Film Choice: Shawshank Redemption
Choose Your Film. Begin by choosing any film that you want to write about. Perhaps it is a film you’ve already seen and want to see once again—with a critical eye and toolbox you’ve learned in this course.
Analyze the Film. You will have an opportunity to express yourself as a film critic, someone who knows, and is passionate to write about, an aspect of film. Your review should demonstrate careful reading and close engagement with the film that you are reviewing. Think about writing a piece that could appear in the New York Times, the New Yorker, a trending blog in film or cultural studies, or in the online journal for undergraduates, Film Matters (Links to an external site.). Here’s a link to a published piece from Miami student Leah Gaus, an essay she wrote about ideal femininity and gender performance in Little Miss Sunshine and Dumplin’ (Links to an external site.). Be sure to refer to Writing About Movies for tips about creating your review.
Your review should also incorporate your opinion and astute analysis of filmic elements (such as camera shots, lighting, sound, camera angles, and mise-èn-scene).
To enrich your overall analysis, also observe the following (not in any particular order, but rather fold these items organically into your paper):
Personal Evaluation. Include your personal evaluation (that is, response) about the production. This should go beyond “I really liked it. . .” to make more substantive claims like “the production values were poor”). Do include your opinion (it is perfectly okay to use “I” when doing so), and be sure to give examples and evidence about why the production was successful or not.
Production Values & Cinematic Elements. Director’s concept, camerawork, acting choices, costumes & make-up, lighting, sound score
Close Reading. Refer to at least two specific moments in the film that exemplify your overall analysis. Describe in detail.
Context & Research. Research is important to this project. In order to know how this production created meaning, you will need to access:
Factual overview of the production, actors, and production details. Have a look at IMDb (Links to an external site.) or Rotten Tomatoes. (Links to an external site.)
Reviews of films. Use Film & Television & Literature Database or MLA Index (on Miami’s library page). Please use 4 sources for your paper. You may use up to 2 sources from our class readings for a total of 4 sources. Of course, you can always cite more than 4 sources if you feel that will help your paper.
Length: Your paper should be 5-6, double-spaced pages and a Works Cited.
Finishing & Polishing the Paper. Polish your prose, using proper MLA or Chicago citation style.
Please observe academic honesty and do not plagiarize. I AM INTERESTED IN YOUR IDEAS!
