You will do a close reading of a very brief scene or a couple of shots for one of the films covered in the course. The reason it’s called a “close reading” is that it is a careful, sustained interpretation of an entire text (in this case a film) achieved by focusing closely on small parts of it.*
Although you will think about the whole movie in your paper, you will narrow the focus of your discussion to just a few shots–at least two and no more than six shots, and not necessarily in sequence. The reason for this restriction is that the smaller your object(s) of study, the more you will see (and be able to write about).
Here are some possibilities:
Doors or extreme closeups in The Graduate. Camera angles in Parasite. Selective focus or City vs. Country contrasts in Sunrise. Crane shots or background elements in Do the Right Thing. Costuming or color in Vertigo. Use of sound in M or The Artist. Clocks or video game motifs in Run Lola Run. Go small and specific like that. Show how a very small element like this can add up to larger meanings or a possible overall interpretation for the movie.
Other possible pathways into an interpretation of your film (you would pick or adapt only one):
It’s often a good idea to compare the beginning scene of a film to its closing scene, both for similarities of theme and style and for contemplating the narrative arc that gets us from one to the other.
Work with the concept of framing: how does the camera frame its subjects? How do these framings shape how we see what the camera captures? A “frame’ could be the shots on either side of a shot, it could be framing elements internal to the shot (frames within frames), it could be implied offscreen space that is referred to through sound or an offscreen glance–think of a frame as any kind of boundary that defines our perspective by excluding other possibilities.
The lyrics from a song in the musical soundtrack may tie in to the movie’s themes
A particular line of dialog from the movie might resonate beyond its immediate context.
The movie’s title might suggest multiple meanings that are captured by specific shots
A repeated image might symbolize larger things (e.g. water in The Graduate, photographs in DTRT, spirals in Vertigo or M, cages in The White Tiger, modes of transport in Sunrise)
Plot, character or theme contrasts might be accentuated through contrasting film techniques: e.g. high vs. low angles, sound vs. silence, high vs. low key lighting, static framing vs. mobile framing, shallow vs. wide depth of field, closeup vs. birdseye view. You could talk about how this technique gets used in one or more of our films.
Please note: a thesis statement in an English paper does not state what your paper WILL do– it should state its central interpretive claim. And that interpretive claim should be an insight worth defending, something not obvious to the casual viewer. A BAD thesis statement would be, for example, “Do The Right Thing is about racism,” “White Tiger is about India’s caste system,” “Vertigo is a suspense movie,” “Sunrise is about the power of love,” “The Graduate explores a love triangle” or “M is about the danger of child predators.”
Make certain the final version of your paper contains all of the following:
___ A focused title that lets the reader know what s/he is about to read
___ An introduction which introduces the film and leads into your thesis
___ A thesis statement containing your main point (at end of intro)
___ Topic sentences beginning each paragraph, stating that paragraph’s main idea
___ Unified body paragraphs
___ A conclusion that pulls your argument together and reinforces your thesis
___ Careful proofreading/copyediting
___ A Works Cited page containing your movie as well as any other (optional) outside sources
Length: 4-6 pages, not counting Works Cited page.
You will be graded equally on these three criteria:
1. Your background knowledge of film (Sikov and any other course materials contained in Blackboard)
2. Your paper’s argument (development and organization). Mechanical and organizational problems will detract from the “argument” portion of your grade, as they diminish a writer’s credibility, or ethos.
3. Your analysis of the film (application of concepts from this course)
*Do NOT choose a scene or shot that was included in this course. A major purpose of this assignment is to encourage you to discover–on your own– parts of your chosen film that reveal something about the film as a whole.