Narrative

Narrative

For this task we had to select a short Pixar film and state the stages of the narrative.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/YmVpUpr9LkY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Equilibrium - The setting starts out on a roadside outside their terraced house. There is a yellow car right outside their door step but there are also other cars parked on the side of the road. 

Disruption - The disruption is that Mike replaces his old car with a new yellow car and takes sully outside of their house to show him and try it out. They discover many new buttons and start to press them and test them out.
Recognition of disruption - The recognition of disruption is that mike and sully realize there's too many buttons and that the car offers a vast variety of actions. They discover a beeping noise and are unable to simply solve the issue as they press the incorrect button.
Attempts to repair disruption - The attempt to repair the disruption was that Mike called Sully and asked him to press another button to let him out of the bonnet. Once Mike is back inside of the car he tries to sort out the beeping noise but he makes it worse by pressing the wrong buttons causing more confusion and frustration for Mike. 

Reinstatement of the equilibrium - The reinstatement of the equilibrium is solved when Mike manages to reach the key to the ignition and pulls it out. Once Mike throws Sully out of his car and drives away he ends up crashing the car so the issue is solved once the car is crashed and inoperative. 

Vladimir Propp stated that any story, there has to be a limited number of character types, with whom each of them have their own purpose in the film. The types of characters include the hero, heroine/princess, the villain, the princesses father, the donor/mentor and the helper that assists the hero through his adventure.
In Disney's film Aladdin they have all of the characters:

Hero - Aladdin. He rescues Jasmine from the villain.

Princess - Jasmine is the princess as her role is a princess and she is Aladdin's reward. 

Princesses father - The king is the father of the princess as that is what his role is in the film and Aladdin has to win his approval to marry Jasmine. 

Villain - The villain is Jafar as he continuously tries to stop Aladdin throughout the film.

Mentor - The mentor is the Genie as he helps Aladdin throughout the whole film by telling him what to do and what is right or wrong. 

Helper - The helper is Abu as he helps his friend Aladdin throughout his journey. 

Equilibrium - The setting is established.

Disruption - The story takes a particular direction. 

Recognition of disruption - characters and events are interwoven.

Attempt to repair disruption - Try to solve the issue. 

Reinstatement of the equilibrium - matters are sorted out, problems are solved and questions are answered. 

Genres

A genre is a style or category of art, music, or literature. A film that has more than one genre portrayed is called a hybrid-genre. 

Our first task was to take pictures around the school of different genres to explain different genres and how they could stereotypically be shown.

 This picture represents the genre of horror because it looks dark and there's loose wires hanging from the ceiling which make it look as though it's derelict and isolated. The hooded figure and the fact you are unable to see the silhouettes faces add suspicion and mystery to the photo making it more suitable to the horror genre.

 This picture represents the genre of romance because the connotations of flowers signify love and romance which suit the genre. The roses stand out especially, because roses are commonly bought as a loving gesture. Also, there are different coloured roses which are given to others based on the situation therefore I feel that this picture relates to the genre of romance.







This picture represents the genre of sci-fi because it shows a map of the world but its dark and has neon green lines around continents which gives it the look of outer space. The connotations from this picture range widely from space, the future and science to aliens and spaceships.


                                                       

Mise En Scene



Essentially it is the information in front of the camera for the audience to help them to work out what is going on.

It's made up of 5 elements:

1. Costume and makeup
2. Setting and props
3. Lighting and colour
4. Facial expressions and body language
5. Positioning of characters/ objects within the frame

 Types of Lighting

• Low key lighting - created by using the key and back lights. It produces a sharp contrast of light and dark areas. Deep, distinct shadows/ silhouettes formed. E.g Horror
• High key lighting - More filler lights are used. Lighting is natural and realistic to our eyes. Produces brightly lit sets or a sunny day. E.g Rom-com

E.g.

• Iconic landmarks - Iconography - Setting
• Old fashioned clothes - Classic
• Above the streets/ Watching/ Protector
• Black clothes/ Discreet
• Low key lighting

Semiotics

Semiotics

• Semiotics is the study of signs
• We read images and pictures in an attempt to decode them and make sense of what they mean to us.

Denotation: What we see when we look at it (What it is)

Connotation: What we understand from this image.

Denotation: When you look at this film poster you see several different superheroes all in action.

Connotation: When you look at this film poster you understand that the superheroes are in action trying to prevent any villains causing trouble.The fire explosion extending from the building on the left of the image suggests there's an argument involving the villains and powers have been involved. The dark blue/grey sky suggests an eerie, derelict city due to the arrival of the superheroes. The tall buildings amongst the background suggest that the superheroes task is large and they have lots of people to protect due to the amount of people these office skyscrapers can support. It shows that they unite and work as a team although individually they contribute differently. 





Trailer Analysis Homework - Guardians Of The Galaxy

For this task we had to analyse several trailers to see whether they fit the DISTINCT acronym and to see what made them the genre that they are. We also had to look out for any hybrids. 

D - describe 
I - in detail
S - setting (time, location, interior, exterior, day, night)
T - themes (friendship, family, love, revenge)
I - icons (symbols, significant objects)
N - narrative (plot, characters)
C - characters (speech, presentation, style, image)
T - textual analysis (camera, editing, sound, mise en scene) 

In my opinion Guardians Of The Galaxy would be a hybrid as it portrays two specific genres; science-fiction and action with many comic elements. The trailer reveals its genre science-fiction to the audience with the location of the setting. It is set in outer space and the trailer features a number of alien like characters. The trailer sets up the film introducing the 5 principle characters Dracks, Gamora, Rocket, Groot and Quill who become known as the Guardians of the galaxy. Although they are portrayed as good guys the do step over the line of the law in parts as well. The settings shown within the trailer include both day and night with interior and exterior shots. Within the trailer of the film several themes are conveyed to the audience such as good vs. evil whereby the good guys have rough edges as well as the bad guys yet they pull through and conquer their imperfections. There also the individual stories within each character such as redemption, revenge and discovery. Quill tries to discover who he is, Gamora tries to redeem her past crimes and Dracks tries to get revenge on Ronan. The orb is the significant object which features in the film and everyone wants it. The plot in the trailer shows the audience partly how the characters come together and what they are trying to accomplish. The characters all have their own unique image and style of clothing. This makes them stand out from each other and makes them different. Their styles portray their characters personality as Quill features in colloquial clothing to match with his characters identity of being the normal one out of the group. There is a lot of low key lighting shots in the trailer to portray the mystery of events to come, it makes you question what's going to happen next. The editing of the trailer reveals a flavour of the storyline to entice people into watching the film; it doesn't give away too much. It combines shots together and cuts them down to show you a variety of shots from the whole film so that it leaves you wanting more. 

Production Logo

This is my production logo. In this lesson we were told to create a production logo for our distribution company. 

When creating this image I used Photoshop as I decided it would be the most effective program as it has the biggest variety of creative tools. However, because I had never used this program I had to get familiar with all the different tools, even how to insert an image onto the canvas. I used Photoshop's feature of changing the brightness, saturation and contrast to create different effects 

Film opening analysis