dissertation question to tutor!

Writing my dissertation i am wary i need to have a structure as i tend to get a sense of being lost and not knowing what to write down and where, even tho i feel i know what i would like to talk about. To help me move on, I emailed my tutor because i wasn't quite sure as to where i would place some of my knowledge and research.


Hi Mike

I have a question regarding my dissertation which is an investigation into cinematography and lighting in film.

does it make more sense for me to write a chapter on the equipment and techniques (in general) and then use separate chapters to write examples of the cinematographers i.e chapter 1. equipment and techniques, chapter 2. roger deakins, chapter 3. stanley kubrick, chapter 4. orson welles etc.

or....

do i write examples of Deakins kubrick and welles work to explain the equipment used within the equipment and techniques chapter?

I hope this makes some sense to you

Yoni

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Hi Yoni,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. It's a good question, and yes it made sense. In my experience quite often people find it easier to initially write individual chapters on either the films themselves, or the directors. Then what we find is that once we have that information we can then begin to see if there are any commonalities that may support your discussion, for example did two of the directors work in a particular way to convey a message or use lighting evoke a particular kind of emotional response in the viewer. 

I don't see why you can't mention Kubrik and deakins etc in the equipment or techniques chapters buy you may say that this will be discussed in more depth later.

So, in the first instance keep the directors/films as separate chapters, then as this progresses we may begin to combine them.

Hopefully that makes sense too.

Have a good weekend

Michael