About an emarati movie called sea shadow
Film Analysis Assignment
The purpose of this assignment is for you to use the skills you have gained so far in the analysis of films and apply them to a film you have chosen. Write a 900-1100 words essay, analyzing your chosen film thoroughly and making use of some relevant critical concepts.
You are asked to come up with a research question, thesis statement and argument relating to your chosen film. Then you need to analyze how the film is arranged and creates meaning, focusing on how it was made. This requires you to
a) briefly describe the overall story and significant themes and aspects of the film;
b) analyze significant signs used in the film and how they are put together to create a certain meaning and
c) reflect upon to whom the film is addressed and how it relates to larger cultural, social and/or political issues.
Core Requirements for this assignment
Critical Thinking: You will have to communicate some strong critical thinking ideas, so your analysis of the film will be a significant part of the assessment.
Articulated and developed ideas: You must make your point using clear and understandable sentences and push your ideas to their fullest conclusion.
Organization: You need to make conscious choices about how to best structure your ideas and how to connect those ideas.
Research: For this assignment you need to do research and make use of relevant literature on critical concepts, film analysis and/or your particular film. At least three academic resources are required.
Choose an Emirati Film, Documentary, Short Movie ... and
Assignment Guidelines
- Think about and decide upon your research question, focus of analysis and start developing a thesis statement and argument. ?
- Do background research on the film and your research question and find relevant scholarly/academic literature relating to your topic (this may include literature on film analysis and critical concepts, your particular film, film history, film culture, your topic/focus, etc.). ?
- Prepare a brief outline of your argument as well as your essay and draft a thesis statement.
- Format your essay in the following way: double-spaced, Times New Roman, Font 12. Have a separate cover page that includes your full name, ID, date of submission and the full course name and number. Also include the title of your essay. ?
- Begin your essay with an introduction in which you frame your analysis and provide a concise and clear thesis statement. Clearly express your focus, research questions and argument in the introduction and state how you will go about addressing these. ?
- In your main body briefly and concisely describe and contextualize the film with regards to your focus of analysis. Remember that you cannot do everything and hence you need a clear focus. ?
- Analyze the film in detail with regards to your research question and argument, making use of relevant academic literature and critical concepts. ?
- Briefly summarize your main findings at the end and point out the relevance of these. ?
- Proofread, edit and improve your essay until it reads fine. Include references in APA style ?s well as a bibliography at the end of your easy.
- If in doubt, find a friend who can give you some feedback about the essay and its quality. ?
- I can also give you some feedback and assistance with your essay. Come to see me during my office hours. Do not email me your assignment. ?
- By the deadline you must upload your essay to Blackboard and also hand in a hardcopy.
Some hints
- Make sure to understand the instructions and guidelines properly - if in doubt ask ?
- Be focused and have a clear research question, argument and thesis statement ?
- Remember that you cannot do everything - Only discuss relevant information ?
- Make sure to properly edit and proofread your essay - I need to be able to clearly understand you ?
- Remember that your essay will be checked by SafeAssign - any plagiarism will be detected and penalized ?
- Hand in your essay on time - you will lose ten points for each day your assignment is late, unless you have been granted an extension before the deadline ?
- Make sure to find relevant academic literature - Wikipedia and other non-academic websites do not count as references for this assignment ?
- Reference properly and accurately ?
- There is no chance to rewrite your assignment if you receive a low grade - so make sure ?to do it properly the first time and if in doubt, seek feedback before you hand it in
How I will grade your Film Analysis
CATEGORY
Unacceptable (Below Standards)
Acceptable (Meets Standards)
Good (Occasionally Exceeds) Excellent (Exceeds Standards)
SCORE
Introduction Does not adequately convey topic and introduce subtopics to be discussed. Lacks adequate thesis statement / research question. Conveys topic, but not key question(s). Describes subtopics to be reviewed. General thesis statement / research question. Conveys topic and key question(s). Clearly delineates subtopics to be reviewed. General thesis statement / research question. Strong introduction of topic's key question(s).
Clearly delineates topics to be reviewed. Specific thesis statement / research question. 10 points
Film Description and Contextualization
Limited film description that misses relevant aspects of the film. Limited understanding of film's form and context.
A few lapses in film description. Some understanding of film's form and context.
Good description of relevant themes and topics of the film and storyline. Good understanding of film's form and context. Clearly describes relevant themes and topics of the film as well as storyline.
Strong understanding of film's form and context.
15 points
Support, Resources and Research
Few sources supporting argument. Sources insignificant, unsubstantiated or non- scholarly.
Sources generally acceptable, but at times insignificant, unsubstantiated or non-scholarly.
Sources well selected to support research. Relevant and reliable sources of scholarly origin. Strong research- based support for argument. Sources well chosen.
Demonstrates strong research and excellent choice of resources.
10 points
Film Analysis Limited use and understanding of critical concepts. Analysis has gaps and is incoherent. Limited awareness of film's meaning. Uses a few critical concepts with adequate understanding. Analysis is limited by not discussing most relevant aspects with regards to thesis statement / research question. Some awareness of film's meaning. Good use of relevant critical concepts. Analyses most important aspects of the film with regards to thesis statement / research question. Good awareness of film's meaning. Strong use of relevant critical concepts.
Clear and original analysis of relevant aspects of the film.
Shows strong awareness of how film conveys meaning. 35 points
Conclusion
Does not summarize main argument with respect to thesis statement / research question. Does not point out relevance of research and findings.
Review of key conclusions. Some integration with thesis statement / research question. Some reference to relevance of research and findings.
Good review of key conclusions. Good integration with thesis statement / research question. Points out relevance of research and findings. Strong review of key conclusions.
Strong integration with thesis statement / research question.
Insightful discussion of relevance of research and findings.
Grammar & Mechanics
Grammatical errors or spelling & punctuation substantially detract from the paper.
Few grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors interfere with reading the paper.
Grammatical errors or spelling and punctuation are rare and do not detract from the paper. The paper is free of grammatical,
spelling &
punctuation errors.
10 points
Expression, Clarity, Accuracy & Referencing Word choice is informal in tone. Writing is choppy, with many awkward or unclear passages. Errors in expression and referencing style detract substantially from the paper.
Word choice occasionally informal in tone. Writing has a few awkward or unclear passages. Errors in referencing style and expression are noticeable.
Scholarly style. Writing has minimal awkward or unclear passages. Rare errors in expression and referencing style that do not detract from the paper.
Scholarly style.
Writing is flowing and easy to follow,
clear and concise.
No errors in referencing style. 10 points
FILM ANALYSIS SAMPLE
Super Size Me (2004) is a documentary film that was released in response to two events that occurred in the United States and were, and remain, significant cultural moments: the first was the American Surgeon General stating that obesity in the USA had become an "epidemic" (Super Size) and the second was a lawsuit (which failed) brought against McDonalds by two obese girls who stated that it was the fault of the fast food restaurant that their health and quality of life had suffered (McFat). The subsequent popularity and effects of the film marked a defining moment in American culture: the film won the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance film festival and was nominated for an Academy Award; the film was made into a comic book; Super Size Me was at the time the eighteenth highest grossing film of all time. The film was directed and starred Morgan Spurlock who chose to eat nothing but McDonalds for one month, three times a day, and documented the effects such a diet had on his mental and physical health. While the documentary showed the actual events that occurred during this month, I would argue that it is, nevertheless, unrealistic. In terms of the structure, editing, filming and packaging, Super Size Me does not portray the effects of fast food on Spurlock honestly and truthfully as it claims.
All documentaries claim, of course, to be "realistic" and there has been a great deal of critical theoretical writing on this claim. Rudolf Arnheim, writing in the early 1930s, said that film allowed "the mechanical imitation of nature" in which objective reality was portrayed (Arnheim). The influential critic André Bazin states that cinema satisfies the human need for realistic representation (Bazin). But later, the idea of the realistic aspects of film were called by Roland Barthes an "effect" where certain presumptions about its truth based on convention are made by the audience and the film maker when creating a "document" of "actual" events (Barthes). Barthes' perspectives have tended to predominate in contemporary criticism. I would argue that Spurlock makes use of cinematic convention and pre-existing ideas about what documentary is to portray his film as thoroughly and objectively real when it is constructed to make an argument against fast food consumption. Using a handheld camera, introducing doctors who test him scientifically throughout his experiment, showing Spurlock at work and at home and walking into restaurants or up a street on the way to his office, are placed in the film to suggest that these events are "real" when they are actually structured and edited to present Spurlock's own argument. How is this done, then?
Super Size Me covers the period of just over a month, but it obviously does not have a viewing time of that same period of time. Much of Spurlock's experiences are edited out, in fact the vast majority of them must be. In its structure, then, the film cannot be an objective document of what occurred to Spurlock throughout the entire period of his experiment. He does on occasion say how much he is enjoying his meal, but the majority of the film shows him forcing himself to eat McDonalds' food, feeling ill while doing so, and in one instance vomiting out of his car window after attempting to eat an entire supersized meal. Spurlock has an agenda to promote and does not enter the experiment without preconceived notions of what he expects. That the doctors state that these effects were more extreme than even they believed is the point of emphasis to Spurlock's own presumptions. As he edited the film, he must have chosen to structure his argument in certain ways for effect and that is precisely what he does.
The film's structure creates the effect of a slowly increasing momentum towards very serious illness. At the beginning the initial few weeks are shown in more detail, with doctor's visits fairly extensively detailed, but as the film progresses so does the shortness of the scenes depicting doctors warning him to stop the experiment. This momentum creates anxiety in the audience, and significantly helps Spurlock to present his argument against fast food. Inserting a scene in the middle of the night when he woke up suffering from shortness of breath and the vomiting scene are extremely dramatic in terms of the film's argument. Again, I am not saying that these things did not occur, but rather that the way the film is edited and the included scenes are ordered, and the choices made in leaving out a great deal of the experiment, are necessarily not a true representation of the "total" experience that Spurlock underwent. Showing him attempting to call the CEO of McDonalds over and over again and his not being put through suggests the company's avoidance of the truth. But what CEO would take a call from a regular individual? The likelihood of that happening is virtually zero, but it is presumed as "realistic" in the manner in which Spurlock edits those scenes.
Spurlock was confronted and attacked after the film's release for several reasons. Firstly, critics correctly stated that Spurlock consumed 5000 calories a day without taking any exercise, and that this, no matter what the food one ate, would result in serious weight gain and health problems. There were claims that Spurlock's calorie count does not add up, and the filmmaker has refused to release his food log showing what he actually ate on each day. A woman called Soso Whaley replicated the experiment and ended up losing ten pounds every thirty days for ninety days when she also exercised. Unlike Spurlock, Whaley documented her intake by saving receipts, a much more accurate and "realistic" portrayal of the experiment. When even the packaging of Spurlock's film is extreme, the DVD cover and movie poster showing him wearing a red teeshirt and using red and yellow lettering to suggest McDonalds colors, with a shocked expression and his mouth crammed with French fries projecting out towards the camera. The phrase "I'm Loving It" used by McDonalds is above his head, in ironic contrast to his shocked and distressed expression.
Following Barthes' idea, it is impossible to come away from watching Super Size Me with any other feeling than a fear of consuming fast food, and this is precisely what Spurlock intended his film to cause. When posters, construction, editing, marketing, all come together to show a "reality" that is very far from an objective documentation of what must have occurred in his one month experiment, and when even the statistics quoted by Spurlock in the film are open to question and suspiciously unreleased by the filmmaker, then I believe we can say that the "reality" of the film is as much of an "effect" as a work of fiction. Indeed, there is no reason to view Spurlock's creation as anything but a creative piece playing on cultural fears and presenting an argument deliberately structured, like any rhetorical exercise, to mislead and persuade through that very structure.
(THE SAMPLE GIVES YOU A GOOD IDEA OF HOW YOU CAN PRODUCE A STRONG FILM ANALYSIS - DO NOT SIMPLY COPY THIS ANALYSIS BUT DO YOUR OWN)