• Research shows young adults spend nearly 50% of their leisure time watching films and video.
• In the past one hundred years film has become a vitally important part of contemporary culture as it , which today is becoming increasingly saturated by visual media. We are called to acknowledge and analyze our greatest sources of entertainment and information as they effect the warp and woof of our lives.
• Analysis of media arts is essential to the health of democratic society. Our culture depends on literacy of the electorate–the electorate which gleans its information largely from visual media.
• We must hone our skills as critical viewers by being knowledgeable in the most popular art form of our time and possessing the analytical skills to understand and interpret film.
• Film consists of codes, images, and messages, just as traditional literature does, and we develop our means to make meaning when we study this form of expression.
• Film and literature share similarities and differences that can be compared and contrasted, illuminating both forms. For example, symbolism and setting in a literary text are analogous to and may be demonstrated by color and lighting in a cinematic work. Point of view, another key element of literature, is effected in film by camera angle. And so on. It is no surprise that many filmmakers in recent years as well as in the early days of cinema have turned to classic literature and reinterpret their plots on the silver screen.
• One aim of film analysis is to help us gain a better understanding of the director’s intentions. By examining camera movement, camera angle, sound, editing, time manipulation and other aspects, and then discussing and writing about these elements, we consider the narrative and the choices the director made in a critical way that leads to his purpose. Further we can consider how well the elements work to the director’s end.
• Because film as an immediacy and all-encompassing manner, it is all too often passively viewed. We as the audience need to develop not only an appreciation for it to move us but realize how and why it does so.
• Finally, we it is important to view films that require more from viewers that to simply watch the picture play. As foreign, art, and independent films increase their audiences in our country, a new culture is rendered–a culture by which we may be inspired, challenged, enriched, and delighted.
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