THE DISTRIBUTOR OF OUR FILM

As a group we have decided that '20th Century Fox' should distribute our film. This is because 20th Century fox is a rather popular and big all over the world. Also, my research has showed me that this institution has mostly produced and distributed family films, this is another good reason for our film to be distributed by this institution as a lot more people are more like to recognize this institution. Another reason for us choosing this institution is for the fact that our film involves a part of a beautiful relationship.

logo trapped in love

This has been made from using the website  www.Picnik.com . We have decided to use this website as it is easy to use, as well as has many choices of fonts. 'Trapped in' is written in a rather messy font, as it looks dirty and may appeal to the male gender, I really like, as it represents the real fact of being trapped, as in our case the girl is trapped in by her lover and violence is used against her, this is where the dirty part comes in. 'Love' we have decided to write in pink as it represents the girls feelings. We have also chosen a font which looks very hand made, this reminds of something that girls are most likely to doodle in their books while they are bored. And of course, the hearts, we have included these using 'Photoshop' as it gives of a more romantic effect. We like this design the most as everything used fits in with the narrative of the film, also it is rather catchy by the fact of bright colours used as well as bold text.

This is a very similar design to the first one. This is because the same type has been used for 'trapped in' as we thought that it works very well even if different text is added as it is attracts the male gender by the title style whih seems like the style could be used for a war film. 'Love' we have again written in pink representing  the feelings of Leila. This also looks hand written, which would you see in girls doodles. However, we do not like this design as much, as it is not as catchy. The fact of it not being catchy is because it is not as bold, and nor is it clear enough and neat so it is less appealing and therefore it would not be very noticeable by the audience.

This I am happy with this title design,i would have to say this is my second favourite one out of the three title designs, even though it is in black and white you are able to know that this film is a romance and includes thriller. This is because it includes a big and bold word saying 'love'. 'Trapped in' has been left the same, but it fits in rather well. This time the font represents the word trapped in as it looks trapped in it's self. The word 'love' looks bruised and also dirty, this also shows the dark side of what the film may be about. How ever, thriller has been put across mostly, and this is why this design would not work as it seems the title design would mainly attract the boys rather than the girls to see the film . as we need to be able to attract both genders, both of their needs have to be included within the tile design.

task sheet

Representation

Representation

The film I have chosen is ‘the life and death of Charlie st cloud’. This film represents many different things as you can see when you have seen the film but I have chosen to pick out the main representations life and death and how life and death are represented in general and in terms of this film, in this film The life and death of Charlie st cloud is about a boy called Charlie st cloud, he has a younger brother called Sam aged 14, since they were young children they have been playing baseball and sailing together every day at a certain time, this shows a strong bonding between the brothers, at the beginning there is a sense where Charlie is on ‘Sam duty’ where he has to look after his brother Sam for the night as their mum works on a extra shift. That night Charlie had to look after his brother, Charlie sneaked out into his car, as he turned the ignition on you see Sam just outside in front of the car, Sam wanted to go to his mates house to watch a game. As Charlie is driving they come across traffic but suddenly another car comes behind them and knocks the back of the car that Charlie is driving and the car spins, turning it round and out of the traffic line there is a pause but out of nowhere a truck drives into the side of the car where Sam is sitting and then you see the car rolling down the hill. This shows balance of life and death as some people can survive certain car accidents.

We next see Sam and Charlie outside the car on the floor waiting for the ambulance and police, but we only see that this was an imagination of Charlie’s thought’s of what just had happened while he is in the ambulance getting medical help to revive him, the image of what Charlie is thinking about fades then goes into the ambulance scene this represents life and death as there is 50% chance of Charlie dyeing even though it was a short representation, we next see Sam’s body covered by a sheet in the ambulance just on the other side, this shows Sam is dead which represents death.

The next scene is when Charlie and his mum and everyone else with in the town who knew Sam where at Sam’s funeral, just by having Charlie at the funeral you can see that life and death are represented straight away as there is a coffin showing death of his brother and Charlie is over looking down on it this show that Charlie is alive representing life, as Charlie is asked to put the glove in the grave he says ‘I can’t’ then runs away into the woods, he falls and drops the glove and the baseball, we see that the baseball rolls back, as Charlie lift’s he’s head we see Sam again but we know it is a ghost of Sam, though out the film we see the ghost of Sam and Charlie talk and play baseball like they used to when Sam was alive, this shows that Charlie doesn’t want Sam to die he feels like Sam is still alive in his heart, Sam’s death took an impact on Charlie as we find out 5years later Charlie has not left like he was meant to he stayed on and is working in the grave yard where Sam is buried. No one can see Sam only Charlie, later on Charlie meets a girl, they end up together and we see how they connect in different ways ,how they have become so strong together. in this scene death is represented as the girl Tess is runni9ng after her dogs and shots out to a friend to get her dog but no response and then Tess looks into a window of as shop and she doesn’t see her own reflection which shows she is not alive and she is a ghost image, we find out Tess is at shore unconsous Charlie feels that she is alive and finds her and saves her life. At the end of the film Charlie lets Sam go and starts a new life in a way with Tess.

simple media terms

Narrative

In media terms, narrative is the coherence/organisation given to a series of facts. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and make interpretations based on those connections. In everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an end. We understand and construct meaning using our experience of reality and of previous texts. Each text becomes part of the previous and the next through its relationship with the audience.

The difference between Story & Narrative:

"Story is the irreducible substance of a story (A meets B, something happens, order returns), while narrative is the way the story is related (Once upon a time there was a princess...)" (Key Concepts in Communication - Fiske et al (1983))

Media Texts

Reality is difficult to understand, and we struggle to construct meaning out of our everyday experience. Media texts are better organised; we need to be able to engage with them without too much effort. We have expectations of form, a foreknowledge of how that text will be constructed. Media texts can also be fictional constructs, with elements of prediction and fulfilment which are not present in reality. Basic elements of a narrative, according to Aristotle:

"...the most important is the plot, the ordering of the incidents; for tragedy is a representation, not of men, but of action and life, of happiness and unhappiness - and happiness and unhappiness are bound up with action. ...it is their characters indeed, that make men what they are, but it is by reason of their actions that they are happy or the reverse." (Poetics - Aristotle(Penguin Edition) p39-40 4th century BC )

Successful stories require actions which change the lives of the characters in the story. They also contain some sort of resolution, where that change is registered, and which creates a new equilibrium for the characters involved. Remember that narratives are not just those we encounter in fiction. Even news stories, advertisements and documentaries also have a constructed narrative which must be interpreted.

Narrative Conventions

When unpacking a narrative in order to find its meaning, there are a series of codes and conventions that need to be considered. When we look at a narrative we examine the conventions of · Genre  · Character  · Form  · Time

and use knowledge of these conventions to help us interpret the text. In particular, Time is something that we understand as a convention - narratives do not take place in real time but may telescope out (the slow motion shot which replays a winning goal) or in (an 80 year life can be condensed into a two hour biopic). Therefore we consider "the time of the thing told and the time of the telling." (Christian Metz Notes Towards A Phenomenology of Narrative).

It is only because we are used to reading narratives from a very early age, and are able to compare texts with others that we understand these conventions. A narrative in its most basic sense is a series of events, but in order to construct meaning from the narrative those events must be linked somehow.

two opening title sequences

Misfits

Task: find two opening titles sequences from television shows that appeal to you. Look at editing, music, camera angles and the text as it is important. Say why this appeals to you, what colour is the text, why does it fit with the overall look of the sequence? What style of the text is used? And where is the text positioned in the frame?

  

I have chosen misfits television show as it is very interesting because the show is about five teenage outsiders party girl Alisha, hard as nail Kelly, one time sporting hero Curtis, painfully shy Simon and smart alec Nathan get caught up in a freaky storm while on community service and suddenly find themselves with a strange superpowers, Alisha can make men want her in a sexual way, Kelly has the power to read mines, Curtis randomly turns back times when he regrets something, Simon has the ability to turn invisible and Nathan is immortal.

These different powers that each of the characters  have, has made the television show appealing for a wide range of people which includes children aged  12 year olds and over as it is a different type of TV programme and as it is an urban atmosphere filmed in south Thamesmead, the children can relate to the environment.

   

At the beginning the television programme shows re-cape of the previous last episode in the last series then introduces a new character without dialogue, in the background there is music playing ‘ clear island by liars’ we also here ‘stress by justice within the show. when we see one of the characters, Kelly bailey (Lauren socha) gets hit in the eye with a flying paper aeroplane that has been thrown by another character which is introduced to the television programme with a bit of dialogue from the actor this starts of the music again but it is a different song, the music changes into the signature tune,  which is very distinctive / is the theme music for the show and it increases in volume .As the music volume increases this is the start of the opening title sequence which is an urban animated form also depicting the characters and their ‘powers’ which is created from the lighting. There are images of the urban area where the series is located in Thamesmead; within the programme we see different images which represent the characters portrayed in the series these images are seen when the characters are introduced by their physical appearances. We also see the names of the actors in the title sequence, iwan bellamy, Robert Sheehan, Lauren socha, Nathan stewart-jarret, Antonia Thomas the actors names are shown at different times one after in capital letters in Arial front, either in black or white colour and we then see the title of the film ‘misfits’ which is in Arial font, is black and bold making the title of the television show eye catching. After we see the title of the show it follows on to showing who wrote and created the programme ‘ Howard overman’ in Arial font and in black capital letters, at this point we see ‘Nathan’ one of the characters, it goes on showing the other characters in their physical appearances as it gets to ‘Alisha’ we see who produced it ‘Kate crowe’ the front is the same and is in white capital letters then the camera pans up ‘to the sky’ and it shows directed by tom green n black bold letters using Arial font, each of the names who are involved in making the television programme names where slightly bigger than their job name this makes their name stand out more and clearer to read.

           

In this television show there are many edits for example as the television show begins it shows the previous events that had happened in the weeks before leading up to on occurring events but we only see certain parts that had happened during the previous weeks as it shows different parts of the programme, this is a smooth editing as it follows on one after the after to each event in the different scenes as a whole run through without any stops or black outs. The title sequence that introduces the television show with the characters/ actors shown and their names, finishes it follows on showing one of the characters Simon bellamy (iwan Rheon) looking down the piece of paper, this is one of the cuts as it goes from the title sequence straight back into the programme.  We see the characters go in and out of certain room showing different parts of the scenery in one scene we see all of the characters Simon, Curtis, Kelly, Alisha and Nathan run out of the locker/ changing rooms into the corridors then into the hall these parts are edited and then put together smoothly, we see the characters walk through the locker room with dialogue then Simon appears in the corridors and with the others following behind chasing after a new character Lucy which then follows in to the hall we can tell editing has been used by the way of the different camera angles each time the character enter another area of the building in that scene.
FINISH OF THE OTHER TITLE SEQUENCE.

Narrative

Narrative

In ‘the life and death of Charlie st cloud’ narrative is shown throughout the film, as we see a lot of detail being presented by the characters being played by the actors. We first see narrative used in the beginning when the two boys who are brothers, ‘Sam and Charlie’ are sailing together with other actors/ sailors, in the film as they are sailing Sam and Charlie are talking about winning, getting to the finishing line. After the boys win they celebrate by getting their picture taken and it is then put into the local newspaper. The next scene is when we see the mother go to work, and she says “your on Sam duty” this is when Charlie has to look after his brother Sam,  Charlie gets all the chores done and then sneaks out to his car to go out to meet up with his friends, as Charlie puts his car lights on Sam pops out of nowhere in front of Charlie’s car, Sam gets a lift from Charlie as Sam is meant to be  going to his friends house to watch a football match, on the way to Sam’s friends house Charlie and Sam talk about the past between them two and their dad who is not seen at all throughout this film, Sam is afraid of losing Charlie as Charlie has the opportunity  to leave their home town/ village, Sam compares the situation with his dad leaving them when they were younger this shows a strong connection between the brothers. On the way Charlie and Sam Get caught up in traffic but suddenly a car hits the back of the car that Charlie and Sam are in, the car gets pushed making the car turn slightly but enough for the left side to be facing the oncoming cars, Sam faces Charlie and says his name just before a truck suddenly hits the left side of the car as it is facing the truck which is the same side where Sam is sitting. As the truck is close to the car it blacks out then comes straight into then we see Charlie and Sam ‘on the road sitting’, injured and bleeding a bit this is then followed by the next scene where Charlie is in an ambulance and is getting revived by the paramedic as this is all happening we see the paramedic hoping for a miracle as he kissed his symbol which is connected to a chain around his neck. Charlie opens his eyes and sees his brothers body under a sheet with his hand hanging out Charlie calls Sam’s name but no answer, then next scene we see other characters  in a grave yard with Charlie and the mother for Sam’s funeral as Charlie is asked to put the baseball glove inside the grave Charlie runs into the woods, as he falls the baseball drops and rolls, as the balls rolls back Charlie lifts his head and we see Sam but in a form of his ghost as he has past away. Five years pass since the death of Sam st cloud, we next see Charlie in the same grave yard where his brother was buried, Charlie works in the grave yard to be close to Sam, as the boys meet up midday, everyday Charlie and Sam play baseball together, the narrative is shown in this scene as the characters Charlie and Sam talk about what had happened and what would happen for example a sense for Sam to believe. Charlie meets a young girl ‘Tess’ they end up meeting in the grave yard as her dad has passed away, Charlie and Tess connect well and end up together as a couple we see their moments together, when Tess has dinner round Charlie’s cabin where he lives, and where she runs of and heads into the grave yard and they are interment and where she has gone missing and Charlie ends up finding her unconscious on the shore rock and saves her life.

The characters of Charlie and Sam make the story real and they tell the story/ film in their way for the audience to understand what is happening, the character are the narrators in the way of telling the story from their view by connecting with another without being the voice over in the film.

The film se7n

 This is the film se7en , we had to look at the film and see the opening title sequence. within the title sequence we had to Analise what the title sequence was about, what could the title sequence be about, look at the titles, how the titles are, how they appear and disappear from the screen, what font is the titles in and colour. The actors names, how are they placed on the screen, the font and colour and the size. the names of the characters as well including colour,size, font and how the names of the characters come on and off screen on the title sequence. we had to look at what is in the title sequence and what they could represent.
In the opening of the film se7en,throughtout the title sequence there is no exterior or landscape shown this leaves the audience thinking more about the film, leaving them with questions on what is going on, who is that person they can see. having wider and extrior or landscape views shows the audience how that character in that film lives and how they have decorated their living enviornment ect these certain things makes a person, just by seeing someones house you can profile them in different ways but in this case we do not get to see the where that person is, when watching a trailer the basic information of the film and the characters are presented for instance who they are,what they look like, how they act, how they have their living environment, their hobbies and if they have photographs of family,friends, loved ones ect the backdrop gives the audience an idea of who and how that character is but as we do not no see the backdrop within this trailer this keeps the film,and the character within the film a mystery which makes it interesting and draws the audience to keep watching. we constantly see a close up view of the character's hands throughout the opening sequence,we do not get to see their face, or any other part of their body. in the title sequence there are different types of objects/ props that the character uses, we see paper, pen as we see the character is writing something,we see pages and pages of writting the character had done,suggesting the character is writting in a dairy or a letter we don't know as it is hidden enough for us not to see fully. needle and thread is used by the character as we see the character sow the pieces of paper that the character had written on, together which seems the character is making his own journal, for a moment we see a few more of the journal books that the character had made which suggest the character had been making them for quite some time, maybe for months or even years. we can clearly see sharp objects being used by the character, as the camera shots are mainly focused on the character's movements and within that frame we can only see the characters fingures and what the character is using and doing notthing else. throughout the entire seqence the colour stays near enough the same, dull, quite dark colours within the background which makes the title sequence seem dim and gloomy and has an effect on the film as it seems something bad is going to happen which has a relation to the on coming events within the film just from the title sequence, as the colours are dim, the lights are mainly dark and only sheds of light are within the title sequence making the title seqeuence to be a mystry like the character is trying to hide something that has happened or will happen and the way the lighting is shown it seems that life is being drained out from the character,suggesting the cbharacter is a bad person and that he mistreats his victims.The main thing through out the title sequence that sticks out is various words hightlighgted by the character, such as 'homosexual' and 'transsexual' as well as cutting out the name 'GOD'  from in a 'dolla note' which seems to be related to religious reasons.
More in to detail.
we see a person which we presume is a man,who is flicking through a book and the credits'new cinema presents' pops up in white lettering,changes to dark backdrop and shows  more of the credit but backwards and switches to shows them the other way.An image of photo copyed hands have been printed and appear, the opening then goes on showing the actors involved in this film, the name of 'brad pitt' is shown in white lettering after the man appears again but we only see a extre close up of his finger tips,we see the man using a raser on his fingure tips to erase his finger prints,scraping the layers of skin to hide his identity, the name 'morgan feeman'is shown in white lettering as well, images appear throughout the opening,we see the title of the film 'se7en'on the sceen in white lettering, the title starts to flicker but then returns to normal lettering and changes size from mid to big and wide to mid then as the background changes from plain dark into the film shoing the man picking up a book while he is picking up the book, the title 'se7en' changes into a smaller font size after the title disappears the name of 'gwynth pollrow' comes up.The next image is of the book opening up, then a olden type writter, then back using a extre-close up camera shot of the book which is opened and the man is writting inside'richard roundtree' name pops up then changes into more different images,'R.Lee Ermey' pops up we then see the man cutting up a photot strip and a picture and a few photo images of a little child, the title 'se7en' is appears again, very quickly and in lights, more images are shown of fake paper money and of photographs that the man had cut up and stuck down. we see the man turn a page with it filled up with writting, more credits follow on and still using extre close up shot we see the man crossing out certain words in which looks like a book of paretning or something to do with that topic as we see the words'when your pregnant' and the information underneth seems to be the defonision.these images of turning pages and crossing out words are shown once more, then man then crosses the eyes out of a young boy in a picture,then covers the hole image of the boys head in the picture by using black ink going across image then we see the man sticking in loads of paper and photographs and more images and we see more writting in the book, the book that we see is man made and has pages and pages of writing inside, throughout the title sequence we have no clue who the man is as we do not see the male's figure or his face only his hands and close up shots of his fingers and what he is doing. the opening sequence finishes off as the man takes the piece that has 'GOD' on the note off with twezers whilst this is happening a song is played in the back ground we hear these lyric's 'you kept me closer to god' which is interesting as the piece that is picked off frm the notes says god, then it ends by the camera showing man made books/ diarys the man has made after we se more credits then follows on into the start of the film itself.