The philosophy of motion pictures has typically been explored in a top-down fashion. The essence of motion pictures is identified - usually understood in terms of photographic film - and every other feature of the film is weighed in relation to that essence.

Philosophy of Motion Pictures offers a new approach, championing the concept of the moving image in a more freestyle manner. Motion pictures are defined in a way that not only embraces the media in which moving images exist, but which also affirms the variety of purposes they may legitimately serve. Characterizations of key cinematic elements -- the shot, the sequence, the erotetic narrative, and its modes of affective address -- are not deduced from first principles, but rather from topic to topic in a piecemeal fashion. The result is a more pluralistic review of this emerging field of study than is found in more conventional texts on film theory.

Topics include film as art, medium specificity, defining the moving image, representation, editing, narrative, emotion and evaluation. These topics reflect the legacy of traditional film theory for the contemporary philosophy of the moving image, while suggesting a new direction for theorizing the motion picture.