How to Write a Movie Analysis Essay

How to Write a Movie Analysis Essay What is movie analysis essay and what is its goal? Movies can open a whole new world for their viewers, make them think about possible and impossible situations in life and come to different ideas. Movies can arouse different feelings and blow your mind (or not), but if you need to make a written assignment on a film, you may just not know how to get down to it and express your mind. If you need to know how to write a film analysis essay, this article is for you. A movie analysis essay is a kind of assignment your professor gives you. It should be formal, very structured and organized. You will have to write 3 or 4 pages of content plus cover and reference pages, so your total paper will be 5 to 6 pages. A movie analysis is different from a movie review. A movie review is more subjective, contains the author’s personal opinions, and a movie analysis looks at a movie more scientifically. Professors give their students the assignments to write a movie analysis essay to develop their minds, critical thinking and the perception of art. If you have watched only commercial blockbusters all of your life, this will be your chance to try out classical and arthouse movies. What is described in the movie analysis essay? In your essay, you should write about different aspects of the movie that you analyze: direction, cinematography, editing, sound, etc. There are different approaches as well: narrative, structural, iconic, and historic. You should include the history of the movie, as a lot of things depend on it. Structure of a movie analysis essay So, how to write an analysis essay on a movie? One very important thing is that your essay must have a structure. Introduction. An introduction should not be long. You need to write the background information: the movies director, main actors, main characters and other important stuff. The movie’s summary should be included as well. The introduction has to have a thesis statement and the reason why you decided to analyze it. Main body. Here you need to analyze and evaluate the film. The body of your essay has to have an organized form and include the discussion of technical and non-technical sides of the movie. Conclusion Here you need to include your opinion on the movie, whether it has changed after watching (or re-watching) it. Then you should rate the movie and tell the audience if you recommend it or not. Examples of steps of writing essay When you learn how to write an analysis essay on a film, you need to know what steps you should take. For example, you have chosen Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ to analyze. First of all, you watch this movie and take notice of everything: plot, visuals, music, lighting, editing, etc. You write the outline of your essay: introduction, main body, conclusion and all the secondary things you want to cover. You research the information on it: Who is Alfred Hitchcock and what is he famous for? What type of movies did he direct? What are the features of his style in general and of the movie in particular? Why is Vertigo considered to be an important film? You write a draft using your outline and the information you’ve learned. If you look at some movie analysis essay example, it may give you some ideas you could use. You revise everything and review your work multiple times with the requirements in your mind. How to choose a movie for analysis? If your teacher asked to analyze a specific movie, you have no chance, just get down to business. But if you have the luxury to choose any film you like, what would you choose? Probably, your favorite one that you have already watched thousands of times, and as a result know everything about it. Just don’t choose Transformers or Twilight, that would be embarrassing. If you don’t know what to pick, we will advise you to google some list of the best movies of all times (not some cheesy flicks popular at the moment). If you are a newbie in the art cinema world, look through IMDb Top 250 list (the movies with the highest ratings), and you’ll surely find something for you: timeless classics like ‘Gone with the Wind’, ‘City Lights’ or ‘Casablanca’; awesome animation like Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ or ‘Spirited Away’, and Disney’s ‘The Lion King’ or ‘Beauty and the Beast’; more recent popular movies like ‘La La Land’ and ‘12 Years of Slavery’and many more. If you are a viewer who is pickier and who is interested in great film directors, the history of the cinema and everything indie, art house or just unusual, the IMDb list will be mostly too pop for you. Try out the Sight Sound magazine’s The 50 Greatest Films of All Time list. The movies there are chosen by more than 800 critics and other professionals from the cinema world. How to write an essay outline + example If you have to write a movie analysis essay for assignment, you need to have an outline. An outline is structured guidance that will help you in drafting and in actually writing your essay. When you look at your outline, you should see what you intend to write. Here is an example how it may look: Introduction Main information about the film. Who directed it and who are the main characters? The statement of your thesis and why you analyze it. Main body Summarize the movie’s plot briefly. Provide savvy (technical etc.) information about the movie. What is the main theme of the film? The theme’s significance. What are the visuals of the movie â€" camera work, editing, angles, costumes, lighting, etc. Conclusion What is your final opinion of the movie? What are your ratings for the movie? Do you recommend it? To whom? How to write a movie analysis essay step-by-step Here is the step-by-step guide how to write an analytical essay on a movie: The first and foremost step is actually to watch the movie you have chosen. One important part is that watching it just one time may be not enough, so watch it several times. Let’s say it would be the first time before the beginning of your essay, the second time when you are in the middle of your work and the last one just before writing a conclusion you have enough time, of course. Write an outline. Before writing your analysis essay, you should have in your mind (and on paper/computer screen) the structure you need to follow. It will help you to organize your work and write essays more professionally. Search the information you need â€" the history of the movie or genre, the style of the director, etc. Write a draft â€" every essay needs one. First of all, write everything that you have in your mind (but remember the structure and the requirements), you can polish and make it perfect later. Revise, revise and revise. Make sure all the requirements are met and that the final essay is structured, well written and makes sense. When you are completely sure that you like the final product, the movie analysis essay is finished. Tips for writing Here are the tips for writing a movie analysis essay: If you want to understand the movie well and see everything the movie director wanted you to see, watching your film just one time is just not enough. When you see the movie once, almost everything that you take notice is a plot. Maybe some visual characteristics as well, who knows. The more times you watch a movie, the more you’ll see and understand, especially if you watch an art movie. Every little detail may have a special meaning. When you watch a movie, don’t do other stuff. Concentrate on the screen and try to catch the meaning, what’s going on, what the director had in mind, what details do you see, etc. If you eat a pizza, clean your room or talk on the phone at that time, you won’t be able to do it. Study the style of the movie’s director, the history of the genre and the place your movie takes in it. Maybe it was an important movie that changed the genre completely or made an important contribution to the cinema world. Enjoy your movie, learn new things, but stick to the requirements! Make sure that your essay has everything that your professor wants to find there because finally, your grade will depend on it. The structure and the formatting are very important as well. You may take a look at some film analysis essay example to see how it can look. Obviously, don’t postpone writing your essay to the last day! You won’t be able to write a good movie analysis if you didn’t do enough research and didn’t revise well your work. Some useful examples When you have this kind of assignment, you may want to see an example of analysis essay on a film beforehand, to make sure that you’ve understood how to write it. Sometimes students take a sample movie analysis essay from the Internet and just give it to their professor without making any changes, or only small ones. The result is predictable. Here you will not find a complete example of movie analysis essay, so that you won’t have the temptation to copy and paste, however, you can look at some examples how the tips that you have already read in this article will help you in writing your assignment. An example of the importance of re-watching the movie. When X. watched Kim Ki-Duk’s film ‘Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring’, he understood that it has Buddhist philosophy, different seasonal parts, awesome visuals, and music. When he watched it for the second time, he noticed that there is an idea of redemption. As for the third time, X. finally saw all the technical features and even found Zen. An example of the importance of researching. Y. had to watch ‘Battleship Potemkin,’ and she wasn’t sure she was happy about it. She never saw a silent film before and thought it would be boring. But after she googled the information about it, she knew that it is considered one of the best movies of all time and that it is a real masterpiece. So when Y. finally watched the movie, she could truly appreciate it. An example of the importance of sticking to the requirements. Z. chose his favorite movie ‘The Green Mile’ to analyze. He knew everything about it, so the work was easy. However, he didn’t structure the essay and completely forgot about a reference page. The result was that Z. got a grade lower than he thought and deserved. Taking into consideration the issues mentioned above, you can make the best example of analysis essay on a movie. Writing a film analysis essay is maybe the most fun assignment you can get. Everybody loves movies. But if you want to write a successful essay and get a good grade for it, you need to follow the rules of academic writing. And you can learn a lot on this path too. We hope that this article provided you some help and that you learned something on your way to good grades.