tony zhou
Tips
Films are inherently constructed of visuals. Sound design is incredibly important, but is also a "cheap thrill." Just watch a few horror movies and see if they are scary with the sound off. Some will be, some won't depending on the quality of the visuals. If you find a scene that really gripped you or blew your mind, try watching it with the sound off. It will help you focus in on the visual constructs and why they work.
Performances are secondary in formal analysis: Great performances make or break a film. They are incredibly important. They often work in tandem with great visuals. Try to break apart the visuals and then determine if they enhanced or brought down the performances. Roger Deakins is a master of this.
Reference Materials
The Visual Story by Bruce Block
This was probably my favorite book on Cinematography that I ever read in Film School. If you read just one book, read this one and absorb it.Cinematic Storytelling
This book is not "very deep" and is more of a coffee table book than anything else, but it has a lot of great examples of script to screen visual translations. If anything, just watch the great examples from the book and and come up with your own conclusionsEvery Frame a Painting
For the visual type (who reads books anyways) Tony Zhou's great Vimeo series "Every Frame a Painting" give you NPR quality voice recording and awesome analysis of film form. You may have seen his work frequently posted on NoFilmSchool (a great website by the way). Every video thus far has been enlightening and he has great insights and great taste to boot.
I will use examples and knowledge from these books and others to deep dive through some of my favorite films and try to crack the visual code of these films.
P.S.: Sorry for the intro post, I realize this doesn't really contain any content, but when I start to break down films hopefully we can learn some things together!