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Understand Movies
Notice what matters, make connections, develop interpretations of your own.
Get more from the movies you watch
You can spend three hours watching 2001: A Space Odyssey and come away wondering what the point was and if you wasted your time. Or love a movie and have no idea how to explain why. Or read someone else’s analysis and think, “How did they see all of that?”
Understanding movies isn’t something people are just naturally good at. There are details you can learn to notice, questions you can learn to ask, and concepts you can learn to apply.
I actually hated There Will Be Blood when I first saw it. The credits started, the lights in the theater came on, and I turned to my friend and said, “I’ll never watch that again.” Then you know what happened? I thought about There Will Be Blood almost every day for nine months, then bought the Blu-Ray the day it came out, watched it as soon as I got home, and now it’s in my top five. That only happened because I practice active viewing.
Analysis is a huge part of why I love movies, even when I hate a movie (looking at you White Men Can’t Jump Hulu remake), because the viewing experience transforms from passively watching to actively engaging with what’s on screen long after the credits roll. It’s what allows me to discuss movies with other people in a way where I feel confident and comfortable in my opinions and assessment. I know not everyone feels that or believes they can have that relationship with movies. I’m here to tell you that you can.
Become an Active Viewer
How to Watch a Film
Free with a Film Colossus account
You’ve probably finished a movie and known there was more going on than you can articulate. You can recall the images that felt important. Certain scenes stood out as meaningful yet inexplicable. The movie was saying something. But what?
In the Active Viewing course, I break down the process of carrying information forward. You’ll learn what to pay attention to, why certain details matter more than others, and how to make connections between them.
And please, please, please, know that this isn’t about turning every movie into homework. Movies are a joy and one of my favorite things in the entire world.
The Frameshift Method
My process for understanding movies
Included with Film Colossus Supporter | $5/month
Once you’re carrying information forward and actively watching films, the next step is putting everything together.
Frameshift is how I analyze movies. For something simple, I might find the major abstract and call it a day. But with films like Mulholland Drive, Tenet, or Cure, I’ll go through the entire method, step by step.
It gives me a consistent starting point to form an idea, a simple way to test what I’m thinking, and the framework to synthesize it all into the analyses I publish on Film Colossus.
Frameshift is a beginning. The goal isn’t for you to analyze movies exactly how I do. The more you use it, the more you’ll figure out what works for you and develop a method of your own.
Borrow my process. Find yours.
Film Analysis Toolkit
No account required.
The Film Analysis Toolkit introduces you to techniques I use every day when analyzing movies
Look at the list. Read about a technique. Try it on the next movie you watch. See what happens.
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