Hey Phil, sorry to bother you again, i was just wondering if you could help me understand they essay a bit better. I'm not too sure what we need to write about and i'm slightly confused. If you could just give me a explanation of what it is we need to write about and maybe some examples of films that relate to the question that would be great...
"1,500 word written assignment that analyses critically one film in terms of the relationship between story and structure; you should consider camera movement, editing, and the order of scenes"
ReplyDeleteOkay - put very simply, you're being asked to dissect one film and investigate the ways in which its structure (that is how it is put together in film terms - choice of shots, sequence of shots, editing style etc.) serves and accentuates its theme/content/story.
We're not talking about set design here, or lighting - but the grammar of the film; just as. Full stops. Change. The. Way. You're. Reading. This. Sentence, so to does editing, for example, modify the way in which we receive and understand visual information; for instance, a cross-dissolve transition (when one image slowly fades into the next) creates one impression on the audience, while hard, staccato edits (as in the shower sequence from Psycho) create a different energy. One of the jobs of this brief is to make you very conscious of the way in which stories are editing, which is why you've also been asked to deconstruct (dissect) a short sequence from an existing film - see Jolanta and Charlotte's blogs for reference as they've both started doing this - as has Godwin, and they're all experiencing astonishment at the sheer number and variety of shots that go to make up short sequences in the movies.
You might also want to consider the differences between linear and non-linear narrative in film.
Visit http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/gramtv.html
In truth, Ethan, I can't help feeling that you're confusion would be short-lived if you just did a bit of research... anyway hope this helps :-)