The thesis should announce the four formal techniques
that you will be discussing in the paper. Begin to formulate an argument by looking for an
overarching argument and evidence from your film. The overarching argument is
your thesis, which should be an original, specific idea that indicates to your
reader where this essay is headed and helps you organize your evidence. Evidence
is detailed scene(s) that illustrate your main points of your subtopic or
paragraph topic.
–Decide on your thesis
statement for your paper and briefly outline the evidence for the cinematic
techniques and the scenes
–Evidence
in a film paper is the shot, scene, or sequence of scenes that illustrates your
main point of the paragraph. It is not plot summary, which tells what happened
in the scene; instead, evidence might be how the shot is composed (the people
and objects in the frame), the lighting in the shot, the costumes and set
design or it may be a discussion of the use of montage (sequence of shots
combined to produce a meaningful scene). It helps to be explicit about the
technique that you are exploring in the paragraph and then how that example
illustrates that technique.
For
the body of the paper, list the four scenes and the techniques that you will be
discussing with the scene, and why these scenes / techniques illustrate your
main thesis.