The first, and many feel most difficult, task is to find something to write about. You are writing an analysis, not merely a plot summary or a description of characters. That means you need to look at some significant idea or issue or theme or technique (I'd not recommend looking at technical elements of style unless you've got some solid background in analyzing fiction) of the work. Since we are juggling both film and literature, much of your work will be comparison/contrast. Nevertheless, you will need to develop a thesis, which means you will need some point to argue and support.
A thesis USUALLY is developed as an answer to a series of questions you ask about the work (or works). After reading Julion Cortazar's short story "Blow-Up" (you can view an online version here if you are interested) and watching Michelangeolo Antonioni's film version, you might wonder:
Why would a noted Italian filmmaker, borrowing from an Argentinian writer move the setting of the story to Swinging London of the 1960's?
Is changing the main character from a photographer/writer/translator to just a fashion photographer significant?
The title, "Blow-up" literally refers to blowing up the photographic image, but does it have any other significance?
etc. Look for answers to your questions; look for patterns in the works; you may want to do some research (if you use research material, be sure to document it in your finished paper); eventually you should find some single area you can explore in a paper. Your thesis might be, for example,
Yes, this is a pretty heady topic, and it fits right in with Lecture 2 and Discussion 2; it would also make a great topic for your first essay (you are welcome to use it if you wish). Next you will want to find evidence in the text that supports this thesis. I hope you take good notes when you read and watch the works :)
After you build up a healthy list of examples which support your thesis, you'll craft your essay using the observation-quotation-explanation method; in essence, you will make some statements (your observations), back them up with examples (documented quotations from the text), and discuss how they develop your thesis (explain them in relation to the point of the paragraph or to the point of your essay as a whole). Here's an example:
Note: in the above section, the quotation is followed by a parenthetical citation; in this case the quotation is from page 213 of a short story anthology that would be listed on a Works Cited page).
Here's another example which illustrates the observation/quotation/comment pattern, but this time it's a little different. You certainly can quote directly from a screenplay or replay bits of a DVD to get the wording exact, but, generally, when you are pulling examples from films, you will typically describe scenes rather than quote; otherwise, the pattern is the same:
Mainly, you want to stay away from simple biography and plot summary. You are trying to look for ideas and issues and techniques in the works you read and movies you view. The days of book reports are long past.
More Writing Ideas: (reinforcing the sidebar above) Although it's not shown in MLA format and is shorter than our essays (which are a minimum of four full pages in standard MLA format), there is a sample student essay on "Violence in A Clockwork Orange" in Appendix 2 of our Anatomy of Film text.