Adapted from How to Read A Film (http://wire.rutgers.edu/p_reading_film.html)

Films can be read like texts. Their images should be unpacked just as we would unpack the imagery in a written passage. Think carefully about how visual or aural tools enact, reshape, change, or critique an author's textual expressions.

COMPULSORY EXERCISES (TO REPLACE THE “BLOG”) The essay/work about each movie must have a minimum of 4 pages and a maximum of 7.

Watch 2 movies of your choice (they must be in English!) and work and write on the following issues.

“Archeology of knowledge” (layers 1, 2, 3 and 4!)

Layer 1: the surface; the obvious: what everybody can see by watching the movie.

1) Write in 10 lines (maximum) the film's plot (please, don’t copy it from internet!)

2) Choose 2 main characters of the movie and describe them (physically and psychologically) maximum 1 page per character. Use the expressions and vocabulary studied in class!

Layer 2: the context of the movie

3) (Research) read and write, and/or explain the sociopolitical/historical context in which the movie is set. Add how knowing this context the movie can be understood or seen in a different context. (It can be better understood). Maximum 1 page.

Layer 3: authorship

4) (Research) read and write, and/or explain who is the director of the movie and why he or she decided to make that movie. (Paraphrase your findings and add your own views on the director’s previous work and other movies directed by him/her).

Layer 4: your own/viewer/spectator perception on:

Choose, at least, 5 of the following film features and answer questions according to your own “reading” of the movie as a text. Which things have called your attention? Why?

1) Framing: What is in a shot? What is excluded? What is centered?

2) Depth of Focus:What is in focus and what is blurry? Focus creates foreground and background; it can create relationships between objects and/or characters within the shot.

3) Shot:Is the shot wide or long, communicating vast space or depth? Is a figure miniaturized or featured in a close-up?

4) Camera Angle:Linked with the shot's size, camera angle creates focal points. Is the camera looking upward, downward, or level? The figure in the shot is manipulated by the camera angle (aggrandized or diminished). Camera angle indicates point of view, much like the narrator. Is the camera acting as the eyes of the character (first person narration) or as the eyes of the audience (omniscient narrator)?

5) Lighting:What is lit and what is not? Is the lighting harsh or soft? Are there shadows? What colors are highlighted? Light/shadow and color interact to produce psychological and symbolic effects.

6) Camera Movement:How does the camera shift to change frame, depth of focus, the size of the shot, or the camera angel? Movement affects point of view and viewer equilibrium. It can be lyrical or turbulent, slow or fast-paced, disorienting or "grounded," creating psychological moods in the viewer.

7) Music:Music adds important, yet often devalued, emotional components to film. Frequently certain characters will have musical themes and aural associations that can be made quite apart from the visual. Is it “diegetic” or “extradiegetic”?

8) Scene Design:

Where is the scene?  How is the scene constructed?  DVD's and VCR's allow the viewer to pause and analyze the chosen props and objects

within the scene, many of which are visual strategies the filmmaker employs to communicate with the viewer.

9) Editing:

What is the rhythm of the editing in a particular scene-long and lyrical, or short and clipped?

Does the rhythm speed up or slow down?  How are the scenes connected? by dissolving, by fading, by blackout? Often one thing

will dissolve into another, creating a symbolic link.