In this mini essay, i'm going to compare and contrast Stormbreaker and The Women In Black.
Stormbreaker, firstly is alot slower than average action films, but very well paced, I thought. At first, it starts with nothing but a blank screen with a few titles. Then, there is a soundbridge of a seemingly middleaged man talking quite loudly, as he continues speaking, it begins to fade in, showing a class sitting on chairs, it then pans around individual students, it then gets to a young man, we know as Alex, we then diegetically hear a man call alex up to the front, and Alex does as he is asked. Next we hear the non-diegetic fast paced, bumpy music in the background, and as Alex begings to speak, it very quckly cuts to his uncle seemingly lighting a fuse, or something similiar. It then cuts back to Alex, and we begin to noticed that he is dressed differently to almost everyone in the room, and as the camera goes around the class, we also find out that he is generally disliked by most of his class mates. From the fact that the teenager is seemingly the main character, we can surmise that this film, typically, is going to be aimed at teenagers, or young adults.
In contrast, The Women In Black is completley different, the titles may connote danger or fear, which lets the audience know what they will be watching will be a thriller or maybe even a horror, we can safely assume this because of the dark colours used, and the use of the black background and white writing. From the opening we also know from what the characters are saying, that this is going to be some sort of psychological movie, and this lets us know that the audience are going to have to be older to understand the film, or connect with it.
After watching these openings, we've decided to take things from both. We used Stormbreaker's use of enigma codes in the opening and titles, but we took the 'knowing what you're going to watch' from Women In Black.
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
After a bad year at school, a young lonely boy called Edwardo decides to dissapear into his grandmas tent in her back garden, in the hope that no one will remember him. Things go from bad to worse when the last 4 people to see him alive are taken into a room and interviewed by a policeman who is so stupid, he shows pictures of himself in a bikini rather than the boy who's missing. Meanwhile, a girl called Hannah, who is secretly inlove with him, carries on with the search to find her one true love.
As the film fades into a eerily dark area, in the distance we can see a small, rickety tent being flung around in strong winds, and inside the tent, we see a small light flickering (which is one of those fake, paper candles), as the camera zooms in a bit more, we go inside the tent we can see a boy writing in a pink, fluffy, sparkly diary, with a unicorn on it. As a voiceover begins, he introduces himself as Edward Fredreko, and tells the audience that the audience that he has run away, into the deep realms of his grandmothers back garden "A.K.A the fortress"
We then quickly flashback to the beginning of Edwardo's day. He is walking alone towards his secondary school, in the shot, we can see that behind him are two girls pointing and laughing at him. In a voiceover from Edwardo, we are told that he has a 'dark dark secret, darker than his favourite skinny jeans', which has haunted his poor soul since he was of the tender age of five. He tries to ignored the jibes, and walks further towards school, as we hear the diegetic sound of the school bell, as the camera stops and follows Edwardo from behind, we see that as soon as he walks past someone, they point, snort and laugh at him.
The scene then cuts to Edwardo standing at his locker, presumably just before lunch time, and a group of girls walk slowly past him, and mock him for his attire, and then walk off, however one pretty girl stays and comforts the upset Edwardo, and introduces herself as Hannah. Edwardo tells us that this is Hannah, the prettiest girl in school, and the only one who 'truly understand his poor misguided soul :'(, and that he has had a crush on her since she punched dear old Phil Mccracken in 5th grade after he called Edwardo a name'. After he has suitably embarrased himself infront of her, Edwardo's best friend Alfred comes over, and asks him why everyone was laughing at him. Edwardo gets angry and punches the wall, which then breaks, and a puff of smoke comes out and makes him choke.
He then runs off down the corridor, straight past a group of clones (girls with peroxide blonde hair, big boobs and tanned skin) following a girl. In another voiceover Edwardo tells us that this is Candy and that the whole school worships the ground she walks on. Edwardo is shocked when Candy's boyfriend [Jason, the school football captain] comes and pushes him against the wall, out of nowhere, the head teacher appears, and the voiceover tells us that this is Edwardo's mum. She asks edwardo if 'her little prince is okay, and will her prince beable to fight the big bad demons of this school'
We then cut straight to a close up of him jolting away from school, the voice over says "I had to make the laughing stop, I just couldn't take it anymore!" he then jumps into a bush just round the corner from the school, he rolls over and talks to himself but from a distance it looks like her is talking to a worm which is crawling past him whilst he starts to talk, for Hannah and a group of her friends who are there smoking. Hannah walks over to him and asks what is he doing? He tells her and she convinces him to stay at least until the end of the day, they hear the bell and walk off to class together.
This is then cut back to the scene from the opening, we can see him talking to a stuffed bear which he is holding in his arms, from nowhere we can hear an old lady's voice saying "Eddie, its time for tea!" we cut to see the outside of his tent, and we can see a small house with all its lights on and a old women standing on what looks like the back porch. The tent then shakes as Edwardo shouts "I'm busy grandma!"
We then cut to early the next morning, and see a school room including the last 4 people (Jason, Candy, Alfred and Hannah) to talk to Edwardo, all sitting waiting for class to start; in every shot taken we can see the same empty chair with loser written across the back of the chair. The head teacher walks into the room crying with a police officer at her side, under the police officers arm is an over head projector. He officer asks the class if they have seen Edwardo, and flicks a picture of him up onto the screen, he starts to question the last four people to see Edwardo, and clicks the projector onto the next image and we see him standing in a filed in a bikini.
.
We then cut the police officer taking the four students into a small classroom and telling them to figure out what happened to Edwardo, or else! They are all confused and start to panic because they have no idea where he has gone. The police officer returns with a water pistol, Jason shouts “where’s your mankini?” get ya tits out officer!” from the mention of the word ‘mankini’ the officer does a shoulder/neck nervous twitch and points the pistol at Jason. Jason shouts “mankini” again and the officer does the twitch again, everyone in the room starts shouting mankini at him and he runs out of the room screaming.
.
After 5minutes of sitting in silence, they all decide to escape and hide until this blows over. They garb their backpacks and put on their own style of camouflage example: Candy’s is all pink, with diamonds on it. They put two black lines on each cheek and put on a hat which has written on it ‘hit squad.’ We then see them climbing out of the window and jumping around the car park trying to get away before anyone sees them. At the school gate they turn round to see if anyone had noticed them leaving, and from the room where they were we can see the police officer and the head teacher both looking confused and angry. We then cut to a black screen, with the writing ‘two days later’
.
The next scene opens on a picture of Edwardo, with written underneath it ‘have you seen this boy?’ we then hear doors being opened and people gasping and staring at where the light is coming from. Stood in front of double opened doors with a bright light behind the person is Edwardo, he now has short hair and is wearing normal clothes. His mum runs over to him with the police officer by her side shouting ‘oh my little prince!” the officer and his mum both start crying and everyone around the cheers and claps. Edwardo walks past his mum into the middle of the corridor and shouts “my whole life I have been the laugh of the town, and over the past 3 days I have become a man and moved passed the past I hope you all can do the same!” Everyone gathers round them and starts to cheer and clap him.
.
We then cut to see the other four characters crawling across the ground, in a bush near a restaurant, they are covered in dirt and leaves and all fighting with each other. They over hear two students from their talking about an amazing party, which is happening tonight at Edwardo’s house. They miss hear the conversation and think that they have found Edwardo’s dead body and this party is his funeral. Hannah starts to cry and confesses her love for him, she convinces them to go and pay their respects, so they walk to Candy’s house to get cleaned up.
.
We cut to Edwardo talking to a group of girls trying to impress them by telling how brave he has been over the past 3 days. Everything goes quite when Alfred, Jason, Candy and Hannah walk into the room, Edwardo walks up to them and thanks them for being the ones who made him change into a better man, Hannah tells Edwardo how she feels about him and so does he, they kiss and everyone cheers them on. After that they all start to party the night away, and we see everyone having a great time. the scene ends on a shot of Edwardo and Hannah kissing and the voice over starts again and sums up everything good about the party, well what he remembers. We then flash foreword 10 years and see what happened to all the characters after they had finished high school, whilst the end credits go up.
As the film fades into a eerily dark area, in the distance we can see a small, rickety tent being flung around in strong winds, and inside the tent, we see a small light flickering (which is one of those fake, paper candles), as the camera zooms in a bit more, we go inside the tent we can see a boy writing in a pink, fluffy, sparkly diary, with a unicorn on it. As a voiceover begins, he introduces himself as Edward Fredreko, and tells the audience that the audience that he has run away, into the deep realms of his grandmothers back garden "A.K.A the fortress"
We then quickly flashback to the beginning of Edwardo's day. He is walking alone towards his secondary school, in the shot, we can see that behind him are two girls pointing and laughing at him. In a voiceover from Edwardo, we are told that he has a 'dark dark secret, darker than his favourite skinny jeans', which has haunted his poor soul since he was of the tender age of five. He tries to ignored the jibes, and walks further towards school, as we hear the diegetic sound of the school bell, as the camera stops and follows Edwardo from behind, we see that as soon as he walks past someone, they point, snort and laugh at him.
The scene then cuts to Edwardo standing at his locker, presumably just before lunch time, and a group of girls walk slowly past him, and mock him for his attire, and then walk off, however one pretty girl stays and comforts the upset Edwardo, and introduces herself as Hannah. Edwardo tells us that this is Hannah, the prettiest girl in school, and the only one who 'truly understand his poor misguided soul :'(, and that he has had a crush on her since she punched dear old Phil Mccracken in 5th grade after he called Edwardo a name'. After he has suitably embarrased himself infront of her, Edwardo's best friend Alfred comes over, and asks him why everyone was laughing at him. Edwardo gets angry and punches the wall, which then breaks, and a puff of smoke comes out and makes him choke.
He then runs off down the corridor, straight past a group of clones (girls with peroxide blonde hair, big boobs and tanned skin) following a girl. In another voiceover Edwardo tells us that this is Candy and that the whole school worships the ground she walks on. Edwardo is shocked when Candy's boyfriend [Jason, the school football captain] comes and pushes him against the wall, out of nowhere, the head teacher appears, and the voiceover tells us that this is Edwardo's mum. She asks edwardo if 'her little prince is okay, and will her prince beable to fight the big bad demons of this school'
We then cut straight to a close up of him jolting away from school, the voice over says "I had to make the laughing stop, I just couldn't take it anymore!" he then jumps into a bush just round the corner from the school, he rolls over and talks to himself but from a distance it looks like her is talking to a worm which is crawling past him whilst he starts to talk, for Hannah and a group of her friends who are there smoking. Hannah walks over to him and asks what is he doing? He tells her and she convinces him to stay at least until the end of the day, they hear the bell and walk off to class together.
This is then cut back to the scene from the opening, we can see him talking to a stuffed bear which he is holding in his arms, from nowhere we can hear an old lady's voice saying "Eddie, its time for tea!" we cut to see the outside of his tent, and we can see a small house with all its lights on and a old women standing on what looks like the back porch. The tent then shakes as Edwardo shouts "I'm busy grandma!"
We then cut to early the next morning, and see a school room including the last 4 people (Jason, Candy, Alfred and Hannah) to talk to Edwardo, all sitting waiting for class to start; in every shot taken we can see the same empty chair with loser written across the back of the chair. The head teacher walks into the room crying with a police officer at her side, under the police officers arm is an over head projector. He officer asks the class if they have seen Edwardo, and flicks a picture of him up onto the screen, he starts to question the last four people to see Edwardo, and clicks the projector onto the next image and we see him standing in a filed in a bikini.
.
We then cut the police officer taking the four students into a small classroom and telling them to figure out what happened to Edwardo, or else! They are all confused and start to panic because they have no idea where he has gone. The police officer returns with a water pistol, Jason shouts “where’s your mankini?” get ya tits out officer!” from the mention of the word ‘mankini’ the officer does a shoulder/neck nervous twitch and points the pistol at Jason. Jason shouts “mankini” again and the officer does the twitch again, everyone in the room starts shouting mankini at him and he runs out of the room screaming.
.
After 5minutes of sitting in silence, they all decide to escape and hide until this blows over. They garb their backpacks and put on their own style of camouflage example: Candy’s is all pink, with diamonds on it. They put two black lines on each cheek and put on a hat which has written on it ‘hit squad.’ We then see them climbing out of the window and jumping around the car park trying to get away before anyone sees them. At the school gate they turn round to see if anyone had noticed them leaving, and from the room where they were we can see the police officer and the head teacher both looking confused and angry. We then cut to a black screen, with the writing ‘two days later’
.
The next scene opens on a picture of Edwardo, with written underneath it ‘have you seen this boy?’ we then hear doors being opened and people gasping and staring at where the light is coming from. Stood in front of double opened doors with a bright light behind the person is Edwardo, he now has short hair and is wearing normal clothes. His mum runs over to him with the police officer by her side shouting ‘oh my little prince!” the officer and his mum both start crying and everyone around the cheers and claps. Edwardo walks past his mum into the middle of the corridor and shouts “my whole life I have been the laugh of the town, and over the past 3 days I have become a man and moved passed the past I hope you all can do the same!” Everyone gathers round them and starts to cheer and clap him.
.
We then cut to see the other four characters crawling across the ground, in a bush near a restaurant, they are covered in dirt and leaves and all fighting with each other. They over hear two students from their talking about an amazing party, which is happening tonight at Edwardo’s house. They miss hear the conversation and think that they have found Edwardo’s dead body and this party is his funeral. Hannah starts to cry and confesses her love for him, she convinces them to go and pay their respects, so they walk to Candy’s house to get cleaned up.
.
We cut to Edwardo talking to a group of girls trying to impress them by telling how brave he has been over the past 3 days. Everything goes quite when Alfred, Jason, Candy and Hannah walk into the room, Edwardo walks up to them and thanks them for being the ones who made him change into a better man, Hannah tells Edwardo how she feels about him and so does he, they kiss and everyone cheers them on. After that they all start to party the night away, and we see everyone having a great time. the scene ends on a shot of Edwardo and Hannah kissing and the voice over starts again and sums up everything good about the party, well what he remembers. We then flash foreword 10 years and see what happened to all the characters after they had finished high school, whilst the end credits go up.
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
American Pie Beta House analysing.
Last Media lesson, we were told to bring in DVD that fits our genre and may help us with our own Film Opening which was Teen Comedy. We decided to bring in American Pie Beta House.
Below, under the following headings "Conventions" "Titles", "Audience", "Representation", I will show you what we found in the opening 10 minutes.
Conventions
The film opens with a wide angle shot of a city, with a car coming towards the camera, as we see this, the titles appear on screen in big bold and brown letters (the name of the company who has made the film, but it does not show the actors name, this, I presume will be in the ending credits) , and as the car continues coming towards the screen, the titles also change to American Pie Beta House. It then changes to a close up of a teenage man and his father, in a rather funny situation as, abnormally,they are talking about having sex, and how 'on campus there will be lots of things to bang'
The boy then goes on campus, and decides to go into the toilet, and again, in a funny situation, the bathroom is a Unisex one. As he goes to the urinal, a girl walks in (this fits into the stereotypical boy meets girl scenario, with a comedic twist) to use the shower (this also could influence our opening because, from this opening, we know they decide to introduce the love interest early on, and we can now decide, if we choose to have one, if we want to introduce it in our opening).
He then continues to use the urinal, the women then opens the shower curtain slightly and asks him to pass her the shampoo, he agrees and turns back around, then out of nowhere appears a naked women, and, understandbly he is shocked, so shocked indeed that he urinates all over his trousers and the shampoo (another funny moment which could help us in our film because we can now be sure what they expect people to find funny)
As he runs out, embarrased, back to his dorm room, he walks in on his new dorm mate having intercourse with his girlfriend. He looks shocked and walks over to his clothes and changes his trousers, just as he is doing this, the girl starts choking on the gum she is chewing, the man then leaps onto the bed and starts giving her the Heimleich Manouvere (from behind), the use of the low angle mid shot makes it look like some sort of sex position, as we see this, his best friend and father walk in, and in a odd chain of events the father high fives the man, and the best friend looks rather disgusted (as this is a unusual situation, the audience would find it funny because it is so out of the ordinary, this could also influence our film because we could add unusual situations which would make the audience laugh at the humour)
This was the end of the opening for this film. From the opening we as a group learned many things that may influence our film, that sex, unusual situations, and embarrasing things are all stuff that the audience find funny and interesting.
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Sex (Many of the scenes contain, or make referance to sex, this can help our film as we now know what the selected audience are interested in, and find funny)
Embarrasing parents ( The main characters father is very crude and open about his sexual endeavours, this also could help as it could create some very funny moment in our own film)
Embarrasing encounter with a girl (The main character meets a cute girl, and makes a fool of himself by peeing on his trousers. As our film is about detention, this could help as two characters could flirt with eachother, but leads to an embarrasing situation)
Embarrasing encounter with new friend (When he goes back to change his trousers, his new dorm buddy is having sex with a girl)
Parties (Many of the scenes contain outrageous parties)
Two enemy sides ( The Betas & The Geeks)
Drunkenness (This is very much like parties, where people just get drunk for the sake of it. One of the characters in the film could be drunk, which is cause for their detention)
Moving to a new place E.G college. (Start of a new era of someone's life, new place, new people ETC. This could also help, as one of the characters could be new, and forced to get in trouble by older students, and wrongfully gets put in detention.)
Funny incident (When the new dorm buddies girlfriend is choking on a chewing gum, the main character tries to give her the Heimleich Manouver, which looks like some sort of dodgy sex position, and his Father walks in)
Popular & unpopular people (Betas being popular and Geeks not)
Nudity (Most girls in the film are topless, or fully naked, typical of many teen comedys)
Titles
The titles fade in and our big and brown, and in a very informal font, this shows the audience that what they are about to watch isn't going to be anything too serious, and isn't going to require alot of thinking. They however, don't show the actors names, they show the companys that help make it. The only exception to being big and brown is the typical American Pie logo, which is red.
Audience
Typical of a very controversial teen comedy, it has an 18 tag, however, the audience for this film, typically, is late teenagers, early 20's, who enjoy slapstick comedy, and know that they can come one afternoon and not have to think to greatly, just laugh along.
Representation
The representations of people and places in this film don't differ greatly to those of any other average teen comedies.
The men in this film are represented as being sex mad, and are only doing what they are doing to get laid by the opposite sex. They are also represented as only caring what girls look like rather than their personality.
Girls only after money from Geeks, and will do anything in their power to get what they want, much like the men. So girls are stereotyped as people who're gold diggers, only after what they think they need.
Both sexes are represented as wanting to have a good time, either partying, getting stoned or having sex. This is typical of a comedy as they all normally feature drug abuse, or rapid partying.
Below, under the following headings "Conventions" "Titles", "Audience", "Representation", I will show you what we found in the opening 10 minutes.
Conventions
The film opens with a wide angle shot of a city, with a car coming towards the camera, as we see this, the titles appear on screen in big bold and brown letters (the name of the company who has made the film, but it does not show the actors name, this, I presume will be in the ending credits) , and as the car continues coming towards the screen, the titles also change to American Pie Beta House. It then changes to a close up of a teenage man and his father, in a rather funny situation as, abnormally,they are talking about having sex, and how 'on campus there will be lots of things to bang'
The boy then goes on campus, and decides to go into the toilet, and again, in a funny situation, the bathroom is a Unisex one. As he goes to the urinal, a girl walks in (this fits into the stereotypical boy meets girl scenario, with a comedic twist) to use the shower (this also could influence our opening because, from this opening, we know they decide to introduce the love interest early on, and we can now decide, if we choose to have one, if we want to introduce it in our opening).
He then continues to use the urinal, the women then opens the shower curtain slightly and asks him to pass her the shampoo, he agrees and turns back around, then out of nowhere appears a naked women, and, understandbly he is shocked, so shocked indeed that he urinates all over his trousers and the shampoo (another funny moment which could help us in our film because we can now be sure what they expect people to find funny)
As he runs out, embarrased, back to his dorm room, he walks in on his new dorm mate having intercourse with his girlfriend. He looks shocked and walks over to his clothes and changes his trousers, just as he is doing this, the girl starts choking on the gum she is chewing, the man then leaps onto the bed and starts giving her the Heimleich Manouvere (from behind), the use of the low angle mid shot makes it look like some sort of sex position, as we see this, his best friend and father walk in, and in a odd chain of events the father high fives the man, and the best friend looks rather disgusted (as this is a unusual situation, the audience would find it funny because it is so out of the ordinary, this could also influence our film because we could add unusual situations which would make the audience laugh at the humour)
This was the end of the opening for this film. From the opening we as a group learned many things that may influence our film, that sex, unusual situations, and embarrasing things are all stuff that the audience find funny and interesting.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sex (Many of the scenes contain, or make referance to sex, this can help our film as we now know what the selected audience are interested in, and find funny)
Embarrasing parents ( The main characters father is very crude and open about his sexual endeavours, this also could help as it could create some very funny moment in our own film)
Embarrasing encounter with a girl (The main character meets a cute girl, and makes a fool of himself by peeing on his trousers. As our film is about detention, this could help as two characters could flirt with eachother, but leads to an embarrasing situation)
Embarrasing encounter with new friend (When he goes back to change his trousers, his new dorm buddy is having sex with a girl)
Parties (Many of the scenes contain outrageous parties)
Two enemy sides ( The Betas & The Geeks)
Drunkenness (This is very much like parties, where people just get drunk for the sake of it. One of the characters in the film could be drunk, which is cause for their detention)
Moving to a new place E.G college. (Start of a new era of someone's life, new place, new people ETC. This could also help, as one of the characters could be new, and forced to get in trouble by older students, and wrongfully gets put in detention.)
Funny incident (When the new dorm buddies girlfriend is choking on a chewing gum, the main character tries to give her the Heimleich Manouver, which looks like some sort of dodgy sex position, and his Father walks in)
Popular & unpopular people (Betas being popular and Geeks not)
Nudity (Most girls in the film are topless, or fully naked, typical of many teen comedys)
Titles
The titles fade in and our big and brown, and in a very informal font, this shows the audience that what they are about to watch isn't going to be anything too serious, and isn't going to require alot of thinking. They however, don't show the actors names, they show the companys that help make it. The only exception to being big and brown is the typical American Pie logo, which is red.
Audience
Typical of a very controversial teen comedy, it has an 18 tag, however, the audience for this film, typically, is late teenagers, early 20's, who enjoy slapstick comedy, and know that they can come one afternoon and not have to think to greatly, just laugh along.
Representation
The representations of people and places in this film don't differ greatly to those of any other average teen comedies.
The men in this film are represented as being sex mad, and are only doing what they are doing to get laid by the opposite sex. They are also represented as only caring what girls look like rather than their personality.
Girls only after money from Geeks, and will do anything in their power to get what they want, much like the men. So girls are stereotyped as people who're gold diggers, only after what they think they need.
Both sexes are represented as wanting to have a good time, either partying, getting stoned or having sex. This is typical of a comedy as they all normally feature drug abuse, or rapid partying.
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Analysing a film opening
Last Media lesson, we were told to bring in DVD that fits our genre and may help us with our own Film Opening which was Teen Comedy. We decided to bring in American Pie Beta House.
Below, under the following headings "Conventions" "Titles", "Audience", "Representation", I will show you what we found in the opening 10 minutes.
Conventions
The film opens with a wide angle shot of a city, with a car coming towards the camera, as we see this, the titles appear on screen in big bold and brown letters (the name of the company who has made the film, but it does not show the actors name, this, I presume will be in the ending credits) , and as the car continues coming towards the screen, the titles also change to American Pie Beta House. It then changes to a close up of a teenage man and his father, in a rather funny situation as, abnormally they are talking about having sex, and how 'on campus there will be lots of things to bang'
Sex (Many of the scenes contain, or make referance to sex, this can help our film as we now know what the selected audience are interested in, and find funny)
Embarrasing parents ( The main characters father is very crude and open about his sexual endeavours, this also could help as it could create some very funny moment in our own film)
Embarrasing encounter with a girl (The main character meets a cute girl, and makes a fool of himself by peeing on his trousers. As our film is about detention, this could help as two characters could flirt with eachother, but leads to an embarrasing situation)
Embarrasing encounter with new friend (When he goes back to change his trousers, his new dorm buddy is having sex with a girl)
Parties (Many of the scenes contain outrageous parties)
Two enemy sides ( The Betas & The Geeks)
Drunkenness (This is very much like parties, where people just get drunk for the sake of it. One of the characters in the film could be drunk, which is cause for their detention)
Moving to a new place E.G college. (Start of a new era of someone's life, new place, new people ETC. This could also help, as one of the characters could be new, and forced to get in trouble by older students, and wrongfully gets put in detention.)
Funny incident (When the new dorm buddies girlfriend is choking on a chewing gum, the main character tries to give her the Heimleich Manouver, which looks like some sort of dodgy sex position, and his Father walks in)
Popular & unpopular people (Betas being popular and Geeks not)
Nudity (Most girls in the film are topless, or fully naked, typical of many teen comedys)
Titles
Big and brown, they show the name of companys who helped make the film, but NOT the actors names
Audience
Typical of a very controversial teen comedy, it has an 18 tag, however, the audience for this film, typically, is late teenagers, early 20's.
Representation
Sex mad (Virtually every scene contains sex, but as it is a comedy, these have a comical twist)
Girls only after money from Geeks (Girls are stereotyped as people who are only after money, and will do anything for it)
Party mad (As they are teens, they are stereotyped as wanting parties)
Below, under the following headings "Conventions" "Titles", "Audience", "Representation", I will show you what we found in the opening 10 minutes.
Conventions
The film opens with a wide angle shot of a city, with a car coming towards the camera, as we see this, the titles appear on screen in big bold and brown letters (the name of the company who has made the film, but it does not show the actors name, this, I presume will be in the ending credits) , and as the car continues coming towards the screen, the titles also change to American Pie Beta House. It then changes to a close up of a teenage man and his father, in a rather funny situation as, abnormally they are talking about having sex, and how 'on campus there will be lots of things to bang'
Sex (Many of the scenes contain, or make referance to sex, this can help our film as we now know what the selected audience are interested in, and find funny)
Embarrasing parents ( The main characters father is very crude and open about his sexual endeavours, this also could help as it could create some very funny moment in our own film)
Embarrasing encounter with a girl (The main character meets a cute girl, and makes a fool of himself by peeing on his trousers. As our film is about detention, this could help as two characters could flirt with eachother, but leads to an embarrasing situation)
Embarrasing encounter with new friend (When he goes back to change his trousers, his new dorm buddy is having sex with a girl)
Parties (Many of the scenes contain outrageous parties)
Two enemy sides ( The Betas & The Geeks)
Drunkenness (This is very much like parties, where people just get drunk for the sake of it. One of the characters in the film could be drunk, which is cause for their detention)
Moving to a new place E.G college. (Start of a new era of someone's life, new place, new people ETC. This could also help, as one of the characters could be new, and forced to get in trouble by older students, and wrongfully gets put in detention.)
Funny incident (When the new dorm buddies girlfriend is choking on a chewing gum, the main character tries to give her the Heimleich Manouver, which looks like some sort of dodgy sex position, and his Father walks in)
Popular & unpopular people (Betas being popular and Geeks not)
Nudity (Most girls in the film are topless, or fully naked, typical of many teen comedys)
Titles
Big and brown, they show the name of companys who helped make the film, but NOT the actors names
Audience
Typical of a very controversial teen comedy, it has an 18 tag, however, the audience for this film, typically, is late teenagers, early 20's.
Representation
Sex mad (Virtually every scene contains sex, but as it is a comedy, these have a comical twist)
Girls only after money from Geeks (Girls are stereotyped as people who are only after money, and will do anything for it)
Party mad (As they are teens, they are stereotyped as wanting parties)
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Genre Research
In todays media lesson we had to research things for our chosen genre. E.G Iconography, narratives, setting, stock characters, who is the audience, which films of the same genre have earned alot of money, which editing techinques are used.
Our chosen genre was Teen Comedy
Iconography
School bell
Booze
Mobile phones
Make up
Cars
Sex
Narratives
College students trying to lose their viriginity before the graduate
Finding a date for the prom
Trying to find friends
settings
High school
Houses
Pubs/clubs
Cars (road trips)
Shopping malls
Motorway service station
How much films of the same genre have earned
Super bad ($121,463,226)
Mean girls($86,058,055)
American Pie ($145,103,595)
Juno ($143,495,265)
Clueless ($56,631,572)
Editing techniques
Fade
cut
match on action
180 degree rule
Audience
Teenage boys/girls
Our chosen genre was Teen Comedy
Iconography
School bell
Booze
Mobile phones
Make up
Cars
Sex
Narratives
College students trying to lose their viriginity before the graduate
Finding a date for the prom
Trying to find friends
settings
High school
Houses
Pubs/clubs
Cars (road trips)
Shopping malls
Motorway service station
How much films of the same genre have earned
Super bad ($121,463,226)
Mean girls($86,058,055)
American Pie ($145,103,595)
Juno ($143,495,265)
Clueless ($56,631,572)
Editing techniques
Fade
cut
match on action
180 degree rule
Audience
Teenage boys/girls
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Dark Knight Notes.
In Media Studies, we watched a few film openings and had to write down what we saw, Camera angles, editing, enigma codes, music/sound, action, how fast the pace was and which characters where introduced.
There were some quite complex camera angles used:
Setting shot
low/high angle
midshot
close up
alot of panning
wide angle
There were some quite complex camera angles used:
Setting shot
low/high angle
midshot
close up
alot of panning
wide angle
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