http://www.live.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p0056bs3

http://www.live.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p005bbvb

Yes it is a bit picture, but perhaps the size of Tom Cruise’s name is a joke to emphasise how small he is, who knows!

Watching this film the other day, as I had nothing else to watch, alerted me to a this fact…

It’s crap!

Basically I will write a short summary of the plot now.  Man broke up with wife (unsympathetic, he’s a bit of a (blank)) Bad stuff happens, girl screams for next hour and a half of the film.

You may have your own opinions but I think thats a pretty accurate summary.  Of course the anchorage is obviously there as it is a Spielberg film, and the use of editing and specialFX is orite, but lets be honest that really isn’t enough to survive the modern critics of the world, which is highlighted by its IMDB rating of a generous 6.6, possibly the Brunio Tonioli of the film industry got a bit overexcited and gave it a 9 rather than a 6, or 3!  This bad reputation and also my opinion of the film led me to try and find something I like about it, which…I have!

Unfortunately it’s not actually in the film, but the enigma filled trailer, and even then it was nothing to do with the acting or ideas presented, however it was in the title sequence, the 3D text with flashes of Cruise and Spielberg on them, I dug deep but this speck of golddust was all I found.  If you want to see the trailer I watched here’s the link:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3487629593/

Anyway, watch the film (if you can) and let me know your opinion on it!

Oh Christ, there making a new one! :@

Even though I opted against doing a documentary on the first choice of doing an opening, trailer or documentary for our media production.  In contradiction to what my original thoughts were, I believe that you have a lot of freedom when doing a documentary.  For example, when I watched ‘Life’, a BBC documentary about animal wildlife, it occurred to me that anchorage is used to its utmost in documentaries, sometimes even more so than in films!  It is used to portray the sense of tension, in a cheetah stalking an antelope.  The sudden burst of pacey, choral music to emphasise the quick beating of the heart and thundering paws and legs on the dusty ground.  The slow motion shot of the final lunge at the prey, with a sudden break and almost calm in the music.  The David Attenborough documentaries are classic examples of this and I will leave a link in the description of a chase like this:       http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004qgxy

This came to my attention when showing the highlights of the 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games Highlights, to the school during a presentation about being a Young Ambassador on Wednesday.  One particular part of it was when a weightlifter, lifted a personal best to win the Olympic gold and broke down in tears.  This provoked a scathing reaction from some of the audience as most laughed at him, as if he was a weaker person for showing emotion.  I am aware thaat people may have found it funny but still understood why it happened, but the so called “obviously too important and cool to be in school” sort of people sitting in front of me, if Mr Wallis is reading this then he will probably know who I mean, I mean honestly get a life and grow up and make something of yourself! Anyway, this annoyed me, as they did not think of all the hard work, a lifetime of training and the sacrifices he would have made, in order to live his dream and become Olympic Champion.  I may come across as a bit one sided in the different interpretations of this clip, but I don’t care because I am.  Overall, the experience showed me that the audience makes up the reputation a film gets, i’m sure if you played the video to a group of sports people, achieving goals and working towards becoming the top players in their sports, they would have the same reaction as me,  I believe it is the most inspiring and one of the most emotional videos I have ever seen.  However, if you show it to the wrong audience it will be misinterpreted and the feeling left from it will be different to the intended actual meaning of the media text.

I  can’t get the video on to here but if you want to see it type into youtube, BBC Olympic highlights 2008 Beijing, or something like that, or if you are in the school I have it on my computer so just ask to see it!

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Instead of a camera following a winding corridoor, we will have a dark extremely long room, and the camera just slowly moving towards the dimly lit table right at the back of the room.

Watching ‘Love Actually’ the other night, and yes I do believe it is a great British film!  It drew my attention to the fact that the theme of comedy is in most major production, main stream films of any genre.

I believe that all films made by the major production companies e.g 20th Century Fox,  have an element of comedy in, even Horror movies, which obviously aren’t meant to make the audience burst out in laughter.  To name a few of the vast amounts of highly successful films that contain comedic themes are:

Thriller/Neo-noir: The Usual Suspects

Love: Love Actually (yes, it is a comedy/love film)

Horror: Scream/Funny Games

Documentary: Borat (as it was on first appearance, but it was actually about the ignorance of our colonial cousins)

Action: Die Hard

You see, comedy is a tool used by the major film producers in order to create a bond between the audience and the characters, this would be why Love films use comedy so often, so that there is a more heart felt regret when something bad happens in the film.  Of course spoofs have helped wrench the themes of comedy out of Horror films, scary movie for example, but some films didn’t need a helping hand with it like Scream.  Many Comedy films are getting made presently, and I believe the producers and writers are not looking  to make a good film, but to make ever more sums of money.  Comedy is in my opinion a safe bet for producers when it comes to releasing a movie, as Comedy of any style can relate to some people, even if it’s honestly really not funny, not mentioning any names (*cough* Harry Hill) They will make money out of it no matter what, and I believe that as a member of the audience they are portraying these movies to, it should stop and release better films rather than 1 comedy film every month starring Vince Vaughn every single time.

The genre of the text is future disaster, much like that of ‘The Day After Tomorrow.’ This is identified, by the extremely oversized tsunami like waves pounding the mountains of the Himalayas; it can be identified as the Himalayas as there is a Tibetan Monk standing in the foreground.   Also the title can highlight the genre more, as it is ‘2012’ as in the year 2012.  There are also houses getting destroyed at the top of the mountains suggesting the disaster genre. 

The purpose of the text will be to intrigue the audience into seeing the film, as the poster leaves the enigmas of, how did this happen, what could cause such a huge wave with the power to rise up over some of the biggest mountains in the world.  Will it actually happen, as it is set in the future we do not know if it will or won’t happen, this may scare the audience or make them go and see it to get answers.  Yet again, the strap line ‘We Were Warned’ is like a newspaper headline, all in capitals, and gets the audience thinking if they have been warned of such a disaster, this would get them thinking about the effects of global warming and what that could cause, as that has been one of the main focuses of the media, trying to brainwash the population into changing the ways they live drastically for a nonsensical purpose. 

The cultural codes of the waves has connotations of power and an unstoppable force, this would get the audience thinking about the Tsunamis that ravaged Samoa earlier on in the year.  The sadness created from this disaster would play in the back of the audiences mind and make them not want it to happen to them.  As there is a monk in the foreground, there are connotations drawn of prophesising, and this is reiterated by the strap line of ‘We Were Warned.’

The font and texture of the text anchors the poster as a futuristic film as it has a shiny metallic texture and also it is a sans serif font so it has impact.  Also the waves and destruction of the houses anchors the poster as a disaster movie.         

With the idea of the media production in mind!  Not only is music important for anchorage in films, television.  It is also for keeping up  peoples interest in the film from the start.

Watching “The Boat That Rocked” last night made me realise this.  The intro playing “All Day and All Night” by The Kinks, changed my idea of the film from the start.  Going into watching the film with a negative attitude towards it.  However the song made me more interested in it, maybe there would be more good music in there, the interest grew when other artists such as Hendrix, The Who and David Bowie were played throughout the film.  The link between the music played and my personal taste in music made me highly enjoy the film, and also opened up my eyes to some of the other ingenious moments of comedy and changes in the characters that were used.

This sort of shows that one simple song can change the audiences point of view of the whole movie.  For instance, if the famous walking scene of “Reservoir Dogs” was playing some appaling track by the black eyed peas instead of the fantastic track “Little Green Bag” by George Baker, which I am listening to at the moment, it would have quite a different effect.  Instead of the ultimate feeling of cool that you get from the scene, I would have to leave the room.

This great scene may have been filmed so well and leave a lasting effect, not only on the audience but the director’s career and the film industry, because of Tarantino’s way of filming, which entailed blaring out the track on huge speakers whilst filming.  This would have got the actors in the right mood, mind set and make the acting more believable rather than simply putting a track over in the editing stage of the film.     

This has made me think about the music to use in the media production.  Classical music such as Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata have been suggested, and I have also had a few artists in mind Roy Orbison, David Bowie and Elvis, are a few I have been contemplating.  But of course copyright law would come into choosing one of their songs, unless we say it’s for educational purposes or something like that.

Anyway, we will see!