Batman refrences

Sin city

Sin city follow the traits of a typical film noir genre. Firstly film noir are typical for having their films in black and white, and they have a non linear narrative this makes the film hard to follow as no everything you see is in chronological order and it uses a lot of jump cut editing’s. This Helps add to the mystery of the film and give it an eyrieness that scares but also intrigues the audience. This is no exception of sin city; the film mainly follows the stories of three male cynical protagonists whose stories all interlink just because of one main character. As these characters don’t have anything else in common when the film jumps from one to another its hard to truly follow the story but it keeps the audience watching and waiting for the scene where all three characters to come together (which doesn’t happen). I previously mentioned the term ‘cynical protagonist’ it is very typical to the film noir genre to have this main character in sin city these would be heartegen, Marv and Dwight. These three all provide a voice over through out their scenes which is another typical film noir convention. Through out these voice over we get to hear what the main characters are thinking, which is mainly cynical. For example heartegen often refers to him self as a ‘useless old man’ also ‘she’s forgotten about you old man’ he put him self down he’s not good enough no matter how hard he tries’ friends your another example is Dwright when he’s driving the car says ‘prove to your friends your worth a damn’ he feels he has to prove him self and he would never be good enough for his friends.

  Another typical character of a film noir is a femme fetal this is a dominating female character who is in control over the men. The main techniques the director uses are lots of low angled shots as this makes the women look down at the audience so we know who is in control. In sin city the director cleverly uses bits of colour such as a dress a woman’s lipstick. In the beginning of the film the only colour that could be seen is a woman’s red lips and dress, red if often a connotation of death and danger which often surrounds the femme fetal, this is no exception to this character as after only a few minutes of her being on screen she is killed another trait of the femme fatal is to be a smoker which again the first woman we see was so she follows criteria of a femme fetal.

  The third character that is in film noir and sin city is a corrupted cop this makes people feel unprotected as some cops are against them and there is no sense of authority. An example of this would be when Dwright is being followed  a police car he says’ I don’t have enough money to pay this one off, and what if this is one of the good ones’ this suggest that the police often easily paid off and may people don’t pay for their crimes therefore don’t learn. This is why there is a high crime rate in basin city; there is theme through out the film which is with more violence and death there is the more rain and lightning there is to wash away all the blood and theoretically wash away the sins. This is very typical of a film noir to use lots of rain and lightning.

Fish Tank

The Genre for fish tank is social realism the majority of the film was filmed with a hand held camera this gives the audience the scene they are in the film with the actors and they can relate more and feel the emotions of the actors. Also the actors are unknown and in their own environment, the actor who plays mia is from Essex where the film is set so this adds to the realisticness of the acting. The films story line is set upon a family who have been in an economic hardship and had very many life struggles and many people would be able to relate to this. All the lighting is natural which gives it a scene that it’s a documentary and it’s a very amateur film with no editing or special effects.

The narrative of this film Could be todorov ( only a small scene) There is equilibrium in the film until mia finds out Connor has a family that he has hidden away and as she kidnaps Connors child then the film has an unbalance (disequilibrium) although as events get worse and there is a small moment in the film when we believe that mia may have killed the child by throwing her into a fast current river, this is when mia is brought back to reality and realises what she has done and she tries to restore the equilibrium when she returns the child. We can also apply propps theory to the film as mia can be seen as the villain as she is the one who sleeps with her mothers boyfriend even more so as she almost killed a small innocent child. Through out the scenes with Connors child she is wearing a princesses outfit which is a connotation that she is the helpless one in the film as she has no way of saving herself because she is too young and naive to understand the situation. The boy mia goes off with at the end of the film could be seen as the hero as he is the one who saves mia from her life and gives her the change to start again and make something new for herself. Connor can be seen as the false hero as he makes mia feel as though she is comfortable and special, unlike anyone else but he just leaves her when she is at her most vulnerable and doting on him. we can slightly apply strause as there is binary opposition between mias family who are from a less fortunate family who live in a small council flat which isn’t very luxurious it only has one small tv with minimal furniture then polar opposite is conors family who are in good fortune and have a very nice big house witch is very homely and has a fancy flash telly and gadgets.

main stream and niche programs

The X factor is a very popular reality television program that is shown on a saturday evening at 7 pm on itv. There is not very many programs on at this time on saturdays so the majority of england watches it. when watching the audience will get entertainment and escapism out of watching it as it is very easy watching and due to the full range of songs which are featured on it it also allows the audience to hear popular mainstream songs in a different way also many of the acts on the show will get a make over before the live shows making them more visually appealing. An example of this would be in last years x factor james arther first audition he had very scruffy clothes, glasses, un shaven and un groomed but he was made over to make him more sexualised for the women audience to take more notice of him and want to vote for him to win. The other main gratification the audience will get from this show would be social integration as there are many features through out the show which allows people to talk about the show on popular/mainstream social networking sites such as twitter. Examples of this is during the show hastags will appear on the screen for the audience to use on twitter to link all there tweets together and over all links back to the xfactor. As the show is a reality show and uses 'real' people so the audience can relate also the show will uses many shots of the audience in the studio which will have the same reactions as you so you will feel as though you are there as well. As this show to win you are either voted in to keep or voted out and that is determined by the audience at home there fore this gives the audience a uses and they are the ones are in control. there is a very high production value for the x-factor which means it appeals to the mass audience.

La Ink is a program showen on tlc through out the weekdays normally the new series would be shown at 11am. This means it will have a niche audience as many people are either at school or work through out the day and only if the took a keen interest in tattoos or wanted to get one they would watch it later on demand or they would record the show. The show is just specific to tattoos so it would not interest a wider audience but they little audience that does watch it would get a gratification of information as they can get many different design types and ideas to aid them in making a choice of a tattoo they wish to have. As the majority of people who watch the show will have tattoos they can personally identify with the clients in the show they share their emotions and fears of getting their first tattoos. TLC is a channel that specifies in american based television shows and only TV which have sky will be able to access these type of channels also there is not very much advertising for the show, for example shows like xfator will have weeks of advertisements not just on the telly but also on billboards and magazines but la ink does not get this type advertisement maybe one advert on the telly on that specific channel a day. Therefore not many people will get to hear about the show so it can not get a wider audience and remain being niche    

James Bond

We can apply Mulvey's theory of the male gaze to a clip of james bond, the first shot we see is a panning shot over the scenery then he focuses his view on the sea where hallie berry emerges the camera only focuses on her and does no avert the eye line until she has fully left the water. but we are still very much focused on her body even when she turns away. Through out the whole shot bond is in control and is dominant character as he the one who first makes interaction. Also he is stood for the whole shot with a cigar in his mouth which shows that he is masculine and it also give the female audience a bit of gratification. When the two are talking he averts his eyes to look away from her to a group of men who are surrounded but girls and money and these girls are being very objectified, as bond is the main dominance in this clip it also makes berry look as it shows her that he is not like those men over there and even though he took gratification from her coming out of the water he doesn't not just see her as a sexual object, he actually engages in conversation with her and wants to know more about her. Even tough this clip is mainly focused on her bogy and her image then her as a person she is very much more of an active character as she does interact and the camera does focus more on her face and her talking then her body.

American Beauty

in a short clip of american beauty if we apply the male gaze theory we see it  feature through out at first it is very subtle with just a few camera shots but as the clip it goes on to be a more noticeable. When the girls first get up to dance the camera is in a high angle shot so it looks down upon the girls are your eyes are automatically drawn to the girls legs and as they start to dance that is where your main focus is. Through out the dance routine the daughter is in the centre and should be the main focus but when the dance goes in to a formation and the blonde girl becomes the centre this is when kevin spacey's character takes notice of her, once this happens we are seeing the girl through his eyes and we know this as the camera focuses on his eyes and his eye view alone.the lightings starts to fade out as does everyone else in the scene so there is a single spot light on her and she is the main focus as there is nothing else distracting from her. when the rest are the actors are still in shit the camera does a zoom shot from mid shot to close up which focuses on his eyes it then reverts back to normal and does the same thing to the girl this signifies that only the man and girl are focusing on each other this makes the audience only focus them too as well. toward the end of the clip there is a long shot of just the man in the audience this is in the mans imagination again this shows that the scene is from the males point of view.
The representations in this clip are very stereotypical for example the blonde girl is scene to be the head cheerleader as she is the focus of the shot and she is wearing a cheerleaders out fit with the pleated skirt this is very sterotypical of an american high school also she is seen to be a dumb blond as at the start of the scene when she is talking to her friend she is just sat there playing with her hair not really taking notice of what the other girl is saying to her. The daughter in the clip is a stereotypical moody teenager as she looks miserable in every scene she is in she has a downer about her especially how she talks about her parents and she is ungrateful that they want to support her and encourager her in something that she has tried really hard at. The man in the scene is middle age maybe having a midlife crises as he gets sexual gratification fro looking at his daughters friend that would be many years younger then he is      also he talks about how he wished he was at home as he was missing a james bond marathon this is a very mainly film and this could be an escapism for him and as he is having a midlife crises he sees himself as james bond this is why he fantasises about a much younger girl as he thinks that she wants him and has a chance.

Draft of my first paragraphy

How far do contrasting genres rely upon different narrative structures?

The main narrative theories im going to apply to my two chosen films are, stauss,prop and tororov, these have key characteristics which are very distinctive and can be identified easily. The first film I am going to allays is the black cauldron; it is a 1985 Disney film all about bravery and defeating evil. the genre of this film is fantasy but it also has traces of horror, the conventions of these genres that show in the film are low key lighting and dragging out the scenes which can been seen as horror also the non diegetic sounds change to increase the tension in the film especially in scenes when the 'villain' appears on the screen. Many of the scenes have mist which is a very iconic part of very olden horror films. The conventions of the fantasy film are the opposite to the horror aspects, they is high key lighting to make the audience feel at ease and that nothing bad is going to happen. Again the music changes through out the scenes that are seen to be fantasy and the music is more upbeat and relax the audience and instead of them expecting what’s about to happen the audience just enjoys and watches it. More conventions of this is their are fairies and aspects of magic which is a key element of fantasy films. The second film I’m going to analyse and compare to the black cauldron is going to be batman the dark knight raises the most recent film in the batman trilogy. All three of the batman films fit well with all three theories especially Strauss because through out the whole film the binary opposition of good /evil, rich/poor is a key theme through out all. The genre of this film is a thriller/ action film conventions of horror films are as followed, it mainly uses panning and tracking shots the first shot that was used in the film was a panning shot not focusing on any one just setting the scene. it also uses a lot of high and log angle shows this always shows the audience who controls the scene and can make the audience fell important/the focus or can make them feel threatened and vulnerable. There are many jump cuts between scenes as this gives the scene of fast movement and its unpredictable what can happen. Conventions of an action film are fighting, through al the whole film/trilogy of batman these is a lot of fighting. A key location of an action film is in a big city and batman fits this perfectly as the whole film is set in the fictional city Gotham.