what makes a good film essay

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 .
• The message behind the film Split .
• Analyze the techniques used by Tim Burton in his movie Sleepy Hollow .
• The topic of children’s abuse and importance of trust in Joseph Sargent’s Sybil .
• Examine the themes and motives of the film Return to Paradise by Joseph Ruben. 
• The issues of gender and traditions in the drama The Whale Rider.
• Analysis of the film Not Easily Broken by Duke Bill.
• The symbolism in R. Scott’s movie Thelma and Louise .  
• The meaning of audiovisual effects in Citizen Kane .
• Analyze the main characters of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo .
• Discuss the historical accuracy of the documentary The Civil War .
• Analysis of the movie Through a Glass Darkly .
• Explore the core idea of the comedy Get Out .
• The problem of artificial intelligence and human nature in Ex Machina .
• Three principles of suspense used in the drama The Fugitive .
• Examine the ideas Michael Bay promotes in Armageddon .
• Analyze the visual techniques used in Tenet by Christopher Nolan.
• Analysis of the movie The Green Mile .
• Discrimination and exclusion in the film The Higher Learning .
• The hidden meaning of the scenes in Blade Runner .
• Compare the social messages of the films West Side Story and Romeo + Juliet .
• Highlighting the problem of children’s mental health in the documentary Kids in Crisis .
• Discuss the ways Paul Haggis establishes the issue of racial biases in his movie Crash .
• Analyze the problem of moral choice in the film Gone Baby Gone .
• Analysis of the historical film Hacksaw Ridge .
• Explore the main themes of the film Mean Girls by Mark Walters .
• The importance of communication in the movie Juno .
• Describe the techniques the authors use to highlight the problems of society in Queen and Slim .
• Examine the significance of visual scenes in My Family/ Mi Familia .
• Analysis of the thriller Salt by Phillip Noyce.
• Analyze the message of Greg Berlanti’s film Love, Simon .
• Interpret the symbols of the film The Wizard of Oz (1939).
• Discuss the modern issues depicted in the film The Corporation .
• Moral lessons of Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond .
• Analysis of the documentary Solitary Nation .
• Describe the audiovisual elements of the film Pride and Prejudice (2005) .
• The problem of toxic relationships in Malcolm and Marie .

📄 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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Essays About Movies: 7 Examples and 5 Writing Prompts

Check out our guide with essays about movies for budding videographers and artistic students. Learn from our helpful list of examples and prompts.

Watching movies is a part of almost everyone’s life. They entertain us, teach us lessons, and even help us socialize by giving us topics to talk about with others. As long as movies have been produced, everyone has patronized them.  Essays about movies  are a great way to learn all about the meaning behind the picture.

Cinema is an art form in itself. The lighting, camera work, and acting in the most widely acclaimed movies are worthy of praise. Furthermore, a movie can be used to send a message, often discussing issues in contemporary society. Movies are entertaining, but more importantly, they are works of art. If you’re interested in this topic, check out our round-up of screenwriters on Instagram .

5 Helpful Essay Examples 

1. the positive effects of movies on human behaviour by ajay rathod, 2. horror movies by emanuel briggs, 3. casablanca – the greatest hollywood movie ever (author unknown).

• 4.  Dune Review: An Old Story Reshaped For The New 2021 Audience by Oren Cohen

5. Blockbuster movies create booms for tourism — and headaches for locals by Shubhangi Goel

• 6. Moonage Daydream: “Who Is He? What Is He?” by Jonathan Romney
• 7. La Bamba: American Dreaming, Chicano Style by Yolanda Machado

1. My Favorite Movie

2. movies genres, 3. special effects in movies, 4. what do you look for in a movie, 5. the evolution of movies.

“​​Films encourage us to take action. Our favourite characters, superheroes, teach us life lessons. They give us ideas and inspiration to do everything for the better instead of just sitting around, waiting for things to go their way. Films about famous personalities are the perfect way to affect social behaviour positively. Films are a source of knowledge. They can help learn what’s in the trend, find out more about ancient times, or fill out some knowledge gaps.”

In this movie essay, Rathod gives readers three ways watching movies can positively affect us. Movie writers, producers, and directors use their platform to teach viewers life skills, the importance of education, and the contrast between good and evil. Watching movies can also help us improve critical thinking, according to Briggs. Not only do movies entertain us, but they also have many educational benefits. You might also be interested in these  essays about consumerism .

“Many people involving children and adults can effect with their sleeping disturbance and anxiety. Myths, non-realistic, fairy tales could respond differently with being in the real world. Horror movies bring a lot of excitement and entertainment among you and your family. Horror movies can cause physical behavior changes in a person by watching the films. The results of watching horror movies shows that is has really effect people whether you’re an adult, teens, and most likely happens during your childhood.”

In his essay, Briggs acknowledges why people enjoy horror movies so much but warns of their adverse effects on viewers. Most commonly, they cause viewers nightmares, which may cause anxiety and sleep disorders. He focuses on the films’ effects on children, whose more sensitive, less developed brains may respond with worse symptoms, including major trauma. The films can affect all people negatively, but children are the most affected.

“This was the message of Casablanca in late 1942. It was the ideal opportunity for America to utilize its muscles and enter the battle. America was to end up the hesitant gatekeeper of the entire world. The characters of Casablanca, similar to the youthful Americans of the 1960s who stick headed the challenge development, are ‘genuine Americans’ lost in a hostile region, battling to open up another reality.”

In this essay, the author discusses the 1942 film  Casablanca , which is said to be the greatest movie ever made, and explains why it has gotten this reputation. To an extent, the film’s storyline, acting, and even relatability (it was set during World War II) allowed it to shine from its release until the present. It invokes feelings of bravery, passion, and nostalgia, which is why many love the movie. You can also check out these  books about adaption . 

4.   Dune Review: An Old Story Reshaped For The New 2021 Audience by Oren Cohen

“Lady Jessica is a powerful woman in the original book, yet her interactions with Paul diminish her as he thinks of her as slow of thought. Something we don’t like to see in 2021 — and for a good reason. Every book is a product of its time, and every great storyteller knows how to adapt an old story to a new audience. I believe Villeneuve received a lot of hate from diehard Dune fans for making these changes, but I fully support him.”

Like the previous essay, Cohen reviews a film, in this case, Denis Villeneuve’s  Dune , released in 2021. He praises the film, writing about its accurate portrayal of the epic’s vast, dramatic scale, music, and, interestingly, its ability to portray the characters in a way more palatable to contemporary audiences while staying somewhat faithful to the author’s original vision. Cohen enjoyed the movie thoroughly, saying that the movie did the book justice. 

“Those travelers added around 630 million New Zealand dollars ($437 million) to the country’s economy in 2019 alone, the tourism authority told CNBC. A survey by the tourism board, however, showed that almost one in five Kiwis are worried that the country attracts too many tourists. Overcrowding at tourist spots, lack of infrastructure, road congestion and environmental damage are creating tension between locals and visitors, according to a 2019 report by Tourism New Zealand.”

The locations where successful movies are filmed often become tourist destinations for fans of those movies. Goel writes about how “film tourism” affects the residents of popular filming locations. The environment is sometimes damaged, and the locals are caught off guard. Though this is not always the case, film tourism is detrimental to the residents and ecosystem of these locations. You can also check out these  essays about The Great Gatsby .

6. Moonage Daydream:  “Who Is He? What Is He?” by Jonathan Romney

“Right from the start, Brett Morgen’s  Moonage Daydream  (2022) catches us off guard. It begins with an epigraph musing on Friedrich Nietzsche’s proclamation that “God is dead,” then takes us into deep space and onto the surface of the moon. It then unleashes an image storm of rockets, robots, and star-gazers, and rapid-fire fragments of early silent cinema, 1920s science fiction, fifties cartoons, and sixties and seventies newsreel footage, before lingering on a close-up of glittery varnish on fingernails.” 

Moonage Daydream  is a feature film containing never-before-seen footage of David Bowie. In this essay, Romney delves into the process behind creating the movie and how the footage was captured. It also looks at the director’s approach to creating a structured and cohesive film, which took over two years to plan. This essay looks at how Bowie’s essence was captured and preserved in this movie while displaying the intricacies of his mind.

7. La Bamba:  American Dreaming, Chicano Style by Yolanda Machado

“A traumatic memory, awash in hazy neutral tones, arising as a nightmare. Santo & Johnny’s mournful “Sleep Walk” playing. A sudden death, foreshadowing the passing of a star far too young. The opening sequence of Luis Valdez’s  La Bamba  (1987) feels like it could be from another film—what follows is largely a celebration of life and music.”

La Bamba  is a well-known movie about a teenage Mexican migrant who became a rock ‘n’ roll star. His rise to fame is filled with difficult social dynamics, and the star tragically dies in a plane crash at a young age. In this essay, Machado looks at how the tragic death of the star is presented to the viewer, foreshadowing the passing of the young star before flashing back to the beginning of the star’s career. Machado analyses the storyline and directing style, commenting on the detailed depiction of the young star’s life. It’s an in-depth essay that covers everything from plot to writing style to direction.

5 Prompts for Essays About Movies

Simple and straightforward, write about your favorite movie. Explain its premise, characters, and plot, and elaborate on some of the driving messages and themes behind the film. You should also explain why you enjoy the movie so much: what impact does it have on you? Finally, answer this question in your own words for an engaging piece of writing.

From horror to romance, movies can fall into many categories. Choose one of the main genres in cinema and discuss the characteristics of movies under that category. Explain prevalent themes, symbols, and motifs, and give examples of movies belonging to your chosen genre. For example, horror movies often have underlying themes such as mental health issues, trauma, and relationships falling apart. 

Without a doubt, special effects in movies have improved drastically. Both practical and computer-generated effects produce outstanding, detailed effects to depict situations most would consider unfathomable, such as the vast space battles of the  Star Wars  movies. Write about the development of special effects over the years, citing evidence to support your writing. Be sure to detail key highlights in the history of special effects. 

Movies are always made to be appreciated by viewers, but whether or not they enjoy them varies, depending on their preferences. In your essay, write about what you look for in a “good” movie in terms of plot, characters, dialogue, or anything else. You need not go too in-depth but explain your answers adequately. In your opinion, you can use your favorite movie as an example by writing about the key characteristics that make it a great movie.

From the silent black-and-white movies of the early 1900s to the vivid, high-definition movies of today, times have changed concerning movies. Write about how the film industry has improved over time. If this topic seems too broad, feel free to focus on one aspect, such as cinematography, themes, or acting.

For help with your essays, check out our round-up of the  best essay checkers .

If you’re looking for more ideas, check out our  essays about music topic guide !

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The 5 Key Ingredients To A Good Movie

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Every time I watch a movie I don’t like, or that I think is terrible, I find myself wondering: what are the key ingredients that separate good movies from bad movies? What actually makes a movie good?

The key ingredients that make a movie “good” are when the acting, directing, writing, cinematography, and overall production value come together to tell one cohesive, entertaining, and impactful story. A good movie uses all these filmmaking tools to tell a compelling story that makes you feel.

That’s just the short version, of course. There’s so much more that goes into creating a good movie, and since certain ingredients, like writing or directing, can be subjective to the viewer’s tastes and opinions, separating good movies from bad ones can be complicated.

However, a movie can’t be considered “good” without all or most of these key ingredients. Because film is such a collaborative medium, it requires multiple artists with various talents all working together to make one cohesive product.

So, let’s look at each ingredient that goes into a good movie and see how they all add up and interact to make a movie most people can call good!

Ingredient #1: It all starts with good writing.

In case you didn’t know, every great movie starts with a great script.

Almost every movie that gets made has to start with a script. Unless it’s a big franchise tentpole movie a studio has planned for years (I’m looking at you, fourth Spider-Man reboot!), you need a locked script written before you can start working on a movie.

Without a script, how would the production designers know what sets they need to build? How would the casting directors know who to cast? How would the cinematographers know what to shoot or the director what to direct?

Screenplays are blueprints every other department working on a movie uses to inform their decision-making.

You might think that directors are the ones who tell everyone else what to do, but you’d be remiss to think costume designers and sound mixers don’t reference the script to inform their decisions on how to tell the story.

While directors have a vision that guides the work of the other departments, their vision still refers back to the movie that jumps off the page and into their heads when they read the words of the script.

What makes good writing?

Good screenplays do more than describe what happens in a movie; good writers will write visual metaphors throughout their work to reinforce their story’s themes.

They will characterize actions and dialogue choices so each word chosen tells you something about the characters and how they feel – without writing out how the characters feel like novels do.

Good writing is entertaining; it keeps the action moving and the audience asking what’s next.

Beyond these generalizations, there is something else that every good screenplay has that makes a movie feel like it’s good: story structure.

What is story structure?

In traditional Western narrative storytelling, story structure is the gears churning behind the clock face, making the hands turn-on time. Story structure in movies refers generally to the traditional three-act narrative arc, where the movie has a beginning, middle, and ending.

While there are many categorical systems, theories, and even formulas different writers use to define the story structure of any given film, most modern American stories follow similar narrative conventions that adhere closely to Joseph Campbell’s theory of The Hero With a Thousand Faces .

Most stories follow a single character, the hero, who ventures forth from their familiar world after an inciting incident and takes up the call to adventure to achieve a particular goal where they face a series of trials and tribulations, overcome the lowest moment, face a final confrontation, then return home having changed.

Why story structure matters.

A movie following the above formula feels satisfying to the viewer. That’s because we’ve all seen hundreds of movies that follow the same structure and have been trained on what to expect from a film.

When certain elements are missing from the familiar structure we’re used to, like a character never overcoming a lowest moment or a final confrontation that feels underwhelming, we feel as if something is missing or wrong with the movie.

Sometimes a movie follows the structure too perfectly – and feels like a hundred other movies we’ve seen before. In this case, the audience will feel the film is too predictable and boring and not feel as invested in the story because they aren’t asking themselves what comes next.

The secret to writing a good movie is writing something familiar that feels new – either by blending two genres into something that feels original or writing something that twists the usual conventions we are used to but in a way that feels exciting as opposed to confusing.

A good script keeps you guessing while also rewarding you for paying attention. This is where little narrative tricks like plants and payoffs help you – by planting a detail early in the script that comes back and pays off at the end, those audience members will be surprised – but also satisfied.

Ultimately, the success or failure of a script comes down to how satisfying an experience the viewer has while watching the film. Do they feel invested? Do they care what happens to the characters? Do the characters change in ways that make sense? Do they feel what the characters feel? Or what the writer feels?

Writing is communication – and communicating your story in a way that makes the viewers feel what you want them to think while telling a compelling story is the key ingredient to good writing.

Ingredient #2: Directing with a vision.

Did you know that the only two requirements to be a director are to 1) have a vision and 2) be able to communicate it to your team?

A directing teacher in college told our class this once, and I never forgot it.

That’s because it’s true; the director doesn’t have to know how to light a scene, work a camera, or edit the film. Does it help if they see what everyone else does? Of course! But it’s not required.

Instead, the director only has to know how to communicate what they want (their vision) and hire talented people who can do all that.

What makes good directing?

The most essential thing distinguishing good and bad directors is their ability to communicate with their cast and crew to get what they want on screen.

When one or two elements of a film aren’t working as well as the others, like great actors wearing bad wigs in a crucial scene, it is often because the director didn’t put as much focus in that department as the cinematography.

Or it could be that the director couldn’t communicate properly what they wanted, and the result became mixed.

Good directing, instead, is when the director can guide the choices of every department toward one singular, cohesive story.

Every decision on a screen, no matter how small, should be made in service to the original story and should play a part; from the placement of the camera to the clothes an actor wears, everything is visual information being conveyed on the screen, and the best directors keep this in mind when they make decisions and guide their teams.

Good directors motivate actors to make choices that best tell where the character is in the story’s life.

Good directors work with cinematographers to light the scenes and place the cameras in ways that creatively emphasize essential story points.

Good directors let the costume and production designers communicate how the world around the characters impacts them and their choices.

If you want to learn more about directing and filmmaking from the masters, look at our article Best Masterclasses For Filmmakers and Directors Online .

Also, if you’re an aspiring director, you can read a lot of advice in our article How To Be A Good Director .

The role of editing in the direction of a film.

Another element of directing a film I haven’t touched on yet is the editing . Editing is the act of putting together the various shots of the film into one continuous flow that makes up the movie.

Let me paraphrase a phrase I’ve heard tossed around by various industry insiders: “You write the movie three times: when you write the script, when you shoot the film, and when you cut it together.”

That’s why I include editing as part of the directing ingredient of a film; because the choices a director and editor make together on when to use (or not use) each shot, reaction, sound effect, or line of dialogue are some of the most important a director ever makes.

Good directors are often good editors, but the best directors allow others to edit their movies. That’s because the editor is the first audience for the footage the director and their team created.

By letting the editor take a stab at putting the footage together, the director will often get a new perspective on their own work, which can help them see what they’ve created with fresh eyes.

The best directors will find great editors and work with them to allow the editor’s narrative voice to come through just as much or even sometimes more than their own.

The more editors and directors work together, the more they understand what each other likes. If the combined result resonates with audiences, that team will want to work together again to create more great movies.

This is true of every department head a director works with on a film; the more film crews work as a team that understands each other’s strengths and weaknesses, the better they will get at working together, and they can create great work more consistently.

Directing the music and sound of a film

Besides the acting and cinematography, one of the most essential choices a director must make is deciding the film’s tone.

Unless specifically dictated by the script, the director will be the guiding hand in determining the film’s tone.

Outside of the performances of the actors, the score and soundtrack of the film is the director’s main lever for manipulating the tone and emotions of the audience.

By using different songs, two different directors can direct the same scene, and one could be a somber tear-jerker while the other a hilarious, darkly comedic romp.

If you don’t believe in the power that music has on the movie-going experience, watch this video:

Read our interview with sound designer Peter Albrechsen here .

Ingredient #3: Actors that bring the story to life.

As film is a human art form, no film would be complete without at least some type of human story for us to relate to.

One of Earth’s most successful production companies is known for doing precisely that, but with non-human characters; I’m talking about Pixar, of course!

It doesn’t matter if we’re watching a Pixar movie about anthropomorphized bugs, toys, fish, or feelings. Pixar has a way of honing in on the human story behind every frame of their movies.

Pixar can’t do this without great performers behind the cameras. For instance, how would we be able to feel for Woody in Toy Story without the heartstring-pulling vocals of Tom Hanks? Or the lovable ditzy-ness of Ellen playing Dory in Finding Nemo? Or what about the lovable cooing and beeping in the little robots Wall-E and Eva in Wall-E ?

What makes good acting?

It might seem ironic to start any discussion on acting by referencing digitally created characters, but the power of performance is vital to our experience as viewers. How should we invest in a story if we don’t feel something?

We empathize and relate to the characters on screen through great acting. Even though we know it’s all pretend, great actors make us believe that they are real people with real problems in a real-world outside our own. If something is essential to a character, it should feel important to us. That’s what great performances do.

Where bad actors make the lines they read feel cheesy or cringe, great actors make their lines sound inspired, impromptu, and natural. Where a lousy actor struggles to communicate how they are feeling even when the lines are written for them, great actors can communicate an entire backstory with just one look.

The best actors work well together and feed off one another; when a scene comes alive, it’s because all the actors in that scene are living and breathing the world of that film and gaining momentum from each other’s energy – which is why casting is so important.

The role of casting in the quality of acting.

Casting is finding the actors to play all the parts in a movie. Overseen by casting directors, casting is a vital part of getting a movie made and an even more critical aspect of whether or not the overall acting of a film will feel good or bad.

When you think of casting for Hollywood movies, you probably think about leading roles and leading actors like Leonardo Dicaprio, Viola Davis, Tom Hanks or Denzel Washington (like how great would a movie be between those four?!)

However, casting directors have to work with the director to cast everyone from the leads and supporting roles down to the background talent in the background of every shot.

Believe it or not, much of what we consider good or bad acting depends entirely on whether or not an actor was adequately cast for the role.

This isn’t to say that there’s a right way or a wrong way to cast a film; rather, the role of a casting director is to find talented (and/or popular) actors who embody the essence of a particular character.

On top of that, the ensemble of a film can make or break the success of a film. If the cast works well together, it will elevate the entire film, but if even one or two miscast actors don’t seem to fit into the world of the movie or the characters they are playing, it can make the whole film feel somewhat awkward or off-balance.

Great movies feel immersive ; they feel like their own world, where the stakes, story, and everyone involved feel natural to us. Even imagined characters need to feel authentic in their world for us to imagine them generously. This is why it is essential for great acting to create that sense of reality, even inside the fantastical.

Great actors make us feel what they are feeling and identify as them – even if they look different or live lives radically different from our own. To understand each other is to understand ourselves, right?

When we identify with their on-screen trials and tribulations, we are called to a deeper understanding of the human condition – which makes great acting feel magical and makes a good movie even better.

Ingredient #4: Cinematography that awes and inspires.

Cinematography is the art of photographing moving pictures. We refer to it as “the shots” of a movie.

The cinematographer, or director of photography , is the person in charge of the visual look and feel of the film and works closely with the director to tell the story on the page in the style of the director’s vision. They can operate the camera themselves but don’t always do so.

What makes great cinematography?

The best directors and cinematographers work closely together to carefully craft each frame of the film and, by doing so, use each frame to convey meaning and importance to the overall story.

Everything from the camera angle to the subject matter being captured therein should convey something important about the story, characters, and meaning behind everything happening on screen.

In this way, great cinematography is both visually stunning and narratively important.

Think about a shot of a boy running up the side of a hill at dawn, taken from far away, so the boy looks diminished compared to the vast world around him.

So much is being conveyed – his sense of adventure, his role in the world around him, the vastness of everything he doesn’t understand, and even the new-morning light can be a visual metaphor for his life ahead.

It’s not just a pretty picture – it’s a work of art, telling its story in a single frame.

The role of the camera in cinematography.

When we talk about cinematography, we’re talking about the placement of the camera, the lighting of the scene, the lens the camera is using , and even the camera itself.

All of these elements come together to create the film’s visual look, and different choices in each area can convey different things.

For example, a famous cinematography trick nowadays is to shoot scenes in different aspect ratios, like 4:3, to convey a “period” style look exemplified by the VHS video cameras of the 80s and early 90s. This dates the footage and creates an interesting visual motif.

Camera choices can be much more subtle, however. Choices like filters and focal lengths are all cinematographers make to change the look and feel between each shot.

Even the camera you choose can determine certain things about the look and feel of a scene.

All aspiring cinematographers love to work with cinema cameras, but what if a cinematographer and director choose to film their entire feature film on an iPhone?

That doesn’t necessarily mean the film will be bad – instead, it could be a creative choice to convey a certain feeling throughout the telling of the story, like if it was a film about a bunch of poor kids who escape their day-to-day struggles by skateboarding and posting skate videos on TikTok.

Is that a good story idea? Who knows – but the choice to tell it all via iPhone is creative and supports the story.

In the case of focal lengths, a cinematographer might use a 50-millimeter lens for a close-up of an actor for an emotionally vulnerable moment, then switch to an 18-millimeter wide-angle lens for a heated exchange to distort the faces of the various characters yelling over each other.

The point I’m trying to make here without getting too deep into cinematography theory is that good cinematography is motivated by the story, and the best cinematography comes from choices that support and better tell the story while also looking visually stunning and awe-inspiring.

Not every shot has to be a masterpiece – but they must help tell the film’s story.

Ingredient #5: Production value that supports the scope of the film.

Movies are intended to transport you to another world; as a visual and auditory medium, all film elements should work together to immerse the audience in the story. This is why the film’s overall production value should support the story’s scope.

Production value is the combination of all the elements that create the world of a movie coming together.

A film with high-quality production value has good props, great sets, excellent visual effects and camera work, and fantastic sound design , all coming together to create a cohesive movie-going experience.

Sound Design

Sound design is one of the most essential elements of production value, and if a great movie does well, you shouldn’t even notice. Excellent sound design embellishes and immerses the viewer in the world of the film.

Think about big sweeping epics like Star Wars or the Marvel cinematic universe franchise – so much of the feeling and world-building of those films are all in the sound design.

It’s not just laser, droid, and Wookie sounds that make great sound design – even the quietest dramas have to have an excellent sound design team to feel full and lived in, and the masters of cinema know this.

One of my favorite examples is the understated sound design of No Country for Old Men and how it builds anticipation and dread with every little moment.

Plus, nothing, and I mean nothing, ruins a movie than bad sound design – it’s one of the hardest things to get right when creating your first films as a first-time filmmaker.

If you don’t believe me, try attending a high school student film festival and not notice the sound design. I’m not saying they are all bad – but you’ll see the ones.

What makes good production value?

We just mentioned filming a feature film on an iPhone. If you’re filming an indie feature about skateboarding teens, filming with iPhone-quality footage is an interesting and informed creative choice that affects the overall production value.

If you tried to film something like, say, Avengers Endgame on an iPhone, the production value of the footage captured wouldn’t go nearly as far.

That’s not to say you couldn’t film a superhero movie with an iPhone or that it wouldn’t be entertaining, just that the production value might not fit the scope of the story being told.

It’s important to distinguish that overall production value is not necessarily tied to budget . For example, a film made for $30 million could have a much worse overall production value than a film made for $5 million.

This is because the production value results from everyone working together to create a cohesive story.

Remember earlier when I explained how the director’s job is to work with and guide the department heads to come together under a unified vision? That synergy of unified vision is the production value.

Good production value or bad production value depends entirely on how well everyone worked together to bring the story of the film to life. The better everyone works together, the more satisfying, immersive, and “good” the movie should feel.

How production value affects the overall quality of a film.

Think about a movie that looks amazing; the cast is full of talented actors, and the visual effects are stunning.

There’s one problem – none of the dialogue lines up with the actor’s mouths, and everyone is talking with a five-second delay. Watching this movie would drive you insane – and ruin an otherwise beautiful, fantastic movie.

Imagine you’ve got heartthrobs Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in their third movie together. After keeping them separated the whole film, trying to “requite” their unrequited love and get back to each other in the middle of an intergalactic space war, the time has come for the lovers to be reunited finally.

There’s just one problem – the VFX budget looks like it ran out at the end, and you can tell the set design is a greenscreen like someone just photoshopped a desktop screensaver behind them. Talk about production value gone wrong!

There are so many movies you can probably think of that missed the mark in more than a few areas and still somehow got distributed to the public.

That’s because, at a certain point, Hollywood studios have to make as much money back on their investments as possible , even if something (or multiple somethings) went wrong and the movie they set out to make got lost along the way.

This could be because of budgetary reasons or because of creative ones, but if the problems behind why a film doesn’t work are more with the making of the film itself than the film’s story, it’s pretty much a production value issue.

This is why it is essential for every department to be working in service of the story they are telling – and the story’s tone as well.

Now you know how to create a great film!

That’s it! That’s all the ingredients you need to bake up a good movie. What are you waiting for? Get cooking!

Just kidding – obviously, so much more goes into creating a film. There are so many choices on so many levels – we barely broke the surface of everything that goes into making a movie, let alone a good one.

Instead, the larger point I was hoping you could take away from what makes a great movie is how everything works together to serve a single story so that it can be easily understood while also satisfactory to watch for the audience.

This starts with the script but doesn’t end with it; a good movie takes a good story, uses good acting, good cinematography, and good overall production value, and unites it all with good directing.

It looks easy and impossible when done correctly, and the sum seems bigger than the individual parts. It goes unnoticed and then, all at once, becomes overwhelmingly impressive. The magic drew you to the movies in the first place.

A good movie makes you feel; good comedies make you laugh, and good dramas make you cry. Good thrillers make you tense, good horror makes you scared, and good action adventures get you fired up!

Without feeling, a movie is just a string of moving pictures; with feeling, it means much more – it matters.

Grant Harvey is a freelance writer, screenwriter, and filmmaker based out of Los Angeles. When he’s not working on his own feature-length screenplays and television pilots, Grant uses his passion and experience in film and videography to help others learn the tools, strategies, and equipment needed to create high-quality videos as a filmmaker of any skill level.

14 thoughts on “The 5 Key Ingredients To A Good Movie”

Very much interesting l am a produccer and I really want to learn more about films making

Thank you. We’re glad you found it useful.

All the best, Jan

Have learnt alot, thanks so much for the information.

I’m glad you found it useful 🙂

May I ask what date this is published? I would like to use this as a reference. Thank you

Sure. The article was published 2020/05/01.

In terms of academia, it’s totally fair (and probably more precise) to use “visited” instead of “published” because articles might be updated. That way you’ll reference how the article looked on the day of your visit. I thought, I’d mention it if your reference was for some sort of academic assignment.

Animators often spend weeks planning and animating their characters – for each shot which averages a couple seconds – to capture the best performance possible to do exactly that; create compelling, believable performances that the audience can empathize with. So I don’t think its that ironic to reference digitally created characters when talking about acting.

This was really good! I have to write an essay about what makes movies good so this is SUPER helpful ty 🙂

I’m glad you found it useful. Good luck on your essay 🙂

When was this article written and who wrote it?

It was first published 1. May 2020. You can see the author at the end of the article.

A big story makes a big masterpiece movie. No doubt. My favorite story ever told in a movie is Novecento, the monologue of Alessandro Baricco, La leggenda del pianista sull’oceano, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.

Thank you. I haven’t watched that one yet. I’ll check it out.

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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/ .

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Film Essays: The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Film Essay

By Essaywriter

If you’re a film buff or a student of film studies, you’ve probably encountered film essays at some point in your academic career.

Writing a film essay can be challenging, but with guidance, you can craft a compelling analysis of any cinematic masterpiece.

One of the world’s most well-liked and regularly watched forms of entertainment is a film, whether blockbusters or indie movies. The film has become an essential part of culture and society worldwide.

A film is a powerful tool for social critique and cultural expression. Despite changes, movies have never lost their capacity to amuse, instruct, and inspire. This post offers knowledge, suggestions, and resources for writing film essays. An analysis of a particular film’s many elements is done in a film essay.

Understanding the Elements of Film Analysis

Film analysis comprises evaluating and comprehending the many components that make up a film. These include the movie’s cinematography, sound, editing, acting, and narrative. It is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the movie’s themes, messages, and overall relevance by analyzing these components.

Films comprise certain components, which directors and movie producers tend to tweak to recreate different cultures and historical points in time. For instance, a movie set in the 1980s will have very different scenery, costumes, and soundtrack than a movie set in the present.

There has been a major advancement in technology, music, fashion, and social conventions between the 1980s and now. Therefore, these film components need to be properly considered when writing a film essay.

Tips for Writing Film Essays

Researching and selecting a film to analyze.

To explore possible films, choose your areas of interest, such as a specific genre, era, or filmmaker. After that, you can use various tools to gather information and ideas for new films.

Thousands of films, reviews, and ratings are available through online databases such as IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. Search engines such as Google and Bing can also be used to find articles, criticisms, and analyses of certain films or directors.”

Outlining and Organizing the Film Essays

Outlining and arranging a film essay can help ensure that your analysis is clear and succinct. Create an outline that breaks down the various parts of the film you will be analyzing, such as the narrative, characters, cinematography, and symbolism so that you can arrange your thoughts.

Maintain focus by avoiding needless details. Instead, concentrate on offering specific examples from the film to back up and connect your analysis. You should also employ transitions between paragraphs to make it easier for the reader to follow your train of thought.

Citing Sources and Formatting the Film Essays

Citation of sources and Proper formatting gives credit to the film’s creators, but it also demonstrates the credibility of your research and analysis. When citing a film, it’s important to follow the guidelines of the citation style you use, whether it be MLA, APA, or Chicago.

This includes the title of the film, the director, and the year of release. When citing sources such as articles or books, it’s important to include the author, title, publication date, and page number(s).

Tips for Incorporating Film Terminology and Analysis Techniques

It is critical to strike a balance between employing technical language and making it accessible to your audience when incorporating cinema vocabulary and analysis procedures in a film essay.

One technique is to start with a clear and short statement that defines your essay’s major argument or purpose. From there, you can support and deepen your thesis by employing specialized cinema terminology and analysis approaches. Use film examples to illustrate your views and make them more accessible to the reader.

Use a clear and simple writing style and be consistent in using technical language and analysis methodologies. This will help the reader follow your argument and understand your views.

Finally, to provide a full understanding of the film, employing a variety of analysis methodologies such as formalism or psychoanalysis. This will not only help you obtain a deeper understanding of many components of the film, but it will also allow you to provide a more sophisticated analysis.

Sample Film Essays Outline

Thesis statement: “Through its use of surreal imagery and unconventional narrative structure, ‘Mulholland Drive’ deconstructs the Hollywood dream and exposes the darkness at the heart of the film industry.”

Main point 1: The cinematography and mise-en-scène of ‘Mulholland Drive’

Main point 2: The themes and messages of ‘Mulholland Drive’

Main point 3: The cultural and historical context of ‘Mulholland Drive’

Conclusion: Recap of main points and analysis of the lasting impact of the film

Film elements are what make each film production distinct from every other. Therefore, understanding them empowers writers with the tools to analyze and write fitting essays adequately.

When writing a film essay, tips like researching and selecting a film to analyze, outlining and organizing the essay, citing sources and formatting the essay, and incorporating film terminology and analysis techniques help present your essay in the most logical, clear, clear, concise, and comprehensive way.

If you’re looking to write a film essay anytime soon, following this stepwise guide on writing film essays will get you critical acclaim when your work is peer-reviewed.

Perhaps you do not have the time to write a film essay or any other paper, or maybe you need professional help writing your paper.

Our website, ThePaperExperts.com , is a place you can visit to get your paper professionally written and delivered on time, irrespective of the type of essay you need to be written.

Try us now by calling 1-888-774-9994 and speak to an academic advisor today and get help with film essays!

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Ava ai is launched to transform student counseling, how to cite a quote within a quote, how to do footnotes, what makes a film great essay sample, example.

Though we might think that what makes a film great is subjective, there are definite criteria that points to it being a standout piece of art. There are tons of lists of the greatest films of all times, and what do they have in common? The six areas of brilliance are the script, characters, acting, timing, sound, and visuals (No Film School). In order for a film to be truly great, it needs to excel in all those spheres.

For scripts, if the dialog is clunky and unnatural, it is usually noticed by audiences and critics alike. No matter how amazing the plot is or how beautiful the visuals are, if the script is pretentious or awkward, then the film does not float. Also, having weak opening and/or ending dialog certainly contributes to a sour taste in the audience’s mouth (Grove, E.).

Characters are often the focal point of a film. They are the drivers of plot and scenes. The main aspect of characters in films that is important is whether or not they are believable. It is a fine balance between exaggeration of real life and vagueness (Nicholson, J.).

In order for a film to be great, the acting obviously has to be on par with the rest of its components. Critics usually go after actors whose work is flat, over the top, or unconvincing. It is part of the casting director’s job to find actors that will fit in the role perfectly, and that will act in a way that will be Oscar-worthy. This is perhaps the most difficult part of getting a film right, as it is the main characteristic of a film that people criticize, besides plot.

The timing, or a pace, of a film is often what keeps film viewers staying or leaving. A great film commonly slows down for emotional moments, and speeds up for action scenes—just like a novel does with its pacing. If a movie seems to take too long, or ends too swiftly, audience members usually feel that it either dragged on, or they did not get their money’s worth (raindance).

Sound is more essential to the film-viewing experience than most would believe. The sound, especially music, adds layers and emotional content to the film that nothing else can. A great film will have an impressive score, and one that aligns with the plot and mood of the film.

Finally, the cinematography should be stunning. This part of film is often what makes A-list movies different than B-list movies. The type of camera used, the angles employed, the filters of the lens used, and much more add to the overall experience—which allows viewers to become engrossed in the film.

Though most people say “to each one’s own” when it comes to films, there are exact criteria that critics and official film industry professionals use to gauge the greatness of films. These elements comprise script, characters, acting, timing, sound, and visuals. Without the successful undertaking of these aspects, a film might be a cult gaff, but never a cult classic.

No Film School. (2017). What Makes a Film Great? Here Are 6 Elements to Watch For. [online] Available at: http://nofilmschool.com/2016/02/6-elements-great-film [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].

Nicholson, J. (2017). What Makes a Great Film?. [online] Moviepilot.com. Available at: https://moviepilot.com/posts/3537706 [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].

Grove, E. and Grove, E. (2017). 10 Common Elements Of Award Winning Screenplays – Raindance. [online] Raindance. Available at: https://www.raindance.org/10-common-elements-of-award-winning-screenplays/ [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].

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50 Film Analysis

Film analysis, what this handout is about.

This handout provides a brief definition of film analysis compared to literary analysis, provides an introduction to common types of film analysis, and offers strategies and resources for approaching assignments.

What is film analysis, and how does it differ from literary analysis?

Film analysis is the process in which film is analyzed in terms of semiotics, narrative structure, cultural context, and mise-en-scene, among other approaches. If these terms are new to you, don’t worry—they’ll be explained in the next section.

Analyzing film, like  analyzing literature (fiction texts, etc.) , is a form of rhetorical analysis—critically analyzing and evaluating discourse, including words, phrases, and images. Having a clear argument and supporting evidence is every bit as critical to film analysis as to other forms of academic writing.

Unlike literature, film incorporates audiovisual elements and therefore introduces a new dimension to analysis. Ultimately, however, analysis of film is not too different. Think of all the things that make up a scene in a film: the actors, the lighting, the angles, the colors. All of these things may be absent in literature, but they are deliberate choices on the part of the director, producer, or screenwriter—as are the words chosen by the author of a work of literature. Furthermore, literature and film incorporate similar elements. They both have plots, characters, dialogue, settings, symbolism, and, just as the elements of literature can be analyzed for their intent and effect, these elements can be analyzed the same way in film.

Different types of film analysis

Listed here are common approaches to film analysis, but this is by no means an exhaustive list, and you may have discussed other approaches in class. As with any other assignment, make sure you understand your professor’s expectations. This guide is best used to understand prompts or, in the case of more open-ended assignments, consider the different ways to analyze film.

Keep in mind that any of the elements of film can be analyzed, oftentimes in tandem. A single film analysis essay may simultaneously include all of the following approaches and more. As Jacques Aumont and Michel Marie propose in Analysis of Film, there is no correct, universal way to write film analysis.

Semiotic analysis

Semiotic analysis is the analysis of meaning behind signs and symbols, typically involving metaphors, analogies, and symbolism.

This doesn’t necessarily need to be something dramatic; think about how you extrapolate information from the smallest signs in your day to day life. For instance, what characteristics can tell you about someone’s personality? Something as simple as someone’s appearance can reveal information about them. Mismatched shoes and bedhead might be a sign of carelessness (or something crazy happened that morning!), while an immaculate dress shirt and tie would suggest that the person is prim and proper. Continuing in that vein:

• What might you be able to infer about characters from small hints?
• How are these hints (signs) used to construct characters? How do they relate to the relative role of those characters, or the relationships between multiple characters?

Symbols denote concepts (liberty, peace, etc.) and feelings (hate, love, etc.) that they often have nothing to do with. They are used liberally in both literature and film, and finding them uses a similar process. Ask yourself:

• In Frozen Elsa’s gloves appear in multiple scenes.
• Her gloves are first given to her by her father to restrain her magic. She continues to wear them throughout the coronation scene, before finally, in the Let It Go sequence, she throws them away.

Again, the method of semiotic analysis in film is similar to that of literature. Think about the deeper meaning behind objects or actions.

• Elsa’s gloves represent fear of her magic and, by extension, herself. Though she attempts to contain her magic by hiding her hands within gloves and denying part of her identity, she eventually abandons the gloves in a quest for self-acceptance.

Narrative structure analysis

Narrative structure analysis is the analysis of the story elements, including plot structure, character motivations, and theme. Like the dramatic structure of literature (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution), film has what is known as the Three-Act Structure: “Act One: Setup, Act Two: Confrontation, and Act Three: Resolution.” Narrative structure analysis breaks the story of the film into these three elements and might consider questions like:

• How does the story follow or deviate from typical structures?
• What is the effect of following or deviating from this structure?
• What is the theme of the film, and how is that theme constructed?

Consider again the example of Frozen. You can use symbolism and narrative structure in conjunction by placing the symbolic objects/events in the context of the narrative structure. For instance, the first appearance of the gloves is in Act One, while their abandoning takes place in Act Two; thus, the story progresses in such a way that demonstrates Elsa’s personal growth. By the time of Act Three, the Resolution, her aversion to touch (a product of fearing her own magic) is gone, reflecting a theme of self-acceptance.

Contextual analysis

Contextual analysis is analysis of the film as part of a broader context. Think about the culture, time, and place of the film’s creation. What might the film say about the culture that created it? What were/are the social and political concerns of the time period? Or, like researching the author of a novel, you might consider the director, producer, and other people vital to the making of the film. What is the place of this film in the director’s career? Does it align with his usual style of directing, or does it move in a new direction? Other examples of contextual approaches might be analyzing the film in terms of a civil rights or feminist movement.

For example, Frozen is often linked to the LGBTQ social movement. You might agree or disagree with this interpretation, and, using evidence from the film, support your argument.

Some other questions to consider:

• How does the meaning of the film change when seen outside of its culture?
• What characteristics distinguishes the film as being of its particular culture?

Mise-en-scene analysis

Mise-en-scene analysis is analysis of the arrangement of compositional elements in film—essentially, the analysis of audiovisual elements that most distinctly separate film analysis from literary analysis. Remember that the important part of a mise-en-scene analysis is not just identifying the elements of a scene, but explaining the significance behind them.

• What effects are created in a scene, and what is their purpose?
• How does the film attempt to achieve its goal by the way it looks, and does it succeed?

Audiovisual elements that can be analyzed include (but are not limited to): props and costumes, setting, lighting, camera angles, frames, special effects, choreography, music, color values, depth, placement of characters, etc. Mise-en-scene is typically the most foreign part of writing film analysis because the other components discussed are common to literary analysis, while mise-en-scene deals with elements unique to film. Using specific film terminology bolsters credibility, but you should also consider your audience. If your essay is meant to be accessible to non-specialist readers, explain what terms mean. The Resources section of this handout has links to sites that describe mise-en-scene elements in detail.

Rewatching the film and creating screen captures (still images) of certain scenes can help with detailed analysis of colors, positioning of actors, placement of objects, etc. Listening to the soundtrack can also be helpful, especially when placed in the context of particular scenes.

Some example questions:

• How is the lighting used to construct mood? Does the mood shift at any point during the film, and how is that shift in mood created?
• What does the setting say about certain characters? How are props used to reveal aspects of their personality?
• What songs were used, and why were they chosen? Are there any messages in the lyrics that pertain to the theme?

Writing the film analysis essay

Writing film analysis is similar to writing literary analysis or any argumentative essay in other disciplines: Consider the assignment and prompts, formulate a thesis (see the  Brainstorming Handout  and  Thesis Statement Handout  for help crafting a nuanced argument), compile evidence to prove your thesis, and lay out your argument in the essay. Your evidence may be different from what you are used to. Whereas in the English essay you use textual evidence and quotes, in a film analysis essay, you might also include audiovisual elements to bolster your argument.

When describing a sequence in a film, use the present tense, like you would write in the literary present when describing events of a novel, i.e. not “Elsa took off her gloves,” but “Elsa takes off her gloves.” When quoting dialogue from a film, if between multiple characters, use block quotes: Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented one inch from the left margin. However, conventions are flexible, so ask your professor if you are unsure. It may also help to follow the formatting of the script, if you can find it. For example:

ELSA: But she won’t remember I have powers? KING: It’s for the best.

You do not need to use quotation marks for blocked-off dialogue, but for shorter quotations in the main text, quotation marks should be double quotes (“…”).

Here are some tips for approaching film analysis:

• Make sure you understand the prompt and what you are being asked to do. Focus your argument by choosing a specific issue to assess.
• Review your materials. Rewatch the film for nuances that you may have missed in the first viewing. With your thesis in mind, take notes as you watch. Finding a screenplay of the movie may be helpful, 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!).
• Develop a thesis and an outline, organizing your evidence so that it supports your argument. Remember that this is ultimately an assignment—make sure that your thesis answers what the prompt asks, and check with your professor if you are unsure.
• Move beyond only describing the audiovisual elements of the film by considering the significance of your evidence. Demonstrate understanding of not just what film elements are, but why and to what effect they are being used. For more help on using your evidence effectively, see ‘Using Evidence In An Argument’ in the  Evidence Handout .

New York Film Academy Glossary Movie Outline Glossary Movie Script Database Citation Practices: Film and Television

Works Consulted

We consulted these works while writing the original version of 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 the latest publications on this topic. 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 .

Aumont, Jacques, and Michel Marie. L’analyse Des Films. Paris: Nathan, 1988. Print. Pruter, Robin Franson. “Writing About Film.” Writing About Film. DePaul University, 08 Mar. 2004. Web. 01 May 2016.

Film Analysis Copyright © 2020 by Liza Long; Amy Minervini; and Joel Gladd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How to Write a Movie Review: 10 Essential Tips

As long as there have been films, there have been film critics. Starting with the early days of cinema, where reviews appeared in newspapers and magazines as brief, descriptive pieces, as filmmaking evolved as an art form, so did the role of the critic. James Agee, André Bazin, and Pauline Kael shaped the discourse around cinema, and today, famous film critics like the iconic Roger Ebert , The New York Times’s A.O. Scott , and The New York Times’s Manohla Dargis continue to leave an indelible mark on the world of cinema.

With the rise of the internet, film criticism now encompasses a wide range of voices and perspectives from around the globe. Sites like Letterboxd make it possible for anyone to write short-form reviews on film. Even stars like The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri have accounts and share opinions on the latest box-office hits.

How to Write a Movie Review

Today, contemporary YouTube and TikTok critics such as Red Letter Media , deepfocuslens , and DoMo Draper don’t just write film reviews, they shoot videos and skits. Through their creative formats, they offer refreshing and unique perspectives while building communities of diehard film and television enthusiasts. Whether you choose to write reviews for your own blog, other websites, or social media channels, by learning how to write a movie review, any aspiring filmmaker can start to watch films intentionally. 

@domodraperr Replying to @xsindeviltriggerx I’ll get right on that, Sir!🫡 #comments #movies #film #satire #fyp #mulan #disney ♬ I’ll Make a Man Out of You (feat. Black Gryph0n) – Cover – Samuel Kim

TikTok film critic “DoMo Draper” provides commentary on new and old films, often calling out racism, social injustice, misogyny, and prejudice.

While there’s no perfect approach to writing a review, there are best practices that every aspiring reviewer should consider.

Here are ten tips on writing a compelling piece.

1. Watch the film at least once.

For new reviewers, it’s impossible to capture everything after one viewing. Watching the film first, then watching to take notes, is an easy way to improve the quality of your final review. This will also make it easy to recall in-the-moment thoughts and reactions.

Take a review by Christian Blauvelt of Charlie Chaplin’s silent film The Circus , for example. Since the film does not have sound, properly critiquing the film requires close attention. Viewers have to pay attention to the various nuances in Chaplin’s performance, follow the story, and take in the cinematography. Regarding The Circus , Blauvelt writes, “The film lacks a conventional plot, but is rather a pearl necklace of strung-together episodes. ” The statement isn’t a criticism, but a keen observation likely gleaned from more than one viewing. 

So while every film reviewer has their own approach, many choose to watch a film more than once to deliver the best possible review. Image The Criterion Collection.

2. Express your opinions and support your criticism.

Professional reviewers do not shy away from sharing whether they thought a movie was good, bad, or indifferent. In a review for the film Mother!, reviewer Candice Frederick describes the film as “uncomfortable,” and “controversial,” helping viewers understand the tone of the movie. While Frederick seemed to enjoy the film, her honesty about how it would make audiences feel was vital in writing the review.

Be sure to back up these thoughts with specifics–a disappointing performance, beautiful cinematography, difficult material that leaves you thinking, and so on. Professional reviewers should express why and how they came to their criticism.

3. Consider your audience.

Are you writing for a fan site or a news outlet? Who will read your pieces, and what are their interests? Knowing who your readers are and where the review will be published can help you decide what elements of the movie to highlight. For example, take these two very different reviews for the film ‘Synecdoche, New York’.  

The first review was written by Alonso Duralde for The Today Show , and clocks in at around 500 words. The film focuses on the bullet points: characters, plot, and a concise review. The second review is over 3,000 words and published on the Critical Critics blog . This review goes into massive depth (and yes, includes spoilers) about the film, providing an incredible amount of analysis. The first review is tailored for the casual filmgoer, while the second is for cinephiles. Each review serves a different purpose.

It’s also a good idea to adjust your writing style to fit the target audience. For example, Alonso Duralde is a talented film reviewer and likely wrote the review to fit the tone of The Today Show site. Image via Director’s Library.

4. Talk about the acting.

When reviewing a film, it’s important to take space to discuss the performances. Does the film feature a seasoned actor in a new kind of role or a brilliant performance from a rising star? How was the acting? In a review by Brett Milam for the award-winning film Whiplash , he goes into rich detail about performances by both breakthrough actor Miles Teller and seasoned professional JK Simmons.

Regarding Teller, Milam writes, “This is a performance. This is art,” and about Simmons, “I found him fascinating to just look at.” Those are just small examples of the analysis he provides regarding their acting. As the film mostly focuses on the relationship between their two characters, Miles as the protagonist and JK as the antagonist, the review of the performances lends well to the plot of the film: student and teacher going head to head in an intense and determined showdown. 

Feedback about how well the actors handled the script, the dynamics in an ensemble, and so much more can help describe how the actors did in any given film.

5. Call out directors, cinematographers, and special effects.

Reviews that include highlights or missteps of directors, cinematographers, and costume designers can help provide support to your critiques. By providing specific examples of what worked, what surprised you, and what fell short of expectations, reviewers can write a well-thought-out review that goes beyond whether or not you liked it.

In a review for A Wrinkle in Time , Monique Jones artfully crafts a piece that diplomatically cites the missteps of the film. From analyzing the quality of the CGI to the camera techniques to inconsistencies in the rules of the fantasy universe, Jones fairly offers a critique that guides the filmmakers and crew on future endeavors. To write this type of review, it helps to have some knowledge of the filmmaking process so you can properly assess the screenwriting, cinematography, special effects, acting, and more. Image via Disney.

6. No spoilers!

The point of writing a movie review is to get people interested in seeing a movie. That’s why it’s absolutely best practice to not reveal spoilers in a film review. Film reviewer Robert Daniels approaches this creatively. In his review of Annihilation , he provides commentary on what would be considered spoilers. However, he places that part of the review at the bottom of the article under a bold header/image that warns the reader he’s about to spoil the film. For reviewers who want to dissect the entire film, this is a good way to both tease the film for anyone who hasn’t seen it and cater to people who want to know what the ending is.

Remember: the goal of any film review is to discuss the plot without revealing any twists or the ending of the film. 

7. Study the professionals.

As with all writing endeavors, the more you read, the better. However, with the modern landscape of film reviewing, which can go beyond writing and extend to content creation for social media platforms, there are a ton of reviewers to take notes from. First, determine what kind of reviewer you want to be, and what kind of medium you plan to deliver your reviews on. If you plan to post to Medium, for example, studying the reviewers already established on the site can be a great starting point.

Then, read film reviews for some of your favorite films. Determine which style of review you like and don’t like. Question why, and use your critical eye to consider why one reviewer has a hundred thousand followers and another only has two. If you’re looking to be featured on a website or a magazine, read the publications where you’d like your writing to appear as a template for your reviews, and don’t forget to read the submission guidelines. A few examples of film review professionals include Rotten Tomatoes , Roger Ebert , and Film Comment. 

8. Reread, rewrite, and edit.

While writing film critique is based on opinion, and follows the style of the reviewer, it’s still important to edit work. Writers should check for spelling, grammar, and readability. No matter how good a writer’s opinions are, they will not be taken seriously if the director’s name isn’t spelled correctly. Tools such as Grammarly and Hemingway Editor can be great for correcting and finding areas that need improvement. 

9. Find your voice.

The best reviewers have a distinct personality that comes across in their writing. Los Angeles Times film reviewer Carlos Aguilar wrote an impassioned piece about the film Beatriz at Dinner , going into a lot of detail about his experiences working in the film industry and his Mexican heritage. By sharing anecdotes about casual racism he’s experienced and connecting it to the film’s protagonist, and what she goes through, the review feels personal and relatable.

“If at a film festival – to which I’ve gotten access to because I’m a published writer – in a progressive city like Los Angeles, I must keep my guard up when people question my right to be there, then how are the voiceless supposed to feel safe, respected, or hopeful?” Aguilar writes. 

For new reviewers, developing this type of unique voice does not happen overnight, so take every opportunity to write as an opportunity to develop your style. Image via BBC.

10. Know your taste.

As a film reviewer, it can be helpful to identify your taste in film. By knowing specific preferences, strengths, and biases, reviewers can offer nuanced critiques that resonate with audiences and provide valuable guidance on which films they might enjoy. Additionally, it helps to maintain credibility and integrity as a reviewer by ensuring that assessments are authentic and reflective of personal cinematic sensibilities.

Try to explore various genres, directors, and themes to understand what resonates emotionally, intellectually, and aesthetically. Pay attention to the types of stories that engage you, which can help define your preferences.

Learn More About Filmmaking at NYFA

Film students with writing experience actually make great reviewers, as many of them are required to study a range of topics relating to film that can include cinematography, screenwriting, producing, and much more. Ready to build even more skills in filmmaking? Request more information about New York Film Academy’s filmmaking programs and workshops today!

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.

How Can I Write an Essay About a Movie?

By Film Threat Staff | May 23, 2023

Watching movies for a long time has been a major past-time for most individuals. The people expect to sit in front of their screens and get thrilled into a world of adventure, mystery, and wonder.

But how can you gauge your appreciation and understanding of filmmaking? Writing an essay about a movie is one way of showing your grasp of the content.

Movie analysis is a common assignment for most college students. It is an intricate task where every detail matters while tied together to form a part of the story.

A part of the assignment involves watching a particular movie and writing an essay about your overall impression of the movie.

Essay writing services such as WriteMyEssay show that more than rewatching a movie several times is needed to make up for a solid movie analysis essay. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to write your movie analysis:

What Is a Movie Essay?

The world of literature is multifaceted while testing different attributes of students. A movie analysis essay, at its core, seeks to uncover the hidden layers of meaning within the cinema world.

A movie analysis essay is much more than a movie review that seeks to delve into the artistry behind filmmaking. Thus, it seeks to test a student’s prowess in understanding various elements that come together to form a meaningful cinematic experience.

The main purpose of movie analysis essays is to dissect different components employed by a film in making a unique and impactful storyline.

Students can appreciate the filmmaking process’s complexities by analyzing these different elements. Also, students can develop a keen eye for the nuances that elevate a movie from entertainment to a work of art.

Here are top tips by experts when writing an essay about a particular movie during your assignments:

1. Watch the Movie

The first obvious standpoint for writing an essay about any movie is watching the film. Watching the movie builds an important foundation for the writing exercise. Composing an insightful, compelling, and well-thought movie essay requires you to experience it.

Therefore, select an appropriate environment to watch the movie free from distractions. Moreover, immerse yourself in the full movie experience to absorb all the intricate details. Some critical elements to note down include:

• Characterization
• Cinematography

We recommend watching the movie several times in case the time element allows. Rewatching the film deepens your understanding of the movie while uncovering unnoticed details on the first take.

2. Write an Introduction

The introductory paragraph to your movie essay should contain essential details of the movie, such as:

• Release date
• Name of the director
• Main actors

Moreover, start with a captivating hook to entice readers to keep reading. You can start with a memorable quote from one of the characters.

For example, released in 1976 and Directed by Martin Scorsese, ‘The Taxi Driver’ starring Robert De Niro as the eccentric taxi driver.’

After writing an enticing introduction, it is time to summarize what you watched. A summary provides readers with a clear understanding of the movie’s plot and main events. Hence, your readers can have a foundation for the rest of your movie essay.

Writing a summary need to be concise. The entire movie essay should be brief and straight to the point. Ensure to capture the main arguments within the movie’s plot. However, avoid going into too many details. Just focus on giving concise information about the movie.

4. Start Writing

The next vital part is forming the analysis part. This is where the analysis delves deeply into the movie’s themes, cinematography, characters, and other related elements.

First, start by organizing your analysis clearly and logically. Each section or paragraph should concentrate on a particular aspect of the film. Ensure to incorporate important elements such as cinematography, character development, and symbolism.

In addition, analyze different techniques employed by filmmakers. Take note of stylistic choices, including editing, sound, cinematography, imagery, and allegory. This helps contribute to the overall impact and meaning.

Lastly, connect your analysis to the thesis statement. Ensure all arguments captured in your analysis tie together to the main argument. It should maintain a straight focus throughout your essay.

Remember to re-state your thesis while summarizing previously mentioned arguments innovatively and creatively when finishing up your movie essay. Lastly, you can recommend your reader to watch the movie.

Final Takeaway

The writing process should be a fun, demanding, and engaging assignment. Try these tips from experts in structuring and logically organizing your essay.

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How to write a movie review [Updated 2023]

Writing a movie review is a great way to practice critical analysis skills. In this post, we explore what a movie review is, how to start a film review, and steps for writing and revising it.

What is a movie review?

A movie review is a concise evaluation of a film’s content and formal elements (cinematography, sound, lighting, etc.). Also known as a film review, a movie review considers not just what a film means, but how it means. Essentially, when you write a film review, you are conducting a critical analysis or close reading of a movie.

How to write a movie review

To write a successful review about a movie, you need to evaluate a film’s content, as well as its form. In this section, we break down these two components.

A film’s content includes its plot (what it’s about), characters, and setting. You’ll need to determine the main plot points of the film and how the film’s story works overall.

Are there parts that don’t make sense? Are certain characters more important than others? What is the relationship between the movie’s plot and its setting? A discussion of a film’s content provides good context for an analysis of its form.

Form refers to all of the aesthetic and/or formal elements that make a story into a movie. You can break down form into several categories:

• Cinematography : This element comprises all aspects of the movie that derive from the way a camera moves and works. You’ll need to pay attention to elements like camera angles, distances between the camera and the subject, and types of shots (i.e. close-up, aerial, etc.).
• Lighting : Films use lighting in various ways to communicate certain effects. For instance, noir films tend to utilize chiaroscuro lighting (deep contrasts between light and dark) to express a sense of secrecy or foreboding.
• Sound : The way a film uses sound can vary considerably. Most movies have a soundtrack, sometimes with music composed specifically for the film. Some films play around with ambient sounds or use silence at key points to signify important moments. What is the relation of sound to the image in specific scenes or sequences? Do sounds link images? Does it ever become more important than the image?
• Editing : The movies we watch online or in theaters have been heavily edited in order to achieve a particular flow. When you are preparing to write a movie review, pay close attention to elements like the length of shots, transitions between scenes, or any other items that were finalized after filming.
• Costumes, Props, and Sets : Are the costumes and props believable in relation to the film’s content and setting? Are costumes particularly elaborate or understated?

The important thing to remember when you are analyzing the formal elements of a movie is that every image, sound, movement, and object has meaning and has been planned. Your review needs to take into consideration how these elements work together with the film’s storyline to create a whole experience.

Once you’ve considered both the content and form of the movie that you’re reviewing, you can begin to evaluate the film as a whole. Is it a successful movie? Would you recommend it? Why or why not?

Step-by-step review writing tips

1. watch the movie.

The first time that you watch the movie, look for overarching themes or patterns, and establish what the film is primarily about. Take note of the main characters, as well as the setting.

2. Watch the movie again and take notes

Next, watch the movie again and take notes as you are doing so, keeping in mind the formal aspects discussed above. Write down anything that seems significant.

3. Evaluate the film’s form and content

Using the categories described above, and any handouts or guides provided by your instructor, evaluate the film’s formal elements along with its content. Are there elements of the movie that strike you as unfamiliar or perplexing? Are there elements that are repeated to emphasize a point or perception?

4. Write your review

A good movie review will contain:

• an introductory paragraph that tells the reader what movie you’re reviewing
• a paragraph that summarizes the movie
• several body paragraphs that explore significant formal elements and how they relate to the content
• a concluding paragraph that discusses your overall reaction to the film and whether or not you would recommend it to others

5. Create citations

You’ll need cite the film and any secondary sources that you consulted while writing. Use BibGuru’s citation generator to instantly create accurate citations for movies, as well as articles, books, and websites.

You may also want to consult a guide on how to cite a film in MLA or another major citation style .

6. Revise and proofread

Once you’ve written your review, you should set aside some time to revise and proofread it before you turn it in.

Movie review checklist

You can use this checklist to ensure that you’ve considered all of the formal elements, as well as the content, of the film that you’re reviewing:

🔲 Cinematography (camera moves and types of shots)

🔲 Lighting (natural vs. artificial light, contrasts between light and dark)

🔲 Sound (soundtrack, sound vs. silence, loud vs. soft sounds)

🔲 Editing (length of shots, transitions between scenes)

🔲 Costumes, props, and sets (believable vs. staged)

🔲 Content (plot, characters, setting)

Frequently Asked Questions about how to write a review about a movie

A movie review should contain a brief summary of the film, several paragraphs of analysis that focus on form and content, and a concluding paragraph that sums up your reaction.

Before you write anything, you need to watch the film at least once. Take notes as you’re watching and pay attention to formal elements and patterns. Then, write your review. The final step is to revise your work before you turn it in.

The tone for a movie review should be critical, yet objective. The goal of most reviews is to persuade a reader to either see a film or not.

The best film reviews balance plot summary with critical analysis of significant formal elements. A reader should be able to decide if she wants to see the film after reading the review.

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17 Essential Movies For An Introduction To Essay Films

Put most concisely by Timothy Corrigan in his book on the film: ‘from its literary origins to its cinematic revisions, the istic describes the many-layered activities of a personal point of view as a public experience’.

Perhaps a close cousin to documentary, the film is at its core a personal mode of filmmaking. Structured in a breadth of forms, a partial definition could be said to be part fact, part fiction with an intense intimacy (but none of these are necessarily paramount).

Stemming from the literary as a form of personal expression borne from in-depth explorations of its chosen topic, the film can be agitprop, exploratory, or diaristic and generally rejects narrative progression and concretised conclusions in favour of a thematic ambivalence. Due to its nature as inherently personal, the term itself is as vague and expansive as the broad collective of films it purports to represent.

To borrow Aldous Huxley’s definition, the is a device for saying almost everything about almost anything. In built then is an inherent expansiveness that informs a great ambition in the form itself, but as Huxley acknowledges it can only say almost anything; whether extolling the need for a socialist state (Man with a Movie Camera), deconstructing the power and status of the image itself (Histoire(s) du Cinema, Images of the World and the Inscription of War, Los Angeles Plays Itself) or providing a means to consider ones of past (Walden, News from home, Blue), the film is only the form of expression, which unlike any other taxonomic term suggests almost nothing about the film itself other than its desire to explore.

Below is an 17 film introduction to the film that cannot be pinned down and continue to remake and remodel itself as freely as it sheds connections between any of the films within its own canon.

1. Man with a Movie Camera (1929) dir. Dziga Vertov

An exercise in technical experimentation, Man with a Movie Camera is the pioneering, not to mention most lauded, of Vertov’s filmic polemics: espousing not only a new, necessary way of life, but a means of living that is created through cinema.

Shot by Maurice Kaufman, brother of Vertov, the film is a portrait of a city across 24 hours via bold experimentation based on Vertov’s staunchly Marxist ideologies. Its propagandist structure does not however belie its beauty.

Through masterful technique it became the defining film of 1920’s Soviet Union (perhaps on a par with Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin). Its propagation of film as the means through which life is realised, that the camera is now an unequivocal feature of modernity and too a powerful political tool, creates a filmic love letter to industrialisation and the humanist elements of physical labour.

In opposition to Eisenstein, Vertov is a master of his own brand of idiosyncratic montage which, with its sublime manipulative technique combined with realist images, rejects the opiate affects of traditional narrative cinema, attempting to create instead a cinematic language in which the camera becomes the pen of the 20th century.

2. A Propos de Nice (1930) dir. Jean Vigo

Shot by Boris Kaufman, brother of Dziga Vertov (Man with a Movie Camera), A Propos de Nice is a satirical portrait of life in 1920’s Nice. The leisurely upper classes of French society are the subjects of a portrayal the blind escapism and ignorance created by modernity.

Vigo thus contrasts the bourgeois culture of relaxation with the daily grind of the poor in society. The parodic form of the travelogue as anthropological study is employed as a means of document increasing social and economic disparities which Vigo sought to present as necessitating a revolutionary stance (the likes of which cinematographer Kaufman glean from his brother’s agit-prop, propagandist Kino-Pravda series).

Engrained in the very structure of modern society is, for Vigo, deep social inequality; life in this case masks its own inequalities through ignorance and selfishness. Images of women energetically dancing are reduced to slow modern and thus arises from them the absurdity of inherent inequalities.

Like a Jay Gatsby party, the excitement and laughter only serves to mask a profound emptiness whose own ridiculousness is an unacknowledged form of societal freakshow, which only those on the outside can perceive.

3. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967) dir. Jean-Luc Godard

In a year of 3 Godard diatribes against neo-capitalism, 2 or 3 Thing I Know About Her is the most contemplative; if La Chinoise a document of the soon to be riotous students, 2 or 3 is the suburban families watching the events unfold on their television screens.

Fraught with concern for the disintegration of lexical meaning, Godard’s collage of modern life follows the existentially empty Julitte Jeanson, a bourgeise housewife-come-prostitute, as she contemplates her preconceived societal role and the deadened collective consciousness of everyone whom Godard’s camera encounters.

If language is the house one lives in, as Juliette informs her son, then the house is subject to the blind whims of suited right wing repo men.

The portrait of Juliette is a composite sketch of the modern citizen, replaceable, replicable to the extent that Godard introduces Juliette first as Marina Vlady, the actress who plays her, before acknowledging her as a fictional creation; a less subtle evocation of the resignation to role playing in post-war France, watching death in Vietnam while decided whether or not to go and wash the car.

4. Walden; Diaries, Notes, and Sketches (1969) dir. Jonas Mekas

Walden is the film in its most diaristic form. Essentially a suitably handsome extended home video, Mekas’s film, shot from 1964-1969, features a series of chronologically edited video diaries that span from eating Chinese food with John Lennon, footage from the Velvet Underground’s first performance, or just the filmmaker eating a croissant in Marseille.

Given the length, the film could be criticised as an epic exercise in self-gratification (the filmic equivalent of continuous name dropping), or simultaneously as an invitation into the expansive but hermetic world of the New York art scene in the late 60’s, of which Mekas’ himself was a central fixture.

As with Akerman’s News From Home, it is the film’s internal focus, an exposure of the personal, wherein its interest lies. Mekas’ ability to construct a montage that appears at ease with itself in all its fragmentation, relying on meticulous in-camera precision, creates a sea images which with each wave comes harmony and contrast. Walden emerges then as an unpretentious acknowledgment of the inextricability of experience and image, finding within it celebrations of life’s variety and extended harmonies.

5. F for Fake (1973) dir. Orson Welles

Welles’s final film is an explosive and intelligent scrutinisation of the filmmaking process and the concept of authenticity in art. Centrally presenting Elmyr de Hory’s career as an art forger, F for Fake transcends basic narrative or documentary expositions to instead philosophise on the ontology of authorship.

Increasingly Welles rejects infallibility in favour of a profound ambivalence that is read across the careers of various forgers to eventually become, as is naturally the case for such a sublime example of the film, a personal contemplation of his own career and his self-definition as a perpetual sceptic.

Through rhythmic montage editing and questioning of the structure and the power of the image itself, F for Fake eulogizes the image as a consistently fallible, or deconstructible form, and in true Wellesian style, given it is the form that its director made his career,cannot help but find humour within.

6. Le Fond de l’air est rouge/A Grin Without a Cat (1977) dir. Chris Marker

Widely acknowledged as the master of the film, Le fond de l’air est rouge is a personal rumination of discontent on the progression and dissolution of left-wing politics from Vietnam up until the films release in 1977.

10 years after the Marker conceived Loin du Vietnam, a protest film against the Vietnam war structured in segments from a wealth of French Filmmakers including Godard, Resnais, Lelouch, Varda and Klein, the film is markedly more melancholic, plagued by a scepticism highlighted in the French title (directly translated as the essence of the air is red) that implies the socialist sentiment only ever existed in the air.

Opening with shots from Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925), Marker’s mastery of the appropriated image emerges. The film’s first four minutes are perhaps the finest montage sequence of post-war cinema, commending the bravery of those who fought for the socialist ideal but ultimately acknowledging the inevitability of its failure at the hands of right wing opposition, whose growth in power Marker sees as masked by the outward protests of the left.

Behind closed doors centre right solidarity, particularly in Marker’s native France, was only increased in the face of a scattered, disorganised and self-destructive shouts for power from the left.

Marker’s film is archival re-appropriation at its most controlled, his erudition and poetic narration reinforcing the notion of history itself as recreated and retold by individuals, always having an agenda.

7. News From Home (1977) dir. Chantal Akerman

Borne from the influence of the structuralist filmmakers Akerman encountered in New York (see Michael Snow, Stan Brakhage and Hollis Frampton), News from Home is a portrait of a city as seen through the eyes of a foreigner, as she attempts to come to terms with her new surroundings and the contrast to the life she left in Brussels (constantly referenced in the letters from her mother that are used to narrate the film).

Akerman films New York with the intricate eye of someone completely out of their depth, attempting to survive in a city they hardly know, emphasised by the concern of the letters from her mother. News from Home is a contemplation of the inescapability of the past and how it informs the present viewed from a perspective of awe, confusion and intense deliberation.

Akerman’s stares at New York as if to glean some meaning from its landscape as the letters from her mother cannot help make her feel at once a child and to the unchartered explorer entering a new terrain with bravado and wonder.

8. Koyaanisqatsi (1982) dir. Godfrey Reggio

Koyaanisqatsi, meaning life out of balance, is a poetic ode to absurdity constructed through cinematographic deconstructions of time and space. By slowing down images or speeding them up via time-lapse techniques, Reggio presents the fog of modernity as a means to highlight the absurdity of purported meanings, whether it is mass production of hot dogs or humanities destructive capabilities life lived blindly, perceived without questioning, is insignificant.

The film’s rejection of language forces full focus onto the status and power of imagery, especially when contorted, to suppose passivity and acceptance as a way of life, unsurprisingly drawing influence, like Thom Andersen’s Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003) from Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, going as far as to acknowledge him in the credits along with fellow critics of mass communications, big society and the power of technology, Jacques Ellul, Ivan Illich and Leopold Kohr.

As with Godard’s concern for the disintegration of language into base semiotic signifiers, evocative of nothing but materials and the literal, Koyaanisqatsi presents ‘a state of life that calls for another way a living’; a visually stunning but essentially aggressive denouncement of advanced capitalism, its pretence to knowledge and its ability to create an omnipresent complacency that drapes life in a visually pleasing veil, underneath which lies a profound nothingness.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Movies — Movie Review

Essays on Movie Review

Once in a while, you’ll be asked to do a movie review essay. This task is a great training tool for enhancing critical thinking skills. Essays on movie review aim at presenting a film from the most important scenes, special effects, to exciting moments and may be accompanied by criticism. From an advertising perspective, such a paper is aimed at convincing readers to watch the movie in question. Your writing should let a reader draw a conclusion, i.e, whether the film is worth their time or if they should try something else. Most importantly, your opinion must be independent and accurate. But how can you create a perfect introduction if you don’t have the experience in this type of writing? Relax. A good online writer can do it for you. If you have an idea but need some guidance, simply ask for a professional outline or use evaluation essay examples for students for more insights.

Hook Examples for Movie Review Essays

"a cinematic masterpiece" hook.

"Prepare to be captivated by the sheer brilliance of this cinematic masterpiece. Explore how every frame, performance, and detail contributes to a visual and emotional spectacle."

"Beyond the Screen: Themes and Messages" Hook

"This film transcends entertainment, offering profound themes and powerful messages. Dive into the underlying ideas and social commentary that make it a thought-provoking experience."

"The Journey of Character Development" Hook

"Follow the compelling journey of characters who evolve throughout the film. Analyze their growth, conflicts, and relationships, making this movie a character-driven narrative."

"Visual Delights: Cinematography and Special Effects" Hook

"Be prepared to be visually stunned by the breathtaking cinematography and cutting-edge special effects. Explore how these elements enhance the storytelling and immerse the audience."

"Unforgettable Performances" Hook

"The cast delivers unforgettable performances that breathe life into the characters. Discuss standout acting moments, character dynamics, and the emotional impact of their roles."

"The Soundtrack: Music That Moves" Hook

"The film's soundtrack is more than just music; it's an integral part of the storytelling. Explore how the score enhances emotions, sets the tone, and complements the visuals."

"Cinematic Analysis: Directing and Editing" Hook

"Delve into the meticulous craftsmanship of the director and editor. Analyze their choices in pacing, sequencing, and storytelling techniques that make this film a cinematic triumph."

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Top 20 Qualities Of A Good Film: What’s Important?

Table of Contents

When it comes to movies, there are many different opinions on what makes a good film. Some people might argue that it’s all about the story, while others might say that the acting or visual effects are more important. However, I believe that there are several key qualities that make up a good film. Firstly, the story should be well-written and engaging, with interesting characters that the audience can root for or against.

The plot should also be unpredictable and keep viewers guessing until the very end. Secondly, the visuals should be stunning and realistic, immersing viewers in the world of the film. Lastly, the actors should be talented and able to bring the characters to life onscreen. In short, a good film has strong writing, beautiful visuals, and talented actors, all coming together to create an enjoyable experience for viewers.

• A well-written and engaging story
• Interesting and well-developed characters
• A clear beginning, middle, and end
• Unique visual style
• Excellent soundtrack
• Fits within the suggested means
• Originality
• Integrity to the concept
• Truthfulness
• Joy of doing
• Singularity
• Communication of themes
• Clarity of intent
• Synthesis of style and themes
• Accomplishment within the means
• Pleasure (including humor, thrills, and beauty)
• Respect for the audience

These qualities include elements such as a strong plot, high production values, and a unique visual style, as well as personal attributes of the director such as stress tolerance, understanding of film conventions, and passion for the craft.

A good film should be well-made, thought-provoking, and entertaining, with a careful balance of different elements that work together to create an immersive and memorable experience.I will now walk you through these qualities in detail:

Inventiveness.

There are many different aspects that go into making a good film. Some people might argue that having high-quality equipment is one of the most important, while others might say that it’s all about the acting and directing. However, one thing that is often overlooked is the importance of having innovative film ideas.

Without fresh and new ideas, films can quickly become stale and uninteresting. This doesn’t mean that every movie has to be completely original, but it does mean that filmmakers need to be constantly thinking of new ways to tell stories and engage their audiences.

One great example of a filmmaker who always pushes boundaries is Quentin Tarantino. His films are full of creative dialogue , unique shots, and unexpected plot twists. This makes them not only entertaining but also memorable.

Also read – The Most Effective Film Promotion Techniques.

Originality Matters.

Filmmaking is an art form that takes many different forms, but in order to make a great film, you need to be original. You can’t simply copy what’s been done before and hope for the best. It takes creativity and hard work to come up with a fresh idea and turn it into a movie that people will want to watch. This isn’t always easy, but it’s worth it when you see your film succeed.

What makes a film original?

Films can be original in a variety of ways. One way is by the story itself; the film may be based on an original idea, rather than being based on a pre-existing work such as a book or play. Another way a film can be original is by its visuals; for example, it may use unique camera angles or visual effects that haven’t been seen before. Finally, a film can be original in its approach to storytelling ; for example, it may tell its story in an unconventional way, or use humor or drama in interesting ways.

Clear Intention.

Filmmaking is an art form that has been around for over a century. It is the process of making a motion picture, from an idea to a finished product. There are many different aspects to filmmaking, from the writing of the screenplay to the actual filming process. However, before any of this can happen, the filmmaker must have a clear intention for the film. This intention must be strong enough for the film to be good enough to watch.

While there are many different types of films, all films share one common goal: to entertain the audience. The best way to entertain an audience is by telling a story that is well-told and engaging. In order to do this, the filmmaker must have a clear vision for their film and make sure that all of their creative decisions support this vision.

When it comes to making a film , you need a good story. It’s the backbone of any movie and if it’s not interesting, no one will want to watch it. That’s why screenwriters are so important; they have to come up with an idea that will captivate an audience.

Sometimes, the story is inspired by true events, but oftentimes, it’s something the writer makes up entirely. In either case, it has to be believable and well-told in order to hold people’s attention.

The ambition behind your Story.

In order to make a good film, you need to have a story with ambition. This means that you should have a clear vision for your project and be willing to put in the hard work to see it through.

You also need to be able to communicate your vision effectively to those involved in the project, from cast and crew to financiers and distributors. Having a clear and ambitious story will help ensure that your film is successful.

There’s no question that a great script is key to making a great film. But what makes a good script? What are the elements that make up a successful screenplay? And how can you go about writing one yourself?

One of the most important things to remember is that a script is not just a blueprint for a movie – it’s also a story in its own right, with its own characters, plotlines, and arcs. It needs to be well-constructed and well-written, with all the necessary ingredients to keep the reader engaged from beginning to end.

Some of the most important elements of a good script include strong dialogue, interesting characters, and an engaging plot. It’s also important to make sure your story is well-paced, with enough action and suspense to keep the viewer hooked.

Good Plot lines and arcs.

Filmmaking is an art form that takes many hours of hard work to create a final product that can be appreciated by audiences. The amount of time and effort that goes into making a film is often overlooked, with people only paying attention to the end result.

While a good plot and well-executed arc are essential for any film, they are not the only components that make up a good film. Cinematography , acting, and sound design all play important roles in creating a movie that is both enjoyable and thought-provoking.

A singularity element.

In order for a film to be good, it needs to have singularity. This means that the film should have a focused story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The plot should be well-thought-out and engaging, and the characters should be well-developed. The film should also have a unique visual style that sets it apart from other movies. Lastly, the soundtrack must be excellent and enhance the overall experience of the film.

Filmmaking disciplines.

In order to make a good film, you need to have filmmaking disciplines. This means that you must have strong directing, writing, cinematography, and editing skills. A lot of aspiring filmmakers think that they can just pick up a camera and start shooting, but this is not the case.

Without these essential skills, your film will likely be amateurish and not very good. First, you need to learn how to direct a movie. This is the most important aspect of filmmaking. The director is responsible for telling the movie’s story and guiding the audience from beginning to end. You also need to be able to write a screenplay with exceptional writing skills.

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Good Film Director .

Many people feel that in order for a film to be good, it needs to be well directed. Film directors are responsible for the overall look and feel of a movie. They choose the shots, create the mood, and decide what the audience sees and how they see it. In some cases, directors are even responsible for writing the movie’s screenplay.

Qualities of a good film director.

A film director is someone who is responsible for the overall creative and technical aspects of a film. They are in charge of everything from the casting to the editing, and they must have a clear vision for their project in order to make it a success. Great directors are able to bring their projects to life and tell a story that resonates with audiences.

They must be creative, organized, and have excellent communication skills in order to collaborate effectively with their team. Above all, a good director must be passionate about filmmaking and have a desire to tell meaningful stories.

Truthfulness element.

A good film must have a truthfulness effect. This means that the film must be realistic and the story must be believable. The characters must be three-dimensional and the plot must be organic. The film must also have a visual style that is unique and interesting.

Organic Plot In a Film.

The organic plot in a film is often more interesting and believable than a synthetic one. In an organic plot, the characters and storyline are shaped by the natural world around them, as opposed to being fabricated by a writer. This can be seen in films such as “ The Grapes of Wrath ” and “ Slumdog Millionaire “, which both have rich and textured plots that seem to unfold naturally.

The organic plot often allows for a greater sense of realism, due to the fact that it is not forced or manipulated by a writer. Instead, it emerges from the interactions between the characters and their environment.

Effects Representation.

Filmmakers often talk about the need for their work to be visually engaging, to have an impact on the audience. But what does that mean, and how can it be achieved? One key way is by ensuring that the effects used in a film are recognizable.

Whether it’s a spaceship soaring across the screen or a character emerging from a pool of water, viewers need to be able to suspend disbelief and feel like they’re in another world. That’s why good films must have representation of effects that must be recognizable.

In order to create a believable and effective film, many different elements come together to form a well-rounded product. One of these aspects is the representation of individuals and groups within the film. When done correctly, this can add an extra layer of believability and engagement for viewers. However, when done incorrectly, it can lead to misrepresentation and offensive portrayals.

Awareness values.

Films are a form of entertainment that can be used to educate the audience on certain topics. They can also be used to show awareness of social issues in order to bring about change. It is important for filmmakers to have awareness values to the audience so that they can create films that educate and entertain viewers.

Awareness is a value that is often portrayed in films. There are different types of awareness that can be shown, such as environmental awareness, social awareness, and political awareness.

Some films focus on one type of awareness, while others incorporate multiple types of awareness into the story. Environmental awareness is important in films because it can help to educate audiences about the dangers that come with not being environmentally conscious.

For example, the film “ The Lorax ” teaches audiences about the importance of preserving nature. Social awareness is also important in films because it can help to shed light on important issues that need to be addressed.

Films like “ Crash ” and “ Precious ” address important social issues that are often overlooked by society. Political awareness is also important in films, as it can help to educate viewers about current events and political issues.

A film must be respectful to the audience.

Filmmakers must always be aware of their audience and the effects their film will have on them. A good film must be respectful to the audience by providing a worthwhile experience that is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Whether it’s making sure the story is interesting and well-told or that the images on the screen are not too graphic for viewers, filmmakers have a responsibility to their audience. Creating a movie that is simply designed to shock or offend viewers without any redeeming qualities does nothing but exploit them and reflects poorly on the filmmaker.

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Emotional element.

I believe that a good film must have an emotional element in order to be successful. This is what separates a great film from simply a good one. A movie can be well-made and interesting, but if it doesn’t touch the viewer on an emotional level, then it’s not likely to remain in their memory for very long.

For me, the most memorable films are the ones that I feel connected to on some deeper level, whether it’s through sadness, happiness, anger, or fear. It’s the emotions that a film can evoke in its audience that makes it truly special.

Some people might argue that films are a purely visual medium, without any room for emotion. However, anyone who has seen a great film knows that this is not the case. Films can be incredibly emotional experiences, thanks to the careful use of sound, music, and visual elements by filmmakers. In this article, we will explore some examples of emotional elements in a film.

One of the most obvious ways to create emotion in a film is through the use of music. Music can be used to set the tone for a scene, make the viewer feel certain emotions, or even convey information about the characters or plot. For example, in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, composer Howard Shore uses different instruments to represent different races in Middle-earth.

A good film must have good characters and actors.

In order for a film to be successful, it must have good characters and actors. The audience needs to be able to connect with the characters on some level in order to feel engaged in the story. If the acting is poor, it can pull the viewer out of the film and ruin the experience. Conversely, if the characters are well-written and believable, it can make up for other shortcomings in the film.

Examples of a good character in a film.

There are many different types of films, each with its own unique set of characters. However, some characters are better than others. In this article, we will explore some examples of good characters in a film.

One great example is the character of Atticus Finch in the film adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus is a moral and upstanding member of society who always puts his family and the community first. He is also an excellent father figure to Scout and Jem, and provides them with sage advice throughout the film.

Another great character is Rocky Balboa from the Rocky series of films. Despite being born into a life of poverty, Rocky manages to become one of the most successful boxers in history. He is also a kind-hearted and loyal friend, always willing to help those in need.

Good communication of themes.

A great film is one that can communicate its themes effectively to an audience. It’s not enough for a filmmaker to simply have a good story to tell; the themes of the story must be properly conveyed through the film medium in order for it to be successful.

This can be done in a number of ways, such as through the use of symbolism, setting, and character development. If done correctly, a film with strong themes can leave a lasting impression on viewers long after they’ve left the theater.

Fits within the suggested means.

There are a few essential elements that make up a great film. A good film must be able to fit within the means of its budget, have an interesting and well-developed plot, be acted well, and have high production values.

A film can have all the bells and whistles in the world, but if it doesn’t have a good story or is poorly acted, it will likely fall flat with audiences. Conversely, a film with a limited budget can still be successful if it has high production values and is well-written.

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Subversiveness.

Films can be extremely powerful tools for change. They have the ability to entertain, engage and inspire audiences around the world. But a good film must also be subversive. It must challenge the status quo, provoke thought and inspire action. It must confront power and speak truth to power. If it does not do these things, then it is nothing more than empty entertainment.

Examples of movies that are subversive.

Movies can be subversive in different ways. Some movies may be critical of the government or society, while others may portray controversial topics in a new light. Here are a few examples of subversive movies:

“ The Social Network ” is a movie about the founding of Facebook. While it is a true story, the movie paints a negative portrait of Mark Zuckerberg and his friends. The movie was released at a time when Facebook was becoming increasingly popular, and it was criticized for being anti-Facebook.

“ The Dark Knight ” is a superhero movie that features Batman fighting against the Joker. The Joker is portrayed as a criminal mastermind who is not afraid to kill innocent people. The movie was released shortly after the Aurora shooting, and it was criticized for being too violent and dark.

Ability to touch the subconscious mind of the viewer.

A good film must be able to touch the subconscious mind of the viewer. The film can be a comedy, adventure, or horror movie, but it must have an emotional impact on the viewer. The movie can make you laugh, cry, or be scared, but it must evoke some kind of emotion from you. I believe that is why horror movies are so popular because they touch our fear side and make us feel something.

Examples of movies that touch the subconscious minds of viewers.

Movies have been around for many years and their popularity has only grown. There are many different types of movies , but some films touch the subconscious minds of viewers in ways that other movies do not. Some people might say that horror movies are the types of films that have the ability to touch people’s subconscious minds.

This might be because horror movies are often filled with suspenseful and scary moments that can cause people to feel fear or anxiety. However, there are also other types of movies that can touch people’s subconscious minds in interesting ways.

One example is the movie “ The Shawshank Redemption “. This movie is often cited as one of the best films ever made, and it is not a horror movie. Rather, it is a drama about a man who is sentenced to life in prison.

Characters and environments.

There is a lot of debate surrounding what makes a good film. Some people might say that it’s the story, while others might argue that it’s the acting. However, one of the most important elements of a good film is its ability to differentiate between characters and environments.

If viewers can’t tell who is who and where they are, then the film will likely be confusing and un-enjoyable. This is why films like “ The Lord of the Rings ” are so successful; the different environments are easily distinguishable, and the characters are easily distinguishable from one another.

What are the characters in a film?

Characters in a film can be broken down into three categories: protagonists, antagonists, and minor characters. The protagonist is the main character of the film and the one who drives the plot forward.

The antagonist is the character who opposes the protagonist and tries to stop them from achieving their goals. Minor characters are secondary characters who play a supporting role in the story. They may not have a lot of screen time, but they are important to the development of the plot.

What are environments in a film?

In filmmaking, the environment is everything that surrounds the characters and action on-screen. This includes the physical locations where scenes are shot , as well as the lighting , costumes, props, and set design that create the film’s overall look.

While a film’s environment can be designed and controlled by the filmmakers, it can also be enhanced or altered by the actors themselves. For example, an actor might improvise a new line or gesture that suddenly makes a location feel more like home to their character.

Good sound design.

Most people would agree that a good movie should have good sound design. But what does that mean? What is the role of sound in film? And how important is it compared to other aspects of production, such as cinematography or acting?

To answer these questions, let’s first take a look at the definition of sound design. In essence, it is the process of creating and integrating all the sounds that are heard in a movie, including dialogue, music, and ambient noise. This can be a complex and time-consuming task, especially when you consider that every little detail – from the sound of footsteps on gravel to the rustling of fabric – needs to be considered. It’s easy to see then why sound design is often seen as one of the most important aspects of filmmaking.

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A GOOD FILM SHOULD BE ENTERTAINING.

People often debate what makes a good film. Some say that it should be informative, while others believe that it should be entertaining. I believe that a good film should be both informative and entertaining.

After all, who wants to watch a movie that is just plain boring? I think that films should take the viewer on a journey, introducing them to new and exciting worlds while also teaching them something about life.

Of course, I’m not saying that all films need to be serious documentaries; there is definitely a place for light-hearted comedies and action flicks. But at the end of the day, I believe that films should strive to entertain as well as educate.

What makes a  film successful?

A good movie is not only about having a great storyline or a big budget, but it also needs to be able to connect with the audience on an emotional level. Successful films often have relatable characters that viewers can identify with and root for throughout the story. The characters should have depth and undergo some sort of transformation, making them more compelling and interesting.

Another key element of successful movies is their ability to evoke emotions in their audiences. Whether it’s laughter, tears, or fear, a film that can make people feel something will often be remembered long after they leave the theater. Successful films also tend to have strong themes or messages that resonate with viewers on a personal level.

Lastly, good direction plays an essential role in making a movie successful. A director who can bring all elements of filmmaking together cohesively while still infusing their own unique vision for the story can elevate any film into something exceptional. Great direction helps create memorable scenes and moments that stick with audiences long after the credits roll, further cementing its success in cinema history. We wrote this article that throws more light to the topic >>>> HERE.

What makes a good movie  scene?

A good movie scene is one that leaves a lasting impression on the audience, evokes strong emotions and adds value to the overall plot. It should be well-written, well-directed and well-acted to convey the intended message effectively. A good movie scene should also have a clear purpose in advancing the story or character development.

One aspect of a good movie scene is its ability to capture attention from the beginning until the end. The scene should create suspense, tension or excitement that keeps the audience engaged and curious about what happens next. Additionally, it should provide a satisfying resolution that either answers questions or raises new ones for viewers to ponder.

Another critical element of a good movie scene is its ability to evoke emotions in viewers. Whether it’s laughter, tears or fear, an excellent movie scene can make us feel something deeply and connect with it emotionally. This connection is what makes movies so powerful; they provide an escape while also tapping into our humanity at its core.

In short, several factors make up an excellent movie scene: clear intent focused on advancing plot or character development, captivating from start to finish while providing resolution and evoking strong emotions in viewers. These elements combine to create memorable scenes that stay with audiences long after leaving the theater or turning off their TV screens at home.

What makes a good movie  review?

One of the essential elements of a good movie review is providing an honest and thoughtful analysis of the film. A good movie review should go beyond just summarizing the plot, actors, and production quality.

It should provide insight into what makes the film unique or interesting and how it connects with its audience. The reviewer should be able to identify themes or messages conveyed through the story and offer their interpretation without spoiling the experience for readers.

Another critical aspect of a good movie review is balance in tone. While personal opinions are necessary, they should not dominate over objective criticism. Negative reviews are just as important as positive ones since they can help readers save time and money by avoiding films that do not live up to expectations. However, negative reviews must still be fair and constructive, pointing out flaws in specific areas without resorting to insults or generalizations.

Finally, a good movie review must have clarity in writing style and organization. The reviewer’s thoughts must flow logically from one section to another while using appropriate language for their target audience – whether it’s casual viewers or industry professionals. Good grammar, spelling, punctuation, and formatting also contribute significantly to making a professional-looking write-up that attracts readers’ attention while conveying its message effectively.

What makes a good movie  script?

A good movie script is one that captivates the audience from start to finish. The plot should be well thought out, with all loose ends tied up by the end of the movie. A great script will evoke emotions in viewers and make them feel as though they are a part of the story. Characters should be fully developed and relatable so that viewers can connect with them on an emotional level.

Dialogue is a critical aspect of a great movie script. It should sound natural and authentic, bringing characters to life and helping to move the story forward. Each character’s voice must be unique, reflecting their personality traits or background.

In addition, pacing is essential in creating an engaging movie script. Scenes should flow seamlessly into each other, building tension and excitement towards the climax of the film.

A well-written screenplay also needs to have enough detail for filmmakers to create stunning visuals while allowing room for creativity during filming. Ultimately, it requires effort, attention to detail, and creativity to craft a compelling screenplay that can turn into a successful movie production.

What makes  the difference between a good movie  and a  great movie ?

A good movie is often one that entertains its audience, leaving them satisfied with the time they spent watching it. It may have a well-written script, great acting performances, and stunning visuals.

A good movie can also evoke emotions from its viewers and leave them feeling happy or sad depending on the storyline. However, what sets a great movie apart from a good one is the lasting impact it has on viewers.

• A great movie goes beyond mere entertainment; it leaves an indelible mark on those who watch it. It makes people think deeply about the story’s themes and leaves them pondering long after the credits roll.
• A great film often has complex characters that are relatable to audiences, taking viewers through an emotional journey where they experience joy, sorrow, empathy or pain among other feelings. Furthermore, a great film might challenge societal norms by addressing issues like mental health or social justice in ways that resonate deeply with viewers.

In summary, while there is no denying that a good movie can be enjoyable to watch and provide entertainment value for hours at end; what separates it from greatness is how much of an impact it has had on its audience over time- leaving behind something meaningful for generations to come!

What are unique features of a movie?

One of the most important features of a good movie is its ability to captivate and engage its audience. A great film should be able to draw viewers in with strong characters, an intriguing plot, and excellent cinematography. It should also have a good pacing that keeps the audience engaged throughout the movie.

Another unique feature of a successful movie is its ability to evoke emotions from its viewers. Whether it’s laughter or tears, anger or joy, a well-made film has the power to move audiences in powerful ways. This is often achieved through great acting performances that make viewers feel like they are experiencing everything alongside the characters on screen.

Finally, memorable movies often have memorable soundtracks that help bring their stories and characters to life. Great music can create tension and suspense during action scenes or bring out moments of emotional resonance between characters.

Music can also help set the mood for each scene, helping immerse viewers into the world of the film even more fully. These are just some of many unique features that make a great movie stand out from others in this highly competitive industry.

How do you evaluate a good movie?

Firstly, a good movie should have a well-written and engaging plot. The story should be able to take the audience on an emotional journey and make them invested in the characters and their struggles. It is important that the plot is coherent, with no loose ends or unresolved conflicts.

Secondly, a good movie should have great acting performances from its cast. The actors should be able to portray their characters convincingly and bring them to life on screen. A good performance can make even an otherwise mediocre movie enjoyable to watch.

Lastly, a well-made movie should also have impressive technical aspects such as cinematography, sound design, special effects , etc. These elements add depth and texture to the overall cinematic experience and elevate it beyond just a simple story being told on screen. When all these elements come together seamlessly, audiences are left with an unforgettable viewing experience that makes for a truly good movie.

What are the 8 elements to a good film?

A good film is not just about a compelling story or impressive visual effects. It requires a careful balance of different elements that work together to create an immersive and memorable experience. Here are eight essential elements that contribute to the success of a good movie.

• First: a strong plot is the backbone of any great film. It should be interesting, engaging, and well-paced.
• Second: character development is crucial to make the audience invest in the characters’ journey and care about their fate.
• Third: effective dialogue can enhance the storytelling and bring depth to the characters.
• Fourth: music plays an important role in setting the tone and enhancing emotions throughout a movie.
• Fifth: cinematography creates visual beauty and adds meaning through framing techniques like shot sizes and angles.
• Sixth: sound design brings life into scenes with sound effects that complement visuals.
• Seventh: production design transports viewers into another world by creating authentic settings that tell stories on their own.
• Lastly : direction ties all these elements together by bringing out each’s full potential while still maintaining coherence in vision across all aspects of filmmaking from pre-production to post-production phases.

What do I need to know before making a movie?

First and foremost, before making a movie, it’s important to have a solid understanding of the different elements that make up a good film. This includes having a clear idea of your story’s plot and characters, as well as an understanding of the technical aspects such as lighting, sound design, and editing. You also need to have a budget planned out beforehand for all aspects of production.

Next, it’s crucial to assemble the right team for your film. This includes hiring actors who fit their roles well and have good chemistry with one another, finding skilled cinematographers who can capture your vision on camera, and selecting experienced editors who can bring everything together in post-production.

Finally, you need to be prepared for the challenges that come with making a movie. It can be a long and difficult process that requires patience, dedication and flexibility when things don’t go according to plan.

Being open-minded when it comes to feedback from others is also important so that you can improve upon your work along the way. Overall, with careful planning and execution of each step in the process- creating an exciting movie is more than possible!

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In conclusion,

A good film is one that entertains, educates, and inspires. It should be well-made and thought-provoking, with a strong plot and believable characters. A good film can make you think about the world in a new way, and leave you with a lasting impression. Also read – Hollywood Filmmaking Tips to Inspire You. and this article How a Film is Made: Stages, Challenges, and Techniques to learn more.

I am a highly experienced film and media person who has a great deal to offer to like-minded individuals. Currently working on several exciting projects, I am a film and media practitioner for over a decade. I have achieved a great deal of success in my professional career.

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Author – Dennis

am a highly experienced film and media person who has a great deal to offer to like-minded individuals. Currently working on several exciting projects,

I am a film and media practitioner for over a decade. I have achieved a great deal of success in my professional career.

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What Makes a Good Movie Essay?

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How to write about a movie in an essay, a proper use of movie review essay samples, how to order a movie evaluation essay online, what makes a good movie essay mistakes to avoid, get expert movie essay writing help, vip services at primeessay.org, steps to gain the movie essay.

Some students tend to think that crafting a paper about a favorite movie is as easy as watching it. In practice, it appears to be as difficult as writing any other academic text. Good writing skills and a sufficient amount of time are required to produce a decently written text. You see, the professor wants to check your writing and critical thinking skills, as well as the ability to analyze what you have seen. Meanwhile, your opinion about the film can even be the last thing the professor wants to know. So, it is not enough to simply rate the film using your own perception. In addition to your own opinion and the summary of the plot, you are to present a careful analysis of various layers of the movie and talk about the setting, symbolism, the issues raised in this motion picture. Solid evidence should be used to support your claims. Now it is clear why so many students wonder what makes a good movie essay. And as it is better to see something once than to hear (or read) about it a hundred times, smart learners hire experienced writers to write original essays for them. These custom papers can be turned in as authentic academic works and used for future reference.

If you are a student who wants to buy movie review essay, then you are most likely looking for a writing companion who is equally trustworthy and reputable. And if you are reading this article, you have already found one. PrimeEssay.org is a custom writing company that has been providing students with authentic essays and other academic papers for over two decades now. Professional writers with degrees in various fields of knowledge working here know how to write a movie essay of high quality to earn the customer high grades and professor’s respect.

Thus, in this article, our writers share with you the peculiarities of crafting a great film paper. This detailed guide will inform you about the best practices of essay writing to help you create a decent movie essay. Do not hesitate to contact our support agents if you need more solid writing help.

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What can a film review assignment tell your professor about you? Starting from the film choice to the detailed description of your impression of the movie, this paper will demonstrate your analytical capacity, as well as your intellectual level. Thus, you should not underrate the importance of this project. By following our tips, you can make the writing process truly enjoyable. So, let us have a look at the peculiarities of writing an essay about movie and how our writers create their masterpieces.

Proper structure is particularly important in writing any academic paper and a film essay is not an exception. By following the traditional structure, one will develop their ideas and arguments logically, avoiding repetitive statements. Here is an example of an outline widely used by skilled writers:

• Introduction. In the opening paragraph, it is necessary to provide the reader with the basic information about the film, including its title, director, the date of release, a film company, filmmakers, etc. Also, if it was you, who has chosen the film for analysis, you will need to explain your choice.
• Summary. After introducing the movie, it is necessary to briefly summarize the plot, name the main characters, and tell a few words about their interaction.
• Analysis. Once the summary is ready, one should start analyzing the movie. Since this part is the most detailed, it should include the following subsections:
• Examination of the plot units: starting point, main actions, and climax;
• Analysis of creative elements: characters, dialogues, camera techniques, mood, costumes, etc.;
• Analysis of the topic implementation: relevance of the subject, understanding of the topic by its target audience, comparison of the movie with similar works.
• Opinion. In the next section of the essay, it is necessary to provide a personal opinion supported with appropriate evidence from the film.
• Conclusion. In the final part of the paper, it is necessary to inform the reader whether the director was successful in broadcasting their messages. Also, it is appropriate to finalize the essay with a call to action. For example, one may recommend/not recommend this film for viewing.

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The writers working at our service have compiled a step-by-step guide demonstrating their professional approach to work.

Watch the film

This may seem obvious, but many students fail to complete this stage properly. If you think that reading a couple of reviews will be enough for writing your academic paper, you are mistaken. To add a personal touch to your essay, you need to watch the film thoroughly and formulate your opinion about it. This step will help you choose the direction for writing your paper and write an in-depth analysis. If you fail to watch the film before writing your paper, your essay will be too shallow.

Plan your work

Once you have watched the movie, it is necessary to look through the prompt shared by your professor. What exactly is it asking you to do? What themes do you need to explore in your paper? You should understand that your task is not to summarize the film but to provide its analysis focusing on the points that are worth paying attention to. Those students, who skip the planning stage usually spend more time writing their essays. Without a plan, one may end up summarizing the film, which will not bring them the desired outcome. When jotting down a plan for your future essay, you will need to pay attention to the following aspects:

• Key elements of the plot. Tell about the main plot twists and how do they help the director convey their messages;
• Editing style. Focus on the most interesting editing techniques bringing the attention of the target audience to the specific topics;
• Stylistic elements. Discuss the style elements that make this film unique. How do these elements affect the reader?
• Scenario . Familiarize your reader with the scenes that stand out from the rest. Was it done by the director on purpose? Explain your answer by providing the appropriate examples from the film;
• Musical elements. Analyze the music that is used in the movie. In what way does it allow the director to strengthen their messages?

Write an introductory paragraph

Now, when you have a good plan for your essay, you should start working on it. The first paragraph of your essay aims to introduce the film to your audience. Also, an introduction should include a hook that would spark the interest of your reader. Besides, you need to include appropriate background information that will help your reader understand what themes you are going to address in your essay. If you are not sure how your introduction should look like, you need to look for some samples of movie essays available in online databases. As it was already mentioned, you can also find a reliable writing company and buy your essay online.

Summarize the film

To understand the analysis of the film better, the reader should know its plot. Thus, after the introductory paragraph, you will need to summarize the film without diving into too much detail. Please, note that your readers may be unaware of the film you are analyzing; thus, you need to inform them about the main events happening in the movie.

After summarizing the film, you will need to analyze it. When analyzing the film in detail, you should pay special attention to the main themes of the film, supporting your statements with good examples from different scenes. In this part of your essay, you will demonstrate your analytical skills, which will help your tutor evaluate your essay.

Write a conclusion

In the final part of your essay, it is necessary to wrap up all the points provided in the previous paragraphs. Remember that a concluding paragraph is your opportunity to make a good impression on your reader. Thus, you should not end your essay in a rush.

It is always good to check several essay examples to gain an understanding of the overall paper structure and to get inspired. Still, you should use only high-quality samples. Poorly written works can only decrease your writing skills.

It is also important to refrain from copying some ideas, sentences, and paragraphs from the works that are available online. When plagiarizing from the already published documents you run the risk of being severely punished. This can result in grade penalties and in some cases, the student can be excluded from college or university.

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Ruben Östlund Teases ‘The Entertainment System Is Down’ With Kirsten Dunst & Daniel Brühl At Cannes Presser: “It’s F–ing Hard To Make A Good Airplane Movie” 

By Zac Ntim

International Reporter

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“It’s f–ing hard to make a good airplane movie,” Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund emphasized multiple times Saturday morning in Cannes as he spoke to international press about his plans for The Entertainment System Is Down , the latest feature he has set to direct starring a buzzy cast led by Kirsten Dunst and Daniel Brühl . 

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As we reported earlier this week, Östlund and his producer, Erik Hemmendorff, have purchased a real-life Boeing 747 where he told the press today he will mount the production over 70 days on a studio lot. 

“We bought the plane and it was quite early in the process of the film. So suddenly it was like, ‘Oh, we have to make this film,” Östlund said at the presser hosted by Sweden’s Film i Väst. Dunst and Brühl joined him.  

Ostlund and his producer share an image of the Boeing 747 plane they have bought to shoot ‘The entertainment system is down’ pic.twitter.com/ntbZG8zXd7 — Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 18, 2024

“Being in a studio for 70 days trying to find the energy and the motivation when you’re in the same environment is going to be tough.” 

Digging further into the plot of the pic, Östlund said the film’s jumping-off point is when a man falls asleep beside his wife after the entertainment systems drop. 

“His wife is bored so after a while she sees her husband’s phone and decides to unlock it,” Östlund said. “Turns out, she doesn’t know the code, so she uses his face to unlock the phone with face ID. She then finds out he has had multiple affairs with young women. So they’re going to be dealing with that during the flight. It’s an emotional roller coaster.” 

Dunst and Brühl will play the doomed married couple. Also set to star are Keanu Reeves and Succession actor Nicholas Hoult. 

Brühl told the packed room of journalists that he was first unofficially cast in the film some years ago after he got talking to Östlund at a barbeque he hosted at his home in Majorca. Dunst, however, said she auditioned for the Swede. 

A Scandinavian journalist later asked Dunst about her history working with filmmakers from the region and whether she saw any similarities between Östlund and her Melancholia director Lars Von Trier. Nervously chuckling, Dunst said she’d politely “pass on the question” before adding: “I always wanna work with people that push the boundaries of cinema.”

Dunst was famously sat next to the often controversial Von Trier in 2018 during the Melancholia press conference in Cannes where the director said he “sympathized” with Hitler. After the comments, Von Trier was declared “persona non grata” by festival organizers. He returned to Cannes in 2018 with The House That Jack Built . 

Östlund later told the room that he should be back at Cannes in 2026 where he will debut The Entertainment System Is Down . The project will be Östlund’s second English-language film and seventh feature after The Guitar Mongoloid  (2004),  Involuntary  (2008),  Play  (2011),  Force Majeure  (2014),  The Square  (2017) and  Triangle of Sadness  (2022). The last two of these won the director the Palme d’Or, meaning he is one of only a handful of filmmakers to have won the Cannes accolade twice.

The film will be a Swedish-German-French co-production, and will reunite the director with his longtime colleagues, producer Hemmendorff of Plattform Produktion and producer Philippe Bober from Paris-based Coproduction Office, which is also handling world sales. The project is being shopped at the Cannes market .

The market ends May 22.

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‘The Apprentice’ Review: Sebastian Stan Plays Donald Trump in a Docudrama That Nails Everything About Him but His Mystery

Ali Abbasi's film is arresting when it shows us Donald Trump being schooled by Roy Cohn. But was that enough to make him the Trump we know?

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

• ‘Armand’ Review: An Accusation at a Primary School Results in a Drama So Convoluted It’s Claustrophobic 13 hours ago
• ‘The Shrouds’ Review: David Cronenberg Makes a Movie About Grief — and Body Horror, and Digital Gravestones — That in Its Somber Way Verges on Self-Parody 2 days ago
• ‘The Apprentice’ Review: Sebastian Stan Plays Donald Trump in a Docudrama That Nails Everything About Him but His Mystery 2 days ago

A lot of people would disagree with me, but I think there’s a mystery at the heart of Donald Trump. Many believe there’s no mystery, just a highly visible and documented legacy of bad behavior, selfishness, used-car-salesman effrontery, criminal transgressions, and abuse of power. They would say that Trump lies, slurs, showboats, bullies, toots racist dog whistles so loudly they’re not whistles anymore, and is increasingly open about the authoritarian president he plans to be.

All totally true, but also too easy. What it all leaves out, about the precise kind of man Donald Trump is, is this:

Popular on Variety

And that, in its way, is the hook of “ The Apprentice .” Written by journalist Gabriel Sherman, and directed by Ali Abbasi (who made a splash two years ago with the Iranian serial-killer drama “Holy Spider”), the movie is a spirited, entertaining, and not overly cheeky docudrama about the years in which Donald Trump came to be Donald Trump. Which is to say: He wasn’t always.

And that’s when a pair of eyes fixate on him. Seated at a table in the next room is Roy Cohn ( Jeremy Strong ), the infamous HUAC lawyer and Red Scare architect who became notorious for being the man who sent the Rosenbergs to the electric chair. Twenty years later, he’s a private lawyer and fixer who’s friends with everyone that counts (mobsters, politicians, media barons). He eyes Donald Trump like a hungry dragon looking at a virgin. Cohn’s head is tilted down, his black eyes are tilted up (so that there’s half an inch of white at the bottom of them). This is the Cohn Stare, and it can accurately be described as a look of homicide. It’s not that he wants to kill you. It’s that he wants to kill something — it will be you, or it will be another party on your behalf.

Cohn summons Trump over to his table, and Jeremy Strong, speaking in a fast, clipped voice that fires insults like bullets, instantly possesses us. With silver-gray hair cut short and those eyes that see all, Strong does a magnetic impersonation of the Roy Cohn who turned bullying into a form of cutthroat vaudeville (and a new way to practice law), putting his scoundrel soul right out there, busting chops and balls with his misanthropic Jewish-outsider locker-room wit. He’s not just cutting, he’s nasty . And that’s to his friends! Trump, by contrast, seems soft — maybe shockingly soft if you’ve never seen a clip of him from the ’70s. He’s like a big shaggy overgrown boy, and though he’s got his real-estate ambition, his power-broker dreams (he drives a Caddy with a license plate that says DJT), he has no idea how ruthless he’s going to have to be to get them.

Cohn the reptile looks at Trump and sees a mark, an ally, maybe a kid with potential. He’s very good-looking (people keep comparing him to Robert Redford), and that matters; he’s also a lump of unmolded clay. As Trump explains, his family is in a pickle that could take them down. The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Organization for discriminating against Black people when it comes to who they’ll rent their apartments to. Since the family is, in fact, guilty, there doesn’t seem to be a way out of it. But Cohn, right there, floats a plan for how to do it. He says: countersue the government. It’s part of his strategy of attack, attack, attack (the first of his three rules for living).

That Roy Cohn successfully beat the government on behalf of the Trump Organization, neutering the discrimination suit, is a famous story. If Gabriel Sherman’s script is to be believed, “The Apprentice” tells an even more scandalous version. In the movie, Cohn is going to lose the case and knows it. (The Trump Organization has rent forms by Black applicants marked with the letter “C.”) So at a diner, he and Donald have a casual meeting with the federal official who’s authorizing the case. He won’t budge. But then Cohn pulls out a manila envelope. Inside it are photographs of the official frolicking with cabana boys in Cancun. Cohn, who is gay, turns his own closeted existence into a form of power. A deal is struck. And Trump is off and running, his empire built on a poison pill.

New York, at this point, is in its shabby edge-of-bankruptcy ’70s dystopian era, and Donald is determined to change that. His dream is to buy the boarded-up Commodore Hotel on 42nd St., right next to Grand Central Terminal, and turn it into a glittering luxury Grand Hyatt hotel. The area is so decrepit that most people think he’s nuts. But this is where we can see something about Trump: that he wasn’t just a charlatan with a big mouth — that he had a perception of things. He was right about New York: that it would come back, and that deals like his could be part of what brought it back. But the art of the deal, in this case, comes from Roy Cohn. He’s the one who greases the wheels to make it happen. And Donald is now his protégé.

Ali Abbasi stages the “The Apprentice” with a lot of jagged handheld shots that look a bit too much like television to my eyes, but they do the job; they convince us of the reality we’re seeing. So does the décor — as Trump starts to develop a taste for more lavish surroundings, the movie recreates every inch of baroque merde -gold vulgarity. And Sebastian Stan’s performance is a wonder. He gets Trump’s lumbering geek body language, the imposing gait with his hands held stiffly at his sides, and just as much he gets the facial language. He starts out with an open, boyish look, under the mop of hair we can see Donald is obsessed with, but as the movie goes on that look, by infinitesimal degrees, turns more and more calculated.

For its first half, “The Apprentice” is kind of a knockout: the inside look at how Trump evolved that so many of us have imagined for so long, and seeing it play out is both convincing and riveting. Yet I have an issue with the movie, and it all pivots around the mystery of Trump. I don’t think “The Apprentice” ever penetrates it.

There’s a moment when Trump is getting too big for his britches, ignoring another lesson that’s there in the Cohn worldview, which is that you have to maneuver in the real world. Cohn questions Trump’s obsession with building a casino in Atlantic City, a place Cohn says has “peaked.” He’s right. Trump winds up making bad investments, flying too close to the sun, and ultimately shutting Roy out ­— treating Roy the way that Roy treats everyone else. It’s an evolution of supreme hubris, especially when you think back to the slightly sheepish kid from Flushing who lined up to kiss Cohn’s ring.

The trouble is, we don’t fully see where that side of Trump comes from. In a relatively quick period, starting from around the time of the Atlantic City deal, and building through the moment when he pisses off the Mobster and Cohn crony Tony Salerno (Joe Pingue), which results in the half-built Trump Tower being set on fire by Salerno’s goons, Donald turns into the Trump we know today: the toxically arrogant man-machine of malignant narcissism, who treats everyone around him like crap. His marriage to Ivana devolves into a loveless debacle. He turns on his downward-spiraling alcoholic brother like a stranger. He becomes so heartless that he makes Roy Cohn look civil. He turns on Cohn, in part because Cohn has AIDS, which freaks Donald out.

We know Donald Trump did all these things. But what we don’t see, watching “The Apprentice,” is where the Sociopath 3.0 side of Trump comes from. His daddy issues, as the film presents them, won’t explain it (not really). The fact that he gets hooked on amphetamines, popping diet pills around the clock, is part of it. Yet the Trump we see goes through a looking glass of treachery, leveraging his empire — and what’s left of his emotions — to within an inch of his life. And once that happens, we’re simply watching a well-acted TV-movie made up of familiar anecdotes built around the Trump we already know. At that point, “The Apprentice,” good as much of it is, becomes far less interesting. The mystery the movie never solves is what Trump was thinking, deep down, when he chose to become Donald Trump.  

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (In Competition), May 19, 2024. Running time: 140 MIN.

• Production: Kinematics LLC, Baer Development/Gidden Media presents, in association with Rocket Science, Head Gear Films and Metrol Technology, Project Infinity, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, a Scythia Films, Profile Pictures, Tailored Films production. Producers: David Bekerman, Jacob Jarek, Ruth Treacy, Julianna Forde, Louis Tisné, Ali Abbasi. Executive producers: Amy Baer, Mark H. Rappaport, Emanuel Nunez, Grant S. Johnson, Phil Hunt, Compton Cross, Thorsten Schumacher, Levi Woodward, Niamh Fagan, Gabriel Sherman, Greg Denny, James Shani, Noor Alfallah, Andy Cohen, Andrew Frank, Neil Mathieson, Lee Broda, Blair Ward, Anders Erdén.
• Crew: Director: Ali Abbasi. Screenplay: Gabriel Sherman. Camera: Kasper Tuxen. Editors: Olivia Neergaard-Holm, Olivier Bugge Coutté. Music: David Holmes, Brian Irvine, Martin Dirkov.
• With: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Catherine McNally, Charlie Carrick, Ben Sullivan, Mark Rendall, Joe Pingue, Jim Monaco, Bruce Beaton, Ian D. Clark, Valerie O’Connor.

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Guest Essay

Press Pause on the Silicon Valley Hype Machine

By Julia Angwin

Ms. Angwin is a contributing Opinion writer and an investigative journalist.

It’s a little hard to believe that just over a year ago, a group of leading researchers asked for a six-month pause in the development of larger systems of artificial intelligence, fearing that the systems would become too powerful. “Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?” they asked.

There was no pause. But now, a year later, the question isn’t really whether A.I. is too smart and will take over the world. It’s whether A.I. is too stupid and unreliable to be useful. Consider this week’s announcement from OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, who promised he would unveil “new stuff” that “ feels like magic to me.” But it was just a rather routine update that makes ChatGPT cheaper and faster .

It feels like another sign that A.I. is not even close to living up to its hype. In my eyes, it’s looking less like an all-powerful being and more like a bad intern whose work is so unreliable that it’s often easier to do the task yourself. That realization has real implications for the way we, our employers and our government should deal with Silicon Valley’s latest dazzling new, new thing. Acknowledging A.I.’s flaws could help us invest our resources more efficiently and also allow us to turn our attention toward more realistic solutions.

Others voice similar concerns. “I find my feelings about A.I. are actually pretty similar to my feelings about blockchains: They do a poor job of much of what people try to do with them, they can’t do the things their creators claim they one day might, and many of the things they are well suited to do may not be altogether that beneficial,” wrote Molly White, a cryptocurrency researcher and critic , in her newsletter last month.

Let’s look at the research.

In the past 10 years, A.I. has conquered many tasks that were previously unimaginable, such as successfully identifying images, writing complete coherent sentences and transcribing audio. A.I. enabled a singer who had lost his voice to release a new song using A.I. trained with clips from his old songs.

But some of A.I.’s greatest accomplishments seem inflated. Some of you may remember that the A.I. model ChatGPT-4 aced the uniform bar exam a year ago. Turns out that it scored in the 48th percentile, not the 90th, as claimed by OpenAI , according to a re-examination by the M.I.T. researcher Eric Martínez . Or what about Google’s claim that it used A.I. to discover more than two million new chemical compounds ? A re-examination by experimental materials chemists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, found “ scant evidence for compounds that fulfill the trifecta of novelty, credibility and utility .”

Meanwhile, researchers in many fields have found that A.I. often struggles to answer even simple questions, whether about the law , medicine or voter information . Researchers have even found that A.I. does not always improve the quality of computer programming , the task it is supposed to excel at.

I don’t think we’re in cryptocurrency territory, where the hype turned out to be a cover story for a number of illegal schemes that landed a few big names in prison . But it’s also pretty clear that we’re a long way from Mr. Altman’s promise that A.I. will become “ the most powerful technology humanity has yet invented .”

Take Devin, a recently released “ A.I. software engineer ” that was breathlessly touted by the tech press. A flesh-and-bones software developer named Carl Brown decided to take on Devin . A task that took the generative A.I.-powered agent over six hours took Mr. Brown just 36 minutes. Devin also executed poorly, running a slower, outdated programming language through a complicated process. “Right now the state of the art of generative A.I. is it just does a bad, complicated, convoluted job that just makes more work for everyone else,” Mr. Brown concluded in his YouTube video .

Cognition, Devin’s maker, responded by acknowledging that Devin did not complete the output requested and added that it was eager for more feedback so it can keep improving its product. Of course, A.I. companies are always promising that an actually useful version of their technology is just around the corner. “ GPT-4 is the dumbest model any of you will ever have to use again by a lot ,” Mr. Altman said recently while talking up GPT-5 at a recent event at Stanford University.

The reality is that A.I. models can often prepare a decent first draft. But I find that when I use A.I., I have to spend almost as much time correcting and revising its output as it would have taken me to do the work myself.

And consider for a moment the possibility that perhaps A.I. isn’t going to get that much better anytime soon. After all, the A.I. companies are running out of new data on which to train their models, and they are running out of energy to fuel their power-hungry A.I. machines . Meanwhile, authors and news organizations (including The New York Times ) are contesting the legality of having their data ingested into the A.I. models without their consent, which could end up forcing quality data to be withdrawn from the models.

Given these constraints, it seems just as likely to me that generative A.I. could end up like the Roomba, the mediocre vacuum robot that does a passable job when you are home alone but not if you are expecting guests.

Companies that can get by with Roomba-quality work will, of course, still try to replace workers. But in workplaces where quality matters — and where workforces such as screenwriters and nurses are unionized — A.I. may not make significant inroads.

And if the A.I. models are relegated to producing mediocre work, they may have to compete on price rather than quality, which is never good for profit margins. In that scenario, skeptics such as Jeremy Grantham, an investor known for correctly predicting market crashes, could be right that the A.I. investment bubble is very likely to deflate soon .

The biggest question raised by a future populated by unexceptional A.I., however, is existential. Should we as a society be investing tens of billions of dollars, our precious electricity that could be used toward moving away from fossil fuels, and a generation of the brightest math and science minds on incremental improvements in mediocre email writing?

We can’t abandon work on improving A.I. The technology, however middling, is here to stay, and people are going to use it. But we should reckon with the possibility that we are investing in an ideal future that may not materialize.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

Julia Angwin, a contributing Opinion writer and the founder of Proof News , writes about tech policy. You can follow her on Twitter or Mastodon or her personal newsletter .