Ghost Writer Timetable

	9:00 – 11.15	11:45- 12:45	1:30 – 2:30	2:30 – 4:00	After College
Mon	Danny Price	Glyn Husband Jake Sherris Danny Price	Glyn Husband Steve Boyes Aaron James	Jake Sherris Danny Price Aaron James
Tues	Glyn Husband Jake Sherris	Jake Sherris Danny Price Glyn Husband	Glyn Husband Jake Sherris Danny Price	Glyn Husband Jake Sherris Danny Price
Wed	Glyn Husband Steve Boyes	Danny Price	Glyn Husband Jake Sherris Steve Boyes Aaron James	Danny Price Aaron James
Thurs	Jake Sherris Danny Price Glyn Husband	Glyn Husband Jake Sherris Danny Price	Glyn Husband Jake Sherris Danny Price Aaron James	Glyn Husband Aaron James
Fri	Jake Sherris Danny Price	Danny Price	Danny Price Glyn Husband Jake Sherris Steve Boyes	Jake Sherris Glyn Husband Steve Boyes

Feedback

FeedBack

Pre-production Progress report

What has been done

• Feedback video has been uploaded onto YouTube
• Ideas on Camera shots have been shared
• PowerPoint on camera shots has been started. Scene 5 Slide is complete and Slide 3 and Slide 1 have been started.
• Script has been refined.
• Locations, Mise-en-scene and Actors have been considered

What will be done by Thursday

• Feedback video uploaded onto blogs
• PowerPoint on camera techniques will be done
• Step by Step will be nearly complete

Film Feedback Table

These are the results taken from our short film feedback. We collect 11 people's responses and noted whether their feedback was positive or negative. "Y" meaning that the feedback was positive and "N" meaning that the feedback was negative. We created a graph showing how many people agreed with our conventions, for example, "Narrative" had 11 positive responses and 0 negative responses, as shown from the table and graph.

Crime scene photos

A crime, committed.

A corpse, lying

A policeman, investigating.

A suspect, found

A justice, served.

 

 

If the pictures order is alerted, it will still follow a narrative structure. For instance,

 

A person forced,

 

A task, ordered

 

An assassination, successful

 

A kill, confirmed

A target, dead

 

Alternatively flashbacks could be used in order to craft a narrative. We could have the beginning be this scene:

 

 Then have a flashback to the crime being committed

 

Then the policeman arresting the criminal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Levi Strauss

LEVI STRAUSS OPOSTITIONS
Levi Strauss believed that the way we understand certain words doesn’t depend on the meaning they directly contain, but by our understanding of the difference between the word and it’s binary opposite. For example, according to Strauss, our understanding of the word “villain” depends on how well we know what the opposing word “hero” means. Binary opposites are used extremely frequently in films, particularly in the horror and action genre. For example, good and evil, sane and insane are examples of binary opposites in those genres.

Batman: The Dark knight is a film that contains many binary opposites. For example, many of the binary2 opposites in the film represent and symbolise both the antagonist and protagonist.
Chaos ( what The Joker represents and later Harvey Dent) versus Order ( what Batman represents and what Harvey used to represent)
Evil  (Joker’s Morality) versus Good (Batman’s Morality)

Sane (the citizens of Gotham) verus Insane (Batman and the Joker. Joker’s plan is to prove that Batman, and by extension the world, is just as insane as he is)

I'm Here

I'm Here analysis

Task 1 - Short Films

Short Films

Little Red Riding hood interpretations

NTERPRETATIONS OF LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

FEMINISTS – Feminists would argue that it is sexist that the defenceless young female has to be rescued by the strong woodcutter men. Why is it not the female character rescuing the defenceless male? Every female character is attacked by the male wolf, raising unfortunate implications, especially with quotes such as “All the better to eat you with”. The Grandma is ill and frail, not even able to leave the bed. In conclusion, all females in this story are weak and need looking after.

SOCIALIST – Socialists would argue that every character apart from the woodcutter is confined to poor living conditions. Grandma lives alone in a house, isolated in the woods. Red Riding hood is forced to walk into the woods, with no adult supervision – clearly brought it in. The Wolf, who is intelligent enough to disguise himself and speak full English, has to live in the woods. He doesn’t have a house or a job, despite clearly being able to.

PSYCHOANALYST – Red riding hood cannot distinguish a wolf from a human. She also imagines the wolf having a full conservation with her. Clearly there’s something wrong with her. Her mind is further broken when a woodcutter rushes in with no warning and brutality butchers a wolf who she still thinks is her grandmother. Don’t worry though, the woodcutter assures her that it was indeed a wolf and not her grandmother, for her grandmother was eaten alive!  In conclusion, Red riding ends the day completely broken and needing years of therapy.

 

Task 4 - Outsider task

Outsider task

Task 7 - Theorist and Terminology

BLOG 7 – Theorist and Terminology

Propp and Todorov

Vladimir Propp had a theory that all characters could be resolved 7 broad character tropes and functions. These tropes are

The Villain – Antagonises the protagonist. For example, Scar from the Lion King

The Dispatcher- Is used in the beginning of the story to drive the plot forward; will send the hero off in his/hers quest. For example, Uncle Ben in Spider Man

The Helper – Helps the hero. Usually comic relief. For example, Robin from Batman

The Princess/ Prize – The “goal” of the hero. For example, Sleeping Beauty

The Donor – Prepares the hero for his quest. For example, Obi Wan

The Hero – primary protagonist. For example, Frodo

The False Hero – secondary antagonist and rival to the hero. For example, Draco Malfoy

These character tropes can be subverted and deconstructed. A great example of this would be the majority of the characters from the Shrek franchise; almost every character subverts the connotations/expectations of the fairy tale cliché. Shrek the ogre living in the swamp, is our main protagonist, and Prince Charming is our antagonist.

 

Todorov proposed that the narrative itself could be resolved in a 5 part pattern.

• A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be.)
• 2. A disruption of that order by an event.
• 3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.
• 4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.
• 5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium
   
   
  Barthes’ Code
  
  
  The Hermeneutic Code – the way the story avoids telling the truth or revealing the facts, in order to provide clues to develop the narrative enigma
  
  
  The Enigma/ Proairetic Code – The way tension is built up and the audience is left guessing what happens next
  
  
  The Semantic Code – Any element in a text that suggests a particular often additional meaning by way of connotations which the story suggests.
  
  
  The symbolic code – Like the semantic code, but acts a wider level, organising meanings into a larger scale meaning,
  
  
  The Cultural Code – looks at the audience’s morality, culture and technology.
   
  Time and Narrative Structure –
   
  Narrative structure is the structural framework that underlies the order and manner in which the narrative is presented to the audience. The narrative text structures are the plot and the setting.
   
  Usually the narrative structure of any work contains a plot, theme and resolution. It can be divided into three sections: setup, conflict and resolution.
   
  A good example of this would be Scott Pilgrim Versus the World (2010), the setup is that Scott ends up on a date with Ramona, the conflict is in order to go out without her he has to defeat her “7 evil exes”, and the resolution is that after deafting the exes, Scott starts his relationship with Ramona.
   
  A non-linear narrative is one which is composed with a branching structure where a single starting point may lead to multiple developments and outcomes. This is the typical narrative approach of most modern video games and hearkens back to a minor genre, "books where you are the hero", sometimes referred to as "gamebooks".

 

 

 

 

 

 

Task 3 - Genres

BLOG POST 3

GENRES

A genre is a style or category of art, music, film and literature. Over the years films have adopted multiple genres catering to different audiences such as:
• Action ( Indiana Jones)
• Horror (Nightmare on Elm Street)
• Romance (Titanic)
• Comedy ( 21 Jump Street)
• Sci-fi ( Terminator)
• Western ( A Fistful of Dollars)

  
I am going to focus on the superhero genre for this blog post, as it is one that has drastically increased in popularity over the recent years. The three main factors that resulted in the increase of popularity in superhero movies are in my opinion the technology used for special effects has advanced to the point where it studios now have the means to create a believable and good super hero movie thanks to the use of cgi. Another factor is that comic book storylines have matured with its audience, so the potential for more mature and adult themes are viable now, as evident by the success of the Dark Knight Trilogy. Another factor is that superhero movies already have an established audience, so there is already a financial incentive to produce one.
The superhero genre is older than one would think. The mark of Zorro was the first “superhero” movie, and it was created in 1920. During the 1940s some emergence of now considered “mainstream superhero” films were made such as Batman and Robin and Superman. However, the genre took off in the 1970s with the classic Superman film produced in 1978. However during the 1990s the genre declined with box office bombs such as Batman Forever and Daredevil. It was only the success of the Spiderman films and the Dark Knight trilogy that caused a revival in the superhero genre. The genre is now going extremely well thanks to marvels “Avengers” project.

 Common conventions and tropes in superhero genres include:
• A coming of age story
• Binary opposite - “Good versus Evil”
• Story is about opposing forces battling
• Common character tropes – anti-hero, snarky comic relief, “card-carrying” villain”, love interest.
•  Elements of fantasy and sci-fi
• Set in New York

Sometimes the superhero genre takes a more realistic approach to the story and characters. A good example would be Watchmen and The Dark Knight Saga. Tropes in these “grittier” types of superheroes include more anti-heroes and villains; the good versus evil is more “grey versus grey” rather than “white versus black”.
The Superhero genre sometimes has a hybrid with other genre in which conventions are shared. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy combines some sci-fi tropes such as star ships and alien worlds along with the established super hero conventions. In addition, Thor combines the superhero genre with high fantasy and it Norse mythos are featured prominently in the film.



 Thomas Schratz composed a theory that there are only two types of genres; Genres of Order and Genres of Integration.

Genres of Order (Western, Gangster, Sci-fi etc.)
Hero Individual - Male dominant
Setting Congested space - fighting for territory (ideology unstable)
Conflict Externalised - against others. Expressed via action codes; conflicting ideologies
Resolution/ Ending Elimination (death)
Thematic (narrative themes) The hero takes the problems upon himself, contradictions to his society and saves us from them- protecting audience. Macho code of behaviour, isolated self-reliance

Genres of Integration (Musicals, comedies, domestic melodramas etc)
 Hero - Couple or collective e.g. family
 Setting - Civilised space (ideologically stable)
 Conflict - Internalised - between themselves (expressed through emotion)
 Resolution/ending - embrace (love)
 Thematics - The romantic couple or family are integrated into the wider community, their personal antagonists resolved
                   - Maternal, familiar code
                   - Community co-operation

Another Theorist, Bucking, states 
'Genre is not simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change.'


◦ Pastiche – uses/copies stylistic features/iconography with no mocking intent; often it can be a mosaic of different genres creating a hybrid
◦ Homage – deliberately imitating the characteristics of another text as an indication of that texts importance e.g. What Lies Beneath contains homage to Psycho.
◦ Parody/Spoof – usually a playful treatment of the genre e.g. Shaun of the Dead is a parody of Dawn of the Dead (even the title!)

Task 2 - Film Poster

Intro

I'm Jake Sherris. This blog is to show the progress of my A2Media film coursework.