Film analysis is an assignment that students get excited about – before they don’t. When you’re given the task to write an analysis of a movie as homework, you’ll probably think: “Well, this will be so much fun. Who doesn’t love watching movies?” The reality is, watching a movie for fun and watching it for your class at school are not at all the same!
Soon after you get assigned this task, you’ll start thinking about what to write about, what to focus on, and how much to disclose about the movie. This makes film analysis one of the toughest academic assignments today. But, don’t worry. We can help you learn how to write film analyses that will impress your college professors!
Don’t Know How to Write Film Analysis? Here are Some Tips!
There’s a lot to pay attention to when writing an analysis of a movie. Other tasks assigned to you in your course are nothing like this. When given the task to analyze a movie, the student is expected not only to watch the movie and ramble about it. You need to watch it with utmost focus, find the smallest details, look at the big picture, and create a great piece without disclosing too much. Here is how to do this.
Use a Film Analysis Example for Inspiration
The best tip you can ever get for writing this assignment is to read a film analysis example of high quality – or a few of them. There are some quality, free essays on movies at eduzaurus that can help you greatly in this. By reading quality free essay samples, you will learn what this paper should look like, how much you need to disclose, as well as how to structure your paper. Examples are a perfect way to learn how to approach this topic, and you should start reading them before you watch the movies. This way, you’ll know what to focus on when you press ‘play’.
Decide on the Analysis Type
There are a few different types of analysis you can perform in your paper, and these determine your reviewing angle. Here is what you can choose from:
- Cultural analysis. Also known as contextual analysis, this method digs deeper than the surface of the movie. The idea is to research and discuss the cultural context, political agenda, and social context behind the movie, not just its plot.
- Narrative analysis. This type of analysis examines the narrative structure, the plot of the film, its characters, and their motives. Basically, you’d be answering: who, where, and what.
- Semiotic analysis. The semiotic approach discusses the hidden meanings behind the symbols in the movie. If you’re watching a movie with rich symbolism, this might just be the best way to approach it.
- Mise-en-scene analysis. Lastly, this approach focuses on the lighting, background, soundtrack, and other visual and audio elements. It’s not just about noticing them and writing about them – it’s also about discussing their meaning and how they fit the plot and support it.
Follow a Very Specific Structure
Unlike most academic papers, your film analysis is not an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Here is what you need to include in it:
- The Introduction
The film analysis’s introduction includes fundamental information about what you were watching. In this part, you’ll introduce the title, the name of the director, its release date, etc. You might want to include some background information too, as well as a hook to make the reader interested in learning more about the film.
- The Summary
Now, this is the interesting part – you summarize the movie as part of the body of your paper. When you present the main facts and introduce them, it’s time to delve deeper into it. Depending on what type of analysis you chose, you’ll summarize the details related to it – but not discuss them just yet.
The idea is to share the things you found without oversharing. Assume that the reader hasn’t seen the movie, so don’t add spoilers to your writing. Write about the who, what, where, when, why, or/and how.
- The Analysis
This is the most important part of your essay, the critical analysis you have for the film and your impressions of it. Every impression you share should be supported by claims, quotes, and other relevant material.
In this part, analyze things like the scenario, directing, visual elements, musical elements, as well as acting.
- Conclusion
The conclusion is similar to that of essays. In it, re-state your thesis and summarize the concepts, and perhaps add another incentive or a quote to convince the reader to play the movie right away.
Writing a film analysis can be fun if you know what to focus on and how to approach it. Hopefully, this guide helped you master this part.