Analysing Movies

Analysing Movies

Franchise

Logo

Todorov theory

Equilibrium 

Enigma

Decoding: Understanding a media text

Codes: Can be visual (you can see them) or aural (you can hear them). Codes have symbolic value. For example in our society wearing a pair of glasses (glasses are the code) symbolises, or connotates, that you are clever. TV drama, magazines and videogames use these symbolic codes to generate character types and character archetypes.

Nico- presented as tough by the position of his hands as he looks ready to fight. He wears gloves which look like he's a fighter or rides a motorcycle, which could be seen as dangerous. He also looks quite rough by the look on his face which could be intimidating towards the audience as direct mode of address is used and he wears dark, muted coloured clothing, which shows how he doesn't want to stand out, he's also not clean shaven and looks like he doesn't take much care of himself. He's also shown under a bridge which could be seen as quite rough and represent him doing illegal things, making him look shady. He's presented as a stereotypical bad guy. He looks quite powerful as he's almost looking down on us as an audience. He is definitely a part of the lower class. 

Cherry- She is shown in a very seductive way, which sexualises her as a character, the colour red indicates this as her hair, top and lolly is red, it also presents lust, her name also has connotation to her colour scheme. She also has one of her straps half way down her arm which may be inviting to the male audience. She looks like she wants to be noticed, by men,as she's in a very public place as the statue of liberty is behind her. Most of the females in the game are presented as prostitutes, the same assumption could be made about cherry as she has a very seductive look on her face and the way she is holding the lolly could be interpreted in many different ways. She uses indirect mode of address which could be more alluring to the male audience as she seems uninterested and hard to get. She looks very careless.

Micro Elements of Barthes Semantic code:

Cinematography – (angle, composition, etc)

Sound

Editing (& special effects)

Mise En Scene

Enigma Code:

Refers to the mystery within a text, clues are dropped but no clear answers are given.

Camer Textual analysis

Textual analysis analysing sound:

Diegetic Sound

Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film: 

• Voices of characters 
• Sounds made by objects in the story 
• Music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music)
• Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the film's world. 

Non Diegetic sound

Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action: 

• Narrator's commentary-Voice overs allow us to see things from a particular character’s point of view–They are often used to introduce and ‘round up’ the narrative 
• Sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
• Mood music- Certain types of music have become synonymous with particular genres
• Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the a source outside story space.  

Star wars

      Camera

S

 This is wide shot. It shows the audience the surrounding of the characters and gives an overview of the setting. So this shows the inside of an abandoned ship, which could lead to action or a key part of the movie. 

 This is a mid shot. It allows the audience to see more of the character but still includes the setting. In this scene the background is blurred, which allows the audience to focus more on the character as they're clearly more important, however you still get to see the background characters.

 This is a close up shot. It focuses the audiences attention completely on the character. It shows a lot of emotion as the camera is zoomed into the characters face and as she is crying it allows the audience to feel her pain. 

In     

        Sound

        In the trailer non-diegetic sound is used. There is a narrator which is used at the beginning, it kind of draws more attention as you can't actually see them speak and due to there being little background noise it lets the audience focus on what they're saying. Sound effects and music is also used to cause more drama and make the trailer much more intense. Diegetic sound is also used as some of the characters do speak during the trailer and sound effects such as explosions are used and as the characters actually hear it on set it makes it diegetic. 

 E     Editing

Part Of Post Production Process

The stage in the film-making process in which sound and images are organised to construct an overall narrative. 

It is how a film maker puts together and considers cuts/cutting and applies transitions, special effects etc. to communicate a narrative to an audience.

Remember that an audience is a non-active participant who must understand a narrative through the editing, they can only see what you show them.

Imagine a film or even a scene from a film without any editing, it would be very interesting!

1 Action = Multiple Shots

•Is multiple cuts to show one continuous action. 

•Match on action is part of invisible editing which creates flow when watching a scene.

•The cuts MATCH together so that the audience know it is one action.

Shot reverse: shot is when a shot goes from shot A, shot B, shot A, shot B etc.

•It goes continuously back and forth between the 2 shots to show there is a connection

between them

•It is often used in conversations so you see what both characters are saying

•It is a form of eye-line matching if the character is looking at someone and the next shot is

what they look at 

•Imagine if a conversation was just 1 shot of character A and you didn’t see character B’s

face at all?

Eye-Line Match

Shot A: character is looking off screen

Shot B: what character is looking at

Is a following shot that follows what character is looking at, makes cuts smoother the

audience expects the cut to happen and is eager to see what happens next/what character

sees.

Example:

a) A person’s phone rings, she turns and looks in direction of phone

b) Close up shot of phone ringing

Cross Cutting

•Technique of continuously alternating 2 or more scenes that often happen simultaneously

(at same time) but in different locations.

•As they cross, pace gradually gets faster and fast and tension builds

•Often the parallel scenes will intersect to create a climax. 

Example - James Bond scene

Pace:

Special Effects:

•B&W: often used to show memory or time period

•Contrast: to altar the lighting (or contrast = very light lights and dark darks sometimes

with memories

•Colour: to add a colour filter to show a specific mood

Example ‘The ring’ – many scenes are very blue-ish, which show sterile/coldness etc.

•Animation: titles of shows or cartoons

•CGI: computer generated images (example = avatar, planet of apes, polar express)

•Fast forward/slow motion :speeding up or slowing down footage

•Blur:to show un-clarity, or fuzzy memory/flashback  (bee sting scene – some is blurry when

Peeta coming)

Mise En Scene:

Props

Setting

Costume/Makeup

Lighting/Colour

Facial Expression/Movement

The Jungle Book:

    This is a mid shot. It shows
    Mowgli next to a CGI gorilla
    hand, the CGI makes it look real. 

 This is a wide shot. It is a scene which shows all the animals. It gives the audience an insight to the setting they are in and what is going on. CGI is definitely used in this scene as all the animals are computer generated, however they look extremely real. The lighting is extremely bright which suggests happiness and shows a happier side to the jungle, making it more child friendly.

       This is a wide shot. It shows mowgli with his back to the audience and a massive snake called Kaa looking directly at him. A wide shot is used to show the setting as well as the characters. This is obviously edited as CGI is used to make Kaa, as he is unrealistically big for a snake and he obviously speaks, which is not possible in real life. However due to CGI the scene looks real.

  This is a wide shot. It shows the audience the characters surroundings. CGI is used as the background is fake, yet looks super real. This shows the positive side of the jungle. 

  This is a wide shot. It uses muted green shades, which refers to envy and the use of fog makes it seem more dangerous. It makes the audience anticipate what will happen to Mowgli. CGI is used to create the jungle look. 

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