1) Theme
Select a theme from the film. Demonstrate how the film uses form to explore this theme using three scenes (or similarly sized sections of film) to illustrate your point
Instructions
You must include elements of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, and sound in your paper, though you need not devote equal space to each of them. You do not need to cover all aspects of each element of form (ie. you don’t need to talk about everything that comes under cinematography).
Your paper will need a thesis statement. In this statement you will need to declare the theme/character arc that you are going to explore and how the film explores it. For example: “In Out of Sight(Soderbergh, 1998), Soderbergh explores a theme of loyalty. He shows this though the use of color in costumes, camera angles, shot length, the juxtaposition of images, and non-diegetic music.” This tells me exactly what to expect in the rest of the paper. You should then demonstrate your case before wrapping up with a conclusion.
Remember, a theme is an abstract concept. You should be able to describe the theme in one or two words and without mentioning anything from the film. For example, if you were writing about Star Wars(Lucas, 1977), ‘the force’ would not be a theme as it is a very specific element of the story. ‘Faith’, ‘faith in yourself’, or ‘faith in friends’ would be themes as you can describe them without any reference to a specific element of the narrative. From that film you might also consider ‘loyalty’, ‘greed’ etc.
When considering your theme/character arc and scene choices, I suggest looking for parts of the film that show opposite interpretations of the theme. For example, if your theme was ‘trust’, then you would want a scene that included characters trusting each other, a scene that included characters not trusting each other, and perhaps one where they were beginning to move from one state to the other. This will allow you to show how the changes in the form are connected to the theme. If all of your scenes show trust then you can’t show that the form is connected to that idea. For character arcs, pick a scene that shows the character before they change, as they are changing, and when they have changed.
When you are analyzing the film, you should be sure to remember to link what you see/hear to what it represents. It is no use describing in detail elements of the scene if you don’t tell me what they mean. Conversely, if you only tell me the effect, but not the elements of form that create the effect, then I can’t see your analysis at work.
If you feel you don’t have enough to write about, take a step back and look at what you’ve examined. You will probably find that you’ve over-generalized. For example, if you are writing about costume, and you’ve talked about color, did you look at the different elements of the costume, or just a general color? Are there layers being worn of different colors? Do different items of clothing have different colors? What about shades? Condition of the clothing? Patterns? Dive into the details and you’ll find you’ve too much to write about, not too little.
The paper needs to be 4-5 pages in length. It should be double spaced, Time New Roman 12 point, with 1 inch margins all around. The page length does not include titles, images (you do not need to include these) etc.
