1.How is the story told? Does the director employ a traditional linear narrative where one event causes or

follows another? Are flashbacks used? Is the story presented through a succession of short episodes?

Why does the director use a particular storytelling technique? How does the technique chosen help to

conveymeaning?
2.How are the characters presented? Are there visual cues or clues that help the spectator get to know

or understand the main character(s)? How are the main characters introduced to the audience? Do they

change over time psychologically and/or physically? What signs indicate the changes characters

undergo? Are male characters presented to us differently from female characters? What is the nature of

the differences? In what ways do we see the characters interact with one another? Is visual distance

belween or among them? Are they filmed in close proximity? Why has the director cast certain actors in

particular roles? How are minor characterstreated?
3.How is the physical world or the geographical landscape in which the action takes place represented or

envisioned? Is the screen filled with the objects of culture? Are certain objects emphasized in the visual

presentation of scenes? (Of course, all of these questions contain an implicit WHY that also needs to be

explained or discussed.) How is the natural world visualized? Is there much shifting of place orplaces?
4.How are the technical aspects of the medium employed? Does the cinematographerusemanyclose-

ups?Distanceshots?Midshots?Howis soundusedtohelpcreatemeaning?Music?Arequickcutsused;thatis,

does the camera move quickly from scene to scene? Are images fragmentedorbrokenapart?

Isthereadifferencebetweencolorfilming and black andwhite?
5.What is the historical context of the narrative? When does the film take place? Does the film stay in one

historical time period? Why have the director and screenwriter chosen a particular historical moment

orseries
of moments in which to set the action? What about the historical context in which the film is made? Why

are certain films made when they are?

6. What was the reception of the film? Was there a difference between audience response and the

response of the critics? Why should there be such a gap (if there wasone)