Content & Form

 Content & Form in Film 

Introduction 

    When we think about a film, the main thing that sticks with us is the plot of the film. There is always a reason for everything that happened, and everything is carefully planned by the directors and the writers. Just like mentioned in THE LAST DETAIL one strategy that filmmakers use is to connect the content and form of the film to make an impression on the audience.

Content

     In a film, we connect to the movie from either the characters or the story because of the content of that movie and the message we get at the end after finishing watching.

 Plot 

   In a film or even a book, there is always one plot outline that follows the rising, climax, and falling action to keep the viewers on their toes. This is the easiest way for a movie to be planned out and to get a viewer’s attention. The writers and directors want the viewer to go on the adventure with the character, and have the viewers connect with what the characters are going through making it feel like they are going through it at the same time.

    Just like the graph shown the plot is the structure of events that makes up a story, a rollercoaster for the character to get to the main event, and a fall-off to a resolution. Take in mind Thief (1981, Mann), the exposition which is the beginning of the film we learn about who Frank the main character is. We learned that he is a thief that steals diamonds to make a profit from them, during the opening we can slowly see what type of person Frank is during his second job/secret life.

    The rising action or where the main story is starting is when Frank was offered to do the big heist of the story, and we start slowly seeing the story come into action. Everything will be prepared for it to happen also getting everyone part of it and understanding their role during it. The whole time after receiving the task, Frank is trying to find the best way to get into the safe, everyone around him is getting their view of the task and there are many small events along the way that allows us to see what type of character Frank is why he is doing all of this just for the life that he has always wanted since he got out of jail. 

    Once we got to the part where the crew finally got into the building and opened the safe it was like the climax of the movie because this was everything that Frank was preparing for and doing all the work to get to. It was the end and start of an important part of Frank's life.

    The falling action came when we show the happy life Frank had after getting the heist done, but it came to a turn when he thought he was able to leave the thief's life behind after this heist. But everything turned to another page when his decision got his best partner killed and his life in danger. This is the falling to when Frank decided to do it his way to end it all. 

    

    The resolution is at the end of the movie when everything is finally coming to an end and Frank is finally out of all the hard situations, he is finally a free man to do what he wants. He went to end everything even though it might have been killing the leader and destroying everything he had, it was a way for him to say goodbye and start new. We were able to be on this roller coaster with him because of the good plot the writers and directors put in front of our eyes. 

Character 

    In Thief, another very important thing that was used to create the big dynamic in the movie was the connection of character the audience had to Frank the main lead. He was different from every other typical thief we can think of in our daily lives, he was really wishing for a family and have something of his own, he also knew that life in jail is something he does not want to go back to since himself was part of the government care for being thrown into jail at such a young age and spent major of his life in that type of care. 

    This was really shown during the adoption scene, where we saw him lose himself again when he could not get a kid and he knew how many kids they have in foster care they want a family and the government is making it hard. It left us with a big impression about him and exactly what did he have to go through as a kid, how much he had to work to be who he is now. 

Form 

     In a film, we need to look at exactly how the movie is shot and what type of scenes are being shown, better known as the Form of the movie. 

Shots

     One of the biggest way something that can catch a viewer's eyes are how the shots in the scene are or even what is happening in a scene has a piece of important information for our eyes to catch. Let's take the movie Scanners (1981, Cronenberg) for example, through out the whole movie it had a dark and mysterious vibe to it, but there were scenes that were shot that left a big impact on many people and even who have not seen it, there are images that have been used from it. 

    Looking at shots from Scanners you can see the type of movie it is about, look at the image below, we see the head of someone exploding which allows us to know that this movie is a bit graphic but that is one way the director is showing us his style of shooting and the main idea of the film. 

    The emotion you get from the scenes you watch is a type of form that directs want you to receive from the movie, watching the scene between the brothers to see who is stronger, the pain they are going through really gets to the viewer and in your heart, you are praying for the main character to win even if it is a different outcome then we thought. 

Connection 

    Both Content and Form in a film allow us viewers to connect with the characters in a film and also allow us to understand the main theme a director or even the film writers created the story. The plot of the story brings us on a rollercoaster with the main character and the different shots we see allow us to see the emotions the character might be going through.