An Introduction to Film Analysis: Technique and Meaning in Narrative Film, Paperback

An Introduction to Film Analysis is designed to introduce students to filmmaking techniques while also providing an invaluable guide to film interpretation. It takes readers step by step through:

-the basic technical terms
-shot-by-shot analyses of film sequences
-set design, composition, editing, camera work, post-production, art direction and more
-each chapter provides clear examples and full colour images from classic as well as contemporary films

Ryan and Lenos's updated edition introduces students to the different kinds of lenses and their effects, the multiple possibilities of lighting, and the way post-production modifies images through such processes as saturation and desaturation. Students will learn to ask why the camera is placed where it is, why an edit occurs where it does, or why the set is designed in a certain way.

The second section of the book focuses on critical analysis, introducing students to the various approaches to film, from psychology to history, with new analysis on postcolonial, transnational and Affect Theory.

New to this edition is a third section featuring several in-depth analyses of films to put into practice what comes before: The Birds, The Shining, Vagabond, In the Mood for Love, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

Michael Ryan is Emeritus Professor in the Center for the Arts at Temple University, USA. His books include Marxism and Deconstruction (1982), Politics and Culture (1989), Camera Politica (1988), An Introduction to Criticism (2012), and Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction (2017). His book, Politics and Evolution: Conservatism and Liberalism in Human History, is forthcoming. He is at work on a book entitled The Politics of Form.

Melissa Lenos is Chair of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Donnelly College in Kansas City, USA. Her primary areas of research are narratology and media pedagogy and her work has appeared in Cinema Journal: In Focus, Antenna, and In Media Res. She is co-author (with Kevin L. Ferguson) of the forthcoming Generation X: The Popular Culture that Defined the MTV Generation.