Writing About Film

Read something on the Internet the other day. It was an article about writing about film. Here’s the lowdown.

There are 5 main types of film writing: formal analysis, film history, ideological papers, cultural studies, and discussion of the auteur. 

Film analysis concerns breaking down the film to it’s base components and, well, analyzing it. Concepts such as sound design, lighting, composition, and narrative structure are some of the things analysed.

Film history papers are about looking into the production history of the film, the challenges involved, the process of distribution and release, and the reactions of different audiences in different cultures, along with how the film made history in the context of film in general.

Ideological papers focus on analysis of the message the film was trying to give to the audience, and how it did so through the camerawork and sound design.

Cultural studies mainly look into the film’s importance to the culture it was made in. More specifically, how did the culture influence the FILM?

Lastly, discussion of the auteur focuses on the idea that one man and his vision created the film. This type of papers looks into this, and are used to understand broad concepts such as the theme of the film.

In the article, the author uses the phrase “think beyond the frame”. By this, the author means that when watching films we should focus on the things that go on in making it, like who the director was, what the development process was like, the genre, and how the film relates to cultural phenomena.