Emily Carpenter / Department of Film & Media
Sequence Analysis
The objective. The objective or purpose of a sequence analysis in film studies is to interpret a sequence of film by
demonstrating which elements of the film help to construct its cinematic and cultural meaning. When we “do”
sequence analysis, we are asking how the sequence’s cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing, sound, and story
construct its meaning for us. We are asking how what we see on-screen “does cultural work” by contributing to our
understanding of the world we live in off-screen.
Guiding questions. This approach asks you to consider the “how” of the filmmaking more than the “what” of the
content. As a result, when you sit down to watch and take notes on your sequence, what you are watching for is not
merely the “what happens” of the story unfolding onscreen, but the “how” of its presentation to us. Indeed, one way
to think about this kind of exercise is to define it as an opportunity to consider how, given all of the possible ways
the filmmaker might have conveyed the same subject matter, the method s/he chose makes specific meanings for us.
The guiding principle in such an analysis is often one of selection. Out of all possible elements that might contribute
to the shaping of a film, what is present (selected) in the film? What is not? What emerges from this form of analysis
is a deeper contextual understanding of the possibilities of cinematic expression.
Procedure. In what follows, we describe the method that we find most useful in preparing our own sequence
analyses. It takes you through the process step by step – how to watch, what to look for, what to select as your own
“most significant” elements, etc.
Before you Watch: Preparation/Research.
1.
Familiarize yourself with the glossary of film terms on bCourses in Files / Syllabus & Handouts. It will take
time to learn this vocabulary, but if you try to learn five new terms every time you look at it, you’ll rapidly
expand your understanding of the choices that filmmakers make and how they affect what we see and feel
when we see a film.
2.
Take a mental inventory of the major concepts that have emerged in recent course texts. I have designed this
course around texts which, whether they are from a textbook or a scholarly essay, are pointing you toward
specific film techniques, developments in film history, or cultural shifts. If you sit down to watch your
sequence with these major concepts in your mind, you will find it much easier to “see” the point of each
sequence – to see how it is constructed, how it fits into film history, or how it dramatizes cultural shifts.
3.
Combine this mental inventory with a general sense of our course topic this week, and make a list of 3 or 4
things that you’ll be watching out for. Now, a warning: this can be tricky! Sometimes, when we are
determined to look for/at a select number of techniques or ideas, we may experience “confirmation bias.”
That is to say, we may see only what we are looking for, at the expense of ideas that might challenge our
view and open us up to new ways of thinking. When we do this in academic writing, we reduce a complex
text to an overly simplistic interpretation that can be easily challenged or invalidated. So, even as you give
yourself a mental list of things to watch out for, remember to be on the lookout for elements of the film that
disrupt or challenge a simple reading.
Watching actively: Collecting Evidence, Building Interpretation
1.
Watch your sequence many times, and build a solid sense of the sequence “from every angle” – that is, using
different topics as your “lens” every time you watch. You might choose to watch the sequence five times,
each time looking for/at – and taking detailed notes on – things like:
a.
What do I notice about cinematography in this sequence?
b.
What do I notice about mise-en-scène in this sequence?
c.
What do I notice about editing in this sequence?
d.
What do I notice about sound in this sequence?
Emily Carpenter / Department of Film & Media
e.
What do I notice about how this sequence advances or seems to delay the narrative?
f.
What do I notice about how this sequence participates in (or challenges/complicates/refines/extends)
discourses of race, class, sex, and gender?
2.
Interpretation: Selection. Look through your answers to the above questions and find the ones that seem to be
most significant. The “most significant” elements are the ones that have the most influence on the
sequence. These are the ones that matter, that contribute most directly to your interpretation of the
sequence. In one sequence, the cinematography might be doing the most interesting narrative and cultural
work. In another sequence, it might be the interaction between sound and image. In some sequences, you
might notice only some expressive element of mise-en-scène. In another sequence, it might be the way that
different actors in the frame illustrate different idealized performances of masculinity or femininity.
Whatever it is, it will probably stand out to you! This is where you prioritize elements that contribute to a
single reading of the sequence – but without discarding any that challenge your reading, as this will add
complexity and depth to your essay.
3.
Interpretation: Synthesis. At this stage, you should have a sense of what elements you’d like to talk about as you
begin writing your sequence analysis. It is OK not to have a thesis/argument clearly formed in your head at
this stage! As this procedure is mapping out for you, good essay writing works from the ground up, moving
from evidence to interpretation to claim.
Writing.
1.
Identify your sequence! Identify your sequence at some point in your first paragraph, so that your reader knows
where you are in the film and, if necessary, can go watch your sequence if they wish to do so. This can be
as simple as saying, “In the following paragraph(s), I will analyze the sequence in which X happens.”
2.
Avoid plot summary! Assume that your reader knows the film in question, and do not spend (waste) your time
explaining “what happens” in the sequence. Instead, focus on how it happens, by crafting…
3.
Descriptive analysis. In order to make an argument, you must present evidence – but the most efficient and
elegant way to do so is to use prose that describes and analyzes at the same time. This is to say that, in the
same sentence, you will describe whatever element of the film you want to bring attention to and
analyze/interpret it. This is called descriptive analysis, and it’s the best tool in your toolbox as a film
scholar. Here is one example of how a film scholar might work from evidence, through interpretation, from
a sequence analysis of a scene in the film Broken Blossoms (D. W. Griffith, 1917). If you’d like, check out
the scene in question at https://youtu.be/ZdIiZzc0Ceo?t=1h21m28s.
Evidence / Description / What I
SEE
Interpretation / Analysis / What I
UNDERSTAND
Descriptive Analysis / What the film IS
DOING
A long shot of a bedroom. A
Chinese man named Cheng
Huan, and a white man named
Battling Burrows are standing on
opposite sides of the film frame.
Burrows has just entered through
a door in the middle background.
Between the two men, on a bed
positioned low to the ground, lies
Lucy, the daughter of the white
man. She has just died after being
beaten by her father.
Confrontation in domestic space
between white man and “Other”
man, over body of white woman.
White woman as the person they
fought over, the object of their
competition and some cultural
angst over innocence/purity of
white femininity.
This sequence dramatizes a confrontation
in domestic space between Battlin
Burrows and Cheng Huan: the white
father and the man of color who Lucy has
chosen as her friend and protector. The
sequence literally happens over her dead
body, which is framed on left and right by
the men in question.
Alternating medium close ups of
Cheng Huan and Battling
Burrows, so that we note their
Medium close-ups showing the
form of each man’s contempt for
the other, then this strange dark
A series of close-ups magnifies their
emotions as they stare each other down
and size each other up. Lucy’s father, the
Emily Carpenter / Department of Film & Media
expressions: Burrows makes
angry/fearful faces, Cheng Huan
makes angry/amused faces,
Burrows seems to react by
smiling darkly.
humor between them as they size
each other up and prepare to fight
White man seems angry and
fearful, Chinese man angry and
darkly amused by Burrows’s fear
– Burrows’s grin seems awful,
but Cheng Huan’s response more
understated, feels almost
contemporary – we are invited to
side with him.
boxer who has violently victimized her
for the majority of the film, contorts his
face with rage, but underneath his anger
lurks a fear of the “Other” man; this
combination of feelings belongs to
Burrows but simultaneously refers
outside the film to a wider cultural
context of anti-Chinese sentiment during
the 1910s. And Cheng Huan’s face
alternates between hatred and a subtle,
sardonic smile that holds Burrows in
contempt while also enjoying the cracks
in the façade of this white man’s tough
masculine act. Cheng Huan’s response is
eerily calm; while Burrows mugs for the
camera, Cheng Huan remains almost
completely motionless. While audiences
of the time might have found his posture
exotically threatening, audiences today
can see a space in which the film allows
us a powerful moment of identification
with this protagonist of color.
Quick alternation of long shot
and medium shot: Battling
Burrows edges his foot backward
onto an axe, turns to pick it up,
turns back to brandish it at Cheng
Huan; Cheng Huan pulls a pistol
from his cloak and shoots
Burrows several times.
Link between white man and
traditional masculinity thru the
axe; the Chinese man who
brandishes a modern firearm
becomes the hero by punishing
the white patriarch for violence
against the innocent woman
When Burrows reaches for the axe, and
Cheng Huan shoots him, the violent
exchange comes to a head in a way that
mobilizes the film’s race and class
discourses. The coarse, violent white
boxer wields the primitive axe; the
Chinese Buddhist brandishes a modern
firearm in the name of justice. Contrary
to what we might have expected entering
this scene, the confrontation ends in a
shot (figuratively and literally) that deals
death as punishment for the woman’s
abuser and that defends the man who
tried to protect her from toxic white
patriarchy.
Burrows waves goodbye to dead
Lucy, raises his fists toward
Cheng Huan, then falls backward,
dead.
The final gesture of the dying
white man alternates between
love/regret and anger/violence.
As he dies, Burrows waves goodbye to
Lucy and then raises his fists once more;
each gesture conjures the potent
combination of love, regret, anger, and
violence that has animated this figure
since his first moment on screen. It’s a
moment of tremendous pathos, as the
gestures seem sad and futile. But we are
not meant to mourn this man. Indeed, the
film’s narrative of racism comes to an
unexpected temporary conclusion: it is
not the Chinese man who is
condemned, as we might expect given
the virulent anti-Chinese sentiment
that circulated in the 1910s, but the
violent white man. Moreover, the
righteous violence of people of color is
justified – although only in defense of
Doesn’t feel sad, though!
Emphasizing the film’s interest in
critiquing (and challenging the
cultural privilege of) white
masculinity
Emily Carpenter / Department of Film & Media
white womanhood.
A NOTE ABOUT DIALOGUE: You will have noticed that this example does not use dialogue as evidence. This is
because this example comes from a sequence that contains no speech. The most important evidence in this scene,
according to what is presented here, is the evidence of cinematography, mise-en-scène, and editing. But dialogue can
be important evidence, too – as can sound. As we move through films that include spoken dialogue, pay attention to
how certain lines of dialogue carry meaning – and incorporate them in your evidence and analysis. With dialogue, it
is best to present and then interpret a direct quotation!
4.
Organize your ideas. When you are organizing your thoughts, move chronologically through the sequence and
build from evidence to argument. That is to say, each paragraph should move from descriptive analysis
toward a mini-claim, and your final paragraph should conclude with a thesis statement that makes an
argument about what your sequence does cinematically in the context of the whole film and culturally in
terms of the interpretive frameworks we are focusing on in class during the week in question.
5.
Make an argument! In the context of this course, an argument, expressed in a thesis statement, is an evidencebased but debatable interpretive assertion about the cinematic and cultural significance of a sequence of
film. (If, when you are done with your essay, you look at your thesis statement and see that it does not
complete this objective, you are not finished with your essay!) How does this sequence create meaning in
the context of the film? What cultural values does it transmit cinematically? Does it call forward or
backward in the film toward another scene, thereby creating associational meaning in the context of the
larger narrative? Why is this sequence worth looking at, and what does it show us that can help us
understand this film (and thereby film in general) more fully?
Assignment Parameters. Your sequence analysis should be 1000 words long. Use the model sequence analyses and
my “How to Write for Me” handout on bCourses as guides. You do not need to cite any texts, but if you do please
follow MLA format for in-paragraph parenthetical citations. There is a “do” and “don’t” guide on this in the “How
to Write For Me” handout.
How to Submit. Submit your sequence analysis using the Assignments function of bCourses. Due dates are listed
by assignment in bCourses.
A reminder about late work policy. I will accept late work only if you have made an arrangement with me in
advance. Your late work will receive a grade penalty of one letter grade per 24 hours that pass between the deadline
and your submission. Please contact me if you anticipate a problem completing this assignment by its deadline.
Grading. The following grading brakedown should supplement the departmental grading standards on the course
syllabus.
A
AB+
Strong original argument/reading, excellent descriptive analysis of evidence, excellent structure,
flawless style
Weak original argument/reading, excellent descriptive analysis of evidence, strong structure,
extremely few flaws in style
No original argument/reading, excellent descriptive analysis of evidence, strong structure, some
flaws in style
Emily Carpenter / Department of Film & Media
B
BC+ and
below
No original argument/reading, strong descriptive analysis of evidence, strong structure, some
flaws in style
No original argument/reading, solid descriptive analysis of evidence, solid structure, some flaws
in style
No original argument/reading, weak/insufficient descriptive analysis of evidence,
weak/insufficient structure, many flaws in style
Model 2. This model does not use a course text as critical framework, but does demonstrate the "close reading"
practice we are helping you develop. It moves chronologically through the sequence, using descriptive analysis to
present and interpret evidence from the film's images and dialogue. The outline that follows the model essay shows
what we like about it: what it does, how it's put together, how it flows. This model is shorter than model 1, but
would be of a similar length if it included a course text as its critical framework. You can watch the sequence in
question here.
The Moral Crossroads
The opening sequence of The Grapes of Wrath establishes several key themes using a visual style that
establishes patterns that recur over the course of the film. This sequence's cinematography, mise-en-scène, and
dialogue progressively isolate Tom: first in the landscape, then in visual and dialogic social conflicts where
dominant views of commerce and class relations figure him as an outcast. This sequence critiques these dominant
views, makes an argument about the redemptive moral value of labor, and foreshadows Tom's fate.
The sequence opens in a brightly lit and dynamically composed location shot. It seems to be morning, and
we hear the diegetic sound of birdsong. In the middle distance, toward the left of the frame, two country roads meet;
one road runs on vertically into the far distance, flanked on the left by telephone poles and power lines that give a
sense of the grand scale of this open world. A lone man approaches on foot. We don't know it yet, but this is Tom
Joad. As we will soon find out, Tom has just been released from prison, and the bright, open composition signifies
his new freedom. Unfortunately, interactions with other people, and the commercial and class relations that rule
their worlds - will sour the sense of optimism that characterize Tom's approach to the proverbial crossroads.
A quick dissolve indicates the passage of time; now, the camera sits to the left of the intersection, and pans
slowly right to observe Tom's arrival at a store, in front of which sits a large truck labeled “Oklahoma City
Transport Company.” A cut moves us still closer to the front of the store as Tom, with his back turned to us,
approaches and leans against the corner of the truck in the far left of the frame. The shadow of the truck is long
across the ground, and the storefront looms over it; beneath Tom's outstretched arm, in the far distance, we observe
a tractor turning slowly in the field. The institutions of commerce and the systems of transport that support it loom
large in this shot, in which Tom seems a reluctant (or perhaps defiant) outsider. A woman and second man exit the
store, exchange a few words, and this man gets into the truck. In a new shot, Tom approaches from the far side of
the truck, and asks for a ride. The man refers Tom to a sticker on the windshield; a close-up shows it: “No Riders
Allowed – Instructions of Owner.” This exchange signals something important about what is to come: an individual
using someone else's authority to avoid helping a fellow human being.
Tom challenges this response in a way that foreshadows a major conflict of the film: “Sure, I saw it... but a
good guy don't pay no attention to what some heel makes him stick on his truck.” Tom defies the order of things
that places power only in the hands of the company men who make rules for their subordinates to follow. In doing
so, he appeals to the man's own sense of right and wrong. This exchange sets up a tension between personal agency
and responsibility and the more amorphous power of larger institutional forces (the bank, the company, the state)
that will operate throughout the film. As the truck driver questions Tom about the evidence of hard labor on his
hands, what emerges is not only a class divide but a divide between those trapped in fear and judgment and those
who are willing to break a rule when that rule is unjust. This first conversation in the film thus establishes themes of
competition and unconcern for others - and the desire to challenge them - that will organize most of the human
relationships and narrative turning points in the film. When Tom leaps from the truck, he is not leaving these
conflicts behind him. Indeed, the feelings of frustrated violence that he feels in response to his own powerlessness
will lead him down a course of action that requires him, at the end of the film, to take to the road alone again.
Model 2 Structure and Function
Title
NOT the assignment title
Describes your argument
0
.
Paragraph 1
Soft thesis or mapping statement that
Identifies which sequence you will examine and
What about it you find interesting,
In a way that makes clear how you will be linking film technique to film themes.
2-3 sentences long!
Write this LAST, only when you know what your argument really is!
NO VAGUE/
GENERAL STATEMENTS ABOUT THE FILM, LIFE, ETC.
0
.
0
Paragraph 2-3
Chronological descriptive analysis of the sequence that
Notes only those details which are relevant to the argument and
Immediately analyzes/interprets them
In a way that leads you back toward the thesis you started with and
Transitions smoothly to the next paragraph.
Write this first, so that you use the process of examining evidence to build a claim, rather than trying to
force a preconceived notion onto the evidence!
.
0
0
Paragraph X (Conclusion)
Presents evidence from the end of your sequence that helps you cap off your descriptive analysis, leading
directly into the final version of your thesis statement and
Further develops - without summarizing - the points you've made so far by presenting the most clear and
robust version of the thesis,
Explains how this sequence is important in relation to the rest of the film and
Explains how this sequence reveals something interesting about the construction of California and the
American West – IF this is relevant to the specific argument you are making about the sequence!
Write this second, so that you can sharpen your argument and figure out how it's related to the film and the
class!
.
.
Final Pieces of Advice
1.
Don't name-drop techniques or vocab just to sound impressive. Only use it when it helps you be specific
about a detail that is significant to your argument.
2. Give plot information/summary only when it helps you explain the significance of what you are seeing -
and how the sequence you're examining relates to the rest of the film.
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