Tyrannosaur Enrichment

How can you Enrich your narrative?

This film is useful as it helps me get a better idea of how to make a character three dimensional, each character in the film has their own agenda but it is clever as it shows that despite some characters appearing hard and tough they have their own insecurities to deal with. This will help me create deeper characters for my TV series

What Elements can bring your Characters alive?

I feel to bring a character alive you have to make them three dimensional, if a certain character is strong and hard he still needs to have some insecurities for the audience to relate to him. Another thing that can help bring characters alive is better relationships. The characters within my TV series should have clear and deep relationships to gain audience sympathies and to help them relate to the character.

How will you actively seek to serve your chosen audience?

My target audience is late twenties to thirties i feel i can attract this kind of audience by cleverly telling a more mature story which is less involved in romance and is more targeted with a clever plot and writing. I feel like this target audience appreciates a clever plot over romance of gore and i want to try and make my ideas reflect that.

Todorov's Theory Of Equilibrium: Rain Man

Equilibrium: Charlie Babbitt is working selling cars, his father is alive. He has no knowledge of his brother. He takes a trip to Palm springs with his Girlfriend, on the way he gets a call that his father has died.

Disruption: His father has died and he goes to his funeral, he has been estranged from his father for some years and when he goes to collect his portion of the will he finds that his father’s money has not been left to him. He finds the Pay-out of the will has been given to a man in a mental institution. He finds this man out to be his brother.

Recognition: He ‘Kidnaps’ his brother Raymond, having recognised that he will not get the money without using Raymond as leverage.

Repair: He has bonded with Ray over their trip and once he is in Los Angeles he hands him back over to the mental health workers.

Return: Charlie continues with his car business, has a healthy relationship with Raymond.

The Selfish giant film Analysis

                                                

The Selfish Giant is a 2013 British drama film directed by Clio Barnard. It is inspired by the Oscar Wilde story of the same name. It follows the lives of two teenage boys growing up in an impoverished area of Bradford in Northern England. The film is centred on the friendship of two boys, Arbor and Swifty. Arbor has attention deficit disorder which causes him to act out and misbehave even if it is not his intention to do so; this causes issue for the pair who because of Arbor are excluded from school. From there they decide that selling scrap is a lucrative idea, and stealing from railway lines, power lines, and anything they can find can get them money from the local scrap dealer, Kitten. It is a story about living with crime and also the friendship between Swifty and Arbor, it is clear that it is a strong one as the film opens onto Arbor having an episode until Swifty appears, and holds his hand to calm him down. It would seem that he is the only one that can do so, as further on in the film Arbor has an argument with his drug addicted older brother which causes him to fly off into a rage until his mum turns to Swifty and asks him to get Arbor off to school as it appears he is the only one who can calm him down.

Kitten also owns at least two horses and takes part in amateur cart racing with them, after a failed cart race he notices Swifty’s natural ability with the animal and asks him to take part in the next race, this causes a rift to from between the boys as Swifty’s ability with the animal causes much jealousy for Arbor as he Is often the more dominant one in the relationship.

Swifty is a large, but quite boy who is always described as “Soft”. This eventually leads to his downfall as because of this softness he forgives Arbor for killing a fowl whilst testing a power line, this is foreshadowing for later in the film as this fowl seems to represent Swifty who eventually is killed by a power line himself as Arbor is forced to steal it having been caught taking copper from Kitten. The scene in that shows Swifty’s devise is a powerful one as it is the end of the relationship for the boys, the beginning of the film opens to Arbor raging and Swifty consoling him, holding his hand and their relationship ends with a black, charred Swifty still clutching Arbor’s hand.

The sequence after Swifty’s death is a powerful one, Arbor takes to sitting outside Swifty’s parent’s house in the rain. He clearly fills guilty for Swifty’s death and keeps going back to the house for forgiveness despite countless rejections until finally Swifty’s mother relents and hugs Arbor as they share in the grief of loss.

There is one finally scene with Swifty involved, after having been forgiven he still lies under his bed unmoving until his brother comes and tries to talk to him, as Swifty did when he was in one of his rages. His brother is unable to make him come out and becomes annoyed, grabbing and pulling Arbor. After this there is a scene where Swifty is lying down next to him, holding his hand, like at the beginning of the film. We are unsure if this is a dream or a cut back to another time Swifty consoled Arbor.

The film with Arbor, brushing the horse that Swifty loved. Taking care of it like he couldn’t Swifty.

My Brother the Devil Review

 

My Brother the Devil is a 2012 British film written and directed by Sally El Hosaini. It follows two brothers, Rashid and Mo, who are born to two Egyptian immigrant parents. Mo is young and impressionable and looks up to his older brother Rashid and admires him for his lifestyle. Rashid is a criminal but he does not want that life for his brother, at every opportunity he reminds Mo to stay in school and keep straight, unlike himself. The brothers live in Hackney, a diverse place culturally but also dangerous, Rashid struggles to keep his brother out of the gang that he is drawn into. An encounter with a photographer named Sayyid makes Rashid question if what he is doing is right and starts to become scarce around the gang which raises a lot of suspicions, and allows the younger Mo to find a way into the gang. The film is a clever take on Muslim culture, as the young Mo idolizes his brother to begin with until his brother’s secret comes out and the fact that he is Gay. Mo is not accepting of this and instead formulates a lie in which Sayyid and Rashid are in fact part of some jihadist plot. This is clever because it shows Mo’s acceptance and even admiration of the fact that his brother is a criminal yet once he finds out about his sexuality he feels that him being a Jihadist is better than him being Gay.

In my opinion I felt that Rashid’s character arc was poorly done, the way his reveal of being gay was handled felt unimportant and was rather used as a plot device to disrupt the equilibrium as it did not feature prominently or even show he struggled with his sexuality to begin with which made the sudden reveal seem forced and just there to cause a disruption where as if it was shown that he struggled with his sexuality from the outset it would have made the reveal more powerful and had some meaning. This is my biggest gripe with the film as it’s take on gang and Muslim culture was powerful and Mo’s character arc was done well yet it seemed the writing for Rashid was not up to the Level that Mo’s was.

The Selfish Giant Scene Analysis

In the first scene we saw a boy angrily hitting the bottom of his bed, clearly distressed. We then see a hand appear as it grips the boys hand and calms him down. The director does a close up of the hand to show us how close the bond between the two boys is. The next scene is the two boys on the back of a horse drinking, they are near some train tracks and it is late at night, this is a good indication as they witness a crime committed but take the copper wiring before the criminals can. Here we see the aspect of living with crime as the boys do not give a second thought about taking the wire. 

They then show the boys in the early hours of the morning, they are trying to sell the wire off to an axe wielding man with a dog, clearly this is not normal behaviour for young teenage boys to be doing but given their situation it does not seem to bother them. The next shot is of the two boys at staying at arbors house as they wake up, Arbors older brother gets annoyed that Swifty is staying there. He sees himself as the man of the house as he calls it "His house" the mother, whom is clearly not in control then interject saying that it is her house. It is clear the family is poor by the state of the house, such as the kitchen and the clothes they wear.  

Film Proposal

Type: Short Film

Genre: Thriller, Drama

Themes: Hopelessness, confusion  

The story begins on a bright scene, the colours are vibrant and happy music is playing. The characters are brought into frame, a young man and women with their two kids having a picnic in the park, from there the story would progress throughout their day as they have a seemingly wonderful time and it’s clear that the main character (The woman) is a happy and content person, the day ends and the couple are preparing for bed. They get into bed as the woman faces the ceiling, and the camera focuses on the women as she closes her eyes. A slight smile upon her face, as she slowly drifts off you begin to hear a slight beeping slowly, almost like the sound of a heart rate monitor. The scenes fade to black as other sounds begin. The sucking sound of a respirator and various other machines, the next shot is of a woman, middle aged. She lies in a hospital bed. Greying hair spread out behind her on the pillow, her eyes begin to flutter open and it is clear she has been in the bed for some time. She looks weak; all of a sudden a doctor would enter and remark in surprise that she is awake before quickly running off to find his superiors.

The rest of the film entails her attempting to get her life back together. She finds out that she has been in a coma for 20-something years, and that the previous events of her and her family where nothing but a figment of her imagination. There would be a constant grey filter, making everything look depressing. As she struggles to learn to walk properly again and to grasp the concept that this fake life she envisioned wasn’t real. The short film would end after a lengthy fight for her to get her life back together. The final sequence being her sobbing in a dingy apartment as the camera draws out of the apartment we here a bang and the scene fades to black and all of a sudden the starting sequence would play again. The colourful palette returning as she spends the day with her family once more briefly before the films ends. The audience is unsure of her condition after the ending.

Rain Man Airport Scene Extract

The scene opens with a wide shot of Raymond, he is sitting in a chair watching television. The director uses a wide shot to establish the scene and show the current location, the audio is that of Charlie talking with one of his employees. The camera then moves to an over the shoulder shot from Raymond’s perspective, we see him watching the television on a little screen on his chair and in the background we see Charlie standing by a pay phone, arguing with his employee; telling him to be more forceful with the clients. The camera then changes to a close up of Charlie on the phone, is brow is furrowed and he looks distressed as he continues to argue. It then would switch to another over the shoulder shot but this time from the perspective of Charlie, the camera faces towards Raymond as Charlie covers his face with his palm, Raymond on the other hand is calm as he sits there peacefully. This is a clever juxtaposition as we see Charlie clearly exasperated at the situation and Ray calmly sitting there unaware of the situation but perfectly content to just sit there.

From there it switches to another Wide shot as Charlie puts down the phone and picks up his bag, Ray meanwhile is still calmly sitting there watching the television, the camera does not follow Charlie as he walks towards Ray and begins to click his finger to get his attention, the camera then Cuts in with a focus of Ray as Charlie continues to attempt to get his attention till finally Ray would jump having noticed Charlie. It isn’t until Charlie pulls Ray’s bag that he gets to his feet, the Camera transitioning to a wide shot as both characters walk off frame, all the while Charlie is asks Ray what he is watching and Ray responds familiarly with “I don’t know”. The next shot is another wide shot from behind the subjects as they walk towards their gate, Ray’s bag between them as he is almost pulled a long by his brother, this is clever because it shows that at this point of the film Charlie thinks little of Ray; treating him almost like a dog as he pulls him about and clicks his fingers at him. At this point Charlie doesn’t seem to see him as a person yet but rather keeps him with him due to necessity and treats him poorly as a result.

The next shot is a close up of Ray as he is being pulled along by Charlie, he would bend down a moment as he sees the aeroplanes, he displays a worried expression as he exclaims “Oh, oh”, stating that there is an airplane out there. The camera then transitions to a two shot of the pair as Ray worriedly exclaims his disdain for aeroplanes, and Charlie attempts to coax him into getting on one. The director uses this shot for the scene as he is trying to show us the contrasting emotions on the subject’s faces, one a look of exasperation and the other a look of panic. There is then a long sequence of Dialog as Ray tells Charlie about a list of airline accidents as he tries to explain to him why he will not get on a plane. The next shot is a close up of Ray’s face as he is being pulled by Charlie, he looks scared. Charlie then comes into frame as he questions Ray about his specific objections. The shot then changes to another wide shot facing Charlie’s back but showing Ray, the camera follows Ray as he moves over to the flight information board and begins telling ray about the various flights, only to be interrupted by ray for various crash information. The Camera focuses on Ray with a close up as he tells Charlie about the crashes, his face contorted with worry. The next shot is of Charlie whom is staring at Ray, his face a look of calm annoyance and his brother’s supposed ineptitude at doing common and easy things. As Charlie turns back towards the flight information board there is a cut in of the boards showing us a list of the flights.  

IP Man Review

IP Man is a Semi biographical film following the life of IP man, Bruce lee’s martial arts instructor. It is directed by Wilson Yip and stars Donnie Yen as IP man.

It takes place before and during the Japanese invasion of Southern china in the 1930s. At its base it is a Kung Fu movie and the fight choreography is brilliant, unlike more western fighting films which use quick cuts and shaky cameras director Wilson Yip allows you to see each hit and move as IP man takes on Japanese soldiers and other martial arts practitioners. It is a powerful film that evokes a lot of emotion as the family begins as a rather wealthy and ends up scrabbling for food in a bombed out house under fear of the Japanese. To go along with the superb martial arts it is also a beautifully shot film as the director takes advantage of the beautiful Chinese landscape for a number of establishing shots.

Despite its foreign language I felt incredibly invested in the characters, in no small part to the brilliant acting, Donnie Yen plays a brilliant role. As good if not better than many of the more well-known martial arts actors.

In the end it is a clever film that is well shot and the acting is very good. I enjoyed it immensely so much so I watched the sequel immediately after.

Testament of Youth: Review

Testament of youth is a coming of age story set on the memoirs of Vera Brittain’s First World War experience. This adaptation of the classic book is directed by James Kent and written for screen by Juliette Towhidi.

The story covers a young Vera Brattain as she changes from innocent, if rebellious young girl. To a more grown up and changed character who is more world weary and broken morally inside thanks to the events that transpire within the film. The Character of Vera is played by Alicia Vikander who is well suited for the role, as she has a good knack for displaying a wide variety of emotions without having to speak. The other characters come across with varying degrees of success when it comes to their acting prowess. Another notable performance is that of Kit Harrington, despite not appearing in the film for all that long he delivers a strong a believable performance that complements well with Vera.

In many ways it would be hard for the film to go that horribly wrong, based on its foundations of a strong and much beloved book it would make it difficult to butcher it too bad. Thank fully this adaptation works well, director James Kent Cleverly switches between shots to help you immerse yourself within the story. The director uses a lot of Extreme close ups and over the shoulder shots and relies a lot on the characters, to convey emotion only using their face. Despite the overall proficiency of the actors I felt that some scenes were a little unbelievable, the Director did take a few liberties when it comes to the certain scenes he chose to convey. In a few of them there was very clear “Hero Syndrome” where despite the fact that any other character would have died from that situation one of the main characters would survive it based solely on the fact that they are indeed, one of the main cast.

In conclusion, this adaptation does a proficient job and lives up to the works of Vera Brattain, though in my opinion it didn’t do enough to cement itself as a quality film. It kept my attention for the run time but it was not an experience I would come back too in a heartbeat. I don’t believe I am the target audience for this film but it was well directed, if not risky enough in its aims.

The boy in the striped Pyjamas Review

The boy in the striped Pyjamas is a film by Mark Herman and based off a book of the same name. It follows Bruno a boy growing up in 1940s Germany during the height of the war. Bruno’s father is a high ranking member of the armed forces and is moved to oversee a concentration camp.

The story is told from Bruno’s perspective and it is clear to see that the focus Is that on the child like ignorance of it all as it is made clear that Bruno does not understand that the place that his father runs is a concentration camp. He begins the film referring to it as “The Farm” and often asks his mother to go play at the “Children at the Farm”. The mother also for a large part of the film is unaware that it is in fact a Concentration camp and once she learns of this she would begin to unravel once she learns from a Guard that they are burning the Jewish people inside.

The story is clever in the it’s shooting as once Bruno meets Shmuel he questions him why he is in Pyjamas and tells him that he should come over for tea. Bruno seems to think that it is in fact a holiday camp. Bruno and his sisters get a tutor who pushes a strong agenda of anti-Semitism but this only brings more questions to the confused Bruno who is unsure what to think.

Over all the film is clever, as it does a good job of telling some serious subject matter but present it in a way as a child might understand. It is a powerful film, meant to invoke emotions in the audience. But overall I felt there was too little focus on the Jewish prisoners in the camp and I would have rather they focused more on the plight of the prisoners and less on the breaking of the family as they did not do a good job of it and in the end they expect us to be heartbroken for the characters, but bar the obvious circumstances which help it the character development was not enough for me to care feel all that bad about it.  

Dirty Pretty things review

Dirty Pretty things Review

Dirty Pretty things is a noir thriller directed by Stephen Frears and written by Steven Knight. It has aspects of Social realism and is a hard hitting story of illegal immigrants in London and what they have to go through to survive. The main character Okwe has come to the country from Nigeria for unknown reasons, what we do know is that he has to work multiple jobs to stay afloat. It all starts going wrong once he finds a heart stuffed into a toilet and he uncovers the sinister background of the hotel he works in.

The film is powerful, the main themes being fear and love, the majority of the employees at the hotel are illegal immigrants and this is the true heart of the story as we watch Okwe and Senay constantly forced to escape from immigration officials. Okwe (Played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a well-crafted character and well portrayed by Chiwetel. The acting performances across the board are well done with no clear exceptions to this. Each character seems well thought out and real. The film is rather linear in its story telling, and there is little deviation as the goal is made quite clear; Senay wishes to move to America and be with her family and as we learn later on Okwe wants to go back to Nigeria and back to his daughter.

This is only achievable by getting passports and what they do to get this is the main story focus. The main antagonist is not clear; “Sneaky” Is the hotel manager and is the one getting the illegal body parts but the real villain is never shown. The film is relatable to an audience as it shows the everyway struggle for a common man just trying to get by and do the right thing.

Overall I think it is a solid film, the story is fulfilling as each character seemingly gets what they desire, despite the fact that Senay and Okwe are separated they both seem individually happy and having reached their final goal.

60 Second Film Evaluation

In this sixty second film I am explaining who I am in as short a way as possible, I explain my interests and Ethnicity. I feel it is a good a quick representation of my character and I felt it was short enough as to achieve the task set. I could have improved on my articulation as I was a bit flustered and had frequent stops, over all I feel like it was a good telling of myself and in the future I could expand on it given the opportunity

Sequences

Planet Of the Apes Review

The Dawn of the planet of the Apes is a sequel to the popular ‘Rise of the Planet of the apes’ which is a good reboot of the original franchise. This film differs from the first as where the original was less action oriented and focused more on the story of Caesar, who is the main protagonist of both films. This film differs as it is told after the events of the first film where humanity has already mostly collapsed and only fleeting splinters of them remain, as well as the now escaped apes roaming the forests.

The story is engaging and has good plot development and strong characters; the highlight for me was Caesar who was played by Andy Serkis. The character is the most intelligent of the apes and is their leader; he interacts well with the humans as he is the only chimp who seems to take pity on them to an extent. There was a lot of vital commentary on the futility of war and violent conflict, the film does not expect you to pick sides too easily as hostility between the last few remaining humans on earth and the intelligent apes arise.

They do a good job of showing both good and characters on both sides as to make it not a straight good and baddie story. The conflict spins more and more into chaos, and there is little anyone can do. As in the previous film the CGI is incredible, with credit to motion capture acting and the accompanying special effects. The gloomy post-apocalyptic atmosphere and great cinematography all adds up to an intelligent and entertaining continuation of the story.

The ending was somewhat disappointing as I felt it did not bring the whole movie together so much as to leave you on a cliff-hanger in anticipation for the third film. The basic plot was somewhat simple; it did not deviate from a fairly standard Hollywood formula. Though this is forgiven in light of the other aspects of the film which make the whole package a good blockbuster and thoroughly enjoyable.