Film: Three

dimensions of
reading film as a
text
Savira Agnisa
Alfinia Suhaila S.
Why Study Film?

FILM IS A COMPLEX
TEXT FORM
+ imperative to view
FILM AS TEXT
 How a film is
deconstructed for
analysis:
• Plot
• Characters
• Setting
• Themes
• Social Values
WE ALSO ‘READ’
FILM
 Employing reading
strategies to have a
greater connection with
the text:
• Text to Self
• Text to World
• Text to Text
• Questioning
• Inferring
THE ROLE OF THE
AUDIENCE
• Audience
• Story Elements
• Production Elements
• Genre
• Adaptation
• Viewing Context
INTRODUCTION
TO FILM
TECHNIQUES
 How a film is
constructed for
greater meaning?
• Camera
• Editing
• Mise-en-scene
• Sound & Music Diegetic & Non-diegetic
• Lighting
 SHOT SIZES & ANGLES
Types of shots: The followings are
types of shots commonly used in
film, video, and animation
• Extreme Close Up (ECU)
• Close Up (CU)
• Medium Close Up (MCU)
• Medium (MS)
• Wide (WS)
• Extreme Long (ELS)
CAMERA
MOVEMENT
The main types of camera movements that
are used in film are:
• Panning
• Tilting
• Crane
• Tracking
• Zooming
• Handheld & Steadi-Cam
 •

FILM TEXT
Psycho - Hitchcock
• Raising Arizona – Coen Bros.
• Gattaca – Niccol
• The Third Man – Wells

EXAMPLES •
•
Panic Room – Fincher
Inception - Nolan
 INTRODUCTION TO
STORY ELEMENTS
How elements of the story are • Cause & Effect
developed, delivered and interrupted? • Setting
• Structuring of Time
• Narrative Possibilities
• Multiple Storylines (plots &
subplots)
• Character Establishment &
Development
• Opening Sequences
 • Where the Wild Things Are –

FILM TEXT Jonze

• Run Lola Run – Tykwer
• The Matrix – Warkowski Bros.

EXAMPLES • The Good, The Bad, The Ugly –

Leone
NARRATIVE
In what order is the story
STRUCTURE told?
Analysis of narrative structure:
• Plot Progressions
• Linear
• Non-linear
• Parallel
• Flashback
FILM TEXT
EXAMPLES
• Run Lola Run - Tykwer
• Sliding Doors - Howitt
• Memento – Nolan
• Donnie Darko – Kelly
• Diversity of interpretation
• How meaning is created
via the viewer’s
background
• Beliefs
• Values
• Likes & Dislikes
• Cultural backgrounds
• Personal experiences
• Viewing Context THE ROLE
OF THE
AUDIENCE
SOCIAL
CONTEXT
• A film is a product of it’s time
• Influenced by social values of
the day
• Historical events
• Political context
 01
Intertextuality - intended or not

FILM STYLE 02
Cinema Influences

03
Genre

04
Filmmakers – The rise of the auteur

05
Cinematic Motifs

06
Three-Act Structure
 SYMBOLISM
• What is the filmmaker really trying to say?
Finding meaning beneath the obvious.
• Representations
• Denotation/Connotation