Formal Analysis

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

the overall system of relationships among the parts of a film

Question 2

Narrative Elements

Answer 2

events that involve the characters

Question 3

Stylistic Elements

Answer 3

the way the camera moves, the arrangements of color in the frame, the use of music and other elements

Question 4

Referential Meaning

Answer 4

allusion to particular items of knowledge outside of the film that the viewer is expected to recognize

Question 5

Explicit Meaning

Answer 5

significance presented overtly, usually in language and often near the film’s beginning or end

Question 6

Implicit Meaning

Answer 6

significance that the film divulges, often against its will, by virtue of its historical or social context

Question 7

Interpretation

Answer 7

the viewer’s activity of analyzing the implicit and symptomatic meanings suggested in a film

Question 8

Ideology

Answer 8

a relatively coherent system of values, beliefs, or ideas shared by some social group and often taken for granted as natural or inherently true

Question 9

Motif

Answer 9

an element in a film that is repeated in a significant way

Question 10

What is film form?

Answer 10

the pattern of elements in a narrative film by which it is organized

Question 11

What are the two dimensions of film form?

Answer 11

the film itself

the viewer’s engagement

Question 12

What is the dimension of the film itself in film form?

Answer 12

a system of cues that directs a viewer’s attention to relevant details of the film itself to trigger cognitive and emotional responses

a system of cues that seeks to create expectations of what will happen next

most film possess design intentions

Question 13

What is the dimension of the viewer’s engagement in film form?

Answer 13

the construction of the story and character based on the cues the film supplies

the emotions the viewer feels as a result of their construction of story and character

Question 14

What are narrative elements?

Answer 14

those elements of a film that constitute a film’s story: plot, settings, characters, the goals and subjective states of the characters

Question 15

What are stylistic elements?

Answer 15

those elements of a film through which the story is told: mise-en-scene, lighting, camera movement, editing, music, etc.

the narrative and the stylistic elements of a film work in tandem

Question 16

What are the two viewer components?

Answer 16

what the viewer brings to the film

knowledge about the world and knowledge about films

Question 17

What is the viewer component knowledge about the world?

Answer 17

nature, history, social situations, social institutions, social customs, human behavior

Question 18

What is the viewer component knowledge about films?

Answer 18

includes story conventions and genre conventions

Question 19

What are story conventions?

Answer 19

beginning, middle and ending

protagonists and antagonists

characters are normally goal oriented

Question 20

What are genre conventions?

Answer 20

in musicals people sing and dance

in film noir there are often femme fatales

in romantic comedies the romantic couple unite at the end of a film

Question 21

What is function?

Answer 21

if form is the pattern of elements, we would expect that those elements would fulfill purposes

they do something in the larger whole

of any element in a film, we can ask: “What are its functions?”

Question 22

What is motivation?

Answer 22

the narrative function of an element of a film

can be narrative or stylistic devices

Question 23

What is a motif?

Answer 23

any significant film element that is repeated in a film: can be narrative or stylistic devices

frequently bear thematic significance

Question 24

What is variation?

Answer 24

any significant film element that is repeated in a film but that repetition entails variations on past instances: can be narrative or stylistic devices

frequently bear narrative significance

Question 25

What is development?

Answer 25

the progression of a film’s development from beginning, middle, and end

often described as a film’s plot structure

Question 26

What is unity vs. disunity?

Answer 26

unity: the degree to which all elements of a film serve a narrative function and are interrelated to other elements in a film

often used an evaluative criteria when assessing a film