This picture was annotated by someone on the internet, who has specified the different personalities of the characters from the movie St. Trinians. This post will be about my own notes and thoughts on these characters.

I shall start with the one on the far left, 'The Trustafarian', who in my notes I have wrote her down as the 'St. Trinianite', but they are essentially the same thing, the girls who want to be more individual. As the box beneath her says, she is from an upper-class background, yet she wants to distance herself from it as much as possible. This is evident in the way she dresses and walks- hands in her pockets, just strutting along. It shows her lack of care or interest in being part of a rich family. On the topic of her wealth, she is quite a unique character as she is one of the only characters with wealth yet refuses to give in to the typical stereotypes of a wealthy character, such as being smart/ well-dressed.

The next girl is the one next to 'The Trustafarian', 'The Chav'. Her character is a stereotypical 'Chav', judged on the way she dresses. The miniskirt and tight shirt would imply she was more of a slut than a Chav, however due to the seriousness on her face I would say she is more Chav than slut, as she doesn't show any signs of being a slut (characteristically), just the way she dresses implies it. She also represents individuality, as she strikes me as being perhaps a clever girl yet in denial of it, so chooses instead to dress slutty and act chavvy, perhaps to try to attract the opposite sex's attention? I don't know, however she definitely seems to act opposite to who she really is.

Next, 'The Geek' in the middle. Her character is very stereotypical. Evidence of this is in the way she dresses and acts. Unlike every other character who tries to hide their true personality, she however is trying to make it known who she really is. She has her shirt tucked in, tie done up to the top, top button done up, she's wearing glasses, she is not wearing a short or tight skirt- an all around good girl. Also, the way she walks is unique, as she walks with authority and power, implying she will go far in life. Her authority is also evident by the fact she is the girl in the middle of the group. This shows she is powerful, and the way she is staring is also very authoritative.

Next is 'The Emo', on the left of 'The Geek'. Her character dresses quite slutty too, however it's more because of her affiliation than she actually is, as is the case with most other characters. She actually looks like the kind of character that has many problems. This could be the reason she dresses like she doesn't care- she doesn't want people to find out that really she is plagued with all kinds of issues. This idea could be supported by the fact her eye make-up forms what could be supposed to be a tear running down her cheek, which is what she really feels like doing not putting on fake smiles. She also walks and dresses like she's very tough, and probably acts it too, however I believe it is all an act she is putting on so people don't find out what she's really thinking.

Finally, 'The Posh Totty' next to 'The Emo'. Her character is the 'idealistic woman' for many men- Tall, beautiful, with a nice body and curves. She knows she is beautiful and acts very flirty to get what she wants. Support for the reason she knows she is beautiful is, like other characters, the way she walks. She walks like a model, with her hands by her side and moving her body in rhythm to her footsteps. She is also, as her title suggests, arguably a posh character, supported by the way she is dressed, as she is wearing her clothes rather smarter than the others (except 'The Geek') and her hair also seems to be smart, going against her flirtatious personality. Also, you would think that as she is popular and beautiful she would be considered the leader, however I actually believe that 'The Geek' is the real leader, as (like I mentioned before) she walks with authority and is in the middle of the group, showing her power over 'The Posh Totty', who walks on the end of the group, and is arguably the most out of the way which perhaps shows she thinks she has more power than she actually does.

That's all for this post. My next post will be about the latest James Bond movie, 'Skyfall'. Thanks for reading!

 Inception trailer

The Inception poster

Inception is based on the idea of being able to plant an idea inside someones head using dreams. The main character, Dom (Leanardo Di Caprio) decides to try 'Inception' on a wealthy businessman, who has just inherited the entire business from his dad when he died. The plot is extremely complicated so i'm not going to bother trying to tell you what it is, just watch it yourself. One thing, the ending is very frustrating! Does it or doesn't it fall (watch the film, you'll understand)? Anyway, let's analyse the trailer.

So, the first thing to note in the trailer is the different characters and their roles in the plot. For starters, it is pretty obvious from the beginning of the trailer that Leonardo di Caprio's character is the leader of the group. This is evidenced by the way he seems to be calm and collected in most scenes he's shown in, and has everything under control. Also, his position in the poster above is straight in the middle, closest to the camera. This again shows his authority over the other characters.

Next, the character known as 'The Shade'. In the film, it is revealed that this is di Caprio's supposedly deceased wife, however this is obviously not shown in the trailer. She goes against the stereotypes of women in thriller films, as she seems to have control over di Caprio. Whilst this should normally be good for women, her control over di Caprio is actually trying to annoy the audience, which implies the director intended to make her an antagonist as she is constantly trying to take Leonardo's attention away from his task and too her.

Another character revealed in the trailer is 'The Mark'. His name implies he is the target, as he is 'marked'. In the trailer, he is normally shown wearing nice, expensive suits, implying he is a wealthy man. If this is true, then his character could represent the stereotypical man- wealthy, with a lot of authority. However, as he is being lead through by di Caprio, it could mean he doesn't actually have the authority he thinks he does.

In contrast, Ellen Page's character is most likely supposed to represent the stereotypical woman, as she is often shown to be helpless and in need of a male (di Caprio's) help. She is a more stereotypical woman than 'The Shade' as she has no authroity over any of the male protagonists.

That's this trailer analysed, next one will be James Bond's upcoming adventure 'Skyfall'. Link to Inception's trailer is below.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g4PLj0PlOM&feature=fvwrel

The Happening poster

The Happening is a survival horror thriller movie. It is about an unkown disease that is causing people to commit suicide in 'convenient' ways. The hero, Mark Wahlberg, has to try and get off the northern coast of America to avoid this disease. Eventually, they all survive (of course) and live happily ever after. Actually, I can relate this to media as this is a stereotypical ending to a horror thriller film, where the main characters would normally survive the apocalypse and end up returning to their normal lives. Anyway, on with the rest of the analysis.

 

The movie's trailer uses a combination of diagetic and non-diagetic sounds for effect. Diagetic sounds can be heard by the characters and non-diagetic sounds cannot, so for example the trailers soundtrack is a non-diagetic sound. Speaking of the soundtrack, it is used effectively to build up tension and make the audience in some ways more scared than the characters. This also means the audience can relate to the characters, as they do not know whats coming next either. This effect is also achieved effectively using diagetic sounds- Things like floorboards creaking or heavy breathing all add to the fear factor of both the characters and the audience.

 

Also, the body language does a good job in showing the audience what the characters are thinking, for example, at the beginning when the characters are all on the train. At first, everyone's body language is normal- Just them getting on with their daily business. Then, when the train abruptly stops, their body langauge changes again. This time it seems more like confusin, as people begin looking around puzzled on what's occuring. It shoudl be noted however that no one expressively shows panic, everyone appears to be relatively calm, just confused. When everyone gets off the train, the general thought appears to be the same. No-one is screaming or showing any signs of panic with their bodies, so it can be assumed people are stilljust confused. However, when the train driver reveals that they have lost contact with the station Mark Wahlberg becomes the first person in the group of civillians to panic.

A different moment in the trailer shows a police officer casually walking in the streets before the screen turns black. We hear nothing, and when the video comes back the man is laying, dead in the streets. This moment of blackness, it could be said, is what actually happens when you die.Everything just turns black as if to signify the end, and then the cop is dead. This is plausibe, as death is a running theme throughout the trailer and the actual film, making it possible the director purposely included this otherwise meaningless scene to show death will play a key part in the movie.

The narrative during one scene was also cleverly done. A man in the trailer (seemingly some kind of government official perhaps?) explains that there is a 'situation'. He then proceeds to name the symptoms of this 'situation' (disease) and as he is naming them, it shows several diferent people who are showing the symptoms (a woman sitting on a park bench, unable to speak as the man explains one symptom is a "loss of speech"). This method is used effectively as it gives the viewers examples of what these symptoms do to a person.

That's this analysis done. My next analysis will likely be on the Inception trailer, so stay tuned!

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Limitless trailer

Limitless movie poster

Limitless is a film about a pill. Okay not a pill, but about a man who takes this pill. After a chance meeting with an old friend, struggling writer Eddie Morra is given a pill that allows him 100% access to his brain, unlike normal people who can only access 20%. With his new-founded heightened sense of inteligency, he sets out to turn his life around. However, the pill soon begins to make him forget parts of his life, and he begins skipping time in his head, with no reccollection of how longs its been. Can Eddie stop the time skips and sort out the problems in his head before his boss Carl figures out whats going on? Honestly, I can't remember. Probably though, main characters don't tend to die too often. Anyway, on with the analysis.

there are quite a few feminist and marxist views throughout the trailer, meaning in my opinion this would be a good trailer to analyse. For starters, Eddie's character is a nobody. He is poor, out of luck, and has higher-up people staring down on him (e.g. the publisher, who he clearly had previous contact with as he states he'd like to "renegotiate his contract"), and is generally a pretty pathetic person really. However, this ll changes, and using the pill he soon rises above many of the previous people above him, and becomes equal to business man Carl (Robert De Niro), perhaps even better. This has positive and negative views on marxism. Whilst it is great that a nobody has risen to a somebody, he had to cheat to do it. This could impy that the lower class could never legitametly get higher up in the social hierarchy without having to cheat their way there.

Also in the trailer, there is a clear power divide between the men and women. For example, the men in this trailer are all powerful people, who either have a lot of money or just have authoirty, or in some cases both. However, the women are normally seen to just be there for sexual means, nothing more. This is likely supposed to show that there are no important female characters in this film, and that they are only used on certain occasions. This goes somewhat against normal feminist views, as the women are normally represented as needing the men to help, but in this there are no important enough women who need men.

Well, thats it for this post folks. Next i'll be analysing the Inception trailer so stay tuned! Sweet dream inside a dream inside a dream.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THE_hhk1Gzc 

We need your help!

Okay, so a little news on our grouping- Me and Dan McGinley are going to be working together to produce our Thriller opening, but we need your help. We cannot decide which type of Thriller we should film. So, we've decided to leave it up to you, the audience. There should be a poll now loaded up on me and Dan's blogs, so if you could go to either one of them (michaelnavarrofoundationproduction.blogspot.co.uk/danielmcginleyfoundationproduction.blogspot.co.uk)
and pick the choice you think we should do. The poll closes on the 4th of October 2012 at midnight, so make sure to vote before then! Thanks for your help!

James Bond: Casino Royale trailer

One of the posters for the movie

James Bond: Casino Royale was the 21st film in the James Bond saga but the first to include Daniel Craig in his new role as the smooth talking MI6 agent. It involves Bond, at the beginning of his career, having to play in a high stakes poker game to try bankrupt bad guy Le Chiffre, banker to the worlds most dangerous terrorists, and force him into giving up information to MI6 in return for help to go into hiding. It was supposed to be a re-imagining of the James Bonds series, so it is technically a different Bond in a different timeline, not the same as the original Bonds.

In the trailer, there is a serious lack of feminist views. Asides from 'M' and Vespa, there are no other women, and the two mentioned don't really say much. This shows the targert audience for this clip and also that the men are more dominant in the film. The last point is further supported by the fact that it is only men that play the poker game, and they are all rich and powerful- Their women just hold their arm or watch from afar.

However, not all female portrayal in this trailer is negative. The character of 'M' is portrayed positively from a feminists point of view. She has risen to the top of MI6 and is now the leader, being superior to even the rough, tough James Bond. This contradicts stereotypes in thriller films, as the women nearly always are rather innocent and need Bond to protect them, but 'M' can take care of herself, even though she is older than other characters. However, the charcater of Vespa portays women in  negative way anyway, as she doesn't retain her power throughout the whole film, and seeingly loses it after she decides to do what most girls would in the Bond universe and follow Bond. However, Vespa does seem to be more sympathetic than other characters, asking Bond about "killing people" and what its like. Overall though, it seems as though the women in this film are used solely to satisfy the males (mainly Bond's), as they can break the males emotional wall.

Finally, a Marxist view shows that Le Chiffre is in some ways better than his terorist associates, but they still have more power. This is because the terrorists need Le Chiffre to keep a look on their finances and they return the favour by doing terrorist activities to help his shares in companies rise. However, the power shifts when Le Chiffre loses the poker game to Bond. Almost instantly the terrorist organisations turn on him and he is shortly thereafter killed (if you've seen the film you'll know).

That's this trailer analysis done. Next one is Limitless, starring Bradley Cooper of Hangover fame. Like last time, the link to the trailer is below, so you can watch it if you haven't yet. Again, let me know if you find anything you want to add.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4T551JuZkA

Eden Lake trailer

The movies poster

The movie is about a couple, Jenny and Steve, that escape for a romantic getaway near a remote lake in a forest somewhere. However, after being there for a while, a group of teenaged hooligans show up and start to ruin the romance for them. After haviong his keys and bag of clothes stolen by the group of boys (and girl), he decides enoughs enough and confronts them. However, after a brief scuffle, Steve accidentally killed the group's leader's dog with a knife one of the other boys had produced. Angrily, the leader tells them to leave, which they do. However, the leader (Brett) decides he does want revenge and hunts them down. After crashing the car and getting trapped, Steve tells Jenny to go and seek help. It is now up to Jenny to escape the forest and save them both, whilst Brett and his gang get closer.

The movie somewhat contradicts the stereotypical feminist view in thrillers, mainly near the end of the film. This is because the film starts with the man (Steve) clearly being the one in charge in the relationship, evident by the way he just ignores Jenny (the woman) as she begs him to not confront the boys. This changes however, when Steve becomes trapped by a branch in the car. She is given the responsibility (albeit by Steve) of going to get help. This shows that, although she was given the power by a man, she still has the power now. The man has lost all his power, and she becomes the main character. This is why it differs from the norm with thriller movies. Also, on this feminist point of view on things, there is a women part of the hoolifgans group. This shows there is some equality between the two, however there is only one girl and about 4 to 5 guys, which also implies there isn't much equality.

One thing to note, a marxists view this time, is that the couple seem to be middle class. A nice car, lots of stuff packed etc. However, the rebellious youths seem to come from a lower class background. This is evidenced by the way they speak and dress, bearing similarities to the modern day CHAV. This also implies the lower class have to use violence in order to overthrow the higher class. This shows there is no equality in this film between the two protagonists (Steve and later Jenny) and Brett and his gang (the antagonists). Also, on this topic, Steve isn't picking on the boys because they are lower in the social hierarchy to him. He isn't even picking on them, he is merely telling them to be more respectful and remember there are other people here. This may seem nice from a marxist point of view, however I disagree. I disagree because the young lads ignore him completely and continue to disrupt his life, even going as far as to steal from him. For this reason, I believe that Steve's warnings that are intended to be good actually come across as bad for the social hierarchy.

There is a link to the trailer below if you want to watch it yourself and come to a conclusion yourselves. Let me know in the comments if you've thought of anything else to add!

Thanks for reading, next blog will be an analysation of the James Bond movie, Casino Royale.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6j3K4MmOKs 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVJ8VeTk9Ps

Die Hard 4.0 is the latest installment to the Die Hard franchise, and stars Bruce Willis in his recurring role as Officer John McClane, the smooth talking police officer. In this installment, John has to stop a new bad guy from doing some serious damage to world, like usual. The only difference? his time, the bad guy is hacking the worlds computers to attempt to complete his task.

The trailer starts with the male antagonists voice, which is common for films like this. What is uncommon is the fact that the antagonists face is shown right at the start of the trailer. This could be suppose to signify the antagonists lack of fear, and he doesn't want to hide his face- He wants everyone to know who he is.

What we can also see from the trailer about the antagonist, asides from his apparent lack of fear, is that he is male and seemingly rich or at least definitely not poor. This is stereotypical again in these movies, as the antagonist is normally a rich and powerful male.

Now for the protagonist, John McClane. John has become a well known character thanks to his previous three films, so fans know by now he is a humorous, cocky character, who like the antagonist fears nothing, even jumping onto a Jet Plane to try and get the pilot. This shows he is devoted too, and this point is also proved true when he puts himself in harms way to try and save his daughter. He also has is catchphrase, one that is well know the world over- "Yipi-kayay, motherf****r!". One similarity between him and his enemy for this film is they are both determined- The antagonist is determined that he is doing america a favor, and John is determined to stop him. Also, John seems more middle class whereas the antagonist (as stated before), seems to be rich. This could show an overthrowing of the upper class (as John does defeat the antagonist at the end of the film). Also, after the main antagonists opening speech, it shows John walking through a door in slow motion. This shows he is the main character, as he gets his own intro right after the antagonists. Finally, he is a very old-school character. For example, he refers to the nerds 'Command Centre' as a basement, showing his thoughts on what is a technically superior location.

There is another antagonist, but the difference is that this one's female. She is only seen a few times in the trailer, but the main time she is seen is when she has just been defeated by John, who is seen running her down in a car. This is odd, as in the actual movie she was just beating up John with kung-fu fighting moments before, but the trailer doesn't show this, only her when she's defeated. This could be to show her as weak, like all women should be, despite the fact that earlier in the trailer she is seen stepping off a helicopter with authority. The trailer also shows her using a laptop to download something, which implies she is given authority. however, this authority would have been given by the male antagonist, so she is still really just a pawn to the antagonist.

The daughter, Lucy McClane, is a little more stereotypically 'woman' for these films, as she is kidnapped by the male antagonist during the course of the film. This shows females weaknesses (John doesn't ever get kidnapped), and that the female rely on the burly male to save them.

The soundtrack throughout is quite loud but fits the scenes well. At one point, it shows John killing several people in different scenes, and the soundtrack makes the scene seem normal for the character, perhaps implying the film will be similar again.

This is perhaps more of a side-note, but both the antagonist and protagonist hold the phones they're using in an odd way. They don't seem to care about it either, which could reflect on their personality, that they also don't care.

The quote "Is your country willing to pay?" is also very serious, and reflects the antagonists thoughts on what he is doing. He also says that he's "doing America a favor." Again this shows his seriousness, and perhaps means that he is a man you shouldn't take lightly, and that this antagonist McClane is going against could be his toughest yet.

Here's the next image that I analysed. It is the pretty well known Gorilla from the Cadbury's advert, who's Phil Collins drumming has become a bit of a hit on media websites like YouTube. I will be analysing this one like I analysed the Lynx poster, and also

Cadbury's famous Gorilla

First thing to note is that the gorilla isn't exactly ordinary. It is playing the drumming role of the Phil Collins song 'In The Air Tonight', which is very out of the ordinary. The choice of song is important, as it's drum beat and lyrics are ones that a lot of people know, so they can relate to it. Also, it is a very catchy song, meaning people will remember the advert better. This makes it most likely that Cadbury's thought about the song choice very carefully, and chose one that would stick with people for a while. Also, the song itself isn't exactly normal, in both lyrics and the fact it isn't (nowadays) a song that is played very often. 

The advert deviates from the normal for the very obvious reason that it is a monkey playing the drums- definitely not normal. This idea suggests the chocolate is out of the ordinary too, but in a good way (like how good the gorilla can play the drums). The target audience for this advert would of course be any chocolate lovers out there, or any fans of Cadbury's. 

My homework for this week was to research Marxism and Feminism, which I did and got the definitions for each one:

Feminism- When women have equal rights in all aspects of life to men. 

Marxism- When is treated with social equality (like communism).

We then did more work on the two in class, which involved taking notes on both of them, which can be read below:

Marxism

• Karl Marx- Ideologies (Communist future, classless societies, pure equality)
• Class systems (Economical/political)
• Ruling classes (Workers)
• Alienation and exploration of working class (Revolt, Revolution)

Feminism

• Vulnerability
• Historical- Patriarchy
• Equality
• Specific
• Gender equality

Finally for this post, here are some definitions I wrote down:

Inference- Reach a conclusion by working things out.

Deduction- Reach a conclusion by reasoning from something known. 

Thriller- A book, film or play depicting crime, mystery or espionage in an atmosphere of excitement or suspense. 

Representation- All representations have ideologies behind them (Levi-Strauss, 1956). To be meaningful, representation needs to be shared. Recognition of people, situation, ideas etc. 

That's this post done, my next one will be mainly about feminism. Before I go, I've included a link to the Cadbury's gorilla advert, incase you (somehow) haven't seen it yet. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo



The Lynx poster I analysed

This is the first image that I analysed for my media work. I am writing this up form notes I made in the lesson based on my initial impressions of the poster and my more in-depth analysis. If the image doesn't work for whatever reason, I have attached a link at the bottom of this post to take you to the website I got this image from.

So, the first thing to note about this image is the obvious reference to Prince Harry's little 'incident' in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. As you probably know, he was caught partying and living it up in Vegas near the beginning of August, and this poster was released  very shortly after that. The other majorly obvious thing is that Lynx are taking the blame for Harry's shortcomings, that their deodorant is that good that it can help you get into situations like Harry's, which is honestly implying any guy would have loved to have been him at that point (which is pretty much true). This is a very clever way of marketing the product, because of course Lynx isn't really responsible for helping Harry out, but due to their way of marketing it they are able to put possibly the smallest thought in someone's head like "did they really help?", which is impressive and pretty clever.

Now for the more in-depth stuff. For starters, it doesn't actually say anywhere on the poster that the 'Harry' reffered to in the poster is Prince Harry. So how do we know? Simple. The crown above the O (shaped like a head perhaps?) symbolises it is Prince Harry, and not, say, Harry Potter. Another thing about the crown is that it is slanted. Why is this important? Well, the slanted crown implies the Prince is a bit of a party animal, as Prince's would never wear a slanted crown- it's informal. Another thing is this poster actually shows the company's (Lynx) views on the event. The lettering uses the same font as the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' posters, showing the company do not think it is such a big issue.

In reference to audience reactions, I think most audiences would react positively to this poster as is tongue-in-cheek humour, and enjoyable too. Also, it portrays the shared view that it wasn't that big of a deal, supporting the positive response the poster is likely to recieve.

Well, that's all for this post. As promised, the link to the website where I got the image from is below, in case it wasn't working. Next post, i'll be analysing the famous Cadbury's advert. Which one? Well here's a clue- It involves Phil Collins and a certain primate. Until next time!

Michael Navarro-Marin, A-Level Media student

Website link: http://www.campaignbriefasia.com/2012/08/lynx-and-bbh-say-sorry-to-harr.html

This is my first blog, and it is just a summary of what i'll be using this for. I will be using blogger for A-Level Media, in which I will be posting my work and any other updates on the opening to a Thriller movie I shall eventually be filming.