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Singapore International Film Festival 2025
FILMMAKING ANALYSIS
Context, in the analysis of filmmaking, refers to factors that surround the filmmaking process but may not be stated explicitly. This background information (film history, filmmakers and their backgrounds, current affairs, geopolitical concerns, technical achievements, and innovations) informs our deeper understanding of the film in question. It allows us to analyse, rather than summarise, what we are studying. It is important to be aware of what the filmmaker (or artist) was experiencing in their time and reacting to or reacting against. This approach considers how the film represents the cultural issues of its time and the broader context, such as race, class, gender, economic, social-historical, and political.
Film, through its various elements and narratives, both reflects and shapes culture, influencing values, trends, and even language, while also serving as a powerful tool for social commentary and cultural preservation.
Adapted from UNC's THE WRITING CENTER
For example, the clip from Vertigo (1958) depicts a man observing a woman without her knowing it. You could examine how this aspect of the film addresses a midcentury social concern about observation, such as the sexual policing of women, or a political one, such as Cold War-era McCarthyism.
A few of the many questions you could ask in this vein include:
How does the film elements used to comment on, reinforce, or even critique social and political issues at the time it was released, including questions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality?
How might a biographical understanding of the film’s creators and their historical moment affect the way you view the film and the use of film techniques and elements?
How might a specific film theory, such as Soviet Montage Theory, Queer Theory, Structuralist Theory, Formalist Film Theory or Marxist Film Theory, provide a language or set of terms for articulating the attributes of the film?
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