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Active vs. Passive Viewing

Throughout the course, you have studied a variety of texts:  poems, short stories, visuals and multimedia texts, novels, and a play.  For the final unit in the course, you will focus on studying film.

Many people enjoy going to the movies because it is a social experience.  You are surrounded by people, and you all react to what you hear and see.  In the movie theatre, people view a film passively, expecting to be entertained.

A film is a complex text.

Analyzing a film as a text is a different experience entirely.  Of course, you will react to the film as you might in the theatre.  You may laugh.  You may cry.  You may become angry.

Analyzing a film critically requires you to become an active viewer.  As an active viewer, you are not only aware of your feelings while you watch the film, but you also must think about how the director’s decisions evoked those feelings in you.

In this unit, you will engage in the process of thinking and feeling about a film, as you did in Unit 1 with poetry.