Watch

A simple method

First pass · second pass · write

1. 1. First pass — experience. Watch the scene once without pausing. Note gut reactions in three words.
2. 2. Second pass — inventory. Pause at each cut (or every few seconds in a long take). Fill the shot list: scale, angle, movement, sound, who holds the frame.
3. 3. Third pass — argument. Pick one claim (“the cut withholds X to produce Y”) and gather three formal supports.

Pause points

Where to stop the player

• Every cut, dissolve, or fade (mark duration if a shot is unusually long).
• First appearance of a key prop, doorway, or window — portals matter.
• Any camera move that starts or stops — why now?
• When sound and image disagree (cheerful score over violence; silence after a scream).
• When someone enters/exits frame or looks offscreen — space expands.
• The last frame before a scene ends — afterimage / hangover.

Shot-list template

Copy · fill · reuse

Duplicate a row per shot. Timecode optional but helpful in class.

Scene: _______________  Film: _______________  Timecode: _______ → _______

Shot # | TC | Scale | Angle | Move | Sound (diegetic?) | Notes / power in frame
-------|----|-------|-------|------|-------------------|-------------------------
1      |    |       |       |      |                   |
2      |    |       |       |      |                   |
3      |    |       |       |      |                   |

Motif / withheld info:
Claim in one sentence:

Copy template

Questions that pay rent

Power · sound · withholding

• Who holds power in the frame? Center vs edge; high vs low; who is lit; who is cut to for reaction.
• Sound vs image: Does audio confirm, undercut, or expand what we see?
• What is withheld? Offscreen space, delayed reveal, restricted narration (we know less than a character — or more).
• What repeats? Colors, angles, gestures — motifs earn meaning by return.
• Where could this scene end earlier? Duration is rhetoric.
• Genre contract: What does the audience think will happen — and how does the scene tease or refuse it?

When you write: quote the film formally (“a low-angle MS holds for twelve seconds”) before leaping to theme. Form first, then significance.