Thursday 11 May 2017

Narrative Theory, Question part b- editing


Narrative Theory

Narrative is the way a story is formed and organized to project that particular story. In relation to narrative, I am going to discuss my A2 media portfolio and how I used narrative theories and structures to create both film treatment and trailer.

I would describe my film trailer to be ambiguous as it is a series of different events that don’t fit together but will ultimately all intersect. It flashes between the actions of a murder, a robbery, drug use and meet ups that display how there is more than one story line being played out. The trailer itself is also blurred; this requires for the audience to understand the basic concepts of gangster films and for them to decide and discuss their own ideas of to how the story will conclude etc.

The soviet montage theory or Eisenstein’s montage theory can be linked to my trailer as it consists of piecing together separate sections with the illusion that they belong together. The metric montage is about cutting to the next shot no matter what is happening within the frame, no matter if it matches or not. It is used to extract any emotional response the audience.  Due to a montage of action my trailer doesn’t fully follow Propp’s theory, as it is hard to distinguish what roles certain characters signify. There is an obvious villain, as the start of the sequence there is a murder so the audience can clearly distinguish between the murderer and victim….

Todorov is a theorist who concluded that every narrative has a basic step-by-step structure. It starts of with everything being calm and relaxed, this is the state of equilibrium, it then moves onto disequilibrium where everything has be disrupted, then it’s the realization where all turns chaotic, the character(s) tries to restore the problem and lastly there is a new equilibrium. My trailer goes against Todorov’s theory as it begins in disequilibrium with a murder scene.

Wednesday 10 May 2017

Genre- Part B


Tuesday 9 May 2017

Question 4




Brief Summary

I used Web 2.0 as a way of researching for the codes and conventions of what a film noir and gangster film should look like. Through this I jotted down how I could conform and stray from the conventions. The use of social networking sites also allowed for me to view what previous students had created when constructing their A2 portfolio and gave me an insight into the specific and relevant things I should be researching to help me plan for my final media product.

During the Pre-Production stage I used media technologies such as a Canon Camera which allowed for me to film the necessary footage that would help me create my media product. The two problems I encountered with the camera was that they were only three, meaning that me and other students had to constantly take turns in swapping cameras and organising available dates when we were to use them. Secondly with one of the cameras I used the focus wasn't brilliant meaning my footage didn't come out as clearly as I would have wanted.

Lastly, I had to use software's such as Adobe Premier Pro and Adobe Photoshop. The advantage I faced with using Photoshop is that I had previously used it for my AS coursework (the year prior) meaning I could finish my ancillary tasks much more quicker. Regarding the use of Premier Pro it took a little while to be finally be confident and comfortable with using it as I was unfamiliar to it. To help me gain this level of familiarity I watched various YouTube tutorials of regular users of the software to guide me to use it efficiently when editing my trailer.

Evaluation- Question 3










Evaluation- Question 2

Evaluation- Question 1


In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

Film noirs portray the mood, style and tone of the film rather than sticking to a rigid structure. The narrative is normally non-linear and based around a pessimistic, disheartened male who becomes infatuated with a seductive female (femme fatale) who double crosses him. I used the idea of females having a new-found independence as a tool for my media product. The idea I visualised for my media product was that it would be based around a female gang rather than male but still using the basic concept of a ‘femme fatale’.

Film noir first evolved in the 1940s, post-world war two and lasted successfully into the 1960s. Film noir consists of themes such as, corruption, mystery, deceit and violence and portrays topics such as murder, sex and criminal activity. The film ‘Double Indemnity’ is a classic example of a film noir that displays all the known conventions, varying from the anti-hero who gets lead astray by greed and lust. The film also uses a common prop ‘Venetian Blinds’ to cast shadows and create mystery. My media product conforms but also strays from the conventions of Film Noirs, I wanted to stick to the characteristic of a film noir but also further develop it to appeal and relate to a contemporary audience. I used a distinctive feature of a film noir, the black and white filter which would make it easy for audiences to identify the style of my trailer. However, my use of the black and white filter was for revealing it as a flashback, further conforming to the non-linear and twisting narrative that film noirs follow. The characters that are first introduced are a murderer and victim, linking to the thematical portrayal of the inhuman and destructive side to human nature, emphasising on the sadistic, unhealthy and brutal acts the characters perform.

My media product goes against the conventions of later gangster films like the ‘Godfather’ and ‘Scarface’ in respect of the value and depiction of women. Within the Godfather women are viewed as sexual ornaments that hold little value, contrasting against my portrayal of women, as I have constructed them to fill the stereotypical role of the males within gangster films. Gangster films much like Scarface can be compared to a certain view that associates it with the ‘American Dream’, leading the impression that directors try to glamorise and romanticise the concept of violence and immorality as it’s a goal that everyone wants to be able to lead and dominate. Whereas throughout my media product I show a montage of violent actions and glimpses of characters that play a role in the murder and obliteration of a character. Rather than glamorise the ‘gangster lifestyle’ I believe my media product depicts and harsh and gritty reality, having been achieved through the choice of location, council estates, rundown and urban areas.

My trailer goes against Tordov’s Narrative Theory. Tordov believed that all films follow the same narrative pattern. The state of equilibrium, disruption of the equilibrium (disequilibrium), acknowledgment of the disorder that has occurred, attempt to repair the damage of the disruption (solving) and lastly a restoration of the new equilibrium. Whereas my media product starts off with a murder scene that is a flashback and then moves to show a montage of various clips that have no relevance to each other regarding that they are not chronologically in order. Which conforms to most structures of gangster films, as it flip flops between past and present.

The overall impression I tried to create for my media product was to show that women within the gangster genre can be represented in more than two lights, one being the loving, dutiful wife and the other being a predatory, lustful, manipulative woman.

Femme Fatale- Film Trailer