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How to Analyze Movies #1: the Introduction | Film Inquiry How to Analyze Movies #1: The Introduction This lead me to learning more about the language of film, which is what I’ll focus on in this introduction. The posts in this series will probably all be longer ones (and I have planned quite a few for you), so bear with me! In the posts coming up in the next few weeks, I’ll discuss semiotics (the study of signs, codes and conventions in film), the analysis of a scene, how camera angles and movement, lighting, special effects and even sound can all tell you more about the message the creator of the movie conveys. You’ll learn how to detect certain subtle hints at ideas or philosophies, hints you previously missed and can have a great influence on how people see the world. So, before I carry on for too long, let’s get started. The Language of Film The language of film (or video or TV) can only be detected by analyzing the “moving image texts”. The idea is that every image conveys a meaning, like a photograph would convey a feeling or a message: Photograph by World Photography Finalist Alessandro Grassani/LUZphoto With a picture, it’s a little easier to distill its message than with a movie. You just have one frame or scene to analyze, the “image text” is the message it is trying to convey. In this case, that would probably be a sense of desperation, sadness, to illustrate the circumstances this person is in. You can tell a lot about this person’s life from just looking at this picture (for what is the actual context and story behind the picture, click on the image). Just like one would read a book, one can “read” a movie – though instead of reading the actual text, you have to distill the “text”, its meaning, from the (moving) images. It’s like they say: a picture is worth a thousand words, and that’s certainly the case with a movie. Meaning of Film and Decoding It The film language is how the movie “speaks” to its audience. Those who create the movies (the great coöperation of directors, producers, editors, et cetera) want to tell a certain story, transfer a certain idea. Even if they just aim to entertain, their movie will likely carry some meaning, because the audience can create meaning, even when it’s not there. This is called decoding. We “decode” a story’s meaning, just like we would interpret spoken language or written texts. We take to a movie all our previous experiences and our knowledge and subconsciously apply it to what we see – we interpret the film with pre- existing expectations. We can’t watch a movie in a vacuüm – we will always relate what happens in a movie to things we experienced in our own lives (e.g. you can relate to a mother getting a baby, a pair going through a divorce, a teen going to school, etc.), or even relate the movie to a movie we’ve seen before. On the one hand, film reflects how we think about certain issues (political, social, economical, what have you), but on the other hand, film also molds the way we think about those issues. The Window on the World What makes a movie so infinitely compelling to us – curious creatures as we are – is that it offers a “window on the world” – it creates a (appearance of) reality. It’s like peeking through the window when you hear commotion in your street, or (collectively) slowing down on the high way to watch when an accident happened. The guessing what the commotion will lead to is what fascinates us. In the 1920s and 30s, movies were considered “truth machines”, able to reveal certain social and political truths. In the 1960s, famous French philosopher Jean Baudrillard said that fiction as well as non-fiction are merely simulations. Today, though, it’s understood that film should not be compared to reality, either to measure the gap between reality and deption, or to measure the accuracy of the depiction. Instead, we should look at how movie and reality are related to each other: movie draws from real life, but also influences it. It’s not so much about the gap between movie and reality, but the interaction between them. Lines between reality and fiction have blurred (and not just in film!). The Book Thief (2013) – Behind the Scenes No depiction in a movie is objective or neutral. This is why we can’t speak about a movie’s “truth”, “reality” or “authenticity”: film is in the eye of the beholder. And on a final note… Not only does film entertain, it also informs us and even educates us about the world around us, and most importantly, persuades us to see the world in a certain way. Most are not aware of this persuasion, but if you are, trust me, it’s so much fun to encounter, analyze and criticize the way the movies persuade us into thinking about things in a certain way. It gives watching a movie a whole new dimension, which is what I enjoy about film most of all. Although, I have to admit that some movies carry meaning I do so absolutely not agree with that it can be a tad frustrating that people are not aware of the way they’re being influenced. Nevertheless, the deeper understanding of the world that film analysis can offer is, in my opinion, definitely worth it! Next in this series is How To Analyze Movies: Signs, Codes & Conventions. I’ll discuss semiotics, the study of meaning in a film through decoding symbols and conventions. Do you enjoy thinking about or discussing the meanings of a movie after you’ve watching it? How do you go about “reading” a movie’s meaning? Can you think about any movies that have made you understand the world better, even fiction? If you’re enjoying our How To Analyze Movies series, and would like to get access to them all – as well as our entire archives and newest content, become a member and join the awesome community of Film Inquiry! Feel free to use the AnalyzingFilm coupon code for a 10% discount!Subscribe Some books and articles I used for this article and can heartily recommend Ben-Shaul, N.S. (2006). Film: The Key Concepts. Oxford: Berg Publishers. Campbell, E. (2010). The Future(s) of Risk: Barthes and Baudrillard go to Hollywood. Crime Media Culture, 6(1), 7-26. Dowler, K., Fleming, T. & Muzzatti, S. L. (2006). Constructing Crime: Media, Crime, and Popular Culture. Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice, 48(6), 837-850. Kohm, S. A. (2009). Naming, shaming and criminal justice: Mass-mediated humiliation as entertainment and punishment. Crime Media Culture, 5(2), 188-205. Rafter, N. (2006). Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society. New York: Oxford University Press. How to Analyze Movies #2: Signs, Codes & Conventions This is part two in the How to Analyze Movies series (find part 1 here!), and today we’ll be discussing the signs, codes and conventions in a movie that can tell you a lot about the message that the creators are trying to convey.Some creators are very aware of the use of signs, codes and conventions in their movies, though some are not – then the symbolism is there but not on the surface, which makes it a little harder to interpret. Semiotic Analysis The study of these signs, codes and conventions in movies is called semiotics. Semiotic analysis is a way to explain how we make meaning from codes – all meaning is encoded in that which creates the meaning. No object or word goes without a meaning – we cannot read or see something without associating it to a certain idea – the meaning. In our youths, we have all been taught how to decode what we see, read and hear, we have all learned to decode meaning. However, what we should realize is that the decoded meaning is not our own idea, but somebody else’s. For example. If you read the word “failure”, you decode it by relating it to the value your culture adheres to the concept of failure and its antonym – success. Although it’s not said we cannot create meaning on our own, 99% percent of the time, the meaning comes from some pre-established (cultural) idea. Signs and Codes In semiotic analysis, the smallest units of meaning are signs. For example, the way you dress is, to others, a group of signs that tells them something about you – clothing encode the smallest of signs, e.g. your popped collar means you’re preppy. Your band t- shirt and over-sized pants are signs that you are a music fan, but together create a group of signs (t-shirt + baggy pants + maybe even black nail polish?), a code, that suggests that you are perhaps also a bit of a rebel. Everything here signifies that Juno is really rebellious. You could say meaning has two “levels”. On its most basic level, there is the sign: the denotation, which is the literal meaning. But when a sign occurs in a group, or in a particular context, it becomes a code, and it can suggest or connote extra meaning. For instance, the color red simply denotes a color, but in a certain context it can connote emotion, like anger, or love. These codes are often used in media to reinforce, subtly, the way we should think about certain things or how we should behave (a culture’s dominant ideologies), i.e.
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