Essay Student: Microsoft Word and Cinematic Elements

Submitted By Christina125
Words: 563
Pages: 3
Open Document
English 1102
Dr. Weedman

CINEMATIC ANALYSIS ESSAY (1,500+ words—20%)

In order to successfully complete this multimodal essay, you must develop your own unique and interesting interpretation of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, which is supported by a close visual analysis of the film’s cinematic elements. Your goal in this essay is to show how Hitchcock and his collaborators use the technical language of cinema to both construct a narrative and make an artistic or social statement.

* You need to consider how the film’s cinematic elements (for example, editing, lighting, camera movement, costuming, music, production design, etc.) convey a significant idea or theme.

* Make sure that you closely analyze, at least, two to three specific scenes from the film to back up your assertions.

* You must also include, at least, two screen captures from the film that provide strong visual evidence of your observations.

How to analyze a film? 1. | Watch or re-watch your film with specific questions in mind. | 2. | Marshal basic ideas, names, and scenes. Depending on the complexity of film, this requires additional viewings. | 3. | Identify and consider most important ideas. | 4. | Return to the film to locate specific scenes and cinematic elements related to the major ideas. |

Principles of analyzing a scene

1. | Offer a thesis or topic sentence indicating a basic observation or assertion about the film or scene. | 2. | Offer a context for the scene without offering too much summary, but enough to where the reader knows what is occurring at that moment in the film. | 3. | Provide specific evidence (for example, quote a specific line, or include a screen capture). | 4. | Then follow this example with some combination of the following elements: | | * Discuss what happens in the scene and why it is significant to the work as a whole. | | * Consider both what is explicitly shown and what is implicitly conveyed. Make sure to consider the subtleties of the cinematic elements and the ideas expressed. | | * Assess how it is shown or conveyed, considering how the image/sound choice, the ordering of ideas, etc. contribute to the meaning of the scene. | | * Explain what it means, tying your analysis of the scene and its
Show More

Related Documents: Essay Student: Microsoft Word and Cinematic Elements

Independent Study Guide

schools rising. Others claim that GCSEs have got easier. Whatever the reasons, it is true to say that many schools have become exceptionally good at preparing their students to pass GCSE examinations and The Nottingham Bluecoat School is no exception. The other side of this coin is that the leap from GCSEs to A Levels is as large as ever. Students who succeed in achieving their 5 higher grade passes aren’t necessarily well-prepared to tackle A Levels which are, by name and by nature, “Advanced”. GCSEs require…

Words 5145 - Pages 21