The Critical Eye: An Introduction to Looking at Movies

Choose Your Format

The Critical Eye: An Introduction to Looking at Movies, Third Edition Revised, prepares students to look beneath the surface of today's most pervasive and powerful form of art, entertainment, information and persuasion. How do movies communicate? How do viewers learn to "read" a film? Developing a critical eye means becoming visually literate: capable of understanding the narrative, visual and aural elements of film.

Using classic and contemporary film references, the textbook introduces the basics of the production process, terminology, key formal elements, critical methodology and theoretical questions raised by the visual media. All chapters have been updated with current practices - ranging from digital technology to distribution and exhibition - and their impact on modes of production, film language and film business.

The slim volume does not overwhelm students with hundreds of pages and details. Designed as a basic primer, The Critical Eye can supplement a broad range of film studies and production courses.

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1
Media Literacy
Worldwide Media and Communication
Advertising, the Visual Media, and Persuasion
The Narrative Film and Communication
Levels of Meaning

Chapter 2
Elements of Meaning

Film as Language
Underlying Meaning
Theme
Point of view
Structure
Symbol
Motif
Metaphor
Allusion

Chapter 3
The Camera Eye
The Camera
The Shot and the Frame
The Lens
Distance
Angle
Camera Movement
Camera Speed
Optical Processes
Special Effects

Chapter 4
Mise en Scene
Sets and Locations
Props and Objects
Costuming
Color Design
Actors and Acting
Blocking and Choreography
Lighting
Composition
Composition in Depth
Screen Size
Graphic Elements
Dynamic Composition

Chapter 5
Editing
The Kuleshov Effect: An Experiment in Editing
Soviet Montage
The Odessa Steps Sequence
Hollywood Montage
Classical Editing
The Match Cut
The Shot/Reverse Shot
The Master-Shot Sequence
Transitional Devices
Narrative Progression

Chapter 6
Sound
Dialogue
Narrat

Margo Kasdan
Susan Tavernetti

The Critical Eye: An Introduction to Looking at Movies, Third Edition Revised, prepares students to look beneath the surface of today's most pervasive and powerful form of art, entertainment, information and persuasion. How do movies communicate? How do viewers learn to "read" a film? Developing a critical eye means becoming visually literate: capable of understanding the narrative, visual and aural elements of film.

Using classic and contemporary film references, the textbook introduces the basics of the production process, terminology, key formal elements, critical methodology and theoretical questions raised by the visual media. All chapters have been updated with current practices - ranging from digital technology to distribution and exhibition - and their impact on modes of production, film language and film business.

The slim volume does not overwhelm students with hundreds of pages and details. Designed as a basic primer, The Critical Eye can supplement a broad range of film studies and production courses.

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1
Media Literacy
Worldwide Media and Communication
Advertising, the Visual Media, and Persuasion
The Narrative Film and Communication
Levels of Meaning

Chapter 2
Elements of Meaning

Film as Language
Underlying Meaning
Theme
Point of view
Structure
Symbol
Motif
Metaphor
Allusion

Chapter 3
The Camera Eye
The Camera
The Shot and the Frame
The Lens
Distance
Angle
Camera Movement
Camera Speed
Optical Processes
Special Effects

Chapter 4
Mise en Scene
Sets and Locations
Props and Objects
Costuming
Color Design
Actors and Acting
Blocking and Choreography
Lighting
Composition
Composition in Depth
Screen Size
Graphic Elements
Dynamic Composition

Chapter 5
Editing
The Kuleshov Effect: An Experiment in Editing
Soviet Montage
The Odessa Steps Sequence
Hollywood Montage
Classical Editing
The Match Cut
The Shot/Reverse Shot
The Master-Shot Sequence
Transitional Devices
Narrative Progression

Chapter 6
Sound
Dialogue
Narrat

Margo Kasdan
Susan Tavernetti