How to write a scene analysis paper

Scene Analysis Essay

Jan. 28, 2020 Engl 367/467—Intro to Film • Spadoni Assignment: Scene analysis essay Length: 5 pages (stick to this guideline, and do not go onto a 7th page) Due: March 19—hard copies at the start of class Who: Undergrad and grad students These four films are (or soon will be) on 3-hour library-only reserve in KSL: Actress (Robert Greene, US, 2014) The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, US, 1962) Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, IL/FR/DE/US/FI/CH/BE/AU, 2008) The Killing (Stanley Kubrick, US, 1956)

Part of this assignment is to watch all four films before March 3. I may give a quiz on or any day after this date to make sure you’ve watched them all. The reason for this is that the films you find the most exciting won’t necessarily be the safest picks or ones you would ever predict. Pick a film. Select a sequence and write an analysis of it. By “sequence” I mean a series of consecutive shots, not a shot here and there. It could be, for example, a scene, an excerpt of a scene, or a sequence that straddles the end of one scene and the start of the next. Shoot for roughly two- and-a-half to four minutes of film. Shorter is okay. Avoid picking too long a sequence or you’ll risk including too much to analyze in a paper this short. What you select will depend on what interests you and what you want to do with it. Use terms and ideas we’ve learned in the course, but avoid turning your essay into a list of identifications of this or that technique. Organizing everything will be your thesis and argument— that is, what you want to say and how you want to say it. Advice for coming up with a thesis and argument: Watch your film, taking notes all the way through. Note the sequences you find interesting. Pick a sequence you’d like to write about. (It’s fine if you don’t yet know why, but you just find the sequence fascinating, intense, disturbing, funny, sad, etc.) Watch the sequence several times. Keep taking notes. Patterns in your thinking and observations will start to emerge. That is, you’ll start to get an idea of what you want to say and how you want to say it. Lightning can strike any time—now, or not until after you’ve started outlining or even writing (common even for experienced writers). In an outline, rough out the order you want to make your points in—where to talk about this or that element or moment, where to make a claim or ask a question, what to lead in with, what to save for last. At some point, watch the whole film again, or skip around and revisit scenes in light of what’s starting to cook in your notes. Hint 1: If you’re having fun, it’s probably a good sign. Hint 2: If you start this assignment too close to the due date, you probably won’t have any fun. The first time you mention your sequence, indicate the precise start and end times on the DVD copy in the library, not another version of the film. (Don’t watch your film on the Internet or, Lord save us, a phone. Don’t use VLC to get times because they won’t be accurate.) For example, near the start of the essay:

In the sequence in which Beatrice finds the passport [21:15-23:36], several… Note the format of the code. If you’re using a viewing station in the Freedman Center, ask for a remote so you can get start and end times and do other things like pause the image. Don’t incorporate cue times into sentences like they’re words. Not — “The shot starting at 41:23 marks the end of…” — but — “The next shot [41:23] marks the end of…”

Keep the focus squarely on your sequence, but consider how the sequence fits into the larger film. Good places to do this are in your introduction and conclusion. More points:

• Don’t go on the Internet for hints and inspiration to help get you started. In a recent semester, three students, who did not take any actual phrases or sentences from another source, got into trouble for plagiarism. Let me restate: Avoid the Internet altogether. (See the syllabus on the serious consequences of plagiarism.) Be advised that a careful and thoughtful essay that’s wholly a student’s own tends to look totally different than one that, however carefully and minimally, steals from another source.

• Don’t listen to DVD commentaries, which cause plagiarism issues with notorious ease. Do

no outside research for this essay. Don’t quote the bible, Shakespeare, or any other source— including our textbook. Do not include footnotes or a bibliography.

• Assume your reader has seen the film and avoid filling up space with plot summary. • Avoid statements of author intention and evaluation. • Unstapled essays, and essays sent as email attachments, will be returned ungraded. • Follow the Checklist for Essay Writers (handed out with this assignment and on Canvas

under “course information”) to avoid losing credit. Follow the instructions in the box at the top of this Checklist to make a template file you can use for all written work in this class. See “Common Problems in Student Essays” (handed out and on Canvas under “course information”), which describes most of the problems I see in student essays.

• Especially review, on the Checklist, “How do I know I’ve revised enough?” • For your essay to be marked on time, I need it at the start of class on the due date,

when I collect it. • Keep the electronic copy of your essay. If I ask you to email it (not a PDF) to me and

you can’t, I’ll assume you have altered the formatting to meet the page minimum. Be aware that if the file is different than the printout submitted, your grade will be lowered more than if it had just been too short in the first place.

• I’m happy to meet with you to discuss your ideas and questions. Get in touch to schedule an

appointment well ahead of the due date.

Advice: Read this assignment and the Checklist and Common Problems documents. Mark them up. Use the Checklist, page one, to take care of many formatting requirements up front. Then set these documents aside and make the assignment your own. When you have a solid draft, use these documents as checklists to help you fine tune and otherwise improve your work and to guide the revision process. Don’t keep your film out longer than the loan period. If this happens close to the due date, you’ll be preventing other students from finishing their essays, and I will find out from the Library who has the film and lower your essay grade one or more grades depending on how long it is kept overdue.