A key aspect of being a talented filmmaker is being a fan of cinema. How lucky are we that, in order to get better at our job, we get to watch movies? But watching is only half the job. To develop our skills as storytellers, in every aspect, we need to be able to properly deconstruct and analyse films to understand as much as we can about it. Once we’ve learned the process of creative decision-making, we can apply it to our own stories.
The first step in analyzing a film is to not analyze it. Seriously. It is very difficult to think about all the internal structure of a film if you’ve only ingested it once. Let your first watch be an experience. Allow yourself to be fully surrendered to the storytellers and let them do the thinking for you. Then, when you revisit the film for the second time, instead of experiencing it you’ll be studying it.
A good place to start in your analysis is to focus on the Plot. It doesn’t require much thinking because you are describing what you’re seeing, and it allows you to start your analysis with a simple, overall framework of the film, then progressively going into the smaller details. When focusing on the plot, pay attention to the actions the characters are doing – to each other, to themselves, or other people. This will give you the narrative structure of the film, and shows you how each part of the story is connected to the other.
Eg. “Paul is walking on the street. Paul sees his friend drive by. Paul follows his friend to a sketchy area. Paul witnesses a crime. Paul is framed for the crime.” This is a very general summary but the point is there. Paul’s decision to go walking on the street leads him to seeing his friend, which eventually leads him to be framed for a crime he didn’t commit. Each action made by the characters helps unfold the rest of the story, and analyzing plot structures will help you understand how to connect actions to each other.
Once we have a good sense of what happens, we can shift our focus towards Character. Specifically, the main character’s desires, flaws, their relationships with other characters, and their internal arc. A character’s desires can partly be spotted from the plot. If Paul is taking actions toward proving his innocence, then his external desire would be exactly that (external meaning physical, he wants to achieve that). But there should be more than one desire for a character. Internal desire is something the character needs that they aren’t aware of. It’s harder to spot, because it isn’t necessarily shown like the external desire or told through dialogue.
You need to look deep into the emotions of the character to find it. If Paul wants to prove his innocence, maybe what he needs is to take accountability for all his past mistakes – which takes me to a character’s flaws. Flaws are what holds a character back or prevents them from achieving their goals easily. Paul’s flaws could be lying or being selfish. It’s important to note that his flaws should connect with his desires. Since Paul’s need is to take accountability, it wouldn’t make sense for him to be truthful, because then he would’ve confessed to his mistakes long ago. Last thing for analyzing character is to look at their transformation. How does the character change? Does the character get what they want? Do they succeed in getting what they need, but fail in getting what they want? How a character changes over the course of the story will help in identifying previous elements that I mentioned.
The next part of your analysis is Theme and Symbolism. This is the central idea of a story. What it is really about. A theme isn’t a subject, such as Love, Family, or Revenge) but rather it is an idea about those subjects. Eg. that love demands sacrifice, that the pursuit of revenge destroys us, etc. The theme of the story is the glue that holds every other element together. To find the theme of the story, combine the actions of the character with their desires. The theme of Paul’s story could be that forgiveness is given through honesty. Symbolism are recurring patterns that we see throughout the film. They can be objects, locations, colours, or anything. They aren’t stated directly but rather emerge and garner their meaning over time. A symbol in Paul’s story could be mirrors, and Paul having trouble looking at himself in the mirror.
The last thing to analyze is the film’s Editing. This is important because you need to identify how the storytellers include every aspect of the story and keep it cohesive. How is the story being told? This includes the camera, everything in frame, movements, pacing of the film, and sound design.
Think of your film like a symphony. Each element is a different instrument, but together they are all communicating and working with each other to tell the same story.