1. Looking at Movies

2. Active vs. Passive Viewing
What is the difference between passively watching a movie and actively looking at a movie?
What is the benefit to being an active viewer?

3. Movies shape the way we see the world, and movies can tell us much about the society that created them.

4. What is a Movie?
What is the difference between the terms ‘movie,’ ‘film’ and ‘cinema’?
One characteristic all films share is narrative.
Narrative exists when a sequence of images is employed in a cause-and-effect arrangement.

6. Films are constructed from a series of still images or shots.
These shots are then joined or edited to control what and how the viewer sees.
How does cinema differ from live theatre in terms of controlling the audience’s eye?

7. Ways of Looking at Movies
Formal Analysis
Cultural Analysis

8. Formal Analysis
Breaking down a scene or entire movie to identify the tools and techniques used.
Identify the effect these tools and techniques have on the audience.

9. Formal Analysis – Cinematic Language
Some examples…
“Invisibility”
Fade-out / Fade-in Example 2 Fade Out Fade In - YouTube
Low-angle Shot Citizen Kane - Low Angle Shot - YouTube
Cutting on Action Video Assignment: Match Action - YouTube
How do theses effects affect the audience?
"The Limey" Peter Fonda's Death Scenes

10. Cultural Analysis “Cultural Invisibility”
Appealing to shared belief systems
The status quo
The illusion of being controversial or provocative

11. Implicit Meaning Below the surface of the movie
An association, connection, inference
Based on the explicit meaning
An interpretation of the events – something arguable

12. Viewer Expectations
Influencing factors: friends, reviews, previews, commercials…
Assumptions: genre, director, actors…
Your interpretation of a movie is affected by how your expectations are manipulated by the movie
Name a movie you went to see where your expectations were not fulfilled. What was your reaction?

13. Approaches to Cultural analysis
Feminism
Marxism
Post-colonialism
Existentialism
Specific social issues