Notes on Writing Film Analyses
- Use present tense. The film/story continues to exist; you could even see
it in the future. Hence: "Frank shoots himself." Not: "Frank shot himself."
- Use characters' names, not actors', when describing the plot. E.g.:
"John T. Chance falls in love with Feathers." Not: "John Wayne falls in love
with Angie Dickenson." Only use the actors' names when talking about the work
or significance of the actors themselves. E.g.: "John Wayne strongly supported
U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War."
- The best online resource for film information--including characters' names--is
the Internet Movie Database: imdb.com.
- Cite specific examples to illustrate your points: lines of dialogue, descriptions
of particular sequences/shots, and so on. In short, use the principles of
film analysis discussed in class.
- In order to do #4 properly, you will need to take notes during the films.
Write down basic plot developments, lines of dialogue, etc. Also, it's a good
idea--when doing stylistic analysis--to draw frames of shots.
- Avoid value judgments. E.g., "Renoir's use of mise-en-scene is just atomic!"
You don't have to convince me that the films are good. Tell me instead what
meanings the films signify.
- Proofread. A sloppy word processing job reflects badly on your attitude
toward the paper. If you don't care about what you've written, why should
the reader?
- Don't be a plagiarist. If you use someone else's words, give him or her
proper credit with a reference in parentheses, a footnote or a endnote. This includes using information
you found on the Web or in the course packet. Always cite your sources. Anything
else is theft.
- If you use parenthetical references like this (Sarris, 24) then you must include a "works cited" page. The works cited page must include the full citation for an item you cited in parenthses.
- One exception to the citation rules is citing the films themselves. Some people demand this,
but I think it's overkill. So, you do not have to cite the films when quoting
dialogue from them.
- For the proper form for footnotes and bibliography, see Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (NY: Modern
Language Association). Other manuals (e.g., Chicago, Turabian, APA) are also
acceptable. The important thing is to be consistent in your citations. If
you're confused about footnote style, come see me during office hours.
- Use italics for film titles: for example, Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hey! Quotation
marks around film titles ("Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hey!") are used only in newspapers and some blogs.
- Use proper accents where
appropriate. E.g., Lève, André, Buñuel, François,
and so on. (In WordPerfect, you can pull up a list of foreign characters by
hitting CTRL-W. In Word, press CTRL-plus an accent mark -- such as an apostrophe -- just before pressing the letter you want to accent.)
- Number your pages. Be sure to include a header on each page with the a page number in it. Page numbers make it easier to refer to specific segments of your paper.
