Film analysis is a process of investigating WHY and HOW a particular film affects us as it does. When doing analysis, we examine the significant decisions that were made in constructing the film to achieve the desired effect.

One of the most productive ways to do film analysis is to isolate a particular frame from a film and examine it closely and systematically according to an objective set of parameters. Not all of the parameters will be significantly relevant to a particular frame, but most will.

We look first at the strictly formal parameters of the image (the discursive dimension), then we look at the meaning that is created by this image (the diegetic dimension).

Finally, we try to put everything together and write out a prose discussion of the main point and effect of the image and how that effect is created.

Film Stock

The look of the film is influenced by the very choice of film stock on which the movie is recorded. A basic distinction is between black & white and color. Some color stocks, such as Technicolor, create a bright, rather artificial feel. Others, such as Eastmancolor, tend to create color that seems more realistic.

Some film stocks are grainy, creating a gritty, realistic, documentary feel. There is great contrast between dark and light tones. Others are more glossy, with a fine grain, creating rich tones with lots of variation in the gray range (for black and white) or subtle variation in the colors (for color).

Remember, of course, that your ability to analyze the reproduction of a film frame depends upon the quality of the reproduction.

Related to the choice of film stock is the gauge of the film stock that is chosen. Film gauge is the size and dimension of the film frame. Early on, theatrical films settled upon a 35mm size; beginning in the Fifties, 70mm became increasingly the size of choice for big-budget spectacle films.

The dimension of the film frame is know as its aspect ratio, the ratio of base to height. In its traditional form, the base is slightly greater than the height, by a ratio of 4 to 3 (or 1.33 to 1); this is known as Academy Aperture. Beginning in the Fifties, with the use of 70mm film, spectacles began to use wide-screen formats such as Panavision, Cinemascope, and Todd A-O. Panavision ratio is 2.2/1, while Cinemascope uses a ratio of 2.55/1. The television screen was designed to fit Academy Aperture. As a result, wide-screen films need to be altered before they can be shown on TV.

The effect of an image is greatly dependent upon the lighting style chosen for the film as a whole. Generally speaking, the major contrast in film style is between High Key lighting and Low Key lighting. High Key style uses even, bright illumination, flooding the image with light and keeping shadows to a minimum. Low Key style tends to be murkier, with lots of shadow and selective patches of light.

To get at the lighting style of the frame, you also want to see whether the lighting is romantic (soft, diffuse, rounding out faces and creating gentle shadows) or realistic (harsh, flattening faces, casting harsh shadows). This is usually a function of the nature of the light source used, as well as any gels or filters that are placed between the lens and the image.

When studying the lighting in a particular frame, you also want to look for highlights, determine whether or not the lighting is pointing our attention to a particular part of the image (i.e., a character's eyes, or to a knife on the table).

Also, look to see whether shadows are creating particular patterns or obscuring anything in the scene.

Along with lighting, focus is one of the primary means by which a filmmaker can guide the viewer's attention to the most important details. One potential choice is between deep focus and shallow or selective focus. In deep focus, images are in sharp focus from the foreground through the midground to the background. This device is often used when the filmmaker wants to contrast elements within the shot (e.g., foreground vs. background). It tends to create a more "realistic" feeling. If selective focus is used, you want to specify what is being placed in focus, as well as what is being kept out of focus.

Another contrast is between soft focus and sharp focus. Soft focus is used to create a romantic, non-realistic effect. Sharp focus tends to give more of a realistic feeling.

You want to look at how the actors and objects in the image are composed, how they are laid out in the frame. Who is in the foreground? Who is in the background? Generally speaking, objects closer to the camera loom larger than those farther from the lens.

Do the characters and/or images fall into geometric figures, such as triangles or circles?

How about the number of characters? Is it a two-shot, a three-shot, a crowd scene? Who is facing camera, who is facing away or somewhere in between?

Closed/Open Frame, Dense/Simple Image

These two parameters are related to frame composition. With respect to closed/open frame, the frame can be composed to create a real feeling of openness by having the character in the middle of the frame and having nothing on either edge. We have a feeling that space goes on and on. On the other hand, a feeling of limitation, entrapment, claustrophobia can be created by having people, objects, or architectural details closing off the frame on either side (or perhaps only on one side). Sometimes the frame can be composed to create an effect of internal framing, where a character is framed by, for example, a doorway or window; this creates a frame within a frame and tends to emphasize the character, drawing our attention particularly to him or her.

A related element is the denseness of the image. Is the image filled with lots of little details, creating a sense of busy-ness, of noise? Or is the image simple, stark, peaceful. Very different moods will be created by each.

Here we consider the perspective which the camera is taking to the subject. Viewpoint helps to create our attitude to the subject. Camera Angle is one parameter: is the subject being viewed from a low angle (LA or ELA), a high angle (HA or EHA), an aerial view, an eye-level angle, or an oblique angle (or Dutch angle).

We also look at camera distance, for the camera can be placed anywhere from extreme close-up to extreme long shot.

The single most expressive element in films is the gaze of the characters, i.e., who is looking at whom or what. Eyelines (or sightlines) are a way to bring us without words into the character's mind, telling us what is important to the character.

Sometimes the character will appear to be looking at nothing in particular, which tells us something. Other times the sightlines will help to establish point of view--i.e., if the character is looking directly at the camera (actually, this is rare) or at a point just next to the camera, our assumption is that we are taking on the point of view of the person with whom the character is speaking.

When discussing expressions and body language, the analyst wants to be as concrete and specific as possible. Rather than just saying that a character "looks sad," you will want to point out the details that create this impression: e.g., body is slumped, mouth drooping, head held in hands, perhaps tears running down face. This is tricky, but important.

The clothing worn by characters helps to establish their social class, their occupation, their historical period, as well as their present circumstances--that is, if the clothing is worn or in tatters, that will certainly tell us something. Clothing can also be used to communicate the personal style of the character, as well as his/her "morals."

Also, remember that the color of a character's clothing can also serve to characterize him or her, and to distinguish him or her from others in the frame. So see whether or not choice of clothing color is significant.

Decor works in much the same way as costumes, to help establish the setting, social class, condition of the characters. In addition, you want to look for any elements of the decor that might have significance beyond simply being part of the background (i.e., the rifle over the mantle).

Once we have pinpointed and described the formal details and elements, we can now begin to think about what they mean.

What exactly is going on in the image? What do the characters appear to be doing?

Can you see any tensions or conflicts between characters (or between characters and their environment)? If so, between whom or what?

On the other hand, is the overall impression one of harmony, of the absence of conflict between characters.

Or, for this particular image, does tension/conflict seem to be a non-issue?

Do any of the elements of the image seem to have symbolic aspects? That is, do they seem to carry connotations that are larger than themselves?

The image might include religious symbols. For example, a character might have his arms spread with a look of suffering on his face, creating a Christ-like appearance. Or the light might be falling to form a cross.

There might also be cultural symbols. For example, our culture tends to equate eagles with patriotism, so an eagle or an eagle statue within a frame would create that impression. A moustache used to carry connotations of sneakiness, of villainy. Symbols can also be used to stereotype (or just identify) other cultures (Frenchmen wear berets, an Arab wears a fez or burnoose.

You might also find genre symbols (icons). Do you see anything in the image that identifies it as belonging to a particular genre? The stagecoach in a Western has symbolic overtones, as does the "mad scientist" in a horror film.

A frame might even contain what we might call "cinematic symbols." Sometimes, images can point to other, earlier films. For example, no educated film audience can see a baby carriage beside a flight of stairs and not think of Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin (1927).

Although it is sometimes difficult to tell from a single frame, the image may be touching upon certain abstract concepts such as Isolation, or Devotion, or the Quest for Liberation, or Conflict Between Generations, or the Horror of War, even Existential Paranoia! See what you can do with this.

Once you have analyzed the frame--that is, taken it apart--you need to put the pieces back together again, to sum up what is going on here and how the overall effect is created. You will want to use the items in your worksheet to discuss the frame as a whole in prose. What is this frame trying to communicate? What means do the filmmakers use to create that effect, to make that point?

Of course it is always easier (and ultimately more useful) to discuss in this way a frame from a film we've already seen. Sometimes, though, our analysis becomes colored by what we know of the film in general. Analyzing a frame from a film we have not seen can thus also be a useful exercise.

Commentaries on film frames can be as brief as a paragraph and as long as a chapter in a book. Ideally, they will cause the reader to see the frame--and even the film--in a new, more complex light.

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