How to Analyze a Film Self-Directed

Outcomes Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to?

• Demonstrate a concrete understanding of the concepts, theories and language used in film studies.
• Communicate your thoughts and ideas about a film using a cinema studies based vernacular.
• Maximize your enjoyment at the movies by recognizing what makes the process of filmmaking completely unique from the other arts.
• Improve your screenwriting by learning how narratives are assembled and delivered to spectators by studying cinema?s master storytellers.
• Learn the distinctive styles and traits directors use to mark their films as unique products.
• Understand and apply film studies theories to write critical rhetorical essays.
• Write your own film critique as if you were a professional film reviewer.

Assessment Self-assessment will be acquired through each lesson?s quizzes, exercises, activities and essays. Each lesson will conclude with an essay assignment based upon the material learned and applied to that lesson`s screening. Upon completion of these essays, the student will gain a deep knowledge of the fundamental building blocks of cinema studies. NOTE: This is a self-directed course. Students will only receive instructor feedback on the final week?s essay. All students are encouraged to post their comments and ideas about the film?s we discuss and screen on our forum page. Course Outline How To Read a FilmLesson 1 Learn the specific language of the cinema, aspects like: mise-en-scene, close-up, tracking shot, establishing shot, jump-cut, framing and continuity editing. Compare the different styles and techniques that are available to filmmakers, for example: why some directors employ the long take and others use montage and rapid editing. Examine the foundations of the argument: is film art?The Elements of Narrative StructureLesson 2 Examine why societies and cultures from all over the world for the past century go to the movies and the importance of the story. Learn how narratives are put together in a traditional three-act structure. Distinguish the different ways that stories are delivered to spectators either through omniscient or restricted narration. Differentiate the conventions of Hollywood Cinema in contrast to Counter-Cultural Cinema. Deconstruct the complete narrative of Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994) in order to illustrate the cause and effect logic inherent in stories despite their linear structure.The Director as AuteurLesson 3 Learn the origin of the auteur policy by studying the writers and directors of The French New Wave. Examine why some directors are considered mere technicians and others considered artists. Compare arguments on whether a single person (usually the director) can actually be labeled as author of a film when hundreds of people are responsible for a film?s finished product. Understand the modern day auteur and what directors must do to make their distinctive mark on a film.Genre StudyLesson 4 Examine how genre study differs from auteur analysis. Determine what codes and signifiers are used to classify films into a certain genre: western, drama, comedy, horror, film noir, thriller, etc. Deconstruct the five phases of genre evolution using the film noir canon. Examine how and why filmmakers mix different genres in today?s Hollywood.The Reception of FilmLesson 5 Learn about the four functions of film reviewing: journalism, advertising, criticism and rhetoric. Examine how film critics use the four components of film reviewing: plot synopsis, background information, a set of abbreviated arguments about the film and an evaluation to write a standard film review by deconstructing a film review for the movie The Hours (Daldry, 2002). Assess how a film critic analyzes all the information they gather on a film to form a proper and clear evaluation by analyzing three different online film reviews for the movie Crash (Haggis, 2004). Contact Hours: 25