Batman Genre Analysis

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How the Dark Knight is similar to superhero movies:

  • There’s a clear villain to our hero
  • There’s a clear moment where the hero has to make a moral decision
  • There’s a moment where we thing the hero is going to lose

How the Dark Knight is different to superhero movies:

  • The hero isn’t liked at the end- In superhero movies the hero is always loved and praised at the end however at the end of this movie the whole city of Gotham hate him and the hero willingly takes the hate.
  • The villain is motivated by personal gain- The Joker’s only motive is just to cause chaos. Many villains in superhero movies want world domination and/or money. However Joker doesn’t show any of these desires. It shows it in one of his lines “All you care about is money. This city deserves a better class of criminal. And I’m gonna give it to them!”.This line clearly shows that he does want superficial things he just something more meaningful.
  • The heroin dies- Classic superhero movie, City in trouble, hero saves everyone and the hero gets the girl. However, in dark knight Batman doesn’t get Rachael, she dies at the middle of the movie. It paint’s this idea that there is no happy ending for our hero which is defiantly not what superhero movies show.

Overall, I don’t believe that The Dark Knight is full superhero movie. It does have elements of a superhero movie. However The Dark Knight  has many contrasting elements with the superhero genre. The Dark Knight is it’s own thing and is a mixture of different genres.

The Kuleshov Effect

Editor, Uncategorised Leave a comment

The Kuleshov effect is a phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation. I think the video went well and showed a clear Kuleshov effect. I’ve learnt that editing need to be precise and have continuity. I’ve also learnt that you should always retake just in case anything happens.

Pan’s Labyrinth Final Essay Feedback

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Overall in this essay, I got 15/28 which isn’t amazing however is a good starting point. I used T.E.A. very well throughout most of the essay and talked about the mise-en-scene in this scene to show my idea’s. Although I did make good starting points about the context and the whole film I didn’t develop these idea’s and what the significance of that was. Developing my idea’s is definitely something I need as well as not just focusing on sole ideas/scenes but the bigger picture.

Pan’s Labyrinth Context Research

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Context is a major part of studying film and helps the audience understand what the director’s intention is and why they choose to have certain features. Our movie Pan’s Labyrinth is set somewhere outside rural Madrid during the Spanish civil war which took place from 1936 to1939. During the Spanish civil war, Spain was run by fascist leaders and we can see this having a direct impact on Pan’s Labyrinth with Vidal. Vidal and his attempt to destroy the rebels is a clear symbolism for the Spanish fascist leader who was leading around these times and tried to destroy any hint of an uprising. The main theme in the film is disobedience which we see with Ofelia, the doctor and Mercedes. While Ofelia’s disobedience is mainly in the fantasy world (which context can’t really be applied to) the other two are purely disobedient to the fascist leader. Another thing context makes us realise is why Ofelia goes into this fantasy world. It’s a way for her to hide away from the traumatic event’s happening when the movie is set and a way for her to comprehend what is happening.

Narrative Analysis of Pan’s Labyrinth

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There are four different elements of the Narrative. Structure, Character function, conflict and themes. All of these features help us understand the movie in the way the director wants us to see it. All of the elements interact with each other at some point and wouldn’t work with each other. A movie can have amazing conflict, character function and a clear theme but without a structure, it wouldn’t work.

Del Toro use of narrative does coincide with any other fantasy or war genre movie. He instead makes experiments with different aspects of both genre’s (and other movies) to perfect Pan’s Labyrinth’s amazing narrative. The complementary opposites help emphasise the overall message of the movie that innocence has no place in a world of good vs evil. These four elements are explored in the slideshow above.

How narrative study is useful in understanding this film?

  • It helps us understand the director’s aim. Messages in films are not always clear when first watching them especially when you don’t have outside context. Studying narrative helps us link parallels of the movie to real life. Be it by culturally, historically or politically.
  •  It changes the way the film looks. When I was first watching Pan’s Labyrinth I didn’t consider the conflicts in the film (apart from the fairly obvious one of the war) but when studying the narrative I got the bigger picture of what the film was going on about. Watching the movie back now it clears up a lot more about the plot and why things were happening.
  • It explains why directors use certain techniques. Del Toro shows Ofelia’s death at the start. When first watching it it’s not clear why he does this as it doesn’t have any context however narrative allows us the understand that Del toro used it as a way to interact with our emotions and to make us feel guilty when she ultimately dies.
  • The narrative allows us to understand characters intentions and what they symbolise. For instance Carmen, the plot of her pregnancy first seems like a way for Del Toro to make us feel bad. However, through character function, we can further understand that she is representing the repressed part of Spain who, although don’t like the idea they still live there life’s with it without fighting.
  • It allows us to see the development(under development) of characters. In Pan’s Labyrinth, we see many characters develope, mainly the good ones. One of the character who doesn’t is Captain Vidal(the villain). With my further understanding of the narrative, it is clear the symbolisation it represents. It shows that fascism doesn’t have a future and there is no development.

Narrative Analysis of a Pixar Movie

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Toy Story Narrative Analysis:

Structure Moments

ACT 1
  • The story is set up (world and character)
  • In Toy Story, we are introduced to woody and all the other of Andys toys. We then meet buzz who Woody doesn’t like
ACT 2
  • Climax – characters try to fix the world.
  • Woody and Buzz get lost and end up in Sid’s room where Sid experiments on other toys.
ACT 3
    • Denouement – the world is fixed.
    • Woody and Buzz put aside their differences and team up with the other toys to get out of Sid’s room and back to Andy

 

Character Types

  • Protagonist- Woody, we follow his story of self-discovery throughout the movie.
  • Helper – Sid’s creations, they help woody and buzz get out of sid’s room.
  • Antagonist – Sid, He attacks Woodie and other toys.
  • false villains – Buzz, we first believe that he’s a villain because he changes things and our main protagonist doesn’t like him. It is later we find out that he means good. Sid’s toys are also false villians. When we first meet them we scared because they are nothing that we’ve seen before.
  • The Girl- Little bo peep.

The theme of Toy Story is friendship and Jealousy which we can see that from the characters have changed throughout the story. Another theme is change and adjusting to it. Woody struggles throughout the movie with changes with his friends and changes to his surroundings. He first tries to resist change and tries to destroy the thing that causes the change however it gets him into more problems. He then learns that he needs to adjust to the change and not to judge a book by its cover.

Genre Analysis of Pan’s Labyrinth

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Similarities between Pan’s Labyrinth and the fantasy genre

  • There are the hero and the villain. In Pan’s Labyrinth, the hero is Ofelia and the villain is Vidal
  • Disobedience towards evil. People are constantly disobedient to Vidal. Like the Doctor, Mercedes and Ofelia. These characters are seen to be good
  • The main character is in an ordinary world and then discovers a new realm. Ofelia starts out in this new world but then goes down the Labyrinth and discovers a new world with Fauns and fairies.

Differences between Pan Laynrinth and the fantasy genre

  • The Ofelia character dies at the end. Normal fantasies never have the main character die. They can’t be defeated but in Pan’s Labyrinth, we see her die in the beginning and end of the movie.
  • Not one-liner story (two plots). Pan’s Labyrinth has stories. One fantasy, which is Ofeilias, and one war which is Mercedes. In the beginning, there is a clear separation between the fantasy and war story however near the end they both interfere with each other.
  • It’s not clear if the Faun is good or evil. In normal fantasies, there is a person who sends are the hero on a quest. They’re seen as good. However, throughout the movie, we are not entirely sure if we should trust the Faun considering that he is putting her in many dangerous situations.