ILS 4320: Invention Work, Scene Analysis Essay
Invention work is completed to allow you the opportunity to explore ideas and create raw material to possibly use in a formal essay without the pressure of a big grade. It is informal and completely unstructured (and NOT an essay).
First, you will need to watch one of the films from the course schedule for Essay 1. As you watch, take notes about how the director makes use of film elements and what you see as emerging themes and their relationship to the idea of race.
After you have completed the film, you will need to choose what you see as the most important theme in the film and the one scene that best communicates that idea.
Now it is time to explore how the director constructs meaning through the use of these film elements in a bit more detail.
You will need to watch your scene again, making more detailed notes about the three film elements that you chose as well as the director's use of symbolism and foreshadowing in the construction of their narrative. You can creates bullet points or complete freewrites, whichever you prefer.
Your notes should be a minimum of 3 FULL pages and uploaded to Ulearn by class time on the scheduled due date.
-You can make notes about how the director uses camera shots to construct meaning and convey their theme and/or how these or used to aid in creating an overall emotional impact on the viewer. It is not necessary to discuss every camera shot in your scene. Choose several that you think are most impactful and important and discuss why as well as how the director uses them to convey their overall theme or use them to impact the audience in some way.
- You can make notes about how the director uses the various aspects of lighting to construct meaning and convey their theme and/or how these or used to aid in creating an overall emotional impact on the viewer. It is not necessary to discuss the use of lighting in every frame of your scene. Choose several that you think are most impactful and important and discuss why as well as how the director uses them to convey their overall theme or use them to impact the audience in some way.
- You can make notes about how the director uses the various aspects of sound to construct meaning and convey their theme and/or how these or used to aid in creating an overall emotional impact on the viewer. It is not necessary to discuss the use of lighting in every frame of your scene. Choose several that you think are most impactful and important and discuss why as well as how the director uses them to convey their overall theme or use them to impact the audience in some way.
- You can make notes about how the director uses the various aspects of editing to construct meaning and convey their theme and/or how these or used to aid in creating an overall emotional impact on the viewer. It is not necessary to discuss the use of lighting in every frame of your scene. Choose several that you think are most impactful and important and discuss why as well as how the director uses them to convey their overall theme or use them to impact the audience in some way.
-Identify what you see as the three most important symbols in this scene and explain HOW they are connected to the overall theme. What do they communicate or reveal about that idea? Provide detailed explanations for each.
- Choose what you see as the two most important individual STILL frames (not moving) in your scene and examine the mise en scene within each of them (the placement of items in the scene and frame). How does the director use this placement to communicate something about the overall theme you have identified in this scene? See this link as well. Provide detailed explanations of the use of mise en scene in the two frames you have chosen.
NOTE: when discussing mise en scene, you are discussing how many of the individual film elements interact with one another inside of a single frame.
