Different Types of Film Analysis

Different types of film analysis

This section deals some of the different types of film analyses you may
have been assigned to write.

Semiotic analysis

A Semiotic Analysis is the study of signs codes and conventions on

films. It describes a way of explaining what meaning the audience can
take from codes. It is typically involving metaphors and analogies to
both non-living 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.
There is four types of signs and codes that exist in the semiotic analysis
of film.

Indexical Signs
 This is one of the most straightforward ways to create meaning.

Indexical signs act as cues to existing knowledge. This type of sign
is very common and is used constantly in the media.
One reason this title is said to be "La La Land" is right on the surface.
Los Angeles has the initials "L" and "A", hence the "La" in the title.
However, this title was also chosen as a satire and jab at Hollywood
culture.
Hollywood is a dream for many and is definitely portrayed as such.

While this movie is super dreamy, hence "La La Land", not all dreams
come true for these two characters. This allusion to a dream-like state is
both beautiful and realistically devastating.
Symbolic Code
 Symbolic codes only work when a society uses them widely. By

themselves they might fail to convey meaning but because they
have been used in popular culture many times, they turn into
something meaningful. An example for this would be a red heart
for love or the colour yellow for happiness.

· A horse—and its young rider—feature in a heroic scene
towards the end of the film. Perhaps the most relevant of
them all to this film, the donkey that meek animal of
labour—gets freed by Karnan. Haunting this film are
visuals of those girls bearing the symbolic head of a
guardian deity.
Enigma
 This type of code used in films creates a question in which the film
makes potential viewers wonder what will happen. Often used in
its trailers it draws viewers in to seeing the movie. This is very
apparent in the final trailer, released by Warner Brothers.
o
Convention
· One more thing conventions used in this movie. The conventions of a

genre are the elements that commonly occur in such films. They may
include things like characters, situations, settings, props, themes and
events. For example, a convention of the science-fiction genre is that the
story often includes robots, aliens, time-travel or genetic manipulation.
o The chief antagonist is a casteist IPS officer called
Kannabiran (Natarajan Subramaniam) who cannot stomach
the fact that the people of the village are not obsequious to
his authority. Kannabiran is another name of Krishna, who in
the epic justifies the actions of the Pandavas and the
Kurukshetra war as one for righteousness.
o In the village of Podiyankulam, a little donkey hops on the road, its

front legs tied with a rope. Nobody takes notice of it. They
understand that the donkey's legs have been tied to prevent it from
running, going where its heart takes it. It's normal to treat it that
way, the people believe. But not Karnan (Dhanush). Every time he
sees the donkey, he is bothered by its bondage. The fact that it is
not free.

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.
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?
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.
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.
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.

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What are the different types of film analysis discussed?

What are the different types of film analysis discussed?

What is a semiotic analysis?

What is a semiotic analysis?

Different types of film analysis

A Semiotic Analysis is the study of signs codes and conventions on

 This is one of the most straightforward ways to create meaning.

Hollywood is a dream for many and is definitely portrayed as such.

 Symbolic codes only work when a society uses them widely. By

· One more thing conventions used in this movie. The conventions of a

o In the village of Podiyankulam, a little donkey hops on the road, its

Narrative analysis is an examination of the story elements, including

To create this type of analysis, you could consider questions like:

One of the most common types of analysis is the examination of a film’s

· How does the film comment on, reinforce, or even critique

· How might a biographical understanding of the film’s

· How might a specific film theory, such as Queer Theory,

Take advantage of class resources to explore possible approaches to

A mise-en-scène analysis attends to how the filmmakers have arranged

· What effects are created in a scene, and what is their

· How does this scene represent the theme of the movie?

· How does a scene work to express a broader point to the

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