The first piece of work you must submit is an in-depth analysis of a film extract of your choice.
Your analysis must focus on how the micro elements of a chosen extract from your chosen film produce meanings and responses
(1,500 words) (30)
This unit (FM1) focuses on the micro elements of film and the construction of meaning and emotion. Understanding will be fostered through:
· Studying Micro features of film: mise-en-scene, performance, cinematography, editing and sound.
You are required to explore how one or more of mise-en-scene, performance, cinematography, editing and sound construct meaning and provoke responses in a film extract.
· Candidates are encouraged to support their work with illustrative visual material
· Recommended length of extract: approximately 3 – 5 minutes (depending on the complexity of the extract)
Getting Started
· The film should be one that is well known to you and that you feel comfortable discussing; it should be relatively recent and have had mainstream cinema release. (You will find the analysis difficult if you choose an obscure film or one with which you are not comfortable.) As for the sequence, choose one that makes clear use of the micro element or elements you have selected.
· As with any writing that you do during your film studies course, it is essential that your micro essay is clear, well organised and has examples to back up the points you make.
You need to make every word count – do not tell the story of your film or describe the events in your sequence. The micro elements you choose should connect in some way, so that you can make related points.
· Mise-en-scene and editing, for example, come at opposite ends of the film-making process and so are more difficult to relate than mise-en-scene and cinematography, which come at the same stage.
· This piece of writing should exhibit analysis throughout.
· The title must name the feature or features that are the particular focus – e.g. “An analysis of editing and sound in the shower sequence from Psycho (1960)”.
Structuring the Analysis
INTRODUCTION
· Your introduction could begin by outlining some of the ways in which micro features can generate meaning and create a response in the viewer. Depending on which micro elements you choose, you could highlight how narrative sense, time, mood, atmosphere and characters’ state of mind, for example, can be generated by particular uses of micro features. The end of your introduction should state the title, director and date of the film you are studying and the sequence you have chosen.
MAIN BODY OF YOUR ESSAY
· In these central paragraphs you should explore the micro features you have chosen in relation to the meanings generated in your sequence. Work through your sequence systematically and identify the different ways in which sound, mise-en-scene, cinematography or editing create the meanings you identify. There may be many variations in the use of micro features in your sequence and you need to explore how and why these variations occur. Don’t forget to use the specific terminology you have learnt in order to make your points.
· The easiest way to begin writing your essay is to note down the micro features you have chosen. For each of your micro elements you could then create three lists. The first list should be of terminology you may wish to use for the particular micro feature. The second list should be of all the potential areas of meaning that the use of your micro elements could indicate. Your third list should be of textual examples from your film, which relate to the areas of meaning in your second list.
· Having completed your lists, you will have possible sub-topics, which you can use to begin each paragraph. You will find that your micro elements often share ‘uses’ and this will enable you to connect micro features within your essay. For example, both sound and mise-en-scene can be used to create information about a character’s state of mind. Rather than discuss the same feature of sound and mise-en-scene at two separate points in your essay, you could create one paragraph, which discusses the use of both micro elements to produce the same kind of information for the audience.
· Each of your paragraphs should begin with a clear point and then give a textual example to back up that point. Your paragraphs should include a comment on how the audience responds to the use of the micro elements.
CONCLUSION
· Your conclusion should summarise the meanings and responses generated by your chosen micro elements. You could comment, too, on whether you think they have been generated effectively.
