Closing Post!

This blog is now officially closed! I've really enjoyed working on this project and have learnt alot from it :) I look forward to more media sooooooon!
Byeeee xxxxxxxxx

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full project?

Brief for Preliminary Exercise
To create a short sequence in which a character had to walk through a door into a room, sit down and half a short conversation with another charater. This task was to use continuity and make a seamless sequence.

Brief for Main Task
To create a two minute opening of a film, the film can be any genre and have any story line.

After looking back at my preliminary task, I realised it really helped me prepare for making my opening sequence. The preliminary task taught me the basics of continuity and editing and how difficult it actually is as it looks so much easier than it is. It also taught me how important it is to plan your shots carefully and introduced to using the equipment. Without doing the preliminary task I would have found making the opening sequence a lot harder!

The final task was completely different to the preliminary task, it needed a lot more time and planning before we could shoot. The preliminary only took a few hours to shoot whereas this took several weekends. Also with the preliminary task we only had a few shots to do and didn’t have any complex or complicated shots to do, they were all very basic but we had over 25 shots and a wide variety of different shots for our opening sequence.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a lot about different types of technologies during the process of this project.

Hardware

• I have learnt and understand a lot more about using the camera now. I’ve learnt how to use zooms effectively and watch back what we’d recorded etc.
• I've learnt how to use the microphone and headphones with the camera, the headphones were very useful on the shoot as we could hear very clearly if there was any background noise and reshoot if the sound wasn’t right.
• I understand how to adjust and move the tripod now, I know how to tilt it to get a high angle shot and move it with the camera to get a pan.

Software

• I have really developed my editing skills since the preliminary task. I understand how to use Adobe premiere pro in detail, I’ve learnt how to capture footage, drags shots into timeline, cut shots using the razor tool, add effects to shots, drag sound up and down on the timeline, add titles, music etc. I learnt how to edit a match on action cutting it so the character is at exactly the same angle and position as the next shot. I really enjoyed the editing stage of this project.
• We did our titles on the Mac on the programme LiveType which was very professional and then transferred them onto Adobe premiere.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

s we knew our target audience very well we knew how to directly address them, one of our methods was we made a face book page for a screening of our film to get it well known and recognised. We did this so we could get some audience feedback on our film.

We applied Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites eg. we have shown..

Light vs. Dark

Slow vs. Fast

Calm vs. Panic

Inside vs. Outside

• We also tried to shock and surprise the audience with the masked man standing at the window in the dark and the loud noise and scream.
• We also made the audience feel more involved when they saw the masked man and Zoe, the babysitter, didn’t. This makes them feel more like part of the film as they know something a character doesn’t.
• We have created a lot of enigma and mystery for the audience leaving them many questions unanswered so they want to carry on watching the film.
• We have used the very serious issue of Kidnap which could add an emotional connection for the audience.
• We have a very gripping storyline which starts off straight away instantly getting the audience gripped to our film.
• We used a variety of different shots, lots of CU’s, HA’s, LS’s to make our opening sequence look as effective as possible.
• We had many effective shots, the ones I thought worked best was the slow zoom at the beginning from a LS to a CU, I think this really introduces the character well. Also the high angle on the stairs, I think that looks really good and also builds tension. I also like the fridge shot and the phone shot at the end as there are objects in the foreground which are out of focus so the audience’s attention is still on the main character.
• We used a mobile phone (blackberry) as a visual reference instead of using a housephone as a mobile phone is something nearly every teengager has so is familiar with and can easily relate to.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our core audience is both males and females between the ages 15-28.  I think our audience is a niche audience as they have a specific lifestyle and are interested in specific things although it has quite a broad age range and as our film is rating 15 this allows for a broader audience.

Audience Female


Audience Male

3. What kind of media institutions might describe your media product and why?

We chose to use two production companies for our film.

BFE Productions

BFE Productions is the big budget production company in the UK, they are very commercial and were the production company for our film so funded it. They produce films with a wide range of genres from family films to horrors but are especially interested in Indie Films as they can be made on quite a low budget but can make them a big profit, a very good example of this was the film Paranormal Activity.

Impact Films

Impact Films are the distributor for ‘Dark Summer’, they are a much smaller independent UK based company specialising in low budget, gritty and edgy films. They had to distribute our film and get it well known in the UK.

As our film is a low budget independent film, it wouldn’t get into a mainstream cinema such as Cineworld but more like an independent cinema such as The Pheonix in London, http://www.phoenixcinema.co.uk/, this would allow us to get our film known and give us more options. It could also be shown at various film festivals such as London Film Festival, it could also be put onto the internet on popular sites with our target audience’s age range such as Youtube and Facebook.

This would create word of mouth about the film and hopefully it would gain a big audience just as Paranormal Activity did. Paranormal Activity was first shown at a small film festival and was put on the web and phenomenally created a mass audience with people begging for it to be in cinemas in their town, but didn’t reach its huge success until Stephen Spielberg found it and showed Paramount. When Paramount got behind the film, that’s when it went global and made an enormous profit. Paramount plays the part of BFE Productions in our film in that it is the major production company behind it.

The Duchess

The Duchess is very similar to our film in that Paramount was the main big budget production company behind it but smaller UK based independent companies such as BBC Films, Pathe and Qwerty films were the distributors of the film. This is how an independent film can reach global success, this is a very good example of Vertical Integration.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

We chose to focus on the representation of Age and Gender in our film.

Teenage Girls:

• She’s young and attractive which will appeal to both young male and female audiences as they will be able to relate to the character.
• She’s fashionable, she has nice hair, nice clothes and wears some jewellery, it is obvious she takes pride in her appearance which is typical of a teenage girl and many teenage girls will be able to relate to this.
• She’s trying to make money by babysitting a few times which is a very conventional thing for teenager to do so she comes across as quite smart.
• This also shows her character is quite sensible and mature as she is trying to make her own money and she actually gets scared and panics when she sees the child is gone showing she is quite smart and grown-up. People may have the idea that teenagers rely on their parents for money and would rather go out on a Friday night so we have challenged the stereotype slightly. So we chose the represent teenage girls in a positive light instead of using a stupid immature girl which wouldn’t have been effective for the film.

Young Children:

• We never actually see the character of Summer which I think is very effective as it adds a lot more mystery to the film.
• Very young children are seen as innocent, vulnerable and dependant so the fact that such a young child has disappeared is very serious and sensitive issue and people can understand the seriousness of this because of real life stories such as the Madeline McCann case.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We chose the genre of Psychological Thriller for our opening sequence, we wanted to make it very obvious to the audience that it was a thriller genre so we researched other thriller opening sequences and established the typical thriller conventions to use in our opening sequence. We used many different methods such as mise-en-scene, characters’, music, editing and camera work to create a thriller atmosphere. Some very conventional themes of thrillers are mystery, enigma and suspense all enticing the audience, making them think about it and wanting to watch more. We tried to include these key themes in our opening sequence.

Some typical thriller conventions are:

Young female victim – We have used this convention as a young girl has been trusted and left alone in someone else’s house babysitting their child and the child has disappeared which has panicked her as she will be blamed. Babysitting in itself could be seen as a thriller convention as many classic thriller films have used this theme eg. Halloween and When A Stranger Calls. She gets an anonymous phone call as well at the end which could be seen as another convention as it was used in When A Stranger Calls and Scream. Also unknown to her there is a man wearing a mask stalking her it seems so she seems the typical vulnerable naïve victim of a thriller film. Although she could also be seen as the hero as we see her character is still quite strong which is a small challenge to this convention. She’s in the light which shows she’s the good character.

Male villain – We have used this convention as we see a masked man standing at the window which is scary and as he is wearing a mask his identity is hidden making him seem dark and evil and creating a lot of mystery and enigma for the audience. It also builds a lot of suspense at the point where the audience see him as you think what’s going to happen to the babysitter and the child. He’s in the dark which shows he’s the bad character. Male villains are used in almost every thriller film, one good example would be Friday 13th.

Disturbing music – We used this as slow, scary and tense music creates a lot of suspense. It’s called ‘Off Centre’ from the website www.freeplaymusic.com. In our opening sequence, as the tension builds up as Zoe is trying to find the child the music gets louder and slightly faster adding to atmosphere. Also we used a music box which was playing in the child’s bedroom and it sounds really eery.

Dark mise-en-scene/lighting – We didn’t really use this convention as it didn’t work in our film to have dark lighting inside. The mise-en-scene was a typical house, homely and well lit, in a way this is worse as it was an everyday environment that people can relate to and could scare the audience more knowing things could go wrong in your own house. It was dark outside, so it was a good contrast being light inside and dark outside as it being at night added a much scarier atmosphere.

Danger signifiers – We used red signifiers such as red juice, red scarf to connote danger and blood and the feeling something bad has happened.

Slow/fast pace – We started off using a very slow pace creating suspense and when she hears the scream, we used cuts and loud music to fasten the pace to make it more dramatic.

Being watched – I think the feeling of being watched is quite a common theme in thrillers, we had a few shots that were similar to surveillance shots.

 

 I think these two shots make the audience feel as if she’s being watched which creates a lot more fear. Also the high angle on the stairs looking down on her makes her seem more vulnerable.

One of our main inspirations for our opening sequence was the film Halloween (1978 Carpenter).

Halloween involves many of the same main themes of our opening sequence like babysitting alone, masks, stalking which all terrify audiences so we chose to include these themes as they have proved to work well in the past.

I think we created a lot of mystery in our film, here are some of the enigma codes we created…

What happened to Summer?

Who was the masked man and why was he there?

Does the masked man have anything to do with Summer’s disappearance?

Who was on the other end of the anonymous phone call at the end?

We followed Tzvetan Todorov’s theory of the classic narrative pattern in our opening sequence. His theory is…

Equilibrium --> Equilibrium disrupted --> Resolution --> Restored order --> New equilibrium

We did…

Equilibrium --> Equilibrium disrupted (No resolution as this would be the rest of the film)

The equilibrium was the young girl’s, Zoe’s, everyday routine just babysitting and the scream and the disappearance of the child disrupted the equilibrium straight away making the audience enthusiastic about the rest of the film.  We used realtime in our opening sequence and didn’t use any flashbacks or cross cutting as we wanted to keep it simple and effective. We used all the classic continuity techniques such as shot-reverse-shot, match on action, cuts, 180 degree rule and the 30 degree rule.

I think our opening sequence is quite similar to the opening sequence of the film Scream (1996 Craven)

Similarities:

• Anonymous phone call
• Masked man
• Girl home alone

Questionnaire

We designed a questionnaire so we could get as much audience feedback on our film as possible.  We used multiple choice questions so it was easy and quick to fill out.

BFE Productions Company Logo

I came up with an idea for the 'BFE Productions' logo that Winnie designed. First I looked on http://www.dafont.com/ to find a suitable font that looks professional and would go with our company name and then looked on google and found a simple silhouette outline image of a London skyline.

Then I used Paint Shop Pro and put these two things together to create a sample image of what our company logo would look like.

Then I used the magic wand on Paint Shop Pro to remove the white background so the image was just the logo. Then I put the logo onto a background of red sky and sea.  I removed the sea afterwards though as it is meant to look like a London skyline and there is no sea in London.

Group Proposal

After our group meeting we have decided on our final idea for our opening sequence and have put together a proposal to present to our class.

A phone rings and we see an 18 year old girl, Zoe, babysitting in a house. She goes to the kitchen and a man is standing at the window, wearing a mask, a hood and dressed in dark clothes. The audience see’s him but Zoe doesn’t. She then hears a scream and strange noises coming from the child’s bedroom upstairs. She is startled and drops a cup of red juice, smashing it on the floor. She runs upstairs to check on the child. She opens the door to see the room filled with the child’s possessions. The window has been blown open and as she approaches the bed, slowly pulling open the covers to realise that the child has gone.

Signifiers

Mask

We're going to have the man at the window wearing a mask so his the character seems mysterious and causes the audience to question who he is and weather he is related to the babysitter in any way, this creates a lot of enigma for the audience. We haven't decided what mask to use yet but we want just a simple white mask, in the picture there are the masks from Scream and V for Vendetta which were our influences for this idea.

Technology

I think the mobile phone/blackberry is an important visual reference of our opening sequence as nearly all teenagers have mobile phones, so it's something they're familiar with and can easily relate to.

Red Signifiers

We're going to use a lot of red signifiers to make it clear to the audience there is danger and something bad is about to happen. When the babysitter drops the red drink, the audience will get a sense of blood and murder as this colour connotes danger. We're going to have the red coat hanging over the banisters as she runs of the stairs again symbolising how there is present danger.

Child Signifiers

When the babysitter enters the child's bedroom, we will have a lot of signifiers eg. teddy bears, crayons and kids drawings there to make it very obvious to the audience that it is a child's bedroom. We will also have a rocking horse and a musical box playing slow music which will both create a very eerie atmosphere in the room.

DYM Applying Barthe's Theory

Roland Barthes wrote an essay called S/Z, in it he identified a number of codes (set of rules) which he proposed are linked together in the production of all kinds of stories.  Therefore, he postulated that all stories used the same 5 codes and that all genre signifiers can be grouped under them to create narrative.  These codes are:

1. Action Code

Depicts the events which take place in the narrative - the who, where, when of the story.  Action codes are sequential.

2. Semantic Code

Refers to character and characterization.  The actions in the story are explained by the character's view point on events.

3. Enigma Code

Involves the setting up of a mystery, it's developed and resolution.

4. Referential Code

Involves explaining or informing.  Mise-en-scene is a referential code.

5. Symbolic Code

Involves the reading of the connotations of signs which transforms them into symbolic representations eg. a character can symbolize bravery.

Applying Barthe's Theory to opening of 'Rear Window'

1. Action Code

A man wakes up an apartment and answers a phone call from his boss, we guess he is the main character.  There are other people we see, a man shaving across the road, a couple wake up on a balcony with their bed there and a woman dances in another apartment.

2. Semantic Code

We see the film from the main character’s point of view.  He is in a wheelchair.  He keeps looking across the road to women dancing in her underwear. 

3. Enigma Code

Why is the man in a wheelchair? What is the job his boss wanted him to do? Why are people sleeping on their balconies? Why does he have so many magazines/photo’s?

4. Referential Code

The film is directed by Alfred Hitchcock which creates big expectations and a typical storyline the audience would expect.

5. Symbolic Code

The cast and wheelchair symbolise the fact he can’t walk.  As he is trapped in his apartment because of his broken leg, we see that he can see everything from his window which suggests he may see something he doesn't want to see.

DYM Applying Levi-Strauss' Theory

Strauss argued that narrative has two main characteristics..
1. That it’s made of units that are put together according to certain rules.
2. That these units form relations with each other, based on binary opposites, which provide the basis of the structure.

The idea of opposites that he proposed roughly works out something like this, we often understand a concept by knowing what it isn’t. This, he said, meant that in texts we had direct (or roughly direct) opposites that reflected differing ideas in narratives. These opposites were often in conflict in the narrative and that was where the crux of the story or the crisis of the narrative lay.

Pale Rider
Good vs Evil
Quiet vs Loud
Still vs Action
Slow vs Fast
Night vs Day
Life vs Death
Sun vs Storm
Dark vs Light
Calm vs Panic
Innocent vs Evil
Threat vs Safety
Town vs Country
Death vs Survival
Attacker vs Victim
Cowboys vs Villagers
Peace vs Destruction
High Angle vs Low Angle
Open Space vs Enclosed
Black Horse vs White horse
Peacefull Village vs Chaotic Speed
Slow Editing vs Choppy Fast Editing
Spiritual Experience vs Everyday Normality

Die Hard
Good vs Evil
Hero (cop) vs Villians (terrorists)
Past vs Future
Home vs Away
New York vs LA
Husband vs Wife
Single vs Married
Marriage vs Career
Relaxed vs Arguing
Maiden Name vs Husband’s Surname
Outside vs Inside
Open Space vs Enclosed
Empty vs Crowded Party
Happy Light Party vs Sinister Dark Street
High Technology (terrorists) vs Old Fashioned (mcclane)
Light Upbeat Music (party) vs Dark Tense Music (terrorists)

Preliminary Exercise

1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

I worked with Winnie, Jacob and Wanda for the Prelim exercise.  Firstly, we had a group meeting to discuss and plan what we were going to do.  We wrote our script, did the storyboard and then wrote our shooting schedule.  We all contributed ideas equally, were well organised and did this very easily and efficiently.  We’d learnt about the different roles before which were:

- Director

- Assistant Director

- Camera Person

- Sound technician

- Light technician

- Actors

As there were only 4 of us and me and Wanda were required to act in a lot of the shots, we had to double up roles.  Winnie and Jacob shared these roles between them mostly.  We took it in turns doing these roles to ensure we all had a go at all of them eg. When I wasn’t acting I would be Director and the Camera Person, we didn’t need a light technician as we didn’t need any particular lighting.  When we were editing our sequence, we all made suggestions and listened to each others ideas and got the editing done quickly and without any big problems.

2. How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try and take into account?

We did most of our planning in our group meeting.  When we wrote our script, we ensured it had narrative flow and made sense to the audience.  When drawing our storyboard, we planned how each shot would be framed and if we had a pan in the shot we drew an arrow to show the camera movement and direction, we also made sure we had a range of different shot types and that there wouldn’t be any jumpy transitions eg. We wouldn’t have an establishing shot to an ECU but we would have a MS to a CU to an ECU.  We also included the continuity rules such as the 180 degree rule so the characters had the same left/right relationship throughout the sequence and the ‘imaginary line’ was not crossed.  Also match on action when I’m opening the door, we planned to film this twice, once from outside the room and once from inside the room so we can just edit the shots together to create the match on action, also a shot-reverse-shot to show the conversation.  We planned on our storyboard the length of our shots and to film them longer than they will actually be as we can edit what we don’t want out.  We planned the location of all our shots too.  As we had all our shots on our storyboard, we can then write out our shooting schedule, we chose to shoot them based on location instead of order as this is much quicker and less set-ups.  After our meeting, we did a walk through to figure out camera placement and to ensure we had enough room for our shots, the lighting looked good and we were clear and confident about what we were doing.

3. What technology did you use to complete the task and how did you use it?

Hardware – We used a Canon HV video camera, a mini DV tape, a Tripod as oppose to holding it as this makes the shots look really smooth and is easy to move when doing a pan, and a shotgun microphone and headphones plugged into the camera to increase the quality and clarity of the sound and to hear if there is any background noise which would disrupt the shot.

Software – We used a PC based editing suite and we used Adobe Premiere Pro.  There were two monitors, the source monitor, the main one which we were editing on and the output monitor, where we could watch what we had edited so we would see what the sequence would look like and weather it looked right or not.  We dragged our clips onto two timelines so we could put the clips alternately on two different tracks so they were clear to see.  We cut the clips using the razor tool, this cuts them into separate shots so then we could just delete the clips, using the rubber band tool, we didn’t want.  When doing our shot-reverse-shot we had to cut the clips and then rearrange them to create the conversation.  Also we had to drag the clips right next to each other so there were no gaps so the sequence had narrative flow.  Finally, using the board titling software we created a title for our sequence at the start and we used a transition, a fade to black at the end.

4. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

We had to take into account many factors when planning, shooting and editing.  When planning, we had to consider how we would manage our time shooting the sequence, we had 1 hour to shoot and 1 hour to edit so our storyboard and shooting schedule helped organise our time really well.  We also had to consider the location of where we wanted to shoot and if all the locations were free at the time we wanted to use them as all of the groups were using the corridor to shoot, so we arranged time slots for when we could film in the corridor.  

When shooting, we had to consider camera position, weather there would be enough room to comfortably shoot where we needed and the 180 and 30 degree rule as without these, the sequence would have looked disorientated.  We had to move around furniture in the room so that there wouldn’t be any distractions away from the characters and so there would be more space to do the pan and the establishing shot.  Sound was a big factor we had to take into account when shooting as we were picking up background noise from people which was disrupting the shot so we had to ask the other groups to be quiet while we were filming.  

When editing, we had to consider where to cut each shot to create narrative flow and techniques such as match-on-action and shot-reverse-shot.

5. How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and in hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?

I think our sequence was quite successful as a lot of things worked well.  Firstly I think the editing was very good, the shot-reverse-shot was cut exactly right and we showed the match-on-action very well as when I’m filmed opening the door from outside the room, the door is the same angle amount open when it cuts to me being filmed from inside the room.  We didn’t break the 180 degree rule, there was no camera movement and we didn’t have any background noise as we’d ask them to be quiet.  We also created a sense of the characters surroundings and atmosphere well for the audience as we had a few establishing shots.  All of this adds up to create very realistic narrative flow.

However, there were a few things that I would improve if I had the chance to do it again.  Firstly I would have a close up of my hand on the door handle pushing the door open as this would have been more effective, our original shot of this broke the 30 degree rule, it was too similar to the one of me walking in and the transition looked really jumpy so we couldn’t use it.  Secondly, when I walk across the room we originally planned me to say “Hi” to Wanda as she said “Hi” to me but we had to cut this out because it interfered with the match-on-action, so it looks like I’m ignoring her but walking towards her which doesn’t make sense to the audience.  Also, when I walk across the room and sit opposite Wanda, there is a pause which creates a sort of tense atmosphere, this wasn’t meant to be there but we had to keep it in otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting down yet.  Still, the transition between the establishing shot of me and Wanda sitting opposite each other to the shot-reverse-shot is really stiff and doesn’t flow at all, this was because we didn’t take a long enough shot to make this transition smooth.  We should have filmed this shot twice, once from the pan and once from Wanda’s point of view and we could have edited this together to create a match-on-action.  Finally, I think the last shot-reverse-shot when Wanda says “Sorry” is not long enough, we had to cut the end as she looked at the camera so I don’t think this was very effective.

6. What have you learnt from completing the task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of our foundation coursework, do you think?

I have learnt a lot and understand a lot more about planning, shooting and editing from completing this task, I see how important the continuity rules such as match-on-action, shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule, are to make a sequence flow, make sense and be easy to watch for the audience.  I’ve learnt how important it is to film a shot much longer than you intend it to be and make sure you have the shot’s from all point of views and camera positions so you can edit and cut the clips down later to create the sequence, this ensures transitions are always smooth and never look jumpy or stiff.  I’ve seen how important planning is as this really helped us organise our time and we worked a lot quicker and efficiently with our storyboard and shooting schedule as we knew exactly what we were doing.  I’ve also learnt how important every little detail is as the smallest detail could disrupt the narrative flow.  I think this task will really help me when completing the rest of my foundation coursework as I’ve had experience with planning, shooting and editing now and I know I won’t make the same mistakes again.

Group 1C

DYM Applying Propp's Theory

Propp's theory

Vladimir Propp proposed that there are distinctive character types and actions in all fairy tales. He said that characters have narrative functions as well as being representations of people, he said that all fairytales had only 8 main character types:

• The villain - struggles against the hero
• The donor - prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object
• The (magical) helper - helps the hero in the quest
• The princess - person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative
• Her father
• The dispatcher - character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off
• Hero or victim/seeker hero - reacts to the donor and weds the princess
• False hero/Anti hero - takes credit for the hero’s actions/tries to marry the princess

He also suggested that all fairytales had a similar narrative structure and he broke it down into 31 functions that followed roughly the same order. He then broke these 31 functions down into 4 spheres which were:

• 1st Sphere - The introductory sequence
• 2nd Sphere - The body of the story
• 3rd Sphere - The donor sequence
• 4th Sphere - The hero returns

Propp's theory applied to Lion King

Synopsis

A young lion prince is born in Africa, thus making his uncle Scar the second in line to the throne. Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mufasa and Prince Simba, thus making himself King. The King is killed and Simba is led to believe by Scar that it was his fault, and so flees the kingdom in shame. After years of exile he is persuaded to return home to overthrow the usurper and claim the kingdom as his own thus completing the "Circle of Life".

The 8 main character types

• The villian - Scar
• The donor - Rafiki
• The helper - Timon and Pumba
• The princess - Nala
• Her father - Her mother Sarafina
• The dispatcher - Nala
• Hero - Simba
• False hero - Scar

Our board game

We showed the character/character types in the following way:

• Scar - If you land on a square with Scar, you have to go back or miss a go which disrupts your game as Scar disrupts Simba’s life.
• Rafiki - There is a big drawing of Rafiki in the centre of the board with the words “What will your destiny be”, showing he is the magical donor as he is in the film.
• Timon and Pumba - If you land on Timon and Pumba, they take you across a bridge which advances you in, and lets you skip some of the game, this is a memorable part of the film when they take Simba across the bridge and we are shown the time skipping as he grows from a child to an adult.
• Nala - If you land on Nala, she helps you move forward a few spaces and when you reach the end of the game, you marry her.
• Simba - You play as Simba so you are the hero moving through.
• Also if you land on a certain square, you must return to Prideland and miss a go to ‘restore’ it as Prideland needs restoring by Simba in the film.
• We drew a small image of Rafiki holding up Simba over Pride Rock when he is born symbolising Simba’s importance.

Examples of functions in Lion King

1st Sphere

• Villian attempts to deceive hero with trickery – Scar tricks Simba into believing it is his fault his dad Mufasa died
• Hero is deceived - Simba believes Scar

2nd Sphere

• Hero leaves home - Simba leaves home because he is so ashamed of what he thinks he has done, what Scar has convinced him to believe
• Hero discovers the lack - Nala finds Simba and tells him about what has happened to Prideland
• Hero decides on counteraction - Simba decides to return to Prideland, fight for it and restore it

3rd Sphere

• Hero and villian in direct combat - Simba and Scar have a big physical fight
• Villian defeated - Simba defeats Scar and Scar dies

4th Sphere

• True hero recognised - Simba restores Prideland and becomes king
• Hero marries and ascends throne - Simba marries Nala and is now king

Evaluation of Propp's theory

The biggest problem with Propp’s theory is that it was written such a long time ago, in the 1920’s, and it is hard to apply it to modern films. Also, the 8 character types are meant to be different characters but some of them double up in Lion King eg. Nala is the princess and the dispatcher and some of them were different characters completely eg. Nala’s father is not mentioned. Also, we found it hard to identify all of the functions as some didn’t happen and some weren’t quite right. As his theory is so old, contemporary films might not match his theory completely.

DYM Applying Todorov's Theory

Todorov’s theory of Equilibirum

Tzvetan Todorov discovered that folk tales and fairy stories all followed a similar structural pattern. This is known as the classic narrative pattern, and is directly applicable to mainstream films and TV dramas today. The classic narrative pattern works like this – Equilibrium --> Disruption --> Resolution --> Restored order --> New equilibrium.

1. Who are the agents: the protogonist (the main hero who propels the narrative forward) and antagonist (opposing agent)?

The protagonist in this film is obviously Cady as the film is based around her, we are introduced to her straight away and we see her with her family showing us she is the main character, the audience are made to sympathise with her as we she is going through a big change in her life. The antagonist seems to be ‘the plastics’, they are the most popular girls in the school and are shown to be ‘superior’ to everyone else, Damien describes them as "teen royalty", but to the audience they come across that they think they’re better than everyone else and very self-obsessed. Janis and Damien introduces the audience to all 3 of them individually emphasising their ‘importance’, also describing the main one as "evil in human form" emphasising their role as the antagonist.

2. Describe the equilibrium. How is it represented? What kind of camera shots can you identify?

The equilibrium is introduced immediately and is shown to be a nice innocent girl who is very naïve about starting an American high school, the film starts with some close up shot-reverse-shots of Cady talking to her parents focusing on their relationship, this forces the audience to realise she has a good happy relationship with her parents and they get along very well, but the title suggests this may change later on in the film. It also cuts back to an establishing shot showing us her surroundings, the street is a typical leafy homely American street suggesting to us they are quite wealthy as they have a big house and everything looks very nice. She meets Janis and Damien who are her real friends in the film and they guide her about ‘school life’.

3. Is the Disruption/Disequilibrium introduced or hinted at?

The disruption or disequilibrium is not introduced in this clip but it’s hinted at by the introduction of the plastics at 7:27, we can gather they will play a big part in the film and that Cady may be manipulated by them and sucked into their lifestyle as she is vulnerable and as she isn’t used to school life, could be easily influenced.

4. Are there any visual/verbal/aural clues that hint at what the hero's journey might be?

We don’t really get an idea of what the hero’s journey will be from this clip but we can assume that Cady will get caught up with the plastics, this is hinted at when Damien says “Oh you’ll get socialised alright”. Also, we can tell that Cady won't go on a physical journey as she has just moved to America but she will go on a mental/emotional journey in this film.

5. From your knowledge of the film, how will the equilibrium be restored and what will be the new equilibrium?

Throughout the film, we see how Cady gradually changes into one of the plastics, she becomes so obsessed with Regina, her scheme to make her unpopular and being a fake friend, that she becomes a ‘mean girl’ as she acts just like Regina and lets her real friends, Janis and Damien, down. There is a huge disruption when everyone finds out about Cady’s scheme, but the equilibrium is restored when Cady apologises to Regina so there is no longer an antagonist. The new equilibrium is that the plastics all go their separate ways, people are no longer divided into cliques and Cady, Janis and Damien are friends again.

BLK Continuity Sequence Analysis

I decided to use a clip from the film ‘Definitely Maybe’ looking at the techniques that have been used to create narrative flow.

• The clip starts with an establishing shot with a slow pan of the character’s walking, this sets the scene as we see clearly where they are and their position in relation to each other and other people.
• Then there is a reverse tracking mid-shot so it appears as if the characters are walking towards the audience. The camera then slowly pans around as the characters stand opposite each other so the transition to the close-up shots isn’t jumpy.
• A conversation then happens between Isla Fisher and Ryan Reynolds where shot-reverse-shot is used, this puts the audience in the conversation and makes them feel much more involved as oppose to watching the conversation from a distance, it also forces us to look at the character’s facial expressions and emotions. The dialogues for the shot-reverse-shot, which starts at 0:27, would have been filmed twice, once from her point of view and once from his point of view and then would have been edited together to create the conversation.
• The technique match on action is used at 0:34 when he opens the box. We see him start to open the box in a close up and then the shot is an extreme close up of the box the same amount open, this makes narrative flow and avoids confusion with the audience.
• Between the shot-reverse-shot, the camera cuts to the master shot eg. at 0:46 and 2:14, this breaks up sequence and reminds the audience where the character’s are in relation to each other and their surroundings etc.
• At the end of the sequence, 2:42, the camera cuts to a long shot so we see the characters exit the screen.
• Finally the 180 degree rule is used throughout this sequence as the character’s always have the same left/right relationship, Isla Fisher is on the left and Ryan Reynolds is on the right so the ‘imaginary line’ is not crossed. This avoids disorientation with the audience and creates narrative flow making it very easy to watch.

BLK Accident Sequence Evaluation

1. What did you think was the point to this activity?

I think the point of this activity was to learn about the rules of continuity, we did a six-shot sequence of an accident and by doing this you see how important continuity is for the shots to look right and make sense.  Also, it was helpful to break these rules as you see how ineffective the shots look without them.

2. In regard to your sequence, what worked well?

We used a range of shots which I think made the sequence realistic and successful. The first shot was the master shot, an LS of two girls facing each other and the audience get to see their surroundings so they get a sense of where they are and the space between them which builds up tension, then there is an over the shoulder shot which involves the audience and puts them in the scene and there is a CU of the girl’s angry facial expression forcing the audience to realise she is annoyed with the other girl. Also, action reaction is used in the last shot as we see her react to punching the pole, a high angle shot is used making the angry character look weak. We have 6 clear shots which makes the sequence flow and I think the cutaways between each shot breaks up the action and makes the sequence more effective. 

3. What would you aim to improve about your sequence?

I would improve quite a lot with this sequence as continuity rules were broken and the shot’s don’t really match together well. Firstly, we broke the 180 degree rule which is the most important continuity rule, the character’s should always have the same left/right relationship to each other but we filmed our shots on both sides of the ‘imaginary line’ which changes the viewer’s perspective, this can be quite disorientating confusing them. Also, I would make the establishing shot longer to give the audience more of a sense of the character’s surroundings and as one of the girl’s is walking towards the other in the next shot, she should be walking towards her in the master shot so the sequence flows better and isn’t jumpy. I think we should have used a shot-reverse-shot between the two girls before the punch, we only used an over the shoulder shot of one of the girl’s and I think a shot-reverse-shot would have been more effective because you would of seen both the girls expressions. Finally for the punch, the next 2 shots, we should of made sure there was match on action because it looks like she is punching twice. 

4. What did you learn from doing this activity?

From doing this activity I’ve learnt how difficult it is to achieve narrative flow and how important continuity rules are to make a sequence flow and be realistic. I’ve learnt how much attention is put in to timing and positioning etc. and that there is a lot more detail and work to create narrative flow than it looks.

DYM Homework Feedback

Well done, Jess. Some very good points made and a good attempt at discussing the differences between the two. However, for "narrative expectation" you needed to have had more points about the the type of story we were going to be shown and how you thought the story was going to be told.