Category: Film

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Scotland deserves its own film school

Wednesday 25 June 2014
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SCOTLAND should establish a national film school to rival those in England and abroad, the Edinburgh International Film Festival will be told today.

In a key address to the festival (EIFF), Dr David Archibald, of the University of Glasgow, will say that the Scottish film industry also needs to have its own dedicated agency, and that there is a "disconnection between talent and infrastructure" north of the border.

Scottish film has not had its own dedicated agency since Scottish Screen was merged with the Scottish Arts Council to form Creative Scotland in 2010 and Dr Archibald, a lecturer in film and television studies, will say the present funding situation is a "muddle".

He will also say, in the Forsyth Hardy Lecture, that young and emerging talent would benefit from a dedicated film school which would draw from the knowledge and courses currently being taught at institutions such as Screen Academy Scotland at Napier University, courses at Glasgow, St Andrews and the University of the West of Scotland.

Dr Archibald said: "Instead of having the ambition to have a Scottish Film School which could compete not only with London but internationally, there is a political fear of creating another national institution…”

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Cabin in the Woods

Horror film clichés evident in The Cabin in the Woods

Five college students pile into a van and drive deep into the woods for a weekend in a borrowed cabin. Their last stop is of course a decrepit gas station populated by a demented creep who giggles at the fate in store for them.

This is no ordinary cabin in the woods, but actually a set for a diabolical experiment. Beneath the cabin is a basement, and beneath that is a vast modern laboratory headed by technology geeks who turn dials, adjust levers and monitor every second on a bank of TV monitors. Their scheme is to offer the five guinea pigs a series of choices, which will reveal — something. There is some possibility that this expensive experiment is involved with security, and we get scenes showing similar victims in scenarios around the world.

The script was apparently written in only three days. It explores some issues about horror:
* why horror is so potent
* what awful human need is being fed by seeing attractive young people in states of semi-undress who are suddenly, brutally slaughtered, almost as if they are being punished for being young and sexy
* why does the genre adhere so closely to the belief that young people in jeopardy have to be picked off singly, leaving that one character who had initially appeared to be so vulnerable and unworldly, but in whom the situation has uncovered extraordinary reserves of heroism and grit

Character stereotypes teens
“The brain” – mature and thoughtful
“The jock” – action hero
The “easy blonde” – bad girl
“The joker” – “The wiseman” – comic relief
“The divergent” – virginal good girl who will get away after suffering

Character stereotypes middle aged
The balding, bespectacled guy who resignedly shoots the breeze
The middle aged friend who has made a mistake
White coated science/technician types surrounded by screens, dials, buttons and metal fixtures
The woman who is the “brains” while the men are the bosses

Situation stereotypes
Remote location
Creepy old man who gives out warnings to be ignored
Religion as a counterpoint to evil – Latin, bible quotations
Slasher
Zombie
Artefacts which wreak havoc
Dark key-lighting – almost impossible to see at various points
Screams
Gore
Dead animals
Morbid humour

Nods to other film classics in horror genre include:
Hellraiser
The Ring (originally from Japan)
The Shining (elevator)
cabin-in-the-woods

Could there be some anthropological answer to the ritualist behaviour in horror?

Underlying theme – we’re all being controlled by sinister forces and those in Government are willing to sacrifice a few citizens in order to keep equilibrium for everyone else.

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More about target audiences for media products

Constructing Audience

When a media text is being planned, perhaps the most important question the producers consider is “Does it have an audience?” If the answer to this is ‘no’, then there is no point in going any further. If no one is going to watch/read/play/buy the text, the producers aren’t going to make any money or get their message across. Audience research is a major part of any media company’s work. They use questionnaires, focus groups, and comparisons to existing media texts, and spend a great deal of time and money finding out if there is anyone out there who might be interested in their idea.

It’s a serious business; media producers basically want to know the

  • income bracket/status
  • age
  • gender
  • race
  • location

of their potential audience, a method of categorising known as demographics. Once they know this they can begin to shape their text to appeal to a group with known reading/viewing/listening habits.

One common way of describing audiences is to use a letter code to show their income bracket:

A Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other highly salaried professionals
B Middle management, teachers, many ‘creatives’ eg graphic designers etc
C1 Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff etc
C2 Skilled workers, tradespersons (white collar)
D Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers (blue collar)
E Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers

They also consider very carefully how that audience might react to, or engage with, their text. The following are all factors in analysing or predicting this reaction.

AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT This describes how an audience interacts with a media text. Different people react in different ways to the same text.
AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS These are the advance ideas an audience may have about a text. This particularly applies to genre pieces. Don’t forget that producers often play with or deliberately shatter audience expectations.
AUDIENCE FOREKNOWLEDGE This is the definite information (rather than the vague expectations) which an audience brings to a media product.
AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION This is the way in which audiences feel themselves connected to a particular media text, in that they feel it directly expresses their attitude or lifestyle.
AUDIENCE PLACEMENT This is the range of strategies media producers use to directly target a particular audience and make them feel that the media text is specially ‘for them’.
AUDIENCE RESEARCH Measuring an audience is very important to all media institutions. Research is done at all stages of production of a media text, and, once produced, audience will be continually monitored.

Audience reaction to even early versions of a media text is closely watched. Hollywood studios routinely show a pre-release version of every movie they make to a test audience, and will often make changes to the movie that are requested by that audience. (Via  mediaknowall.com)

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Shrek

Shrek

In case you’ve forgotten the movie use this Wiki Link.

Many people use Todorov’s theory to explain most movie plots. This is the narrative structure. Remember that you also need to know how each stage was made. What camera angles, movements, lighting, cultural codes etc. told this story?

The theory itself contains the following 5 stages:
Stage one: Equilibrium.
Stage two: Disruption(also known as Disequilibrium)
Stage three: Realisation.
Stage four: Attempt to repair (Also known as Action)
Stage five: New Equilibrium

Equilibrium
Shrek is chilling, maxing relaxing all cool, shooting some B-Ball outside of his swamp.
This is the Equilibrium, How the world is prior to the earth shattering event that drives the narrative forward. In the film you literally see him just chilling. having a good time and enjoying his life as it is right?

Disruption / Disequilibrium
When a couple of guys, who were up to no good, started making trouble in his swamp.
In the film we see King Farquaad the small, but mighty overlord had kicked all of the fairytale creatures from the land and they end up in Shrek’s front yard. This is the Dis-equilibrium, something that changes the normal life (Equilibrium) that the story used to have. Note that that this is prior to Shrek actually waking up and finding out about it, that comes next!

Realisation
He got in one little fight….
So here we have the Realisation, Shrek wakes up and is, understandably, concerned about the sudden cramped living conditions that he finds himself in.

Attempt to repair / Action
And his mom got scared…
So Shrek runs off to find the king, gets told that he has to go rescue a wild, crazy, clearly fun loving princess and bring her back to him. Shrek does all this running off, questing, slaying beasts and getting helmet hair, all in an attempt to change things back to the way they were. You all know the story, and what happens so lets jump into the last stage.

New Equilibrium
She said, You’re moving with your aunty and uncle in Bel Air.
Shrek does stuff. This is the new equilibrium, The world is not back to the way it was originally, – it’s not even close, but it’s a new equilibrium, at the end of the day, Shrek wins, he gets the girl, gets the castle and gets lucky.

Now try out the theory. Use the five stages to explain any film you can think of. Does it work for that film?

Your film title?
Stage one: Equilibrium.
Stage two: Disruption(also known as Disequilibrium)
Stage three: Realisation.
Stage four: Attempt to repair (Also known as Action)
Stage five: New Equilibrium

chr_shrek_b4

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Mock up of film poster

Mock up of film poster

Note the following:
Use of colour to convey meaning
Eye catching image
Use of font sizes and type faces to draw the reader (you) in
Institutional factors: company identification, use of stars in fake movie
Sense of awe
Use of tag line
Comparison with popular movie franchise (sequel?)
“Fun”

The redditor who made this uses other people’s photos to turn them into movie posters. (S)he does it for fun. Remember this is not official “mass media” because although it reaches the masses (s)he isn’t being paid for it, yet. You could do something similar for your assignment but using your original image and with the right research and responses you would be well on your way to getting a good mark for Nat 6/Nat 5.

Movie poster 2

If you use reddit, look them up under their name Your_Post_As_A_Movie.

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