Looking at Movies
Active vs. Passive Viewing
• What is the difference between passively
watching a movie and actively looking at a
movie?
• What is the benefit to being an active viewer?
• Movies shape the way we see the world, and
movies can tell us much about the society that
created them.
What is a Movie?
• What is the difference between the terms
‘movie,’ ‘film’ and ‘cinema’?
• One characteristic all films share is narrative.
• Narrative exists when a sequence of images is
employed in a cause-and-effect arrangement.
• Films are constructed from a series of still
images or shots.
• These shots are then joined or edited to
control what and how the viewer sees.
• How does cinema differ from live theatre in
terms of controlling the audience’s eye?
Ways of Looking at Movies
• Formal Analysis
• Cultural Analysis
Formal Analysis
• Breaking down a scene or entire movie to
identify the tools and techniques used.
• Identify the effect these tools and techniques
have on the audience.
Formal Analysis – Cinematic Language
Some examples…
• “Invisibility”
• Fade-out / Fade-in
• Low-angle Shot
• Cutting on Action
Example 2 Fade Out Fade In - YouTube
Citizen Kane - Low Angle Shot - YouTube
Video Assignment: Match Action - YouTube "The Limey" Peter Fonda's Death
Scenes
• How do theses effects affect the audience?
Cultural Analysis
• “Cultural Invisibility”
– Appealing to shared belief systems
– The status quo
– The illusion of being controversial or provocative
• Implicit Meaning
– Below the surface of the movie
– An association, connection, inference
– Based on the explicit meaning
– An interpretation of the events – something
arguable
• Viewer Expectations
– Influencing factors: friends, reviews, previews,
commercials…
– Assumptions: genre, director, actors…
– Your interpretation of a movie is affected by how
your expectations are manipulated by the movie
– Name a movie you went to see where your
expectations were not fulfilled. What was your
reaction?
• Approaches to Cultural analysis
– Feminism
– Marxism
– Post-colonialism
– Existentialism
– Specific social issues