Asian study

HA 300, 400 Level: How to Analyze Visual Media – Film, Art Works:

A. "How to Analyze Visual Media" by Dr. Michael Pinsky,

Professor of English, Univ of South Florida and Univ of Tampa.

http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~pinsky/vizanlysis.htm [accessed on 21 Feb 2005; 17 Sep 2015]

The following tips are useful whether your whole paper is about a single film, a film comparison, or on a theme which you trace through several visual media.

If you are analyzing visual media, you should consider the following suggestions to help you organize your notes prior to your writing project. In any analysis of a film or television show, you will need to use a semiotic approach or something similar: observe the signs in the film in addition to the particular words spoken from the script. Pay attention to the language (including vocabulary, diction and emotional tone), behavior and appearance of the characters, appearance of the sets, the use of lighting and framing, and the situations in which the characters are placed. Remember to look for non-verbal communication as well as verbal ones. Once you have watched the show/film (jotting down observations as you notice them), prepare yourself with the following steps:

1. List any background information a reader will need. For example, describe the show/film. What is the basic plot? What are the key moments of change? What is the setting and time period?

2. List any necessary background on the characters. For example, describe the main characters using demographic characteristics (age, class, education, gender, ethnicity, etc.), supporting your points with evidence.

3. List the values or themes supported in the show/film (gender roles, definitions of success, moral/ethical arguments, standards of beauty or happiness, etc.), including the consequences of the characters' actions. Use specific examples as evidence.

4. Describe the intended audience for the show/film, using demographic characteristics. What evidence led you to conclude this group was the intended audience?

5. State what this show/film reveals about contemporary culture: values, goals, acceptable roles in society, etc. List evidence to support your conclusions.

6. Now turn to your specific writing project. State your claim/thesis, along with your plan to support it: preview the organization of your writing project. You may find that you have more information prepared from steps 1-5 than you will need for the final project: you are not obligated to use every observation you have made, but you will find any writing project much easier if you have plenty of options (as opposed to scrambling to review the show/film to find more evidence at the last minute).

B. RESEARCH PAPER SPECIFICS:

I. Identify a question that interests you ...

1) about some aspect of a particular film, such as (but not limited to...)

* character development, locating it within its historical and filmic context

* the relationship between sung and spoken and purely visual parts to the

development of the plot or story

* gender relations as illustrated between the main characters

* method of getting across the film’s message

* relationship between editing, lighting, and other camera techniques and the

emotion of specific parts of the story; OR

2) a comparison between two films (or between a Japanese animation film and a film from another cultural domain -- though, in this case, the paper should focus 2/3 of its length/discussion on the Japanese animation film) ; OR

3) choose a pressing social, or historical, or sexual, or political, or religious, or aesthetic problem and discuss its ‘place’ and ‘dynamism’ within Japanese animation, using two or more films to draw examples from.

4) other topics you are drawn to (please discuss with me)

II. Write a paper of 6-8 pages – double or 1-1/2 spaced, Times New Roman 12 point, margins ¾” all around. Include title and your name, and the course no. at the top.

PAPER structure: Start by summarizing in a first, short paragraph what the scope of your paper will cover, and then write your ‘thesis statement’ or ‘argument’: describe what ‘problem’ or ‘issue’ or ‘question’ you will examine, in your paper, and hint at what particular ‘stand’ you will take or direction your conclusion will lie in (without giving it all away).

This means writing a statement in the beginning of your paper (no later than paragraph 2) that starts like this: “In this paper I will argue/demonstrate/....”. Then you can launch into your discussion.

YOUR PAPER MUST ALSO INCLUDE….

III. Academic sources: Your bibliography will consist of a minimum of four full references to academic sources not included in textbooks and assigned readings

In addition, you can cite Internet sources and general film studies sources (i.e. not focused specifically on Japanese animation), and assigned readings, -- as many as you wish!

NOTE: If you are discussing one or more films, provide a brief synopsis of the film(s) either in a footnote or in the main text, as you wish, and depending on what would serve your argument best.

IV. Minimum two footnotes of type ii, below.

The Two Main Types of Footnotes:

i) Plain Citation: Giving the citation/reference for the information/quote/data you just presented in your paper text.

Please note that you will have to make active reference to specific page numbers in these sources, in the body of your text (or in footnotes or endnotes), from where you have paraphrased or quoted information, for it to count as a reference: just having something in the bibliography with no footnotes referring to it does not count.

ii) Discussion Footnotes: ‘expand the discourse’ of your main text, or ‘give a more detailed explanation’ than what you find necessary in the main text, but which still is of potential relevance and interest to the reader. Hence, here you can explain difficult terms that, in the main text, would break the flow of the reading too much; you can cite another opinion, or an association to something somewhat outside of the scope of the present paper but that would be interesting to have further research done on, by future scholars, etc.

NOTE 1: If possible and useful, include images with your essay. Reference its source clearly.

NOTE 2: Number your pages. Lack of image and unnumbered pages will each elicit the loss of 2 points. Lateness - as before.

NOTE 3: MAKE SURE YOU REFER TO THE HAND-OUT: WHAT IS A RESEARCH PAPER? AT THE BEGINNING, MIDDLE and END OF YOUR RESEARCH AND WRITING.