The Writing Center Guide to Writing about Film

Film has been called "the most hybrid of art forms" at least in part because it is simultaneously a medium of time and space. Many of the terms and ways of thinking that you use in writing about literature, however, can apply as well to writing about film.


If it is possible, try to see the film you will be analyzing more than once, preferably on a VCR that will allow you to freeze individual frames. If you can only view the film in a theater, prepare for the experience by thinking about some of the points listed below; immediately after watching the movie, take notes on as many details as you can remember.

As in writing about literature, generate a manageable topic (one that is not too broad), considering perhaps what is most striking, unusual or effective about the film. Analyze key sequences as they apply to your thesis, developing and supporting an argument.


Some Questions to Consider When Writing About Film

  1. What is the relationship between the film and its title? Is the title ironic? Does it provide a clue to the "meaning" of the film?

  2. How is the plot constructed? Is it based on causality, or is it episodic? Can you detect a pattern of repetition or contrast? Is there a vividly marked turning point or climax?

  3. What is the relation between story-time and discourse (film)-time? Are the events presented chronologically? What functions do any flashbacks or foreshadowings fulfill? How does the time sequence contribute to mood (suspenseful, satiric, etc.)?

  4. Do the main characters develop during the course of the film? What are their traits and how are they conveyed? (You might look at names, speech, actions, costumes, makeup and narration.) Is behavior motivated, consistent? Are the characters "realistic" or caricatured?

  5. What is the function of the setting and decor (location, sets, props, costumes)? How do they contribute to the mood of the film?

  6. How do the point of view (omniscient, limited, reliable, consistent) and the cinematic/visual style complement each other?


Cinematic Elements to "Read" in a Film

  1. Camera movement (tracking, panning), camera angle, camera distance (far shot, medium shot, closeup).

  2. "Photography" (lenses, deep focus, filters, film speed, intentional under- or over- exposure).

  3. Lighting (artificial or natural, intensity, direction).

  4. Framing/composition (shape of objects in the shot and their relation to each other and to the frame). Is emotional distance between characters expressed through composition?

  5. Sound track (voice-over, noise, music).

  6. Editing/montage (length of shots, rhythm, relationship of one shot to the next).

  7. Transitions (dissolve, fade in/out, iris in/out, wipe).


Just as a screenplay goes through several rewrites, the draft of your essay needs to go through several revisions. What editing is to film, revising is to writing. Remember that Charlie Chaplin's shooting ratio was 100:1; in other words, in the edited versions of his films, he used only one per cent of the footage he had shot.

(Much of the above information adapted from The Elements of Writing about Literature and Film by McMahan, Funk, and Day.)


Useful Sources on Film and Writing

Chatman, Seymour. Story and Discourse. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1978.

Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing about Film. Glenview: Scott, Foresman, 1989.

Jorgens, J. Jack. Shakespeare on Film. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1977.

Kawin, Bruce F. How Movies Work. New York: Macmillan, 1987.

McMahan, Elizabeth, Robert Funk and Susan Day. The Elements of Writing about Literature and Film. New York: Macmillan, 1988.

Mast, Gerald. Film Cinema Movie. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1977.

Mast, Gerald, and Marshall Cohen, eds. Film Theory and Criticism. New York: Oxford UP, 1985.



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