The Basics of How to Read a Film
Holly Blackford
Adapted from How to Read A Film

Films can be read like texts. Their images should be unpacked just as we would unpack the imagery in a written passage. Think carefully about how visual or aural tools enact, reshape, change, or critique an author's textual expressions. I recommend viewing more than one adaptation of a book because it is enlightening to see how different film artists approach the same text.

In addition to a film's plot, acting, genre, and sociopolitical/historical context, consider the following:

Framing:
What is in a shot? What is excluded? What is centered?

Depth of Focus:
What is in focus and what is blurry? Focus creates foreground and background; it can create relationships between objects and/or characters within the shot.

Size of Shot:
Is the shot wide or long, communicating vast space or depth? Is a figure miniaturized or featured in a close-up?

Camera Angle:
Linked with the shot's size, camera angle creates focal points. Is the camera looking upward, downward, or level? The figure in the shot is manipulated by the camera angle (aggrandized or diminished). Camera angle indicates point of view, much like the narrator. Is the camera acting as the eyes of the character (first person narration) or as the eyes of the audience (omniscient narrator)?

Lighting:
What is lit and what is not? Is the lighting harsh or soft? Are there shadows? What colors are highlighted? Light/shadow and color interact to produce psychological and symbolic effects.

Camera Movement:
How does the camera shift to change frame, depth of focus, the size of the shot, or the camera angel? Movement affects point of view and viewer equilibrium. It can be lyrical or turbulent, slow or fast-paced, disorienting or "grounded," creating psychological moods in the viewer.

Music:
Music adds important, yet often devalued, emotional components to film. Frequently certain characters will have musical themes and aural associations that can be made quite apart from the visual.

Scene Design:

  • Where is the scene? 
  • How is the scene constructed? 
  • DVD's and VCR's allow the viewer to pause and analyze the chosen props and objects within the scene, many of which are visual strategies the filmmaker employs to communicate with the viewer.
Editing:
  • What is the rhythm of the editing in a particular scene-long and lyrical, or short and clipped?
  •  Does the rhythm speed up or slow down? 
  • How are the scenes connected-by cutting, by dissolving, by fading, by blackout? Often one thing will dissolve into another, creating a symbolic link.
Miscellaneous:
  • Does the film use slow or fast motion at key moments? 
  • How do figures move within a frame (sometimes a character will take another's place, symbolically showing us that he/she is taking over the other's space)? 
  • What other sound effects are used? 
  • Is there a voiceover? 
  • Do things happen offstage? 
  • How does the film gesture to the author?

 

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