Film analysis outline

Film analysis outline

Film analysis is the process in which a film is analyzed in terms of theme, cinematography, sound, and editing The text of the analysis looks like this. [Ed.: The editor's commentary looks like this.] Frustrated Communication in Ex Machina’s Opening Sequence. Alex Garland’s science fiction film Ex Machina follows a young programmer’s attempts to determine whether or not an android possesses a consciousness complicated enough to pass as human. The film is celebrated for its thought  · A good outline for the movie analysis essay is a summary of your future paper, which lists its main parts, the headings of the body paragraphs with their short description, and your ideas. The outline helps the author feel confident during the writing process, be

Film Analysis Project Outline by Sarah Harman

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The analysis below discusses the opening moments of the science fiction movie Ex Machina in order to make an argument about the film's underlying purpose.

The text of the analysis is formatted normally. Editor's commentary, which will occasionally interrupt the piece to discuss the author's rhetorical strategies, is written in brackets in an italic font with a bold "Ed. See the examples below:. Then, however, it deviates from this conversation by suggesting that Ex Machina has things to say about humanity before non-human characters even appear. Off to a great start. A woman sits at a computer, absorbed in her screen.

The camera looks at her through a glass wall, one of many in film analysis outline shot. The camera cuts to a film analysis outline different young men typing on their phones, their bodies partially concealed both by people walking between them and the camera and by the stylized modern furniture that surrounds film analysis outline. The fourth shot peeks over a computer monitor at a blonde man working with headphones in. A slight zoom toward his face suggests that this is an important character, and the cut to a point-of-view shot looking at his computer screen confirms this.

We later learn that this is Caleb Smith Domhnall Gleesona young programmer whose perspective the film follows. and reaction shots of his face, as he receives and processes the news that he has won first prize in a staff competition, film analysis outline. Shocked, Caleb dives for his cellphone and texts several people the news. Several people immediately respond with congratulatory messages, and after a moment the woman from the opening shot runs in to give him a hug.

At this point, the other people in the room look up, smile, and start clapping, while Caleb smiles disbelievingly—perhaps even anxiously—and the camera subtly zooms in a bit closer. Throughout the entire sequence, there is no sound other than ambient electronic music that gets slightly louder and more textured as the sequence progresses.

A film analysis outline cut to an aerial view of a glacial landscape ends the sequence and indicates that Caleb is very quickly transported into a very unfamiliar setting, implying that he will have difficulty adjusting to this film analysis outline change in circumstances.

They give readers the information they will need to understand the argument the piece is about to offer. While passages like this can risk becoming boring if they dwell on unimportant details, the author wisely limits herself to two paragraphs and maintains a driving pace through her prose style choices like an almost exclusive reliance on active verbs.

The choice to make the dialogue inaudible suggests that in-person conversations have no significance, film analysis outline. Human-to-human conversations are most productive in this sequence film analysis outline they are mediated by technology.

Rather than simply muting the specific conversations that Caleb has with his coworkers, the ambient soundtrack replaces all the noise that a crowded building in the middle of a workday would ordinarily have.

This silence sets the uneasy tone that characterizes the rest of the film, which is as much a horror-thriller as a piece of science fiction. Viewers get the sense that all the sounds that humans make as they walk around and talk to each other are being intentionally filtered out by some presence, replaced with a quiet electronic beat that marks the pacing of the sequence, slowly building to a faster tempo.

Perhaps the sound of people is irrelevant: only the visual data matters here. Silence is frequently used in the rest of the film as a source of tension, with viewers acutely aware that it could be broken at any moment. The visual style of this opening sequence reinforces the eeriness of the muted humans and electronic soundtrack.

Prominent use of shallow focus to depict a workspace that is constructed out of glass doors and walls makes it difficult to discern how large the space really is. The viewer is thus spatially disoriented film analysis outline each new setting. This layering of glass and mirrors, doubling some images and obscuring others, is used later in the film when Caleb meets the artificial being Ava Alicia Vikanderwho is not allowed to leave her glass-walled living quarters in the research bunker.

Because she's already teased the argument in the introduction and provided an account of her evidence, it doesn't strike us as unreasonable or far-fetched here. Instead, it appears that we've naturally arrived at the same incisive, fascinating points that she has.

Shortly after the P. V shot of Caleb reading the email notification that he won the prize, we cut to a few other P. These small details indicate that Caleb is more a part of this digital space than he realizes, film analysis outline, and also foreshadow the later revelation that Nathan is actively using data collected by computers and webcams to manipulate Caleb and others.

While this move may not be as essential as the one in the preceding paragraphs, it does help create the impression that the author is noticing deliberate patterns in the film's cinematography, rather than picking out isolated coincidences to make her points. The sequence, film analysis outline, and the film, ultimately suggests that we need to develop and use new technologies thoughtfully, or else the thing that makes us most human—our ability to connect through language—might be destroyed by our innovations.

All of the aural and visual cues in the opening sequence establish film analysis outline world in which humans are utterly reliant on technology and yet totally unaware of the nefarious uses to which a brilliant but unethical person could put it. Author's Note: Thanks to my literature students whose in-class contributions sharpened my thinking on this scene.

In doing this, the conclusion makes an argument for the essay's own relevance: we need to pay attention to the essay's points so that we can achieve a rich understanding of the movie.

The piece's final sentence makes a chilling final impression by alluding to the danger that might loom if we do not understand the movie, film analysis outline. This is the only the place in the piece where the author explicitly references how badly we might be hurt by ignorance, and it's all the more powerful for this solitary quality, film analysis outline.

A pithy, charming note follows, acknowledging that the author's work was informed by others' input as most good writing is. Beautifully done. Find Info For Find Info For Academics Admissions Current Students Athletics About Careers Prospective Students Research and Partnerships Quick Links Apply News President Shop Visit Give Emergency.

Purdue Online Writing Lab College of Liberal Arts. Writing Lab Purdue OWL Research Contact Site Map. Subject-Specific Writing Writing in Literature Writing About Film. Welcome to the Purdue OWL This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. Written by Kylie Regan, film analysis outline.

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 · A good outline for the movie analysis essay is a summary of your future paper, which lists its main parts, the headings of the body paragraphs with their short description, and your ideas. The outline helps the author feel confident during the writing process, be  · film analysis outline A film analysis is not the same as a film review and a critical review of a film is not something that is generally requested in academic circles. Writing movie reviews is generally best left to the media. Truman lives in a small community along with like-minded people who have a lot in common Film analysis is the process in which a film is analyzed in terms of theme, cinematography, sound, and editing