Soft - Trailer

https://youtu.be/iHcw2ezWKys

This is the trailer I made for Soft, I found this a challenge as I had never down something like this before. Using clips that have already been cut down and edited was quite difficult and unwieldy, I would have much rather been able to use the entire clip, without music or sound effects.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Critical Analysis - Contextual Studies

Buffy The Vampire slayer

What made Buffy the Vampire Slayer succeed as a TV show? What visual language is used? What was the effect of Make-up and Sound within the show? What was the Premise? these are just some of the questions I will be answering in this critical analysis of a show that reached critical acclaim and will go down as a classic of television.

Premise

Buffy The Vampire Slayer was an award winning television series spanning seven seasons from 1997 till 2003. Created by writer Joss Whedon originally as a feature length film, Whedon was approached by Gail Berman who worked at Sandollar Productions and asked whether he would like to make the Film into a TV show.

Whedon had expressed his disatification previously about how his script was handled in the feature film, as he lost control of the screenplay and was upset that his story of female empowerment was changed to one of a broad comedy and that it "devastated" him.

“My original script for the movie was kind of dark and scary and it was comedic, but the final product was much more a broad comedy,” [Whedon,1998]

He agreed and began the show under the premise of "High School as a Horror", the show follows Buffy, a high school student who is a slayer.

 "In every generation, there is a chosen one. She alone shall stand against the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness. She is the Slayer." 

She has increased strength and reflexes which enable her to go toe to toe with vampires and other monsters and prophetic dreams which can warn her of oncoming dangers. This is almost exactly the opposite of horror film stereotypes with the blonde girl being weak and ignorant of danger.

The show gained a cult status and gained millions of viewers, an estimated 4 to 5 million people tuning in to watch each episode. The popularity of Buffy was due in part to the strong female protaganist Whedon set up.

Cinematography

In the show there is frequent use of camera techniques such as the High/Low angle shot, Close ups and tracking shots they also make good use of steadicam and hand held shots to show urgency and action during fight scenes.

Slow tracking shots are used to add suspense to scenes which work well in the horror genre, moving slowly forward to reveal a scene or build tension this is shown in the opening scene for Buffy, where the camera/audience appears to be walking through the abandoned hallways of a school.


Mise-en-scene

In terms of mise-en-scene there is lots of contrast between light and dark, in daytime the shots are colourful and vibrant, the highschool isn't dirty and in disrepair, yet in the scenes which take place at night the locations are in disrepute and dimly lit. 

Whedon said he chose a bright sunny town because that is less likely where we expect to see horror and it was supposed to be anyones high school.

The characters costume such as Buffy seems to be dressed like a typical teenager during the day however at night she usually dresses in black leather.

The lighting is typically dim and forbidding, this is particularly the case with scenes that are shot at night in darkened buildings, Alleyways or graveyards, this helps portray the "darkness" in the world whilst also inducing a feeling of fear in the audience as it is difficult to see details and many people have a fear of the dark.

Make-up

The make up on Buffy (In terms of prosthetics) is quite well done, they used fades during pans and quick cuts to transition from their normal face to their monster face typically only showing the face for a few seconds, however they also show the face transitioning from human to vampire, The make up would take around an hour and twenty minutes to put on and also take off. [Boreanaz,1998]

The vast changes in appearance also have the added benefit of distancing the vampires from the humans therefore buffy wouldn't be going around apparently killing ordinary people, the effect in which the vampires turn to dust when killed was written in so Buffy wouldn't be climbing over bodies and spending hours getting rid of them.

Computrer generated effects are also used frequently throughout the series to help show the different types of magic or abilities from showing vampires turning to dust or an invisible girl picking up a knife. They tried to keep the effects simple to make it realistic and not obviously CG.

Sound

Sound is used to great effect, from the title sequence to its use within the show, The title sequences music starts of with violin music and a wolf howling, the violin gives the impression of an aged approach to vampires, the next notes are that of an electric guitar, this symbolises the modern approach.

Music is used to add tension to scenes and also is removed to add a heavy silence to the scene increasing the feelings of suspense, the contrast of noise after this allows for a more shocking moment, from silence to glass breaking or vampires growling.

Editing

The show is edited well, the use of L-Cuts in conversations help keep the pace moving and whats on the screen interesting, quick cuts help signify the urgency of a situation and whip pan transitions help hid cuts from a normal looking person to them in the vampire make up. Mixing in close ups to help sell the effect.

Subtext

There is a lot of subtext within Buffy, Whedon wanted it to be a horror show but within high school, such as a girl that is annoyed so much and not noticed by anyone turning invisible, or when Buffy and Angel have sex, he loses his sole turning back into a monster. This represents a girls fear of once a boy has sex with her he will turn into a jerk or "a monster".

Buffy was written to be a role model for young girls, she is shown as being not the smartest, prettiest or most popular but being happy with who she is, Whedon was sick of seeing horror films where a small blonde girl walks down an alley and is killed by a monster and envisioned a story where the blonde beats up the monster and walks away. 

Conclusion

Buffy was a trailblazer for many feministic TV shows, showing a strong female lead who isn't objectified in every episode and is strong enough to take care of herself and for others to be ok with that. The concept of making high school into a horror took off because many people did not have fond memories of high school and could relate to the characters. 

The characters were all interesting and realistic, showing Buffy struggling to keep her two lives separate and still remain popular at school, The villains also being relatable in a sense, such as a controlling mother who swaps bodies with her daughter so she can do cheerleading again.

The camera work was well planned and executed, offering interesting and eye catching shots and manipulating the characters emotions through the use of High/Low angle shots and close ups. 
The Mise-En-Scene showing ideas rather than the dialogue telling the audience, which would be boring and uninteresting.

Buffy earned its right to be considered a cult classic, it was well written, actors portrayed their characters with skill and visual and special effects look realistic and believable, the premise was engaging and relatable which is a must for any show to succeed.


----Source Images & Resources ----

Joss Whedon - Screenwriter - Biography.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=355AMVyCyIg - Whedon, Joss 1998 [Conversation about the original Buffy film]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=355AMVyCyIg - Whedon, Joss 1998 [Conversation about the Vampires appearance]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=355AMVyCyIg - Boreanaz, David 1998 [Conversation about the Vampires make up]

Sherlock - Review

 Sherlock Review

The premise for Sherlock is a modern day crime drama adaption of the books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, It follows a private detective/consulting detective called Sherlock Holmes and his partner John Watson as they solve various cases. 

Although the characters have already been around for decades the show puts a fresh spin on the iconic duo, the modern day reinterpretations add a whole new dimension to the characters. Even though I have read the books previously the episodes, whilst following the same overall plot of the books adds twists and changes to make each episode new and interesting.

What makes Sherlock a great show is that it is set in a modern timeline, this allows for a broader and younger demographic to be able to relate to the show. The younger renditions of Sherlock and Watson also allow for this to be the case. 

Since there have been numerous technological advancements since the original Sherlock Holmes novels over a hundred years ago, incorporating things like mobile phones, cars and the internet could be challenging yet Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss managed change the short stories to include these advancements without losing the integrity or realism of the story.

Throughout the series the dialogue is well written, rarely will you get a long monologue describing something in a boring and uninteresting manner, in fact the first time Sherlock explains his deduction about Watson to him the audience are treated to a montage style sequence with many close ups and extreme close ups mixed with graphics to help illustrate certain points. I find these scenes are highlights of an episode as they are captivating and awe inspiring.

In terms of characters each has their own strengths and weaknesses, Sherlock is portrayed as a highly intelligent yet emotionally clueless in a sense, Initially Sherlock is depicted as an arrogant selfish character, however if you look closer you can see glimpses of aspects of his personaity he keeps hidden, such as being pleasantly surprised when Watson praises him for his deductions. 

In the first episode he points out to Watson that he keeps saying amazing, when Watson asks if he wants to stop Sherlock replies in the negative stating its quite nice actually. In terms of Freuds model of psyche Sherlock resembles Super Ego as he strives to answer questions and is in control of his inner desires and primal urges or ID.

Watson is an ex army medic previously deployed in Afghanistan, he returns after being injured and struggles to overcome his PTSD, after searching for a flat to share he is introduced to Sherlock, his character acts as Ego he is more inclined to follow his desires particually sexual whereas Sherlock doesn't seem to be interested, until he meets Irene Adler who would most likely represent ID as she is shown to be a dominatrix.

In conclusion I feel that Sherlock is a great rendition of the Sherlock Holmes genre, combining modern day technology and a franchise that was written over a hundred years ago, the longer episode time allows for longer and more elaborate stories to be told, the characters are interesting and relatable and the dialogue is witty, interesting and rarely irrelevant.

I enjoyed the dynamic between Sherlock and Watson, they compliment each others personality well and I would like to be able to put that into my own work on occasion, maybe have one character as a genius who is unorganised or lazy paired with a hard working but less intelligent person, then they could each help improve on each others shortfalls.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/sherlock_the_blind_banker.pdf

https://uk.pinterest.com/theoldhorse/sherlock-bbc/

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - 1892

Brad Wright - Screenwriter

Brad Wright is one of the creators of Stargate - SG1, one of my favourite TV shows, this series adapted from the film Stargate follows a team of people as they travel and explore space through the means of a Stargate, a way of harnessing a stable wormhole to travel lightyears.

The series stretched from 1997 till 2007 and had two spin off shows, Stargate - Atlantis and Stargate Universe. He along with Jonathan Glassner created the show and kept it going for over 200 episodes spanning 10 seasons.

Wright has also written scripts for a few other television series such as Adventures of the Black Stallion, The Odyssey and Highlander -The Series. 

                                                                              Wright was born in Toronto and graduated from the York University Theatre program in 1984, before his television career, Wright worked for several years with a Toronto theatre company as an actor and playwright.

I enjoyed Stargate as it was something new and original, carrying on from the film Brad Wright gave the characters more depth and introduced new and interesting characters and concepts. 

What I also enjoyed about the series was that it wasn't too unbelievable, Wright managed to take a sci-fi series about aliens that could take human beings as hosts and backed it up with science, however a few times in the series it did seem to stumble over the same problems as Star Trek when some of the concepts sounded too far fetched and unrealistic.

If I was to take anything from Brad Wright's style it would be to create these characters with interesting backstories and to put them into situations they are not comfortable with, as he frequently does in Stargate and also showing the repercussions of actions through a longer format than a film.

Action and reactions are depicted in both the story and the characters persona's such as when one of the main characters loses his wife to the Goa uld his character changes from slightly innocent and nerdish to smart and withdrawn.

I like the concept of showing character change throughout the series as a result of the story's ups and downs, many TV shows do not do this and simply have the characters revert to who we always perceive them to be, going a full circle and not really progressing anywhere.


------Source Images & Resources-------
GateWorld - Interviews: An Expanding Universe (Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper - April 2009)
Brad Wright - IMDb
Stargate: Continuum - Exclusive: Creator Brad Wright Interview - YouTube
Stargate Universe - Season 2, Brad Wright Interview - YouTube
Brad Wright Interview - YouTube
Official Stargate Website: Crew Member
Brad Wright - Wikipedia (Image Only)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_SG-1 (Image Only)
https://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2009/10/four-sci-fi-shows-and-one-film-that-stargateuniver.html (Image)

Short Film Review - Drawcard

Directed by Antonio Orenå-Barlin

The premise for this short is quite similar to the my script, in this narrative office worker Ed mistakenly draws a penis on what he thinks is his friends farewell letter, then as he is about to leave he discovers that it was in face a sympathy letter for his boss, who had just lost his mother.

He rushes to stop the letter before it reaches his boss but its too late, he sits at his desk in a daze and his boss taps him on the shoulder and tells him to come to his office. At this point the audience is thinking that Ed is going to be fired and as the boss talks about how his mother was a nurse in the war you can anticipate that he is building up to shout at Ed but then he tells Ed how she used to call him her little butterfly and how did he know?

Ed looks confused until the boss opens the card to show that where Ed drew the penis the ink had transferred to the other side of the card and now looks like a butterfly. He then hugs Ed and thanks him. I really like this ending as it isn't what the audience expect.




In terms of visual language the short is shown through a series on medium shots and shot reverse shots, the interaction between Ed and his boss is shown with a Low angle/High angle set up to denote the authority the boss holds over Ed.

The mise en scene shows the average office set up, one noteworthy example however is Ed's cup of coffee which reads, Always late but worth the wait, this could be symbolic of how Ed is not exactly a model employee in terms of punctuation and formality but is "worth the wait" meaning he is a good employee in regards to he gets the work done.

I would be interested in putting something similar into my own script perhaps having an object in my characters car which indicates he is being held back or is unhappy about his job, I just have to think of something I could use.

Louis Heaton - Contextual Studies 24/11/16

The Crime Drama Genre


The Bill - set in fictional london police station
Longest running uk crime drama
Originally 12x60 minute episodes
became year round twice weekly serial - 30 mins

crime/soap
Mise en scene = real locations or studio
authenticity

camera and sound - single or multi camera
visual style

narrative and genre conventions
realistic characters or stereotypes
acting naturalistic or exaggerated
diversity and gender representation
how many storylines? whodunnit?

Peak of viewing 2005 pulling audiences of 11 million rivalled coronation street

Evolved from literary detective fiction
in TV often police procedural sub-genre
realistic investigation of a crime by law enforcement teams.

Edgar allen poe murder in morgue

Whodunnit (enigma to be solved)

Howcatchem (audience know who did it pleasure is the process)

Technical conventions
editing chase scenes, montage, flashbacks
Single camera
camera movement - either handheld mockumentary style or steadicam, dollies, cranes

ECU for tension or reveal
tilted,low angle/high angle
Slow motion
CG Recreation
Graphical text

usually self contained closed narratives
Repetition relies on returning central cast (team) and location ( police station)


Lighting - low key many crime dramas use light dark contrasts in costume setting and lighting.

Authenticity - props, costumes and settings

new convention detection via computer. lighting and exposition.

Character

The rebel (hero/anti hero)
detective or senior cop
jaded doesn't always play by the rules. sometimes corrupt

The King (authority figure)
commanding officer or station sergeant.

The Innocent (Rookie)
audience surrogate and empathy

The Sage
Elderly, Wise if not senior figure often doctor or scientist

The Villain
Binary opposition to hero and rookie

Many crime dramas use binary opposition light and dark, good/ evil/ law and order/ but often the investigator has their boundaries challenged.

The rookie can also be challenged/corrupted.

Many also use Freudian triangles

Hero as ID, authority as super ego and rookie as Ego that tries to balance the oppositional

Realism - British crime dramas are often in social realist mode, many popular us crime dramas more escapist and may involve breaking with realist conventions.

Representation  - gender and diversity; issues of political correctness vs empirical fact

psychoanalysis - genre character as Freudian archetypes, criminal pathology (the monster/the uncanny) crossover with horror genre return of the repressed.

critical questions - serial killers and the admiration they receive i.e dexter, hannibal etc.

Short Film Review - See You Around

The premise for this short film is something many people can relate to a bad breakup causes protagonist Thomas to start seeing his ex-girlfriend everywhere, he begins to avoid shops and bars because he can see her inside. He knows these facsimiles are not her but he goes to see a therapist.

What I found clever about the short film is whenever he see's his "ex" she is always wearing the same dress and has the same haircut showing that he is not just remembering her but her at a certain point.

The use of mise en scene is done well with scenes giving insight to the protagonist mental mindset, such as towards the beginning his room is messy yet organised, yet towards the end it becomes messy and unorganised showing his mental state is deteriorating, this is also shown with the increase of people turning into his "ex".

My favourite part is the ending in which Thomas and his ex meeting up for a drink, in this scene he finds out that she has changed her whole appearance, in the scene (pictured above) everyone in the coffee place is his ex girlfriend, throughout the scene where he realises that she is so different from what he remembers everyone in the scene slowly reverts back to themselves throughout the scene.

This use of Mise-en-scene is ingenious as it reveals that he is getting over his ex, rather than him saying out loud or it being told to the audience, It informed the audience that he is getting back to normal.

The script and dialogue for See you around is a work of art in my opinion, especially the scenes with his psychologist, they are funny and show that Thomas is trying to get over his ex. The relationship between the therapist and Thomas is dynamic and shows the progress or lack thereof of him trying to move on.

What I want to take from this short film is the flow of the dialogue, there is no unnecessary lines or speeches and they lead the jokes perfectly, This is a short that kept me interested the whole way through and paced itself well.

Short Film Review - Movie Mind Machine

DIRECTED BY MAUREEN BHAROOCHA

PRODUCED BY SILBY STREET & PHAYRE PRODUCTIONS

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The premise of this short film is something that i have always wished for.. to watch a film again for the first time, to experience the suspense and thrill, the twists and turns, the highs and lows of a film once more. I have often said that if I could have any power (Other than telekinesis) I would love to be able to forget a film and watch it for the first time again.

Directed by Maureen Bharooch this short film was made in the style of a mockumentary,  two film fanatics create a machine that allows them to erase images or in their case movies from their memory,   the short shows how the machine slowly becomes like a drug to them and they get addicted to re watching their favourite films.

This starts to ruin their lives as they then stop showing up for work and get fired and Matt goes to prison for a reason not really specified, the use of humour to get the story across worked well, most of the jokes revolving around classic movies such as when Matt gets back from prison Ron asks if he wants to watch Shawshank Redemption, Matt refuses adamantly and changes the subject.

What I liked about the short was how it showed Escapism, to me my favourite films are ones that pull me into their universe, drawing me in from the beginning until the end. So my favourite films are the ones where I can escape into their world for a few hours, to be able to repeat that experience would be addictive.

The mise-en-scene of the short film centres mostly around TV's featuring stacks of films and televisions in Matts garage, this helps symbolise how they both love films and then as time progresses the garage gets more chaotic and untidy which represents how their lives are now getting messed up.

I really did like the concept of the short, I found it easy to relate to the characters and the dialogue didn't seem out of place or boring. However I do believe that it could have been shorter, towards the end of the short I was wondering when it was going to end because they had gotten their point across yet they were carrying on.

They also left the short on a bit of a cliffhanger, ending on the same scene they started with, with Ron watching Jurassic park again, Matt remarks that this is Ron's favourite and the 20th time he has watched it.

I liked how the film ended on a cliffhanger and want to add something similar in my script, perhaps where my character is offered to run the business he was just fired from and having him say a line which indicates he will be making changes.