A Short Guide To Writing About Film

Preface = ⅸ 1. WRITING ABOUT THE MOVIES = 1 WHY WRITE ABOUT MOVIES? = 1 YOUR AUDIENCE AND THE AIMS OF FILM CRITICISM = 7 The Movie Review = 9 The Theoretical Essay = 11 The Critical Essay = 12 OPINION AND EVALUATION = 15 EXERCISES = 19 2. BEGINNING TO THINK, PREPARING TO WATCH, AND STARTING TO WRITE = 20 SUBJECT MATTER AND MEANING = 25 SILENT DIALOGUE: TALKING BACK TO THE MOVIES = 26 TAKING NOTES = 30 VISUAL MEMORY AND REFLECTION = 36 EXERCISES = 40 3. FILM TERMS AND TOPICS FOR FILM ANALYSIS AND WRITING = 41 THEMES = 42 FILM AND THE OTHER ARTS = 45 Narrative = 46 Characters = 50 Point of View = 52 MlSE-EN-SCÈNE AND REALISM = 55 Realism = 55 Elements of Mise-en-Scène = 58 COMPOSITION AND THE IMAGE = 66 The Shot = 66 The Edited image = 74 SOUND = 83 SAMPLE ESSAY = 88 EXERCISES = 92 4. SIX APPROACHES TO WRITING ABOUT FILM = 93 FILM HISTORY = 94 NATIONAL CINEMAS = 97 GENRES = 98 AUTEURS = 101 KINDS OF FORMALISM = 103 IDEOLOGY = 105 SAMPLE ESSAYS = 108 EXERCISES = 121 5. STYLE AND STRUCTURE IN WRITING = 122 THE RIGHT WORDS = 125 Concrete Language = 125 Denotation and Connotation = 126 Tone = 127 Repetitions and Clichés = 128 EFFECTIVE SENTENCES = 129 Economy = 129 Varied Sentence Structures = 130 COHERENT PARAGRAPHS = 132 INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPHS = 136 CONCLUDING PARAGRAPHS = 138 CHECKLIST FOR WRITING AN EFFECTIVE ESSAY = 140 EXERCISES = 143 6. RESEARCHING THE MOVIES = 144 HOW TO BEGIN RESEARCH = 148 THE MATERIALS OF RESEARCH = 150 Primary Sources = 151 Video = 151 Scripts = 152 Secondary Sources: Books, Indexes, Journals, and Electronic Sources = 153 FILM RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET = 161 TAKING NOTES ON SECONDARY SOURCES = 165 WRITING THE PAPER = 166 SAMPLE ESSAYS = 169 EXERCISES = 178 7. MANUSCRIPT FORM = 179 MANUSCRIPT COPY = 179 LAST-MINUTE CORRECTIONS = 181 QUOTATIONS = 182 ACKNOWLEDGING SOURCES = 186 Common Knowledge = 189 DOCUMENTING SOURCES = 189 Notes for Documentation = 190 Works Cited = 192 Notes Supplying Additional Commentary = 197 COMMON CONVENTIONS OF USAGE = 198 Notes = 198 Titles = 199 Foreign Words and Quotation Marks = 200 Sexist Language = 200 Spelling = 201 LAST WORDS = 201 APPENDIX: SYMBOLS COMMONS USED IN MARKING PAPERS = 203 GLOSSARY OF FILM TERMS = 205 WORKS CITED = 211 CREDITS = 215 INDEX = 217

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