PR1 assignment
IntroductionThere is more than one way to analyse a film as
there are different genres and directors behind each film. One well
known genre theorist would be Steve Neale who once said Genres are
instances of repetition and difference. For an example of Steve
Neales theory, I could say that a film like Star Wars is like the
Star Trek film(s) are very similar due to the space travel and
visiting other planets where the heroes meet new factions of
extra-terrestrials. Then there are the differences of the two
films, such as the facts that in the Star Wars movies, we see two
sides battling it out, The Jedi and The Sith, these sides use
Lightsabers, devices which act like swords for combat, but then we
have Star Trek which uses mostly humour and intelligence to solve
problems. Another Genre Theorist would be Daniel Chandler who once
said Genres Constitute of themes, setting, structure and style that
are shared by texts. This quote presents the theory that films all
share the same style of writing but settings, themes and structure
of a film may vary. This goes well for remakes or re-imaginings of
films from decades ago that are put in different locations and a
slightly different theme, like turning a happy film set in a very
vibrant area into a very dark and menacing film set in a dull are,
even though these both have different settings and looks, they
still have the same story and very similar writing. The final genre
theorist, Nick Lacey believed that movies were made with fixed
elements, all were essential to successfully make any kind of
movie. These elements are: Setting, characters, narrative,
iconography and style. For a Comedy film you would need these
elements: Setting City/neighbourhoods, Characters Steve Carell and
Jim Carrey, Narrative events Old friends spend time together as one
or both of them are divorced They decide to find some fun out in
the city they get dragged into a situation which puts them at risk
and have no choice but to go through with it their humour ends up
saving the day getting them out of a lot of trouble, Iconography
Busy city/bars/organizations, Style Bright colours to display the
characters personality, tracking shots when characters in
conversation, Diegetic sound is dialogue but non-diegetic sound is
music.
Part 1
Nick LaceyUsing Laceys repertoire of elements, it can be quite
easy to define a film even by just looking at the poster.The poster
for the film Central intelligence makes it looks like a movie set
in and around America where two characters: the badass and the
business type that seem toknow each other, there may be a lot of
abandoned buildings for its iconography, there might be a slightly
dark tone in the comedys narrative as the two guys may turn on one
another make it hard for the story to be tied up at the end. In
happy scenes there may be mid shots and two shots presented in high
lighting, More tense and sad scenes may have one shots in low key
lighting.
Leon and James BondThe film Leon is an action thriller based on
an Italian man who has come to New York to work for an old friend
as a hitman that takes down people that are contracted to him by a
client. The film starts with a scene where Leon is sent to take
down a smartly dressed drug dealer team that has gone against his
boss. After Leon has dealt with the man he goes home but on his way
is greeted by a 14-year-old girl that looks depressed about
something. Leon speaks to the girl for a few seconds but then
leaves to his apartment. Suddenly a mysterious enemy is brought to
light and Leon is eventually sent to stop it.
The mise en scene of Leon includes guns, melee weapons, fancy
old cars, New York taxi cabs and nicely decorated buildings. For
sound, the film Leon uses the banging of gun shots and explosions
which made use of amplified sound (which was relatively new at the
time), it also includes a lot of dialogue and a mixture of dramatic
and calming music. Within the editing of Leon, we see a lot of
cross cuts to show each sides view (good and bad) on an event and
slow paced editing when there is no action going on between those
two sides. The movie makes great use of camera angles to fit a
scenes theme as it runs through to give it the right atmosphere and
such camera angles were close ups or extreme close ups when trying
to make the setting of the scene claustrophobic. Bond movies share
many of these except they always like to keep up to the more modern
and British style instead of making everything old fashioned. One
very notable difference is that there is never one specific place
for Bond to be in the movie. Because Bond never stays in one place
allows for many more Establishing shots than is in the film Leon
and also allows for long shots in the films as well to show off the
beauty of each unique location.
Part 2
Mean GirlsThe 2004 teen comedy, Mean Girls is directed by Mark
Waters and is a story about a new girl (Cady Heron) at an American
High School that has just come from Africa with her Zoologist
parents. When Cady first arrives at the High School, she finds it
hard to get used to but on the second day she ends up finding
herself making friends with a couple of outcasts called Janis and
Daniel that are really nice to her. Later on the second day she is
invited to sit with The Plastics, as long as she follows the rules
of how to stay in the group. The Plastics are enemies to both of
the friends that Cady had just made earlier on and the fact that
Cady has been asked to join them, incites the incident that the
movies plot is based on. Cadys asked to be the undercover snitch
for Janis and Daniel to see what the Plastics are up to on a day to
day basis. Throughout the first few weeks Cady gets closer and
closer to The Plastics and is eventually shown the burn book. The
burn book is where anyone who the plastics hate gets something mean
said about them. This leads on to the whole of the rest of the
story.
The main character Cady is the new girl in the big world of High
School and is just getting used to the way of learning in
mainstream schooling. We know this because it is made clear at the
start of the movie that she has just arrived in America recently
from being Home Schooled in Africa. Her characteristics in the
beginning are very cautious as no one knows her and this means she
has a whole year to make an image for herself. There are the
relatively morally good friends that the main character gets
introduced to early on that try to the main character through
through the first week. Finally, there is the group of popular
girls that you would normally think would bully the new girl into
wanting to leave but instead decide to also become her friends, not
knowing that she has other friends.
The general setting (Mise en scene) is based around an American
High School where there is a lot of space for a lot of people.
There is a shopping mall close to the High School where all the
characters like to hang out on long breaks. In the general area
there are a lot of houses that we get to see some of and are taken
inside a few.A lot of the camera angles are close-ups when a
character is feeling uncomfortable or is being described. Mid shots
are sometimes used when a character has no one next to them when
they are talking. If there is a group of people in a line, then
there will be a group shot to show them interacting with each other
in certain scenes.
A lot of the diegetic sound is dialogue and the non-diegetic
sound is just music.
Finally, the editing contains a lot of split screen in the
scenes where multiple characters are talking on the phone as each
person joins. Right at the end of the movie there is a quick
montage of the characters lives, post of the main story this
concludes the film with various scenes and gives a great
climax.
Part 3
Auteur TheoryQuentin Tarantino is an auteur Director that likes
to make movies that are dark, gritty and tend to have a lot of
violence and contains quite a few adult themes. One of his latest
films The Hateful Eight is a very gritty Western starring Samuel L.
Jackson as Major Marquis Warren and Kurt Russell as John Ruth (Top
2 credited on IMDB). The film follows the story of a bounty hunter
that puts together a team of seven other people to take down a
nefarious villain. There are many moments of violence, which
include a lot of guts and gore. Another short example would be Kill
Bill as both the volumes that are out contains very strongscenes of
violence and bad language frequently throughout the whole 2
films.
Another Auteur Director would be Tim Burton. Tim Burton also
makes films with dark twists, but also make the films light hearted
when it fits. One of his more popular film, The Nightmare Before
Christmas is a film set in a town that is always celebrating
Halloween and not everybody is happy about it. All the characters
have different features that give them some sort of unique horror
film style look. The film actually gets darker when you would think
it would be happier which splits the film from any other. Another
one of his best movies is Edward Scissorhands which barely ever
lets go of the tension as it continues to be a dark and when the
tone changes to a much lighter tone, it makes the film feel
fresh.
A director like Jared Hess who made the film Napoleon Dynamite
seems to be a director that makes very lighthearted and very
comedic movies that are well written in terms of jokes and general
narrative going along with the movie. Another one of his movies
Shanghai Noon is yet another comedy but has two main characters
instead of one (Napoleon Dynamite), this allowed the jokes to be a
lot better as they are being shared as if they were being shared in
a general conversation.
