Matt Morello

Mrs. Avery
American Film Survey
00 Month 2014
Unit 4 The Epic
Question 1: In what ways does the film illustrate the epic genre? USE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES from the
film to support your analysis.

Soundtrack Does the music clearly represent the genre?

Characters Do the characters behave in accordance with the genre?
Setting Is the location and environment generally associated with the genre?
Costumes Do they suggest a certain period?
Script Is the language indicative of a certain genre?
Differences - In what ways, if any, does it depart from the genre?

Question 2: Who is the director? The featured actors? Do you know anything about their other work that
is RELEVANT to your analysis?

Question 3: Review the week one reading on writing about film. Did you take into consideration those
aspects the reading details as being important elements in film writing?

Frame and Camera Frame: The camera frame changes frequently in relationship to
what is being filmed. The camera frame controls what you see and how you see it. Mood,
emotion, and tension can all be controlled by the camera frame.
Theme: What is the film about? What is the main idea and what, if any, is the message it
is trying to impart? There is not always a moral or message in a film, but there is always a
theme. Some questions to ask when trying to identify theme are:
Who are the main characters? What is their relationship to each other and what
larger ideas do they represent? What do the characters endure and how do they
change?
In what way does their story encompass meaning, either individual or in relation
to society?
What is the film asking you to value or criticize? How does the film make you
feel at the end?
Narrative: Plot and story are the main components of narrative. While story comprises
everything that happens in a movie, the plot refers to the arrangement and structure of
events. A classical narrative involves a plot where events bare a logical connection to
each other. There is a resolution at the end of a classical narrative, a happy or tragic
ending. The stories focus on characters. Not all movies employ classical narratives.
Some are non-narrative. They do not tell stories at all. They are experimental in nature

and focus on situations or questions rather than characters. Some films liberate the
narrative from any logical relationship between events. Memento and 21 Grams are two
examples of this popular technique.
Character: The individuals that appear in a film, whether they are people, animals,
robots, monsters, or superheroes are characters. Many of the questions necessary for
analyzing character may be found in the above discussion of theme. What the character
says, does, thinks (if we are privy to this information), and what others say about him or
her are also ways of informing character analysis.
Point of View: The position from which a story is told, seen, and implied informs its
point of view. The camera frame itself often helps to create a point of view. The
narrative plays a part in point of view as it relates a story either from a purely objective
perspective or from the subjective perspective of a single person.