Before reading Roger Ebert’s essay, I honestly thought watching a movie and understanding a movie were basically the same thing. Ebert completely changed that perspective for me. One of my biggest takeaways was that every choice in a film is intentional. Camera angles, editing, shot sizes, and movement are not just there to make something look cool. They are there to influence how we think and feel about what we are seeing.

Ebert argues that viewers should learn how movies communicate visually, and after watching the videos, I started noticing how much information filmmakers can give us without saying a single word. A movie is almost like a language. Once you understand some of the techniques, you start seeing how directors guide your emotions and attention throughout a scene.

The video that stood out to me the most was Hitchcock Loves Bikinis. What fascinated me was how Alfred Hitchcock demonstrated that the meaning of a shot changes depending on what comes before or after it. In the example, we first see a man looking at a woman holding a baby. When he smiles, we interpret him as kind and caring. However, when Hitchcock replaces the image of the woman and baby with a woman in a bikini, the exact same smile suddenly makes the man seem creepy. Nothing about the actor changed. The facial expression stayed the same. The only thing that changed was the shot that was placed between his two reactions.

That example really helped me understand the power of editing. As viewers, we naturally create connections between shots even when the film never directly explains them. It made me realize that editing is not just putting clips together,and it actually creates meaning. I never thought about how much control editors have over the way audiences interpret a character.

I also watched the video about the 15 essential camera shots. Before this, I knew terms like “close-up” and “zoom,” but I never really understood why filmmakers choose them. The explanation of close-ups made a lot of sense because they force us to focus on emotions and facial expressions. When a director wants us to feel what a character is feeling, a close-up removes distractions and makes us pay attention. On the other hand, long shots show the character’s relationship to their environment. They can make someone seem isolated, vulnerable, or even insignificant depending on how much space surrounds them.

The section on camera angles was especially interesting because I realized directors can manipulate our perception of power. A low-angle shot can make a character seem dominant or intimidating, while a high-angle shot can make them appear weak or powerless. Thinking about some of my favorite shows and movies, I started noticing that these techniques are everywhere. We often understand who has power in a scene before anyone even speaks.

Another technique that stood out was the Dutch angle. Tilting the camera slightly makes the frame feel uncomfortable and unbalanced. Even if viewers do not consciously recognize what is happening, they can still feel that something is wrong. I think that is what makes filmmaking so interesting. A lot of these techniques work on us without us even realizing it.

Finally, I watched the video about one-point perspective in Stanley Kubrick’s films. What impressed me most was how symmetrical his shots are. The centered compositions naturally pull your eyes toward a single point in the frame. The effect is strangely satisfying but also unsettling at times. In movies like The Shining, those perfectly balanced shots create a feeling that everything is controlled, while also making the audience feel trapped inside the environment. It showed me that even something as simple as where objects are placed within the frame can affect the mood of a scene.

Overall, Ebert’s essay and these videos helped me understand that movies are carefully constructed experiences. Every cut, angle, movement, and composition choice serves a purpose. What surprised me most is that many of these techniques are invisible when they are done well. We feel their effects without noticing them. After completing this assignment, I know I will never watch movies the same way again. Instead of only paying attention to the story, I will also be paying attention to how the story is being told.