Come with me. And you'll see. A world...of pure analyzation.

As previously posted, I got accepted to graduate school for Screenwriting and Film Studies. I begin classes this summer, and thus I've begun teaching myself some film analysis. When I told a professor on campus that I'd never taken a film class before and I was concerned about jumping in from the beginning, he provided me with an intro to film textbook that he didn't need. I've since been combing every page of it.

I'm almost done with the textbook, and then I'll have a fair base of theory. The application of it however, is the hard part. This is where this post is heading to. Later this week, I'm going to start a project. I'm going to choose a film, and I'm going to watch it 6 times. One time for each specific chapter focused on in the book. Each viewing, I will focus on one aspect of film out of the following and in this order:


1. Narrative
2. Mise-en-Scène
3. Cinematography
4. Acting
5. Editing
6. Sound

I'll be writing a new article for each of the studies up there. My plan is to write it as I watch so that I'll be able to specifically reference scenes of the movie. Since most of you don't have generous professors handing out free textbooks, I'll post essential information in the article before I get to the meat of it. After the experiment, I'll write a new article detailing the movie as a whole and/or write how this experiment was helpful or time-wasting.

The title of this post isn't just an amazing play on words, but rather an invitation to join me in this endeavor. Feel free to tag along anyway you wish. If you'd like to get the book and follow along with each article to a movie of your choice, then do it. If you'd like to suggest a movie for this experiment, do that. Or if you'd just like to read it, that's cool too. If you want to tell me I'm dumb, then don't.

I hope to have a movie chosen for this in the next couple of days. I'd like for it to be relatively short. I can't watch 24 hours of Return of the King special edition in a week and live to tell about it (because it'd be too awesome) and of course it should be something entertaining that I don't mind watching everyday for a week. I'd like to stick with something not part of a trilogy or other series because I feel like it'd make it difficult when analyzing the story. Any suggestions?

If you're willing to join me in this endeavor, the book I'm using is, Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film (second edition).

Until then...keep it reel.