Genre Film Tasks

                                                           
                                                           Film Clips - DISTINCT

 In this lesson we learnt a new acronym that can be used to identify the genre of films, the acronym is called DISTINCT: Describe, In detail, Setting, Themes, Icons, Narrative, Characters and Textual analysis.

                                                                 Ghost Ship

The mere title of this film somewhat suggests it is a horror. However, the first extreme long shot pictures the huge cruise ship surrounded by a grey, cloudy sky. The producer intends to use pathetic fallacy in the first camera shot to set a gloomy atmosphere, as if something strange is going to happen. Opposingly, the mood inside the ship is generally happy, implying how the evil intentions of the group who orchestrate the atrocity are well hidden right up until the incident.

One significant icon is the singer's dress, the dress is red in colour representing blood and danger. Another icon is the flowers above the girl's head while she sits down at the start, the flowers have a theme of innocence emphasising the guiltlessness of all the victims especially the young girl who somehow survives.

The narrative of this clip starts with the singer asking for everyone to dance showing how she is the architect in the evil plan. The wire itself is an important symbol because it signifies how unexpected the attack was as you would not normally associate a wire as something that could cause so much damage.







                                                                Harry Brown

The first scene is set in a dark tunnel in the midst of night. A group of young men are gathered with hoodies and they seem quite intimidating creating an eerie atmosphere as if they are up to no good. The graffiti on the walls gives the perception that they may be gangsters who are about to recruit a new member to their gang. The setting changes along with the narrative as the newly recruited male is riding a motorcycle in broad daylight.

There is one major icon throughout this opening which is the gun. The gun features in both scenes. Firstly, it is handed to the new recruit in the dark tunnel at night and it also appears when an innocent woman is shot with the same gun by the same man. The character who shoots the woman has the longest screen time in this opening suggesting that the film will be based around him.

The narrative is left on a cliffhanger, because it ends with the woman falling to the floor and the man fleeing the scene only to be ironically knocked off his motorcycle. The use of textual analysis really captivates the reality of the situation because of the point of view camera shot. This shows how the film is an action/thriller genre as the significant incidents that happen in the opening are very hard-hitting, especially when it all goes to complete silence in the closing seconds after the crash.

Narrative

                                                                        Narrative

In today's lesson we were introduced to a technique producers use to retell a story, this is known as narrative. Moreover, we looked at various individuals who have theories which apply for most narratives. Roland Barthes was a French theorist and discovered that narratives have three codes, action, symbolic and enigma codes. This breaks down into what happens in the narrative, what symbols appear and what effect does this have on the viewer. Tzvetan Todorov, a Bulgarian-French philosopher, noticed how a situation changes when the equilibrium is disturbed. Claude Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and his theory is that our perspective of the world is due to many binary opposites. Finally, Vladimir Propp studied Russian tales and he came to the conclusion that every narrative contains eight broad characters: the hero, the villain, the doner, the dispatcher, a false hero, the helper, the princess and the father.


                                                                  Up Opening Scene

This particular scene from Disney Pixar's Up is a narrative of the relationship between the two main characters of the film, Carl and Ellie. The opening scene shows the newly wed couple move into a relatively run-down house and they then decorate the house together. Immediately, the producer uses various binary opposites (Levi Strauss) to show the start of the adventure within the relationship between a male and a female, however in this situation it shows love rather than conflict. In addition, the producer uses two of Barthes' codes, the first being an action code of the couple decorating the house. When the couple finish decorating the house the audience will ask the question 'what will they do now?', this is part of Barthes' enigma code. Not only do we notice how Barthes' codes are shown in the opening fourty seconds of the scene, we also see how the narrative moves forward as they have completed decorating the house so that another factor must enter their journey as husband and wife.

The clouds in the sky are symbolic codes found in Barthes' theory on narrative. For example, the cloud that looks a lot like a baby signifies how the relationship is moving forward so they start to experience the want for children just like any other conventional couple. There is a crossover scene where the couple are shown decorating what looks like a child's room however then they are seen in a room both looking distraught as they hear some devastating news that they are unable to have children. In this crossover scene, we see that the theory of Todorov is introduced as the current equilibrium of a couple who are full of life is immensely disrupted by the fact that they are unable to produce new life into their wonderful adventure. The producer really captures this scene with real sadness when the music is vastly slowed to signify a tragic moment. Secondly, the room changes from a colourful children's bedroom to a lifeless hospital waiting room with a sense of dejection and sorrow. This is a binary opposite because the entire narrative turns from joy and excitement to outright disappointment in a brief moment.

The next scene begins with Carl handing Ellie a book called 'Mon Livre d'Aventure' (Barthes' action code). This action allows for the narrative to move on as we then see Ellie painting a picture of the couple's next step in their adventure however they need to start saving money. Todorov's equilibrium experiences yet another disturbance when Carl's tyre bursts on his car. This means that the money they had saved had to be invested in a new car tyre. We also see how the couple's misfortune escalates further when Carl suffers from a broken leg meaning their savings become worthless for a second time. These incidents are symbols that are subliminally telling the viewers that the couple will never reach their goal in life as they are constantly interrupted.

The narrative continues with a series of quickfire scenes of Carl's collection of ties, this shows how the story speeds up because we then see Carl and Ellie with grey hair and wrinkles on their faces. It is at this stage where Levi-Strauss' opposite of old & young suggests that the narrative is coming to an end. Carl decides to surprise Ellie with tickets to their favourite place but Ellie suffers with illness so they cannot go. In the final few scenes, we see how Carl's life becomes lonely again as he sits alone at Ellie's funeral with a balloon in his life. The balloon is a symbol suggesting how the only thing he has now is his lifelong passion for balloons.

Genre Picture Task

                                                                 
                                                                   Film Picture Task

For this practical task we were asked to produce three pictures that relate to a certain film genre. In the lesson we looked at the characteristics that tell us about different genres and themes. As a warm-up task we analysed the Nightmare on Elm Street film poster and identified the features in the image that portrays the film as a horror movie.


                           
                               Picture 1

This picture has a genre of Science-Fiction. Notice how the individual in the image is presented sporting a bright blue hairstyle whilst standing in front of a mysterious, inflatable arena. These two factors show how the setting is make belief therefore makes it a fictional genre.


                                                                                                           
                                                                                                          Picture 2 - Horror 

Here we created an image with a horror genre. The fundamental feature that makes this similar to a horror movie is the girl beside the tree. The girl's face is unrecognisable which suggests how she may be possessed by the devil or she may even be a ghost. Secondly, the background looks as though it has been abandoned and you can see a haunted-looking cottage in the distance.                                      
               

                  Picture 3 - Love/romance     

For the final image, the genre is not so obvious at first glance. However, the picture shows a tree with many leaves blocking the bright light of the clear summer sky. Both the tree and the sky are things of undoubted natural beauty therefore shows how this is the perfect setting for a love story.

Representation

                                                                   Representation

For this task, we were asked to choose a film opening or poster which portrays a stereotypical depiction of a certain class, age, gender, ethnicity or sexuality. I chose the film poster of the 2008 film Choke as it clearly shows a stereotypical representation of male and females.

en.wikipedia.org

In this poster of the film Choke, it is obvious to see how a woman's body is half-inserted into a man's mouth. This film is based on a man's addiction to sex who repeatedly fakes choking in restaurants in order to compensate for his mother's healthcare. Here we have two negative representations; the first is based on the objectification of women. In this poster, we do not only see the metaphorical image of objectification, we are also presented with a literal version of the message. This is because only half of the woman's body is visible and it is quite clear how the artist has chosen the bottom half as the man pictured only sees women as an opportunity for sexual pleasure. We all know that women are independent, strong and well-respected individuals which raises the question 'why do we only see her legs?'. This is because the man is pictured literally 'choking' on his addiction which in this case is the addiction  to women.

Although we see the objectification  of women, we also presented with the perception how men are seen as nothing but sexually-motivated monsters. The face of the man is a silhouette, therefore he is portrayed as a dark, shady character which in reality he may just be a man who wants to fulfill his task of keeping his ill mother comforted as much as possible with the best quality healthcare. Furthermore, notice how the man also has no distinct facial expression. This forces the audience to view men as emotionless people who do not care for any people but themselves as individuals. Quite clearly, the poster forces oppositional reading as the audience will immediately gain a vision of a vulnerable woman and a psychopathic man rather than the preferred reading where it intends to show a man's struggle with his addiction who wants to help his mother.

To summarise, both of the representations depicted in this controversial film poster are clearly false messages. Both of these representations are based on ideology from previous times therefore shows how society has moved on and equality between men and women has also moved on despite there being minorities of people who still think differently about social equality. 

Semiotics

                                                                             Semiotics

For this task we need to choose a film poster of our choice and analyse the semiotic content of the poster. For this task I chose the 1983 film poster from Scarface.

cloudpix.co

Immediately, there are three distinct colours that the audience can see, two of which are vertically opposite to each other. Half of the poster contains a black background and half contains a white background. The initial denotation of using such contrasting colours contains endless connotations that the audience can imagine while viewing this image. Firstly, the use of black has connotations of death, corruption and evil. One significant element which can be seen is how the gun in the character's hand is edging towards the black half of the poster. This is an interesting attribute because you are able to see how an innocent man has great power with a simple object like a gun. The man's power within his gun is exploited when there are situations of corruption and evil, therefore the simple object in his hand can cause great destruction if all the connotations of the colour black are influential in the actions and approach of the shady-looking man.

Furthermore, the right side of the poster is a background of the colour white which has almost opposite connotations to the colour black. For example, the colour white signifies purity, innocence and cleanliness. The producer has used this contrast to convey a vision where the character is split between two extremes; pure and evil. The producer's idea of the preferred reading is for the audience to ask the question 'Is this guy good or bad?' however it is impossible to conclude this by simply looking at the poster and its hidden symbols. 

In addition, notice how the character displayed is dressed in an expensive-looking suit which initially portrays him as a business man who seems very punctual and hard-working. Moments later, we see how the man is equipped with weapon which totally changes our stereotypical view of this man. Now the man is associated with the appearance of an Italian-American gangster who is involved in the World's largest organised crime movement. A mere object in his hand changes the entire impression we have on this man's life. 

The final obvious denotation is the use of the colour red. This has connotations of blood, anger and the devil which changes the perception even further. This time the audience can probably gather that the setting of the film would be one full of blood, fighting and plenty of nail-biting action. Overall, i feel that the producer's use of semiotics causes the audience to feel anxious as to what significant role the character plays and whether the fight between innocence and evil comes to a justifiable end.