Return to AS Film Studies Index The Micro Reading

Why have you chosen this extract?  

At what point in the film does it occur?

 As you know from the macro, a reading is a close analysis of a film extract.  Like the macro, a micro reading has to attend to the formal properties of the extract (editing, lighting, shot types etc.) and must focus on a particular aspect of the text.  Again your title expresses the focus of your analysis, though as you know, a reading is not an essay - it does not need a structured conclusion.  

So how is the micro different from the macro?

 

A micro reading is different from a macro reading in two respects:

   it is shorter (2 - 3 minutes), and

   it is even more focused on formal properties. 

 

 

The formal properties of the text are:

 

1. the details of shots (angles and framing)

2. the lighting and editing devices

3. the use of sound

 

 

The micro reading is not concerned with the 'big' issues of meaning (such as conventions of genre expectations).  Instead you are looking at the 2 or 3 minute extract as if through a microscope, trying to explain how a spectator puts together the information it contains to make meaning.  Where the macro reading was concerned with what 'knowledges' the spectator brought to the text, the micro reading is focused on how the text itself produces meaning.

 

 

Discuss your extract with your film tutor and your fellow students.
What are the problems the director is trying to solve in this extract?

What cinematic devices (i.e. editing technique) does it contain?

How many shots are in your extract?  How long is each?  You might start by creating a chart with this information.
What formal element is dominant?  What aspect of film as a medium, or of character or POV is noticeable?