Levi-Strauss - Binary Opposites

This is the application of Levi-Strauss' narrative theory of 'binary opposites' in films to 10 Things I Hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999) and Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999), for oppositions in characters. Click on the picture to enlarge it :-)

Shock Shock Horror (Conventions)!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I had to have a post on Halloween about something to do with horror, so here are some conventions of the horror genre...

ICONOGRAPHY

Mise-en-scène (lighting, setting, location, props, costume)

• darkness, shadows
• low-key lighting
• attics, basements
• long empty roads and corridors
• deserted buildings
• big houses
• woods, forests - Gothic settings - remote places, crumbling/derelict buildings - castles, mountains
• dark places
• haunted places
• the ordinary - home, school, etc.
• knives
• creepy toys
• mirrors
• curtains
• cupboards
• torches
• guns - shotguns, pistols
• fake heads, hands, body parts...
• masks
• gloves
• chainsaws
• calling card
• candles
• daggers
• blood
• villains - disguise - masks, cloaks etc., smart
• victims - nice clothes, often inappropriate e.g. dresses and high heels, become torn , bloody

Framing & Camera-work

• close-up range, ECUs
• jump cuts
• off-centre framing
• dutch angles (rolling)
• changing levels, LAs and HAs
• tracking shots
• pans, whip pans, and tilts
• hand-held shots, shaky movement
• ambiguous shots
• POV shots
• dark, slow movements followed by fast cuts

CHARACTERS

Personalities & Characteristics

• victims
• villains
• lots of victims - high body count
• personality extremes
• [blonde], stupid, ditzy, pretty girl - victim
• 'final girl' (the girl who starts out being terrified and screaming all the time, and then turns detective & works out what's going on etc., and is left alive at the end)
• damsel in distress
• the boyfriend/love interest
• the clever guy
• psychopaths
• vampires
• zombies
• witches
• possessed children/toys
• spirits of children
• children in general
• ghosts
• devil
• demons
• natural - animals/creatures, but with a paranormal twist?
• stupidity - falling over, going towards creepy noises, not running away, locking themselves into small spaces with no escape and no weapon
• young, beautiful people
• teenagers
• useless/corrupt police

Characters' Emotions & Feelings

• doubt
• vengeful - both victims and villains
• confusion
• panic
• desperation

Habits & Behaviours

• villains - may leave some kind of calling card
• victims may have had a particular lifestyle or done something which incited the wrath of the villain, e.g. in James Wan's 2004 film Saw
• obsessions by the villain with something/someone
• when the film revolves around teenagers, partying, drinking, and drug-taking often occur & sometimes start of the film

Costume & Dress Codes

• ditzy stupid girl - nice hair, makeup and clothes
• female victims tend to be wearing nice clothes which are inappropriate for running away and hiding, e.g. dresses and high heels
• makeup will get smudged, mascara will run, clothes will be torn
• villains tend to disguise themselves; wear dark clothes
• the clever people wear glasses

NARRATIVE

Plot & Motivation of Characters

• someone's out for revenge
• coincidence
• being trapped somewhere alone with no help
• murders & death
• vengeance
• obsession
• jealousy
• confusion
• mental illness
• love
• hatred

Structure

• closed narrative
• starts off happy, ok, even jovial
• people start dying or disappearing or weird things start happening
• police [or similar] are useless/uninterested/corrupt & think it's a coincidence or nothing's wrong
• some characters try and work out what's going on
• things get progressively worse, more of them become unable to help either through disappearing/being killed/being injured/going crazy etc.
• remaining character/s become determined to find out what's going on [e.g. the 'final girl'] because they can't just escape
• either: - they die

- they work out what's going on [or do they?]

- they escape [or do they??]

- everything's ok [or is it??]

• often things aren't tied up at the end completely, or all is not as it seems, to leave room for sequels if the film does well

Action & Events

• running away
• hiding
• being saved
• escaping
• being trapped
• murders
• torture
• psychological games
• chases
• discovery

Sounds (dialogue, music, etc.)

• creaking
• silence
• screams
• bumps
• wind
• weather
• contrast between sounds
• high pitched frenzied strings
• constant/stopping & starting low pitched strings
• maniacal laughter
• howling
• sudden bass drum noise
• gunshots
• scrabbling, scratching
• breathing

THEMES

Ideas Underpinning The Story

• love
• obsession
• jealousy
• mental illness
• twisted sexuality
• [heroism]
• possession
• secrets
• concealment
• following, stalking, secretly watching, observing
• claustrophobia
• moral lessons
• supernatural
• being trapped
• isolation
• pursuit
• traps
• death
• gore, gory detail
• premonitions
• lawlessness

Audience's Reactions & Emotions

• visceral pleasures - quickened heartbeat, jumping
• emotional pleasures
• intellectual puzzles
• fear
• shock
• panic
• disgust and revulsion
• anger
• shouting at screen e.g. at stupid people who go towards creepy noises, or to tell them something...
• tension

Film Plots & Casting

FILM ONE

PLOT TWO - 'The Rectifier'

Genre: a sci-fi thriller

Setting: modern day New York

Protagonist: a middle-aged man, suffering from total amnesia

Story: he attempts to retrace back his life, relying fully on a government badge stating only his name, and discovers he was part of a secret government organisation whilst finding his way inside a government building, but when found unrecognised, he is interrogated and misjudged to have forged his badge (the only way of entering the building) using the name of an existing employee of the organisation. After lengthy prosecution, the man and employee are discovered to be the same person through genetic testing, and little by little, with the help of the agency, the man's existence is uncovered to strangely be a future version of the current employee. in a shocking resolution, the man is forced to recapture his memories revealing a stunning truth - that he was sent back 2 decades in time to deilver a message to the present world and prevent the future from happening; a future that would inevitably lead to the destruction of mankind itself. The man is 'the rectifier', and holds all the answers the world needs to help maintain the existence of the human race. The problem is, will he be able to reach these answers from the deepest corners of his own confused mind, or will the unseeable flaw of "time travel caused amnesia" be the ultimate downfall for planet earth?

Casting: Our group chose Will Smith to star in this film, because he has appeared in sci-fi films, such as Independence Day; I, Robot; Men in Black; Wild Wild West; and I Am Legend, and has proved to be a good actor in these types of films. He is a popular actor, attractive to members of the opposite sex and admired and respected by both. He also won the 10th annual Teen Choice Award this August, showing popularity with the younger generations; he has been nominated for many awards for acting and music, and has won a fair amount too.

FILM TWO
PLOT TWO - 'UNTITLED'

Genre: horror/thriller
Setting: modern day, London
Protagonist: Elle, a very wealthy woman in her mid-twenties
Story: Elle is a wonderful person who loves helping people, and rather than spending her money and doing nothing, she works in a charity shop from 9-5, and does all sorts of charity events and fund raisers. She wants to feel normal, despite her millions, so gets the tube to and from work every day at the same time. She is observed by her unnamed train driver, a disturbed man in his 40s with an unhappy wife and an illegitimate 8 year old son whom he ignores. He becomes obsessed with Elle and sets up cameras and microphones in her usual carriage, so as to learn about her life through phone calls, conversations, and her diary. He stalks her and finds out where she lives, and steals small, personal things from her, such as underwear, a sock, or mascara, but his favourite item is one stud earring. One day she gets on the train with a man, whom she kisses as she gets off the train, making the driver mad with jealousy - in his fantasy, he and Elle are together - and decides to fulfil her wish to be normal. Murderers go after 'normal' people. He waits until a day when she's alone in the carriage, and at the next station tells everyone to get off the train, but doesn't open the doors to her carriage. At the end of the line, he ties her to the train track, attaching a note to her body - "bad things happen to good people, so why be good?" - and leaves her to be crushed by the next train. You then see him return to his driving pod and put the single earring on the dashboard. The camera pans to show rows and rows of other single stuf earrings sticking out of sponges, each different, symbolising a woman he has stalked and killed. The next day, the train driver notices another nice woman and his obsession continues...

Casting: Our group chose Julia Roberts to star as Elle in this film, because she is a successful, attractive, and respected actress. She is about 15 years older than the character of Elle, but still looks younger than 40, and the character can be adapted. She generally does not star in horror films, and occasionally in thrillers, such as Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) and Conspiracy Theory (1997), but I thought that this would make it all the more effective. Roberts often plays She is an ordinary person, apart from her enormous wealth, and has no idea of what's going on. Audience members will not be used to seeing her in this type of film, and so the end will be more shocking and horrible.

Don't Look Now...

The second film we watched in our class screenings was Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973). Click here for a full synopsis of the film.


Cast

Laura Baxter - Julie Christie
John Baxter - Donald Sutherland
Heather - Hilary Mason
Wendy - Clelia Matania
Christine Baxter - Sharon Williams
Inspector Longhi - Renato Scarpa
Detective Sabbione - Bruno Cattaneo
The Dwarf - Adelina Poerio

I'd seen this film before when I was a bit younger, but did get a little bit more out of it this time. The film is scary because you don't know what's going to happen next. There are certain sections of the film with a fast-paced cutting together of very different images, playing with past, present, and future, but put together meaningfully. It is disorientating and confusing for the audience in the same way that it is for John Baxter as he receives a number of different signs and visions. This helps the audience to empathise with him.
The film explores the themes of love and grief in a unique way, and despite being a horror film, the only blood-and-gore moment is at the end of the film, with John Baxter's bloody death. This makes the scene even more memorable and horrifying.
The use of colour within the film is also really interesting, with all the colours bar red being muted, making the red ever more vivid. As the film progresses and John's frustration increases, the colder tones of grey and blue become more prominent.
I found the idea of using colours in such a way really interesting and useful, and we may come to use it when we begin the production of our opening. It's the type of thing that can help to create a strong branding and association with a film, as well as connoting particular things - such as red connoting love, passion, or danger.

Hitchcock's 'Pyscho'!

So, I've finally seen Psycho, Alfred Hitchock's classic 1960 horror film, thanks to a screening of it for our
media classes. So I thought I'd post a blog on it!

(<-- that there's the original poster for the film)

I'd somehow managed to go 16 years without hearing too much about the plot of the film, apart from that there's a creepy guy called Norman Bates and a shower scene. So that was pretty good 'cause I wasn't sure quite when the famous scene was, and so the build up of suspense was really effective, and I really enjoyed watching it.


The Plot
The film opens with two characters - Marion Crane and her lover Sam Loomis - in a hotel room in Phoenix, Arizona, having a disagreement about their future. They want to get married, but Sam can't afford to support her due to debts inherited from his father and alimony payments. Marion returns to her job as a secretary at the real estate office, where a client, Cassidy, buys a house from Mr. Lowery (her boss) for $40,000 in cash. Lowery gives Marion the money to take to the bank safety deposit box. She runs away with the money, and becomes increasingly paranoid. She trades her old car plus $700 cash for a new car, and drives on. A rainstorm makes the visibility very poor and she sees a sign for the Bates Motel, and stops there for the night.
A quiet, shy young man who introduces himself as Norman Bates greets her, and tells Marion he lives with his mother in the large house next to the motel, which very rarely gets any business after the local highway was bypassed with the new interstate - she realises she must have taken a wrong turn. She registers with a false name and is checked into cabin 1, next to Norman's office. She hears him have an argument with his mother in the old house, from what she can hear, about her. Norman returns and apologises and makes her dinner. She then returns to her room for a shower, and is unexpectedly killed by the shadowy figure of an old woman with a kitchen knife.
We hear Norman's voice from the old house shout "Mother! Oh, God! Mother! Blood! Blood!" and rushes to Marion's room to find her dead. He clears up the whole mess and gets rid of any evidence of her being there.
A week later, Sam, Marion's sister Lila, and a detective named Arbogast looking for the missing money set out trying to find Marion, and Arbogast goes to Bates Motel. Norman lies, but he suspects something strange going on after hearing about Norman's mother, and although Norman doesn't want him to talk to her, he sneaks into the house, and is killed by the old woman. Sam and Lila report Arbogast missing to Sheriff Chambers, and they do some investigating and find that Norman's mother has supposedly been dead for the past 10 years, having poisoned her lover and then herself.
Sam and Lila go to do their own under-cover investigating, and while Sam distracts Norman, Lila looks for Mrs Bates - and finds the remains of an old woman's corpse. The figure of an old woman appears wielding a knife blocking the entrance to the cellar, screaming "I am Norma Bates!" Sam arrives and saves Lila, and the wig falls off the 'woman' to reveal Norman, dressed as his mother.
The group hear from a psychiatrist that Norman killed his mother due to jealousy and feeling replaced by her lover; he stole the corpse and treated it to preserve it as best as possible. His guilt at his crime of matricide caused him to divide his mind with his mother, and assumed his mother was as jealous of him as he of her. The attraction he felt towards Marion set off the jealous side of his 'mother', who then killed her - the latest in a series of many young women. The Norman side would then return and clean up. However, by the end of the film, it seems that the mother side of him has taken over completely, totally driving out Norman, winning the battle that always develops with multiple personalities.

The Cast

Norman Bates - Anthony Perkins

Marion Crane - Janet Leigh

Lila Crane - Vera Miles

Sam Loomis - John Gavin

Milton Arbogast - Martin Balsam

Sheriff Al Chambers - John McIntire

I really enjoyed seeing this film (at last!), as it had really interesting and original characters. I liked how everything was explained rather than there being things which didn't make sense, so were just omitted. Psycho is just one in many horror/thrillers where the theme of jealousy takes a starring role, and works so well because it is something that pretty much everyone can relate to on some level - but would not go to the extents of killing over it. It could be seen to demonstrate, in part, Rick Altman's (1999) theory of counter-culture attraction, whereby the audience can abandon themselves in the enjoyment of viewing actions that break with social acceptability and morals, or legal regulations. Barthes' theory of the enigma code is also very clear to see, with a whole lot of mystery surrounding Norman Bates himself and his mother.

Continuity Editing Techniques - 'Fight Club' scene

This is a clip from David Fincher's film 'Fight Club' (1999), where the boss of the anonymous protagonist, played by Edward Norton, confronts him about a suspicious set of rules he finds...
The first shot of the clip, a MCU at eye level, we see the protagonist sitting at his desk, looking preoccupied. He is also the narrator of the film via a voiceover, which is present in this clip and starts it off. As the protagonist (let's call him Jack) stares into space, a new character, his boss, enters the shot from audience right, stops in front of Jack's desk, and turns to face him. Because of the shot distance we can only see the middle of his torso.
There is then a motivated matched cut to a HA OTS MS with the focus on the second character, Jack's boss. The shot then cuts back to our original view of the situation, a MCU of Jack. As the conversation occurs between Jack and his boss, the shots cut between the two we have seen. This is the shot/reverse shot technique, and is employed up to 0:37 seconds into the clip. The shots of each character within this time frame also work as reaction shots, predominantly the reactions of Jack as his boss reads out the rules of Fight Club, for example at 0:07 seconds, and 0:13 seconds. However, at 0:33 seconds we get a reaction shot of the boss, still a HA MS, though the back of Jack's head and shoulders are no longer in the shot. This is good continuity, as 10seconds earlier Jack leans back in his chair against some cabinets, and, therefore, out of the reverse shot.
At 0:38 seconds we see a change occuring. Whereas before the camera was static, there is now a tilt as Jack gets up out of his chair, with a constant matching eyeline to his boss, and a pan as he walks round the desk towards him. The shot distance starts at a MS, and as Jack gets closer to the camera, becomes a MCU. There is then another motivated reaction shot, an OTS MCU of the boss, showing his expression of shock, confusion, and disbelief. The camera zooms in slowly and very slightly as Jack moves slightly closer to his boss. There is then a matched cut, following the 180 degree rule, back to a MCU of Jack. Throughout their conversation, their eyelines are always matching. As before, this shot/reverse shot technique between these matched shots goes on till 0:59 seconds into the clip.
There is then a jump cut to a medium long two-shot, with Jack's back to the camera, but so that we can see the boss's face.
This distance allows the audience to see the action of the shot - Jack snatching the paper from his boss. It lasts for just under two seconds, before cutting back to the OTS MCU of Jack from the previous sequence. There is a shot/reverse shot back to the boss as we hear a phone ringing, and they both look down (presumably - it's out of shot) at it, and Jack seems to be picking it up. This is confirmed when the scene cuts back to Jack with the phone in his hand, talking into the receiver, but still looking at his boss.
Although in this sequence there is not a great range of shot types, continuity techniques are successfully used in helping to create a sense of rising tension, especially when it gets to about 0:37 seconds into the clip, and the camera positioning and movement finally changes.

Continuity Editing Techniques

Continuity Techniques

Camera: (what's used for what...)

CU range - emotion; involvement of audience in action; draw eye to something significant; shock value

Mid range - linking shots; dialogue; action

Long range - establishing scenes & settings; changing scenes & settings; showing large-scale action; distancing audience from action

OTS - making audience see something from a certain character's point of view (POV); creating empathy by placing us on their 'side'

[obviously different shot types and camera work are used by directors for variety as well as continuity..!]

Camera Movement:

Movements by the camera produce the effect of physical movement for the audience:

Tracking - literally moves the audience

Zooming - forces the eye to focus on something in particular

Panning, crabbing, and arcing - provide an overview as though the eye is sweeping up/around the subject in a panoramic manner

Tilting - creating perspective or moving POV

Editing:

a necessary process with 4 main functions:

- enabling the production to be the required length

- allowing the selection of desired material, and removal of unwanted material or mistakes

- altering the way events have been portrayed, or altering the order in which they were shot (making it make sense)

- establishing a particular style or character of the production

Transitions:

Cuts - as well as just being used for ordinary changes between shots, cuts affect pace and rhythm, and so can be used to produce variation in them

Fades - often used to indicate a change in time, to quietly introduce a scene, or to peacefully end one

Dissolves - often used to slow down the pace and time, or connect the action going on in different time frames, such as in dream sequences, flashbacks and flashforwards, etc.

Wipes - as a technique which openly draws attention to itself, a wipe can be used as a clear indicator of change

[nowadays, digital edit suites allow us to to edit in any order, no matter how the footage was shot, and to re-edit however many times needed, without any loss in quality - this type of editing where it is not done in order is called non-linear editing]

Continuity Editing

- follows unwritten rules which mean a seamless narrative can be created

- suture - the process by which the audience is metaphorically 'sewn' into the narrative; because they are so drawn into the story and the characters, the editing process is 'invisible' to them, creating the suspension of disbelief in what they're seeing - they're allowed to forget that what they're watching isn't real, thereby increasing the possibility of viewing pleasure

The Techniques:

The 180° rule (see diagram below) - refers to an imaginary line cutting through the middle of

the scene. The two characters (or other elements) should maintain the same left/right relationship to each other. Crossing this line causes confusion and disorientation for the audience because it changes the perspective of the scene, so is avoided.

The 30° rule - states that the camera must move at least 30° between different shots of the same subject so as to avoid a jump cut (though excessive movement around the subject might violate the 180° rule). [However it should be noted that jump cuts are very common in horror films as a device to heighten fear in the audience, giving the sense of something paranormal.]

Shot order - particular shot ranges tend to be edited together in a certain order (e.g. Long to Mid to Close) avoiding sudden jumps in distance, so the audience can be taken smoothly through the narrative, and moved across physical space steadily.

Cuts/Dissolves - to create and change rhythm and pace, or for indicating change in time or space (dissolves)

Eyeline matching - must occur between characters and out of frame

Matched cut - the action of a shot matches with that of the preceeding shot

Match on action - the last action of one shot matches with the first action in the next shot

Shot-reverse-shot - in a conversation, cutting from a shot of one character to another (generally as they speak but also with reaction shots), and continuing back and forwards

Cross-cut - a cut from a shot of one line of action to a shot of a different line of action - audiences have gotten used to seeing them as happening simultaneously, for example in chase scenes - it adds tension and excitement to dramatic action

Parallel - the same as cross-cutting, but actions could be independent of each other; there could be a significant difference in time and space - editing in a parallel manner shows action as happening simultaneously

Horror/thriller Moodboard

I've taken stills from a variety of films of both the horror and thriller genre which I've seen and enjoyed, including Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko (2001), David Fincher's Fight Club (1999), and James Wan's Saw (2004).

Film Poster Moodboard

Posters of some films that I've seen and loved, of all different genres...