A Short Guide to Writing about Film

by Timothy Corrigan

Introduction to Movies, Film Criticism, Film Appreciation.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Writing, Reference, Textbooks, School, Media Tie In

193 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Nazanin Moshiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

نکات جالبی برای آموختن داشت. راهنمای این که چطور بتوانیم فیلمی که دیدیم را تحلیل کنیم.

بخش هایی از کتاب:

ممکن است به تماشای فیلمی برویم فقط برای آن که آن را مصرف کنیم ، همان طور که پشمک را مصرف می کنیم اما گاهی هم ممکن است به تماشای فیلمی برویم و این پشمک غذای ذهنمان شود.


اگر تماشا و درک کردن یکی از لذت های فیلم هاست نوشتن و تحلیل کردن می تواند لذت هیجان آور دیگری باشید.

جذابیت نه دراعلام خوب یا بد بودن فیلم بلکه در توضیح چرایی آن خوبی یا بدی ست.

فیلم ها فقط درباره ی یک موضوع نیستند بلکه شکلی اند از نمایش آن موضوع با اهدافی خاص و برای آفرینش معانی خاص.

[Alish · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

کتاب عنوان بسیار مناسبی داره: "راهنمایی کوچک برای نوشتن درباره فیلم‌ها" واقعا هم راهنماست یعنی کمک میکنه، کوچک هم هست یعنی جمع و جور و مختصر و مفیده، مخصوص نوشتن درباره فیلم هم هست یعنی تقریبا به نکته‌ای جز این نپرداخته. اما فکر میکنم استفاده اصلی از این کتاب رو دانشجویان سینما یا کسانی که تلاش دارند منتقد جدی سینما بشند و هنوز در ابتدای راه هستند ببرند. برای باقی نمیدونم چقدر میتونه کمک کننده باشه. برخلاف ظاهرش بیشتر فصل‌ها پر از نکته‌ست که به نظرم نیاز داره فرد به دفعات بهشون مراجعه کنه که کم‌کم ملکه ذهنش بشه. ترجمه خوبی داره ولی با اینکه اسم ویراستار در ابتدای کتاب هست به نظر میاد اصلا ویرایش نشده و هر چه جلوتر میریم بیشتر به اشتباهات ویرایشی - از هر نوعش - برمیخوریم. اسامی انگلیسی هم همه حذف شده بودند که نقطه ضعف بزرگی برای کتابه.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the more frequent jobs a university professor performs is text review, and it was in this role that I first read Corrigan's Short Guide. It's been around for some time, and I've noticed that students have decidedly mixed responses to it. My responses are mixed as well.

It is true that Corrigan tends to wax a bit loquacious, letting wordy and meandering discussion often obscure the really important things he has to say. But speaking as a professor who teaches film courses and requires students to write critical essays about film, I must say that to date this is one of the best books on the market to address specifically the subject of writing about film (I think the best book is Tim Bywater's "Introduction to Film Criticism"--which, unfortunately, is also a ridiculously over-priced Longman title). But it bears noting that there simply aren't many books available which do address this specific subject, so my praise has to be understood in that context. And it's a shame that the book is priced over $40, which is a lot of money for a thin, 196 page paperback with some arguably serious flaws.

The book is divided into seven chapters: an introductory chapter explaining differences and similarities between movie reviews, theoretical essays and critical essays; a chapter about preparing to watch a movie and write about it; a chapter on film terms, concepts and writing topics; a chapter summarizing six approaches to writing about film (history, national cinemas, genres, auteurs, formalism, and ideology) with sample essays and exercises; a chapter on style and structure; and final chapters containing research advice (including internet research) and discussions of proofing, and using / citing sources. Appendices include a list of common editorial symbols, a glossary, and an index. Notable changes to the seventh edition include some helpful advice about documentary and avante-garde films, an expansion of the internet resource section, and more information about film sound. These are all welcome and significant enhancements.

There is a lot of sound advice in the text, and the sample essays are particularly helpful. But the book tries to do too many tasks (at least three big ones) and consequently, it does none of them as well as it could--or should. First, the text is part film appreciation guide, but its limited scope prevents it from effectively competing with books like Giannetti's "Understanding Movies" or Bordwell and Thompson's "Film Art: An Introduction," so any student serious about film criticism will need to read such books anyway, making Corrigan's contributions in this area paltry and often superfluous. Second, the text is part style, proofreading and writing guide, but again, cheap and much more comprehensive volumes like Hacker's "A Writer's Reference" do that task far better than can Corrigan so his effort here is mostly wasted. Third, the text is part film writing primer. This is the task on which Corrigan should have limited himself, given the obvious desire to keep the book small, and this is the aspect of the book that works best. Unfortunately, effort and space wasted on the other two tasks unnecessarily restrict what Corrigan does on this score. For example, his discussions (in the first and fourth chapters) of different approaches to film criticism and of different kinds of essays about film are each limited to a few meager pages. But these are the very subjects his book should have addressed in greatest detail. As already noted, the 7th edition includes improvements in this area, but not enough

In the end, Corrigan's book has lots of scattered insights and bits of advice that are great in and of themselves, but the more pertinent are under-developed and often lost in a sea of verbosity and diffusive aims. So, for the time being at least, while this may be one of the best available books on writing essays about film, it has its share of problems. It is thus almost as disappointing as it is helpful.

[Parsa Sotoodehnia · Rating 3 out of 5]

نیمه ابتدایی کتاب به "چگونگی نوشتن نقد" میپردازه که نکات بسیار کاربردی داره و به خوبی قسمت بندی شده
در هر فصل کلی نمونه نقد اورده و در انتها بخشی به عنوان تمرین داره که شما باید انجامش بدید
که همین این کتاب رو متفاوت میکنه با کتاب های که الکی شعار میدن و بعد از خوندنشون ادم میبینه هیچ تغییری توانایش نکرده
ترجمه و نگارش متن بسیار قابل فهم و شیوا بود
برای شروع یادگرفتن نقدنویسی میتونه کتاب خوبی باشه
اگرم نمیخواید نقد بنویسید باز این کتاب رو پیشنهاد میکنم چون یاد میگیریم "چطور بهتر فیلمی رو ببینیم"

نیمه دوم کتاب به "مقاله نویسی, تحقیق و رفرنس دهی" میپردازه که آکادمیک و تخصصی میشه و برای من جذابیت خاصی نداشت
بیشتر یک سری منابع تحقیق رو معرفی میکنه و میگه بخش های مختلف یک مقاله رو چطور باید نوشت که مخصوص دانشجویان رشته سینما هست.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

An excellent guide to writing well about movies, in which all the advice is good and nothing is left out. If you know how to write pretty well, you can read this book and feel happy that you know the ropes. If you don't know how to write pretty well -- and here's the problem -- it's really hard for me to believe that you would understand much of the advice on offer here.

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books from film school. It was highly useful for me and was a big influence on helping me get through writing critical analysis film papers. I still find it very interesting and relevant even after graduating and it will hold a place on fondness on my bookshelf.

[Iman · Rating 4 out of 5]

نسبت به کتابهای مشابه تحلیل و درک فیلم فصل بندی معقول تر و راهنمای روشمندتری برای نزدیک شدن به فیلم ها داشت

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars might be rather unfair to this book. It is probably better than two stars - for someone else. But I did not think this book really taught me anything I did not already know. The questions it gives to help people analyze a film would be useful to someone without any real experience with analyzing and writing about film, so I guess the book does just what it intends to do: teach you how to write about film. To the book's credit, it is clearly written and the pictures are nice (and I do like having good pictures). So those were pluses. I do not know what I was hoping for with this book, but I guess I wanted more than it set out to give, which probably shouldn't be considered a fault in the book, since it sets out to do a certain task and does that task efficiently. Still, I hoped for more.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 ⭐️

Bought sometime when I was 16/17 studying film theory and heavily into writing film essays, hoping to go into film production (spoiler alert, I graduated in film). Although this edition was published in 1998, it’s amazing to read something almost 30 years old, whether the ideas behind film writing have changed and what sources they recommend looking into… it was yahoo, YouTube didn’t even EXIST.

Anyway, mostly written for American students, fun little read as something different

[Alborz Taheri · Rating 1 out of 5]

خیلی کلّی بدون زدن حرف خاصّ تازه‌ای. به جز یکی دو بخش کوتاه
نه خیلی به نقد و چگونگی نوشتن نقد نزدیک می‌شه و نه رویکردهای دیگر در مورد نوشتن در مورد فیلم‌ها رو به خوبی بررسی می‌کنه

[Negar Fz · Rating 4 out of 5]

خیلی کتاب خوبی بود. به نظرم برای شروع نوشتن درباره فیلم ها خیلی چکیده و مناسبه. ترجمه خیلی روونی هم داشت.

[M.Reza · Rating 3 out of 5]

مفید برای علاقمندان سینما بویژه یادگیری آموزش نقد فیلم

[Sandra]

Read part of it for CMLIT 100

[Summer Yang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Combined with Understanding Movies by Louis D. Giannetti, it provides certain help for me to understand films better.

Why should we write about film?

* Understand your own response to a movie better
* Convince others why you like or dislike a film
* Make comparisons and contrasts between one movie and others as a way of understating them better

Checklist for writing an effective essay:

1.Be prepared for a movie. Before you see a film, ask preliminary questions:
* when and where it was made
* your own expectations concerning it
* which of your other interests—technology, art, business

2.Learn to look carefully at the movie and to take notes. Let your general, preliminary questions become more specific and concrete as you respond to the movie. What seems most important in it? What seems most unusual about it?

3.Let your questions lead you to a manageable topic that involves both the themes of the film and its technical and formal features. The more concentrated focus of the second topic will allow you to examine scenes and sequences in detail.

4.Try to view the movie at least one more time after you have decided on a topic. Expand your notes at this point, filling in details you may have missed during your first screening.

5.Keep clarifying your argument. Begin your argument with a statement of the problem or question you intend to address. Then assemble and lay out the specific points of your discussion, using concrete evidence from the movie and your interpretation of it. Good essays usually proceed from less debatable thematic points to more complex points about style and technique. Remember, you are presuming that the reader has seen the movie but will need to be convinced of the point you wish to make.

6.Sketch out the organization of an essay in outline form. Depending on your habits and preferences, your outline may be very complete and detailed or rather general and sketchy. For each section of the outline, you may even wish to write full sentences as headings; these may later become your topic sentences.

7.Begin to write. Aim merely to get some sentences written; you can re-sort and refine your ideas later.

8.As you write, keep thinking about your subject, pushing your ideas further. Most of us don’t know exactly what we think about a complex subject until we start to articulate our thoughts. Writing itself becomes a discovery process of which we should take full advantage. Check your logic by sketching an outline of what you have written. Polish your first paragraph and conclusion. Consider some larger questions about your approach. Is it mainly historical or formalistic? Are you interested in the cultural identity of the film? If you are emphasizing a particular method, decide to what extent your approach should be acknowledged early in your paper.

9.Revise; always revise. Allow as much time as possible between your first draft and your revision of it, preferably a few days. Follow your final revisions with a careful proofreading to catch any minor mistakes or typographical errors.


Six Approaches to writing about film


1.Film History. Organizes and investigates films according to their place within a historical context and in light of historical developments. It might explore the historical relationships of the films
* themselves
* to their conditions of production
* To their reception

Ask questions about:
* Is the historical information you use background or introductory information for your study?
* How and why certain historical events are represented in the movie?
* Does historical background help to explain narrative or technical maneuvers in the film,
* Does the movie stand our in history or is it part of a historical trend

2.National Cinemas
* Ways of world and ways of portraying the world in the movies differ for each country and culture. It’s necessary to understand the cultural conditions that surround a movie
* Such as: Political, Climate, etc

3.Genres
* Such as Westerns, Musicals, Film Noir, Road Movies, Melodramas, Sci-fi Films.
* In Noir, a house is almost never a home. The loss of home becomes a structuring absence.

4.Auterurs

5.Kinds of Formalism
* Matters of structure and style in a movie, or with how those features(such as the narrative or the mise-en-scene) are organized in particular ways
* Sound, lighting, camera movement, etc.

6.Ideology. A more subtle and expansive way of saying politics. Six Approach:
* Studies of Hollywood hegemony
* Feminist studies
* Race
* Class
* Postcolonial
* Queer

[Leonie ౨ৎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was suggested to me by my supervisor. All I can say is that it is what it promises to be: A short and definitely a decent introduction to writing about film.

[Martin Riexinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much of this book deals with academic writing in general (according to US standards) and the introduction to genres of writing on film is either not relevant for advanced readers.
The chapters about film analysis and structuring the observations are relevant for those who have moved beyond the initial stages of their studies and are useful for academics in other fields for whom film analysis becomes relevant. In particular relevant is his emphasis on style and techniques which hopefully will help to overcome the dominant focus on the plot. The examples are primarily Hollywood and US independent movies, plus some European, Japanese and Soviet classics. Given the didactic purpose that is ok. The multicultural aspect is covered with a special chapter on different film cinematic traditions.

[Alisha Neva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid short guide to introduce someone to analyze and write about film. I found it easy to digest and full of terminology that was previously new to me. I could have used a little more explanation of some of the film technical terms and would love a tie-in electronically. It wasn't cheap for such a short book (and of course it was required that I got the most recent edition for class) but so it goes.

[Ezgi · Rating 4 out of 5]

son bölümleri yazım rehberi havasında olsa da film eleştirisi hakkında çok şey öğrenerek bitirdim. film öğrencisi herkesin kesinlikle okuması gerekir, sıradan okuyucu son kısımları gereksiz bulabilir. kitap okuyucu olarak daha çok film öğrencilerini hedeflemiş.

[خالد العزيز · Rating 4 out of 5]

توقفت قبل ثلث الكتاب الأخير .. لأن ما كُتب بعد ذلك أمارسه في مقالاتي بشكل لا ارادي ..
كتاب جيد للغاية و مهم و يحوي معلومات كثيرة .
أستمتعت و أدعوكم لقراءته

[Fi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a pretty good book for what it is. Short, sweet, and pretty helpful when it comes to writing about film.

[Murphy C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't find it to be particularly well-written or helpful. However, it's short and ultimately worth the read through.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corrigan's approach is very enjoyable in his initial focus on the approach one makes to viewing a film, and how that really sets up the rest of your approach to writing an essay about films. I think in some instances his examples or the filmmakers he uses are probably a bit obscure for the type of class that a book like this is most likely to be used in, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing, either, as it forces one to expand their horizons even as they read through this simple guide. He also addresses one thing that few writing guides that I've read have really talked about, namely issues of style at the level of the sentence. He talks about varying sentence length, but then gives strategies for editing these problems out, and also addresses the tendency of some people to be excessively report-like in their writing, which is a personal pet peeve of mine.

All around a very informative and useful read, even in the graduate context that I'm reading it in. Sure to be of even more help for undergraduate students and the average reader interested in doing some more work in and around film and film studies.

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now

One thing I can say is I enjoy a good film. O.K. if it moves I’ll watch it. But until I read this book, I really was just looking without seeing it.
It is nice to have this guide confirm what one knows as common sense. Probably because the guide is designed to take you from ground zero to a level of appreciation and allow you to convey your opinion intelligently.
I oppose granting civil rights protections to any group that I will be everybody
If you have an earlier edition you will still get the essence of the book. Newer editions add different resources and research information.
Some of the highlights are:
• A shot-by-shot analysis of a sequence from the film “Potemkin”
• Suggestions on using the Internet
• Sample student writing

Some contents:
Writing about the Movies
Preparing to Watch and Preparing to Write
Film Terms and Topics
Six Approaches to writing about Film
Style and Structure in Writing
Researching the Movies
Manuscript Form

This guide is an eye-opener.

[Annabelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fancying myself a cineaste (I knew my Westerns, my TCMs, some film noir, La Dolce Vita and a smattering of the "important" foreign films), and having already read a pile of books by Roger Ebert, I dove into this book with a wee bit of smugness. Only to realize how little I'd seen! Had I even seen L'Avventura? (No. Not when it seemed nothing ever happened.) Crash? (Nope--too depressing.) My appreciation of film, apparently, was not that of a well-rounded cineaste. Still, this was a book that will engage, even captivate an eclectic film lover such as myself. The sample essays, most of which were written by students, are impressively written, insightful, and succinct, so kudos to writer and professor, Timothy Corrigan. But note that this is a guide to writing after all, written for students of film, making the last quarter of the book, which dispensed advice on proper grammar, punctuation, indentation, and the like inconsequential to a reader like me. Still, I managed to pick up a thing or three about film writing!

[HDubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is alright, but honestly it’s not worth the price that US students paid for it. I personally read it because one of my favorite pastimes is watching YouTube video essays on Film and pop culture—I was hoping this would help me, should I choose to start making such videos. It was an ok overview, but as my partner said it’s a really brief introduction. The exercises are interesting though and I enjoyed working through some of them.

Notes for myself:

Things to Think about Before Watching a Film:

1. Art as an art form--cinema entails many art forms, what draws you attention in the film?

2. Technology in film-- how has technology altered film? What has technology's role been?(e.g. character portrayal, story construction, realism, etc...)

3. Commercialism-- how did the budget affect the film? Did the film financially succeed? Who is the target demographic? Indie or blockbuster?

Remember at all times: Stories and characters in a film are constructed, so analysis is mostly how a subject has been formed and with which tools.

Exercises:
1. Before a viewing, write 1-2 paragraphs about your expectations of the film. What do you already know? Country, historical period? Director? Guesses for most important features of the film? Characters? Sound? Expectations lead you to look for certain themes or types of stories?

2. Choose a sequence from a film and take very exact notes, use these to describe the scene in prose. What conclusions/interpretations can you draw?

[Fatemeh Mansoor · Rating 2 out of 5]

کتابی که واسه دانشجو های سینما نوشته شده( برا همین نتونستم ارتباط برقرار کنم و خیلی به سختی خوندمش) خیلی تخصصی بود و به نظرم چیزایی که میگفت برای دانشجو های سینما باید بدیهی باشه، گرچه برای من تقریبا همش جدید بودن(مثل زاویه های دوربین، المان های میزانسن، فرق پلات و زاویه دید و مانند اینها)

به طور کلی میگفت باید بدونین راجع به چه چیزی تو فیلم میخواین بنویسین، از چه لحاظی میخواین بررسیش کنین و متمرکز بشین روی اون ( مثلا بگین من میخوام فیلم رو از لحاظ تاریخی بررسی کنم و راجع این که میزانسن چقدر کمک کرده به بیان تاریخ بنویسین) که به نظرم برای دانشجوی سینما باید این بدیهی باشه و بدونه فرق یکی که میره داستان فیلم رو میگه و راجع به همه چیز کلی گویی میکنه یا یکی که تخصصی میاد یه بخش فیلم رو نقد میکنه

خیلی طولانی بود و آخراش راجع به اینکه کلا چطوری بنویسیم( پاراگراف بندی، بازخوانی، و حتی نحوه ریسرچ تو کتابخونه و اینترنت) که به نظرم یه مقدار زیاده گویی بود‌.

[CM · Rating 2 out of 5]

A clear, succinct guide for writing better film essays. It can be immensely helpful for students who haven't taken or completed their Film Studies 101 but if you have done so and followed film theories a bit, very little here is really new. That being said, the example essays provided and the writing exercises can really set the students on the right path for better grades, just not doing that much if you want to appreciate a film better.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I teach a video production class in high school, and in my cinematography unit we watch a film and have a project that analyzes it. This book was perfect in that it helped give a framework for how I can have students analyze a scene and provide better notes to do so. I highlighted a lot of this book and will be referring to it over the summer.

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy to read but not worth the price at all. Personally, I feel like this book didn’t offer anything new. I do have some experience reading about film analysis, so that could be why. For the price, I expected it to be more detailed and thorough.

[Deniz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tekrar tekrar okunmayı hak eden, alanında başarılı bir kitap. Film eleştirisi yazmaya başlangıç noktası olabilecek pek çok güzel fikir ve sorular barındırıyor. Özellikle tıkandığınız yerlerde çok yardımcı olacaktır, o yüzden bol bol satır altı çizilesi başucu kitabıdır bana göre.