Cloverfield film analysis

cloverfeild follows five new yorkers from a hand held prospective, a sub plot is established by showing bits and pieces of a video previously recorded on the tape that has been reordered over. The movie starts as a monster of unknown origin destroying a building, as they go to investigate, parts of the building and the head of the statue of liberty come raining down. The movie follows the adventure trying to escape and save a friend, the love interest of the main character. 
Cloverfield is a film with a linear narrative, the film starts 7 hours before the city gets destroyed, however, the film only lasts around 85 minutes. The way the characters show time passing is by turning the camera off, and then turning it back on and stating how much time has passed since the camera has been off. The story is driven by the six New Yorkers trying to get out of the city and escape the monster. 

An establishing shot is shown to present us with where the film has taken place, in this case is New York city and is also taking place at night time, which is typical for Sci-fi/thriller films. When we see the explosion over new york city colours such as red orange stand out to the audience therefore they know what is happening and the consequences, furthermore it is also suggesting future danger.
The fact there is huge explosions in the movie also show the generic conventions of a thriller film.

The target audience for this film would be typically teenagers and young adults as they are stereotypically the type of people that enjoy night life as the film shows a group at a party.

Sci-Fi within music

Despite many Sci-Fi aspects being included in media such as films, games and books, music videos also contribute to this. A music video with much similarities to our film is 'Stevie' by Kasabian.

The similarities include a individual with experimental purposes hidden away from society; whereas in our film our main character is hidden from society in a different way, due to her actions being illegal that could cause great punishment due to the strict dictator that has power over society.

  In the 'Stevie' video, individuals have authority and power over the young boy, similar to ours as the men in the video represent and have the same character roles as the henchmen in our short film.

  

In the end the boy manages to escape into 'normal' society, whereas in our film it shows a movie set where our film is being filmed; showing everything that the viewer has seen to be false.

Poster Ideas

To find/create an outstanding poster, it takes much planning and many rough copies before a final decision is made.

Poster idea 1- A close up of the main character fills the majority of the page, with tapes (relating to our title of 'Playback') surround her. A slogan/caption will be short and snappy that has the power to:
1. intrigue/attract an audience
2. Give the viewer a quick,clear image of what the film is about.



Both of the posters include the idea of our character facing forward as shown by the picture below























Poster idea 2-  A image of our main character fills the poster with ECG tabs attached to her temples. The poster is basic but can clearly explain the genre of our film which is Sci-Fi with generic conventions included in the poster to give the viewer clues as to what our story consists of.

  This poster idea has similarities to the picture shown below, however the character will be facing forward (as though looking at the viewers of the poster) and will not show the computer monitor; it will just show the character will the tabs at each side of her head (near the temples)

Narrative Structure

Narrative structure is about two things: the content of a story and the form used to tell the story. Two common ways to describe these two parts of narrative structure are story and plot. Story refers to the raw materials of dramatic action as they might be described in chronological order.

There are many theoretical studies based around narrative structure, some include:



Barthes-Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, social theory, design theory, anthropology and post-structuralism.








Genette-  Important concepts in Genette's Narratology:
Order- Say a story is narrated as follows: the clues of a murder are discovered by a detective (event A); the circumstances of the murder are finally revealed (event B); and lastly the murderer is caught (event C).
Frequency-The separation between an event and its narration allows several possibilities.
Duration-
The separation between an event and its narration means that there is discourse time and narrative time. These are the two main elements of duration.
Voice-Voice is concerned with who narrates, and from where
Mode-Genette said narrative mode is dependent on the 'distance' and 'perspective' of the narrator (Distance of the narrator changes with narrated speech, transposed speech and reported speech.
Perspective of the narrator is called focalisation. Narratives can be non-focalised, internally focalised or externally focalised)







Todorov -
Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages called the equilibrium, disequilibrium, acknowledgement, solving and again equilibrium.There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

1. A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be.)

2. A disruption of that order by an event.

3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.

4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.

5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium

Vladimir Propp-


Propp's very popular work was important for two related structuralist ideas: that all fictional works have basically the same structure underneath, and that a story can be created by instantiating a sequence of abstract plot elements.

The typical sequence of functions is:

• 0: The Initial Situationn - The setup.
• 1: The Absentations - Someone leaves or dies. Usually a parent.
• 2: The Interdiction - A big rule is set up. Don't touch the spinning wheel. You can't go to the ball. You know the drill.
• 3: Violation - Someone breaks the big rule. This could be good or bad as seen by the examples above.
• 4: Reconnaissance - The villain spies on the hero or the hero learns about the villain.
• 5: Delivery - The searching party discovers information.
• 6: Trickery- Villain tricks hero.
• 7: Complicity- The hero is forced, tricked or influenced by magic to do something bad. There are bad consequences.
• 8: Villainy - Baddy McBadson does something really evil, normally stealing the Macguffin or kidnapping the princess.
• 9: Meditation - The goodies figure out a plan and get ready to set out on their quest.
• 10: Beginning counteraction - The heroes choose to fight back.
• 11: Departure - They... depart. Voluntarily or not.
• 12: First function of donor - The hero run into a donor or a magic dude. This character can be The Obi-Wan, a mysterious beggar or a "None Shall Pass" kind of character. They may have to pass a test. The hero may have to fight the donor. But on the bright side, the donor may have a magical object to help them on their quest.
• 13: Protagonist reaction - The hero outsmarts, outfights or finds a way around the donor's demands. He gets the Macguffin.
• 14: Acquisition of Magical Agent- The obi-wan type character. Can be the donor. This character helps the hero on his quest, sometimes willingly, sometimes not.
• 15: Transference- The hero is taken to a new place. Physically. Emotionally. Spiritually. Grammatically.
• 16: Struggle- Our hero (surprisingly) struggles.
• 17: Branding - Our hero for his efforts is marked out as a hero either with a token or with a mark on his body
• 18: Victory - The hero beats the villain with his wits, his special abilities or his brawn.
• 19: Liquidation - The goodies all help the hero, and get what they were after.
• 20: The Return- Guess.
• 21: Pursuit- The heroes are chased by the villain, who is going all One-Winged Angel on them.
• 22: Rescue - The goodies run for it and escape by placing obstacles in the villain's path.
• 23: Unrecognised-The hero comes home and no one knows who he is because...
• 24: Unfounded Claims- Some Il Capitano-Zapp Brannigan-Gilderoy Lockhart character claims he saved the day.
• 25: Difficult Task- To prove he's the Hero the Hero must, well prove himself. It can be an ordeal of choice, a riddle or a test of strength.
• 26: Solution - The Hero chooses right/guesses right/wins the fight.
• 27: Recognition- Everyone realises that the hero is the hero through his special mark, the fact they got the right solution or through simple recognition.
• 28: Exposure- The false hero is shown up.
• 29: Transfiguration- The hero gets a makeover. Or at least new clothes or a palace.
• 30: Punisment- False Hero and Villain (and yes, they can be the same guy) get what's coming to them.
• 31: The Wedding- Usually the hero marries the princess or something like that, but the wedding can just be a general celebration from getting crowned to a party.

These are found in many folk tales, such as "Cinderella" and "Snow White", but also in more modern works like Labyrinth, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Pans Labyrinth

potential audience

By being abel to identify the target audience the film can become more identifiable with the audience, this incases the audience base for the film and the people whom it is aimed to help the film create a larger income.

To begin the research into our potential audience we examined who the target audience would be for our film, we did this by carrying out questionnaires of whom people felt our target audience would be for the film. The results we obtained was that more than likely our audience would be male dominated due to the sci fi elements and the characteristics of our film as it is not seen as very 'feminine'. Further more we discovered that our film would appeal to teens;this also backs up our theory that most people to visit the cinema is young adults/teens.
In order to reach the target audience we felt that by creating a poster to display would advertise films the best in places such as social clubs, schools universities to allow the film to reach the potential audience.

The internet is a great place in the modern day to put out things that you wish to be advertised as young people in our era are hooked on social media therefore this is probably the most reliable source of advertisement, as well as adverts on youtube videos ext.

It is well known fact that young people watch a lot of television and by using adverts between viewings will also help grab the target audience.

Potential audience of thriller films

Thrillers generally appeal to both male and female and a large variety of social classes, through the use of relatable characters and themes throughout the film. A key point in thriller movies is the use of suspense and tension throughout, this is seen a lot more in psychological thrillers as constant plot twists are generally used to keep the audience thinking and on edge, with there being many sub genres of thriller this means that everyone can relate to a character in one way or another.

• It is important within thrillers for your target audience to be able to attach themselves to a character that they can build a relationship with as the film progresses, in the Scream movies that involves mainly adolescent individuals this ables the audience to relate to different characters and become more interested in the movie and further watch the film to see what is going to happen next

• A key element that is dominant in the thriller genre is disguise this tends to create a lot of mystery within a film and normally used on the antagonist making the audience un aware of what the character is like and who it is. Again the film scream does this and also The Black Swan and this creates suspense within the film.

Potential audience for Science fiction film

• Stereotypically we would expect the audience for a science fiction film to be mainly middle aged males who we would typically expect to be 'nerds' and typically involved within the technological field of work or science.  However we have seen an audience shift as now we see more female characters involved in sci-fi films as producers are now reaching out to females an example of this would be the film Alien as this has female leads, however it is still prominent that Science fiction films are male dominated.
• From my won individual research I found that both male and females do tend to find Science fiction films interesting although I did see a slight rise in the number of males that preferred Science fiction.

Research into Radio Adverts

A radio trailer is one way to reach certain target audiences. Something played on Captial is probably for younger viewers around 17-29 while Radio 2 would probably advertise films aimed at an older audience. This is based on the music and content that is usually played on each channel.

A radio was the first mass communication device, invented in the late 1800's. In 1923 radio first started broadcasting. Seen as radio is now in the majority of peoples cars, most people listen to the radio, making it a key way to communicate to the public.


Why use radio?

• Since there are loads of different stations which attract different audiences, for example Kerrang attract a different audience compared to Classical FM. Therefore the distributors can target the audience better.
•  The radio can reach people at relevant times and places. Seen as people are generally taking part in other activities when listening to the radio, so the advertisers can reach the audience at key touch points. This is helpful because research has shown it is recalled 60% more if it is revelant to another activity.
•  http://www.compassfm.co.uk/advertise/why-use-radio/

Sci-Fi - Codes and Conventions

A science fiction film uses a multiple depictions of phenomena's that aren't usually accepted by the mainstream society, for example extra-terrestrial life. This means that the codes and conventions are obviously going to be closely linked with science and technology. Sci-Fi films often focus on the political and social issues within our society, for example district 9, and explore philosophical issues such as the human condition.

The codes and conventions of a sci-fi film include:

• Being set in the future
• Alien worlds
• Time travel
• Spacecraft's
• Robots
• Alien abduction
• Conflict between aliens and humans
• Empires which repress society
• Rebels against the empire

Science fiction is a tool to look at social issues and controversial topics, and it also looks at possible issues that may occur in the future. When the audience sees these social issues in the a present setting, then the audience may find the film disturbing and difficult to watch. Therefore by providing the audience with a platform in which to watch these films in a less disturbing way, it can both entertain the audience while giving them knowledge on current issues. The development of technologies such as CGI, has made these films look more realistic, and therefore more entertaining.

Sci-fi films often explore the Utopian and Dystopian storyline. The term utopia, is a term which describes a paradise, a positive future, while dystopia is used to describe the complete opposite, a society in which things have gone wrong, or are negative. The narrative usually establishes the type of future, and then uses the majority of the novel or film explaining the psychological effect this has on individuals.

Thiller - Codes and Conventions

The thriller genre includes a wide range of films, but you can identify these films from certain characteristics which can be generally seen throughout these films. A thriller aims to create excitement and suspense.

Thriller films generally use the Todorov theory of narrative. As the digram shows, it starts with the equilibrium, which is a state in which things are balanced. In this time the main character is introduced along with his ordinary life. This is followed by the disruption of the normal.


There are three main conventions that thrillers take advantage to make to the audience ask questions and give a mysterious feeling to the audience
.
Camera shots/movement;


One of the elements that thrillers make use of is Camera Movement/Angles. Thriller films also use Camera Angles such as facial close up shots and mid – range shots. An example of a close up was used in a film called Band of Brothers, in the film there is a close up of the mans face after he has been shot, showing the mans pain, helping the audience emphasis with him. These help to show facial emotions/expressions and also shows body language, which helps to show tension, and helps the audience to feel immersed in the film. Some Camera Movements also make the audience feel tense and also helps to make them feel like they are actually in the film. For example some films try to mimic the characters breathing by making use of the camera's movement. This can be seen in the opening sequence of The Bourne Supremacy, when Jason Bourne wakes up in his bed after a nightmare and begins to heavily breathe.  This makes the audience feel like they are in the film and to make them feel like they are the ones that are breathing. Another Camera Movement is tracking, this is a fast paced camera movement, which can also be known as a Dolly shot or just a Dolly. This types of shot has been used in films such as Goodfellas, when the camera is quickly tracking through the kitchen. This makes the audience more tense and also makes them quite nervous and tense, as they know something is about to happen.


Editing;


The other important convention that makes up a thriller is Editing. Fast paced editing be seen in films such a psycho, when the women in the shower is getting stabbed, showing different angles and shots in a short amount of time. This makes the film fast paced and makes it more tense. Another one is fade to black. This has been used in the film Three Monkeys, at the end when the final shot is of a man standing at the top of a ramshackle building, looking out on a dark horizon. This helps to create suspense in the film as the audience don’t know what is going to come up next.


Sound;


Sound is a very important element when creating a thriller. For example jumpy and and quite scary music is often used in thriller film to help create tension and allows the auidence to feel scared for the characters. Another sound element which is very important is high pitched sounds/orchestral stabs such as screeches. For example orchestral stabs such as screeches are used in psycho, when the lady in the shower is being stabbed. .This adds suspense and horror/thriller to the film to give it its thrilling genre. Other sound's used in a thriller are; synchronous/asynchronous sounds, ambient sounds etc…..


Mise-en-Scène;


Mise-en-Scène contains a few important elements which help add to thriller films and also . Lighting such as colour design is usually dark and helps to make the audience feel more suspense towards the film. Another thing is  the use of prop, and in thriller films there is a lot of weapons such as glass, knives, guns etc….In films such as Train-spotting, they use props such as drugs, needles and fags, to show that the characters are on drugs and to show the audience what type of personality each character has.  The set design/ location also helps the genre of the film stick to thriller, as the right set/location such as a gloomy warehouse or dark woods give a thrilling film as it shows mystery and suspense/tension towards the audience

Chris Voglr's story Structure

Volger has been bother critised and acclaimed for this theory. Some believe that Campbell's 'Heros Journey' is better, other people have praised him for clarifying the theory. He adapted the 'Hero's Journey' structure, into the following theory

Act 1- sets scene and hero is established.

1) Ordinary world
It begins in the everyday world, while the hero goes around taking part in everyday activities. This helps us associate with the hero, as he is just an ordinary human.

2) Call to Adventure
A dilemma is presented which the hero feels they have to resolve. This could be a private decetive is given a difficult case. The challenge is set.

3) Refusal of the Call
The Hero rethinks the task, may even refuse the task, or have second thoughts. The problem appears too difficult. This would be an everyday persons response and therefore we can further associate with the Hero.

4)Meeting the Mentor
A mentor is introduced, who will teach the Hero the skills they need to complete the task. An example of a mentor could be Gandalf.

5) Crossing the Threshold
The Hero is ready to take on the task and crosses the threshold.

Act 2 - Where the main action takes place.

6) Tests, Allies, Enemies
The hero is confronted with a difficult series of challenges. This highlights and develops the hero. Since we are now bonded with the Hero, we feel a sense of pleasure as the Hero completes the challenges.

7) Approaching the Inmost Cave
The final destination lays ahead and the Hero has to prepare for the final task. This is where they Hero must figure it out alone and only deep courage will help them. This part shows the Hero as still hero as they will react how we do. Also this helps build tension.

8) The Crisis/ Supreme Ordeal
The hero must face their fears, typically by battling the villain. The audience feels scared for the Hero.

9) Seizing the Reward
After defeating the enemy, the Hero becomes a new person, where their fears are no longer. The inner reward is personal growth, however they may also receive a physical reward such as a treasure.

Act 3
10) The Road back
The new Hero sets off to home again. There is not need for anymore adventure as everything had been achieved that the Hero set out to achieve. This is the opposite of crossing the threshold, where they now anticipate rest and acclaim.

11) The Climax/Resurrection
After being lulled into a false sense of security, there is one final challenge for the hero. Perhaps the villain was not completely vanquished. The hero has to be purified according to ancient stories.

12) Return with the Elixir
The Hero finally makes it home and receives their final reward. All tensions are final resolved .

Similar films - Hunger Games

Plot

In order to control future rebellions by remembering the past rebellion, the Powers That Be of the dystopian society of Panem force two youngsters from each of the twelve districts to participate in The Hunger Games. The rules are very simple: the twenty-four players must kill each other and survive in the wilderness until only one remains. The games are broadcast through the Capital and the twelve districts to entertain and intimidate the population. In District 12, teenager Katniss Everdeen is a great hunter and archer. When her younger sister, Primrose Everdeen, is selected as one of the "tributes" of their district, Katniss volunteers to take her place in the games. Together with Peeta Mellark, they head by train to the Capital to be prepared for the brutal game.

Similarities

Our film will be set in a similar place to the districts in the hunger games. The districts are where the lower classes live in this totalitarian society. Our film will be similar in that the place where the majority of our film is set, will be in the run down areas of the society in which a dictator rules. However it will be different in that it will be more of a run down city, rather than a rural farming town. The dystopian aspect is also included in the film, which we will use to help create our own dystopian future.

Review of the film

like everyone else, before going to the movies I stopped on IMDb and read a few criticisms of the film - both those with better than average grade, and worse. But I think it's finally time to wonder what is the purpose of this time consuming ritual. because when a little thought, in few years back, i found that just a couple of films is well characterized with the average grade on this site.

but here, not only that I stopped with this habit, I decided to write my first review. for me like for many others with first reviews, trigger is terrible dissatisfaction with seen. I did not read the book nor did I know until yesterday that this film is another adaptation. for the book I do not know, but the movie turned out, on my sorrow, to be for children up to 14 years maximum - the magic of 21st century and advertising machinery.

After the first few minutes of the film when you realize you're 28 year old who is stuck with teenage movie and after you realize what would not just the end, but everything, look like, you tell yourself: ''sit back and at least try to enjoy visual side of the movie''. but that too ceases to be an option once you realize that you are about throw up because some producer decided it was more fun instead of continuous motion of camera to record in the way: cut-ear, cut-leg, cut-tree in the background,cut-somebody runs, cut-Hair... and all that in 0.3 second and from different - all possible angles. must be seen to be believed. but even that is not the worst, because imagine what the feeling of nausea you get when you realize that the hour of the movie is spent to describe the characters and get nothing better then awful cliché: bad guys are trained, arrogant bullies that smile too much and of course despite the superhuman strength, arrogant like that, they must be kicked by the petite 16 year old shy girl. but since this is still a children's movie, you will not literally see bloody action scenes where this brave archer girl kills super-strong and skilled bullies, but you will rather see scenes where those skilled bullies can not figure out how to catch a girl who ran away from them to a tree, so they decide camp under a tree until this girl alone does not get hungry and climb down. but because it was cold, of course, the bullies get cold so they find it was smart thing to make a fire and warm themself, but not too close to tree as it could catch on fire and kill a girl they've been chasing to kill.


Compilation of Best Sci-Fi films

From this clip, it shows some of the best 21st century clips of sci-fi films. It would be useful to look back on when creating our title sequence as each aspect of a different film can contribute significantly into making our own. Furthermore the re shaping of some of the best known films will make our film more appealing and can include more than one sub genre of a sci-fi film to make ours unique and new to viewers.

Creating a Sci-Fi style text crawl

Analysis of a Sci-Fi Film poster

STAR WARS
Colour- The colour of the poster emphasises the setting and relates straight away to the title. The use of black and blues create a dark atmosphere which creates an image of space.
Characters- The location of the characters on the poster enforces the idea that they are the main actors of the film and reveals a star cast; aiming to gather more viewers.
Title- The title 'STAR WARS' is not too big in font however still has the power to grab the readers attention. This is due to the capital, bold letters in gold which stands out from the black and blue background.
Imagery- The images included in the poster are all in context to the film, therefore meet the conventions of a typical sci-fi with the space setting and the space crafts.

Tips of how to design a good film poster

1. The poster is not a piece of art, therefore rough looking drawings do not matter! the whole concept of designing a poster is to sell tickets and grab a viewers attention, not making it look like a masterpiece! (to the right, a rough plan of a poster)

2. Make the title BIG…
your poser should convey the title and genre in a glance. Don’t use fonts or colours that stop the title from popping out, make it readable in a glance.


3.Follow the conventions...
Make sure the poster has aspects of the film involved to create a sense of what the viewer will be viewing whether this is a horror, comedy, sci-fi or anything else!  e.g Sinister

4. Be bold…
go for a single, strong, clear genre image that somehow conveys the central idea, conflict or problem – it does NOT need to feature your actors or locations verbatim, just evoke a sense of what your story is. But it must be well executed.

Effects Theories

Effects Theory refers to what the media does to audiences. Mass media and mass communications make people powerless to resist messages the media carries. The customers are basically 'drugged' by the media, where they become addicted.

Background:

• In Frankfurt school, Marxist German intellectuals reacting against Nazi propaganda and US advertising proposed that the power of the state and large corporations is used to control how individuals think.
• The influence of behavioural scientists show that media could reinforce attitudes through repetition. For example the Bobo doll experiment in 1963, showed that children will imitate how adults act. Children where shown either a video of an adult being aggressive to a Bobo doll or an adult just playing calmly. The children who were shown the aggressive video, where then aggressive towards a Bobo doll when in a play room.

Issues with the effects theory:

• The issues linked with violence are usually social or psychological, and have nothing to do with the media.
• The media can be classed as positive more than harmful.
• Criticisms of the media using the effects model is often politically motivated. 
• There is not actual research and evidence to prove these theories.

Short Film Analysis- 'Detroit 2029'

‘Detroit 2029’

               

Description of the story: In a near future, an elite military operator captures incredible footage of an invasion. Through private broadcasts he shows the world the supernatural changes he went through.

‘Detroit 2029’ begins with a first person perspective which continues throughout.  This is similar to our film as this shot has been chosen in our film whenever an individual views a tape. The idea of a personal experience being captured is also in relation to our film.

From this, jump cuts are used to show of personal experiences; similar to our film as throughout our film it continuously shows different perspectives

Montage of memories are soon followed to contrast the idea of what life was like and what life has

become.  This matches expectations from our film as our film will show a life of reality for our individual and what they wish it could be. This is shown through the significance of the tapes.