Action and Adventure Analysis: Taken (2008)

The extract I watched was from Taken (2008) which starts off with just a few men talking, however after a few seconds it is evident that this is a hybrid genre of Action/Adventure from the use of combat and conflict.

Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) expertly takes out two men with a knife before killing two more with a pistol he got from a dead body. This scene is very typical of the Action/Adventure genre as there is a lot of danger and risk to what Mills is doing, as he could very easily be shot. This creates a lot of suspense, but only briefly as the audience realise that he is very capable of dispatching the enemies. However, there is still a lot of jeopardy as there are more men coming to try and kill him. He is vastly outnumbered and this again creates suspense.

Bryan Mills is a typical hero of an Action/Adventure film, although he does not always abide by the law. He will always be able to fight his way out of dangerous situations and has the courage to face many enemies alone. He always works alone and gets the job done, even if he doesn't want to.

The audience's heart is racing from the moment Bryan Mills finds out the place he has entered is owned by the people he is trying to fight against and from then on the audience is sent on a thrill ride of Action as the henchmen keep coming out and being killed by Mills.

09/10/13 PLANNING: LOCATIONS

Today we continued our discussion about where we could film. After settling on St Pancras and Paddington, Tom came up with the idea we use either the Bluebell railway or the watercress line. He remembers visiting those and how they run old fashion trains on the lines. This means we wouldn't have to worry about seeing new trains when our piece is set in the 1940s.

Watercress line

09/10/13 RESEARCH: FILM NOIR BOOKS

We skimmed through these books to give us inspiration about what we would do.

• Low key, black and white visual style
• roots in German expressionist cinematography 
• derives from crime fiction of United States during the Great Depression.
• central figure is often a private eye (The Big Sleep 1946)
• a plainclothes policeman (The Big Heat)
• an aging boxer (The Set Up)
• a hapless grifter (Night and the City)
• a law abiding citizen lured into a life of crime (Gun Crazy)
• simply a victim of circumstance (D.O.A)
• gives pleasure by making us uncomfortable: anxiety, vulnerability and fright are all part of the thill
• women are all usually virgins or vamps
• film noir is a cultural phenomenon
• strong female characters who disturb the men's world
• has evolved in to Neo-Noir (Memento)
• characters faces often partly shadowed to create hidden threatening spaces
• often sleazy milieu of claustrophobic alleyways or deserted spaces alternating with gaudy nightclubs and swank apartments
• high contrast lighting

08/10/13 PLANING: TREATMENT AND LOCATIONS

To start today's lesson we  finished off writing our treatment, as when we thought we were finished, Mrs Mann critiqued it and told us how we could improve on it. We checked again to see if there was anything we missed, and there wasn't. We then moved on to thinking about where we might like to film our initial shot, in a train station. We had two main stations in mind: Paddington and St Pancreas. We thought the inside of St Pancras was too modern, but the outside was good and we thought the outside of Paddington didn't look as good as St Pancras, but the inside was exactly what we needed, so we ended up being that we will shoot the outside of St Pancras and the inside station of Paddington.

Paddington station

St Pancras

08/10/13 PLANNING: TREATMENT

Film Noir Treatment

Kate Bradford, Thomas Stevens, George Flack, Charlie Myers

The film opens with a CU of a hand wrapping a package of a box wrapped in brown paper tied with frayed string.

Cut to the outside of ST PANCRAS STATION of a YOUNG WOMAN. She wears an iridescent tan trench coat tied at the waist with her hair tightly crimped into a bun. Cut to the inside of PADDINGTON STATION. A train departs from the station; signaling this by the WHISTLE and HORN of the train. There after the young woman walks along the platform of the station with a small tan leather handbag hanging from her right hand, carrying a package covered in brown paper with white string tied around in her other hand. The CLIP-CLOP of the young woman’s HEELS is heard. News of a murder is depicted.

A SUSPICIOUS LOOKING YOUNG MAN walks behind the young woman. He wears a light tan trench coat with a dark coloured fedora on his head. The young woman drops the parcel from her left hand and falls on the ground. The young man picks up the parcel off the ground of the station.

Cut away shot to THREE MIDDLE AGED MEN wearing dark trench coats and fawn coloured fedoras acting furtively. One of the men throws a cigarette butt onto the ground and stamps his foot on it to put it out.

The young woman walks out of the station with the man following behind her. She approaches a vintage car parked outside the station; she gets into the car with help of the DRIVER who opens the door for her. The woman notices that the driver isn’t her normal driver and asks where her usual driver is, followed by the CAR DOORS LOCKING.

Next, the THREE MIDDLE AGED MEN are seen discussing a newsworthy, debatable topic. While discussing, the three men are pushing around a picture of the young woman seen earlier in the opening and portray a reflection of mysteriousness amongst them.  It then pans back to the young woman in the back seat of the car. Followed by the loud sound of a GUN SHOT.

RESEARCH: SCOOP IT

I created a Scoop It page on thriller codes and conventions. This is the link:
http://www.scoop.it/t/thriller-codes-and-conventions-by-charlie-myers
As well as scooping things about thrillers I also decided to add things about Film Noir as that is what we are basing our film opening on.

18.09.13 PLANNING: FILM NOIR

Today we finished off working on what our story would be. We had a rough idea of how the story would progress and even some more technical things like camera angles and sound design. We wrote lots of things down and below you can see a picture of what we did in the lesson. The picture is hard to read, but the piece of paper on top is a flow chart of out story, the paper below that is a mind map of ideas we had and the piece of paper to the left of theat was other ideas we had.

24/09.13 PLANNING: FILM NOIR

Today we started to further develop our idea of Film Noir. Film Noir is a style or genre of film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism and menace. We knew that George had some resources we could use, like a old time Double Decker bus. We needed to decide whether we would film it in colour or in black and white. Kate had the idea that we should do it in sepia. We liked that idea and considered it. As well as this we thought we would like the music from Jonathon Creek. We also looked at a couple of film Noir books and thought of movies we liked in the film noir genre. We then thought about our story and conventions used in film noir. We started working on a very rough storyboard. We then knew we would have to continue this in the next lesson.

17.09.13 Research: film Opening

In these two lessons we looked at a couple films to help give us ideas about things we could do for our movie opening.
First we watched The English Patient. The opening to this is an extreme close up of a hand painting. The camera pans while hand moves, creating one long lasting shot. It then cut to a sweeping shot of the desert. We learnt that extreme close ups were very good at creating suspense and mystery. The sweeping shot taught us how it they are useful for exposition.
We then watched Made In Dagenam which had a lot of camera angles we could use. For example there was a panning shot from left to right that gave us a greater sense of where we were.
Then we split up in our groups and decided on what we should do. My group decided that we should make a Film Noir Opening.

Production Log 11/9/13

Production Log 11/9/13

Research: The Art of The Title

I went to www.artofthetitle.com and saw the Pacific Rim (2013) titles by Guillermo Del Toro. There is repeated use of close ups to intrigue the audience. I have learnt that using extreme close ups can make the audience curious. The colours are very dark and there is a very heavy focus on CGI, with nearly no live action. The sequence is very serious and you can very easily tell the genre, Science-Fiction.

I also watched Moon (2009) dir Duncan Jones. In this the film starts witha advert for a fake energy company before cutting to different shots of a space station on the moon and it's one man crew doing various activities. The credits appear as if they were physical objects in the station and cast shadows as well as occasionally being obscured as the camera pans.

I then watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) dir Shane Black. The opening credits to this film are a animation that shows parts of the film in silhouettes. The shots are all different from panning shots to push ins.

Finally I watched The Player (1992) dir Robert Altman. The opening to this film is one continuous shot that lasts for 8 minutes. The credits appear as standard, while the camera pans around a film studio and tracks several people. There is no cuts or editing involved and the only thing that wasn't there when they filmed it were the credits themselves. The film opens with a director shouting action and a man holding a clip board that says 'The Player' on it.

Introduction to the project.

I am working in a group of four. The other members of my group are Tom, George and Kate. We have chosen Brief 7 (video) The opening sequence from a new film including titles, in any genre or mix of genres such as a comedy or thriller, together with a storyboard. Maximum length: three minutes.

The IT Crowd 'Italian For Beginners'

The three main characters, Roy, Mos and Jen have very different personalities. Roy is lazy and hapless, whereas Mos is technical but stupid and Jen is bright, but gets in to situations easily. Mos thinks he's being smart when he puts his phone in his top pocket, and he then drops it in the toilet. This explains thw way he is comic. Jen accidentally says something rude in a meeting and that explains the way she is comic. Roy makes smarmy comments which the main reason he character is funny. The audience is positioned to see an overview of all the three main characters, so you may know things that other characters may not.

Fragrance Essay

A Comparison Of How Men Are Represented In Fragrance Advertisements From The 1920s, 1990s and 2012

I have chosen to compare three advertisements that span nine decades: William’s Aqua Velva (print 1920s), Contradiction (print 1990s) and Lynx Attract (moving image 2012). It seems to me that what has most changed about the representation of men is that in later years they are less frequently depicted as suave, self-controlled and formal and more likely to be depicted as relaxed, casual and irresistibly sexy.

William’s Aqua Velva (print,1920s)

My first advert is for William’s Aqua Velva from the 1920s. It depicts a picture of two men and two women playing cards together. The men are in tuxedos and seem suave and sophisticated. Their tuxedoes show that they are cultured and well-of; their cuff links, bow ties and pocket handkerchiefs all point to their immaculate grooming and upper class dress code. This helps promote the Aqua Velva as the cream will apparently make you have money, power and intelligence. They have obviously used William’s Aqua Velva as they do not appear to have any hair on their faces. They are both looking at the women, each man at a different one which gives a sense of love. They are represented as clean cut, important and happy men who are enjoying an evening with their girlfriends or wives.

The card game is a symbolic code for these men’s intelligence, wealth and social status as cards usually connote higher intelligence and sophistication. The group are playing cards, a sophisticated after-dinner activity, which implies they are cultured and have money and power. The men are an idealised representation of a 1920s upper class man.

The women look like they are chatting to each other as opposed to the men who are staring intently at them. There is a cigarette dish on the table, with a cigarette in it, this is because the advert was made and printed before people knew of the dangers of cigarettes and it was very cool to smoke. This shows that these men are being represented as an ideal man of the era, with a woman by his side, a smart tuxedo, sophisticated, and a smooth fine face. It implies that he has become that man because he uses William’s Aqua Velva to shave his face.

The slogan ‘your strong suit – a face that fits’ is a pun on the fact that the group is playing a card game, and that the men with clean cut faces will get the women because of how well they have groomed their faces using William’s shaving cream. This is catchy and will stick your head for a while afterwards. It helps sell the idea that you will be more intelligent if you use this shaving cream because of the fact it is a joke which needs a certain intelligence to understand it.  This means the slogan will help promote and sell the fragrance. The bottle takes up a quarter of the page which is very good use of product placement and, again helps to sell the shaving cream. In modern advertisements there would never be such a large body of text because the image alone delivers the message and value of the product.

In my view William’s Aqua Velva is very different from my other two adverts as these men are sophisticated and classy and the man in my second advert is very care free and loose.  The men are wearing tuxedoes with bow ties in my first advert however the man in the second advert is in a suit and smart shoes, however he does not have a tie and his top button is undone. These are very different attitudes to the way the men dress in the different periods.

Contradiction

My second advert is Contradiction by Calvin Klein from the 1990s. It has half the page filled with a man sitting down with one leg up and laughing. The other half is filled with the bottle and the name, Contradiction. The man is in a suit however he is not wearing a tie and his top buttons are undone. This makes the man seem more casual and less formal. The poster is in black and white which is strange yet it makes the man’s features stand out a lot. The man seems confident and happy, almost in a care free mood without any thing troubling him. The fact his mouth is slightly open in a smile as opposed to closed indicates he may have an air of romance about him. He is an idealised ‘perfect man’ of the 1990s as he looks like a successful business man who can also be light-hearted and fun. He is not making eye contact with the camera, and therefore the viewer of the poster.

The name Contradiction goes well with the fact the poster is in black and white as these colours contradict each other and help things to stand out. It also symbolises the man, who contradicts the smart, uptight businessman of the era, who are always formal and never become too loose.

The men in this advert are very different to my 1920s advert as in the first one the men where smart men in tuxedoes, whereas in my 1990s advert the man seem more loose and carefree. The first men are the ‘perfect men’ of the 1920s, which is sophisticated, suave and clean cut. However the man in the second advert is still the ‘perfect man’ just in a different time. This is because views have changed of men, and they are now allowed to be less serious and uptight and more relaxed, with fewer worries. They can let loose and have a bit more fun. The men in the first advert are also with women, as women were not viewed as important as men and more as an object, however it may be politically incorrect to let the poster view women in the same way in the 1990s. There is also no evidence the man uses the fragrance in the second advert, whereas in the first advert the men have clean cut faces, showing that they use the shaving cream.

Lynx Attract

The message of this exciting, fast-paced and advertisement for Lynx Attract is clear: anybody can ‘get a girl’ if they wear Lynx.

It features a variety of men and women aged 20+  who cause chaos around the city when they are attracted to each other. The men and women all wear seductive outfits that appeal to the opposite sex:

The men are very masculine but quite ordinary ‘boy next-door’; they all wear ordinary clothes, such as suits or jeans. The men vary from clean-cut and smart hair to scruffy and dirty. The men in Aqua Velva where very smart and sophisticated, being a gentleman and respectful. This is nothing like how men are represented in my 2012 advert. They are almost the exact opposite, with some looking incredibly shabby and others looking very disrespectfully with no disregard to how they are acting in public, this is emphasized by the chaos around them. The women all pout suggestively, fascinating the men whose eyes constantly gaze at the opposite sex. The men and women seem almost hypnotised by each other, ignoring the chaos around them despite the thrilling danger that they narrowly miss.

The men in this advert are represented in a very sexual manner as all have a look of seduction on their faces, especially when they make eye contact with one of the opposite sex. This advert is particularly centred on looking good around the opposite sex and making them want you. This is also what the product supposedly does for you if you were to buy it.

The men in this advertisement for Lynx Attract are represented in a very different way to the men in William’s Aqua Velva or even the man in Contradiction, who was seem much more relaxed and self-confident  than the almost emotionless men in this advert. By ‘emotionless’, I mean that they seem hypnotized in their frenzied drive to secure a mate. The camerawork achieves this through the close ups and tracking shots of the men. The music gives a very light-hearted feel, however if you listen to the lyrics, it’s about attraction. The editing gives a swift movement through the city.

The men in Attract are also very different from the man in Contradiction as the man in Contradiction is very laid back and doesn’t seem to be taking anything very seriously, however in Attract the men are extremely focused on the women and are not laid back at all.

In conclusion men in fragrance advertisements in the 1920s were supposedly the ideal man, suave, tidy and clean cut. Men in 1990s adverts were also the ideal man, but of that era, laid back but can also be business like. This is not the same in 2012 where men can be portrayed as someone who is obsessed with the opposite sex. 

Skyfall Heineken and Iron Man Audi R8 Ads

The Skyfall Heineken advert is most definitely a mini AA film. It starts with James Bond (a typical AA archetype hero) walking on to a snowy train platform (most likely in Russia) followed by two big looking henchmen (another AA archetype) After brushing past a stranger, Bond rushes off and the henchmen start to chase the other man. He goes on to the train and the scene changes, he appears to be in a casino carriage. He then stumbles in to a Russian hideout with a typical looking villain from an AA movie. He then impresses them and moves on. Eventually he reaches a carriage where there is music playing and after he dances wih a beautiful girl (again another archetype) he gets passed a Heineken beer my James Bond. At the very end you see James Bond jumping from the train and parachuting away as the typical Bond Girl (from Skyfall) gives the man a briefcase

The Iron Man Audi R8 advert is less of a mini AA film as it starts more like a trailer for Iron Man 3. There are shots of Iron crashing in to the ground and explosions, before the caption It's never a bad day at work appears. There is then a shot of Iron man getting in to an Audi car as if this is the car he drives to go to work. It then has shots of the car going fast on a test track. The final captions says 'Tested by Tony Stark (aka Iron Man)

Archetype

An Archetype is a type of character that is well know, whether it be in Film, TV or Literature. These can range from Protagonist or Hero such as Superman or James Bond to love interests like Elizabeth Swann (Pirates Of The Carribean) and Pepper Potts (Iron Man) and even henchmen.

Opening Titles

The opening titles I have chosen are the ones from Dexter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej8-Rqo-VT4

Final draft of fragrance advert

(The essay used to have pictures as well)

A Comparison Of How Men Are Represented In Fragrance Advertisements From The 1920s, 1990s and 2012

I have chosen to compare three advertisements that span nine decades: William’s Aqua Velva (print 1920s), Contradiction (print 1990s) and Lynx Attract (moving image 2012). It seems to me that what has most changed about the representation of men is that in later years they are less frequently depicted as suave, self-controlled and formal and more likely to be depicted as relaxed, casual and irresistibly sexy.

William’s Aqua Velva (print,1920s)

My first advert is for William’s Aqua Velva from the 1920s. It depicts a picture of two men and two women playing cards together. The men are in tuxedos and seem suave and sophisticated. Their tuxedoes show that they are cultured and well-of; their cuff links, bow ties and pocket handkerchiefs all point to their immaculate grooming and upper class dress code. This helps promote the Aqua Velva as the cream will apparently make you have money, power and intelligence. They have obviously used William’s Aqua Velva as they do not appear to have any hair on their faces. They are both looking at the women, each man at a different one which gives a sense of love. They are represented as clean cut, important and happy men who are enjoying an evening with their girlfriends or wives.

The card game is a symbolic code for these men’s intelligence, wealth and social status as cards usually connote higher intelligence and sophistication. The group are playing cards, a sophisticated after-dinner activity, which implies they are cultured and have money and power. The men are an idealised representation of a 1920s upper class man.

The women look like they are chatting to each other as opposed to the men who are staring intently at them. There is a cigarette dish on the table, with a cigarette in it, this is because the advert was made and printed before people knew of the dangers of cigarettes and it was very cool to smoke. This shows that these men are being represented as an ideal man of the era, with a woman by his side, a smart tuxedo, sophisticated, and a smooth fine face. It implies that he has become that man because he uses William’s Aqua Velva to shave his face.

The slogan ‘your strong suit – a face that fits’ is a pun on the fact that the group is playing a card game, and that the men with clean cut faces will get the women because of how well they have groomed their faces using William’s shaving cream. This is catchy and will stick your head for a while afterwards. It helps sell the idea that you will be more intelligent if you use this shaving cream because of the fact it is a joke which needs a certain intelligence to understand it.  This means the slogan will help promote and sell the fragrance. The bottle takes up a quarter of the page which is very good use of product placement and, again helps to sell the shaving cream. In modern advertisements there would never be such a large body of text because the image alone delivers the message and value of the product.

In my view William’s Aqua Velva is very different from my other two adverts as these men are sophisticated and classy and the man in my second advert is very care free and loose.  The men are wearing tuxedoes with bow ties in my first advert however the man in the second advert is in a suit and smart shoes, however he does not have a tie and his top button is undone. These are very different attitudes to the way the men dress in the different periods.

Contradiction

My second advert is Contradiction by Calvin Klein from the 1990s. It has half the page filled with a man sitting down with one leg up and laughing. The other half is filled with the bottle and the name, Contradiction. The man is in a suit however he is not wearing a tie and his top buttons are undone. This makes the man seem more casual and less formal. The poster is in black and white which is strange yet it makes the man’s features stand out a lot. The man seems confident and happy, almost in a care free mood without any thing troubling him. The fact his mouth is slightly open in a smile as opposed to closed indicates he may have an air of romance about him. He is an idealised ‘perfect man’ of the 1990s as he looks like a successful business man who can also be light-hearted and fun. He is not making eye contact with the camera, and therefore the viewer of the poster.

The name Contradiction goes well with the fact the poster is in black and white as these colours contradict each other and help things to stand out. It also symbolises the man, who contradicts the smart, uptight businessman of the era, who are always formal and never become too loose.

The men in this advert are very different to my 1920s advert as in the first one the men where smart men in tuxedoes, whereas in my 1990s advert the man seem more loose and carefree. The first men are the ‘perfect men’ of the 1920s, which is sophisticated, suave and clean cut. However the man in the second advert is still the ‘perfect man’ just in a different time. This is because views have changed of men, and they are now allowed to be less serious and uptight and more relaxed, with fewer worries. The men in the first advert are also with women, as women were not viewed as important as men and more as an object, however it may be politically incorrect to let the poster view women in the same way in the 1990s. There is also no evidence the man uses the fragrance in the second advert, whereas in the first advert the men have clean cut faces, showing that they use the shaving cream.

Lynx Attract

My third advert is Lynx Attract and is a moving image advert from 2012. It features a variety of 20 something men and women who cause chaos around the city when they are attracted to each other. The men and women are always wearing seductive outfits that are appealing to the opposite sex. The men are very masculine but seem quite ordinary. This helps sells the fragrance because it suggests that anybody can ‘get a girl’ if they wear Lynx. The women all tend to have their mouths open in a suggestive way. The men all seem fascinated and their eyes are constantly looking at the opposite sex. The men and women seem almost hypnotised by each other, with them ignoring the chaos happening around them that could almost definitely severely harm them. The men vary from clean-cut and smart hair to scruffy and dirty.

The name Attract gives a very obvious clue as to what the fragrance is apparently selling you. This is the ability to attract women to you like magnets, no matter what else is happening. This is very over dramatized and it takes the message very literally. The name Attract also sells the product better by subconsciously implanting the idea that the fragrance is attracting too, when it very well may not be at all.

The men in this advert are represented in a very sexual manner, which is more focused on appealing to the opposite sex than looking smart and sophisticated in public. The men all have a look of seduction on their faces, especially when they make eye contact with one of the opposite sex. This advert is particularly centred on looking good around the opposite sex and making them want you. This is also what the product supposedly does for you if you were to buy it.

The men in this advertisement for Lynx Attract are represented in a very different way to the men in the William’s Aqua Velva advertisement or even the man in my advertisement from the 1990s Contradiction, who was seem much more laid back than the almost emotionless men in this advert. The men in Aqua Velva where very smart and sophisticated, being a gentleman and respectful. This is nothing like how men are represented in my 2012 advert. They are almost the exact opposite, with some looking incredibly shabby and others looking very disrespectfully with no disregard to how they are acting in public, this is emphasized by the chaos around them. The men in Attract are also very different from the man in Contradiction as the man in Contradiction is very laid back and doesn’t seem to be taking anything very seriously, however in Attract the men are extremely focused on the women and are not laid back at all.

In conclusion men in fragrance advertisements in the 1920s were supposedly the ideal man, suave, tidy and clean cut. Men in 1990s adverts were also the ideal man, but of that era, laid back but can also be business like. This is not the same in 2012 where men can be portrayed as someone who is obsessed with the opposite s

Sherlock Holmes

1. The genre of this film  Historical Action and Adventure. This is because there is a lot of combat, including fight large fight scenes between Holmes and Watson against many baddies. It is historical because it is set in Victorian English and uses colloquial language. The film creates the spectacle of the world of Victorian London in 1891 through its location shots of period buildings and gas lamps as well as horse and carriages and cobbled streets.The shot of St Pauls Cathedral anchors the location of the film to London. The murky lighting is a restricted palette of shades of grey and light orange, as it is a sepia pallet. It is very dark and murky, which creates a creepy atmosphere. The effect of this is to create a sinister underworld and a sense of jeopardy which fits the genre of historical action adventure An underground chamber seems to be the set for a ritual killing, because we see this it shows how gritty AA films can be. We encounter people dressed in period clothes such as Holmes and Watson, who wear bowler hats and three piece suits. Watson also uses an old fashioned cane. Some characters were clearly dangerous thugs, which was clear from their mannerisms, which was very stereotypical of an AA film.

Camerawork

1. The representation of Sherlock Holmes in this extract is a very physical one (rather than just a towering intellect) so the camerawork reflects his active qualities: it is dynamic, energetic and constantly on the move. The hand held camera makes you feel like you are immersed in the action of Victorian London.The sequence that we watched was composed mainly of a long tracking shot that took the audience through the London streets, inspiring curiosity but also nervousness because of so many hidden corners, dark alleys and potential traps. This type of camerawork is rather like a thrilling roller coaster ride as we are swept forwards skirting danger. A sense of jeopardy is an important ingredient in action adventure films. The tracking shot is very good at making the audience feel immersed, especially if it is following a vehicle. The tracking shot conveys speed and motion (essential ingredients of action adventure films) in the race to save a young woman and prevent her ritual murder  Lord Blackwood, who has killed five other young women similarly. They stop the murder before Inspector Lestrade and the police arrive to arrest Blackwood. Close up shots were used to allow the audience to see the expressions on the faces of the central characters such as Sherlock Holmes, and the thug he beats up in slomo, it is very effective as he you can feel the characters emotions or in Holmes's case non-emotion. Close ups help the audience to identify with the central character, which is vital as we should be on his side at all times. There was a low angle 'hero shot' of Watson and Sherlock to show they are the two main heroes of the film.
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Robin Hood

In the first ten minutes of Robin Hood, you are presented with the main character Robin Hood (Russel Crowe) and he starts off being the steryotypical stalwart hero. He fights for good and his country, and goes out of his way to rescue one of his freinds, who was dangling on a gate. You can tell he is good becuase there is a hero shot of him, which is a low angle shot, usually with light behind the character the camera is focusing on. However, he does mention to a fellow soldier that he is going to win his money after the battle, which shows that he is both a gambling man and a bit arrogant.

The sub-genre of Robin Hood is historical, as it is set in Medival times. You can tell this by the weapons the characters use, a bow and arrow, swords, crossbows and spears. You can also tell by the fact that what seems to be a catapult is being pulled by people, as apposed to being drivem, like it would in a AA film set in modern times. The big fight that happens in the first ten minutes creates a lot of spectacle as there are arrows flying everwhere and a large castle, that the British are trying to storm. This fight obviously includes a lot of combat and conflict between the French and the British.

Tom Cruise as Austin Powers

In the film in the opening credits of Goldmember, there is a lot of speed and motion, as it started with Tom Cruise skydiving in to a Jaguar. He then pursues a motorbike and is chased by a helicopter. This all happens within about a two minutes. There is a lot of combat in this first four minutes  with the helicopter shooting at the car and Tom Cruise destroying the helicopter.

Tom Cruise is playing the stereotypical spy, but with a twist. He is a mix of two main archetypes: the Charmer as he is a smooth talker who seduces Gwyneth Paltrow's character and the Swashbuckler as he looks for adventure and has fun taking out the henchmen.

Kevin Spacey plays the stereotypical bad guy, Dr Evil, who wears grey clothes and hlds a cat in it's arms. This is an obvious spoof of Ernst Blofeld, the archvillan of James Bond, who usually stroked his cat while talking to Bond.

Character representation and music in Mission Impossible

The music in the film creates a lot of tension, with the music rising in pitch as the action gets tenser. It finally ended on a large climax with the opening credits starting to roll. The music used a lot of percussion instruments; there is a regular beat that is typical of music in a Spy genre. The theme song is very catchy, which most people will always associate with the Mission Impossible franchise.

The first time you see Tom Cruise, it is a hero shot. So you can instantly see that he is the protagonist of the film. He is shown as courageous, intelligent and strong, which is usually how protagonists of Action and Adventure films are shown, unless they are anti-heroes.

Skyfall Genre

Skyfall is part of the action/adventure genre, although I feel it leans more towards action than adventure. The film opens with Bond chasing a henchman through the streets of Istanbul before grabbing a motorbike and riding after him upon the rooftops. Chases are very typical of the action/adventure genre and often involves guns (if it fits the mise en-scene) as this one partially did. The car chase went through tight corners and small alleyways before the henchman crashed into a market and had to find another way around. This crash caused an explosion  which is another typical trait of an AA movie. The motorbike chase took place upon the rooftops of the Grand Bazaar and was very precarious. Bond is also in a very exotic location, which is nothing like England and means Bond is out of his usual surroundings. Interesting locations is a staple of not just Bond movies but all adventure films as they create great atmosphere.

Action/Adventure Movies

Here is ten action/adventure movies I own:
The Dark Knight Rises
Pirates Of The Caribbean
Skyfall
Harry Potter
Iron Man
The Lord Of The Rings
Star Wars
Inception
The Matrix
Indiana Jones

Twitter

Here is my twitter account I just re-set up as my old account broke.
https://twitter.com/charliemmedia

ScoopIt

This is my scoop it page, where I have collated a few web pages about advertisements.
http://www.scoop.it/t/fragrance-advertising-1

My Essay So Far 2

A Comparison Of How Men Are Represented In Fragrance Advertisements From The 1920s, 1990s and 2012

I have chosen to compare three advertisements that span nine decades: William’s Aqua Velva (print 1920s), Contradiction (print 1990s) and Lynx Attract (moving image 2012). It seems to me that what has most changed about the representation of men is that in later years they are less frequently depicted as suave, self-controlled and formal and more likely to be depicted as relaxed, casual and irresistibly sexy.

William’s Aqua Velva (print,1920s)

My first advert is for William’s Aqua Velva from the 1920s. It depicts a picture of two men and two women playing cards together. The men are in tuxedos and seem suave and sophisticated. Their tuxedoes show that they are cultured and well-of; their cuff links, bow ties and pocket handkerchiefs all point to their immaculate grooming and upper class dress code. This helps promote the Aqua Velva as the cream will apparently make you have money, power and intelligence. They have obviously used William’s Aqua Velva as they do not appear to have any hair on their faces. They are both looking at the women, each man at a different one which gives a sense of love. They are represented as clean cut, important and happy men who are enjoying an evening with their girlfriends or wives.

The card game is a symbolic code for these men’s intelligence, wealth and social status as cards usually connote higher intelligence and sophistication. The group are playing cards, a sophisticated after-dinner activity, which implies they are cultured and have money and power. The men are an idealised representation of a 1920s upper class man.

The women look like they are chatting to each other as opposed to the men who are staring intently at them. There is a cigarette dish on the table, with a cigarette in it, this is because the advert was made and printed before people knew of the dangers of cigarettes and it was very cool to smoke. This shows that these men are being represented as an ideal man of the era, with a woman by his side, a smart tuxedo, sophisticated, and a smooth fine face. It implies that he has become that man because he uses William’s Aqua Velva to shave his face.

The slogan ‘your strong suit – a face that fits’ is a pun on the fact that the group is playing a card game, and that the men with clean cut faces will get the women because of how well they have groomed their faces using William’s shaving cream. This is catchy and will stick your head for a while afterwards. It helps sell the idea that you will be more intelligent if you use this shaving cream because of the fact it is a joke which needs a certain intelligence to understand it.  This means the slogan will help promote and sell the fragrance. The bottle takes up a quarter of the page which is very good use of product placement and, again helps to sell the shaving cream. In modern advertisements there would never be such a large body of text because the image alone delivers the message and value of the product.

In my view William’s Aqua Velva is very different from my other two adverts as these men are sophisticated and classy and the man in my second advert is very care free and loose.  The men are wearing tuxedoes with bow ties in my first advert however the man in the second advert is in a suit and smart shoes, however he does not have a tie and his top button is undone. These are very different attitudes to the way the men dress in the different periods.

Contradiction

My second advert is Contradiction by Calvin Klein from the 1990s. It has half the page filled with a man sitting down with one leg up and laughing. The other half is filled with the bottle and the name, Contradiction. The man is in a suit however he is not wearing a tie and his top buttons are undone. This makes the man seem more casual and less formal. The poster is in black and white which is strange yet it makes the man’s features stand out a lot. The man seems confident and happy, almost in a care free mood without any thing troubling him. The fact his mouth is slightly open in a smile as opposed to closed indicates he may have an air of romance about him. He is an idealised ‘perfect man’ of the 1990s as he looks like a successful business man who can also be light-hearted and fun. He is not making eye contact with the camera, and therefore the viewer of the poster. This is as if he is talking to someone else.

The name Contradiction goes well with the fact the poster is in black and white as these colours contradict each other and help things to stand out. It also symbolises the man, who contradicts the smart, uptight businessman of the era, who are always formal and never become too loose.

The men in this advert are very different to my 1920s advert as in the first one the men where smart men in tuxedoes, whereas in my 1990s advert the man seem more loose and carefree. The first men are the ‘perfect men’ of the 1920s, which is sophisticated, suave and clean cut. However the man in the second advert is still the ‘perfect man’ just in a different time. This is because views have changed of men, and they are now allowed to be less serious and uptight and more relaxed, with fewer worries. The men in the first advert are also with women, as women were not viewed as important as men and more as an object, however it may be politically incorrect to let the poster view women in the same way in the 1990s. There is also no evidence the man uses the fragrance in the second advert, whereas in the first advert the men have clean cut faces, showing that they use the shaving cream.

Lynx Attract

My third advert is Lynx Attract and is a moving image advert from 2012. It features a variety of 20 something men and women who cause chaos around the city when they are attracted to each other. The men and women are always wearing seductive outfits that are appealing to the opposite sex. The men are very masculine but seem quite ordinary. This helps sells the fragrance because it suggests that anybody can ‘get a girl’ if they wear Lynx. The women all tend to have their mouths open in a suggestive way. The men all seem fascinated and their eyes are constantly looking at the opposite sex. The men and women seem almost hypnotised by each other, with them ignoring the chaos happening around them that could almost definitely severely harm them. The men vary from clean-cut and smart hair to scruffy and dirty.

The name Attract gives a very obvious clue as to what the fragrance is apparently selling you. This is the ability to attract women to you like magnets, no matter what else is happening. This is very over dramatized and it takes the message very literally. The name Attract also sells the product better by subconsciously implanting the idea that the fragrance is attracting too, when it very well may not be at all.

The men in this advert are represented in a very sexual manner, which is more focused on appealing to the opposite sex than looking smart and sophisticated in public. The men all have a look of seduction on their faces, especially when they make eye contact with one of the opposite sex. This advert is particularly centred on looking good around the opposite sex and making them want you. This is also what the product supposedly does for you if you were to buy it.

The men in this advertisement for Lynx Attract are represented in a very different way to the men in the William’s Aqua Velva advertisement or even the man in my advertisement from the 1990s Contradiction, who was seem much more laid back than then emotionless men in this advert. The men in Aqua Velva where very smart and sophisticated

My Essay So Far

A Comparison Of How Men Are Represented In Fragrance Advertisements From The 1920s, 1990s and 2012

I have chosen to compare three advertisements that span nine decades: William’s Aqua Velva (print 1920s), Contradiction (print 1990s) and Lynx Attract (moving image 2012). It seems to me that what has most changed about the representation of men is that in later years they are less frequently depicted as suave, self-controlled and formal and more likely to be depicted as relaxed, casual and irresistibly sexy.

William’s Aqua Velva (print,1920s)

My first advert is for William’s Aqua Velva from the 1920s. It depicts a picture of two men and two women playing cards together. The men are in tuxedos and seem suave and sophisticated. Their tuxedoes show that they are cultured and well-of; their cuff links, bow ties and pocket handkerchiefs all point to their immaculate grooming and upper class dress code. This helps promote the Aqua Velva as the cream will apparently make you have money, power and intelligence. They have obviously used William’s Aqua Velva as they do not appear to have any hair on their faces. They are both looking at the women, each man at a different one which gives a sense of love. They are represented as clean cut, important and happy men who are enjoying an evening with their girlfriends or wives.

The card game is a symbolic code for these men’s intelligence, wealth and social status as cards usually connote higher intelligence and sophistication. The group are playing cards, a sophisticated after-dinner activity, which implies they are cultured and have money and power. The men are an idealised representation of a 1920s upper class man.

The women look like they are chatting to each other as opposed to the men who are staring intently at them. There is a cigarette dish on the table, with a cigarette in it, this is because the advert was made and printed before people knew of the dangers of cigarettes and it was very cool to smoke. This shows that these men are being represented as an ideal man of the era, with a woman by his side, a smart tuxedo, sophisticated, and a smooth fine face. It implies that he has become that man because he uses William’s Aqua Velva to shave his face.

The slogan ‘your strong suit – a face that fits’ is a pun on the fact that the group is playing a card game, and that the men with clean cut faces will get the women because of how well they have groomed their faces using William’s shaving cream. This is catchy and will stick your head for a while afterwards. It helps sell the idea that you will be more intelligent if you use this shaving cream because of the fact it is a joke which needs a certain intelligence to understand it.  This means the slogan will help promote and sell the fragrance. The bottle takes up a quarter of the page which is very good use of product placement and, again helps to sell the shaving cream. In modern advertisements there would never be such a large body of text because the image alone delivers the message and value of the product.

In my view William’s Aqua Velva is very different from my other two adverts as these men are sophisticated and classy and the man in my second advert is very care free and loose.  The men are wearing tuxedoes with bow ties in my first advert however the man in the second advert is in a suit and smart shoes, however he does not have a tie and his top button is undone. These are very different attitudes to the way the men dress in the different periods.

Contradiction

My second advert is Contradiction by Calvin Klein from the 1990s. It has half the page filled with a man sitting down with one leg up and laughing. The other half is filled with the bottle and the name, Contradiction. The man is in a suit however he is not wearing a tie and his top buttons are undone. This makes the man seem more casual and less formal. The poster is in black and white which is strange yet it makes the man’s features stand out a lot. The man seems confident and happy, almost in a care free mood without any thing troubling him. The fact his mouth is slightly open in a smile as opposed to closed indicates he may have an air of romance about him. He is an idealised ‘perfect man’ of the 1990s as he looks like a successful business man who can also be light-hearted and fun. He is not making eye contact with the camera, and therefore the viewer of the poster. This is as if he is talking to someone else.

The name Contradiction goes well with the fact the poster is in black and white as these colours contradict each other and help things to stand out. It also symbolises the man, who contradicts the smart, uptight businessman of the era, who are always formal and never become too loose.

The men in this advert are very different to my 1920s advert as in the first one the men where smart men in tuxedoes, whereas in my 1990s advert the man seem more loose and carefree. The first men are the ‘perfect men’ of the 1920s, which is sophisticated, suave and clean cut. However the man in the second advert is still the ‘perfect man’ just in a different time. This is because views have changed of men, and they are now allowed to be less serious and uptight and more relaxed, with fewer worries. The men in the first advert are also with women, as women were not viewed as important as men and more as an object, however it may be politically incorrect to let the poster view women in the same way in the 1990s. There is also no evidence the man uses the fragrance in the second advert, whereas in the first advert the men have clean cut faces, showing that they use the shaving cream.

Lynx Attract

My third advert is Lynx Attract and is a moving image advert from 2012. It features a variety of 20 something men and women who cause chaos around the city when they are attracted to each other. The men and women are always wearing seductive outfits