MEDIA RESOURCES

There are multiple channels on YouTube, such as Every Frame a Painting and Channel Criswell, which explores how narratives and cinematic techniques help to build captivating motion pictures.  One channel, Lessons from the Screenplay, focuses on what makes certain stories work effectively.  For example, the channel offers a video on Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and how it uses elements from noir cinema to communicate the ideas behind the movie.  Michael, the host of the channel, summarizes how the film portrays its antagonists in an empathetic light, the police as cold and unlikeable, and its protagonist as a mediator outside the two to create a sense of mixed morality in an unfair world.  Almost every video Michael creates takes this shape; They look at a film with strong narrative structure, then describe how that structure benefits the movie, educating and hopefully inspiring potential writers.