In chapter 4 of the text book, the author talks about different kinds of formalism. The author defines formalism as a name often ti film criticism concerned with matters of structure and style in a movie, or with how features discussed in chapter 3 are organized in particular ways in a movie. The author talks about different examples of how a formalist might investigate a narrative differently.

 One example is through the film, His Girl Friday. In this example, the author says that a writer might look for stylistic or formal repetition in the editing or writing because they would be able to describe how they work to the rest of the film. This type of formalism is directed towards the audience. The critic would study how each screen, color, sounds, or anything else in the film has an effect on the audience watching the film.

The second example that the author gave was for the movie, Shane. In this example, the author says to choose a visually complex scene and describe how it works and why it is important to the movie. In the movie there is a quick and involved look between the four main characters, this set up a social relationship through the remainder of the film. This was important for the movie because it developed the characters of the movie into who they were for the rest of the movie