A Short Guide To Writing About Film

Preface = xiii Note on the Third Edition = xiv 1. Writing about the Movies = 1 Why Write about the Movies? = 1 Your Audience and the Aims of Film Criticism = 6 The Movie Review = 7 The Theoretical Essay = 9 The Critical Essay = 10 Opinion and Evaluation = 12 2. Preparing to Watch and Preparing to Write = 16 Subject Matter and Meaning = 20 Silent Dialogue: Talking Back to the Movies = 21 Taking Notes = 24 Visual Memory and Reflection = 30 3. Film Terms and Topics = 34 Themes = 35 Film and the Other Arts = 37 Narrative = 37 Characters = 41 Point of View = 43 Mise-en-Scène and Realism = 45 Realism = 45 Elements of the Mise-en-Scène = 48 Composition and the Image = 54 The Shot = 55 The Edited Image = 62 Sound = 69 Sample Essay = 73 4. Six Approaches to Writing about Film = 78 Film History = 79 National Cinemas = 81 Genres = 82 Auteurs = 84 Kinds of Formalism = 86 Ideology = 87 Sample Essays = 90 5. Style and Structure in Writing = 106 The Right Words = 109 Concrete Language = 109 Denotation and Connotation = 109 Strong Verbs 1 = 10 Tone = 110 Repetitions and Cliches = 111 Effective Sentences = 112 Economy = 112 Varied Sentence Structures = 113 Coherent Paragraphs = 115 Introductory Paragraphs = 118 Concluding Paragraphs = 120 Grammar, Punetuation, and Proofreading = 122 Checklist for Writing an Effective Essay = 122 6. Researching the Movies = 125 How to Begin Research = 128 The Materials of Research = 130 Primary Sources = 130 Video = 130 Scripts = 131 Secondary Sources： Books, the Internet, Indexes, and Journals = 132 Taking Notes on Secondary Sources = 138 Writing the Paper = 139 Sample Essays = 141 7. Manuscript Form = 151 Manuscript Copy = 151 Last-Minute Corrections = 153 Quotations = 154 Acknowledging Sources = 156 Common Knowledge = 159 Documenting Sources = 159 Notes for Documentation = 160 Works Cited = 162 Notes Supplying Additional Commentary = 164 Common Conventions of Usage = 165 Names = 165 Titles = 165 Foreign Words and Quotation Marks = 166 Sexist Language = 167 Spelling = 167 Last Words = 167 Appendix： Symbols Commonly Used in Marking Papers = 169 Glossary = 171 Works Cited = 173 Credits = 175 Index = 177

Show more