Friday, 11 December 2009

Detailed notes on the first 20 minutes od The Decent

In the beginning there is an establishing shot of the wilderness to show how vast it is and how large it is.

Quick camera movements to show how fast paced and intense in the boat, the water is diegetic but it is a lot louder than it should be. When the women get of the boat the music has connotations of happiness and serenity.

It is evident from the performance of Juno and Sarahs husband that they may be having an affair as Sarahs husband looks awkward when Juno approaches him.

When the car is moving we get a subjectie point of view of the child we see the oncoming car and we know what is hapening.

there is a crane shot of the car as if there spirits are leaving it is also to establish the accident so we see the damage.

The lighting in the hospital is almost ghostly when she is hallusinating. The lighting is bright though, music builds up more and more as she runs through the corridor to build up tension. Juno is upset but i beleive she is morning over sarahs husband. The doctors and nurses do not seem to care that a patient is on the floor.

Reference to the shining as they go through the woods like in the beggining of the shining it is also to show how far they are away from civilisation.

Camera in car does not break 180 degree rule.

The music sounds very grim to show how deppressed Sarah is.

There is a crane shot of the house to show what it looks like.
When Holly says you must be the teacher she is antagonising Beth.
Womens voices are cheerful and happy to show that they are care free.
There are many ominous shots of skulls the connotations of this are death.
Molly represents a lesbian in a way the way she talks to the other women has sexual connotations.
Beth wears silk pajamas to show she is completly different to these athletic women.
Mediacation is shot in the way so we see Sarah needs it and links to her halucination's.
We are following Juno to show she is strong and athletic.

When Juno comes through the door the hoarse shoe turns upside down like bas luck.

The photo they take is like the last photo ever taken of the women.

Similar shot again from the shining the film is using intertextuality.

Following cars to the cave also the lighting is very dim to show it is early hours of the morning.

Sign with six bullet holes to show the women may die or wil.

Music that plays is southern to show they are in south America.

They find a dead dear to show that something may be hunting the wildlife or the women may die.


Binary opposites in The Decent

Good/evil we could argue that the women are the good and the crawlers are bad as the crawlers try to kill these women however the women enter the crawlers home so in a way the characters are both good and bad although the crawlers do start to be aggressive first so they are bad.

Cowards/Hero's Juno is a kind of cowered even know she fights the Crawlers she kills Beth and does not own up to it, Sarah is the hero as she kills the crawlers and kills Juno.

Nature/modern The whole woods and cave against the women they are completely different the women are so modern with their modern climbing gear where as the crawlers use their body's and that's it.

Monsters/Humans Obviously this would mean Crawlers against the humans.

Dark/light There is lots of dark in the caves and you constantly want to see what is happening so you struggle to see you kind of feel like the crawlers.

sight/sound the humans have a good sight where as the crawlers have a good sense of sound so they are binary opposites.

Defining The Decent's genre

The decent is a horror this is obvious as it has many conventions of the horror genre like blood and gore and horrific injury's and deaths however it also has elements of a thriller as the crawlers jump out a lot and scare the audience, also there is lots of tense music used and the lighting is quite dark to emphasise this claustrophobic cave and to allow the idea that crawlers to be anywhere. So The Decent is definatly a hybrid however there is also sub-genre's such as slasher in The Decent as the women kill the crawlers with pick axes they stab and slash them with these weapons so it also has some sub-genres in The Decent.

Binary oppositions

Binary opposites are basically opposite things such as hot and cold or Hero and Coward however the way we look at these opposites depend on our culture for instance the real opposite to Hero is Un-heroic but we beleive that hero is bravery and a cowerd is scared. The way we also look at Binary opposites always makes us think one is bad and one is good for instance wealthy and poor people would like to be wealthy but no one wants to be poor, so for instance the crawlers represent uncivilised un-modern life and the women represent modern and civilised we would rather be the socially excepted women the women are also the complete opposite of the crawlers in The Decent.

Tuesday, 8 December 2009

Was it hard to apply Propps character actions

It was fairly hard to apply Vladimir's Propps character actions to the characters to The Decent as he based it around folk tales which is completly different to the horror story of Decent for instance there is no Princess or Father in the film to apply to one of the main charcters so you have to be very creative in the reasons you have chosen a certain character for the action.

Applying Todorovs character actions to the decent

Sarah is the hero as she is the protagonist of the story.

Juno would probably be the villain as she is made out to be a bad character.

Beth would be the doner and the princes and the father and the dispatcher as Juno kills her and she sends Sarah to kill Juno.

Sam would be the helper as they help Juno and Sarah.

Holly would be the victim as she dies first and breaks her leg.

Rebbecca would also be a helper as she helps Juno and Sarah.

Difference between story and narrative

Narrative is the story' structure so the beginning the middle and the end however this is a simple concept the best way to describe it is Todorovs structure, Todorov says in any narrative there is a state of equilibrium meaning normality then a disruption so something to disrupt the story, The for the disequilibrium to be noticed by the characters, then events happen because of the disequilibrium and an attempt to repair it, the disequilibrium ends and returns to a new equilibrium. however this does not happen to all films as we have seen with films like The decent it twists the idea of narrative and changes the narrative frequently also hybrid genres do the same thing to the narrative.

Story on the other hand is the story of the film i.e the story line of the decent is friends go into a cave and monsters attack basically so that is what the difference is between story and narrative.

Applying Todorov's structure to The Decent

Propps seven character actions

These are Propps seven character actions.

1.The villain — struggles against the hero.
2.The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
3.The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
4.The princess and her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
5.The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
6.The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
7.[False hero] — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess

A brief explanation on horror conventions

Horror convention are what we expect to see it is the conventional thing to see in horror for instance in a horror film we would expect to see blood, knives and a killer. Horror conventions can be expected to be seen in the oldest to the newest horror as their has always been blood and knives and conventions, however many films today employ different genres making them hybrid films so different conventions say from an action film may be in their like huge explosions and a chase scene so sometimes it is hard to define the conventions of horror as many films now have become hybrids because of modern directors. Also as time has moved on so has technology making new conventions such as weapons, settings and forensic tools which adds new twists on to horror. Setting is also an important convention, in older horrors it would be a Forrest/woods or old house or old motel however as technology has improved, so has buildings and property so new settings are being made everyday adding to the conventions.

Sunday, 6 December 2009

Children of men title sequence analysis

In the beggining of the title sequence of chilldren of men the screen is blank and we can hear a type of news report going on, i know this as the people talking are talking in a very formal way and just stating what is going on in the world and not commenting on it like you woud in a conversation. We also realise that this world they are reporting about is a ery dystopian world as the UK's borders have been closed and there is a siege happening on a city, the news report is a diegetic sound as it is a blank screen in the beggining which does not tell us if the characters can hear or notice it so it is a diegetic sound, also the news readers have british acsent's which shows this is a british film.

As the film starts we see a cafe which is packed with people, a sound bridge happened to bring us into this scene, we learn as we are watching that Diego Richado the youngest person on the planet had died his name shows he is south american, we learn that he is 18 years old when he died which shocks the audience as how can he be the youngest person on the planet he is an enigma,we also hear how he died that a fan stabbed him and that the fan was beaten to death which shows how much he meant to the people. on the news report the way they show Diego is like a baby to show how young everyone see's him as like a baby really. In the cafe the people are shot in a long shot so we can see all their facial expressions towards this news report and see how they are shocked, we also see how they are dressed it is quite normal as if most of them were going to work when this happened, also we see most of them have coffee which show's it is quite early in the morning and everyone is going to work, also the people are fairly old there is no really young people that we can see, it is also very bright outside indicating it is the morning.

When Clive Owen walks in it is as if he does not care about the report he pushes through the crowd which annoys them as we can see it on their faces and gets his coffee he barely looks at the screen to watch the report. Their is a sbjective point of view shot so we can see the T.V through Clive Owens eyes, it is as if their is funeral music going on when the report is being shown to show how sad it is.

As Clive Owen walks out it is like we are following him as the camera follows him with a subjective point of view, when we see the outside we hear the cars to indicate there is traffic and we see red busses to show we are in britain and bikes almost moped driving around, we also see it is 2027 so it is quite a while into the future, we also see moving signs to show it is the future. As Clive Owen puts his coffee down he pours alcohol into his cup which shows he may be addicted to it or it is what helps him get through the day. As we are watching him pour something in his coffee an explosion goes of which makes Clive Owen jump back and pin himself against a wall to show he is scared, we also see many people in the explosion drop to the floor and possibly die, the explosion does not have multiple angles it is shot from just one which kind of makes us feel we are there watching, the sound of the exploion is very loud and it is a diegetic sound however it may have been made a bit louder. The camera is very jumpy to show we are running and at the end we see a woman holding her arm to show the damage that has been done we also hear screams to represent the danger of what has happened.