Connected enigma code work

 

Narrative Feature	Example	Your own example
Feature Establishing protagonist - what information do we find out? How is it conveyed?	In just 5 mins - the entire running time - we see two sides to the Girl. Firstly, that she is disillusioned with city life: shoved out the way as she boards the bus, and fantasising about a businessman assassinating an elderly lady to steal her seat. Her ‘connection’ with the man, and the imagined dance routine, also show her romantic side, her optimism, and her ability to see beauty in a dreary commute	We first see the women about to board the bus but is getting pushed out the way by the others boarding that she ends up being the last to board the bus. She is imaging a man shooting someone In the head and a dance routine.
Establishing other characters - what information do we find out? How is it conveyed?	His exhausted posture; then his shy smiles and gentle flirtation with the Girl suggest the Man is a kindred spirit: also worn down by city life… but able to recognise and take opportunities for connection.	The man she is flirting with eventually flirts back when he gently touches her hand in response to her doing it. He is connecting with her as at first he seems withdrawal.
Establishing location (time and place) - what information do we find out? How is it conveyed?	The Oyster card reader and bus interior are familiar to any Londoner, though the lack of dialogue and exterior locations suggest this could be set during the commute (many of the passengers are wearing work clothes) in any city, in any country (enhanced by the racial diversity)	On the bus somewhere in London. This could be people coming back from work in the rush hour which explains why she is shoved to the back because of all these people.
Creating Enigmas - what are they? How are they created?	When the Asian businessman pulls out a gun, we wonder if this journey will turn into a crime drama.	The enigma starts when the man pulls out a gun and shoots the other person in the head. You would think it’s a crime but as everyone was calm and no one reacted to it we assume it is taking place in her imagination.
What enigmas are created near the end of the film?		The second enigma is why here is a dance number out of nowhere. It could mean it’s turned into a musical number.
Narrative binary oppositions	Isolation vs Connection; Exhaustion at city life vs Optimism (as seen in the final musical sequence)	Gloomy vs cheerful. When she gets on the bus she looks exhausted but by the end even though the man she met left, she is now seeing the positive side to life.
Crisis - how was this conveyed?	The first contact between the Girl and the Man - tentative brushing of fingers filmed in CU
Resolution - is it closed or open narrative?	Though the Man departs without further communication with the Girl there is a sense that her optimism has been renewed… and that perhaps they will meet again on this journey	The resolution is that the man she was flirting with has gone she is still happy and ends with the  the dance number.

 

Meaning and Effect: 

Meaning/Effect	Example	Your own thoughts
What did you think was the intention of the filmmaker(s)? Intellectual message? Emotional response?	Even in the bustling, unfriendly city connections (however tentative and fleeting) can be made. There is a beauty as well as hostility in the dreariest situation	That just a bus journey can change your whole perspective on life as she went on looking gloomy and tired of life but ended with the happy dance number and her feeling more confident after she met that man.
How was the response/intellectual message best achieved?	The fantasy sequences the girl imagines are shot as if they are real, showing how ‘solid’ her mental states are. Is the connection with the Man also imagined?	The emotional response was when her and the man were gently touching each other's hand as this is when she started feeling more confident in herself.
Aesthetic binary oppositions	Interestingly, there is no aesthetic difference between the real and fantasy sequences.

Establishing characters, setting, plot, theme           My film will have a character who to begins with the character having a poor mental health but by the end is happy with herself.

Creating enigma                       Making the audience believe the genre has been changed like in connected but is actually not happening and it's instead in a dream sequence.

Narrative structure: Open ending when the character becomes happier and is a different person at the end to the beginning.

Use of technical features: No dialogue but showing it without any dialogue can be just as effective.

                                                                                       

Captain fantastic 'opening scene analysis'

 The lifestyle we see them having is having animalistic, beast like traits. They have a ritual of the eldest son becoming a man and has to  eat the deer heart. This contrasts with the last scene between the father and Bo but instead of being animal like, they are more civilised and fit into society. The father has his beard shaved and Bo had his hair cut. Their son knows a lot more about life. The lighting In this scene is more brighter and warm while the first scene between the father and son, the lighting is dark and uncomfortable as the father awards him for slaughtering the deer. The ritual shows they got their own traditions and what they believe to be normal. 

They even celebrate a holiday devoted to them instead of the usual birthdays and Christmas. At the start we can hear all the sounds of nature like the birds chirping etc. This shows the beauty of nature and is idyllic and peaceful. This view is then changed as from a POV shot, we see the eldest son slaughter that deer. In this scene the colour green is used a lot with the leaves, grass and his camouflage makeup he has all over him. The colour green represents good health. This is changed when we see red when the deer is murdered and the son eating the deer's heart and instead of the glorious bird chirping we now hear the painful screams.

It is pretty clear the two main characters are the main characters as they are part of the important ritual scene where he has to kill an animal to become a man but also since he's the oldest out of all the children he has the subplot of deciding which college he wants to go to. The father is shown to be the main character when he stands over them, watching in a dominant way as he;s covered in the camouflage makeup.

MOCK EXAM QUESTION: ' The director is the most important creative influence on the production and content of a film '. Discuss.

The work of a director on a film has overall responsibility for visual style but I don't agree fully that the director alone has the most creative influence on a film. In Casablanca (1942) it was the 'studio system' that had most of the power over the production of the film and the director had to work within this system. The major studios at the time produced movies on their own filmmaking lot and the actors, directors, producers and crew were under long term contracts. The importance of the studio over cast and crew and the conflict this could cause was obvious when Casablanca won an Academy Award for Best Picture and Jack Warner, one of the studio owners at Warner Brothers, was the first up on stage to collect the award, which is reported to have upset the film's actual producer, Hal Wallis.

The studios would own their 'stars'. This was known as the 'star system'. By the time Apocalypse Now was filmed in 1979, the system had changed. This film was made under 'New Hollywood' where it now accepted that characters did not have to be traditionally motivated. The cast of Apocalypse Now were unpredictable and often reckless as were their characters. As the film was set in the Vietnam War some critics said that the film glorified war while others saw it as expressing the real horrors witnessed in the war at that time. The film's director, Francis Ford Coppola, did have a lot of creative control over the movie and part of the reason he was allowed this freedom was his success on other films such as The Godfather (1972). 

Apocalypse Now was filmed outside the Hollywood studio system and Coppola struggled with a lot of things going wrong that he had to deal with himself. As none of the actors were under contract, most of the cast and crew flew back to the States and the film went over budget. Coppola had to personally invest some of his own money in the movie. The creative input into the film from Coppola was almost 'anti-studio system' in the very long time it took to film the movie, in the randomness of the filming and the breaking of the budget. But this creative control resulted in a film that reflected the chaos of the action on screen and how being in the middle of a battlefield may have felt. The film shoot, originally scheduled for six weeks, took sixteen months.

Operating outside of a studio system, unlike Casablanca, meant that the actors' lines could often be improvised and director Coppola encouraged this. He allowed Brando to complete an 18 minute speech as Kurtz that he cut to a few minutes and allowed Martin Sheen to stage a breakdown on set that carried on unscripted as he punched a mirror and even attacked the director. It was Coppola's judgement as an auteur to allow these scenes to be filmed, even though Martin Sheen's mental state on set was so dangerous. 

Without a director who was known as an auteur, these scenes could have been stopped by a less creative director from being filmed, and so the importance of the director to creative control is of strong importance to the way a film can look.  Even some shots like the opening tracking shot of the film were accidental: a spare shot from the attack on the village was used after being found on some film reel accidentally. This kind of filming would never have been allowed in the classical Hollywood style used in Casablanca. 

Apocalypse Now appealed to a younger audience who were part of the 'hippy culture' of the 1970s and part of the anti-war movement, The film also had very exciting widescreen visual effects and stunts, lots of violence and drug taking on screen and off screen too, and was very different to the classical Hollywood style of the past: the widescreen battle sequences were more suited to the new sound systems and giant screens too and Apocalypse Now was filmed in 70mm Dolby Stereo Surround Sound. This was all part of the New Hollywood cinema experience and more violent and shocking movies, that included films like The Exorcist and The Godfather.

The 'film form' of Apocalypse Now made use of post-Vietnam War anger and rock music as well as literary references (Conrad's Heart Of Darkness) to mix spectacular battle scenes with an anti-war message. The film also used opera (Wagner's Rise Of The Valkyries) in the helicopter attack on the village to add to such a crazy and wild mix. The death of an animal, even though this would have happened in a village anyway, was also a shocking scene that upset many. This 'boundary pushing' helped make the film so creative and memorable and often shocking to cinema audiences at the time.

I believe the production on a film and what is not seen on screen is often as important as the creativity of the director. In Apocalypse Now there were many behind the scenes disasters that the crew had to cope with such as the battle scenes being difficult to film as the attack helicopters on loan kept being called away. Coppola was also having trouble with his cast: he asked Dennis Hopper what he needed to get in character and Hopper replied: "an ounce of cocaine", Marlon Brando refused to learn his lines and had put on a great deal of weight and Martin Sheen was suffering from an alcohol addiction at the time and had to be replaced by a body double for longer shots. When Sheen punches the mirror in his breakdown, he wasn't acting and he was suffering from a real nervous breakdown on screen. Sheen also had a heart attack that Coppola kept quiet from the studio and covered up by saying that his star had heat exhaustion. Coppola was able to use the chaos around him to create a movie of creative extremes in both action and characterisation.

The production context for Casablanca was that it was made under the Classical Hollywood System and so was created extremely quickly and as efficiently as possible. Unlike Apocalypse Now, it was filmed in a studio. The director was appealing to all audiences to get American support for the battle against the Nazis in the Second World War. In the introduction to the film, the information is being introduced through establishing shots - at Rick's café and with the use of maps - so the audience knows the backstory of the film. Casablanca aimed to boost morale during wartime and so a message was being passed on to the audience. This is very similar to Apocalypse Now that was also being filmed with a message that was warning of the horrors of war and the no win outcome for those involved.

For Casablanca, Warner Brothers was the first major Hollywood Studio to present an anti-Nazi message and the importance of the studio system to the message of the film here is perhaps more important than the input of the director, as the studio was dictating the Film Form most strongly - the director was there to pull the 'defeat the Nazi menace' message together for them. For Apocalypse Now it is the opposite as it is the director who is allowing the film to present a strong message of the horrors of war as an auteur and not making a film to promote the ideas of the studio he is working for. Coppola made his own film form up for the movie and was not told how to film it by the studio.

The creative signature of Michael Curtiz on Casablanca stopped the film being only shot in Classical Hollywood Style as he was was using his own artistic lighting, impressionism (in the use of shadows), high crane shots and unusual camera angles. Although the film does follow Classical Hollywood Style in that the plot progresses in typical and expected ways, Curtiz does push the format with a lot of his own creativity such as the camera angles seen at the start of the film where an establishing shot is used to show Rick's Bar. Shadowy shots in the gloom are used to indicate suspicion and the use of a song 'As Time Goes By' (to represent the romance between Rick and Isla) and 'La Marseillaise' (to represent opposition to Nazi rule) also elevate the expected classical Hollywood style of plot progression to a more auteur kind of directing: this is the director pushing his creative control to make his own style but is also careful not to challenge the Studio System too much. Curtiz is an important creative on the movie but perhaps not as important as Coppola was to Apocalypse Now which could never have been as good without Coppola. Casablanca probably could have been a success even without Curtiz directing.

An example of Curtiz's creativity in Casablanca is when the camera pans from left to right while inside Rick's bar. The creative signature for Francis Ford Coppola is using strategic lighting in 'Apocalypse Now'. It provides visual aspects on the river on the lighting. Coppola also casts regular actors such as Robert Duvall and James Caan in his movies and had worked with Marlon Brando before Apocalypse Now in The Godfather. In Coppola's films the hero is often strong inside and wanting to change the world around them and not for selfish needs and maybe even with some uncertainty and doubt.

A film production can be influenced by many creative factors including the studio system, cast, cinematography, soundtrack and reputation over the years since its release. In Casablanca, the stylish direction is an important part of the film's creative success including the opening sequence as we walk inside Rick's Bar that is very striking as the camera looks around at all the customers as if we are a stranger stepping inside for the first time and catching glimpses of other people with suspicion. The editing work here helps make the sequence very effective. The music and cinematography also work to make a film memorable and in Apocalypse Now this is very effective at showcasing the creativity of the director: the helicopters against the sunset and the soundtrack of The End by The Doors and Kurtz's shadowy hideout all help to make many of the sequences in the film so memorable. 

Without a creative director films may never be as successful as they could be or develop the film into becoming a classic. A good director can make an outstanding script more effective or showcase the skills of the cast in their movie. A successful movie can be influenced by cast, script, cinematography and soundtrack as well as studio control and production.

Also important to how a film develops creativity is the reputation it gains over the years or even a famous quote even though the most famous line in Casablanca: "Play it again Sam" was never actually said (it was "Play it once, Sam"). But many other quotes from this movie have helped the film become so popular: "Here's looking at you, kid", "We'll always have Paris" and "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine". Apocalypse Now is also famous for its quotes, especially: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning", from screenwriter John Milius that symbolises optimism in the middle of chaos: a strong theme in the movie. 

For Apocalypse Now, the reputation of the cast taking drugs, and the budget going way over budget, and the odd behaviour of stars such as Marlon Brando on set, and Martin Sheen's heart attack have all added to the reputation of the movie and helped it become a classic of cinema as has the behind the scenes footage and a documentary revealing the troubled shoot.

In Casablanca, filmed under a more structured Hollywood system, the director adds the creative style of an auteur when he can, but the film is boosted as a creative project by the Studio System: Warner Brothers insisted the film had a strong morale boosting wartime message and the cast and crew included many who had fled Nazi occupied countries in Europe. The singing of the song La Marseillaise in Casablanca as a symbol of defiance against the Nazis and is symbolic of a film that has an agenda as many other films shot during the Second World War would also come to have. The work of the director here is to allow the message to be carried across and in Michael Curtiz the film had a director who had lost close family in Auschwitz too, as had many of the cast, so that when La Marseillaise was sung on set as a message against the Nazi occupation, many of the cast and crew burst into real tears. All of this background adds to the creative direction of the film - not just the work of the director.

A director who is also an auteur can make a movie a success and give a film a unique identity as well as help make a film a classic. But cast (such as Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando), cinematography, soundtrack and myth around a movie with many unusual events happening (such as the heavy drug taking on Apocalypse Now or demands of Marlon Brando to be shot in shadows and refusing to learn his lines, or the morale boost to the war of Casablanca or 'horrors of war' theme of Apocalypse Now all add to the success and style of a film. This 'coming together' of creative talent cannot always be predicted but it is true that without a a creative director with their own style a great film will be less likely to become a classic of cinema in the same way Apocalypse Now and Casablanca have both now become. 

Autear

Francis Ford Coppola uses strategic lighting in 'apocalypse now'. It provides visual aspects on the river with the lighting

He often casts his real life family members from his extended family to be in his movies and cast his sister in the 'Godfather' movies. He often casts Nicolas cage, Harrison ford and Marlon Brando to name a few. He often works with the cinematographer  Gordon Willis, Fred woos and Grey Frederickson.

The running themes in his moves is the main character being strong inside and wanting to change the world around and usually its not for the characters selfish needs. Another example of his creative signature is including the authors name in the title like 'Bran Stokers Dracula'. In apocalypse now, the battle scenes were difficult as the attack helicopter's kept being called back. Production wrapped in late 1976 and took 2 years of editing until it reached the final cut

Wallace and Gromit- analysis

 The short film is engaging as it displays Todorov's Narrative Theory.  The equilibrium is with Wallace and Gromit going about their usual day with Gromit using their invention to get Wallace out of bed and into the kitchen. Wallace shows Gromit the Techno-trousers which moves by itself. Wallace mentions how they are in debt which will be important later in the story and will finally be resolved.

The second stage of the narrative theory which is the disruption is the penguin coming to stay and disrupts the power and replaces Gromit as the best friend to Wallace. This scene is shown to be emotional with Gromit looking at a close up shot of a photo of him and Wallace. He is crying while the sad music is played over this to show the amount of disruption the penguin has caused over this friendship. A medium shot is used to show Gromit crying. Gromit is then showed to be walking out the house for good in the pouring rain and a low angle shot is used to show Gromit looking back at the house one last time. This use of rain and thunder is used a lot in films when something terrible has happened in someone's life.  Gromit is now out of the house as he feels he's not wanted as the penguin came and ruined his relationship with Wallace.

The third stage of the Narrative Theory is the resolution and the quest to restore the Equilibrium beginning with Gromit trying to prove the penguin is a jewel thief by spying on him as the penguin is on a 'wanted' poster. The penguin who (we know now is called 'Feathers McGraw')  is using Gromit and the trousers to steal the diamond but this triggers the alarm.

The fourth stage is repair when they're trying to repair the damage he's caused them so they chase him at home using the model train set. After many failed attempts to capture him and Feathers failed attempt to kill them using his gun, feather collided with the trousers, it goes in slow motion where the scene constantly cuts from Wallace on the train to Feathers flying through the air so the audience knows this is when he's going to be defeated which leads to Gromit capturing him in a milk bottle. The use of Gromit capturing him is fitted as it was Feathers fault he left home so by capturing him it resolved his story arc.

Finally, the equilibrium is restored and they have a new equilibrium with Feathers McGraw in prison and Wallace using the money from handing him in to pay off their debts. The final scene a wide shot is being used to show the 'Techno-Trousers' peacefully walking into the sunset with his job done as it was the trousers that led to Feathers being captured. 

Binary opposites are also used. An example of this is Good vs Evil. This relates to Wallace and Gromit being the good and Feathers being the bad. There is also the protagonist vs antagonist. The final example is moral vs immoral.

KILLING KURTZ: THEMATIC AND NARRATIVE IDEAS ON THE ENDING OF APOCALYPSE NOW

The ending of Apocalypse now did confuse some critics at the time, who expected less ambiguous ending. The director, Francis Ford Coppola, was aware that the ending may not be dramatic enough and an alternative ending was shot and has been shown in some cinema screens at the time of the film's release. In this alternative ending, General Kurtz's compound is napalmed and destroyed in a blaze of flames. This dramatic ending is hinted at from the very start of the movie which has explosions and the song The End by The Doors which gives a clue about the film's finale. Although the bombing of General Kurtz's base is not seen in the final cut of the film shown theatrically as Coppola decided it was too harsh and brutal an ending, we still assume this is how the narrative ends. Captain Willard has already issues instructions that the base be destroyed if he does not return and the sight of flame from Kurtz's temple at the end of the film, even without the bombing shown, does hint that Kurtz's power is to be finished along with his death with the destruction of all he had built up, and destruction of the evidence of his brutal crimes and punishment of his enemies. 

The ending is sombre and the death of Kurtz is languid and atmospheric. Captain Willard does not show any high emotion on his face. He almost looks regretful, but also very determined to carry out his duty. It was his mission to kill Kurtz and this has been achieved. Kurtz's death is linked to the death of the animal, and is almost sacrificial. His death could represent the fact that this war has no winner. There is power and battles won, but the war itself achieved nothing. Kurtz is seen by the army as being insane, but the words he speaks about the devotion to his mission and determination to gain power is only him following instructions to the extreme. His insanity is viewed as insanity by those who have also been driven insane by the horrors of this war. This insanity is shown by the mixing of brutality with an obsession on surfing and relaxation earlier in the movie. 

Kurtz was seen as a godlike figure and with his death the ending of the film shows Willard walking through Kurtz's followers who drop weapons and almost seem to see Willard as their new god. The film indicates that the horrors of this war have driven those involved to seek escape or justification in a godlike, all powerful figure, perhaps indicating the abandonment in some way by the US army. With Willard's face superimposed over the compound and the statue and Kurtz's followers, we could think that Willard is just the next Kurtz, and not any better. Kurtz died easily, and the ending of the film has no great battle: he dies like the slaughtered animal, very easily and almost pathetic in the resistance he offers up. Kurtz wants to die. He wants to be free of the horrors he has been forced by circumstance to commit. He held power but a reference is made in the film to how he took on his mission as a sense of duty, when he could have stayed in an office and risen in the ranks. Kurtz is seen by some critics to be a voice of sanity about the pointlessness of their mission, a reluctant outcast. If Willard is insane himself, how can he view Kurtz as inane. Kurtz's crimes are the outcome of being given instructions to carry out missions in a war that had no ending; his carrying on the war is a crime and his actions barbaric, but Willard's carrying out of instructions to kill one of their own in an emotionless way and fight for the same cause, hints at also sinking towards insanity. Kurtz saying "The horror, The horror.." is perhaps about the war itself, and the crimes he and Willard have committed (or Willard may still commit) and in this understanding, he may be less of a villain and more a realist of their fate: both his and Willard's and all those involved in this war without end or mercy - a war only of horrors. 

General Kurtz's quiet and melancholy, almost accepting death, and Willard's slow and stone-faced and resigned execution, and new sense of power shown in Kurtz's followers perhaps now following Willard as their way out of hopelessness is strong and poignant and shows us the hopelessness of this war in Apocalypse Now. 

Analysing social realism

Arnold highlights the gritty realism of living in poverty. This is shown when their kitchen is full of mouldy bread and how unsanitary they're whole flat is in general. The children are having to share a bag of sugar at the beginning and a packet of crisps when she's at the pub which she just managed to afford. This makes us symphasise with Zoe as she's barely managing to get by and helps her children the best she can even if sometimes it leads to the children getting into trouble. The audience can already guess they're living in poverty and are struggling to afford food and clothing for the children as when the family go outside the baby has no nappies on and they have no shoes on. The camera is quite shaky as it uses a handheld camera which makes it more realistic like its actually happening right in front of us as its filmed in a documentary style way. There is no sound used which makes the fight scene at the beginning more intense and realistic. They are shown to be quite a dysfunctional family as they don't walk down the stairs together in one wide shot instead of individually.  Arnold also uses close up shots which highlights the poor state they're in and that they're living in poverty. Arnold highlights social realism with the close up shots.

The children are also shown to be playing outside while the mum is in the pub showing they're a dysfunctional family as the mum is not around to supervise the children. This highlights the social realism of a family in poverty with the mum not having enough time to look after her children and her having to tell them to wait outside. The editing is fast paced as it keeps cutting back from the children outside to the mother in the pub. This sets up for the rest of the story as the children are later to be seen eating a bag of ribs on the floor. The acting is naturalistic as it shows a family getting into a fight and as well as the mum getting quite angry with her children at times with Danny Dyer playing the ex boyfriend of Zoe very well and with an accurate performance. Arnold also demonstrates social realism with the accents make it accurate to the setting of the film with a family living in a council flat. The location is naturalistic as it shows a block of council flats with her having a dirty kitchen with gone off food, highlighting the social realism with the dirty flats and the mouldy bread. As the film goes on the lighting becomes more darker as so does the story as the wasp goes into the baby's  mouth. Zoe is seen to be caring in this scene as she gets out the car with Dave which  exposes the fact her children are here to him but she doesn't care as she just wants to make sure her children are safe and make sure nothing bad has happened to them as it was her who told them to wait outside in the first scene so is rightfully responsible for any disasters.