaning
and emotion, is the film, West Side Story.
Cinematography-specific teminology

Provided in this list of film techniques is a categorized (and then alphabetized) list of techniques used in
film (motion pictures).

Camera view, angle, movement, shot

 Aerial shot  Follow shot  Low-angle shot  Shot reverse

 American shot  Forced  Master shot shot
 Bird's eye shot perspective  Matte  Talking head
 Close up  Freeze frame  Medium shot  Tracking shot
 Crane shot shot  Pan shot  Trunk shot
 Dolly zoom  Full shot  Point of view  Two Shot
 Dutch angle  Head-on shot shot  Video frame
 Establishing shot  High-angle shot  Reaction shot  Whip pan
 "Evangelion"  Long shot  Sequence shot
shot  Long take  Shot

Lighting technique and aesthetics

 Background  High-key  Low-key  Rembrandt

lighting lighting lighting lighting
 Cameo lighting  Key lighting  Mood lighting  Stage lighting
 Fill light  Lens flare  Pool hall  Soft light
 Flood lighting lighting

Editing and transitional devices

 Cross cutting  Establishing  Point of view  Clock wipe

 Cutaway shot shot  Heart wipe
 Cut in  Flashback  Split screen  Matrix wipe
 Dissolve  Montage  Talking head  Star wipe
 Wipe

Special effects (FX)

 3-D film for movie history

 3-D computer graphics
 Bluescreen/Chroma key
 Bullet time
 Computer-generated imagery (CGI)
 Special effects
 Stop trick
 Stop motion
Lighting
In cinematography, the use of light can influence the meaning of a shot. For example, film
makers often portray villains that are heavily shadowed or veiled, using silhouette.
Techniques involving light include backlight (silhouette), and under-lighting (light across a
character form). Other aspects of Mise en Scene include:

 Costume
 Use of motif, and associated meaning;
 Use of color, and its emotional response; and
 Props

Sound

Sound is used extensively in filmmaking to enhance presentation, and is distinguished into

diegetic ("actual sound"), and non-diegetic sound.

Diegetic sound: It is any sound where the source is visible on the screen, or is implied to be
present by the action of the film:

 Voices of characters;
 Sounds made by objects in the story; and
 Music, represented as coming from instruments in the story space.
 Music coming from reproduction devices such as record players, radios, tape players etc.

Non-diegetic sound: Also called "commentary sound", it is sound which is represented as

coming from a source outside the story space, ie. its source is neither visible on the screen, nor
has been implied to be present in the action:

 Narrator's commentary;
 Voice of God;
 Sound effect which is added for dramatic effect;
 Mood music; and
 Film Score

Non-diegetic sound plays a big role in creating atmosphere and mood within a film.

Sound effects
In motion picture and television production, a sound effect is a sound recorded and presented to
make a specific storytelling or creative point, without the use of dialogue or music. The term
often refers to a process, applied to a recording, without necessarily referring to the recording
itself. In professional motion picture and television production, the segregations between
recordings of dialogue, music, and sound effects can be quite distinct, and it is important to
understand that in such contexts, dialogue and music recordings are never referred to as sound
effects, though the processes applied to them, such as reverberation or flanging, often are.

Techniques in interactive movies

New techniques currently being developed in interactive movies, introduce an extra dimension
into the experience of viewing movies, by allowing the viewer to change the course of the movie.
In traditional linear movies, the author can carefully construct the plot, roles, and characters to
achieve a specific effect on the audience. Interactivity, however, introduces non-linearity into the
movie, such that the author no longer has complete control over the story, but must now share
control with the viewer. There is an inevitable trade-off between the desire of the viewer for
freedom to experience the movie in different ways, and the desire of the author to employ
specialized techniques to control the presentation of the story. Computer technology is required to
create the illusion of freedom for the viewer, while providing familiar, as well as, new cinematic
techniques to the author.

Film Theory

Film theory debates the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for
understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large.
Like traditional literature, critical theories also apply to films. Here are some theories specifically
built around film, and discussions of traditional ones as they relate to film. All information here
is from: <http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Film_theory>. Please feel free to investigate on
your own.

Apparatus theory
Apparatus theory, derived in part from Marxist film theory, semiotics, and
psychoanalysis, was a dominant theory within cinema studies during the 1970s. It
maintains that cinema is by nature ideological because its mechanics of representation are
ideological. Its mechanics of representation include the camera and editing. The central
position of the spectator within the perspective of the composition is also ideological.

Apparatus theory also argues that cinema maintains the dominant ideology of the culture
within the viewer. Ideology is not imposed on cinema, but is part of its nature.

Auteur theory
In film criticism, the 1950s-era auteur theory holds that a director's films reflects that
director's personal creative vision, as if he or she were the primary "auteur" (the French
word for 'author'). In some cases, film producers are considered to have a similar "auteur"
role for films that they have produced.

Auteur theory has had a major impact on film criticism ever since it was advocated by
film director and film critic François Truffaut in 1954. "Auteurism" is the method of
analyzing films based on this theory or, alternately, the characteristics of a director's work
that makes her or him an auteur. Both the auteur theory and the auteurism method of film
analysis are frequently associated with the French New Wave and the film critics who
wrote for the influential French film review periodical Cahiers du cinéma.

Feminist film theory

(Also extended to gender theory which looks at either or both genders and their function, or
portrayal in film.)
Feminist film theory is theoretical work within film criticism which is derived from
feminist politics and feminist theory. Feminists have taken many different approaches to
the analysis of cinema. These include discussions of the function of women characters in
particular film narratives or in particular genres, such as film noir, where a woman
character can often be seen to embody a subversive sexuality that is dangerous to men
and is ultimately punished with death.
 In considering the way that films are put together, many feminist film critics have pointed
to the "male gaze" that predominates in classical Hollywood filmmaking. Laura Mulvey's
essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" gave one of the most widely influential
versions of this argument. This argument holds that through the use of various film
techniques, such as the point of view shot, a typical film's viewer becomes aligned with
the point of view of its male protagonist. Notably, women function as objects of this gaze
far more often than as proxies for the spectator.

Formalist Film theory

Formalism, at its most general, considers the synthesis (or lack of synthesis) of the
multiple elements of film production, and the effects, emotional and intellectual, of that
synthesis and of the individual elements. For example, let's take the single element of
editing. A formalist might study how standard Hollywood "continuity editing" creates a
more comforting effect and non-continuity or jump-cut editing might become more
disconcerting or volatile.

Or one might consider the synthesis of several elements, such as editing, shot
composition, and music. The shoot-out that ends Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western
"Dollars" trilogy is a valid example of how these elements work together to produce an
effect: The shot selection goes from very wide to very close and tense; the length of shots
decreases as the sequence progresses towards its end; the music builds. All of these
elements, in combination rather than individually, create tension.

Formalism is unique in that it embraces both ideological and auteurist branches of

criticism. In both these cases, the common denominator for Formalist criticism is style.

Psychoanalytical film theory

The concepts of psychoanalysis have been applied to films in various ways. However, the
1970s and 1980s saw the development of theory that took concepts developed by the
French psychoanalyst and writer Jacques Lacan and applied them to the experience of
watching a film.
The film viewer is seen as the subject of a "gaze" that is largely "constructed" by the film
itself, where what is on screen becomes the object of that subject's desire.

The viewing subject may be offered particular identifications (usually with a leading
male character) from which to watch. The theory stresses the subject's longing for a
completeness which the film may appear to offer through identification with an image; in
fact, according to Lacanian theory, identification with the image is never anything but an
illusion and the subject is always split simply by virtue of coming into existence.

Screen theory
Screen theory is a Marxist film theory associated with the British journal Screen in the
1970s. The theoreticians of this approach -- Colin MacCabe, Stephen Heath or Laura
Mulvey -- describe the "cinematic apparatus" as a version of Althusser's Ideological State
Apparatus (ISA). According to screen theory, it is the spectacle that creates the spectator
and not the other way round. The fact that the subject is created and subjected at the same
time by the narrative on screen is masked by the apparent realism of the communicated
content.

Socialist realism
 For other meanings of the term realism, see realism (disambiguation).
Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style of realistic art which has as its purpose
the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism. Although related, it should not
be confused with social realism, a type of art that realistically depicts subjects of social
concern.

Structuralist film theory

The structuralist film theory emphasizes how films convey meaning through the use of
codes and conventions not dissimilar to the way languages are used to construct meaning
in communication.

An example of this is understanding how the simple combination of shots can create an
additional idea: the blank expression on a man's face, a piece of cake, and then back to
the man's face. While nothing in this sequence literally expresses hunger—or desire—the
juxtaposition of the images convey that meaning to the audience.

Unraveling this additional meaning can become quite complex. Lighting, angle, shot
duration, juxtaposition, cultural context, and a wide array of other elements can actively
reinforce or undermine a sequence's meaning.

Resources

Online resources (you may have best luck when searching the web or databases, if
you search for “motion pictures.”)

Analyzing and Writing about Film

 Google has a good links page to film theory and criticism
http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Movies/Theory_and_Criticism/
 Google’s links to Online Journals:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Movies/Theory_and_Criticism/Journals/
 Yale’s film analysis guide: http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/
 Watching and writing about film:
http://faculty.roosevelt.edu/putnam/392/Film/1.htm
 A Checklist for analyzing movies:
http://www.kenney-mencher.com/a_checklist_for_analyzing_movies.htm
 Dartmouth’s page on writing about film:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/humanities/film.shtml

Movie information and scripts

 The Internet Movie Database, lists movies, actors, directors, etc. Good place to
find background and technical information on films: http://www.imdb.com
 SimplyScripts - links to hundreds of free, downloadable scripts:
http://www.simplyscripts.com/
 Drew’s Script-O-Rama: http://www.script-o-rama.com/
 Movie Scripts Archive: http://www.mooviees.com/all/scripts
 The Movie Turf (Scripts):
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/9371/scriptlist1.htm

Sample criticism/writings
 Good sample with visuals so that you can see how a film analysis is developed
http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/
 A good sample critical article about Land of the Dead from the Film Journal
http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue13/landofthedead.html