Tilgjengelig

Film as Text

You will learn to analyse film with the same seriousness as literature – cinematic devices, documentary rhetoric, and films as windows on the English-speaking world.

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In short

Just enough theory to use it

English 2 treats film as text: something to interpret, contextualise and discuss – not just watch. The toolkit parallels literature with a visual layer added. Cinematography: shot sizes (close-up for intimacy and exposure, wide shot for context and isolation), angles (low angle empowers, high angle diminishes), camera movement and focus. Editing: pace, cuts, montage – how time and causality are constructed. Mise-en-scène: everything in the frame – setting, costume, colour palettes, lighting (high-key vs. low-key). Sound: diegetic (in the story world) vs. non-diegetic (score, voice-over) – emotion's back door. And narrative tools you know: point of view, structure, characterisation. The NDLA shelf pairs feature films and documentaries with the subject's big topics: 'Good Trouble' and 'MLK/FBI' (civil rights and surveillance – documentary rhetoric to analyse critically), 'Drone' (warfare and ethics), 'Savage' (New Zealand gangs – masculinity and colonial aftermath), 'The Dressmaker' (Australia, revenge comedy with class and memory), Taika Waititi's work (indigenous storytelling with humour), plus short films for close analysis. Documentaries need double analysis: WHAT they argue and HOW (selection, framing, interviews, archive, score) – a documentary is rhetoric, not neutral record.

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Terms you should use

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