Another Spike Lee Film: Inside Man

Inside man by Spike Lee

This film is a 2006 American crime thriller and the themes that run throughout this film are violence, crime, past, conflict, etc. This was directed by Spike Lee, cinematography by Mathew Libatque, written by Russell Gewirtz and produced by Brian Graver.  Production companies involved was Imagine Entertainment, Film works and was distributed by Universal Pictures. The budget of this film was $45 million, but the box office was $184.4 million. The location of this film was set in the United States.

The scene opens with the credits of Universal Pictures and the company Imagine entertainment. O.45 seconds into the film it opens of a white man saying “My name is Dalton Russell” already introducing himself to the audience. This shows this was a direct approach to the audience, already making the audience feel involved and wanting to know what he’s going to say; by dragging their attention in more. He also says “pay attention to my words”, which again shows the audience that the he is talking directly to the audience. The micro feature of performance is expressed through Dalton as he uses his dialogue to attract his audience, literally within one minute. Furthermore the use of the phrase “I don’t repeat myself” could suggest how blunt he is, suggesting/connoting his character. Could he be the antagonist? Mis en scene is used to show that behind him is pitch black with a bright light focusing on him making it look like he is in an interrogation room, alternatively it could suggest that he is in hiding, or even in prison-suggesting that he is a criminal, showing a sort of threat and his motive behind this storyline. This scene was shown through a close up shot of Dalton, focusing on his emotionless expression, showing us the time of character he is to this film.

Scene cross fades to a bank, medium shots are used to show the type of people within the bank, potentially showing their significance later on in the film.  close up scene is used when a man in a white painters uniform, wearing a mask and glasses to cover his identity,  enters the bank. The use of the mis en scene used to create deception making it look like they are real painters, up until he uses a device to turn the CCTV footage off in each corner of the bank. Furthermore, the use of sound builds up tension, making the audience question what is going to happen. Is this a potential bank robbery?

The micro feature performance is expressed again by Dalton, when he gathers the hostages to give their phones and stops a particular bank employee when he states he left his phone at home. Remorselessly he attacks the man when he found out the employee was lying. This shows how violent and serious he is to reach his motive without it being ruined or stopped by any hostages.  Again, the micro feature performance was expressed clearly by the man who owns the different branches of the bank. However, he showed more fear when he asked the woman again what branch has been robbed, making the audience question if there is more depth and history behind the story, rather than just being an ordinary bank robbery.

miracle of st anna analysis

Miracle of St Anna

This film was an American-Italian war film, the genre is a historical fiction and the themes that ran throughout this film were violence, war, family, betrayal, unloyalty, sacrifice, reality, friendship and love. This film was made in 2008 and directed by Spike Lee, also adapted by the 2003 novel by James McBride. The location of this film was set in Italy mainly and in the United States.  The production companies of this film are Touchstone Pictures, 40 Acres and a Mule Film works and RAI Cinema, and were distributed Walt Disney Studios and Motion Pictures. The budget of this film was $45 million and box office was 19.4 million- this was a box office disappointment, but gained a further $10.1 million from DVD sales.

Before the film even starts, repetitive symbols of the cross is shown, signifying already Christian values are going to be shown throughout this film.  The first scene shows a (almost) retired black man named Hector sitting at his post office, doing his job, until he analyses and recognizes one of his costumers, who he immediately shoots in the chest. Already, this grabs the audience’s attention making them question why Hector would do that. The scene ends when the gun is left in the hat (after being fired) with blood splattered over it; this suggests a cyclical structure, which will tie this scene together towards the end of the film. however, before the scene of ‘gun in hat’ shown, Hector pulls down his shutter and a close of the sign of it saying ‘closed’ is shown to emphasise it was done for a purpose and that he does care if he was arrested. However, to the audience it makes them question why he would do that so casually.

He’s immediately arrested and investigators go to his house, finding the ‘head of Primavera’ stressed to be the eldest statue worth millions, his service medal of the cross (military award) and a purple heart (awarded to those wounded/killed while serving); suggesting a military/ war story behind it, already giving the audience an insight of who Hector is, but doesn’t completely make sense yet. The detective questioned him and said ‘with all that you was awarded with, what are you doing with this statue and why would you kill this man?’ I believe is some respects the detective represents the audience, because he has no idea as well as the audience, as to why he would do that? All the questions asked, is answered in Hector’s head, as flashbacks, giving the audience a fair view of the two sides of the story. A sudden flashback happens where Hector tells his story, at every scene it is captioned with ‘Rome, Italy’ or a date (1964) , making the audience feel we are going forward into Hector’s flashback with him, making us feel like we’re in the scene with him, which is created purely by mis-en-scene using a different location, time-zone and change in lighting. But, before he enters his flashback, a man threw out his newspaper, and landed on a middle aged Italian man’s table (rather wealthy looking), he stands as he picks up the newspaper, of the reported story of Hector and the statue, a close up shot of the man dropping his tea to the floor dramatically; again makes the audience question another man’s relevance to this story and how he is linked to Hector. The scene of him ends, when he walks away shocked. An excellent scene of this man stepping into a puddle, and change of scene where a militant boot steps out of a puddle; indicating to the audience a change in the time zone.

 Racism was another key theme shown as the above authority of the black soldiers, was a white man, who often looked down at them, shown again by the microelement, performance. A brilliant scene indicated racism was when the soldiers wanted to eat in a café with other white Americans, but the owner still treated the blacks inhumanely by telling them to sit at the back, away from the whites. Close up shots of the all the soldiers face showed their emotions of how they was upset, disappointed and sad over this approach. However, they repeat their action the next day; they came to the café with an aggressive, violent and hostile approach towards the owner, the owner was intimidated, scared, but the soldiers showed no mercy, it was shown clearly through their performance that their change of behaviour had to be done.

The flashback shows Black American soldier walking across the river shooting the German vice versa, majority of the Black soldiers was shot and killed, some made it through, who are known as the several protagonists in this film.  These soldiers show the theme of brotherhood throughout the film and stuck together throughout this war. One of the soldiers called Sam shows a sense of humour, which makes the film very humorous in the same way of showing social realism- this is presented through the microelement, performance. Again, analysing the soldiers, Sam is very caring and warm hearted, as he rescues an Italian little boy called Angelo, almost becoming a father figure to this child.  Sam didn’t want to let this child go none of the soldiers understood why, but this child showed/connote hope, his vulnerability and young age can symbolise hope/anticipation to the soldiers.  Angelo plays a massive role to the film as we later discover that the man who dropped his teacup (devastated at the news report) was actually Angelo (grown up) who also bailed out Hector.

The story ties together at this point. A beautiful panoramic scene is shown of the view of the beach and the house by; the bright light connoted their bright future, again the hope being displayed by Angelo through his youth and even when he matured to a middle aged man.  This scene did emotionally grab the audience’s attention, making the audience more sympathetic towards Hector and his terrible war experience. The themes of love, friendship and family are shown through Hector and Angelo.  Death is also another key theme shown by all the other soldiers shot one by one, leaving Hector to be the last to die, but he didn’t get killed; instead the German Soldier handed over the pistol to Hector. A close up shot of the pistol was shown, making the audience aware that it was the very same pistol used to kill Italian partisans at the beginning on the film, but the flashback showed and made the audience learn that the man that was killed was a betrayer, and was technically the reason why everyone died (like the innocent Italian family who helped the soldiers by hiding them in their house, the soldiers, etc.)

The Gift (2015)

The gift

This film is an American-Australian psychological thriller made in 2015. The themes that run throughout this film are loneliness, possession and death. This was written, directed and produced by Joel Edgerton in his directorial debut alongside with Jason Blum. This film was released by STX Entertainment, and received a box office of $59 million from a $5 million budget.

This film is about a couple intimidated by a man who they knew from high school, who we learn becomes more of a stalker and possessive over the couple, causing harm to their surroundings.

The first scene is the view of a new house that a couple has moved into as they’re undoing the boxes for the house, showing that they’re main protagonists of this film. The husband breathes into their glass house window, and draws a heart whilst his wife is on the other side, symbolising his love for her, already making the audience aware that they are in a stable relationship. The scene after, the couple bumps into a ‘high school’ friend called Gordo, who we already inspect is a dodgy person as he listens out for their home address when the cashier asks for it. From then onwards, the audience have gathered information that Gordo is linked the title name ‘the gift’ suspecting he will leave a gift at their house, knowing their address. Furthermore, we notice that Gordo appears at night-time when the wife is alone, whilst the husband is at work, suggesting that the dark can foreshadow that he is evil and that is could potential lead to danger.

Mis-en-scene is shown through what the couple is wearing and also by the style of their house, they dress very formally on a day to day basis and we discover that the wife works as an architecture, suggesting their wealth and class that Gordo might want. Moreover, the frequent visit suggests his interest in Robiyn (wife), which is highlighted in the micro feature, performance. Furthermore, with the micro feature, mis-en-scene is used when the couple visits Gordo’s house and find a child’s room, further suggesting that that Gordo is shady, not telling them that he has a child. 

The Selfish Giant (2013)

The selfish giant (2013) is a british drama and the themes that run throughout this film are brotherhood, friendship, poverty, suffering and death. This film very emotional and connects to a wide audience range of 16 upwards due to the vulgar language used.  This film was directed by Clip Barnard and also written by him, cinematography by Mike Eley and distributed by IFC Films and Pigment movie pictures. The running film was 91 minutes and the box office of this was $943,209. This film was set is Bradford, northern England and the male protagonist in this film is Arbor, a young helpless boy with a hyperactivity disorder, which gets him into more trouble unintentionally. This film was screened on the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the European cinemas award and also nominated for the 2013 Lux Prize. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 5/5 stars.

The first scene shows the two boys, Arbor and Swifty, holding hands under the bed after Arbor having a hyperactivity attack; this indicates already to the audience that they’re showing a sense of brotherhood, love and highlights that they’re strong friends- that this scene is the key meaning to the film. Furthermore, the audience discover that they are best  friends and that when they are together they feel like they are escaping the reality of poverty they live in, making it a fun world to live in for them. This theme of friendship is emphasised throughout the film and is shown by Arbor and Swifty.

Moreover, there are longshots of scenery where cows are walking around; this is done throughout the film, but having different changes to it. The use of the cows could be used to symbolise the boys and that they’re no different to animals due to their class (working class). Mis-en-secne is used to present what class the boys are from. This is shown by the jogging bottoms and same dirty top worn every day, this is also shown by wear they are sleeping, all together in the living room. Furthermore, when the son sells metal and tries to give the £20 to his Mother, indicates that they’re in poverty and that the Mother is suffering for her own son to give her money. When the Mother repeatedly asks Arbor where he got the money from, he has a hyperactivity attack and the Mother can’t control him, this suggests that the Mother is helpless- an indication that the film is based on social realism.  Swift also has a struggling big family with many younger siblings, and the fact that he goes to sleep at Arbor’s house shows that it is his form of escapism from all the responsibilities he has. The microfeature emphasised in this scene was performance, engaging with the audience and making it clear what their financial status is by what they presented through them to the audience.

The title name ‘Selfish Giant’ is connoted through the adults. It is shown throughout the film that the adults are portrayed as the ‘selfish giant’ as the teachers was really harsh to Arbor, even with his hyperactivity condition; he was still treated like an average student. Even the man that owned the scrap yard was making the young boys do his dirty work for him, making them take part in illegal activity.

Jonah (2013) Analysis

Jonah the whale (2013) is a social realistic film and the themes that run throughout this film are regret, friendship, greed, poverty and mistrust. This film was directed by Kibwe Taveres, written by Jack Thorne and starred Daniel Kaluuya, Malchi Kirby and Louis Mahooney and is a short film; the duration of this film is 17mins long. The production companies that distributed this film was the BFI Film Fund and Factory Fifteen and this film was located in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Mbwana and Juma are best friends that live in a rural village and it this scene the audience disovers the theme of friendship, brotherhood and love. The audience also discovers that they both have big ambitions and dreams. Their dreams hit reality when they capture a picture of huge fish, which gets advertised all over their village, making it a hotspot for tourist attractions. The themes that run throughout this scene are success, popularity and fame. However,  after getting everything he wanted, his dreams aren’t what he dreamed for anymore and when he meets the fish again, it wasn’t a pleasant experience, the whale ate him. The themes that throughout this scenes are regret, death and unhappiness.

The scene where Juma leaves Mbwana, the close up shot of his face, zooming into the eye indicates a flash forward within his eye. This was an indication that time was moving forwards into the future. The camera shot zooms back out the eye and shows Mbwana much older, again this shot was excellent as it gave a clear indication to the audience was time zone they are in.  Furthermore, his older appearance connotes that he is closer to death.  Also, the scene after shows a longshot of what their village looks like; vibrant, full of colours and connoted happiness and enjoyment and then a scene of a panoramic display of what the buildings now look like. The buildings are old, chipped and have half ripped posters; showing the audience a contrast of what the village looks like then and now. This highlights how Mbwana selfish fame has ruined his village.

Furthermore, the scene at the bus stop where everyone went on and left him behind suggests his neglect and how he isn’t importance anymore. This highlights to the audience where fame is short term happiness and doesn’t last forever and now Mbwana is suffering on his own. The next scene is view of how the beach and sea are polluted, which suggests how Mbwana has caused this and his greed has made his village result to this. The use of the cinematography in this film was a major feature to this film as it captures the audience’s attention throughout the film with its flashy images. And the use of diagetic and non-diegetic sound was used throughout the film building up suspense when they captured the picture of the fish and when Mbwana was in the sea catching the fish, highlighting that they’re importance key scenes to this film.

Weekly Film Review: Friend Request

‘Friend Request’ is a supernatural, psychological horror film and the themes that run through this film are death, violence, isolation, friendship and envy. This was directed by Simon Verhoeven, cinematography by Jo Heim and edited by Denis Bachter. The production companies of this film are Wiedemann& Berg film, Seven Pictures Film and distributed by Warner Bros. This film was released on the 20^th April 2016. It was an English film, but was made in Germany; hence the confusion of different names as it is called ‘unfriend’ in Germany; however causes confusion as there is another film called ‘unfriended’. The film was shot in Cape Town, South Africa. Though the film was produced by German director Simon Verhoeven and German production companies, the largely English-speaking cast required the film to be shot in English. Filming ended in March 2014.  The box office of this film was $5.9 million.

In the first scene, the ‘warner bro’ credit scene was shown not how it originally is shown, this scene was shown in a horror themed, showing several glitches when the Warner Bro’s logo was shown, indicating that this film has something to do with a computer screen.  This also immediately shows that this film is a horror film too. The sound had several beats and went silent; this was a way of building up tension, already gathering the audience’s attention.

In the first few minutes, the first scene in the film is a wide shot of an institute, which indicates an idea that this story revolves around teenagers. Again, the scene after, there is a wide shot of the lecture room, which indicates that this film is based around teenagers, giving the idea that this will attract a youthful audience. The next scene is of the people sitting down and on the front bench is of two girls, which suggests that they are important roles to the film; foreshadowing that there is a female protagonist. The next scene is of a close up shot of the female’s facial expression; her face begins to tremble when she finds out that ‘Marina’ is dead. This shows the audience that she has some sort of link to the death and that this film evolves around this storyline. Furthermore, the scene showing her face depicts that she is our female protagonist.

The screen goes completely blank and shows a longshot of a female’s bedroom and says ‘two weeks earlier’ which highlights that the previous scene was a flashback. In addition, the audience see a lot of scenes of Facebook, which can make the audience feel like they are watching it from the screen in the shoes of the girl. All the characters are introduced by their Facebook profiles, the audience learn that the protagonist’s name is Laura. This film empathises the colour black, which connotes death, lifelessness, and evil. 

The meaning of this film is for people to watch who they have as their friends online and to be wise about it. Many people have this social network known as ‘Facebook’ which attracts a wide audience range of all ages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDNgs0dgjj4

Weekly Film Review: Me La Debes

‘A family of three, plus the maid and daughter's boyfriend look pretty normal on the outside. But in actuality, they are all having affairs with each other. The boyfriend is sleeping with the mother and daughter, and the father is sleeping with the maid. Do they all know about each other's affairs?’

‘You owe me one’ (me la debes) is a Spanish film made in 2002 and depicts the genre of comedy and drama. The duration of this film is 12 mins and throughout this short film, the themes are love, lust, family, status, sex and deception. This was written by Carlos Cuaron, cinematography by Alexis Zabe and edited by Sebastian Garza. This film contains a sex farce, which is a light comedy; is centred on sexual pairings of characters as they move through doubtful plots throughout the film.

In the opening scene, the scene focuses on the portrait of the family that consists of the Father, Mother and Daughter, which suggests that they are a patriarchal family where the Father holds great dominance over his family. This also shows whose present and introduced in the film; or could suggest who’s most important in the film. Furthermore, the frame of the picture was gold and they had an old rotary dial, which suggests they’re traditional and the gold can emphasise their wealth, suggesting that they’re a middle class family.   A scene after that, it gives a long shot view of the whole desk and the scenery around it, above the desk is a statue of Jesus, which can symbolise that they’re religious as well. This already gives the audience an idea of what the characters are like just by these two scenes.

This is also displayed by sound, in the beginning scene while showing the portrait, classical music was shown throughout this scene, which also highlights that they’re religious, have traditional values and that they have class (stereotypically).  Also, in the opening scene the use of the barking dog, can suggest its importance later in the film. The barking dog was used throughout the film and could highlight a way of this sound is used to build up tension. Furthermore, the sound of the television, barking dog and classical music got louder and louder, suggesting that it was getting louder until she reached her climax. this film contained a lot of diegetic and non-diegetic sound as a lot of sound was coming from the characters, television, barking dog, but also from the classical music. 

Weekly Film Analysis: Mean Girls

Mean Girls' is a 2004 film directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey and Rosalind Wiseman. Due to being directed by Mark Waters; this is then promoted by the use of Lindsay Lohan, a famous comedic actress at the time. In addition to Lindsay Lohan, Tina Fey also indicates the comedic genre, as being well known from Saturday Night Live.

Through use of a more famous cast, audiences whom are fans of these actors will immediately be attracted to this film. The films budget was an estimated $17,000,000 and upon release it grossed $129,042,871 worldwide, the budget immediately reflective of the films 'Hollywood' release, this big budget is again suggested through the use of a popular and in demand actress of the time, 'Lindsay Lohan'. 

Within the scene, audiences are presented with four different environments which illustrate each characters personality. All four characters are seen wearing stereotypically girly clothing, focusing on pastel colour such as blues, pinks and purples. The clothing is seen featuring lace and jewelled studding immediately, when filled with these colours, indicating that these characters represent an extremely girly and feminine group of girls. The unnatural appearance of their clothing almost indicates that the characters themselves are extremely unnatural.  The clothing is particularly important to attracting the younger audience, because it is idealistic and it makes the audience aspire to own the same clothes.

During the scene there is use of a small use of sound following a television advertisement which one of the characters is seen briefly watching. Through this small use of sound in the background, it almost adds a more realistic effect to the scene, presenting audiences with sound they can recognise. In addition to this, the use of background 'noise' also allows audiences to see how the character of 'Regina' is distracted from the phone conversation and almost unbiased. Although it is diegetic, music is heard as the plot thickens within the scene. This use of music almost furthers the manipulative nature of the scene and somewhat reels audiences in, making them want to see what is to happen next. The music somewhat resembles the sound of a ticking clock, making audiences almost impatient to know what is going to happen within the scene, it also acts at speeding the pace of the scene itself.

Film Proposal

https://prezi.com/_kojaconakxs/9pm/

Snatch Film Review (2000)

“Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewellers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.”

Snatch is a British comedy released in 23^rd August 2000 and directed by Guy Ritchie and the themes that run throughout the film are violence, revenge, greed, money, authority, superiority, power and humour. The film is set and based in London and contains different stories between the characters, but all link to one towards the end of the film. Starring in this film was Benicio del Toro, Dennis Farina, Alan Ford, Jason Flemyng, Brad Pitt. The film budget of this film was $10 million and box office was $83.6 million.

The cinematography was a major feature that made the film outstanding, engaging and appealing to the audience and this was done by Time Maurice-Jones. Another feature this film has is an ensemble cast and that means a made up of cast member in which the actors have an equal amount of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This is what made the film unique and enjoyable as it tied the film together. I think the target audience of this film was for ages 18-26 as it is rated for 18, therefore not appropriate to a teenage audience as there is bad language and violence.

Focusing on cinematography, there was a lot close up shots, which is effective to an audience as they was eye grabbing and overwhelming in a sense to see. Watching the film, I discovered that this film had a cyclical structure and the diamond item causing this cycle. At the beginning of the film, the characters have their own caption as their personal introduction, which helped the audience understand who’s who. Also, focusing on the scene of the two gangsters robbing a man, there was the ‘CCTV footage’ camera angle used to film this scene, made it more realistic and as if we were watching the footage with the gangsters. Furthermore, mis-en-scene was used highly as a feature to this film; using props like a gun made the film more effective and empathised the theme of violence throughout the film. Also the use of the diamond showed the audience the importance of it and that it was ‘every man for themselves’ for it. 

Weekly Film Review: Ouija 2 (2016)

Ouija 2 is a supernatural horror film and the themes that run throughout this film are family, love, conflict, sacrifices and death.  The film's plot focuses on a Mother (who lost her husband and therefore left to look after her two children) daughters, she buys an Ouija board as part of their scamming business, but unknowingly unleash a spirit, which later possesses the body of her youngest daughter. The film was released on October 21st, 2016 by Universal Studios, grossing over $64 million, and directed by Mike Flanagan, produced by Michael Bay, Bradley Fuller, etc.

This film starred Elizabeth Reaser, Annalise Basso and Lulu Wilson. The daughter is known as the protagonist as she is being stopped from reaching her family due to the antagonist (the spirit) which is trying to take over her body.
The scene that caught my eye was when the dolly's mouth mysteriously got sewed together, the ghost of the father did it, and the daughter saw, but nobody believed her. Towards the end of the film, the only way to stop the spirit from taking over the whole family's lives, was by sewing the mouth of the spirit to stop it from emerging to other bodies. The scene of the dolly tied the story together and made it more eye opening to the audience - and also a lot more sense.

Mis- en- scene was used highly throughout the film, as the film was based on the 'origins of evil', so the characters was dressed very old fashioned, almost traditional and the house settings looked very traditional as well, which made the audience feel as if it was set back in the 1960s (and by research the film was actually to be set in 1967). Performance as well played a massive impact on the genre of the horror to this film, to ensure it was really scary and jumpy, to keep the audience's attention and engaged to the story line. The use of the young girl is typically used in every horror film, but could explain why they use children as they're innocent and by possessing them contrasted their behaviour making it more frightening, eerie and creepy.

Angel's Share Analysis

“Narrowly avoiding jail, new dad Robbie vows to turn over a new leaf. A visit to a whisky distillery inspires him and his mates to seek a way out of their hopeless lives.”

The angels share is a comedy-drama film. It is directed by Ken Loach and written by Paul Laverty, starring Paul Brannigan, who is the protagonist of this film. He shows qualities of being a protagonist as the film shows he’s trying to turn over a new leaf trying to avoid a prison sentence, avoiding the crowd getting him in trouble and starting a life with his family. He takes part in a community service where the group go to a whiskey distillery. The whiskey symbolises hope and is used throughout the film, which later inspired him to get money and start a new leaf with his family. Even through the title, “angel’s share” which means a “share” of whiskey lost due to evaporation during aging in the oak barrels, which is demonstrated through a scene that highlights the title of the film.  This film was based in Scotland and was released in 2012. Production companies that ran this film were Sixteen Films, Wild Bunch and Why Not Productions and distributed by Entertainment One. It was financially backed by the BFI and France 2 cinema.

Weekly Film Review: Endless Love

What is my film about?

David has had a crush on Jade since the first time he saw her in the tenth grade. With high school coming to an end, David has never spoken to her until her family pulls up to The Inn, where David works as a valet. She and David fall madly in love, a love that only grows stronger as parents try to tear them apart. David knows Jade's past, but as his secrets are slowly revealed, Jade's trust is tested and leaves them wondering if they are truly meant to be together.

Location and production of film:

Endless Love starring Alex Pettyfer was filmed in Georgia. Universal has started production in Georgia on a remake of the 1981 film Endless Love which starred Brooke Shields and Martin Hewitt. This time around, Alex Pettyfer and Gabriella Wilde are set to star in the movie which will open on Valentine's Day 2014

Genre and theme:

This is a romantic film and the themes that run through this film are

• ·         Family
• ·         Love
• ·         Conflict
• ·         Hate
• ·         Class
• ·         Money
• ·         Greed
• ·         Greif
• ·         Loss

Scene:

*Father gets stuck in house set on fire, boyfriend goes into save the Father*

The scene takes place in the room where the fire grows heavily and heavily. The micro feature I spotted was performance as the Father lost a previous child; he wanted to take his belongings before he left the room, but he wanted to take almost everything, which was slowing him down from escaping the fire that broke out in the room he was in. The boyfriend comes in and tries to drag the father out, but he becomes unconscious. The father drops his son’s belongings and picked up the boyfriend. This indicates that the father dropped the son’s belongings, realising that grieving  was keeping in the past, neglecting his daughter’s happiness with the boy she’s with (because he doesn’t like him).

My brother the devil analysis

My brother the devil is a film written by Sally El Hosaini, who is a female director that won the best European film and Grand Jury award at the BFI London Film Festival in 2012 (the time of the film made). It is a British film, the genre of this film is drama and this is a social realism urban story. The themes that run through this film are family, love, violence, conflict, innocence, religion, revenge and anger. The contrasts of the themes innocence and guilt are portrayed by both the brothers, Mo and Rash, throughout the film.

In the opening scene before the film start it shows pictures of real life men, which suggests that this film is based on a real story. Then the film starts and the first scene shows Rash boxing, which suggests his superiority, leadership qualities and that he is strong. It also shows Mo, the youngest brother, signing his school shirts, which presents his vulnerability, that he is young, and has no acknowledgment of the world, or what is up-coming in the film. After this the images are shown again and one by is pictured with what look like drugs which give us an insight to what these boys lives may be like.

The main scene is focused my review on was when the gangs meet up and attempt to attack each other. Demon, the gang leader of the rival gang shows his authority when the camera focuses on him in this scene. His dog foreshadows the violence of this scene.  The absence of light presents the darkness, gloomy and dangerous atmosphere that is about to happen and the sound is diegetic; all dialogue, but when the dog got stabbed there was also an absence of sound, suggesting this dog was meant to die. Demon screams out and without hesitation stabs, Rash’s best friend, and lies dead on the floor. This scene is powerful as it indicates the death of the gang member and rival dog are the same, that these boys in the gangs are inhumane, treated like dogs and have no life of their own. Rash was the last one to stay and watch his best friend on the floor, eventually ran away, which suggests when he ran was when he hit reality.

When Rash ran away, there was heavy sounds that highlighted his built up feelings of the death of his best friend, including heavy breathing, footsteps and police sirens, including the trains above him as he was under the bridge. The sounds got louder and louder each time and eventually went silent, which connotes that all that sound was from inside of Rash’s head.

Propps and Todoron: Who are they? And what are their theories?

Todorov’s narrative theory basically states that most story’s or plots follow the same pattern and that there are 5 steps in this:

1. Equilibrium- where the story displays a happy start, where majority characters and everything is as it should be
2. Disruption- feature a problem or something that will disrupt the happiness
3. Realisation- part of the plot where everyone realises that there is a problem and that it is chaos
4. Restored order- part of the plot when the characters attempt to repair the damage and restore the problem
5. Equilibrium again- where the problem is resolved and normality can resume again

Todorov’s and Propps theories apply to most films and stories.

Propps narrative structure:

1. Preparation- community ordered state of being
2. Complication- villain harms member of hero’s family
3. Transference- hero given magical gift or hero goes to fulfil his quest
4. Struggle- between hero and villain                         
5. Return- hero escapes or task set for hero or hero  fulfils the task             
6. Recognition- hero is rewarded

Weekly Film Review: The girl on the train

A film I can relate this to would be ‘Gone girl’ as the story plot is the same, but ‘the girl on the train’ had a few extra differences. The director of this film is Tate Taylor. The production line of this film was DreamWorks Pictures and they got the film rights from Paula Hawkins; who wrote the novel of ‘the girl on the train’ and Tate Taylor was hired to direct this play.

As known of the title, the opening starts off with the girl getting on the train. She starts talking, which shows the audience it’s a narrative story. As the film goes on we come to realise the film is narrated from three different women, first Rachel, then Anna and lastly Megan.  The cinematography presents the names of the girls before we actually see them, which signifies to the audience who they are and that they play a main role in the film. I believe there are three protagonists as you get through the movie realising they’re all victims and emotionally/physically abused by the man who once at one point loved him (Tom).  He had an affair with three individuals, which is explained how they are linked towards the end of the film. Every film has 7 plots, and this film is based on man against man (antagonist vs protagonists), which indicates that Tom is the antagonist and Megan, Rachel and Anna are the protagonists. ‘The girl on the train’ is basically a narrative story and the genre is Thriller. The themes that run along this whole film are love, lust, vulnerability and fear. 

The train plays a significance to the film as I predict the train connotes Rachel’s journey towards her ex-husband, she expresses it as her form of comfort watching her ex-husbands new family as something she still desires. This makes the audience aware that she still grieves for her husband, almost thinking that she is a threat to his new family, but by the micro feature of performance the audience discovers that she is an alcoholic so the audience become stuck to the idea that she is threatening. Later in the film, the performance demonstrated by Tom shows us he mentally and physically abusive to Anna (who he killed), Rachel (in the past and left her) and his new wife. Towards the end of the play, Rachel (out of defence) kills Tom, as she turns we hear the sound of the train railing past, this micro feature is known as an absence of light, but presence of sound. Then the film shows the train going past her whilst Tom lies dead on floor; this signifies that she was trapped on the train all this time and now that he has died, she has gained her freedom.

Shot types

Shot types and Sizes

Medium shots-

Medium shot shows the character from the head to the waist. A medium shot will show some background; it shows the body language of the characters. Medium shots are meant to show us what the characters are doing and how they feel.

Extreme close up-

The extreme close up shot focuses on a part of the face usually the eyes or the mouth. It is used to convey / show the emotion of the character to the audience. Example if the story focuses on the eyes of a crying person you could tell the character is obviously sad. Extreme close up shots are often used at key points in the story.

Long shot-

Long shots show full body of the character unlike the medium shot. This also shows the location of the characters and shows the relationship between the characters. Long shots are often used as a first shot at the start of a particular sequence.

High angle shots-

In a high angle shot the camera is positioned above the character or the place. This makes the character look vulnerable. High angle shot is meant to make the audience side with the characters in shot.

Low angle shot-

Unlike the high angle shot the low angle shot is the opposite the camera is placed below. Low angle shot makes characters and object look important, big, and powerful.

Pan shot-

Pan is short for panoramic. The camera moves in an arc from a fixed point. We all have this in our phones and panoramic shots are used to mainly to show the view or the landscape of a place.

7 plots

the seven plots

Man against man-
two characters against each other; the antagonist stops protagonist reaching the goal. e.g. spiderman vs villain.
man against nature-
protagonist has to overcome natural environment e.g. life of Pi and 127 hours
man against self-
protagonist has conflict with himself e.g. shutter island, when protagonist has mental issues and has to deal with it on his own
man against god-
conflict between protagonist and omniscient e.g. Bruce Almighty
man against society-
protagonist has arguments with institutions, traditions and laws of their culture e.g. Malcom X
man caught in the middle-
protagonist finds themselves caught in a difficult situation and find an alternative to reach their goal e.g.flypaper
man against technology-
technology is a growing invention, which is seen to be taking control of people and society. e.g transformers

Comparing the film 'wasp' and 'soft'

‘Wasp’ is a film about a single Mother who is struggling to look after her children. She lies about them being her children and leaves them outside a pub when she goes out with her boyfriend. ‘Soft’ is a film about young boy being bullied by a group of boys and they also target the father; towards the end of the film, the son attacked the gang leader, which ended the attack.

Both films ‘wasp’ and ‘soft’ share similarities. Firstly, they are both short films and both share the genre of Drama. Also, both films use real life issues that are happening in people’s day to day life and our current society. Furthermore, they both target the same age audience of 15-18 years old; due to bad language and violence-which only a mature audience could see. Moreover, the use of the children switching roles with their parents shows the audience how this does happen in real life issues – the boy protected his father in ‘soft’ and the eldest daughter had to look after her siblings in ‘wasp’.

However, ‘wasp’ and ‘soft’ share differences too. The endings of both films were different, ‘wasp’ ended well as the mother had support from the boyfriend who accepted her children, whereas ‘soft’ made the boy realize what a coward his father is. ‘Wasp’ connotes the theme of poverty, love and deceit and ‘soft’ connotes of vulnerability, violence and revenge. Furthermore, both films use different objects to foreshadow the plot; ‘soft’ uses the bat left in the passage way of the door to foreshadow is main use towards the end of the film and ‘wasp’ uses an actual wasp, which features in the kitchen watching over the mother and her lifestyle, which again appeared when the baby almost swallowed it- the use of the wasp made her realize and snap out of the lie she was trying to live. 

Weekly Film Analysis: Attack the Block

Attack the Block follows an unlucky young woman and a gang of tough inner-city kids who make an unlikely alliance to try to defend their turf against an invasion of savage alien creatures, turning a South London apartment complex into a war-zone. Attack the block is an interesting film to analyse as there are a merge of contrasting genres within this film. Furthermore, there are many micro features that I have discovered in ‘Attack the Block’.

Mis-en-scene is shown througH what the actors/actresses are wearing; the gang are wearing hoodies, tracksuits and caps, which portrays and stereotypes south London teenage boys living in urban areas that take part in gang violence. Also the contrasting outfit of what the woman being attacked wore, (jacket, hat, purse and jeans) was a casual formal wear of clothes presents her innocence and the use of the wallet, shows the audience that she is a nurse, which is a way of introducing and giving an impression to the characters in the film. Also, the creature was a form of prop as  post-production added the unearthly qualities such as the spiky fur which doesn't reflect any light, the claws, the rows of bio luminescent jaws, and even some of their movement. Moreover, I believe the actors give the audience range age of 15-25 years old, due to the actors being on an age range of this and the contrast of genres keeps the younger and older audience interested. Light is shown through majority of the scenes shown on the ‘blocks’ around midnight, presenting a sci-fi and gloomy atmosphere connoting the theme of here, violence and death. Also, sound is shown through non-diegetic sound, but a lot of songs were played throughout the film, and at key scenes there was diegetic sound taken place to give more of an effect of the plot.

Furthermore, the use of the cinematography was done by Tom Townend who focused his effects on the alienated creature by giving it unique qualities which was shown through the camera angle. There was many close up at the opening scene and shots of the main character, Moses, which gave the audience an indication that the film was based around him and his story. Lastly, their performance played a massive role to the film. The director used different ages and ethnicity to show the reality of south London culture and a sense of social realism. The key themes in Attack the block would be violence, love, conflict, death, bravery, etc. the setting was based in Brixton, which again makes the film more realistic.

Fish Tank analysis

Saira Begum

Fish tank

This film is about a teenage girl who lives a hard family life with her single Mother, younger sister and her Mother’s boyfriend. Her mother is very selfish, hard partying and careless with her children as we discover this later in the film.  Mia's real name is Katie Jarvis (born 22 June 1991) is an English actress, known for her role as Mia Williams in the film Fish Tank. She was spotted by a casting agent, following an argument with her boyfriend at Tilbury Town railway station. Mia 

grows affection for her mother’s boyfriend, who later leaves her family. This is shown through their performance and mis-en-scene.  The genre used in this film was Drama, as it was based on reality and real life problems of people in our society. Furthermore, this film is based on social realism, which means this film is based on British society. The types of themes expressed in this film was innocence and vulnerability- this is often shown by Mia as she is very young, expressing her vulnerability to the audience  through the way she is being treated at home, also showing how she is being neglected by her mother in some cases, which explains how her upbringing isn’t to standard. Mia is represented as a young, urban and street smart character. Negligence is also shown through the mis-en-scene, how the damped walls and unordered household show the mother doesn’t take care of herself, let alone her home.

The director of Fish tank, Andrea Arnold used this film to create the underlining meaning of British social realism. The director even used Mia, who never acted before, to star in her film, because they she wanted to focus the film on realism. The director has done this to create meaning, in the film fish tank, the meaning is to show how vulnerable teenagers are lusted and that not all situations have a good ending therefore shows the moral view to the film, and the reality of it in real situations. Comparing it to other films that Arnold made, she makes films based on real life situations.