Paige Ward

ME & MY MOVIES

• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

• The Avengers

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

GENRE: FANTASY ACTION FILM

TRANSFORMERS:REVENGE OF THE FALLEN

Director: Michael BayRelease Dates: June 19th 2009 (UK) June 24 th 2009 (US)

PLOTThe film is set two years after the events of Transformers. The Autobots have found a home in "NEST", a secret military unit created to eliminate the remaining Decepticons, and Sam is starting college and trying to leave his Transformer-laden past behind. The Decepticons are regrouping, however. Megatron is restored to life, and his master, The Fallen, schemes to activate an energon-producing Star Harvester on Earth, which will destroy the planet and provide the Decepticons with enough energon to raise an army. The Harvester's location, and the means to activate it, are hidden within Sam's mind, leading the Decepticons to wage war across the Earth as they hunt down the human. Witwicky turns to some unlikely allies to escape and survive. Ultimately, the last of the Primes defeats The Fallen, destroys the Harvester, and proves the Autobots' greatest power is found in their unexpectedly-ancient alliance with the humans.

THE AVENGERS:

Director: Joss WhedonRelease Dates: April 11th 2012

PLOT:Loki, the stepbrother of Thor, teams-up with the Chitauri Army and uses the Tesseract power to travel from Asgard to Earth to plot the invasion of Earth by the Chitauri and become the king of Earth. The director of the agency S.H.I.E.L.D Nick Fury sets in motion the project The Avengers, joining Tony Stark a.k.a. the Iron Man; Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America; Bruce Banner, a.k.a. The Hulk; Thor; Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow; and Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, to save the world from the powerful Loki and the alien invasion.

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX:

Director: David Yates Release Dates: July 11th 2007

PLOT:After a lonely summer on Privet Drive, Harry returns to a Hogwarts full of ill-fortune. Few of students and parents believe him or Dumbledore that Voldemort is really back. The ministry had decided to step in by appointing a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher that proves to be the nastiest person Harry has ever encountered. Harry also can't help stealing glances with the beautiful Cho Chang. To top it off are dreams that Harry can't explain, and a mystery behind something Voldemort is searching for. With these many things Harry begins one of his toughest years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

CHOSEN GENRE

The genre I’ve chosen is ‘Fantasy Action’, the type of fantasy in all three of my chosen films is ‘heroic fantasy.’ All 3 films also include the ‘sci-fi’ genre, I chose this genre because I like films which include fictional characters, lands and etc… Instead of just making a film on actual events or people they’re making their own characters and putting more thought into their films. It shows the creativity which has been put into a film. Also I think the actors are important in a film for example in the The Avengers the characters/actors made me want to watch the film because all of the superheroes have their own films which I enjoyed watching for example Thor, Iron man, The hulk, Captain American and etc… Even though the trailer was one of the main reasons for me wanting to watch ‘The Avengers.’ Also when watching the sneak peaks and trailers I liked the look of the special effects, this was a main factor for me wanting to watch all three of these film. Another reason is because of the sound effects, I think it made some scenes more intense.

Reception theory is how we reach to films based on our age, social class and cultural background. The media producer will encode meaning in the film which the audience decodes by either agreeing with them (preferred), understanding the meaning of the film but neither like or dislike it (negotiation) and finally completely disagreeing with the director and disliking the film (oppositional.) One of my preferred films is transformers, I love all three films and the fantasy side to them. Also most ‘superhero’ films use people with super powers to help save the world, instead of using people they’ve used transforming robots, I also like the idea of how they disguise as cars so no body suspects them. One of my favourite things about this film is the special effects. This is one of my favourite genres of film, I think this is because of my age and my upbringing.

Reception Theory

Intertexuality

Intertexuality is when a media products like films, music videos and TV shows include text from other media products, for example in ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon 2011’ Leonard Nemoy voices a characters. At the beginning of the film two other characters are watching ‘Star Trek’, this is a reference to Leanord Nemoy’s most famous iconic role as Spock. Intertexuality sometimes encourages me to watch films, I don’t look up what Intertexuality a film has but sometimes I notice it while watching certain films. Intertexuality can be shown in a variety of ways for example The Black Widow from The Avengers has a variety of different characters from other films which are similar such as Elastigirl from The Incredibles and Selene from Underworld. Harry Potter has a lot of Intertexuality with Lord Of the Rings, for example they both have wise wizards who look like each other and the protagonists like to lean on them. Also both of the protagonists are orphans, this has been used in a variety of films with this genre now. Another Intertexuality is the gifts the Elf queen gives the hobbits and the gifts Dumbledore gives Harry, Ron and Hermione. The cloak of invisibility and the light.

STAR THEORY:Star Theory is when a certain star in a film attracts you to watch it. Theirs a lot of stars which I like and I watch films because they’re in such as The Avengers, the characters/actors made me want to watch the film because all of the superheroes have their own films which I enjoyed watching for example Thor, Iron man, The hulk, Captain American and etc… Also Captain American ‘Chris Evans’ is in a variety of other films which I like such as fantastic four and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, he’s a good actor in these films and is also good looking. Since watching all of the Harry Potter films I watch new films or trailers which include certain actors from the film such as Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson because they’re good actors.

Frameworks of interpretation: Spiderman

http://youtu.be/atCfTRMyjGU

• Code & Conventions:Keeps the normal conventions of a fantasy action film e.g. superhero has to spot the antagonist from taking over the world and succeeds, during this he falls in love with the woman who wants to help him. Theirs a variety of props used in the trailer such as weapons, cards, football and needles. This conforms to the genre of the film.

• Setting: New York City, Science lab, high school.

• Character:Peter Parker/Spiderman: Main character, hides his identity, parents died, protagonist. Peters Uncle: Father figure, helps Peter find himself and his father. DR Conner’s/ Lizard: Antagonist, tries to destroys the world, Spiderman helped create him and he worked with Peters father before he died.

• Themes:

The themes in this trailer are revenge, good triumphing over evil, life & death and romance. This conforms to the genre.

• Narrative: The narrative on the trailer is sequential, it goes back in time to when Peter is younger, also Denouement because the hero lives.

• Iconography: New York skyline and Yellow taxis.

• Ideological message: The messages the trailer gives are goodness will prevail, all will end well and goodness will triumph over evil.

• Code & Conventions: keeps the normal conventions to the fantasy action genre e.g. the superhero has to stop the antagonist (his brother) and succeeds, during this he falls in love with the woman who wants to help him. Their isn’t many props in the trailer, some of the props I saw are a lorry, Thors hammer and cars.

• Setting: New york- Asgrad (world of gods)

• Character: Thor: protagonist, Brave, good looking. Loki: Antagonist, Thor’s brother. Dr Jane Foster: Scientist, helps protagonist, falls in love with Thor

• Themes: The themes in this trailer are revenge, life & death and romance.

• Narrative: The trailers narrative is sequential because it goes back in time, narrative and denouement because the hero lives.

• Iconography: The only iconography I can see in the trailer is power.

• Ideological message: The messages given while watching this trailer are goodness will prevail and all will end well.

Frameworks of interpretation: Thor 2

http://youtu.be/3bFZJ-3zNFg

Frameworks of interpretation: Xmen

• Code & Conventions: keeps the normal conventions of the fantasy action genre e.g. The group of superhero’s stop the antagonists from destroying the world, eventually they succeed. The story is done in a different way to my other chosen film trailers though. The props that are in the trailer are computers/laptops, cars and weapons.

• Character:

Wolverine: Protagonist, brave, strong Sabretooth: Antagonist Cyclops: Protagonist Mystique: AntagonistStorm: Protagonist, brave Toad: Antagonist, cockyRogue: Protagonist, scared Magneto: Antagonist, leader. Jean Grey: Protagonist Professor X: Protagonist, main character, in charge.

• Themes: Life & Death and good triumphing over evil.

• Iconography:Power

• Ideological message:The messages the trailer gives out are goodness will prevail and all will end well.

There’s a variety of ways I find out about films the main one is friends and family telling me about trailers or films they’ve seen, another way I find out about films is social networking, Facebook is a big one when scrolling down my news feeds I sometimes see film trailers which other people have shared/ liked. Also twitter because I follow actors which I like and they sometimes post new films which they’re acting in. Majority of the time I look on cinema websites, mainly Odeon, to see what films have recently come out and I watch trailers on YouTube to see if I’d enjoy it.

MEDIA LITERACY:

ACTIVE SPECTATORSHIP:

Every viewer is different and many of them will question the film and react to it in different ways than others, this is similar to reception theory.

Sometimes the audience of a film become a big fan and create fan clubs to get the film a wider audience and to organise things such as conventions. This has happened with many films such as Star wars, the Star wars convention happens every year in Europe and thousands of fans from all around the world come to it, some dressed up in darth vador, storm troopers and etc…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBb0sbOLgfY

There’s also some conventions for the genre I’ve chosen for example theirs one in Manchester every year for comic books which is organised by ‘ComicCon’, this year it’s on 19-20th July at Manchester Central it’s open from 11am-6pm on both days. A variety of comic book fans, which includes Xmen and Marvel, from all over the world come to see it and some even go dressed up as their favourite superhero. They have a variety of activities going on all day and you’re able to meet some famous people at this convention. http://vimeo.com/71808905

Theirs also a variety of different comic book conventions across the world which is organised by ComicCon. Another big film with quite a few conventions across the world is Harry Potter, theirs one in London every year.