Preliminary Task Summary 

To begin with we were required to write a script each within our groups which therefore required us to pick the best one from our group. This is something we could have done better our group had an inability to pick with most of us sitting on the fence and saying they don't mind. When it comes round to doing the final task a snap decision as to what idea we are following is a must, to give us more time  to complete the task.

After addressing the script that formulate our task, we had to assign roles. This was a simple process and in many ways the speed at which we chose roles made up for the time wasted on the choice of script, with roles being based upon previous skill or talent. However, with the script taking an age to write the storyboard could not be finished slowing down the whole process. Despite the slow nature of the production the script was written to a good standard so drawing up the story board was not too hard and because of the this you could follow the script and story board simultaneously. Again if we were to redo the process speed would be the key aspect to improve, on whole this would make us more time effective allowing us to have more time for filming.

 With the script and story board being easy to follow, the filming process was relatively easy because we knew what shots we wanted how long they were going to be and where they were going to be taken from. However, with the corridor being quite narrow we had to compromise with some of the shots e.g. the shot of the feet was mean to be a tracking shot but we could not fit all of us down the corridor. As much as these compromises were not planned, I feel we dealt with them in a professional manner and resolved the issue very quickly. One problem when looking back on the footage during the editing process is that a lot of our shots were out of focus. This was no help to the time taken in the stages before as t meant we did not have the time for filming that we would have liked but for future reference the reviewing of footage is essential for an effective overall task and we would incorporate this in next time.

Editing- When it came to editing, our editor Nabil was ill on the first day, this created confusion within the group as no one was stepping into his place to cut down our footage to size. To be an effective group it should have been second nature for us to take the responsibility and fill in for someone if they are not here.

Narrative theory pt1

A spoken or written account of connected events; a story.

The primary function of most films is to tell a story..  The mise en scene, cinematography, editing and sound are entirely subservient to the narrative, creating a seamless flow that centres the viewer within the story.

Narrative conventions.

Film narratives share a number of features that audiences expect:

•The role of the protagonist

•The problems faced by the protagonist

•The resolution of these problems

The leading character of a film or book or the main hero. 

•Protagonist - The protagonist is the central person in a story, and is often referred to as the story's main character. He or she (or they) is faced with a conflict that must be resolved. The protagonist may not always be admirable (e.g. an anti-hero); nevertheless s/he must command involvement on the part of the reader, or better yet, empathy.

Selfless, Brave, Smart, Calm, human, under dog

Antagonist- The adversary of the protagonist.

Narrative conventions.

The narratives of most films are centred on one or two main protagonists

•Their lives are disrupted by an outside event, or presence of an unfulfilled desire

•The plot is then about removing that disruption or fulfilling that desire

•The rest of the events in the plot are usually initiated by the protagonist and have a clear cause and effect relationship to other events

The Amazing Spiderman 2- overcoming the green goblin to save Gwen. 

•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcdqMhhzNN4

Antagonist- Uncool costume, bad and loving it, unfair advantage over protagonist as he is a demigod has magical powers

Protagonist- Cool costumes, overcomes the antagonist, narcissistic

Characteristics of Walter White- Corruptible, family man, desperate, relatable
•Foil - A foil is any character (usually the antagonist or an important supporting character) whose
personal qualities contrast with another character (usually the protagonist). By providing this
contrast, we get to know more about the other character.



Holmes brings out the humanness in Watson as he shows all the emotion where as Holmes is all logic and knowledge.
They are both intelligent however, Holmes sees more into cases than Watson does. 
Holmes is the instigator and Watson tags along.

Todorov’s theory (Equilibrium and Dis-equilibrium)

Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages:

•the equilibrium,

•disequilibrium,

•acknowledgement,

•solving

•and again equilibrium.

Maleficent 

Equilibrium- Maleficent as a young girl flying around greeting all the creatures of the forest having a good time. 

Disequilibrium- Maleficent has her wings cut off but also when Maleficent curses Sleeping Beauty.


Acknowledgement- When Maleficent wakes up to find her wings are gone and when the fairies try to find true loves kiss. 

Solving- When her wings are restored but also when she promises Sleeping Beauty that no harm will come to her. 

The equilibrium is that Maleficent returns the kingdom to the happy place it was, however, all is not as it seems.

Bordwell and Thompson- Narrative, as defined by Bordwell, is a chain of events occurring in
time and space. In creating a narrative there must be an action, which begins as a series of
events that occur over a period of time in one or more spaces and finally end in a changed
state.
 •Story time: the earliest event referred to in a film to the latest event.

•Plot time: the earliest event that the audience see in the film to the latest event

•Screen time: the actual playing time of the film.

•Examples include Pulp fiction, Another 24 hours, Gladiator, Cloud Atlas, The Terminator, etc.


Vladimir Propp’s (1928)  the Morphology of the Folk Tale.

•Identified 32 categories of action which he called “functions”

•Identified a set of  basic “spheres of action” or character roles.

•The character roles help to provide structure for the (media) text.

•The character roles perform a certain function.

Vladimir Propp’s -  8 character roles

•The hero, who is the character who seeks something 

•The villain, who opposes or bocks the hero’s quest.

•The donor, who provides an object which has some magical property

•The dispatcher who sends the hero on his way by providing a message.

•The false hero, who disrupts the hero’s hope of reward by pressing false claims.

•The helper who aids the hero

•The princess, who acts as a reward for the hero and as an object of the villains scheming

•The father who acts to reward the hero for his efforts.

Vladimir Propp’s – Actions as functions:
The 31 functions are as follows:
Preparation: A community, kingdom, family; an ordered state of being.
•A member of a family /community leaves home (the hero is introduced as a unique person
within the tribe, whose needs may not be met by remaining)

•A warning is given to the community or its leaders/ a rule is imposed on the hero (a command
NOT to do something e.g.'don't go there', 'go to this place’)

•The hero ignores the warning/the rule is broken.

•The villain attempts to discover something about the victim.

•The villain discovers the required information.

•The villain attempts to deceive the victim to gain an advantage (trickery; villain disguised, tries
to win confidence of victim);

•The victim is deceived by the villain and unwittingly helps him/her (or the enemy);

Complication

•A state of disorder. Villain harms a member of the family/communiity

•One of the family/community desires something

•Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched to find what is desired).

•The hero plans action against the villain. 

Transference
•Hero leaves home;
•Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc; he meets the challenger and receives a magical agent
or a helper;
•Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles
disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against them);
•Hero arrives at or is transferred to the place where he will fulfill his quest.

Struggle
•There is a struggle in a specific setting between hero and villain.
•Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);
•Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, banished);
•The state of disorder is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person
revived, captive freed);

Return
•Hero returns;
•Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);
•Hero escapes or is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero
saved from attempt on his/her life);
•Hero arrives at home or at some other place and is not recognised.
•False hero presents unfounded claims;
•Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other
tasks);
•The task is accomplished;
Recognition
•Hero is recognised (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);
•False hero or villain is exposed;
•Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc);
•Villain is punished;
•Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).

1. The Villain - Scar, he is the villain as he acts as Simba's friend and forces him out of the pride
land but he is punished at the end.
2. The Donor - Rafiki, because he has magical powers which he uses to show Simba he is the
rightful king.
3. The Helper - Timon+Pumba, they both help him at his lowest point and are his friends.
4. The Princess - Nala, she is the princess as she loves Simba and she's sweet and caring.
5. The Father (in this case mother) - Sarafina, 
6. The Dispatcher - Nala/Scar
7. The Hero - Simba, He is the rightful king after his fathers death and he reveals Scar.
8. The False Hero - Scar 

Villain- Ronan, he wants the the power rings and is looking to destroy the galaxy but is revealed and destroyed by the guardians at the end of the film.

Donor- Groot, he is a tree/plant like being who uses is power and creates a shield to protect the others whilst sacrificing his own life.

Helper- There is no real helper as they are group with each of equal significance and so in
        essence the protagonists are helpers to each other.

Princess- Gamora, she is not the stereotypical princess however, she is the main protagonists Peter Quill's love interest, but she is a strong independent woman who can more than fend for herself. 

Father- Again there is no real father within this film but the government within the universe grant the heroes their freedom.

Dispatcher- The dispatcher is a man on the black market who is called the collector and he shows him the true power of the orb.

False Hero-  Yondu the mercenary that kidnaps Peter and only uses him for his personal gain
and money but pretends to treat him like a son. 

Narrative Theory 4: Lévi-Strauss
He argued that all meaning-making, not just narratives, depend on binary oppositions – a
conflict between two sides/qualities which are opposites.
E.G. Westerns where there can be many binary oppositions such as:

–Cowboys    Indians 

–Settlers    natives 

–Christian    Pagan 

–domestic    savage 

–weak    strong 

–garden    wilderness 

–The law    outlaws 

–helpless    dangerous 

–clothed    naked



–whites    redskins 

–telegraph    smoke signals 

Narrative Theory 4: Lévi-Strauss
He argued that all meaning-making, not just narratives, depend on binary oppositions – a
conflict between two sides/qualities which are opposites.

Ads. use binary oppositions such as

Spots    Clearasil

Dirty    Persil,
Daz/  Brand X,
Young    Old,
Dandruff    Head & Shoulders,etc.
Myths use binary oppositions all the time such as
–God  Devil,
–Good    Evil.

Batman-Joker

These two are opposites, as although they do both portray darker sides of reality. Batman has rules that uses to have a sense of morality, where as, the Joker has no rules, its whatever it takes to get the job done and it always has to b chaotic with no real plan.




Optimus Prime-Megatron

         These two are binary opposites as Optimus fights to keep the human race alive but Megatron tries to wipe it out to try and restore Cybertron. Although Optimus would like to see his home planet restored he does not believe it should mean another should die because of this.

Spider-Man- Green Goblin

           Spider-man is there to protect the people of New York out of a sense of responsibility. The Green Goblin however, feels that the people need to suffer and is mentally insane, where as Spider-Man is very noble. Within all these examples the antagonists are the binary opposites of the protagonist to make them seem relatable and to make the task they have at hand seem that much harder. 

OLD AGE STEREOTYPES

AGE ESSAY

The explosion at the start of the extract links to Gerbner’s cultivation theory that because young are stereotypically involved in crime it indoctrinates the public into thinking all crime is the fault of the youth. This thinks to the explosion as the audience will think that the lunch hall has exploded due to the youth. The contrast in sound of the screaming children and the calm children links to Acland’s theory (1995) where the behaviour of adults and the youth completely differs. This also links to Ann Gould’s stereotype that youth are self-destructive as the screaming represents danger and stereotypically it’s a danger that youth get themselves into. Near the end of the extract one of the young girls tells her boyfriend ‘I’m pregnant.’ This links to the stereotype that youth are reckless and naive as they are inexperienced about how the world works how will she be able to raise a child.

The use of fake blood on some of the children reinforces the negative stereotype that youth are vulnerable. This is not a fair representation of young people as nowadays quite a lot of young people are independent to adults in some scenarios.  The use of the wet paper towel prop is a counter stereotype that young people are naive as the young girl is using her initiative to subdue the fire. When the young girl rummages through another students bag to find a phone it links to Cohen’s theory (1972) that youth are susceptible to crime, however it also shows a counter stereotype about youth being vulnerable as she is again using her initiative to save her life.  The use of broken class on set is used to show a counter stereotype as normally the elder generation are shown as dependent on the younger generation. However, in this clip the elder man breaks the glass to sae the young girl.

The use of fast paced editing at the beginning of the clip, this shows the range of all the characters and most of them are young children or young adults even the teachers. This links to the positive stereotype that youth have long futures ahead as most of the teachers are still young and therefore they too are still learning.  The fast paced editing at the beginning also creates confusion and shows the fear of the youth. This links to a rather negative stereotype of the youth that they are hormonal. This links to Giroux’s theory (1997), that youth are an empty category. This would mean adults would not understand the emotions that these children are going through.

There is a low angle on the children at the start of the extract as they head towards the exit. This a counter stereotype as the low angle makes them look intimidating and youth are meant to be vulnerable. This is then followed by a high angle on one of the teachers this makes them look vulnerable, which is one of the negative stereotypes of elder people.  This links to Giroux’s theory (1997), that youth are an empty category. One could connote that the teacher is shown to be vulnerable, as she feels intimidated by youth. This is a negative stereotype as on the whole youth have good relationships with the older generations, with them playing an important role in our lives as our, parents, teachers, doctor etc.

Representation of youth

HEGEMONY- leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others.

IMPORTANT