AHSS*1070 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Berkeley Art Museum And Pacific Film Archive, British Film Institute
Chapter 3: Writing about Film
Introduction
-Casual and avid film buffs access a wide array of film writing through: blogs, zines, film-related
sites on the internet, newspaper and magazine reviews
-Goals for write about film in an academic setting:
1. appreciate the medium’s social significance
2. artistic potential
3. diversity of forms
4. transform spectator from passive fan to actively engaged participant
Getting Started
1. Keep a film journal - keep track of viewing experiences including factual information, keep track
of impressions while screening film
2. Formulate a thesis through: exploration of significance of a scene, illustrate changes an
important character undergoes explore film’s primary emotional or psychological conflict,
discuss use of a stylistic device as it develops a theme, explain how a film explores a particular
cultural phenomenon
Four Types of Film Writing
1. The Scene Analysis
-academic exercise designed to help students identify narrative, visual and sound
elements at detailed level in one scene
-connects details to broader patterns of development in the film (such as ideas, themes,
character development)
-analysis relies heavily on descriptive statements
-evaluative claims mostly irrelevant
2. The Film Analysis
-formulates interpretative claim about a film as a whole
-traces ideas + specific techniques that support interpretation by examining entire film
-requires students to develop a thesis about a film and then isolate passages from the
film that illustrate that thesis
-evaluative claims mostly irrelevant
3. The Research Paper
-designed to help students develop important academic skills in research
-one way to join an ongoing conversation about a film conducted by film scholars and
enthusiasts
-respectable sources critical to research paper
-academic journals or books, as well as primary materials, used more frequently than
popular magazines
-archival research involves locating primary materials related to a film and analyzing and
reporting their significance
-websites as a resource suspect to inaccuracy, outdated, non-academic
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Casual and avid film buffs access a wide array of film writing through: blogs, zines, film-related sites on the internet, newspaper and magazine reviews. Goals for write about film in an academic setting: appreciate the medium"s social significance, artistic potential, diversity of forms, transform spectator from passive fan to actively engaged participant. Websites as a resource suspect to inaccuracy, outdated, non-academic. Research may be culled from: published scholarship, secondary sources. director"s notes, internal studio memos, contemporary press materials, private correspondence. Black film archive at indiana university, british film institute (bfi) national film, George eastman house, library of congress motion picture and television. Reading room, margaret herrick library at the academy of motion picture arts and sciences, the museum of modern art, national center for film and video. Presentation (the american film institute),the new york public library, pacific. Film archive, university of california at los angeles (ucla), university of.
