For this week’s movie, Django Unchained
This week’s paper is 700 words minimum. Answer at least 4 of the questions below.
1. How do the setting and the scope of the narrative complement the other elements?
2. Are the plot events presented in chronological order? What is the significance of the order of plot events in the movie?
3. Keep track of the major and minor events in the movie’s plot. Are any of the minor events unnecessary to the movie overall? If these events were not included, would the movie be better? Why
4. As you watch the film or clip, be alert to the overall design plan and mise-en-scène and to your emotional response to them. Are you comforted or made anxious by them? Are your senses overwhelmed or calmed by what you see on-screen?
5. Identify the elements of the mise-en-scène that seem to be contributing the most to your emotional response.
6. Does the use of light in the movie or clip call attention to itself? If so, describe the effect that it has on the composition in any shot you analyze.
7. Note the type of movement (movement of figures within the frame or movement of the frame itself) in important shots. Describe as accurately as possible the effect of that movement on the relationships among the figures in the frame.
8. Does the movie’s design have a unified feel? Do the various elements of the design (the sets, props, costumes, makeup, hairstyles, etc.) work together, or do some elements work against others? What is the effect either way?
9. Was achieving verisimilitude important to the design of this film or clip? If so, have the filmmakers succeeded in making the overall mise-en- scène feel real, or verisimilar? If verisimilitude doesn’t seem to be important in this film or clip, what do you suspect the filmmakers were attempting to accomplish with their design?
Does the sound in the movie as a whole help develop characterization? If so, how does it do so?
In the movie overall, how is music used? In a complementary way? Ironically? Does the use of music in this movie seem appropriate to the story?
Do image and sound complement one another in this movie, or does one dominate the other?
Does this film use silence expressively?
In this movie, do you hear evidence of a comprehensive approach to sound—one, specifically, in which the film’s sound is as expressive as its images? If so, explain why you think so
