Producing a Film Is the Same as Writing an Argumentative Essay... I could buy it.

Chapter six was all about organizing and writing research arguments, and there were a few parts of the chapter that I found particularly interesting. For one, the very beginning of the chapter draws a parallel between the process of writing and the process of film production. Because I am a performer, I of course enjoy visual entertainment more than written entertainment. That is why this parallel caught my interest. It said that these two processes are similar in that they both “have many small steps that support a grounding vision or main idea, have a carefully planned structure, and involve rigorous editing.” These are all very true. It also states that just as it takes plenty of time to edit, cut, and rearrange parts of a film, it also tales time for all of these aspects before coming to a completed, polished paper. The book continues to use this comparison throughout the rest of this chapter.

Another section of chapter six that I found interesting was the section that talked about the role you, as the writer, and your voice plays in your paper. It provided examples from various movies in which the director inserted his own arguments into the plot. One example was Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet. The book makes the argument that this version was more of Zeffirelli’s interpretation of the story, instead of Shakespeare’s because he cast the actors playing Hamlet and his mother so close in age. This, according to the text, was to put emphasis on the plot of incest between Hamlet and his mother. Although, I feel it could be argued that Mel Gibson probably got the role because he is famous, and it had nothing at all to do with his age. Glenn Close, who was cast as Hamlet’s mother, was cast because Zeffirelli had an image of Gertrude as a woman with the mind and manner of a teenager, a very selfish, sort of naïve woman. That may be why he chose a younger actress for the role.

So, this is clearly an argument of the author of Envision. It was a very well put argument, but an argument nonetheless. It may be a bit contradictory that they posed their own hidden argument in the chapter about arguments. Though overall, the parallel drawn in this chapter between film and writing was very useful for me.