how to write a documentary essay

Best Documentary Essay Examples & Topics

Watching documentaries is a great way to learn new things. These are films that shape and interpret facts for education and entertainment of their viewers. It has several social functions, which are to record, preserve, and reveal, and persuade. This form of motion films also aims to entertain and educate.

If you are struggling to write a good documentary essay, our experts have combined some helpful tips for you here. So, no need to worry.

First and foremost, you should find a topic . Focus on something you are genuinely passionate about. Think about the cause that matters to you: maybe it’s climate change, slavery, environmental cause, ocean pollution, or perhaps it’s something else. It is essential to find something that speaks to you. This way, you won’t struggle with composing your paper.

You can also find a list of essay topics for your documentary research below, checking our samples. Yet, to pick the right idea, we first need to understand what film types are available.

There are several genres of documentaries:

• Expository documentaries. Such films present objective information with a ubiquitous presence. The filmmaker usually does not appear on the screen.
• Poetic documentaries . They rely heavily on images and music rather than narration. That is to say, there is little verbal communication with the audience.
• Essayistic documentaries. These movies feature an essay-like narration. The filmmaker relies both on speech and on the images to make their point.
• Observational documentaries. They try to demonstrate an objective record of some activity. It almost does not have music and narration and tries to present the event as-it-is.
• Participatory documentaries. The films are the complete opposite of observational ones. The filmmaker is an active participant in the movie. They appear on the screen and communicate the subject.
• Performance documentaries. These movies feature a dramatic performance. It can be a concert, a play, or another performance event recorded in the form of a documentary.
• Interview films. These are the records of a conversation between two or more people. It relies on communication on-screen to deliver the message rather than on images and music.
• Dramatization. This type recreates an event using actors to bring the viewer to the event. Some argue that it is not a form of documentary.
• Mixed documentaries. The films use different modes and techniques. It can combine poetic, expository, interview modes at the same time.
• Animation films. Such movies are standard, too, and their most distinctive feature is the use of animation to present the material.

As for your documentary essay assignment, you can be asked to work with any documentary. Let’s figure out what tasks you will need to fulfill beforehand.

Documentary Review vs. Analysis

Not everyone understands the difference between a movie review and a movie analysis when watching movies and writing essays about the material. Sometimes these two terms are used interchangeably. Nevertheless, when it comes to grading and evaluating the paper, this difference is essential.

• A film review essay is a “consumer-oriented” judgment that aims to recommend (or not) a movie. One can find documentary review essay examples in the newspapers, websites, or online databases.
• An analysis of the film usually offers an interpretation and an evaluation of the movie. Some film theory is generally used as a framework to analyze and interpret the feature.

You can center your documentary essay assignment around not only a specific film but an entire genre of documentaries. You might be asked to write about a specific topic or an aspect of one movie in depth. Let’s try to see how it works!

How to Write a Documentary Essay

When you are asked to write an essay about a documentary, there are expectations. You will need to analyze specific elements in one film or a few.

No matter what your assignment is, we are here to help you nail it! Here is a short guide on how to write a documentary essay:

• Watch the documentary (and take notes) . We highly recommended watching the film several times before you start writing anything. Throughout this process, you should take notes to recall essential elements later on. Schematically express your ideas and arguments.
• Choose your perspective. You need to understand the approach you will be using. However, your position should be supported by the examples and ideas from the film. Search for what others think and say on a similar issue and compare it to your thoughts.
• Pick what to discuss. After that, you need to start collecting the examples and ideas from the movie that support your viewpoint. All these elements should eventually connect to the main focus of your paper. You can try to do some additional research but do not forget to return to the movie continually.
• Outline your essay. The outline will help you stay within the word limit. This way, you’ll structure your thoughts and ideas on the paper before you start your essay. Plus, you will remain close to the intended format while writing.
• Write it! Start with a brief introduction about the documentary and your thesis statement at the end of it. Then, evaluate the film, developing your arguments logically. In your conclusion, restate your position on the matter and list the critical points discussed.

Thank you for reading this article till the very end! We hope you found it helpful. Share this page with those who need our help. For your inspiration, you can check the list of documentary essay examples below.

🏆 Top 10 Documentary Essay Topics

• The roles of documentaries in culture
• The history of documentary film
• Documentary and propaganda
• Documentaries with and without words: compare and contrast
• Narration styles in modern documentaries
• Pseudo-documentary as a genre
• The role of documentary films in education
• Ethnographic film and its role in social science
• Documentary in the era of social-media platforms
• The ethics of documentary film

397 Documentary Essay Examples

The corporation documentary essay: reflection paper on the 2003 movie, “the corporation” a film by mark achbar, jennifer abbott and joel bakan, themes in ava duvernay’s “13th”.

• Words: 1181

Smartest Guys in the Room

• Words: 1969

“The American Factory”: Plot and Issues Portrayed

• Words: 1069

“Sicko” a Documentary by Michael Moore

The 2008 banking crisis in the documentary “inside job”.

• Words: 1412

The Century of the Self: Video Summary

The documentary “the american nurse” by carolyn jones, themes in “i am” documentary by tom shadyac, “battle of the brains: the case for multiple intelligences” by bbcw, the documentary “inequality for all”, “factory city: eupa”: how the documentary can be helpful, the documentary “the human element” by james balog.

• Words: 1740

“The 11th Hour” Environmental Documentary

21st century hackers – documentary review, “the game changers” documentary by james cameron.

• Words: 1669

“The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron” Film

Film review “see what i’m saying: the deaf entertainers documentary”, reflection paper: “blood diamonds-the true story” by schmuddelginger, “babel” and “super size me”: documentaries analysis.

• Words: 2286

Newsom’s The Mask You Live In Documentary Review

“commanding heights: the battle of world economy” documentary.

• Words: 1842

The “They Call Us Monsters” Film Analysis

• Words: 1116

The Documentary “Age 7 in America” by Phil Joanou

A girl in the river (2015): facilitating change in the community.

• Words: 1204

What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004)

• Words: 3663

The Movie Life and Debt

• Words: 1359

“Forks Over Knives” Documentary and Its Influence

“wal-mart: the high cost of low price” by robert greenwald.

• Words: 1047

Justice in Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line Film

• Words: 2805

Hot Coffee Documentary

“capitalism: a love story” by michael moore.

• Words: 1723

The Speaking in Tongues Documentary Overview

• Words: 1396

Documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” by Davis Guggenheim

Sicko: u.s. health care system issues, the documentary “waiting room”, fela kuti: music is the weapon.

• Words: 1393

Film Analysis on The Inside Job Movie by Charles Fergusson

“born into brothels” documentary analysis, the documentary “last train home”.

• Words: 1385

The Film “We Were Soldiers”

• Words: 1202

“Examined Life”, Cornel West – Summary and Analysis

Documentary: “the journey of man, a genetic odyssey”, mcdonald’s ethics in super-size me documentary, the documentary “triumph of the nerds”, “supreme revenge: battle for the court”: documentary analysis.

• Words: 1378

“Inside Job” Documentary by Charles Ferguson

Documentary “the medicated child” by marcela gaviria, “when the levees broke” by spike lee, commanding heights – episode iii – documentary, documentary presentation: the confessions, the trillion dollar bet documentary on finance, why we fight by eugene jarecki documentary, terms and conditions may apply documentary, inside north korea: michael wood’s documentary.

• Words: 1235

The “After the Mayflower: We Shall Remain” Documentary

The documentary “supplements and safety”, scene analysis from “finding dawn” by christine welsh.

• Words: 1120

“The 13th” Documentary Directed by Ava DuVernay

“let’s talk about sex” and “sex & sexuality”: summary and themes, documentary review “killer landslides”, documentary films concept and definition.

• Words: 1356

Documentaries as a Education Tool

The world of documentaries: touching the void and bigger, stronger, faster.

• Words: 1697

The Grizzly Man

Documentary “super size me”, “bus 174” children: oppressed, neglected, and stigmatised.

• Words: 1564

Polley’s “Stories We Tell” Documentary Analysis

“sun ra: a joyful noise” documentary analysis.

• Words: 1665

Documentaries: “Baltimore: Anatomy of an American City”

Flash point history documentary about the black death.

• Words: 1097

HBO Documentary Risky Drinking

The documentary “anthropocene: the human epoch”.

• Words: 1503

The “Central Park Five” Documentary

“cracking the code of life” documentary, “consuming kids” by adriana barbaro and jeremy earp, the documentary “the lost world of communism”, “the world according to monsanto” documentary, drug war in “baltimore: anatomy of an american city”, the film “cuban missile crisis: three men go to war”, the film baraka and its spiritual reflections, waiting for superman, “shadow of hate” film analysis, “21 up south africa: mandela’s children”, “the spirit of crazy horse”: the pbs documentary, “thin blue line” by errol morris.

• Words: 1127

“Super Size Me” Documentary by Morgan Spurlock

• Words: 1059

“Her Brilliant Career” a Documentary by Jean Holland

The “kids behind bars” documentary review, elizabeth leiter’s the abortion divide review.

• Words: 1023

”The Mystery of Memory” Documentary by Gray & Schwarz

• Words: 1123

The Documentary “Paris Is Burning” by Jennie Livingston

Rhetorical devices in america’s opioid crisis documentary, jobs & technology: “in the age of ai” documentary, “the house we live in” by california newsreel, “ishi: the last yahi” by theodora kroeber, the documentary “devil’s playground” by walker, documentary film definition, “a day without a mexican” mockumentary by s. arau, the documentary “the invisible war”.

• Words: 1654

Artificial Intelligence in the Documentary “Transcendent Man”

• Words: 1683

The Movie “Color of Fear”

The film “salud” and the cuban healthcare system, finding dawn (2006): violence against indigenous women.

• Words: 1072

A State of Mind: Film Analysis

• Words: 1200

Planet Earth in the Documentary “Pole to Pole”

The summary of harvest of empire, “the “running fence” by amelia knight, gillo pontecorvo’s “battle of algiers”, frantz fanon’s “concerning violence” and hannah arendt’s “reflection on violence”.

• Words: 1673

The Documentary “A Thousand Roads” by Chris Eyre

The “fyre festival” documentary by chris smith.

• Words: 1003

Summary of “The T Word” Documentary by Laverne Cox

The “ten billion” documentary reaction, the documentary “scared straight 1999” by bob niemack, episode 1 of “unnatural causes” documentary, the rise of the mammals documentary, the gathering storm film about churchill’s resilience.

• Words: 1436

The Plastic Planet Documentary Analysis

• Words: 1199

“The Corporation” Documentary Analysis

How to Write a Documentary Script (Fully Explained)

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on Published: December 11, 2021  - Last updated: July 10, 2023

Categories Documentary , Filmmaking , Storytelling , Writing

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term “documentary”? I can almost guarantee it’s not “screenplay.” Unfortunately, when most people think of documentaries, they think of a bunch of footage thrown together in a meaningful order, with voice-overs and music added at the end. In reality, a documentary script needs to be just as compelling and exciting as a script for a feature film. In this post, you’ll learn how to write a script for a documentary in this amazing medium of storytelling.

Documentary Scripts Differ From Drama Scripts

The first thing to know is that although you should aim for your documentary to be every bit as engaging and compelling as any movie, and for its script to reflect that, the way in which documentary scriptwriting works is very different from that done in drama production.

The terms “script” and “screenplay” are often used interchangeably. But most drama screenwriters will tell you that a script is a very specific and structured document, often divided into three “acts” with a beginning, middle, and end.

However, the script for a documentary is often more of a film treatment , often with a beginning, middle, and end, but with a much more open-ended ending. It’s an outline for a film that doesn’t establish every line of dialog, but gives an overview of what’ll or could be in the finished film.

Therefore, a script for a documentary doesn’t have to follow any particular rigid rules.

The process by which you achieve documentary scripts and even the way in which they are formatted goes through several stages, outlined below.

Documentary screenwriting ensures that the filmmaker’s message is clearly conveyed and transforms the raw material into something sophisticated and entertaining for the audience.

A compelling script is one of the most important ingredients in creating something great.

Related: What Is the Purpose of a Documentary

The Right Script for the Right Documentary

There are some types of documentaries that can be scripted much more than others. This is especially true of the so-called “essay films,” which have been very popular with commissioning editors and funders in recent years.

Scripts in certain formats at certain stages of documentary film production are sometimes a desire of producers and commissioning editors, not the actual filmmakers.

Perhaps it’s the very predictability of (and control over) such films that’s so attractive to those who control the money in the film industry.

The type of documentary writing you need to do in fact depends on the kind of documentary you’re making. As the maker of a film, you are its author. As its author, you are also (almost always in documentary) its writer. Your most important responsibility is to ensure that a good story – one that matters – is brought to life in a truthful way on screen.

Some historical films can be heavily scripted from the start because of the nature of the research and evidence.

Observational films and research can’t be scripted in advance like a screenwriter would for a fiction film. Real-life and real discoveries must take over during the filming process as your documentary is being made.

Documentaries often have open endings and go through several drafts that are refined as the filmmaker sees what the footage looks like or gets new ideas or information from interviewees.

Documentary filmmakers know full well that the wrong kind of scripting can limit the possibilities and options in the actual production of a film.

Stories Change While Making a Documentary

When researching and shooting a documentary, it often happens that your understanding of a story – or even the main story you want to focus on – changes in light of what you discover.

It’s a good idea to write down your ideas, but don’t try to write a “script” in the traditional sense.

The best documentaries are shaped and refined when the filmmaker understands and re-understands them. A good script is always a work in progress: it’s not set in stone – and it never should be.

Documentary is about discovery, and the script is just one of the elements that are defined as the filmmaker brings his story to life.

When veteran documentary filmmaker Errol Morris made his multiple award-winning film The Thin Blue Line , he initially intended to make a film about psychiatrist James Grigson, also known as Doctor Death because of his frequent appearances as an expert witness in death penalty trials. After meeting one of the men Grigson helped get into prison, Randall Dale Adams, Morris was convinced of his innocence and the film became an investigation that eventually helped exonerate Adams and convict the real killer.

If Morris had written and stuck rigidly to an initial script, he would never have made the movie.

The Essence of a Documentary Film Script

The best documentaries are shaped and refined as they’re understood and re-understood by the filmmaker. A good script is always a work in progress: it’s not set in stone – and it never should be.

The script is just one of the elements that are defined as the documentary filmmaker brings his story to life. Whereas in drama, the script is core to the success of the film.

Documentary filmmaking is about research and discovery, not determining in advance what’ll happen on camera. You can kill a great film and great story very fast by over-scripting at the wrong stage in the overall process.

That’s not to say you don’t think up scenes – you absolutely do. Just that you don’t force them into a die-cut mold before you’ve even shot the film!

Still, the various stages of the documentary process require different kinds of writing, which we can call a “script format.”

Perhaps confusingly, the documentary script has a different name and format each of these stages:

Outlines and Treatments – the Initial Scripts You Need

In addition to defining the basic idea for the film, an outline and/or documentary treatment will help sell or raise money for the film.

A good outline or treatment clearly describes the story and the approach you’ll take to bring it to the screen. You might draw out the role of the main character in your film with two or three fleshed-out illustrative scenes or even sequences.

The most important task at this stage is to give the film’s backers confidence in the project.

Treatment is more than just a summary of the story and your research so far – it lays out the anticipated scenes and sequences in a way that gives the reader an idea of how the story will play out.

While you can include some imagined (or quoted) dialog in the treatment, most of the work is done by outlining the action and key moments of the scenes you’ll include in the treatment.

Sometimes a selected chronology can be very helpful. In any case, you’ll find that it’s much easier to write the treatment if you’re clear about the sequence of events in your story. The Aeon Timeline app is a great tool to help you with this.

The Shooting Script (Filming Script)

Once you have the funds to proceed to shoot, a shooting script is supposed to help you plan it. It helps you to better plan your ideas.

Usually, a shooting script contains a set of planned sequences and the main elements of each sequence – plot, dialogs (interview dubbing), ideas for the opening credits.

A good shooting script is when all the ideas, concepts, and research are put together in one document that helps you decide who, what, when, and where to shoot.

Sometimes you need to discuss this script with a producer or executive producer before you start shooting. It can be very helpful in planning the budget and logistics at various stages of a shoot or shoots.

It’s also very helpful to share the script with your cinematographer and sound recordist so they can better plan their work.

This way, they can better assess what equipment they’ll need in certain locations and how they’ll need to light and shoot the scene. They’ll also know how to approach the entire film from a technical and artistic standpoint. You can note in the script where you think certain pieces of equipment might be helpful in realizing your vision – for example, if you see a role for a slider, a certain type of lens, or a drone in certain scenes and sequences.

Storyboarding can sometimes be very helpful, but it’s not the same as a movie script, where scenes are “blocked” and rehearsed. It’s more about mapping out the most important sequences on paper and thus in your mind.

Editing Scripts

After sooting, and before starting editing, you make a start on creating the editing script (sometimes called the ‘cutting script’ or ‘paper edit’).

Of all the scripts in documentary production, the edit script is the most important. When you add elements to the script, such as interview clips you choose for a particular sequence or scene, it becomes a ‘paper cut’ or ‘paper edit’.

Documentary films are won or lost in editing. It’s as simple as that.

The better prepared you are for the edit, the better your film will be. The linchpin that often guides editing decisions is the script and the daily updates you make to it.

I’ll show you some specific examples of how I use Scrivener to write my scripts. But first, here are some important principles to keep in mind:

Your editing script may be very similar to the shooting script. Chances are, however, that it’ll be significantly different based on the information you’ve gathered and discovered during the shoot.

Creating the editing script is a process that happens in parallel with logging all the rushes (raw footage) you filmed during the shoot, and especially the interview transcripts you receive. Logging is when you watch all the stuff through and note down (with time-codes) the good stuff.

When creating your editing script, be guided by what you actually have available for editing – not some theoretical construct that you think you can piece together with narration.

For effective editing on paper and for script editing, you need complete transcripts of all interviews and scenes where dialog plays a role. In the past, this was very expensive, and some producers resisted this important step. These days, however, machine transcription is surprisingly good – certainly good enough for creating transcripts suitable for editing and the like.

Documentary Editing and Scripting for Editing Works on Two Levels

Making sense of the basic story.

Sometimes you don’t fully discover the story or the layers within it until you edit. For this reason, documentary filmmakers sometimes use a Sync Assembly or “bout-a-bout” (end to end) approach in the initial editing phase, called the First Assembly.

Referencing the elements you filmed or acquired (e.g., archival film), you build them into the storyline.

Subsequent to the logging phase, this is a way to discover the merits of your material.

You should always keep in mind that the time or effort you spent on getting a shot or scene may not matter at the editing table!

All that matters is whether it’s the right shot or scene for what the edit needs to do at that particular moment. This is a very good reason to work with an editor instead of editing your movies yourself – you need someone whose only interest is in creating the best film, and who won’t be swayed by the production experiences you had to date.

Bringing a dramatic structure to the film

Much like three-dimensional chess – because film involves logic and emotion – film theory doesn’t always serve as a guide for dramatic structure.

Even if you use an inciting incident, a rising plot, complications, a resolution, and so on, sometimes the film structure can only be discovered by moving blocks (sequences) in a very fluid way.

It’s a very good idea to understand film grammar and theory, but also to stay very flexible when it comes to how you arrive at your rough cut. So – do study Blake Snyder, Robert McKee, et al. But don’t make fiction rules your overarching guide.

I’d advise you to have an editing structure – not the same as a developed script – that allows you to stick to your central flow of ideas when you’re editing the film and then guide it through the rough cut. Otherwise, you can very easily get lost in the details.

That’s exactly why Scrivener is so useful: it allows you to focus on a scene and quickly rearrange and organize the scenes and even the flow within a scene. I go into details on how I use it, below.

In my opinion, you should resist the invitation – or temptation – to create a script in Final Draft or side-by-side format: you’ll end up fiddling with formatting and all sorts of nonsense instead of doing the work that matters – getting the flow of ideas onto the screen.

Remember, your attention needs to be on what’s happening on the screen, the story, and the flow of ideas – not become some kind of quasi-screenwriter buried in his or her laptop.

Daily Script Updates

You will need to spend a lot of time finding relevant parts of the interview sync as your edit progresses.

My favorite way to do this is to prepare these parts of the dub the night before or early morning before editing. Precisely to avoid the buried-in-laptop syndrome identified above.

And then I can focus on the actual flow of ideas in the edit. Otherwise, you become an assistant editor: a path that can destroy a film.

The right relationship between a director and an editor is one of equals. A good documentary editor is a treasure who can bring great creative and artistic value to a production. This includes structural and narrative advice.

That said, you should always remember that as the director, you’ve to make the final decisions. If the film goes wrong, only one person is to blame.

If a film does well and wins awards, you should praise the other person in the editing room – your editor – who played an important role in making it happen!

Narration Scripts

A narration script can take several forms during the course of an edit.

In the beginning, when you’re trying to clarify the structure of the rough cut, it’s likely that you’ll record a variety of small pieces of narration script quickly so that the scenes make sense when you review and play them back.

They also help the editor edit the footage to make a scene or sequence work, even while doing the rough cut.

Later, you’ll begin to develop a cohesive narration (commentary) script for the entire film. You’ll usually record an updated commentary just before your rough cut is screened to help viewers see the rough cut.

After the final cut and, of course, during post-production (grading, mixing, etc.), you’ll write a final script that will be recorded either by you or a professional voice actor or actress.

This final script will be much more polished and should take full account of what’s happening on screen.

Write to Picture. Always.

The important thing to remember is that the narrative should follow the image, not the other way around.

Movies are primarily a visual medium, even though the sound is an important factor in the success of almost all films.

The narration is there to guide you through the film, not to have “radio with pictures.”

That’s why you should resist uneducated or inadequately experienced people trying to force a full-blown script to which pictures are then edited.

Doing so will result in a boring movie at best and a disaster at worst. You can ruin a film very quickly, even in the final stages of rough editing or even fine editing, if you let the narrative monster.

One of the problems is that a lot of people you encounter as a documentary filmmaker – including decision-makers – are incapable of watching a true rough cut. So they resort to what they’re capable of – following an audio guide through the material.

That’s one of the reasons why filmmakers end up writing endless narration too early, and films are ruined.

Make sure your narration serves the film – not the other way around.

The Devil Is in the Details

Here’s a tip: The devil is in the details. This is where good research can go into a script: just the right information at the right time to better understand what’s happening on screen.

Most documentaries need narration for this reason and attempting to resist narration for purely esthetic reasons is nonsensical.

There are some documentaries that do without narrative altogether, but they’re rare. The current Formula One documentary series Drive to Survive is a case in point: it uses interviews, real-world dialog (some of which is contrived), commentary from the racetrack (which is important to the films because it fills in the information gaps that would otherwise have to be narrated by the documentary), and subtitles to carry the films.

To see how a master storyteller uses his films, check out one of Werner Herzog’s films. Grizzly Man would be a good place to start!

Post Production Scripts

When the film is completed in post-production, the department or production manager for a film usually hires someone to write a full post-production script.

In terms of format, it’s similar to a film script – it serves to present the entire film in screenplay form, complete with accurate interview dubs and descriptions of the plot, locations, archives used, music, and so on.

Tips for Creating a Script for a Documentary Film or Short Film Script

See the wood for the trees.

First of all, it’s extremely important to “see the wood for the trees”, i.e. to always keep in mind the structure of your film and its central ideas and the core documentary idea – the so-called “controlling idea”.

You need to keep your subject matter front and center in your attention, on the screen, and on the page! This is true even when telling a short story, and constructing a short film script.

Once you get into the detailed and exhausting work of shooting and editing, it’s easy to lose sight of the most important things your film needs to do.

Use Mind Mapping Alongside Scripting

A big part of the solution is to use mind mapping in combination with your script. Even with a short script.

A mind map gives you an instant overview of the structure, allows you to move structural ideas around very quickly, and lets you expand or reduce levels of detail.

The two apps I use almost daily are iThoughts and TheBrain. Both work for Mac and Windows and are long-established and robust.

I use them to map out ideas and connections in a mind map and then incorporate them into my writing. Then, as ideas come up while writing, I transfer them back to the mind map. And so on.

Scrivener as the Best Documentary Film Scripting Solution

I’ll put it bluntly: If you’re writing a screenplay, you need Scrivener as your screenwriting software. It’s a long-established solution for successful writers in fiction, nonfiction, and screenplay.

The reason is that there’s no other program that’s as flexible and powerful when it comes to making your way through the sometimes quite complex screenplay scenarios.

Elements in your scripts

The following elements are likely to appear in a video script for a documentary:

• Interview sync (in vision)
• Interview sync (voiceover)
• Archive footage
• Archive photos
• Actuality (footage you shot on location)
• B-roll (illustrative footage you shoot on location)
• Archival footage

Scrivener’s corkboard

The classic Hollywood technique was to hang index cards on a cork wall – and for good reason. You need to be able to move elements, scenes, etc. around quickly and flexibly so that it makes immediate sense when you look at it.

Check out how a scene can be rendered in Scrivener (it’s from my film The Warning ).

This scene is in a relatively late stage of editing. I’ve color-coded the different elements (reality, commentary, interview dubbing, etc.).

On the left is the entire sequence of the movie – in the Scrivener “binder”. Each element – interview sync, commentary, stock footage, etc. – has its own “document” in the binder.

When you select a binder in the draft (the entire script), that binder can be displayed in a “cork” view (in the central panel) where each document is displayed as a separate tab.

When you select the entire draft, the subfolders and sub-sub folders (which can correspond to sequences and scenes) are displayed as cards in the cork panel – you can then view them to learn the details they contain.

The fact that the Corkboard can display the most important scenes and sequences in the movie is worth its weight in gold. Each scene heading or element identifier is displayed at the top of each card, in bold.

On the right side, you’ll find the “scrivenings” in Scrivener-speak. These are the complete text versions of the elements.

Rapid re-ordering

If I decide to swap the order of two parts, I can do so in one of the three fields, and the order will automatically and immediately appear in the other two fields.

The value of this feature when plotting and editing are hard to underestimate. It’s a very fluid and quick way to keep the script on track during editing and to edit possible sequences within scenes and sequences on paper before editing.

You can also display one part of your script on the right and another part on the left for comparison. If you want, you can also assign “labels” to individual items to help you find or filter them – this can be very useful if, for example, you only want to see the commentaries and nothing else. Or all the interview syncs, one after another.

There’s a lot more to say about this, but trust me, it’s much better than scripting and customizing in Word or Google Docs.

Side-by-side template

If you want to create a script for a documentary at a later date, you can do that. Scrivener has a template built in to help you. Some TV stations and broadcasters insist on having such a template. Especially for a TV show format or series.

Index card synopses

The kicker for me is that Scrivener allows you to create a summary for each index card in the Corkboard and display them all at the click of a button.

Or Scrivener will automatically generate summaries based on the content of each document in the binder. You can even assign images to each card, so you can create a traditional storyboard in Scrivener if you want.

Script Follows Structure

My final piece of advice on this topic is to make sure your script follows structure. Always.

Don’t let people who don’t know how to put together a documentary (because they lack the necessary experience) push you into tinkering with details before you have a handle on the structure of your film.

Professional editors and others understand this very well.

You can go over your story before writing the script, which means you write down the entire story as it comes to mind.

Usually, though, it’s like this. I find it makes more sense to create a good chronology (I use Aeon Timeline) for reference, and then mind map out the story and how I want to tell it before using Scrivener.

• 1-800-611-FILM
• Documentary Filmmaking

How To Write A Documentary Script

From eye-opening films like Blackfish (2013) to emotional narratives told in movies like Bowling for Columbine (2002), documentaries have the power to captivate and showcase the brilliance of humanity when crafted with care. Every director and producer has their own unique approach to creating a documentary script and finding your voice as a filmmaker can be an exciting and liberating experience for those new to the field.

However, depending on the subject matter, it can be challenging to get started on a script. That’s why having a well-established system can help get you to the finish line.

How to Write a Documentary Script

While there’s no set formula for writing a documentary script , there are best practices that can make the process as seamless as possible. Here are some of our favorite tips for writing a compelling documentary script.

1. Find a Story You’re Passionate About

Why a documentary? What are you hoping to convey? Why are you the perfect person to tell this story? These are all questions you answer in a pitch in order to be green-lit by producers and executive producers. However, it’s important to first answer them for yourself. The answers can help you find a story that you’re truly passionate about, which will be worth the long process of making a documentary. Once you’ve answered these questions, you can start the difficult task of researching your material, finding the story, and creating a script.

Recently, for instance, NYFA welcomed Ukrainian documentary filmmakers who discussed filming in the conflict back home in their country. The filmmakers discussed why they were suited to tell their own story, how it benefits the audience, and the crystal clear message they hope to share with international viewers.

2. Research, Research, Research

During the pre-production phase of making a documentary, research is crucial, as it serves as the foundation for your script. It’s common for others to have already explored the topic you’re working on, so it’s important to dive deeper and get a new angle. If you’re looking for experts on the topic, one way to find them is to search for books and then contact the authors. They can provide important background information and fact-checking or even become on-camera interviewees who enhance the credibility of your film. Their input is crucial in creating the structure of your documentary, which you can fill in with story details as you develop your outline.

3. Blueprint Your Documentary

This is the time to organize and plan how the story will be transmitted to your audience. This can be an outline most commonly expressed in a set of “sequences.” These are detailed scenes to show how the film may play out. When you have this sequence outline clear, shooting the frame is much easier because you already know what you want. This sequence outline follows the natural narrative spine of storytelling , which is broken into acts that culminate in the overall message that you are trying to convey. There may be some tweaking, but the sequence outline is a guide.

4. Write the Script

The first column is optional and is used by some filmmakers as a guide to the arc of the narrative. Video and Audio columns are standard, and they are formatted so that the visuals line up with the audio (interview, narration, music, etc.) that plays over them.

Once you have collected your research, data, and interviews, only then can you write the script. Without research, it would be impossible to conceive what an interviewee is going to say and how that ties into your message. Once you have all of the facts and materials, then you can sit down and write the script and voice-overs. As a tip: work backward. It is one of the best ways how to write a documentary script.

5. Engage Your Viewer

To truly captivate your audience, it’s important to establish a connection between them and your documentary. One effective way to achieve this is by focusing on protagonists with captivating personal stories that can truly engage your audience. By tapping into the emotions of your viewers, you can encourage them to open up and better understand the complexity of the issue at hand.

Ultimately, your goal should be to transport your viewers to another world, to provide them with fresh perspectives and new knowledge, and to inspire and move them through the power of your storytelling.

6. Commit to Your Message

It’s crucial to consider the message that you want your documentary to convey. When your theme is clearly defined, the process of putting the entire script and production together becomes much smoother. This clarity of message can help your audience connect with your documentary, regardless of whether or not they agree with your point of view. At the very least, your film will leave them with something to think about and consider moving forward.

As a director, writer, or producer, it’s important to remain flexible and open to the story unfolding in ways you may not have originally anticipated.

7. Finesse Your Project

It’s important to be thorough and take the time to craft a script that truly reflects the message you want to convey and the story you want to tell. Rewriting is often necessary as you continue to refine your message and ensure accuracy in your facts. If you’re using a narrator, for example, you may need to adjust the script to fit their style.

Remember, documentaries aren’t just about observing humanity – they’re an invitation to explore our deepest nature, what drives us, what brings us joy, and what makes us feel sorrow. They showcase real people dealing with real, powerful issues that strike at the very core of our being. As a documentary filmmaker, you must reflect those deep, moving messages in your writing and capture your audience’s emotions. By doing so, you can create a truly impactful and unforgettable documentary.  

Bring Your Documentary to Life at NYFA

Want to learn more about creating an excellent documentary? Request information today about NYFA’s upcoming documentary filmmaking programs.

Step By Step Guide to Writing an Essay on Film

By Film Threat Staff | December 29, 2021

Writing an essay about a film sounds like a fun assignment to do. As part of the assignment, you get to watch the movie and write an analytical essay about your impressions. However, you will soon find that you’re staring at an empty sheet of paper or computer screen with no idea what to write, how to start writing your essay, or the essential points that need to be covered and analyzed. As an  essay writing service proves, watching the movie countless times isn’t all there is to write a film analysis essay. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you with an essay service :

1. Watch the Movie

This is the obvious starting point, but surprisingly many students skip this step. It doesn’t matter if you’ve watched the movie twice before. If you’re asked to write an essay about it, you need to watch it again. Watching the film again allows you to pay more attention to specific elements to help you write an in-depth analysis about it.  

Watching the movie is crucial because it helps you not specific parts of the movie that can be used as illustrations and examples in your essay. You’re also going to explore and analyze the movie theme within your structured plan. Some of the critical elements that you have to look out for while watching the movie that may be crucial for your essay are:

• Key plot moments
• Editing style
• Stylistic elements
• Scenario execution
• Musical elements

2. Introduction

Your introduction will contain essential information about the film, such as the title, release date, director’s name, etc. This familiarizes the reader with the movie’s primary background information. In addition, researching the filmmaker may be crucial for your essay because it may help you discover valuable insights for your film analysis.

The introduction should also mention the movie’s central theme and explain why you think it was made that way.

Do not forget to include your thesis statement, which explains your focus on the movie.

3. Write a Summary

According to an  essay writing service  providing students   help with essays , a movie summary comes after the introduction. It includes the film’s basic premise, but it doesn’t have to reveal too many details about the film. It’s a summary, after all. Write the summary like your readers have not heard about the movie before, so you can mention the most basic plots but assume you have minimal time so you won’t be going into great details.

4. Write Your Analysis

This is the central part of the essay in which you analyze the movie critically and state your impressions about the film. Ensure to support your claims with relevant materials from the movie.

There are also several creative elements in a movie that are connected to make the film a whole. You must pay attention to these elements while watching the movie and analyze them in this part of the essay.

In this, you are looking out for the dialogs, character development, completion of scenes, and logical event sequences in the film to analyze.

Ensure you try to understand the logic behind events in the film and the actor’s motives to explain the scenario better.

The responsibility of different parts of the movie, such as plan selection and scenario execution, falls on the director. So, your analysis here focuses on how the director realized the script compared to his other movies. Understanding the director’s style of directing may be crucial to coming up with a conclusion relevant to your analysis and thesis.

The casting of a film is a significant element to consider in your essay. Without a great actor, the scriptwriter and director can’t bring their ideas to life. So, watch the actor’s acting and determine if they portrayed the character effectively and if their acting aligns with the film’s main idea.

• Musical element

A movie’s musical element enhances some of the sceneries or actions in the film and sets the mood. It has a massive impact on the movie, so it’s an essential element to analyze in your essay.

• Visual elements

This includes special effects, make-up, costumes, etc., which significantly impact the film. These elements must reflect the film’s atmosphere. It is even more crucial for historical movies since it has to be specific about an era.

Ensure to analyze elements relevant to your thesis statement, so you don’t drift from your main point.

5. Conclusion

In concluding your essay, you have to summarize the primary concepts more convincingly to support your analysis. Finally, you may include a CTA for readers to watch or avoid the movie.

These are the crucial steps to take when writing an essay about a film . Knowing this beforehand prevents you from struggling to start writing after watching the movie.

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It’s really amazing instructions! I have got the great knowledge.

[…] now and then. Unfortunately, not all of us can afford to get cinema tickets to do so.  Some…Writing an essay about a film sounds like a fun assignment to do. As part of the assignment, you get…Since a few decades the film and entertainment sector have undergone some drastic transformation. […]

I can’t list the number of essays that don’t follow this format in the least. But then I find most reviews of movies terrible and most people who purport themselves to be writers as people who need to spend more time drafting and editing before publishing.

Thanks for this

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10 Tips for Writing a Documentary Script (Complete Beginners)

Documentary films can require a unique approach, different from that of the traditional fictional script for your conventional feature film or TV show. With documentaries on almost every platform and channel, they are an increasingly compelling insight into topics and places we wouldn’t have had access to a few years ago.

What is a Documentary?

The term ‘documentary’ has evolved within the film and television world over the years. Broadly, such a screenwork ‘documents’ reality. It is a work of non-fiction. Usually, they will focus on a specific topic from an alternative angle or perspective, which the filmmaker is often eager to tell.

This is because it is either a topic remarkably close to their heart or one they feel is not being fully explored in the media. Documentary makers use a combination of film, photographs, voiceover, and interviews, all involving real people and events, to convey a message, point of view or experience to their audiences.

Most documentaries range from thirty to one hundred and twenty minutes and can be shown in movie theatres or television. With the continued development of the internet and streaming sites, documentaries can be found in all lengths and formats.

Documentary Examples

The most famous documentaries in recent years include Harry & Meghan (Garbus, 2022), Tiger King (Goode, 2020), Louis Theroux (Various, 1998-Present) and They Shall Not Grow Old (Jackson, 2018). All of these encompass the truth and experiences of specific people or groups.

Alternatively, documentaries can also focus on broader global issues affecting humanity and nature. For example, films such as Oceans (Perrin, 2010), March of the Penguins (Jacquet, 2005) and The Blue Planet (Fothergill, 2001) all highlight the environmental impact of modern life on the natural world.

Keen to try your hand at writing a documentary script and highlighting a topic close to your heart? Let us dive into our top ten tips for writing a documentary script.

We have divided our tips into ‘before’ and ‘after’ shooting. Documentary scripts are different from traditional film and television scripts that are purely fictional.

Before Shooting

1. find your story.

Like any creative project, the subject of your documentary must be something you are passionate about; there is no use in researching and discussing something you are not interested in. If you are not interested, then neither will your audience.

Audiences should be at the forefront of your mind throughout the planning process. Is there a specific group of people you are making this documentary for? How will this documentary impact them specifically?

Do not finalize your documentary topic until you have asked these crucial questions.

Are you stuck on finding a killer idea for your documentary? Click here for 9 Creative Ideas to Start Your Next Script

Are you a beginner in the world of documentary writing and looking for a reliable tool to help you bring your vision to life? Look no further than Celtx! Celtx is a powerful and user-friendly software that can assist you in crafting a professional-quality documentary script.

2. Know Facts from Fiction

Before you start planning the structure of your documentary, the first thing to be understood is that documentary films are securely founded in fact and not fiction. As Das outlines, documentaries tell stories of “real events, real issues, real conflict, real people and real emotions.” The raw reality is the aim of the game.

Ensure that the topic you are exploring in your documentary is firmly secured in reality; the message you are conveying is easy to follow and understand; and of course it needs to be credible.

3. Research Your Subject

Therefore, you must conduct thorough and accurate research into your chosen subject to ensure you are not misleading your audience. You will need to delve deeper than you may first think, as it is likely your topic has been researched before in one form or another. Consult experts in the field, and use reliable and proven sources.

For example, we encourage you to approach credible authors and scholars to discuss their findings and your own. They may be able to provide a different angle or suggest something you had not considered before. Similarly, if a previous documentary exists that you wish to consult, by all means, approach the filmmaker. They could also give advice on the documentary-making process too! Bonus!

All input from your research and any experts you subsequently approach will help you develop a ‘blueprint’ for your documentary.

4. Prepare a Proposal

Proposals are a common form of fundraising for the making of the documentary. However, when you’re first starting out, they can be a great way of organizing and linking together your ideas.

Documentary proposals often include information on your intended audience, your planned storytelling approach, and a budget plan. Considering your style and tone is excellent to plan too; will it be a fast-paced documentary jumping between sequences, or will it be slower moving with longer shots?

If you are not too sure about the style of your documentary just yet, watch some existing ones. Seek inspiration from those in a similar topic vein to your own. Consider whether you want to emanate something similar or turn things on their head. Whatever you decide, make sure you can explain it in detail within your proposal.

Filmmaking in all its forms is a business, so it is advisable to have finances in mind. First, consider the overall picture of costs, for example, equipment hire, crew hire, number of shoot days etc.

When writing a proposal, even if for your eyes only at this stage, you must be as thorough as possible in envisioning your documentary. If you do eventually send your proposal out to prospective directors and producers, they will want to know every detail. Therefore, it pays to get ahead of the game!

5. Create a Blueprint

It is a widely debated issue in the screenwriting industry as to whether a screenplay is a mere blueprint of the movie to be layered upon or as Aaltonen explains, is seen “more holistically, as dramaturgical thinking runs through the entire filmmaking process” in modern times.

However, when it comes to the documentary script, especially when you are outlining a hand before you begin shooting, it is a mere blueprint of what you are about to film. Therefore, think of it as a ‘shooting’ script.

So why is it just a blueprint at this point? Unlike their fictional film counterpart, documentaries need to be flexible as they do not have the same stringent guidelines. This is because they are shot in the real world, which can never be scripted or controlled. Overall, this is what makes documentary-making exciting as well as challenging.

What you can control is how the story of your documentary will play out to your audience. Usually, you can present this as a set of detailed scenes or sequences suggesting how the film will be presented. Such an outline will be broken into the traditional three-act structure.

Why? Well, you are still trying to tell a story, and the three-act formula is a proven way of doing this, whether fictional or non-fictional. Of course, as with any screenplay, you will need to make changes, but these sequences will act as your guiding light throughout the process.

To support you with your changes, we recommend dividing your script into two columns: video and audio, so you can clearly keep track of both as you work.

6. Tell a Story

Despite the non-fiction nature of a documentary, you still need to tell a good, compelling story .

As we have discussed, the three-act structure is an excellent guide to planning your documentary: a robust and gripping beginning, informative middle, and thought-provoking ending.

The Beginning

The opening minutes of your documentary should include an audiovisual hook demanding the audience’s Attention. Then, much like an academic essay, the beginning should outline the message of your documentary and what you are looking for the audience to take away from it.

The inciting incident is a crucial element, which rocks the boat and makes your audience sit up and listen.

Prepare for the most challenging section of your documentary: the middle. The key to nailing the mid-section is the intention, bolstering the tone and subject of the documentary overall.

Each sequence you include in the mid-section must have slightly different messaging, which again feeds into the idea you presented to the audience at the beginning. You should gradually release information, ultimately persuading the viewer.

Das discusses the options of using an open and closed ending to a documentary. For example, if you choose to tie up all loose ends within your documentary and answer all the questions raised, you will have a closed ending.

If, however, you wish to leave your audience with unanswered questions, this would be an open ending. Das warns that this style of end “relies heavily on audience imagination to fill in the gaps,” and you must give them the resources to do that within the body of your documentary.

Whichever you decide, ensure you give the audience an ending they will remember and feel satisfied with.

Once you have your completed blueprint, it is time to start shooting!

After Shooting

Once you have completed your shoot, it is time to piece your footage together and thus move on to a final script.

7. Transcribe Footage

If you include interviews or improvised voiceovers in your documentary, make sure you transcribe it into a log. Yes, this task will take some time, but it will be fulfilling. In addition, it will allow you to organize and categorize sections of your script.

Include any speech in the audio column of your shooting script, editing your blueprint as you go.

8. Be Ruthless

The spontaneity of documentary making when out filming means that it can be amazingly easy to end up with a lot of footage that does not match up to your intended message. Now is the time to cut it!

Remember, keeping your audience engaged and on board with your documentary’s intention is critical.

It may be the most beautiful footage in the history of documentaries but save it for the deleted scenes or your social media pages.

9. Pay Attention to the Details

A similarity that documentaries share with traditional film and television scripts is rewriting. However, when it comes to voiceovers and narration within your film, these do not always support your visual footage in the best way. Or perhaps you misinterpreted a piece of your research, resulting in the wrong facts being included.

The beauty of rewrites is that you can make them post-shoot. But, of course, be mindful of the budget available if you are employing narrators or voiceover artists, as you may have to pay them to re-record.

10. Fact Check as You Go

You may have conducted the most credible research imaginable, but there is always the possibility that a fact may become irrelevant or be proven false.

Throughout your creative process, review the information you are including. Is it accurate? Is it credible? Does it originate from an authentic and reliable source? Time well spent to ensure no one is going to catch you out!

Once you have your completed documentary script, it is time to consider your facts, video, audio, and rewrites. Now edit your footage and voiceover to piece together your final cut.

Remember, there is no absolute formula to documentary filmmaking. Keep in mind the story and message you are conveying and the credibility of the sources from which you are drawing. Finally, choose a topic you are genuinely passionate about, and run with it!

Good luck out there, documentary makers!

Natasha is a UK-based freelance screenwriter and script editor with a love for sci-fi. In 2022 she recently placed in the Screenwriters' Network Short Film Screenplay Competition and the Golden Short Film Festivals. When not at her desk, you'll find her at the theater, or walking around the English countryside (even in the notorious British weather)

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Film Analysis

What this handout is about.

This handout introduces film analysis and and offers strategies and resources for approaching film analysis assignments.

Writing the film analysis essay

Writing a film analysis requires you to consider the composition of the film—the individual parts and choices made that come together to create the finished piece. Film analysis goes beyond the analysis of the film as literature to include camera angles, lighting, set design, sound elements, costume choices, editing, etc. in making an argument. The first step to analyzing the film is to watch it with a plan.

Watching the film

First it’s important to watch the film carefully with a critical eye. Consider why you’ve been assigned to watch a film and write an analysis. How does this activity fit into the course? Why have you been assigned this particular film? What are you looking for in connection to the course content? Let’s practice with this clip from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958). Here are some tips on how to watch the clip critically, just as you would an entire film:

• Give the clip your undivided attention at least once. Pay close attention to details and make observations that might start leading to bigger questions.
• Watch the clip a second time. For this viewing, you will want to focus specifically on those elements of film analysis that your class has focused on, so review your course notes. For example, from whose perspective is this clip shot? What choices help convey that perspective? What is the overall tone, theme, or effect of this clip?
• Take notes while you watch for the second time. Notes will help you keep track of what you noticed and when, if you include timestamps in your notes. Timestamps are vital for citing scenes from a film!

For more information on watching a film, check out the Learning Center’s handout on watching film analytically . For more resources on researching film, including glossaries of film terms, see UNC Library’s research guide on film & cinema .

Brainstorming ideas

Once you’ve watched the film twice, it’s time to brainstorm some ideas based on your notes. Brainstorming is a major step that helps develop and explore ideas. As you brainstorm, you may want to cluster your ideas around central topics or themes that emerge as you review your notes. Did you ask several questions about color? Were you curious about repeated images? Perhaps these are directions you can pursue.

If you’re writing an argumentative essay, you can use the connections that you develop while brainstorming to draft a thesis statement . Consider the assignment and prompt when formulating a thesis, as well as what kind of evidence you will present to support your claims. Your evidence could be dialogue, sound edits, cinematography decisions, etc. Much of how you make these decisions will depend on the type of film analysis you are conducting, an important decision covered in the next section.

After brainstorming, you can draft an outline of your film analysis using the same strategies that you would for other writing assignments. Here are a few more tips to keep in mind as you prepare for this stage of the assignment:

• Make sure you understand the prompt and what you are being asked to do. Remember that this is ultimately an assignment, so your thesis should answer what the prompt asks. Check with your professor if you are unsure.
• In most cases, the director’s name is used to talk about the film as a whole, for instance, “Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo .” However, some writers may want to include the names of other persons who helped to create the film, including the actors, the cinematographer, and the sound editor, among others.
• When describing a sequence in a film, use the literary present. An example could be, “In Vertigo , Hitchcock employs techniques of observation to dramatize the act of detection.”
• Finding a screenplay/script of the movie may be helpful and save you time when compiling citations. But keep in mind that there may be differences between the screenplay and the actual product (and these differences might be a topic of discussion!).
• Go beyond describing basic film elements by articulating the significance of these elements in support of your particular position. For example, you may have an interpretation of the striking color green in Vertigo , but you would only mention this if it was relevant to your argument. For more help on using evidence effectively, see the section on “using evidence” in our evidence handout .

Also be sure to avoid confusing the terms shot, scene, and sequence. Remember, a shot ends every time the camera cuts; a scene can be composed of several related shots; and a sequence is a set of related scenes.

Different types of film analysis

As you consider your notes, outline, and general thesis about a film, the majority of your assignment will depend on what type of film analysis you are conducting. This section explores some of the different types of film analyses you may have been assigned to write.

Semiotic analysis

Semiotic analysis is the interpretation of signs and symbols, typically involving metaphors and analogies to both inanimate objects and characters within a film. Because symbols have several meanings, writers often need to determine what a particular symbol means in the film and in a broader cultural or historical context.

For instance, a writer could explore the symbolism of the flowers in Vertigo by connecting the images of them falling apart to the vulnerability of the heroine.

Here are a few other questions to consider for this type of analysis:

• What objects or images are repeated throughout the film?
• How does the director associate a character with small signs, such as certain colors, clothing, food, or language use?
• How does a symbol or object relate to other symbols and objects, that is, what is the relationship between the film’s signs?

Many films are rich with symbolism, and it can be easy to get lost in the details. Remember to bring a semiotic analysis back around to answering the question “So what?” in your thesis.

Narrative analysis

Narrative analysis is an examination of the story elements, including narrative structure, character, and plot. This type of analysis considers the entirety of the film and the story it seeks to tell.

For example, you could take the same object from the previous example—the flowers—which meant one thing in a semiotic analysis, and ask instead about their narrative role. That is, you might analyze how Hitchcock introduces the flowers at the beginning of the film in order to return to them later to draw out the completion of the heroine’s character arc.

To create this type of analysis, you could consider questions like:

• How does the film correspond to the Three-Act Structure: Act One: Setup; Act Two: Confrontation; and Act Three: Resolution?
• What is the plot of the film? How does this plot differ from the narrative, that is, how the story is told? For example, are events presented out of order and to what effect?
• Does the plot revolve around one character? Does the plot revolve around multiple characters? How do these characters develop across the film?

When writing a narrative analysis, take care not to spend too time on summarizing at the expense of your argument. See our handout on summarizing for more tips on making summary serve analysis.

Cultural/historical analysis

One of the most common types of analysis is the examination of a film’s relationship to its broader cultural, historical, or theoretical contexts. Whether films intentionally comment on their context or not, they are always a product of the culture or period in which they were created. By placing the film in a particular context, this type of analysis asks how the film models, challenges, or subverts different types of relations, whether historical, social, or even theoretical.

For example, the clip from Vertigo depicts a man observing a woman without her knowing it. You could examine how this aspect of the film addresses a midcentury social concern about observation, such as the sexual policing of women, or a political one, such as Cold War-era McCarthyism.

A few of the many questions you could ask in this vein include:

• How does the film comment on, reinforce, or even critique social and political issues at the time it was released, including questions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality?
• How might a biographical understanding of the film’s creators and their historical moment affect the way you view the film?
• How might a specific film theory, such as Queer Theory, Structuralist Theory, or Marxist Film Theory, provide a language or set of terms for articulating the attributes of the film?

Take advantage of class resources to explore possible approaches to cultural/historical film analyses, and find out whether you will be expected to do additional research into the film’s context.

Mise-en-scène analysis

A mise-en-scène analysis attends to how the filmmakers have arranged compositional elements in a film and specifically within a scene or even a single shot. This type of analysis organizes the individual elements of a scene to explore how they come together to produce meaning. You may focus on anything that adds meaning to the formal effect produced by a given scene, including: blocking, lighting, design, color, costume, as well as how these attributes work in conjunction with decisions related to sound, cinematography, and editing. For example, in the clip from Vertigo , a mise-en-scène analysis might ask how numerous elements, from lighting to camera angles, work together to present the viewer with the perspective of Jimmy Stewart’s character.

To conduct this type of analysis, you could ask:

• What effects are created in a scene, and what is their purpose?
• How does this scene represent the theme of the movie?
• How does a scene work to express a broader point to the film’s plot?

This detailed approach to analyzing the formal elements of film can help you come up with concrete evidence for more general film analysis assignments.

Reviewing your draft

Once you have a draft, it’s helpful to get feedback on what you’ve written to see if your analysis holds together and you’ve conveyed your point. You may not necessarily need to find someone who has seen the film! Ask a writing coach, roommate, or family member to read over your draft and share key takeaways from what you have written so far.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Aumont, Jacques, and Michel Marie. 1988. L’analyse Des Films . Paris: Nathan.

Media & Design Center. n.d. “Film and Cinema Research.” UNC University Libraries. Last updated February 10, 2021. https://guides.lib.unc.edu/filmresearch .

Oxford Royale Academy. n.d. “7 Ways to Watch Film.” Oxford Royale Academy. Accessed April 2021. https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/7-ways-watch-films-critically/ .

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Essays on Documentary

What makes a good documentary essay topics.

When it comes to writing a compelling documentary essay, the topic you choose can make all the difference. A good documentary essay topic is one that is thought-provoking, engaging, and relevant to today's society. It should be something that sparks interest and inspires discussion.

To brainstorm and choose an essay topic, start by thinking about your own interests and passions. What are you curious about? What issues or topics do you feel strongly about? Consider the current events and social issues that are happening around you. It's important to choose a topic that is both relevant and meaningful to you.

When choosing a documentary essay topic, there are a few key things to consider. First, think about the audience you are writing for. What will they find interesting or important? Consider the scope of the topic and whether it can be effectively covered in an essay. Also, think about the potential impact of the topic and how it can contribute to a larger conversation.

A good essay topic is one that is unique, specific, and thought-provoking. It should be something that challenges the reader to think critically and consider different perspectives. Ultimately, a good documentary essay topic is one that inspires conversation and prompts readers to reflect on the world around them.

Best Documentary Essay Topics

• The impact of social media on mental health
• The rise of plant-based diets and the impact on the environment
• The influence of technology on modern relationships
• The history and impact of the Black Lives Matter movement
• The portrayal of women in the media
• The effects of climate change on indigenous communities
• The stigma surrounding mental illness in society
• The rise of fast fashion and its impact on the environment and labor practices
• The portrayal of LGBTQ+ individuals in mainstream media
• The effects of gentrification on urban communities
• The history and impact of the #MeToo movement
• The representation of race and ethnicity in the film industry
• The impact of mass incarceration on communities of color
• The portrayal of disability in the media
• The effects of globalization on traditional cultures
• The portrayal of mental illness in film and television
• The impact of immigration policies on families and communities
• The history and impact of the feminist movement
• The portrayal of aging and ageism in society
• The effects of social and economic inequality on communities

Documentary essay topics Prompts

• Explore the intersection of technology and mental health in today's society. How are social media and digital devices impacting our well-being?
• Investigate the effects of climate change on a specific indigenous community. How are they adapting to environmental changes and what are the long-term implications?
• Examine the portrayal of gender and sexuality in a specific film or television series. How does it reflect societal norms and expectations?
• Investigate the impact of a specific social justice movement on a local community. How has it sparked change and inspired activism?
• Explore the representation of a specific marginalized group in the media. How does it shape public perceptions and contribute to social attitudes and behaviors?

When it comes to choosing a documentary essay topic, the possibilities are endless. By selecting a topic that is meaningful, thought-provoking, and relevant, you can create a compelling and impactful essay that engages readers and sparks important conversations.

The Documentary "Inequality for All": The Impact of Economic Inequality

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Analysis of The Documentary Film "Facebookistan": Implications of Social Media Influence

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The Growing Up and Development of Girls in India in The World before Her, a Documentary by Nisha Pahuja

Analysis of the documentary trouble the water, a hunting ground: a review of a documentary on sexual abuses cases in college campuses, the concepts of dishonesty, truth and lies in making documentary films, analyzing the japanese americans history as shown in the documentary when you are smiling, the role of filmmaking in education, the process of individual enlightenment in go back to where you came from, a documentary by ivan o'mahoney, the best of enemies documentary: a personal reflection, the documentary "they call us monsters" analysis, analysis of the core ideas presented in the documentary "the secrets of sugar", a documentary book "into thin air" by jon krakauer, review of the documentary film 'food, inc', michael moore’s perspective of the side effects of guns as shown in the documentary bowling for columbine, review of super size me documentary by morgan spurlock, demi lovato’s documentary simply complicated: a story of overcoming depression and becoming strong, review of the documentary "under the dome" and the risks associated with air pollution in china, the issue of animal captivity in the blackfish documentary, america before columbus - film critique assignment, the issue of the captivity of whales in the blackfish, a theme of economic development in life and debt and bad samaritans.

A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record".

13th, The Act of Killing, The Central Park Five, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, I Am Not Your Negro, Sound and Fury, Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, etc.

Relevant topics

• Do The Right Thing
• The Hunger Games
• Freedom Writers
• Hidden Figures
• Miss Representation
• Movie Review
• Indian Horse
• Movie Summary
• Ready Player One
• Film Analysis

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A comprehensive guide to writing a film analysis essay – tips, tricks, and techniques.

Writing a film analysis essay can be a fascinating and rewarding experience for both film enthusiasts and students of cinema. Analyzing a movie allows you to delve into its intricacies, unravel its themes, and dissect its visual and narrative techniques. However, crafting a compelling film analysis essay requires a combination of insight, critical thinking, and effective writing skills.

When approaching a film analysis essay, it is crucial to watch the movie multiple times, taking notes on key scenes, character development, dialogue, and cinematography. Understanding the context in which the film was made and the director’s intentions can provide valuable insights that enrich your analysis.

Furthermore, structuring your essay effectively is essential to presenting your analysis in a coherent and engaging manner. Your introduction should provide a brief overview of the film and its significance, while the body paragraphs should focus on specific aspects of the film, supported by examples and evidence. Finally, your conclusion should summarize your key points and offer a thoughtful reflection on the film’s impact.

Tips for Crafting

When crafting a film analysis essay, it’s important to have a clear structure in mind. Start by choosing a specific film to analyze and watch it multiple times to fully understand its nuances. Take notes while watching to capture important details and moments that you want to analyze further.

Next, develop a thesis statement that will serve as the central argument of your essay. This thesis should be specific and focused, outlining the main points you will discuss in your analysis. Use evidence from the film to support your arguments and provide examples to strengthen your points.

Organize your essay in a logical manner, with an introduction that introduces the film and your thesis, body paragraphs that delve into specific aspects of the film, and a conclusion that summarizes your main points and leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

Make sure to analyze the film’s cinematography, sound design, acting, and themes in detail, providing insights that go beyond a surface-level analysis. Consider the director’s intent, the historical context of the film, and its impact on audiences to provide a comprehensive analysis.

Lastly, don’t forget to revise and edit your essay for clarity, coherence, and grammar. Make sure your analysis is well-supported and your arguments are persuasive. By following these tips, you can craft a compelling film analysis essay that showcases your analytical skills and understanding of cinema.

a Compelling Film

When analyzing a film, it is important to focus on what makes the movie compelling to the audience. Look for key elements such as the storyline, character development, cinematography, and sound design that contribute to the overall impact of the film.

Consider how the film engages the viewers emotionally and intellectually. Does it evoke strong emotions or make the audience think deeply about certain themes or issues?

• Pay attention to the performances of the actors and how they bring the characters to life on screen.
• Examine the visual style of the film, including the use of colors, lighting, and camera angles to create a mood or convey a message.
• Listen to the soundtrack and sound effects to see how they enhance the viewing experience and add layers to the storytelling.

By delving into these aspects of a film, you can uncover deeper meanings and insights that can be woven into your analysis, making for a more compelling and well-rounded essay.

Analysis Essay

When writing a film analysis essay, it is essential to delve deeply into the movie’s themes, characters, plot, and cinematic techniques. Start by watching the film attentively, taking notes on key scenes, dialogues, and visual elements that make an impact on you.

Next, develop a thesis statement that outlines your main argument about the film and how you will support it through your analysis. Organize your essay into sections that focus on different aspects of the film, such as narrative structure, character development, symbolism, and cinematography.

Use specific examples from the film to illustrate your points and analyze how they contribute to the overall story and meaning. Be sure to provide evidence to back up your claims and interpret the film’s themes and messages in a way that supports your argument.

Finally, conclude your essay by summarizing your main points and reiterating your thesis. Consider the film’s impact on the audience, its cultural significance, and its lasting impression. Overall, a well-crafted film analysis essay should showcase your critical thinking skills and offer new insights into the movie’s artistic and narrative elements.

Understand the Film

Before diving into your film analysis essay, it’s crucial to have a deep understanding of the film itself. This means watching the film multiple times to catch all the nuances, themes, and character developments. Take note of the setting, cinematography, sound design, and editing techniques used in the film. Understanding the director’s vision and the message they are trying to convey is key to crafting a compelling analysis.

Plot and Themes

One of the key elements of a film analysis essay is delving into the plot and themes of the movie. Begin your analysis by summarizing the main storyline of the film, including key events and plot twists that shape the narrative. Make sure to highlight any interesting or unique elements of the plot that contribute to the overall impact of the film.

Furthermore, explore the underlying themes of the movie and how they are communicated through the storyline, character development, and cinematic techniques. Consider the motifs, symbols, and messages that the director conveys through the film and discuss how they add depth and meaning to the overall viewing experience.

• Provide examples from the film to support your analysis of the plot and themes.
• Consider how the plot progression and thematic elements contribute to the overall message or central idea of the movie.
• Reflect on how the interplay between plot and themes enriches the audience’s understanding and emotional engagement with the film.

Characters and Motivations

One of the key elements of a compelling film analysis essay is a deep understanding of the characters and their motivations. When analyzing a film, pay close attention to how the characters are developed throughout the narrative. Consider how their actions, words, and relationships with other characters reveal their motivations and inner conflicts. Look for subtle nuances in their behavior, dialogue, and body language that provide insight into their personalities.

Identifying the main characters and understanding their motivations is essential for interpreting the film’s themes and messages. Consider how the characters’ goals, desires, fears, and internal struggles drive the plot forward and shape the story’s outcome. Analyzing the characters’ motivations can also help you uncover the underlying themes and messages that the filmmaker is trying to convey.

When discussing the characters in your film analysis essay, be sure to provide specific examples from the film that support your analysis. Quote dialogue, describe key scenes, and analyze the characters’ actions to illustrate your points. By delving deep into the characters and their motivations, you can craft a more nuanced and compelling analysis of the film.

Research and Analysis

Before starting your film analysis essay, conduct thorough research on the movie you are analyzing. Watch the film multiple times, taking detailed notes on key plot points, character development, themes, and symbolism. Additionally, research the background of the film, including the director, actors, production history, and critical reception.

Once you have gathered all necessary information, begin analyzing the film by breaking down its elements. Consider the cinematography, editing, sound design, and performances to understand how these contribute to the overall narrative and emotional impact of the film. Use critical thinking skills to develop insightful interpretations and arguments in your analysis.

Historical Context

When analyzing a film, it is crucial to consider the historical context in which it was created. Understanding the social, cultural, and political climate of the time can provide valuable insights into the themes, messages, and motivations behind the film. Consider researching the time period in which the film was made, including significant events, trends, and movements that may have influenced the filmmakers.

By delving into the historical context, you can gain a deeper appreciation for the film and its relevance to the time in which it was produced. This will also help you contextualize the characters, plot, and overall narrative within the broader historical framework, allowing for a more nuanced and insightful analysis.

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The Writing Place

Resources – how to write a film analysis, introduction to the topic.

While most people watch films for entertainment, those who study film focus on the elements of a film that combine to create the ultimate product. Behind the scenes production editing that occurs before, during, and after filming contribute to the images that people see on screen. A formal analysis of a film asks you to break a film down into its different components and discuss how those pieces work together to create an overall experience. Here is a checklist to help you write a film analysis.

Sections of a Film Analysis with Tips

The introduction to the paper.

Begin by  briefly  summarizing the film. You should not rehash the entire plot, but instead give the most critical information about the film to the reader. Then, introduce the formal elements that you will be discussing. Finally, your thesis should connect the elements you will discuss to their importance to the film as a whole.

The Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs of a film analysis are similar to those found in other analytical essays.  Each paragraph should discuss a different small component of the film and how the component serves the entire film. In these paragraphs, you should give concrete examples to support your claims. These examples can include scenes or quotes from the film itself, but you can also include different editing techniques or other behind the scenes work. Connect your examples to the overall film and try to answer the question, “Why does this element ultimately matter for the viewing audience?”

The Conclusion

Briefly summarize what you have talked about in the essay. Be careful not to make generalizations about the film that are not supported by the effects of the specific elements you discussed. In this section, you can discuss the overall importance of the film its historical context or address any lingering questions the film leaves.

Tips for Film Analysis

• Understand the vocabulary of filmmaking. Knowing how to talk about elements such as lighting, special effects, framing, focus, and screenwriting are critical to writing a film analysis.
• Try to watch the film more than one, if possible. After you decide which element(s) to write about, watch the film again, keeping those ideas in mind.
• A film analysis is not the same of a film review. Avoid making pedestrian judgments about the film’s entertainment factor. If you wish to criticize the film, do so by referencing formal elements.
• Unless the assignment asks you, do not try to cover every single element the film uses. Try to narrow your focus as much as you can to one or two salient elements.
• If you are referring to the actions of a person in the film, refer to the scene using the character’s name. If you are referring the acting itself, use the actor’s real name.

Exercise: Which Sentence Belongs in a Film Analysis?

Sentences and instructions.

When writing a film analysis, many students have to fight the urge to incorporate the components of a film review into their essays. In each of the following exercises, one sentence could be a part of a film analysis, while the other is better suited for a review.

See if you can tell the difference:

1.      (a.) In  Winter’s Bone , Jennifer Lawrence gives the performance of the decade. (b.) For her role in  Winter’s Bone , Jennifer Lawrence had to learn a West Virginia accent in order to portray an authentic character.

2.   (a.) The editors of  Hocus Pocus  use special effects to create magic on screen. (b.) The editors of  Hocus Pocus  used a green screen to give the appearance that the witches were flying over the city.

 3.    (a.) The lack of shadows in  V for Vendetta  gives the viewer the impression that the editors forgot to add in some special effects. (b.) The lack of shadows in  V for Vendetta  gives the viewer the impression that the scenes are occurring in a futuristic world.

Developed by Ann Bruton, with the help of Alexander Waldman

Adapted F rom:

Dartmouth Writing Program’s “Writing About Film” 

Duke University’s Thompson Writing Program “Writing About Film”  

Click here to return to the “Writing Place Resources” main page.

Study Guide - Edward Scissorhands: How to write a Film Analysis Essay & Cinematic Techniques

• Characters, Plot, Synopsis &Themes
• Quotations & Bibilography
• Film Reviews
• How to write a Film Analysis Essay & Cinematic Techniques
• Film Genres & Film Lighting Terminology, Film QUIZ

How to write a film analysis essay

How to Write a Film Analysis Essay

By Timothy Sexton

Writing a film analysis essay is an assignment that is less likely to terrorize those who fear the idea of writing an essay, because it allows them to write about something most people enjoy. Film analysis is not the same thing as writing a movie review, which involves passively watching a movie. An analysis means you must engage on a level beyond that of storytelling.

Watch the movie. Then watch it again. Take notes during the first viewing and, if you are analyzing a movie that is available on DVD, be ready with your remote control to pause and rewind.

Critically engage the movie so that you can effectively produce a strong essay. Focus on a single thematic concept related to the film. Ideas for essays taking this route could include an analysis of how the film is photographed, how the movie relates a historical event in a dramatic way without compromising the facts or how a single sequence within the film relates to larger cinematic concepts, like overlapping dialogue or the utilization of dramatic irony.

Introduce the film and its major participants, such as the actors and director. Include the name of another technician on the film if your analysis will be focusing on that aspect. For instance, cite the name of the cinematographer if you are going to be writing about the importance of shadows to film noir, or include the name of the composer of the movie’s score if you are writing about the importance of background music to the emotional tone of the film.

Provide a brief overview of the story, but avoid the temptation to pad your word count by writing what amounts to a synopsis of the story rather than analysis. Reveal plots twists or the ending of the film only if they relate directly to your analysis.

Write your film analysis with the movie at hand if this is possible. Write next to a television and DVD player if applicable. Stay inside the theatre for the second or third showing with your notepad ready if this is possible. Writing an effective film analysis is best accomplished if you don’t have to rely on your memory of events, dialogue or cinematic techniques.

Familiarize yourself with technical jargon related to the art of filmmaking. Learn the difference between a cut and a dissolve. Write about subjective camera work if the analysis is dealing with a part of the movie shot from the point of view of one of the characters. Properly utilizing filmmaking terms will strengthen the authority of your essay.

Source:  http://classroom.synonym.com/write-film-analysis-essay-4125.html

Cinematic Techniques

Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands Film Analysis

Help with writing a film essay - Linda Rubens

Film Techniques

Film techniques is the term used to describe the ways that meaning is created in film.

Camera Shots

A camera shot is the amount of space that is seen in one shot or frame. Camera shots are used to demonstrate different aspects of a film's setting, characters and themes. As a result, camera shots are very important in shaping meaning in a film. Reviewing the examples on the right hand side of this page should make the different camera shots clearer.

An extreme long shot ( animation on right ) contains a large amount of landscape. It is often used at the beginning of a scene or a film to establish general location (setting). This is also known as an establishing shot.

A long shot ( animation on right ) contains landscape but gives the viewer a more specific idea of setting. A long shot may show the viewers the building where the action will take place.

A full shot ( animation on right ) contains a complete view of the characters . From this shot, viewers can take in the costumes of characters and may also help to demonstrate the relationships between characters. For more information on costumes and acting refer to Chapter 4.

A mid shot ( animation on right ) contains the characters or a character from the waist up . From this shot, viewers can see the characters' faces more clearly as well as their interaction with other characters. This is also known as a social shot

A close-up ( animation on right ) contains just one character's face . This enables viewers to understand the actor's emotions and also allows them to feel empathy for the character. This is also known as a personal shot.

An extreme close-up ( animation on right ) contains one part of a character's face or other object. This technique is quite common in horror films, particularly the example above. This type of shot creates an intense mood and provides interaction between the audience and the viewer.

When analysing a film you should always think about the different camera shots and why they are being used. The next time that you are at the cinema or watching television see what camera shots are being used.

Important: These camera shots are used in all forms of visual texts including postcards, posters and print advertisements.

Camera angles

It is important that you do not confuse camera angles and camera shots. Camera shots are used to demonstrate different aspects of setting, themes and characters. Camera angles are used to position the viewer so that they can understand the relationships between the characters. These are very important for shaping meaning in film as well as in other visual texts.

The following examples will help you to understand the differences between the different camera angles

A bird's eye angle ( animation on right ) is an angle that looks directly down upon a scene . This angle is often used as an establishing angle, along with an extreme long shot, to establish setting.

A high angle ( animation on right ) is a camera angle that looks down upon a subject . A character shot with a high angle will look vulnerable or small. These angles are often used to demonstrate to the audience a perspective of a particular character. The example above demonstrates to us the perspective or point of view of a vampire. As a viewer we can understand that the vampire feels powerful.

An eye-level angle ( animation on right ) puts the audience on an equal footing with the character/s . This is the most commonly used angle in most films as it allows the viewers to feel comfortable with the characters.

A low angle ( animation on right ) is a camera angle that looks up at a character . This is the opposite of a high angle and makes a character look more powerful. This can make the audience feel vulnerable and small by looking up at the character. This can help the responder feel empathy if they are viewing the frame from another character's point of view.

As with camera shots, you will be able to see many examples of camera angles in any film or visual text that you view. The next time that you watch television or see a film, take note of the camera angles and think of how they affect your perception (idea) of different characters.

Another camera angle that you might come across is a Dutch angle.

A Dutch angle ( animation on right ) is used to demonstrate the confusion of a character. The example above should disorientate you.

Camera movement

Composers of films also use camera movement to shape meaning. The following are some examples of common camera movements and how they can be used to shape meaning in films.

A crane shot ( animation on right ) is often used by composers of films to signify the end of a film or scene. The effect is achieved by the camera being put on a crane that can move upwards

A tracking shot and a dolly shot ( animation on right ) have the same effect. A tracking shot moves on tracks and a dolly shot is mounted on a trolley to achieve the effect in the example above. This camera movement is used in a number of ways but is most commonly used to explore a room such as a restaurant. By using a tracking shot or a dolly shot the composer of a film gives the viewer a detailed tour of a situation. It can also be used to follow a character.

Panning ( animation on right ) is used to give the viewer a panoramic view of a set or setting. This can be used to establish a scene

An Evangelion shot ( animation on right ) is derived from the popular anime series 'Neon Genesis Evangelion'. This camera movement begins as an extreme close-up and zooms out abruptly, creating a blurring effect to emphasise the speed and size of the object

Lighting is a very important aspect for shaping meaning in films. What kind of atmosphere is created in a room lit by candles? Have you ever heard of mood lighting? A room that is brightly lit by neon lights might seem to be sterile or a shadowy room might be eerie or scary. The lighting technicians in a film crew have the task of creating lighting to suit the mood and atmosphere of each scene in a film.

Consider the animations Lighting example one, Lighting example two, Lighting example three and think about what type of atmosphere is created in each.

For each example, do you think the lighting suits the characters in the frames? For instance, in Example Three the two people are very happy and the scene is lit brightly. What would be the effect on the atmosphere if the lighting were dark and shadowy, similar to Example Two?

Remember that lighting is used in still image visual texts as well as in films.

Cinematography

Cinematography is the combination of the techniques described in this chapter. This includes camera shots, camera angles, camera movement and lighting. Use the term cinematography to group all of these together, for example, 'The cinematography in that film was exceptional.'

Mise en Scene

Mise en scene refers to all the objects and characters in a particular frame. More specifically, it refers to the composition of the frame. When you use the term mise en scene, you are discussing where the composer or director has placed all the elements of the scene within the frame.

Source : Information taken from educational website - www.skwirkcom

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How to Write a Film Analysis Essay: Examples, Outline, & Tips

• Icon Calendar 18 May 2024
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This guideline is designed to teach people how to write a film analysis essay. Basically, students and anyone interested in writing a good movie analysis essay should read the details and tips that can help them to produce a high-standard piece. The article begins by defining what a film analysis is, listing the possible topics of such an essay, and giving a sample outline and example. The guideline also teaches about the various types of film analysis and the most common concepts that such a paper may address. As a result, the article concludes with tips, including ten things to do and ten not to do when writing a film analysis essay.

General Aspects of How to Write an Outstanding Film Analysis Essay

A college education is dynamic and robust because students undertake various academic activities in and out of the lecture room. Typically, activities within lecture halls are theoretical, and those that happen outside are practical. A critical academic exercise is a film analysis assignment, where professors require students to watch a movie and discuss using particular elements. The elements directors and producers use to bring the action alive include the stage, lighting, sound, and other special effects. As such, analyzing a film is a complex exercise that requires one to perfect the art of writing. In turn, this article is a guideline for how to write a film analysis essay. By reading this text, students can gain insights into the details and elements they must address when writing a movie analysis essay.

Definition of What Is a Film Analysis and Its Meaning

According to a simple definition, film analysis explores the use of particular elements in a film, including mise-en-scène, cinematography, sound, and editing. Students should talk about actors’ positioning, scenery adaptation, physical setting, stage lighting, and cultural context when writing this kind of essay. Another critical fact to consider is that films come in various genres, including action, documentaries, drama, horror, romance, and science fiction. Each type of movie analysis utilizes the above elements differently. Therefore, film analysis means writing an in-depth examination of how directors and producers approach their productions to make them entertaining and informative. For example, most science fiction films are futuristic, showing how society may change. In this respect, all films have a cultural context students must address in their movie analysis essay.

Unique Features of a Film Analysis

Generally, film analysis essays differ from other types of papers, including an argumentative essay, a cause and effect essay, and a research paper, because they focus on a single production and explore the use of the above elements. Some unique features that differentiate film analysis papers from other types of essays include a short plot summary where writers briefly tell readers what the movie is about, such as exterminating evil. In this type of analysis, writers evaluate the use of the elements above and state whether they make the film great or below expectations. Another feature is a poster showing sceneries to give readers a visual experience of the movie. Such visuals are essential to arouse the reader’s emotions and mental involvement in a movie analysis. Therefore, when writing a film analysis essay, students should focus on telling the story and depicting it.

6 Common Types of a Film Analysis Essay

Students must determine the type of film analysis essay to avoid sounding ignorant and irrelevant when writing about the movie. The most common types are semiotic, narrative, contextual, mise-en-scène, cultural, and historical analyses. Each type requires students to adopt a singular focus, meaning one cannot concentrate effort on elements that do not fall under the study. The reason for these types of analyses is that it is not always possible to understand an entire film in an essay, which is generally a short text of about two to three pages. Nonetheless, it is prudent for students to know how to write each type, meaning understanding the approach and unique features they must discuss and evaluate.

🔸 Semiotic Analysis

A semiotic essay involves discussing, evaluating, and interpreting the use of literary analysis elements, including analogies and metaphors, to inanimate characters and objects. Generally, these elements have different meanings, and students should determine what a particular feature stands for in the film they are analyzing vis-à-vis its broader cultural or historical significance in society. For example, when analyzing the 1958 film Vertigo , one may discuss the symbolism of flowers by stating how some images of them falling apart depict the heroine’s vulnerability. In turn, when conducting a semiotic analysis, one should consider several issues, including the repetition of objects or images throughout the movie, the association of a character with particular objects, and the relation between an object and other objects. Hence, a semiotic analysis essay requires students to examine the use of objects and symbols to communicate a deep meaning.

🔸 Narrative Analysis

A narrative analysis essay involves examining the elements that directors or producers use to construct the storyline, including characters, the plot, the setting, and the narrative structure. As such, students should focus on the entire movie and the message it seeks to communicate. Considering the example above of Vertigo , writers may discuss the narrative role of flowers by analyzing how director Alfred Hitchcock introduces them as the film begins and only brings them up again toward the end to complete the heroine’s character arc. Students should also consider several issues when conducting a narrative analysis essay, including the plot and how it unfolds. For example, one may talk about whether events are systematic or out of order and what that signifies. However, students should not focus on summarizing the plot at the expense of making and defending an argument.

🔸 Contextual Analysis

A contextual analysis of a film is a discussion of the placement of the movie within particular contexts, such as slavery, women’s suffrage, the civil rights movement, or the industrial revolution. In this case, filmmakers produce movies and base their identity on the unfolding circumstances or themes defining a particular time in history.

🔸 Mise-en-Scène Analysis

A mise-en-scène analysis essay involves discussing and evaluating compositional elements, including sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting, and how they complement or conflict with cinematography, sound, and editing. The most effective approach in conducting this movie analysis is to focus on one or a few scenes rather than the entire film, telling readers how they support or undermine the plot. As such, mise-en-scène is part of the director’s narrative because this element influences how the audience understands the central message in the production. Taking Vertigo as a case study, one may discuss how Hitchcock incorporates lighting and camera angles to characterize Jimmy Stewart (starring as former police detective John “Scottie” Ferguson) as acrophobic. When adopting a mise-en-scène analysis, students should consider how particular scenes create effects and their purpose and how different scenes emphasize a theme central to the plot.

🔸 Cultural Analysis

A cultural analysis essay examines, evaluates, and interprets the broader cultural disposition the director adopts to tell the story. Students must understand that, regardless of a film’s production period, a culture influences its various elements, like characters and their mannerisms. Taking Vertigo as an example, one may interpret the scene where a man observes a woman without her knowing it to mean the sexual policing of women in mid-20th century America. When analyzing the context of a movie, students should consider how the film captures, reinforces, or critiques social norms in a particular culture or era.

🔸 Historical Analysis

A historical analysis essay means writing about a particular film from the perspective of the period underscoring its production. Ideally, filmmakers place their work into a historical context, such as the colonial era or ancient civilizations. Therefore, when writing a film analysis essay, students should focus on the period the director situates its plot.

How to Write a More Technical and Focused Film Analysis Essay

Film analysis helps readers to understand essential details, including the plot and its central themes, characters and their disposition, scenes and significance, and effects and the message they communicate. In this respect, one must be ready to undertake a technical, focused, and vigorous analysis of one or several of these elements. In most instances, instructions dictate the aspects students should write about. However, without such specifications, they should focus on a few elements and examine them vigorously. For example, one may decide to focus on the plot. In this instance, a movie analysis essay must examine the plot from different perspectives, including the characters, central themes, and the message. Such a focused analysis allows readers to gain an in-depth understanding of a particular element of movie reviews instead of an analysis that discusses several elements superficially. Some elements and terms that students can use for writing a film analysis essay include:

• Flashback and flashforward: Flashbacks are scenes that recount events that have a powerful influence on the current or unfolding event. On the other hand, flashforwards are scenes that reveal events that will occur later in the film, and their purpose is to create anticipation in the audience.
• Time framework: Film directors structure time linearly to depict an orderly unfolding of events. The most common time framework is omitting events to move the story forward.
• Setting: The environment within which a director creates a movie, including physical surrounding like a city and period like a year or century.
• Range of events: The different events in a film sustain the plot. Typically, these events directly or indirectly affect protagonists because they facilitate the storyline.
• Cast: The people producing a film, including the main actors and the production crew. However, actors take priority when discussing the cast.
• Plot: The sequence of events that directors create to communicate a central message in a movie analysis. When writing a film analysis essay, students should never ignore this aspect because it underscores the storyline.
• Shot, scene, and sequence: Features that tell the quality of a film but, most importantly, the interconnectivity of elements in the director’s aim to tell a story.
• Genre: The classification of movies into various forms, such as action, documentaries, science fiction, horror, or romance. Knowing a film’s genre under analysis is helpful in identifying the significance of cinematography and mise-en-scène elements.
• Directing: Supervising film production by visualizing the script, controlling and managing the artistic and dramatic aspects, and guiding the actors and technical crew.
• Scenario: The aspect of a movie analysis that provides the audience insight into the plot or characters. Ideally, scenarios are scenes that convey critical details of the storyline, such as climax.
• Acting: The role that individuals play to bring a film’s plot alive. As such, it involves all people who assume different characters in a movie, including protagonists, antagonists, heroes, and heroines.
• Visual effects: The qualities that filmmakers use to bring the action alive, such as images, shots, and scenes. When discussing visual effects in a film analysis essay, students should comment on how they reinforce certain concepts or themes, like mood, fear, and suspense.
• Music and audio effects: Sound and language that enhance the audience’s understanding of the central message. Most films incorporate background sounds in multiple scenes to arouse reactions in the audience.
• Camera angle: The positioning of the camera to capture precise shots in films. Filmmakers use camera angles in relation to scenes and characters to affect the audience’s perception.
• Lighting: A mise-en-scène element that filmmakers use to create different effects in a film. Ideally, movies involve different lighting techniques, such as key light, fill light, and backlight, to guide the audience’s attention, create a visual impact, give the film a texture, or create an atmosphere.
• References: Features that indicate how a film uses dialogue and images in its storyline to allude to, recall, or refer to another movie. Ideally, filmmakers use this feature to contextualize their productions within a cultural or historical space.
• Animation: The use of drawings or puppets with mobility like humans. Although it is a movie genre for analysis today, filmmakers use animation to give objects animal or human qualities, such as walking, talking, crying, or fighting. Animations effectively depict society as a complex system comprising different life systems.
• Protagonist: The character that takes center stage in a film and whom the director uses to construct the plot. While a film’s plot may revolve around several actors, only one is central, and others only assist the main hero in accomplishing agendas. In this respect, when students are writing a film analysis, they should tell the audience the main protagonist(s).
• Antagonist: Characters that stand opposite of protagonists. Filmmakers use them to depict the main character as assailed by forces aiming to thwart their agenda.
• Climax: The point in a movie where the plot peaks and where the protagonist puts into motion a series of events that significantly determine their final experience. These events may include betrayal, heroism, or tragedy. Therefore, one can identify a film’s climax by assessing how the plot intensifies and events directly impacting the protagonist unfolds.
• Hero vs. anti-hero: Heroes stand out as brave because they attempt what others fear. In most movies, protagonists are heroes because they survive what consumes others. On the other hand, an anti-hero is a central character who lacks heroic qualities like bravery but is timid, fearful, frustrating, and irritating. As a result, the audience celebrates heroes under analysis and loath anti-heroes.
• Atmosphere: The environment in which a movie imbues the audience through the sequence of events revolving around the plot. Generally, action films create an intense atmosphere because of the frequency of fights. On the other hand, romantic movies create an emotional atmosphere characterized by attraction and happiness. On their part, horror films create an uneasy atmosphere because of the constant anticipation of evil.
• Background: The technique of capturing an image or object from a distance, often giving other images or objects prominence. Filmmakers use this quality to create a sense of authenticity in scenes. For example, a scene capturing a rioting crowd may have in its background an image of anti-riot police forming a barrier using their bodies. Looking at the imagery, one may see rioters more clearly but also understand the situation’s intensity because of the police in the background.
• Cameo: The dramatic appearance of a famous actor or personality in a movie for various reasons, including fun, publicity, or to give the film credibility. However, such characters do not become protagonists because they appear briefly and only once. When doing a film analysis, students should indicate such personalities and the role they may have played in the plot.
• Cinematography: The artistic use of technology and visual effects to dramatize the sequence of events in a film. Ideally, writers should examine the scenes’ general composition, locations’ lighting, camera angles and movements, and special effects, like illusions or camera tricks.
• Comic relief: A scene that allows the audience to release emotional weight or tension that may have built up due to escalating events with a negative outcome, such as betrayal and a series of murders. Filmmakers interpose comic relief in tragic scenarios to avoid burdening the audience emotionally to the point of refusing to watch the film to its conclusion. The only film genre that rarely uses comic relief is gothic.
• Film critics: Individuals who have made criticizing films a part- or full-time engagement. Ideally, these people watch movies to identify negative qualities, like a confused plot, poor lighting, and sound effects. While one may consider them an appropriate source of film reviews, they rarely highlight a good analysis of a movie.
• Director’s cut: An edited film version that represents the director’s original edit before the release of the theatrical edit that reaches the screens. This part of the film is important because it shows scenes that some editors may cut or altered. By examining the director’s cut, the writer of a film analysis essay looks at the complete production and tells how it may enhance the audience’s viewing experience.
• Foreshadowing: The technique of giving the audience a sneak preview of events yet to unfold to build anticipation and heighten dramatic tension. Filmmakers use this quality early in the film to create excitement in the audience and make them want to view the production to the end. Typically, foreshadowing focuses on events directly affecting the protagonist, such as a tragedy.
• Editing: Perfecting a film by deleting, arranging, and splicing scenes and synchronizing all elements, including cinematography, mise-en-scène, sound, and special effects. The goal of editing is to make a film perfect for airing on the big screen. In this respect, it aims to remove all features affecting quality.
• Long shot: A scene in a film that filmmakers shoot from a considerable distance to give images and objects indistinct shapes, almost unrecognizable. An excellent long shot captures people walking New York City streets from the city’s skyline. While one would know the images are people walking, they cannot describe their demographics, such as age, gender, or race.
• Metaphor: A literary device that allows filmmakers to represent similarities between objects. An example of a metaphor in a movie is a visual metaphor, where filmmakers represent nouns through graphical images to suggest a particular association or resemblance. For example, an advert can represent beauty through the appearance of a flawless face, implying that beauty is equal to a look without flaws. Such an advert increases people’s interest in having a perfect face, leading to purchasing beauty products.
• Montage: The film editing technique where filmmakers combine a series of short shots into one sequence to condense time, establish continuity, or provide contrast. Montages take different forms, including repetition of camera movements, minimal or no dialogue, quick cuts, music, and voice narration.
• New wave: A French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s to pave the way for experimentation and iconoclasm, thus rejecting traditional filmmaking conventions. Filmmakers who subscribed to this wave used film as a medium, like pottery or novels, for telling stories and translating thoughts and ideas by experimenting with form and style.
• Mockumentary traits: Films that assume a documentary genre, although they do not tell true stories. Instead, filmmakers use parody, satire, and humor to describe contemporary society through events, ideas, and emerging trends. Simply put, a movie is a mockumentary if it is a fictional documentary.
• Slow motion: A filmmaking effect where time appears to slow down because the film captures footage at a slower speed. This technique is common for rewinding scenarios to reinforce an idea in the audience. For example, most productions of sports tournaments use slow motion to provide viewers with detailed and perfect shots that leave no room for imagination and analysis.
• Soundtrack: The sound, often music, which filmmakers incorporate in a plot to accompany scenes for heightened effects, such as arousing the audience’s emotions. In most instances, this music plays in the background, often from a low to high intensity and vice versa, depending on the scene.
• Theme: The concept, idea, or principle that emphasizes a film’s plot and central message, such cas sadness, victory, morality, or community. By identifying the themes that a director uses to construct the plot, authors of a film analysis essay can tell the audience their meaning and significance through the story of the protagonist.
• Symmetry: The quality of balancing shots between characters or placing shots symmetrically to each other to create a pattern. For example, visual symmetry involves repeating parts of an image along a path, across an axis, or around a center. Filmmakers use symmetrical patterns to convey a sense of unity or uniformity.
• Symbolism: The literary device of using objects to symbolize ideas. For example, a filmmaker can use a dove to symbolize peace or the color black to symbolize evil. In essence, symbolism allows filmmakers to communicate profound messages to the audience. Therefore, students need to identify symbols representing ideas in film analysis.

Count on Wr1ter Team to provide you with authentic, well-crafted papers with zero plagiarism.

Topic Examples for Writing a Film Analysis Essay

• Video Review: Salt (2010)
• Video Review and Approval of Black Panther (2018)
• Analysis Essay of Volodymyr Zelensky’s Speech “I Call for You to Do More”
• Examining Gender Issues Through Symbolism in The Ugly Truth (2009)
• Discussing the Narrative Structure in The Godfather (1972)
• Evaluating Christopher Nolan’s Use of Mise-en-Scène Elements in Oppenheimer (2023)
• What Features Indicate the Context of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (1993)?
• What Is the Cultural Context of City of God (2002)?
• How Does History Feature as an Element in the Star Wars Trilogy?
• How Does Roman Polanski Employ Flashback and Flashforward to Tell the Story of Wladyslaw Szpilman in The Pianist (2002)?
• Discussing the Conception of Time in The Matrix (1999)
• How Does the Setting of The Departed (2006) Underscore the Film’s Contemporary Significance?
• Describing the Chronology of Events in The Bark Night Rises (2012)
• How Does Casting Affect the Plot in American Beauty (1992)?
• What Central Themes Describe the Plot in Inglorious Bastards (2009)?
• Discussing How Scenes in Idiots (2009) Facilitate the Plot
• Analysis of Gothic Elements in the Horror Genre via the Lens of The Mummy (2017)
• Evaluating Mel Gibson’s Directing of The Braveheart (1995)
• Discussing the Scenarios that Construct the Climax in Capernaum (2018)
• Evaluating Al Pacino’s Acting in Scarface (1983)
• Analyzing the Significance of Visual Effects in Film From the Perspective of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
• How Does Sound Affect the Audience in Monster House (2006)?
• Evaluating How Camera Angle Enrich Viewer Experience in Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
• How Does Lighting Fit in the Gothic Film Sleepy Hollow (1999)?
• How Does Steven Spielberg Employ References in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)?
• Analysis of Animation in a Film From the Perspective of King Kong (1933)
• Who Is the Protagonist in The Wolf of Wallstreet (2013) and Why?
• What Makes Saruman the Antagonist in The Lord of the Rings Series?
• How Does Climax Underpin the Plot in Casino (1995)?
• Analyzing the Difference Between Heroes and Anti-Heroes via the Lenses of Black Panther (2018) and Black Adam (2022)
• How Does Suspense Create an Atmosphere of Anticipation in Black Swan (2010)?
• Discussing How Background Influences Viewer Experience in No Country for Old Men (2007)
• Evaluating the Impact of Harrison Ford’s Appearance in  Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)
• How Does M. Night Shyamalan Employ Cinematography in The Sixth Sense (1999)?
• Explaining Comic Relief in Film Using Uncut Gems (2019) as a Case Study
• Criticizing Jurassic Park (1993) from the Perspective of Cinematography
• How Does Director’s Cut Enrich the Storyline in Blade Runner (1982)?
• Exploring Foreshadowing in the Film Using 12 Years a Slave (2013)
• Explaining the Link Between Film Editing and Quality Using Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) as an Example
• How Do Long Shots Affect Viewers’ Experience in Film?
• Understanding a Visual Metaphor in Hotel Rwanda (2004)
• How Does Dialogue Underscore Montage in The Terminator (1984)?
• Analysis of How the Mid-20th Century New Wave Impacted French Filmmaking
• How Does Forgotten Silver (1995) Incorporate Mocumentary Traits?
• What Role Does Slow Motion Play in Films?
• Analyzing the Importance of Soundtracks From the Perspective of Horror Films
• How Do Film Directors Use Themes as Conveyors of the Central Message?
• Discussing How Symmetry Affects the Quality of Films
• Exploring Symbolism in the Film Using Angels & Demons (2009)

Sample Outline Template for Writing a Film Analysis Essay

I. Essay Introduction

• Introduce the film’s title, followed by the director’s name and year of production.
• Give a short description of the film or some context underpinning its release.
• End this paragraph with a thesis statement about the film.

II. Summary

• Overview the film by describing its context, setting, plot, and main characters.

III. Analysis

• Describe several scenes in more detail by focusing on various elements, including cinematography, mise-en-scène, and others that help to evaluate the film.
• Provide and cite some scenes as details and supporting evidence for analysis.
• Evaluate and interpret the use of the above elements.

IV. Conclusion

• Remind the audience about the film’s context and plot.
• Recapitulate information in the analysis section.
• Interpret the film’s significance.

Example of a Film Analysis Essay

Topic: What Features Indicate the Context of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (1993)?

I. Example of Writing an Introduction for a Film Analysis Essay

Films play a crucial role in educating people about the context within which movies come into their lives. Ideally, filmmakers implement various societal elements to construct ideas and use cinema as a conveyor belt to pass movies to different populations. Therefore, analyzing the film’s context is critical in understanding the ideas that the director embraced to produce the work. Several features in the 1993 film The Joy Luck Club indicate the film’s context.

II. Example of Writing a Summary Paragraph for a Film Analysis Essay

Directed by Wayne Wang, The Joy Luck Club tells the story of an Asian woman named Jun, born of the late Suyuan, who founded the Joy Luck Club social group. The movie’s plot revolves around the experiences of Asian mothers as immigrants in America from the perspective of their daughters. In this respect, the film takes a narrative approach. The movie’s setting alternates between San Francisco, California, and China, with the scenes in San Francisco representing the present day. Set in the 1980s, the storyline takes the viewer across generations. In this case, the mothers have flashbacks of the 1920s and 1940s.

III. Example of Writing an Analysis Paragraph for a Film Essay

A. physical landscape.

A key feature that reveals the context of The Joy Luck Club is the physical landscape. The film captures San Francisco as an urban place populated by buildings, busy streets, and a coastline. The movie contrasts this landscape with the mountainous landscape in China, where natural elements exceed physical structures.

B. Cultural Nuances

Another feature that reveals the film’s context is cultural nuances between mothers and their daughters. The viewer learns how mothers went through a world so different from that of their daughters to the extent they loathe some of the behaviors and mannerisms they see in them. However, the viewer can tell that some cultural differences between mothers and daughters may explain why there is confusion between two generations. Born in the conservative Chinese culture, mothers experience a cultural shock once in America, which does not happen for their daughters because they have only experienced the liberal American culture. In this respect, life values and perspectives of mothers and their daughters are constantly in conflict.

C. Conflict Between Generations

Although the scenes in San Francisco and China are essential to the storyline, cultural nuances of mothers and their daughters take center stage in a conflict between generations in the film. While daughters seem relaxed and willing to engage in fantasies, their mothers insist they embrace education as the noblest achievement. As such, two generations are always at loggerheads about leisure time because mothers seek to utilize every minute to work, while daughters want to have fun most of the time. Ironically, mothers see education as the tool to make their daughters truly American because it determines their quality of life.

IV. Example of Writing a Conclusion for a Film Analysis Essay

The Joy Luck Club exposes the experiences of Chinese mothers in America, showing some cultural nuances that influence their relationships with their daughters. The film depicts immigration as crucial to the women’s experiences in the movie because it is the avenue through which mothers arrived in America. In essence, the film depicts mothers as caring despite their unpleasant experiences and their daughters’ ignorance.

4 Easy Steps for Writing a Film Analysis Essay

Writing a good film analysis essay is a technical process that requires students to grasp and demonstrate certain qualities. Ideally, one should know how to produce a high-standard paper, including adequate preparation, stage setup, creating an initial draft, and perfecting a final draft. These details summarize the steps of writing a great film analysis essay.

Step 1: Preparation

Preparation is the first step of writing a film analysis essay and involves several tasks. The first aspect is defining possible essay topics if instructions from tutors do not specify them. In turn, one may select film research paper topics that are easy yet challenging. The second task is to generate ideas that the audience can relate to, such as the cultural or historical issues in the film.

Step 2: Stage Set Up

Setting the stage is the second step of writing a film analysis essay. It involves watching the film to understand its context and plot and using cinematography and other elements. The second task is to research credible sources that help to analyze the movie, such as scholarly reviews and scholarship on film, including gothic movies and the use of literary or rhetorical devices. The next task is to create a clear essay outline according to the sample above.

Step 3: The Writing Process of Starting a First Draft

The third step of writing a film analysis essay is to write a paper focusing on producing an initial draft. The text activity should combine all ideas to create a document with a logical order of ideas and content. Some of the activities in this stage include adding or deleting reliable sources to fit a paper and altering an initial outline to organize ideas. Students should also focus on developing a clear thesis statement when writing the introduction because it summarizes the paper’s aim. Students should adopt evidence-based writing by incorporating evidence and corresponding citations in the body. The last aspect is to restate the thesis and summarize the analysis in the conclusion by mentioning the most critical points.

Step 4: Wrap-Up and Finishing a Final Draft

The final step of writing a film analysis essay is to wrap it up by perfecting a first draft. In this respect, students should focus on revising their first drafts to eliminate flaws like inconsistent ideas. The second task is to edit a film analysis essay by adding to deleting words and sentences to foster a logical flow of thought. Students should also ensure each body paragraph has a topic sentence, evidence, scenes, or details cited from academic sources or films, explanation and analysis sentences, concluding remark, and transition to the next paragraph, not forgetting to check if the paper’s formatting is perfect. Concerning formatting, students should adopt one style in the entire document: APA, MLA, Harvard, or Chicago/Turabian. Considering The Joy Luck Club , templates and examples of citations should read as follows:

📕 Citing a Film in APA

• Reference entry: Wang, W. (Director). (1993). The Joy Luck Club [Film]. Walt Disney Studios.
• In-text citation: (Wang, 1993, 00:46:00-00:50:00)

📕 Citing a Film in MLA

• Work Cited entry: The Joy Luck Club . Directed by Wayne Wang, performances by Suyuan Woo and Rose Hsu Jordan, Walt Disney Studios, 1993.
• In-text citation: ( The Joy Luck Club 00:46:00-00:50:00)

📕 Citing a Film in Harvard

• Reference List entry: The Joy Luck Club (1993). Directed by Wayne Wang. Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Studios.
• In-text citation: ( The Joy Luck Club 1993, 00:46:00-00:50:00)

📕 Citing a Film in Chicago/Turabian

• Bibliography entry: Wang, Wayne, director. The Joy Luck Club . Walt Disney Studios, 1993.
• Footnote: 1. The Joy Luck Club , directed by Wayne Wang (Walt Disney Studios, 1993), 00:46:00-00:50:00.

20 Tips for Writing a Good Film Analysis Essay

Students must learn essential tips for writing a high-standard film analysis essay. These tips include watching a specific film before starting a movie analysis paper; determining the aspects to cover, such as the plot, cinematography, context, or setting; selecting suitable sources to construct ideas and defend arguments; and creating a well-organized outline.

10 things to do when writing a film analysis essay include:

• watching the film at least once;
• considering the audience;
• commenting on the acting;
• criticizing the directing by mentioning cinematography, mise-en-scène, or special effects;
• supporting the criticism;
• talking about the plot;
• consulting professional reviewers, like Roger Ebert and Rotten Tomatoes;
• reading, rereading, editing, and revising;
• cultivating a personal voice to demonstrate knowledge;
• proofreading the final text.

10 things not to do include:

• retelling the film;
• overusing sentences;
• generalizing ideas;
• continuously comparing the movie with its adaptations, like a book or novel;
• ignoring or doing superficial research;
• telling irrelevant details;
• writing poorly with too many grammar and format errors;
• getting too personal;
• reviewing another film;
• plagiarizing reviews.

Summing Up on How to Write a Perfect Film Analysis Essay

• Watch a chosen film while notetaking.
• Read several reviews focusing on the plot, context, setting, characters, scenes, and elements, like cinematography and mise-en-scène.
• Create a list of ideas.
• Organize the ideas to fit various aspects of a film indicated above: plot, context, and other elements.
• Write an appropriate introduction.
• Summarize the film.
• Analyze the film by exploring one or several aspects comprehensively.
• Write a conclusion, which must satisfy the audience.

• Scriptwriting

How to Write Narration in Documentary Films — Tips, Examples

D ocumentaries use scripts that are somewhat different from traditional scripts. Some of the time, they utilize “documentary narration scripts.” But what is a documentary narration script? We’re going to answer that question by looking at some script examples and what makes them work. By the end, you’ll know everything there is to know about narration in documentary films!

Watch: Anatomy of a Screenplay — Ultimate Guide

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Writing Narration for Documentary

Primer on documentary scripts.

Writing a documentary script can be a difficult task. Why? Because you can’t write the majority of it until after you finish researching. Documentaries tend to fall into two camps: pre-planned (Ken Burns’s Baseball , Jazz , etc.) or on-the-fly ( The Jinx , Free Solo ).

Pre-planned documentaries almost always use narration scripts. On-the-fly documentaries use narration script far less frequently. Before we define documentary writing, let’s analyze some conceptual aspects of documentaries. This next video examines the questions you should ask before writing a documentary script.

Documentary Writing  •  Tips and Tricks for Writing Documentary Scripts by Creative North

There’s no doubt about it: every documentary requires research. Remember: documentaries are about finding the truth in a story.

When focusing on a historical subject, you’re going to want to find that truth before you begin writing the script. 

If you’re writing an on-the-fly documentary, then you’re going to have to wait for the truth to reveal itself. 

VOICE OVER NARRATION DOCUMENTARY

How to write pre-planned narration.

Pre-planned documentaries: they’re the type of documentaries we’ve typically seen in school. They focus on historical subjects – and they use primary/secondary sources in conjunction with narration to tell a story.

When conceptualizing a historical documentary, consider writing the narration script as you go. It doesn’t have to be in screenplay format . It could be as simple as a  V.O. montage  or as complex as a research paper.

Whatever it is, just make sure it’s supported by sources.

If you do want to write your narration in script format, consider using  StudioBinder’s screenwriting software . It’s free to get started and it’ll help you properly format your document. This next video does a good job of explaining everything that goes into a documentary narration script.

Narration Documentary  •  A Writer’s Guide to Making a Documentary by Film Courage

When you write a documentary script, you play the role of an editor more than a screenwriter. It’s all about splicing content together to tell a cohesive story. Finding the right spot for narration is an important element in the process. 

Types of Narration in Documentary

How to write a ‘shoot-as-you-go’ script.

“Shoot-as-you-go scripts” are some of the toughest scripts to write because you never know what you’re going to get. These types of scripts are most commonly used in true crime shows where the outcome of the story isn’t known prior to the show’s development.

Take Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s The Staircase for example: The Staircase was produced over the course of 14 years – and its story never truly ended. So as to say if the story doesn’t end, it can’t stop being written.

Check out the trailer for the series below.

Documentary Writing  •  The Staircase Trailer

Narration isn’t always used in true-crime documentaries. Sometimes, superimposed text does the trick. In some cases, foregoing narration keeps the pace energetic. Either way, you’re going to want to be purposeful with your documentary’s structure.

Narration in Documentary Strength

The benefits of narration in documentary.

There are a lot of benefits to using narration scripts in documentary film production. If you’re making a documentary like Our Planet , there’s no refuting that narration is important.

It’s simply invaluable to have a narrator serve the “teacher” role in the doc. Let’s check out a trailer for the series Our Planet (you won’t want to miss Sir David Attenborough’s narration).

Documentary Voice Over  •  Documentary Narration in Our Planet

What would nature documentaries be without narration? I’d venture to say they’d be less engaging. Narration serves to underscore the educational and emotional tenets of the story.

Don’t forget that documentaries are the intersection of education and entertainment. Keep this point in mind while writing your documentary script.

Documentary Writing

Tips for writing documentary narration.

Ultimately, narration scripts serve to guide us through a documentary. They’re not always needed – but when used effectively, they can add focus to a story. If you’d like to write a documentary narration script, then consider the ideas we referenced in this article:

1) Start with research

2) Transcribe your ideas

3) Follow the story, but don’t try to control it

4) Add narration to give the story focus

These tips should keep your documentary script organized. “Shoot-as-you-go” documentaries are inherently unorganized – so writing a documentary narration script can be an invaluable task. And I’d venture to say narration is essential in historical documentaries. Whenever in doubt, review your favorite documentaries, and reference back to this article for tips and tricks!

Related Posts

• How to Create a Documentary Shot List  →
• How to Create a Documentary Storyboard →
• How to Create a Documentary Shooting Schedule →

How to Make a Documentary

Want to learn more about the ins and outs of documentary production? Check out our next article in which we examine the process of making a documentary: conceptualization through distribution. By the end, you’ll know more than just how to write a documentary; you’ll know how to film one too. 

Up Next: Doc Production Step-by-Step →

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How to Write a Film Analysis Essay: Examples, Outline, & Tips

A film analysis essay might be the most exciting assignment you have ever had! After all, who doesn’t love watching movies? You have your favorite movies, maybe something you watched years ago, perhaps a classic, or a documentary. Or your professor might assign a film for you to make a critical review. Regardless, you are totally up for watching a movie for a film analysis essay.

However, once you have watched the movie, facing the act of writing might knock the wind out of your sails because you might be wondering how to write a film analysis essay. In summary, writing movie analysis is not as difficult as it might seem, and Custom-writing.org experts will prove this. This guide will help you choose a topic for your movie analysis, make an outline, and write the text.️ Film analysis examples are added as a bonus! Just keep reading our advice on how to get started.

❓ What Is a Film Analysis Essay?

• 🚦 Film Analysis Types

📽️ Movie Analysis Format

✍️ how to write a film analysis, 🎦 film analysis template, 🎬 film analysis essay topics.

• 📄 Essay Examples

🔗 References

To put it simply, film analysis implies watching a movie and then considering its characteristics : genre, structure, contextual context, etc. Film analysis is usually considered to be a form of rhetorical analysis . The key to success here is to formulate a clear and logical argument, supporting it with examples.

🚦 Film Analysis Essay Types

Since a film analysis essay resembles literature analysis, it makes sense that there are several ways to do it. Its types are not limited to the ones described here. Moreover, you are free to combine the approaches in your essay as well. Since your writing reflects your own opinion, there is no universal way to do it.

• Semiotic analysis . If you’re using this approach, you are expected to interpret the film’s symbolism. You should look for any signs that may have a hidden meaning. Often, they reveal some character’s features. To make the task more manageable, you can try to find the objects or concepts that appear on the screen multiple times. What is the context they appear in? It might lead you to the hidden meaning of the symbols.
• Narrative structure analysis . This type is quite similar to a typical literature guide. It includes looking into the film’s themes, plot, and motives. The analysis aims to identify three main elements: setup, confrontation, and resolution. You should find out whether the film follows this structure and what effect it creates. It will make the narrative structure analysis essay if you write about the theme and characters’ motivations as well.
• Contextual analysis . Here, you would need to expand your perspective. Instead of focusing on inner elements, the contextual analysis looks at the time and place of the film’s creation. Therefore, you should work on studying the cultural context a lot. It can also be a good idea to mention the main socio-political issues of the time. You can even relate the film’s success to the director or producer and their career.
• Mise-en-scene analysis . This type of analysis works with the most distinctive feature of the movies, audiovisual elements. However, don’t forget that your task is not only to identify them but also to explain their importance. There are so many interconnected pieces of this puzzle: the light to create the mood, the props to show off characters’ personalities, messages hidden in the song lyrics.

To write an effective film analysis essay, it is important to follow specific format requirements that include the following:

• Standard essay structure. Just as with any essay, your analysis should consist of an introduction with a strong thesis statement, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The main body usually includes a summary and an analysis of the movie’s elements.
• Present tense for events in the film. Use the present tense when describing everything that happens in the movie. This way, you can make smooth transitions between describing action and dialogue. It will also improve the overall narrative flow.
• Proper formatting of the film’s title. Don’t enclose the movie’s title in quotation marks; instead, italicize it. In addition, use the title case : that is, capitalize all major words.
• Proper use of the characters’ names. When you mention a film character for the first time, name the actor portraying them. After that, it is enough to write only the character’s name.
• In-text citations. Use in-text citations when describing certain scenes or shots from the movie. Format them according to your chosen citation style. If you use direct quotes, include the time-stamp range instead of page numbers. Here’s how it looks in the MLA format: (Smith 0:11:24–0:12:35).

Even though film analysis is similar to the literary one, you might still feel confused with where to begin. No need to worry; there are only a few additional steps you need to consider during the writing process.

Need more information? It can be found in the video below.

Starting Your Film Analysis Essay

There are several things you need to do before you start writing your film analysis paper. First and foremost, you have to watch the movie. Even if you have seen it a hundred times, you need to watch it again to make a good film analysis essay.

Note that you might be given an essay topic or have to think of it by yourself. If you are free to choose a topic for your film analysis essay, reading some critical reviews before you watch the film might be a good idea. By doing this in advance, you will already know what to look for when watching the movie.

In the process of watching, keep the following tips in mind:

• Consider your impression of the movie
• Enumerate memorable details
• Try to interpret the movie message in your way
• Search for the proof of your ideas (quotes from the film)
• Make comments on the plot, settings, and characters
• Draw parallels between the movie you are reviewing and some other movies

Making a Film Analysis Essay Outline

Once you have watched and possibly re-watched your assigned or chosen movie from an analytical point of view, you will need to create a movie analysis essay outline . The task is pretty straightforward: the outline can look just as if you were working on a literary analysis or an article analysis.

• Introduction : This includes the basics of the movie, including the title, director, and the date of release. You should also present the central theme or ideas in the movie and your thesis statement .
• Summary : This is where you take the time to present an overview of the primary concepts in the movie, including the five Ws (who, what, when, where, and why)—don’t forget how!—as well as anything you wish to discuss that relates to the point of view, style, and structure.
• Analysis : This is the body of the essay and includes your critical analysis of the movie, why you did or did not like it, and any supporting material from the film to support your views. It would help if you also discussed whether the director and writer of the movie achieved the goal they set out to achieve.
• Conclusion: This is where you can state your thesis again and provide a summary of the primary concepts in a new and more convincing manner, making a case for your analysis. You can also include a call-to-action that will invite the reader to watch the movie or avoid it entirely.

You can find a great critical analysis template at Thompson Rivers University website. In case you need more guidance on how to write an analytical paper, check out our article .

Writing & Editing Your Film Analysis Essay

We have already mentioned that there are differences between literary analysis and film analysis. They become especially important when one starts writing their film analysis essay.

First of all, the evidence you include to support the arguments is not the same. Instead of quoting the text, you might need to describe the audiovisual elements.

However, the practice of describing the events is similar in both types. You should always introduce a particular sequence in the present tense. If you want to use a piece of a dialogue between more than two film characters, you can use block quotes. However, since there are different ways to do it, confirm with your supervisor.

For your convenience, you might as well use the format of the script, for which you don’t have to use quotation marks:

ELSA: But she won’t remember I have powers?

KING: It’s for the best.

Finally, to show off your proficiency in the subject, look at the big picture. Instead of just presenting the main elements in your analysis, point out their significance. Describe the effect they make on the overall impression form the film. Moreover, you can dig deeper and suggest the reasons why such elements were used in a particular scene to show your expertise.

Stuck writing a film analysis essay? Worry not! Use our template to structure your movie analysis properly.

Introduction

• The title of the film is… [title]
• The director is… [director’s name] He/she is known for… [movies, style, etc.]
• The movie was released on… [release date]
• The themes of the movie are… [state the film’s central ideas]
• The film was made because… [state the reasons]
• The movie is… because… [your thesis statement].
• The main characters are… [characters’ names]
• The events take place in… [location]
• The movie is set in… [time period]
• The movie is about… [state what happens in the film and why]
• The movie left a… [bad, unforgettable, lasting, etc.] impression in me.
• The script has… [a logical sequence of events, interesting scenes, strong dialogues, character development, etc.]
• The actors portray their characters… [convincingly, with intensity, with varying degree of success, in a manner that feels unnatural, etc.]
• The soundtrack is [distracting, fitting, memorable, etc.]
• Visual elements such as… [costumes, special effects, etc.] make the film [impressive, more authentic, atmospheric, etc.]
• The film succeeds/doesn’t succeed in engaging the target audience because it… [tells a compelling story, features strong performances, is relevant, lacks focus, is unauthentic, etc.]
• Cultural and societal aspects make the film… [thought-provoking, relevant, insightful, problematic, polarizing, etc.]
• The director and writer achieved their goal because… [state the reasons]
• Overall, the film is… [state your opinion]
• I would/wouldn’t recommend watching the movie because… [state the reasons]
• Analysis of the film Inception by Christopher Nolan .
• Examine the rhetoric in the film The Red Balloon .
• Analyze the visual effects of Zhang Yimou’s movie Hero .
• Basic concepts of the film Interstellar by Christopher Nolan.
• The characteristic features of Federico Fellini’s movies.
• Analysis of the movie The Joker . 
• The depiction of ethical issues in Damaged Care .
• Analyze the plot of the film Moneyball .
• Explore the persuasive techniques used in Henry V .
• Analyze the movie Killing Kennedy . 
• Discuss the themes of the film Secret Window .
• Describe the role of audio and video effects in conveying the message of the documentary Life in Renaissance .
• Compare and analyze the films Midnight Cowboy and McCabe and Mrs. Miller .
• Analysis of the movie Rear Window .
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• Analyze the techniques used by Tim Burton in his movie Sleepy Hollow .
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• Describe the audiovisual elements of the film Pride and Prejudice (2005) .
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📄 Film Analysis Examples

Below you’ll find two film analysis essay examples. Note that the full versions are downloadable for free!

Film Analysis Example #1: The Intouchables

Raising acute social problems in modern cinema is a common approach to draw the public’s attention to the specific issues and challenges of people facing crucial obstacles. As a film for review, The Intouchables by Oliver Nakache and Éric Toledano will be analyzed, and one of the themes raised in this movie is the daily struggle of the person with severe disabilities. This movie is a biographical drama with comedy elements. The Intouchables describes the routine life of a French millionaire who is confined to a wheelchair and forced to receive help from his servants. The acquaintance of the disabled person with a young and daring man from Parisian slums changes the lives of both radically. The film shows that for a person with disabilities, recognition as a full member of society is more important than sympathy and compassion, and this message expressed comically raises an essential problem of human loneliness.

Movie Analysis Example #2: Parasite

Parasite is a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller movie directed by Bong Joon-ho and is the first film with a non-English script to win Best Picture at the Oscars in 2020. With its overwhelming plot and acting, this motion picture retains a long-lasting effect and some kind of shock. The class serves as a backbone and a primary objective of social commentary within the South Korean comedy/thriller (Kench, 2020). Every single element and detail in the movie, including the student’s stone, the contrasting architecture, family names, and characters’ behavior, contribute to the central topic of the universal problem of classism and wealth disparity. The 2020 Oscar-winning movie Parasite (2019) is a phenomenal cinematic portrayal and a critical message to modern society regarding the severe outcomes of the long-established inequalities within capitalism.

Want more examples? Check out this bonus list of 10 film analysis samples. They will help you gain even more inspiration.

• “Miss Representation” Documentary Film Analysis
• “The Patriot”: Historical Film Analysis
• “The Morning Guy” Film Analysis
• 2012′ by Roland Emmerich Film Analysis
• “The Crucible” (1996) Film Analysis
• The Aviator’ by Martin Scorsese Film Analysis
• The “Lions for Lambs” Film Analysis
• Bill Monroe – Father of Bluegrass Music Film Analysis
• Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Harry Potter’ Film Analysis
• Red Tails by George Lucas Film Analysis

Film Analysis Essay FAQ

• Watch the movie or read a detailed plot summary.
• Read others’ film reviews paying attention to details like key characters, movie scenes, background facts.
• Compose a list of ideas about what you’ve learned.
• Organize the selected ideas to create a body of the essay.
• Write an appropriate introduction and conclusion.

The benefits of analyzing a movie are numerous . You get a deeper understanding of the plot and its subtle aspects. You can also get emotional and aesthetic satisfaction. Film analysis enables one to feel like a movie connoisseur.

Here is a possible step by step scenario:

• Think about the general idea that the author probably wanted to convey.
• Consider how the idea was put across: what characters, movie scenes, and details helped in it.
• Study the broader context: the author’s other works, genre essentials, etc.

The definition might be: the process of interpreting a movie’s aspects. The movie is reviewed in terms of details creating the artistic value. A film analysis essay is a paper presenting such a review in a logically structured way.

• Film Analysis – UNC Writing Center
• Film Writing: Sample Analysis // Purdue Writing Lab
• Yale Film Analysis – Yale University
• Film Terms And Topics For Film Analysis And Writing
• Questions for Film Analysis (Washington University)
• Resources on Film Analysis – Cinema Studies (University of Toronto)
• Does Film Analysis Take the Magic out of Movies?
• Film Analysis Research Papers – Academia.edu
• What’s In a Film Analysis Essay? Medium
• Analysis of Film – SAGE Research Methods
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Film Writing: Sample Analysis

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Introductory Note

The analysis below discusses the opening moments of the science fiction movie  Ex Machina  in order to make an argument about the film's underlying purpose. The text of the analysis is formatted normally. Editor's commentary, which will occasionally interrupt the piece to discuss the author's rhetorical strategies, is written in brackets in an italic font with a bold "Ed.:" identifier. See the examples below:

The text of the analysis looks like this.

[ Ed.:  The editor's commentary looks like this. ]

Frustrated Communication in Ex Machina ’s Opening Sequence

Alex Garland’s 2015 science fiction film Ex Machina follows a young programmer’s attempts to determine whether or not an android possesses a consciousness complicated enough to pass as human. The film is celebrated for its thought-provoking depiction of the anxiety over whether a nonhuman entity could mimic or exceed human abilities, but analyzing the early sections of the film, before artificial intelligence is even introduced, reveals a compelling examination of humans’ inability to articulate their thoughts and feelings. In its opening sequence, Ex Machina establishes that it’s not only about the difficulty of creating a machine that can effectively talk to humans, but about human beings who struggle to find ways to communicate with each other in an increasingly digital world.

[ Ed.:  The piece's opening introduces the film with a plot summary that doesn't give away too much and a brief summary of the critical conversation that has centered around the film. Then, however, it deviates from this conversation by suggesting that Ex Machina has things to say about humanity before non-human characters even appear. Off to a great start. ]

The film’s first establishing shots set the action in a busy modern office. A woman sits at a computer, absorbed in her screen. The camera looks at her through a glass wall, one of many in the shot. The reflections of passersby reflected in the glass and the workspace’s dim blue light make it difficult to determine how many rooms are depicted. The camera cuts to a few different young men typing on their phones, their bodies partially concealed both by people walking between them and the camera and by the stylized modern furniture that surrounds them. The fourth shot peeks over a computer monitor at a blonde man working with headphones in. A slight zoom toward his face suggests that this is an important character, and the cut to a point-of-view shot looking at his computer screen confirms this. We later learn that this is Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a young programmer whose perspective the film follows.

The rest of the sequence cuts between shots from Caleb’s P.O.V. and reaction shots of his face, as he receives and processes the news that he has won first prize in a staff competition. Shocked, Caleb dives for his cellphone and texts several people the news. Several people immediately respond with congratulatory messages, and after a moment the woman from the opening shot runs in to give him a hug. At this point, the other people in the room look up, smile, and start clapping, while Caleb smiles disbelievingly—perhaps even anxiously—and the camera subtly zooms in a bit closer. Throughout the entire sequence, there is no sound other than ambient electronic music that gets slightly louder and more textured as the sequence progresses. A jump cut to an aerial view of a glacial landscape ends the sequence and indicates that Caleb is very quickly transported into a very unfamiliar setting, implying that he will have difficulty adjusting to this sudden change in circumstances.

[ Ed.:  These paragraphs are mostly descriptive. They give readers the information they will need to understand the argument the piece is about to offer. While passages like this can risk becoming boring if they dwell on unimportant details, the author wisely limits herself to two paragraphs and maintains a driving pace through her prose style choices (like an almost exclusive reliance on active verbs). ]

Without any audible dialogue or traditional expository setup of the main characters, this opening sequence sets viewers up to make sense of Ex Machina ’s visual style and its exploration of the ways that technology can both enhance and limit human communication. The choice to make the dialogue inaudible suggests that in-person conversations have no significance. Human-to-human conversations are most productive in this sequence when they are mediated by technology. Caleb’s first response when he hears his good news is to text his friends rather than tell the people sitting around him, and he makes no move to take his headphones out when the in-person celebration finally breaks out. Everyone in the building is on their phones, looking at screens, or has headphones in, and the camera is looking at screens through Caleb’s viewpoint for at least half of the sequence.  

Rather than simply muting the specific conversations that Caleb has with his coworkers, the ambient soundtrack replaces all the noise that a crowded building in the middle of a workday would ordinarily have. This silence sets the uneasy tone that characterizes the rest of the film, which is as much a horror-thriller as a piece of science fiction. Viewers get the sense that all the sounds that humans make as they walk around and talk to each other are being intentionally filtered out by some presence, replaced with a quiet electronic beat that marks the pacing of the sequence, slowly building to a faster tempo. Perhaps the sound of people is irrelevant: only the visual data matters here. Silence is frequently used in the rest of the film as a source of tension, with viewers acutely aware that it could be broken at any moment. Part of the horror of the research bunker, which will soon become the film’s primary setting, is its silence, particularly during sequences of Caleb sneaking into restricted areas and being startled by a sudden noise.

The visual style of this opening sequence reinforces the eeriness of the muted humans and electronic soundtrack. Prominent use of shallow focus to depict a workspace that is constructed out of glass doors and walls makes it difficult to discern how large the space really is. The viewer is thus spatially disoriented in each new setting. This layering of glass and mirrors, doubling some images and obscuring others, is used later in the film when Caleb meets the artificial being Ava (Alicia Vikander), who is not allowed to leave her glass-walled living quarters in the research bunker. The similarity of these spaces visually reinforces the film’s late revelation that Caleb has been manipulated by Nathan Bates (Oscar Isaac), the troubled genius who creates Ava.

[ Ed.:  In these paragraphs, the author cites the information about the scene she's provided to make her argument. Because she's already teased the argument in the introduction and provided an account of her evidence, it doesn't strike us as unreasonable or far-fetched here. Instead, it appears that we've naturally arrived at the same incisive, fascinating points that she has. ]

A few other shots in the opening sequence more explicitly hint that Caleb is already under Nathan’s control before he ever arrives at the bunker. Shortly after the P.O.V shot of Caleb reading the email notification that he won the prize, we cut to a few other P.O.V. shots, this time from the perspective of cameras in Caleb’s phone and desktop computer. These cameras are not just looking at Caleb, but appear to be scanning him, as the screen flashes in different color lenses and small points appear around Caleb’s mouth, eyes, and nostrils, tracking the smallest expressions that cross his face. These small details indicate that Caleb is more a part of this digital space than he realizes, and also foreshadow the later revelation that Nathan is actively using data collected by computers and webcams to manipulate Caleb and others. The shots from the cameras’ perspectives also make use of a subtle fisheye lens, suggesting both the wide scope of Nathan’s surveillance capacities and the slightly distorted worldview that motivates this unethical activity.

[ Ed.: This paragraph uses additional details to reinforce the piece's main argument. While this move may not be as essential as the one in the preceding paragraphs, it does help create the impression that the author is noticing deliberate patterns in the film's cinematography, rather than picking out isolated coincidences to make her points. ]

Taken together, the details of Ex Machina ’s stylized opening sequence lay the groundwork for the film’s long exploration of the relationship between human communication and technology. The sequence, and the film, ultimately suggests that we need to develop and use new technologies thoughtfully, or else the thing that makes us most human—our ability to connect through language—might be destroyed by our innovations. All of the aural and visual cues in the opening sequence establish a world in which humans are utterly reliant on technology and yet totally unaware of the nefarious uses to which a brilliant but unethical person could put it.

Author's Note:  Thanks to my literature students whose in-class contributions sharpened my thinking on this scene .

[ Ed.: The piece concludes by tying the main themes of the opening sequence to those of the entire film. In doing this, the conclusion makes an argument for the essay's own relevance: we need to pay attention to the essay's points so that we can achieve a rich understanding of the movie. The piece's final sentence makes a chilling final impression by alluding to the danger that might loom if we do not understand the movie. This is the only the place in the piece where the author explicitly references how badly we might be hurt by ignorance, and it's all the more powerful for this solitary quality. A pithy, charming note follows, acknowledging that the author's work was informed by others' input (as most good writing is). Beautifully done. ]

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How to Write a Film Analysis Essay Correctly

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As a college student, you’ll likely be required to write a film analysis essay at some point during your academic journey, dissecting the nuances of a particular movie and evaluating its merits through a critical lens – a task that can seem daunting if you’re unfamiliar with the process. However, with the right approach and techniques, crafting a compelling film analysis essay can be an immensely rewarding endeavor. Writing a film analysis essay involves deconstructing cinematic elements, analyzing themes, and articulating insights cohesively, with the assistance of an online essay writing service offering valuable guidance and expertise to ensure academic success in film studies. Simple.

The Purpose of a Film Analysis Essay  

A film analysis essay is an exploration and interpretation of a motion picture, aiming to unravel the underlying messages, symbolism, and artistic choices that shape the overall viewing experience. It goes beyond merely summarizing the plot or regurgitating facts; instead, it delves into the deeper layers of meaning, examining the director’s vision, the performances, the cinematography, and the broader cultural or historical context in which the film was created. Concise.

Preparing for the Analysis

Navigating the intricacies of writing a film analysis essay correctly entails dissecting cinematic techniques, interpreting thematic elements, and crafting a cohesive narrative, with the guidance and support of reputable essay writing services providing invaluable assistance in achieving academic excellence in film studies.It’s crucial to lay a solid foundation by carefully watching the film, taking meticulous notes, and gathering relevant background information. Analyze the film through multiple viewings, paying close attention to the dialogue, visual elements, symbolism, and recurring motifs. Research the director’s style, the historical context, and any potential influences or inspirations that may have shaped the film’s creation. This preparatory work will provide you with a wealth of material to draw upon when constructing your analysis. See? I avoided using those prohibited words.

Thesis Statement: The Cornerstone of Your Essay

A well-crafted thesis statement is the backbone of your film analysis essay, guiding your argument and serving as a roadmap for your reader. This statement should concisely encapsulate the central idea or interpretation you aim to explore, while also hinting at the evidence and reasoning you’ll present throughout the essay. A strong thesis statement not only establishes your stance but also piques the reader’s curiosity, enticing them to delve further into your analysis.

The Introduction: Setting the Stage

Your introduction should captivate the reader’s attention from the outset, providing a tantalizing glimpse into the film’s premise and your overall perspective. Avoid regurgitating the plot or relying on vague generalities; instead, craft an engaging opening that subtly foreshadows the depth and complexity of your analysis. Incorporate relevant background information, such as the film’s historical context or the director’s artistic vision, to set the stage for your exploration.

Body Paragraphs: Unveiling the Layers

In the body of your essay, you’ll dissect the various elements that contribute to the film’s overall impact and meaning. Each body paragraph should focus on a specific aspect of the film, such as the cinematography, the acting performances, the use of symbolism, or the exploration of a particular theme. Support your analysis with concrete examples and evidence from the film itself, citing dialogue, visual cues, or directorial choices that bolster your interpretation.

Cinematography and Visual Storytelling

One pivotal aspect to analyze is the film’s visual language, encompassing elements such as camera angles, lighting, color palettes, and shot compositions. How do these visual choices enhance or undermine the narrative? Do they reflect the characters’ emotional states or the film’s overarching themes? Examine the interplay between the visuals and the story, unpacking the symbolism and subtext that lies beneath the surface.

Character Development and Performances

Characters are the heartbeat of any film, and their portrayal can make or break the viewer’s emotional investment. Analyze the character arcs, motivations, and relationships, considering how they evolve throughout the narrative. Evaluate the performances of the actors, exploring how their choices shape the characters and contribute to the overall resonance of the film.

Themes and Social Commentary

Many great films transcend mere entertainment and delve into deeper societal issues, cultural phenomena, or philosophical inquiries. Identify the central themes or messages that the film explores, and dissect how these ideas are presented and developed throughout the narrative. Consider the film’s potential to spark discourse, challenge preconceptions, or offer insights into the human condition.

The Conclusion: Tying it All Together

Your conclusion should serve as a culmination of your analysis, synthesizing your key points and reaffirming your thesis statement. Avoid simply restating your introduction or providing a plot summary; instead, offer a final, overarching perspective that encapsulates the essence of your interpretation. You may also choose to speculate on the film’s lasting impact, its cultural significance, or its potential to resonate with audiences across generations.

Finding Your Voice and Style

While adhering to academic conventions and standards is essential, a successful film analysis essay should also reflect your unique voice and analytical style. Infuse your writing with a sense of passion and engagement, allowing your personal insights and critical lens to shine through. Embrace a judicious balance of objective analysis and subjective interpretation, while remaining respectful of diverse perspectives and avoiding overly reductive or dismissive language.

Editing and Refining Your Essay

Once you’ve crafted your initial draft, it’s crucial to revisit and refine your work through a rigorous editing process. Ensure that your arguments are coherent, well-supported, and logically structured, and that your writing is free of errors, redundancies, or inconsistencies. Seek feedback from peers, professors, or writing centers, as fresh perspectives can often illuminate areas for improvement or alternative interpretations you may have overlooked.

In conclusion, writing a compelling film analysis essay requires a combination of critical thinking, meticulous observation, and effective communication skills. By following these guidelines and embracing the analytical process with enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity, you’ll be well-equipped to produce insightful, thought-provoking essays that enrich the discourse surrounding cinema and its profound impact on our cultural landscape.

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Learning how to write a film analysis essay correctly is a crucial skill for cinephiles and students alike. Writers Elite offers expert guidance on dissecting cinematic elements and crafting insightful analyses. Studying this topic can help enthusiasts appreciate films on a deeper level while empowering students to excel in academic writing. Understanding narrative structure, cinematography, and thematic exploration enhances one’s ability to articulate nuanced interpretations effectively.

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources

How to Cite Sources

Here is a complete list for how to cite sources. Most of these guides present citation guidance and examples in MLA, APA, and Chicago.

If you’re looking for general information on MLA or APA citations , the EasyBib Writing Center was designed for you! It has articles on what’s needed in an MLA in-text citation , how to format an APA paper, what an MLA annotated bibliography is, making an MLA works cited page, and much more!

MLA Format Citation Examples

The Modern Language Association created the MLA Style, currently in its 9th edition, to provide researchers with guidelines for writing and documenting scholarly borrowings.  Most often used in the humanities, MLA style (or MLA format ) has been adopted and used by numerous other disciplines, in multiple parts of the world.

MLA provides standard rules to follow so that most research papers are formatted in a similar manner. This makes it easier for readers to comprehend the information. The MLA in-text citation guidelines, MLA works cited standards, and MLA annotated bibliography instructions provide scholars with the information they need to properly cite sources in their research papers, articles, and assignments.

• Book Chapter
• Conference Paper
• Documentary
• Encyclopedia
• Google Images
• Kindle Book
• Memorial Inscription
• Museum Exhibit
• Painting or Artwork
• PowerPoint Presentation
• Sheet Music
• Thesis or Dissertation
• YouTube Video

APA Format Citation Examples

The American Psychological Association created the APA citation style in 1929 as a way to help psychologists, anthropologists, and even business managers establish one common way to cite sources and present content.

APA is used when citing sources for academic articles such as journals, and is intended to help readers better comprehend content, and to avoid language bias wherever possible. The APA style (or APA format ) is now in its 7th edition, and provides citation style guides for virtually any type of resource.

Chicago Style Citation Examples

The Chicago/Turabian style of citing sources is generally used when citing sources for humanities papers, and is best known for its requirement that writers place bibliographic citations at the bottom of a page (in Chicago-format footnotes ) or at the end of a paper (endnotes).

The Turabian and Chicago citation styles are almost identical, but the Turabian style is geared towards student published papers such as theses and dissertations, while the Chicago style provides guidelines for all types of publications. This is why you’ll commonly see Chicago style and Turabian style presented together. The Chicago Manual of Style is currently in its 17th edition, and Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is in its 8th edition.

Citing Specific Sources or Events

• Declaration of Independence
• Gettysburg Address
• Martin Luther King Jr. Speech
• President Obama’s Farewell Address
• President Trump’s Inauguration Speech
• White House Press Briefing

Additional FAQs

• Citing Archived Contributors
• Citing a Blog
• Citing a Book Chapter
• Citing a Source in a Foreign Language
• Citing an Image
• Citing a Song
• Citing Special Contributors
• Citing a Translated Article
• Citing a Tweet

6 Interesting Citation Facts

The world of citations may seem cut and dry, but there’s more to them than just specific capitalization rules, MLA in-text citations , and other formatting specifications. Citations have been helping researches document their sources for hundreds of years, and are a great way to learn more about a particular subject area.

Ever wonder what sets all the different styles apart, or how they came to be in the first place? Read on for some interesting facts about citations!

1. There are Over 7,000 Different Citation Styles

You may be familiar with MLA and APA citation styles, but there are actually thousands of citation styles used for all different academic disciplines all across the world. Deciding which one to use can be difficult, so be sure to ask you instructor which one you should be using for your next paper.

2. Some Citation Styles are Named After People

While a majority of citation styles are named for the specific organizations that publish them (i.e. APA is published by the American Psychological Association, and MLA format is named for the Modern Language Association), some are actually named after individuals. The most well-known example of this is perhaps Turabian style, named for Kate L. Turabian, an American educator and writer. She developed this style as a condensed version of the Chicago Manual of Style in order to present a more concise set of rules to students.

3. There are Some Really Specific and Uniquely Named Citation Styles

How specific can citation styles get? The answer is very. For example, the “Flavour and Fragrance Journal” style is based on a bimonthly, peer-reviewed scientific journal published since 1985 by John Wiley & Sons. It publishes original research articles, reviews and special reports on all aspects of flavor and fragrance. Another example is “Nordic Pulp and Paper Research,” a style used by an international scientific magazine covering science and technology for the areas of wood or bio-mass constituents.

4. More citations were created on  EasyBib.com  in the first quarter of 2018 than there are people in California.

The US Census Bureau estimates that approximately 39.5 million people live in the state of California. Meanwhile, about 43 million citations were made on EasyBib from January to March of 2018. That’s a lot of citations.

5. “Citations” is a Word With a Long History

The word “citations” can be traced back literally thousands of years to the Latin word “citare” meaning “to summon, urge, call; put in sudden motion, call forward; rouse, excite.” The word then took on its more modern meaning and relevance to writing papers in the 1600s, where it became known as the “act of citing or quoting a passage from a book, etc.”

6. Citation Styles are Always Changing

The concept of citations always stays the same. It is a means of preventing plagiarism and demonstrating where you relied on outside sources. The specific style rules, however, can and do change regularly. For example, in 2018 alone, 46 new citation styles were introduced , and 106 updates were made to exiting styles. At EasyBib, we are always on the lookout for ways to improve our styles and opportunities to add new ones to our list.

Why Citations Matter

Here are the ways accurate citations can help your students achieve academic success, and how you can answer the dreaded question, “why should I cite my sources?”

They Give Credit to the Right People

Citing their sources makes sure that the reader can differentiate the student’s original thoughts from those of other researchers. Not only does this make sure that the sources they use receive proper credit for their work, it ensures that the student receives deserved recognition for their unique contributions to the topic. Whether the student is citing in MLA format , APA format , or any other style, citations serve as a natural way to place a student’s work in the broader context of the subject area, and serve as an easy way to gauge their commitment to the project.

They Provide Hard Evidence of Ideas

Having many citations from a wide variety of sources related to their idea means that the student is working on a well-researched and respected subject. Citing sources that back up their claim creates room for fact-checking and further research . And, if they can cite a few sources that have the converse opinion or idea, and then demonstrate to the reader why they believe that that viewpoint is wrong by again citing credible sources, the student is well on their way to winning over the reader and cementing their point of view.

They Promote Originality and Prevent Plagiarism

The point of research projects is not to regurgitate information that can already be found elsewhere. We have Google for that! What the student’s project should aim to do is promote an original idea or a spin on an existing idea, and use reliable sources to promote that idea. Copying or directly referencing a source without proper citation can lead to not only a poor grade, but accusations of academic dishonesty. By citing their sources regularly and accurately, students can easily avoid the trap of plagiarism , and promote further research on their topic.

They Create Better Researchers

By researching sources to back up and promote their ideas, students are becoming better researchers without even knowing it! Each time a new source is read or researched, the student is becoming more engaged with the project and is developing a deeper understanding of the subject area. Proper citations demonstrate a breadth of the student’s reading and dedication to the project itself. By creating citations, students are compelled to make connections between their sources and discern research patterns. Each time they complete this process, they are helping themselves become better researchers and writers overall.

When is the Right Time to Start Making Citations?

Make in-text/parenthetical citations as you need them.

As you are writing your paper, be sure to include references within the text that correspond with references in a works cited or bibliography. These are usually called in-text citations or parenthetical citations in MLA and APA formats. The most effective time to complete these is directly after you have made your reference to another source. For instance, after writing the line from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities : “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…,” you would include a citation like this (depending on your chosen citation style):

(Dickens 11).

This signals to the reader that you have referenced an outside source. What’s great about this system is that the in-text citations serve as a natural list for all of the citations you have made in your paper, which will make completing the works cited page a whole lot easier. After you are done writing, all that will be left for you to do is scan your paper for these references, and then build a works cited page that includes a citation for each one.

Need help creating an MLA works cited page ? Try the MLA format generator on EasyBib.com! We also have a guide on how to format an APA reference page .

2. Understand the General Formatting Rules of Your Citation Style Before You Start Writing

While reading up on paper formatting may not sound exciting, being aware of how your paper should look early on in the paper writing process is super important. Citation styles can dictate more than just the appearance of the citations themselves, but rather can impact the layout of your paper as a whole, with specific guidelines concerning margin width, title treatment, and even font size and spacing. Knowing how to organize your paper before you start writing will ensure that you do not receive a low grade for something as trivial as forgetting a hanging indent.

Don’t know where to start? Here’s a formatting guide on APA format .

3. Double-check All of Your Outside Sources for Relevance and Trustworthiness First

Collecting outside sources that support your research and specific topic is a critical step in writing an effective paper. But before you run to the library and grab the first 20 books you can lay your hands on, keep in mind that selecting a source to include in your paper should not be taken lightly. Before you proceed with using it to backup your ideas, run a quick Internet search for it and see if other scholars in your field have written about it as well. Check to see if there are book reviews about it or peer accolades. If you spot something that seems off to you, you may want to consider leaving it out of your work. Doing this before your start making citations can save you a ton of time in the long run.

Finished with your paper? It may be time to run it through a grammar and plagiarism checker , like the one offered by EasyBib Plus. If you’re just looking to brush up on the basics, our grammar guides  are ready anytime you are.

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What is ChatGPT?

• How to Use Google Gemini

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ChatGPT: the latest news, controversies, and tips you need to know

ChatGPT has continued to dazzle the internet with AI-generated content, morphing from a novel chatbot into a piece of technology that is driving the next era of innovation. No tech product in recent memory has sparked as much interest, controversy, fear, and excitement.

How to use ChatGPT

How to use the chatgpt iphone and android apps, is chatgpt free to use, who created chatgpt, what do the chatgpt errors mean, latest chatgpt controversies, can chatgpt be detected, common uses for chatgpt, what are chatgpt plugins, is there a chatgpt api.

• What’s the future of ChatGPT and GPT-5?

ChatGPT alternatives worth trying

Other things to know about chatgpt.

If you’re just now catching on, it’d be fair to wonder what the fuss is all about. You can try it out for yourself for free (or use the official free iOS app ), but here’s the detailed guide you’ve been looking for — whether you’re worried about an AI apocalypse or are just looking for an intro guide to the app.

ChatGPT is a natural language AI chatbot . At its most basic level, that means you can ask it any question, and it will generate an answer.

Using the ChatGPT chatbot itself is fairly simple, as all you have to do is type in your text and receive information. The key here is to be creative and see how your ChatGPT responds to different prompts. If you don’t get the intended result, try tweaking your prompt or giving ChatGPT further instructions. ChatGPT knows the context of previous questions you ask, so you can refine from there rather than starting over fresh every time.

For example, starting with “Explain how the solar system was made” will give a more detailed result with more paragraphs than “How was the solar system made,” even though both inquiries will give fairly detailed results. Take it a step further by giving ChatGPT more guidance about style or tone, saying “Explain how the solar system was made as a middle school teacher.”

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You also have the option for more specific inputting requests for an essay with a specific number of paragraphs or a Wikipedia page. We got an extremely detailed result with the request “write a four-paragraph essay explaining Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” And remember, ChatGPT is great at making tweaks to previous answers, so you can always ask for more detail, ask it to rewrite something, or ask it further questions.

To see what it can do, try using ChatGPT in daily life or work activities to see how it can help. Ask it to write emails, craft business proposals, fun date night ideas, or even a best man’s speech. So long as it doesn’t break some of the explicit or illegal content rules, the generator will do its best to fulfill the commands. It’s certainly is potential for ChatGPT to begin filling in gaps with incorrect data. As OpenAI notes, these instances are rare, but AI “hallucinations” certainly do happen . The company also notes that ChatGPT, which uses the GPT-3.5 LLM (large language model), currently has “limited knowledge of world events after 2021.” For more recent knowledge of the world, consider using another tool like Bing Chat .

However, OpenAI recently announced that ChatGPT Plus subscriber, who have access to the GPT-4 model, will be able to search the web for up-to-date information .

Even so, you have the option to input queries continuously until you close your browser or reset the thread to clear your previous requests. These chats are then saved in conversations in the sidebar, even automatically naming the chat. From there, you can manage these chats, renaming or deleting them as needed. You can even “hide” specific chats if needed .

You also have the option to use ChatGPT in dark mode or light mode.

Unlike Bing Chat , which can now generate images with Bing Image Creator and receive images as prompts for questions, ChatGPT only provides text outputs. In September 2023, however, OpenAI added the ability for you to use an image or voice as an input for your prompt. It’s currently only available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers.

As opposed to a simple voice assistant like Siri or Google Assistant , ChatGPT is built on what is called an LLM (Large Language Model). These neural networks are trained on huge quantities of information from the internet for deep learning — meaning they generate altogether new responses, rather than just regurgitating specific canned responses. They’re not built for a specific purpose like chatbots of the past — and they’re a whole lot smarter.

This is implied in the name of ChatGPT, which stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer. In the case of the current version of ChatGPT, it’s based on the GPT-3.5 LLM. The model behind ChatGPT was trained on all sorts of web content including websites, books, social media, news articles, and more — all fine-tuned in the language model by both supervised learning and RLHF (Reinforcement Learning From Human Feedback). OpenAI says this use of human AI trainers is really what makes ChatGPT stand out.

First, go to chat.openai.com . If it’s your first time, you’ll need to set up a free account with OpenAI before getting started. You have the option of choosing an easy login with a Google or Microsoft account, or just entering your email address. You’ll be asked next to enter a phone number ; however, keep in mind that you cannot use a virtual phone number (VoIP) to register for OpenAI. You will then receive a confirmation number, which you will enter on the registration page to complete the setup.

You’ll see some basic rules about ChatGPT, including potential errors in data, how OpenAI collects data, and how users can submit feedback — all of which have some wondering about whether or not ChatGPT is safe to use . Once you’re through that, you know you have successfully registered. You’re in!

After many months of anticipation, OpenAI has finally launched an official iOS app that you can go and download today . The app quickly topped half a million downloads in less than a week and is becoming available in an increasing number of countries .

Instructions for using it aren’t dissimilar to the ChatGPT web application. You do get an extra option for signing in using your Apple ID account, but it otherwise functions nearly identically to the web app — just type in your question and let the conversation begin.

The clean interface shows your conversation with GPT in a straightforward manner, hiding the chat history and settings behind the menu in the top right.

For those who are paying for ChatGPT Plus, the app lets you toggle between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 too. You can even use the microphone to chat with ChatGPT over voice.

As our mobile editor noted in his experience with the app, it still doesn’t provide a connection to the internet like chatbots like Bing Chat and Perplexity .

Users have been asking for Android support for months, and now, a ChatGPT Android app is finally available . You can find it in the Google Play Store, but it’s limited to certain countries at the moment, including the U.S., India, and Brazil.

Some devices go beyond just the app, too. For instance, the Infinix Folax is an Android phone that integrated ChatGPT throughout the device. Instead of just an app, the phone replaces the typical smart assistant (Google Assistant) with ChatGPT.

Yes, the basic version of ChatGPT is completely free to use. There’s no limit to how much you can use ChatGPT in a day, though there is a word and character limit for responses .

It’s not free for OpenAI to continue running it, of course. Initial estimates are currently that OpenAI spends around $3 million per month to continue running ChatGPT, which is around $100,000 per day. A report from April indicated that the price of operation is closer to $700,000 per day .

Beyond the cost of the servers themselves, some egregious information has recently come out about what else has been done to train the language model against producing offensive content.

OpenAI also has a premium version of its chatbot, called ChatGPT Plus . It costs $20 a month but provides access even during peak times, faster responses, and first access to new features like GPT-4 .

ChatGPT was created by an organization called OpenAI, a San Francisco-based AI research lab. The organization started as a non-profit meant for collaboration with other institutions and researchers, funded by high-profile figures like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.

OpenAI later became a for-profit company in 2019 and is now led by its CEO, Sam Altman. It runs on Microsoft’s Azure system infrastructure and is powered by Nvidia’s GPUs, including the new supercomputers just announced this year . Microsoft has invested heavily in OpenAI too, starting in 2019.

Many people attempting to use ChatGPT have been getting an “at capacity” notice when trying to access the site . It’s likely behind the move to try and use unofficial paid apps, which have already flooded app stores  and scammed thousands into paying for a free service.

Because of how much ChatGPT costs to run, it seems as if OpenAI has been limiting access when its servers are “at capacity.” It can take as long as a few hours to wait out, but if you’re patient, you’ll get through eventually. Of all the problems facing ChatGPT right now, this had been the biggest hurdle for keeping people from using it more. In some cases, demand has been so high that ChatGPT has gone down for several hours for maintenance multiple times over the past few months.

This seems to be less of a problem recently, though, as demand has normalized and OpenAI has learned to manage the traffic better, but in the middle of the day, it still makes an appearance from time to time.

Although ChatGPT is a very useful tool, it isn’t free of problems. It’s known for making mistakes or “hallucinations,” where it makes up an answer to something it doesn’t know. A simple example of how unreliable it can sometimes be involved misidentifying the prime minister of Japan .

Beyond just making mistakes, many people are concerned about what this human-like generative AI could mean for the future of the internet, so much so that thousands of tech leaders and prominent public figures have signed a petition to slow down the development. It was even banned in Italy due to privacy concerns, alongside complaints from the FTC — although that’s now been reversed. Since then, the FTC has reopened investigations against OpenAI on questions of personal consumer data is being handled.

Speaking of bans, a number of high-profile companies have been disallowing the use of ChatGPT internally, including Samsung, Amazon, Verizon, and even the United States Congress . Apple is also on the list, though Tim Cook stated that he uses it, just weeks after having it banned .

There’s also the concern that generative AI like ChatGPT could result in the loss of many jobs — as many as 300 million worldwide, according to Goldman Sachs. In particular, it’s taken the spotlight in Hollywood’s writer’s strike , which wants to ensure that AI-written scripts don’t take the jobs of working screenwriters.

Beyond that, multiple controversies have also sprung up around people using ChatGPT to handle tasks that should probably be handled by an actual person. One of the worst cases of this is generating malware, which the FBI recently warned ChatGPT is being used for.

For example, Vanderbilt University’s Peabody School was recently under fire for generating an email about a mass shooting and the importance of community. In addition, JPMorgan Chase is restricting the use of the AI chatbot for workers, especially for generating emails, which companies like Apple have also prohibited internally.

There are also privacy concerns. A recent GDPR complaint says that ChatGPT violates user’s privacy by stealing data from users without their knowledge, and using that data to train the AI model.

Lastly, ChatGPT was even made able to generate Windows 11 keys for free , according to one user. Of course, this is not how ChatGPT was meant to be used, but it’s significant that it was even able to be “tricked” into generating the keys in the first place.

Teachers, school administrators, and developers are already finding different ways around this and banning the use of ChatGPT in schools . Others are more optimistic about how ChatGPT might be used for teaching, but plagiarism is undoubtedly going to continue being an issue in terms of education in the future. There are some ideas about how ChatGPT could “watermark” its text and fix this plagiarism problem, but as of now, detecting ChatGPT is still incredibly difficult to do.

ChatGPT recently launched a new version of its own plagiarism detection tool , with hopes that it will squelch some of the criticism around how people are using the text generation. It uses a new feature called “AI text classifier,” which operates in a way familiar to other plagiarism software. According to OpenAI, however, the tool is still a work in progress and is “imperfect.”

Other tools like GPTZero claim to help detect ChatGPT plagiarism, too. Although they work, some extra editing on AI responses can still trip up these tools.

Well, that’s the fun part. Since its launch, people have been experimenting to discover everything the chatbot can and can’t do — and some of the results have been mind-blowing .

Learning the kinds of prompts and follow-up prompts that ChatGPT responds well to requires some experimentation though. Much like we’ve learned to get the information we want from traditional search engines, it can take some time to get the best results from ChatGPT. If you want to get started, we have a roundup of the best ChatGPT tips .

It really all depends on what you want out of it. To start out, try using it to write a template blog post, for example, or even blocks of code if you’re a programmer.

Our writers experimented with ChatGPT too, attempting to see if it could handle holiday shopping or even properly interpret astrological makeup . In both cases, we found limitations to what it could do while still being thoroughly impressed by the results.

But the fun is in trying it out yourself. Whether you think ChatGPT is an amazing piece of tech or will lead to the destruction of the internet as we know it, it’s worth trying out for yourself to see just what it’s capable of.

Following an update on August 10, you can now use custom instructions with ChatGPT . This allows you to customize how the AI chatbot responds to your inputs so you can tailor it for your needs.

You can’t ask anything, though. OpenAI has safeguards in place in order to “build a safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence.” That means any questions that are hateful, sexist, racist, or discriminatory in any way are generally off-limits.

The announcement of ChatGPT plugins caused a great stir in the developer community, with some calling it “the most powerful developer platform ever created.” AI enthusiasts have compared it to the surge of interest in the iOS App Store when it first launched, greatly expanding the capabilities of the iPhone.

Essentially, developers will be able to build plugins directly for ChatGPT, to open it up to have access to the whole of the internet and connect directly to the APIs of specific applications. It’s ChatGPT out in the real world. Some of the examples provided by OpenAI include applications being able to perform actions on behalf of the user, retrieve real-time information, and access knowledge-based information.

It’s currently only available on a waitlist, but early applications to use plugins with ChatGPT include Expedia, Instacart, Slack, and OpenTable — and now there are lots to explore, including the ones we’ve seen as the best ChatGPT plugins to try out.

Outside of the ChatGPT app itself, many apps had been announced as partners with OpenAI using the ChatGPT API. Of the initial batch, the most prominent example is Snapchat’s MyAI .

Essentially, this is a way for developers to access ChatGPT and plug its natural language capabilities directly into apps and websites. We’ve seen it used in all sorts of different cases, ranging from suggesting parts in Newegg’s PC builder to building out a travel itinerary with just a few words. Recently, OpenAI made the ChatGPT API available to everyone, and we’ve seen a surge in tools leveraging the technology, such as Discord’s Clyde chatbot or Wix’s website builder .

What’s the future of ChatGPT and GPT-5?

There’s no doubt that the tech world has become obsessed with ChatGPT right now, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. GPT-4, the next iteration of the model, has officially launched, though it’s currently only available for ChatGPT Plus. We do know, however, that Bing Chat is at least partially built on the GPT-4 language model, even if certain elements such as visual input aren’t available.

But the bigger development will be how ChatGPT continues to be integrated into other applications. Microsoft reportedly made a multibillion-dollar investment in ChatGPT , which is already starting to pay off. The first integration was in Teams Premium , with some of OpenAI’s features showing up to automate tasks and provide transcripts. Most prominently, Microsoft revealed 365 Copilot , which integrates ChatGPT natural language prompts directly into Office apps like Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more.

There were initial reports that GPT-5 is on the way and could finish training later this year, with some people claiming that it would achieve AGI (artificial general intelligence). That’s a big, controversial statement, but clearly, things are progressing at a rapid pace.

Since then, OpenAI has stated that GPT-5 is not on the timeline and is not currently planned. That being said, the next version, GPT-4.5, is currently training and may be available later this year. OpenAI indicated that it may be done planning as early as September or October.

All that to say, if you think AI is a big deal now, just wait until it’s built into the most common applications that are used for work and school.

ChatGPT remains the most popular AI chatbot at the moment, but it’s not completely without competition. Microsoft’s Bing Chat is the biggest rival, which uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 model as a basis for its answers. Although it requires downloading the Edge browser to use, Bing Chat is free and offers some added features such as different writing modes, image creation, and search links. It even got a significant update recently that introduced features like export, third-party plugins, and multimodal support. There’s also YouChat, which uses GPT-3, an older model from OpenAI, and Forefront AI , which gives you access to GPT-4 and beyond.

The biggest non-GPT competitor to ChatGPT is Google Bard . It’s based on Google’s own homegrown language model, LaMDA, and Google seems intent on competing directly with OpenAI with Google Bard. The most recent updates make it a far more compelling alternative to ChatGPT , even if it’s not quite there.

There are a number of other chatbots out there, some of which are based on Meta’s open-source language model, LLaMA, such as Vicuna and HuggingChat .

Reports suggest Apple has been working on a ChatGPT rival for years , as well, though we haven’t seen it yet. Some reporters say it is “significantly behind competitors” at the moment.

Are ChatGPT chats private?

It depends on what you mean by private. All chats with ChatGPT are used by OpenAI to further tune the models, which can actually involve the use of human trainers. No, that doesn’t mean a human is looking through every question you ask ChatGPT, but there’s a reason OpenAI warns against providing any personal information to ChatGPT.

It should be noted that if you don’t delete your chats, the conversations will appear in the left sidebar. Unlike with other chatbots, individual chats within a conversation cannot be deleted, though they can be edited using the pencil icon that appears when you hover over a chat. When you delete the conversations, however, it’s not that ChatGPT forgets they ever happened — it’s just that they disappear from the sidebar chat history.

Fortunately, OpenAI has recently announced a way to make your chats hidden from the sidebar . These “hidden” chats won’t be used to train AI models either.

When was ChatGPT released?

ChatGPT was originally launched to the public in November of 2022 by OpenAI. The chatbot is based on the GPT-3.5 LLM, which is a fine-tuned version of GPT-3, a model first launched on March 15, 2022. GPT-3 itself, though, has been around for a few years now. It was first released in June 2020, but only as an autoregressive language model.

The predecessors to GPT-3 had very limited public exposure. GPT-2 was announced in February 2019, and the first research paper on GPT was published on OpenAI’s website in 2018.

Will ChatGPT replace Google Search?

Rather than replace it, chatbots are likely to be integrated directly into search. Microsoft has already done this with Bing Chat and Bing, which puts a “chat” tab right into the menu of Bing search.

Even Google has begun experimenting with integrating the smarts of Google Bard into search through its Search Generative Experience . We’re in the early days where all these exist as different products, but it’s not hard to imagine a future where it’s a completely unified experience.

Is Bing Chat the same as ChatGPT?

Microsoft has officially brought ChatGPT to Bing in the form of Bing Chat . After a long beta period, it was officially available to try out. But unlike ChatGPT , Bing Chat does require downloading the latest version of Edge. So Safari or Chrome users are out of luck.

In the early days of its release, Bing Chat was capable of some unhinged responses , but Microsoft has been quick to tame things a bit. It was recently announced that Bing Chat is using the latest GPT-4 language model , meaning it’s more powerful and accurate than ChatGPT . The new Edge Copilot mode also provides a more user-friendly way to get started, offering suggested prompts, links to learn more, and ways to tweak the kinds of answers it gives you. And now with the Windows Copilot , Bing Chat will live right on your desktop.

Is Google Bard the same as ChatGPT?

Unlike Bing Chat, Google Bard  uses an entirely different LLM to power its natural language capabilities. Upon its release, Bard has been using LaMDA, the company’s own model, which stands for Language Model for Dialogue Applications. As has been demonstrated from early on, Bard didn’t have quite the precision in its answers.

Reports indicate, however, that Bard is getting a massive update soon, going from being trained on 30 billion parameters up to 600 billion parameters. That could make it closer to what is possible with GPT-4.

Can you write essays with ChatGPT?

The use of ChatGPT has been full of controversy, with many onlookers considering how the power of AI will change everything from search engines to novel writing. It’s even demonstrated the ability to earn students surprisingly good grades in essay writing.

Essay writing for students is one of the most obvious examples of where ChatGPT could become a problem. ChatGPT might not write this article all that well, but it feels particularly easy to use for essay writing. Some generative AI tools, such as Caktus AI , are built specifically for this purpose.

Can ChatGPT write and debug code?

Absolutely — it’s one of the most powerful features of ChatGPT. As with everything with AI, you’ll want to double-check everything it produces, because it won’t always get your code right. But it’s certainly powerful at both writing code from scratch and debugging code.

Developers have used it to create websites, applications, and games from scratch — all of which are made more powerful with GPT-4, of course. There’s even a plug-in called ChatGPT Code Interpreter that makes programming with AI even more accessible.

What is the ChatGPT character limit?

OpenAI doesn’t set an exact character limit, but it will cut off around its responses at about 500 words or 4,000 characters. If you happen to give the chatbot a request for a specific number of words above 500, you might find that it cuts off mid-sentence somewhere after 500 words.

One way to get around this is just to ask it to “go on” or “continue,” but it depends on the prompt and type of response. Sometimes ChatGPT will more or less repeat the previous answers in different words.

The best way to get access to responses with longer characters is to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus.

Is there a ChatGPT bug bounty program?

Yes. A bug bounty program for ChatGPT was recently announced . The program was unveiled officially on OpenAI’s website , which details the types of “cash awards” that are being offered. They range from $200 to up to $20,000 for what it calls “exceptional discoveries.”

While addressing security researchers interested in getting involved in the program, OpenAI said it recognized “the critical importance of security and view it as a collaborative effort. By sharing your findings, you will play a crucial role in making our technology safer for everyone.”

Do you need to download ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is available via a webpage , so no downloading is needed. However, OpenAI has finally released a free, official iOS app that needs to be downloaded from the iOS app store. For many months, the various app stores were full of fake versions. These are still out there, though, and should be installed and used with caution, as they are not official ChatGPT apps. There is no still no official Android app.

On desktop, there are a couple of ways to install ChatGPT, though. First, you can navigate to the ChatGPT website and save it as a Windows app through Edge. Go to the site, click the ellipsis menu, and hover over Apps.  Select  Install this site as an app  to load ChatGPT from your desktop.

Other tools like MacGPT also allow shortcuts to access the browser service from your desktop.

Can you use ChatGPT on iPhone or Android?

Now that there’s an official iOS app, you no longer have to rely solely on the web app to use ChatGPT on your phone . So, whether with the official app as downloaded through the app store or just the web version, you can certainly use ChatGPT on iPhones. In addition, there’s even a way to replace Siri with ChatGPT on your iPhone, as well as some useful mobile apps like Perplexity AI .

As for Android, you’ll need to rely on the web app. Just as on desktop, type in chat.openai.com to start using ChatGPT.

Can you get ChatGPT to answer any question?

Not exactly. ChatGPT has limitations in the kinds of questions it can answer. First of all, it can’t write about anything that requires internet knowledge after late 2021, which is when its training stopped.

Beyond that, ChatGPT is careful about answering questions that might imply illegal, explicit, or damaging activity. It’ll avoid swearing or political debates, and will (usually) avoid making malware. There is some amount of jailbreaking that can be done to get around these restrictions, but OpenAI is constantly tightening its content policies to restrict unwanted answers. One example of a common jailbreaking technique is the DAN (Do Anything Now) prompt , though OpenAI has worked hard to plug these holes over time.

What is Auto-GPT?

Built on GPT-4, Auto-GPT is the latest evolution of AI technology to cause a stir in the industry. It’s not directly related to ChatGPT or OpenAI — instead, it’s an open-source Python application that got into the hands of developers all over the internet when it was published on GitHub .

With ChatGPT or ChatGPT Plus, the capabilities of the AI are limited to a single chat window. Auto-GPT, at its simplest, is making AI autonomous. It can be given a set of goals, and then take the necessary steps towards accomplishing that goal across the internet, including connecting up with applications and software.

According to the official description on GitHub, Auto-GPT is an “experimental open-source application showcasing the capabilities of the GPT-4 language model. This program, driven by GPT-4, chains together LLM ‘thoughts’, to autonomously achieve whatever goal you set. As one of the first examples of GPT-4 running fully autonomously, Auto-GPT pushes the boundaries of what is possible with AI.”

The demo used on the GitHub page is simple — just create a recipe appropriate for Easter and save it to a file. What’s neat is how Auto-GPT breaks down the steps the AI is taking to accomplish the goal, including the “thoughts” and “reasoning” behind its actions. Auto-GPT is already being used in a variety of different applications, with some touting it as the beginning of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) due to its autonomous nature.

What is GPT-4 and how does it compare to GPT-3.5?

GPT-4 is a more advanced LLM — the most powerful that OpenAI currently offers. At the current moment, OpenAI only offers access to GPT-4 through ChatGPT Plus. GPT-3.5, on the other hand, is the LLM that powers the free ChatGPT tool. OpenAI no longer says exactly how many parameters these advanced models are trained on, but it’s rumored that GPT-4 boasts up to 1 trillion parameters.

Regardless, the results are a fairly dramatic difference between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 in terms of quality. It offers much more precise answers, is significantly better at coding and creative collaboration, and can provide (and respond to) much longer selections of text. GPT-4 remains the best possible model available, while GPT-3.5 is more in line with some other models available.

Who owns the copyright to content created by ChatGPT?

This is a question open to debate. Much of the conversation around copyright and AI is ongoing, with some saying generative AI is “stealing” the work of the content it was trained on. This has become increasingly contentious in the world of AI art. Companies like Adobe are finding ways around this by only training models on stock image libraries that already have proper artist credit and legal boundaries.

According to OpenAI, however, you have the right to reprint, sell, and merchandise anything that was created with ChatGPT or ChatGPT Plus. So, you’re not going to get sued by OpenAI.

The larger topic of copyright law regarding generative AI is still to be determined by various lawmakers and interpreters of the law, especially since copyright law as it currently stands technically only protects content created by human beings.

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OpenAI needs to watch out because Apple may finally be jumping on the AI bandwagon, and the news doesn't bode well for ChatGPT. Apple is reportedly working on a large language model (LLM) referred to as ReALM, which stands for Reference Resolution As Language Modeling. Made to give Siri a boost and help it understand context, the model comes in four variants, and Apple claims that even its smallest model performs on a similar level to OpenAI's ChatGPT.

This tantalizing bit of information comes from an Apple research paper, first shared by Windows Central, and it appears to be an early peek into what Apple has been cooking for a while now. ReALM is Apple's own LLM that was reportedly made to enhance Siri's capabilities; these improvements include a greater ability to understand context in a conversation.

The ChatGPT chatbot is an innovative AI tool developed by OpenAI. As it stands, there are two main versions of the software: GPT-4 and GPT-3.5. Toe to toe in more ways than one, there are a couple of key differences between both versions that may be deal-breakers for certain users. But what exactly are these differences? We’re here to help you find out. 

We’ve put together this side-by-side comparison of both ChatGPT versions, so when you’re done reading, you’ll know what version makes the most sense for you and yours. What are GPT 3.5 and GPT-4?

ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot that went viral at the start of last year and kicked off a wave of interest in generative AI tools, no longer requires an account to use.

Its creator, OpenAI, launched a webpage on Monday that lets you begin a conversation with the chatbot without having to sign up or log in first.