Analysing a film (1 Viewer)

[CowgirlEmily]

I have the following question in an assessment task:

'What techniques are used by the author/composer to influence our thinking/understanding/response?'

I am using the film 'The Pursuit of Happyness' as one of my related texts. When I'm talking about techniques.. do I deconstruct the mise en scene?(camera angle, lighting, body positions, objects)

Help would be appreciated, just want to know I'm on the right track.
Cheers!

 

[kuroneko]

I think it's- yeah camera angle, dialogue, music etc- techniques that make you think what you did after viewing the film.
You should probably make a few notes of what this 'thinking/understanding/response' is that the movie got from you, and look through the movie again to look for the techniques that made you think that; it's all about subtlety, but they have to be relevant.
I hope I made sense.

 

[CowgirlEmily]

Should I use techniques from the whole film or just select one or two scenes?

 

[kuroneko]

I'd say the whole film, but really it doesn't exactly matter as long as it's relevant, that it proves what you're saying.