The Film Essay

• Studying film as a text
• Film essay paragraph structure (STEEPEL)
• Intros and conclusions
• Planning the essay

The purpose of your film essay is to demonstrate that you understand that a visual text communicates ideas to an audience by using pictures and sounds.

Your film essay is also to demonstrate that you have understood the ideas portrayed and that you can engage with them by explaining or analysing them.

That is why it will be vital to include examples of film techniques used by the director in your essay. Hundreds of hours usually go into planning and filming the various scenes that make up a movie. These include the writing, story boarding, set building, costume making, props, lighting, sound recording and sound editing, music composition, make up…the list is as long as the credits at the end of a film for the number of people it took to present the sounds and pictures that particular way. Nothing is accidental. Your task is to identify and discuss the aspects of the film that created ideas about the character or theme or whatever it is you are asked about in the question.

Read the question carefully. Note the key words in the question. Will you be examining a character who changes? Or who experiences a turning point? Is the question asking you to focus on one part of the film (like the ending or climax)? Or is it asking you to discuss the movie as a whole? Understanding the question is critical to your success. Any essay, no matter how compelling or magnificent, will not pass if it is NOT answering the actual question.

Using a structure for your essay paragraphs allows you to cover the requirements necessary for success. A clear structure also makes it easier for your reader to follow your points. It is important to cover the topic thoroughly and logically and as you get more conversant with the structure you will be able to work towards making smooth and coherent essays that are also thoughtful and original.

FILM ESSAY

PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE: STEEPEL

A film essay has an introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion.

STEEPEL is a great way to structure the body paragraphs.

S – Statement    This is a statement that presents the point you will discuss in the paragraph. Check that it is answering the question.

T – Technique     This is a film technique(s) that was instrumental in creating the thing you are discussing in this paragraph and supports/proves your statement. If it is a quote by a character remember to name it as dialogue/monologue/voiceover, etc.

E – Example     This is your description of that film technique in action in the movie. Place the technique in context (Ie: Briefly describe the scene where it happens). Describe how it looked or sounded. If it is dialogue, write the quote in quotation marks and describe how the character delivered the line.

E – Effect   Explain the effect this particular technique has in the film. Did it help give us an idea? Did it create an emotion in us? Did it signal something?

P – Purpose   Explain why the director (and implicitly all those other helpers involved) chose to use that particular technique. Evaluate its success in achieving that purpose with you, as a member of the audience.

E – Extension   Apply what you have examined so far in the film to the wider world. Go deeper into the ideas and discuss how they relate to society, to history or to the text as a whole. How does what you discussed in the paragraph apply to our society today? What lessons can we learn from it? How do the ideas in this paragraph relate to other parts of the film? To the text as a whole? To other texts? What is your opinion?

L – Link   Sum up your paragraph by showing how the previous S, T, E, E and Ps have answered the question using key words from the question.
As mentioned, there are many film techniques at play in a film which deliver ideas to the viewer. Do not be afraid to include more than one technique in your discussion. Just remember that whenever you introduce a technique you will need to follow the same process with each to make it count. Discuss at least TWO different techniques per paragraph.

For example, one paragraph might be structured like this:

Statement

Technique (1)

Example

Effect

 Technique (2)

      Example

Effect

Purpose

Extension

  Link

Another good tip is to vary the techniques you discuss. You are trying to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about. Three paragraphs on close ups makes it look like that is all you know. A good guide is to choose at least one different film technique for each of the paragraphs plus a dialogue quote for each.

Remember to write at least 3 body paragraphs in your essay.

Finally, for introductions use TAKO.

T – Title (Underlined)

A – Author/Director

K – Key words from the question

O – Outline your main points, in order, for your 3 paragraphs.

Here is a sample introduction in response to the question:

Describe a character in the text who changes. Explain how the character changes and why.

In the short film The Graffiti of Mr Tupaia  (T) directed by Christopher Dudman (A), a character who changes (K) is Mr Tupaia. He is a quiet, diligent cleaner at a primary school but he has to open up to the people around him when he finds out that someone needs his help. (O) The director uses mid shots, close ups, dialogue and other film techniques to help us see who Mr Tupaia is and how and why he changes.

The conclusion is similar. Use TAKS

T – Title (Underlined)

A – Author/Director

K – Using Key words from the question….

S – Summarize the 3 main points from the paragraphs.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN –

MAKE AN ESSAY PLAN!!

Choose a question to answer that you know plenty about. After reading the question, the very next thing to do is to start your essay plan. Map out your STEEPEL structure with room to add in the information.

Click here for a film essay planner.  Your plan may include these prompts:

Intro         Para 1                     Para 2                    Para 3              Conclusion

​TAKO      STEE,TEEPEL       STEE,TEEPEL      STEE,TEEPEL      TAKS

Map out the paragraphs first, then do the intro. That way you will know what to put into the introduction and the order in which your points will occur. Write the conclusion last, after you have written the essay. That way you will be able to sum up any extra ideas that you have developed in the process of writing.

LOOK!

Here are some exemplar film essay paragraphs:

/education/files//Truman show paragraph exemplars.pdf

You are now ready to write an amazing essay!

1.10 Form personal responses to independently read texts, supported by evidence.

This semester you will need to complete 6 responses to texts that you have chosen yourself. You must respond to at least 2 novels (or other extended texts like biographies or novellas) and you may not respond to more than 2 visual texts (eg: films or short films, documentaries, etc). A selection of short stories and poems is available in class. Check with Mrs Mitchell to see if your self-selected texts are appropriate.

Your response must include:

• the title of the text
• the author or director
• a short summary of the plot
• an idea (or ideas) that you found in the text
• quotes or specific details from the text to support the ideas you have found
• an explanation of how those ideas apply to you
• and how they apply to the wider world.

You may find it useful to use the following writing frame to help structure your response.

1.10 Reading Response Frame

Your final overall grade will be based on the top 4 marks out of the 6 responses received.

This standard is worth 4 Credits.

In order to be perceptive and gain excellence, try to think genuinely about the ideas you find in the text. Give real life examples from you own experiences in your response. Be candid and honest. Think deeply about how the issues in the book apply to what is being experienced by you now, by people in the world today, or historically. How might the ideas from the text apply to the future? Humanity? Your own family or neighbourhood? Be specific as you outline examples or draw conclusions.

1. Memorize Language Features
2. Understand the EFFECTS created by language features.
3. Know MAPT: What? Who? Why? – How?
4. Be able to apply these understandings to new, unfamiliar texts.
5. Use STEEL to write effective exam answers.
6. Practise writing STEEL paragraphs to answer unfamiliar text questions.

1. Practise learning these langauge features on quizlet. Choose from the various games and flashcard activities to memorize the features and their effects.

TASK 1

http://quizlet.com/14876913/shcs-language-features-definitions-flash-cards/

Post on our class homework site when you have gained a perfect score in the above set test.

When completed, feel free to look around the site and choose other lists to practise.

2. Language features are the added flavourings in writing. Just like a cook might add sugar for sweetness or chilli for spice, the writer uses language features to enhance the intended meanings of the text. Each language feature therefore, creates an effect. And like the various ingredients in a dish, sometimes the effect is pungent and stands out distinctly while at other times a feature will have a more subtle effect working as part of the whole. For example: Assonance might help create a syncopating rhythm in the words or make the sounds of a phrase run more smoothly together or even slow down a passage to create an overall mood.

TASK 2

Below is a poem by Vivienne Plumb called Goldfish.

For each of the underlined words or phrases identify what type of language feature is being used (use the correct technique term) and describe the effect it creates in this piece of writing.

Goldfish Poem
TASK 3

Download the following worksheets. Read the poem The Chair by Pete Mullineaux and complete the tasks on the PDF. Once completed save the PDF and email it to me for marking.

The Chair Worksheet Download