• Read all module content, the discussion instructions, and the rubric.
• Part 1: Watch one of the assigned films, identify three topics of the film, explain why the topics engaged you, and discuss their context. [Post here: 60+ words]
• Part 2: Use AI to learn more about the context for one of your film’s topics and explain that context in your own words. [Post here: 50+ words, plus documentation/disclosure and citations]
• Part 3: Create a working thesis and explain how your research on context informs your interpretation of the film and supports your thesis. [Post here: 100+ words, with the thesis in bold]
• Part 4: Thoughtfully respond to classmates’ posts [Replies: At least two classmates, 50+ words each]

Purpose

This discussion board invites you to engage with film as text and use AI in a responsible and meaningful way to learn about the larger topics, or context, presented in the text. Understanding the context surrounding your film is essential to its analysis and your essay later in the unit. Much like analyzing poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction, analyzing film utilizes the same skills of annotation and critical reading and thinking specifically as it relates to using the context of a text to identify greater significances or meanings within the
film.

*This discussion aligns with Learning Outcomes: 1, 3, 6, and 11.

Tasks

Part 1

Conduct a close “reading” of one of the texts (films) from this unit, making certain to choose one assigned by your instructor. Identify topics that stood out to you while watching the film. Explain why each of these topics engaged you and what context surrounds them–meaning, the outside information that helps you understand the topic more fully. A film’s context might include the historical and societal factors that would have an impact on a protagonist’s life and choices. [To review how to analyze context, see this reading from .]

• For example, in Tim Burtons film Alice in Wonderland, Alice, in a rebellious mood, removes her corset before attending an event. This is not only a comical moment within the film but one that is also tied to the film’s context, launching the film’s ongoing critique of social mandates regarding women’s clothing and behavior during the Victorian Era.

Be sure to identify three topics in the film and discuss their context (the real- or imaginary-world background or circumstances that help explain their meaning) in no less than 60 words or (6-7 sentences).

Part 2

Select one of your topics from Part 1 and use AI as a research tool to learn more about the context surrounding your topic. Be sure to ask AI questions about the context to assist you in learning more about the topic; you are not using AI to write your response but to generate information that helps you to better understand the context the topic in the film.

• Looking back to the example above, you could ask AI questions about clothing during the Victorian Era to learn more about the significance of Alices actions in that moment as they relate to dress codes or expectations during that time.

Using the information gathered from your research, explain the context surrounding your topic.

If you prefer not to use AI, for example for ethical or environmental reasons, you may answer this question by performing research and providing a link to your source.

Your response should be 50 words (5-6 sentences) AND must , if used, including a transcript from your interactions with AI in the form of screenshots or a live session link, or if research was used, provide a PDF of OR a permalink or DOI to your research sources. Submissions without these items may not earn a grade.

Part 3

Using the information, you learned from your research in Part 2, think critically about how the film’s context could inform your analysis of the film or lead you to a greater understanding of the film as a whole.

• Reflecting back to the example from Parts 1 and 2, we could consider how the clothing during the Victorian Era was representative of social dictates associated with gender and how the film illustrates that topic through Alices actions and reactions within the film.

Using your research on context, create a working thesis and write a brief explanation of how your research on context informs your interpretation of the film and supports your thesis. This discussion is preparation for your Unit 4 Essay. Your original response (without textual examples) should be, at minimum, 100 words (10-11 sentences) with the thesis identified in bold.

Part 4

Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts. Respond to at least one peer whose context research taught you something you did not previously know. You may also make constructive comments or suggestions for your peers working thesis material. Your responses should be no fewer than 50 words (5-6 sentences) per reply.

MLA-formatted parenthetical citations are required for all sources, including the texts provided in this course. Citations of texts should include the authors last name (first reference) and the page number(s) for prose or the line number(s) for poetry/verse. For films, include a shortened version of the title and the time range. A Works Cited-style entry is not required for discussions, but if included, your instructor may provide feedback to correct formatting issues, helping you prepare for the Unit 4 Essay.

Grading Criteria

Additional outside sources or AI can be used for the purposes explicitly allowed in the prompt but must be fully attributed and cited.

Be sure to view the before you begin your post to understand how your work on this discussion will be evaluated. This activity may use a different grading rubric than other discussions and assignments.

Film Analysis Terms and Definitions

Film literacy combines the practices of literary and media studies, both of which focus on analyzing the meaning and significance of different types of texts, including both visual and written ones. This approach to film helps us broaden our understanding of how we communicate through literature and media.

Critical media pedagogy, a teaching strategy, begins with the assumption that images, songs, advertisements, and film all carry ideological and political messages. As John Berger, author of Ways of Seeing suggests, the media enacts ways of seeing that can effectively influence how we see and discuss our world, thus shaping our cultural contexts. Our job as critics is to see these images, songs, ads, films, etc. (“texts”), as a medley of cultural archives, open to analysis and critique. What do these texts say about the human experience? How do they construct meaning? Whose interests do they serve? We practiced this type of analysis in the Module 2 Discussion, where we analyzed the visual rhetoric in ads. In this unit, we will extend our analysis to films.

Several aspects of film analysis are provided below to illustrate basic maneuvers composed in film to create meaning for the viewer. These devices function in coordination and sometimes correlation with other aspects of literary analysis we have already discussed, such as characterization, setting, theme, etc.

Cinematography Devices and Definitions:

Camera: A camera shot is based on the cameras distance from and angle toward the object. The four basic shots used in films are:

1. A Close-up A very close shot where the camera lens focuses on some detail or the actors face.
2. Medium Shot A shot where the camera lens picks up some background or upper half of the actor.
3. Full Shot A shot where the camera lens has a full view of the actor.
4. Long Shot A shot taken at a distance from an object.

A camera angle is how the camera is tilted while filming.

1. Straight-on Angle The camera is at the same height as the object.
2. High Angle The camera is filming from above the object.
3. Low Angle The camera is looking up at the object.
4. Oblique Angle The camera is tilted sideways.

Lighting: Lighting plays an important role in film, as it focuses the audiences attention on the main character or object in a film; it also sets the mood or atmosphere. Three basic types of lighting are:

1. Three Point Lighting – Standard lighting using three sources:
   • A key light to provide the main source of illumination,
   • A fill light from another side, and
   • A back light from behind.
2. High Key Lighting – Nearly all parts of an image are illuminated.
3. Low Key Lighting – Creates extreme contrast between light and dark in an image (known as a chiaroscuro effect).

Sound: Sound comes in various forms within film. Four categories of sound are:

1. Diegetic: Sound produced in the world of the film, taking place within the narrative (dialogue, sound effects, etc.).
2. Non-Diegetic: Sound originating from outside the narrative, not produced in the on-screen setting (voice-overs, soundtrack, etc.).
3. Synchronous: Sound produced precisely with what is happening on screen (clock ticking while visible on screen).
4. Asynchronous: Sound produced out of unison with the visuals on screen (clock ticking without a visual on screen).

Editing: Editing is an important part of how a film affects the audience: Some editing techniques include:

1. Cut: A transition where one shot instantly follows another.
2. Sweeting: The process of adding sound effects and music and/or enhancing the existing audio effects.
3. Shot Reverse Shot: Alternating over-the-shoulders-shots, usually used during conversation between two characters.
4. Eyeline match: A technique based on the idea that viewers want to see what on-screen characters are seeing. For example, if a character is looking intently at an off-screen object, the following shot will be that object.

Examining film as a “mirror image” is part of an extended effort to think critically about normative or dominant cultural practices, discourses, and representations, particularly in the crafting of matters sexual, racial, political and cultural. The study of film as literature engages viewers to consider the correspondence between film and reality and offers us a way to discern how aspects of society (race/gender/culture) are experienced through a variety of lenses and how that either coincides or collides with our own experiences. Through this exercise, we create opportunities for discussion and analysis of those diverse interactions and experiences.

Scene Analysis – A Closer Look at Film

Analyzing a film requires more than just looking at the setting, characters, and plot; as a viewer, you must pay attention to how the film presents these components on the screen. To do this, you will need to watch the film more than once, being careful to take notes, or annotate, while viewing it. You want to consider what the “eye” of the film, or camera, has to show you.

You can begin your approach by analyzing film through a “close reading” of a single scene. Instead of analyzing the entire film at once, begin by selecting one scene to analyze. Much like a close reading of a text, in a scene analysis, you will “read” the text, annotate, and begin to discuss how the devices or elements in the text create meaning. For film, your repertoire of devices is a little different than short fiction or poetry, as the film genre includes unique devices and technologies specific to the medium. For example, instead of discussing the repetition of a word or phrase in a poem, in film, you might discuss the types of camera angles used or the asynchronous sounds in a scene.

Conducting a Scene Analysis

The first step in a scene analysis is to view the scene to be analyzed, ideally no more than a 5-minute section, and view it more than once. For the initial viewing of a scene, the goal is to merely understand what is happening in that specific section of the film.

During subsequent viewings, it is important to annotate, or take notes based on what you have seen and heard. For example, if closeup shots are used, make a note of when they are used and what you see. If music is used to set the tone of the scene, how does it do so, and what tone does it bring to the scene? During these viewings it is important to pay close attention to how the director presents the subject or material of that scene, looking for any cinematic techniques used.

Once you have viewed the scene several times and taken notes on what you see and hear, it is time to consider how those cinematic elements lend themselves to a greater meaning or significance in the film. Consider the following scene analysis from the reaping scene in Gary Rosss adaptation of Suzanne Collinss The Hunger Games.

On the surface, the scene shows Katniss and her sister, Prim, walking with other children from the district to a check point where they must have their finger pricked for identification purposes and then proceed to the stage to await announcements from the Capitol. The children in the scene appear impoverished and anxious as they approach both the check point and stage with armed men atop buildings and about the stage area.

Examining the scene more closely for cinematic techniques, there are several things to note. The camera angles of the scene include a lot of close ups, specifically of the faces of the children and even their arms linked to one another. The scene’s sounds are solemn as they focus on the rustling of the children moving in silence, not speaking to one another. When Effie Trinket speaks, the rest of the area is silent except for the echoes of her voice. The colors of the scene are also very muted, dirty even, with all the children wearing muted colors and plain outfits; however, one point of color is Effie Trinket in her bright, velvet-like dress and coordinating hat.

Taking into account the specific cinematic devices noted above, we can now work to analyze how those devices create meaning within the scene and the film as a whole. It seems as though the stark contrast in coloration and appearance of the districts citizens juxtaposed with Effie’s illuminate the separation of social class and comments on the deprivation of the districts in comparison with the Capitol. One could also argue that the camera angles used in the scene reinforce the social class and separation of the citizens from Effie and the military of the Capitol through the close ups of the childrens faces and interlocked arms as they approach the stage. All of the close ups exhibit anxiety and fear, marks of oppression from the Capitol. Through both the coloration and camera angles, this scene contributes to the overall illumination of the theme of oppression in the film as citizens face adversity and lack of autonomy at the whims of the Capitol.

Scene analysis is an important part of examining a film as whole. It can also be a great way to begin examining a film for potential essay topics and arguments. Keep in mind, while watching a film or specific scene, to practice annotation and close reading skills to help you prepare for larger writing projects on the film.

• Unit 4, Module 10: Additional Resources (recommended)

  The file(s) in this submodule are optional but recommended.

  • External Learning Tool Completion checkbox for Module 10 Video Resource: Learn Film Analysis in 20 Films
  • External Learning Tool Completion checkbox for Module 10 Video Resource: Mean Girls Costume Designer Breaks Down Lindsay Lohan’s Costumes
  • External Learning Tool Completion checkbox for Module 10 Video Resource: Dune Director Denis Villeneuve Breaks Down the Gom Jabbar Scene
• 
  

  Unit 4, Module 10 Links to Free Films

  In this folder, links to some free film alternatives are provided for students who do not have subscriptions to streaming services, cable/satellite services, or a campus/local library with resources. Your professor will assign specific films for your section of English 1102, so be sure your focus is on an assigned film. Most of the videos here require ads for the film to be viewed for free. Additional ways to access films include (but are not limited to):

  • Amazon Prime offers a free 6-month student account by signing up with your home institution email account. A Prime account includes some free movies as well as movie rentals and purchases.
  • Your campus and local libraries should have some films available on site, but most of the assigned films can be accessed via interlibrary loan (ask your librarian).
  • Films available on Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Direct TV, Dish Network, Apple TV, Disney+, Tubi, and Freevee are always changing, so check your subscription services.

  Remember that, in analyzing a film, you will need to watch the entire film at least once and parts of it multiple times. You will also need to provide time stamps for scenes or dialogue you analyze, so be sure to choose one of the films assigned by your professor to which you have access to for at least two weeks and on which you can track time stamps.

  • Link Completion checkbox for The Colony on Tubi (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for Dark City on Tubi (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for Gifted Hands on YouTube (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for Girl, Interrupted on Tubi (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for Hotel Rwanda on Tubi (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for Invictus on YouTube (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for I, Robot on Tubi (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for King of Masks on Tubi (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for Logan’s Run on Tubi (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for Metropolis on Tubi (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for Much Ado About Nothing on Tubi (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for Persuasion on Tubi (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for Secondhand Lions on YouTube (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for Slumdog Millionaire on YouTube (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for Snowpiercer on Tubi (free with ads)
  • Link Completion checkbox for The Spitfire Grill on Tubi (free with ads)
  • Link

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