Short Guide to Writing about Film

Description

Features

• Concise explorations of the most important approaches to film analysis and writing about film, including auteurs, genres, ideology, kinds of formalism, and national cinemas, give students a quick course in the fundamentals for film theory.
• A range of film terms and topics, including mise-en-scéne, point-of-view, composition, realism, and so on, are introduced, so students understand and use correct terminology.
• Each chapter concludes with short writing exercises that help students view, evaluate, and write about film more critically.
• Guidance on working with electronic sources helps students understand the limitations and pitfalls of electronic research.
• A comprehensive Glossary allows students to accurately describe their observations of the details of film practice.
• A wealth of images features captions with pedagogical directions.

New to this Edition

• New discussions of animation and 3-D technology recognize the increasing importance of these two approaches to film-neither one new, but both dramatically enhanced by contemporary technologies-and offer guidelines for considering these techniques critically when writing about film.
• Additional and revised resources for Internet research emphasize the importance of online sources and offer sites where clips and complete films can be downloaded or streamed.
• Expanded discussion of film narrative, sound, and adaptation helps clarify the many ways writers might engage these three critical topics as part of their critical thinking about film.
• A new section of recommended books for further study provides a brief, selective list of excellent texts for additional reading to help expand knowledge of film analysis, film history, and film theory.
• Revised exercises at the end of each chapter encourage students to engage with what they have just read and test their mastery of the material in each chapter.
• Updated examples and illustrations of recent films throughout provide fresh and current examples, in addition to the classic older films that remain a key part of this book.
• A continued emphasis on silent films and early cinema is enhanced in this edition so that this book, while clearly not a comprehensive history of film, nevertheless attends to important films and filmmakers traditionally considered outside the historical mainstream.

Table of Contents

Preface  

I.    Writing about the Movies  

Why Write about the Movies?  

Your Audience and the Aims of Film Criticism  

    The Screening Report  

    The Movie Review 

    The Theoretical Essay  

    The Critical Essay  

Opinion and Evaluation  

Exercises  

2-Beginning to Think, Preparing to Watch, and Starting to Write  

Subject Matter and Meaning  

Silent Dialogue: Talking Back to the Movies  

Taking Notes  

Visual Memory and Reflection  

Exercises  

3-Film Terms and Topics for Film Analysis and Writing 

Themes  

Film and the Other Arts 

    Narrative  

    Characters  

    Point of View  

    Comparative Essays  

Mise-en-Scène and Realism  

    Realism  

    Elements of Mise-en-Scène  

Composition and the Image  

    The Shot      

    The Edited Image  

Sound  

Sample Essay  

Exercises  

4-Six Approaches to Writing about Film  

Film History  

National Cinemas  

Genres  

Auteurs  

Kinds of Formalism  

Ideology  

Sample Essays  

Exercises  

The Right Words  

    Concrete Language  

    Denotation and Connotation  

    Tone  

    Repetitions and Clichés  

Effective Sentences  

    Economy  

    Varied Sentence Structures  

Coherent Paragraphs  

Introductory Paragraphs  

Concluding Paragraphs  

Revisions and Proofreading  

Checklist for Writing an Effective Essay  

Exercises  

How to Begin Research 

The Materials of Research  

    Primary Sources  

    Video, DVDs, and Digital Downloads  

    Scripts  

    Secondary Sources: Books, Indexes, Journals, and Electronic Sources  

Film Research on the Internet  

Taking Notes on Secondary Sources  

Writing the Paper  

Sample Essays  

Exercises 

Manuscript Copy  

Last-Minute Corrections  

Quotations  

Acknowledging Sources

    Common Knowledge 

Documenting Sources  

    Notes for Documentation  

    Works Cited 

    Notes Supplying Additional Commentary  

Common Conventions of Usage  

    Names  

    Titles  

    Foreign Words and Quotation Marks  

    Sexist Language  

    Spelling 

Last Words  

Appendix: Symbols Commonly Used In Marking Papers  

Glossary of Film Terms  

Works Cited 

Credits  

Index