Professional Film Analysis

Point of Attack: Launching the Story with Energy The beginning of the movie isn't the same as the beginning of the story. Every movie opens by dropping you into a new world with its own physical and psychological reality — the ordinary routine of how that world works. Then something intrudes and breaks the ordinary. Usually a coincidence, something that just happened to happen, and the whole story...

Is filmmaking art, technology, or business? The answer is, yes.  Film is an art form, but it's also a very technical and very expensive art form. You can think of filmmaking as a three-legged stool of art, technology and money. And if one of those three is weak, the process suffers. Our brain has two ways of working. We have a creative, imaginative mind, and we also have an analytical mind. So how...

It's a sad reality: the audience doesn't care about your character -- and your story -- until you put the hook in them and make them care.  This Quick Take episode shows how the right kind of introductory shot of a character can start the process of drawing the audience in so you can get them on board for the full journey of your story. Read the article on Substack Watch the video

What happens in the mystical darkness of a movie theater? Experiences beyond ordinary life, sometimes life changing. What is the storytelling craft, the psychology and neurology that make cinematic storytelling so powerful? This is the story of how film analysis was born—in a classroom at the American Film Institute 1968, when a Czech refugee named Frank Daniel tried an innovative approach to teac...