Film Integration of film techniques and thematic issues

Students will draw numbers randomly to determine which order they will choose what scene/film comparison they will write on (for option A, each scene will run between 5 & 20 continuous minutes of film time) and then analyze the thematic and technical aspects of that continuous section of film. This is a lottery system, so you may not get your first choice. The basis of the choices will be from films shown in class. Option A) Some basic questions to answer for this option are: What are the most important elements in the scene? How does this scene relate to the thematic issues addressed the entire film? How do the visual elements help define the themes in the scene? Are the technical elements unique to this scene or are they part of a contiguous style throughout the film?" The analysis should cover the key thematic issues elicited by the film and how each film treats those issues? Are they similar? Are the oppositional to one another? How? What do these films attempt to do with the material they present? How are these films stylistically different? What specific elements are used, and how are they used, that conveys a similarity or difference? LENGTH OF ESSAY: 6-10 pages. (see below for writing instructions)

Your analysis will be divided into two parts:

1. Begin the essay by analyzing the scene in its context within the overall film. How does the scene focus our understanding on a character or his/her conflicts? What ideas about the film's theme are conveyed in that scene? How does the scene logically follow what came before it or set up what comes after it? What is climactic about the action in the key scene? Make sure you provide sufficient analysis of the meaning of this section of film before you turn to the technical considerations below.

2. Analyze the effectiveness of THREE categories of film study (see below) as they relate to that key scene. Make sure that you demonstrate that these technical considerations complement and otherwise support the thematic ideas at work in this segment of the film. The point of this assignment is to show the way in which theme and technique are integrated in film study.

You can analyze all 3 of the primary category elements OR choose 2 from the primary category and 1 from the secondary category to analyze.

PRIMARY CATEGORY

1. COMPOSITION & CINEMATOGRAPHY incorporates all aspects of composition, including camera angles, symbolic areas of the frame, character proxemics, staging directions, and character movement. Also cinematography, which refers to all judgments made by the director of photography, in consultation with the director--including reasons for lighting shots certain ways, and metaphors associated with camera movement (tracking shots, pan shots, tilt shots).

2. EDITING incorporates montage, parallel editing, symbolic or conventional uses of editing.

3. SOUND includes all external/internal sound and especially the use of music to support images in various scenes; the types of musical elements; the creative use of ambient sound.

SECONDARY CATEGORY

1. ACTING refers to an assessment of how actors contribute to our response to an understanding of characters and themes.

2. SCREENPLAY Refers to the quality of the dialogue, the way characters were developed through the structure of scenes, the believability and integrity of conflicts, the effectiveness of plotting, the imaginative use of parallel structures (of scene or sequences), and any other structural components of the film--as guided by the screenwriter's skills.