Moving Images, Understanding Media

x Preface

impact of moving images. In his book Th inking in Pictures, director John

Sayles says “Narrative fi lm, what we ordinarily think of as ‘the movies,’ is

a combination of literary, theatrical, and purely cinematic elements.” His

analytical breakdown of motion pictures off ers a useful organizational strategy

for any discussion of movies. When completing Analysis work, consider this

structure of three areas to organize thoughts, reactions, and analyses.

• Cinematic—All of the factors particular to the cinema, including:

° Cinematography: visual elements, composition, movement,

light, color

° Editing

° Sound design (all dialogue recording, eff ects, music)

• Literary—Elements experienced in the study of literature, such as:

° Story and plot

° Dialogue and written elements

° Th eme

• Th eatrical—Factors associated with the theater, particularly:

° Acting and performance

° Blocking—in theater, blocking is the positioning and moving

of actors around the set, and this term can be applied to

motion pictures in terms of “staging” or working from sets.

However, it is important to see this as becoming cinematic

when it is directly interpreted by the vantage point of the

camera and the visual choices inherent in cinematography.

Keep in mind that these categories can be useful to organize analyses and

discussion, but in many ways they can overlap and become blurred. For example,

when discussing typical storytelling devices such as symbol, metaphor, or irony

(which many would list under “literary”), they can stem from purely visual or

musical sources. So, you should consider these titles to help with analytical

work, while the overall goal is to develop an understanding of the distinct

expressive and creative capacities and messages of motion pictures.

Writing

In each chapter, you will complete creative writing assignments to develop

screenwriting material and skills. Th ere is a writing exercise at the end of each

chapter, and there is a selection of additional assignments in the Instructor

Resources package. Th ese can be used to generate narrative ideas or other

storytelling material or to produce alternative scripts. Th e writing you generate

for any of the assignments can be used for production exercises, and you

will have the opportunity to produce scripts that you draft for group work

or independent projects.

Projects

Th e third end-of-chapter component is the motion picture project. As with

Analysis and Writing, along with the Project at the end of each chapter there

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