For my AS production I contributed to making an opening for a thriller movie called 'Ignotus'. The synopsis of the opening is about a man who discovers an artifact and is captured by a secret society but only one of the people working for the captors is shown within the opening. The captor interrogates the man and forces him to remember what happened when he discovered the artifact in order to find the location of it. Each time the man remembers something a flash back will play revealing little bits about the artifact.
Todorov's theory of a protagonist and an antagonist has been used in our opening scene to allow our audience to understand what is going on. The man being interrogated is the protagonist and is the one the story will follow and the audience will see flash backs from his perspective. The antagonist which is the interrogator is hardly seen and his voice is deep and forceful, this character will be the one that the audience will identify as the antagonist. Propp's 'hero' and 'villain' characters can be applied similarly.
The whole opening is shrouded with enigma from the blurry opening-of-the-eyes establishing shot to the purple-misted opening credits surrounded by darkness having conotations of the 'unknown'. Here Barthes enigma code theory can be identified and we have used this to attract our audiences and create a narrative that doesn't happen in real life to provide diversion/escapism for our audience (Blumer & Katz). The opening reveals slowly things about the artifact and the situation of the protagonist.
The audience can see that the protagonist in a position of panic, something which Strauss referred to as seeing the opposition as conceptual. The protagonist is only in panic because of the interrogator. The opposition is also represented through the use of lighting in our opening scene. The dark room and spotlight on the protagonist shows that the opposition is there and trying to falter the 'hero'. The use of sound is mysterious and repetitive like that of other horror and thriller movies.
The way we have represented the 2 characters within our AS production through sound and light makes the audience assume the that they know that the interrogator is the "villain" and the protagonist is the "hero". Bordwell's theory explains that people assume the film process within the narrative of the film. This can be used to make good twists within the storyline to keep our audience entertained. As we have only made the opening, further through the film the protagonist could be the one who stole the artifact from the secret society and the interrogator is actually the "hero".
In terms of representation, we dressed up the interrogator in a suit this is a 'short-cut' type of stereotype where information about the interrogator can be summed up in a few words but in this case more visually. We knew using a suit can be easily related to stereotype known as "suits". This has connotations of being professional, intelligent, efficient and hard-working which is how we wanted our target audience to view our interrogator character. The interrogator's face is hidden throughout the opening and we wanted to keep this hidden because we want the audience to associate the interrogator as part of an absent group within society.
We can see an entropic view when we looking at the representation of the protagonist. He is portrayed as weak and dominated. This is represented through the blood on his shirt, being tied up, answering weakly to the interrogator's deep, intimidating voice and being beaten for answers. We did this so that the audience can see an obvious dominant hierarchy relationship between the two characters.
To conclude, my AS production conforms to most narrative and stereotype theories to create a conventional thriller opening.
Saturday 28 January 2012
Wednesday 25 January 2012
Friday 6 January 2012
Internalised Stereotypes: 'Kidulthood', 'Adulthood', 'Fish Tank''
Anti-youth or pro-youth films?
These films all involve youths but written by different people. Kidulthood and Adulthood are written and directed by Noel Clarke whilst Fish Tank was written and directed by Andrea Arnold. Noel Clarke has grown up in the 'hood' and has had experience of the streets of London so his perpective is more likely to be correct or 'pro-youth'. Andrea Arnold arguably has a different perspective to youth, more towards 'anti-youth', as she is a middle-aged white woman.
Noel Clarke's view on youths are more relevant in terms of youths and their behaviours nowadays. Although slightly extreme in places, it can easily reach out to youths and be understood. On the other hand, Fish Tank is realitic but involves hidden messages making it quite gritty. There is symbolism in that film, something which Noel Clarke doesn't focus on at all.
Accurate to actual experiences of teenagers?
Both films can be argued as slightly over exaggerative because they have to be entertaining to an audience as well as send a message. I would say that Noel Clarke portrays a more accurate experience of youths because if we look at the London 2011 Riots, youths were represented as violent and uncontrollable. We see in the newspapers time and time again that gang crime is a big problem.
Fish Tank does have elements of accuracy about teenage life in a council estate. While not all youths in this situation are doom and gloom, many of these youths are in a financial and socio-economic problem and result to drinking and taking drugs as a way to deal with their problems. The protagonist is seen taking drinking and having underage sex.
An adult facination of youth, how so?
I agree with this statement because if we look at Henry A Giroux, he has explained it quite well. The article is entitled "Teenage Sexuality, Body Politicas and the Pedagogy of Display" and he writes about adults facination of youth.
Henry A Giroux says that "Lauded as a symbol of hope for the future while scorned as a threat to the existing social order, youth have become objects of ambivilence caught between contradictory discourses and spaces of transition". Here he is explaining that adults look to youth as the hope for the future but also degrades youth by projecting them as objects of violence and uselessness. This puts youth into a state of confusion and represents "symbol of a bright future vs. symbol of a world going to hell".
Conforming to stereotypes circulated by the news media?
Kidulthood and Adulthood definitely confrom to the archetypal characters and hegemonic view created by the media. Especially in tabloids such as The Sun where youths are displayed as "yobs" and "thieves" and many articles on youths tend to be about youths being in gangs.
Fish Tank on the other hand does conform to the stereotypes portrayed of youths living in council estates. While the protagonist is not in a gang, she has a low socio-economic status, doesn't go to school and drink alochol underage.
Who makes these media texts and for who?
Noel Clarke and Andrea Arnold have made these films involving youths for their target audience of Britain. They are quite niche films and any other audiences will probably not understand or appreciate the way that youths have been portrayed and why.
Both directors have encoded their own messages in their media texts for us as an audience to decode and take away the messages we feel are being shown and the ones which are more relevant and apply to us. These messages may be that youths are in trouble and the reinforcement of a "symbol of a bright future vs. symbol of a world going to hell".
These films all involve youths but written by different people. Kidulthood and Adulthood are written and directed by Noel Clarke whilst Fish Tank was written and directed by Andrea Arnold. Noel Clarke has grown up in the 'hood' and has had experience of the streets of London so his perpective is more likely to be correct or 'pro-youth'. Andrea Arnold arguably has a different perspective to youth, more towards 'anti-youth', as she is a middle-aged white woman.
Noel Clarke's view on youths are more relevant in terms of youths and their behaviours nowadays. Although slightly extreme in places, it can easily reach out to youths and be understood. On the other hand, Fish Tank is realitic but involves hidden messages making it quite gritty. There is symbolism in that film, something which Noel Clarke doesn't focus on at all.
Accurate to actual experiences of teenagers?
Both films can be argued as slightly over exaggerative because they have to be entertaining to an audience as well as send a message. I would say that Noel Clarke portrays a more accurate experience of youths because if we look at the London 2011 Riots, youths were represented as violent and uncontrollable. We see in the newspapers time and time again that gang crime is a big problem.
Fish Tank does have elements of accuracy about teenage life in a council estate. While not all youths in this situation are doom and gloom, many of these youths are in a financial and socio-economic problem and result to drinking and taking drugs as a way to deal with their problems. The protagonist is seen taking drinking and having underage sex.
An adult facination of youth, how so?
I agree with this statement because if we look at Henry A Giroux, he has explained it quite well. The article is entitled "Teenage Sexuality, Body Politicas and the Pedagogy of Display" and he writes about adults facination of youth.
Henry A Giroux says that "Lauded as a symbol of hope for the future while scorned as a threat to the existing social order, youth have become objects of ambivilence caught between contradictory discourses and spaces of transition". Here he is explaining that adults look to youth as the hope for the future but also degrades youth by projecting them as objects of violence and uselessness. This puts youth into a state of confusion and represents "symbol of a bright future vs. symbol of a world going to hell".
Conforming to stereotypes circulated by the news media?
Kidulthood and Adulthood definitely confrom to the archetypal characters and hegemonic view created by the media. Especially in tabloids such as The Sun where youths are displayed as "yobs" and "thieves" and many articles on youths tend to be about youths being in gangs.
Fish Tank on the other hand does conform to the stereotypes portrayed of youths living in council estates. While the protagonist is not in a gang, she has a low socio-economic status, doesn't go to school and drink alochol underage.
Who makes these media texts and for who?
Noel Clarke and Andrea Arnold have made these films involving youths for their target audience of Britain. They are quite niche films and any other audiences will probably not understand or appreciate the way that youths have been portrayed and why.
Both directors have encoded their own messages in their media texts for us as an audience to decode and take away the messages we feel are being shown and the ones which are more relevant and apply to us. These messages may be that youths are in trouble and the reinforcement of a "symbol of a bright future vs. symbol of a world going to hell".
Tuesday 3 January 2012
Do ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Fish Tank’ create a realistic representation of youth?
Kidulthood (written by Noel Clarke) and Fish Tank (written by Andrea Arnold) are both ‘2k’ films involving youths and their struggles in today’s society.
Stuart Hall proposes that the media, as a principle from of ideological spreading, produces representations of the social world via images and portrayals. Hall asserts that ideological things become ‘naturalised’. The way youths behave and act have changed, arguably for the worst, but have mostly been portrayed in a negative light by the media. If we look at 1950s ‘Rebel Without A Cause’, James Dean’s only rebel-like actions are smoking, popping his collar and an occasional fight. Youths in Kidulthood are seen fighting with knives and guns, taking drugs, having sex and swearing constantly throughout. This shows that youths are becoming more violent. However, we are so used to it, we have become desensitised as Stuart Hall explained and because of this, it can be argued that Kidulthood and Fishtank do create a realistic view of youths.
Print media, especially tabloids, generally represent youths as violent, unintelligent and delinquents. The Sun continuously mock youths, by calling them “yobs” and “thugs” and even go as far as pointing out which race caused the most trouble which can be read in their article “I predict a rioter” (Oct 25, 2011). The article gives their readers estimated percentages, debatably exaggerated, on the type of people that were in the riots and heavily implying who members of the public should avoid, as if they were helping the public. Print media such as The Sun tend to thrive on generating moral panic to sell their papers and almost control what readers should think and how we should act. If we all followed what the media told us, we would end up living in a Marxist society whereby the social order of things will be governed by the media (Karl Marx). This post-modernistic view of youths created by the print media does match the representations both ‘2k’ films show also.
David Buckingham says, “A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups”. Technology is used by so many youths to interact, organise things and be social. However, it can be used to create anarchy, demonstrated in the London 2011 Riots where rioters were arranging riots via Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry Messenger (BBM). During the riots, BBM was shut down temporarily in an attempt to help stop the mass rioting and even Twitter was threatened to be taken down. Similarly, the youths in Kidulthood used their phones to communicate with each other, meet up and cause chaos. On the other hand, the main character in Fish Tank didn’t seem to be all social on her mobile phone or other technology.
The main character in Fish Tank, despite not being social technologically, was depicted as a stereotypical and archetypal teenager. Henri Tajfel said that individuals strive to improve their self-image by trying to enhance their self-esteem, based on their personal identity or various social identities which results in ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups. The main character of Fish Tank is seen as the ‘out’ group because she isn’t like the other young females in the film, who are seen trying to impress boys in the beginning with their dancing. However, the main character does actually want to be able to dance and be a part of that ‘in’ group. There are many types of groups viewed as ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups among today’s youths and this illustrates it and so this does represent youth realistically.
Winship’s notion of complexity is about being prepared, in terms of audience gratification, to finally recognise the ideal version of ourselves. If we look at today’s music videos by such artists as Rihanna and Temper T, we can see that their audiences are made up of many youths. When youths watch music videos such as these, their identities mediate as they are represented with what they think is an ideal version of a young male and female, as Winship’s notion suggests, and may see these people as role models to follow. Rihanna’s videos promote things of the sexual nature while violence is being glorified by Temper T’s videos. These videos can easily influence youths as they attempt to find their identity (David Gauntlett). Continuous promotion of sex and violence being exposed to youths without much regulation, is an indication that youths are alike the portrayals by Kidulthood and Fish Tank.
In conclusion, a range of media products display their views of youths and even change them but youths have been seen overall as negative. This matches the representations of youths seen in ‘2k’ films, Kidulthood and Fish Tank. In the future, youths may become worse and as the media covers it and films are made about it, we may become desensitised even further and not realise how bad things are for youths.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)