GarageBand Peer Evaluation

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Garage Band Peer Evaluation

For the Garage Band audio work, we needed to write our own self evaluation for our work and a short evaluation for one of our peers who did the work. I chose to watch Josue's audio work he did for 'Menace II Society', he included a lot of new instruments and music into the scene he chose and made it a lot more dramatic, but keeping with the clip's intended and original tone.

The entire 1 minute clip is accompanied by Josue's authentic score and it helps create a tense and cinematic atmosphere, but still keeps the same mood and meaning of the actual clip that featured no music.

The music that Josue included was very orchestral and helped make the clip even more dramatic than originally intended.

Overall, Josue did a very good job, he managed to change the feel of the clip with the use of a score, but, at the same time, keeps the actual meaning and mood of the original clip.

The Birds Clip Evaluation

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The Birds Clip Evaluation

With re editing this clip from Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds', I included the orchestral music to the scene to modernise it and see if I could replicate the suspenseful nature of the scene with the inclusion of music. The clip sees one of the characters walking in on an empty house, only to find out that her husband/friend/neighbour has been savagely attacked and killed by a flock of birds.

The sounds I used was a mixture of Hollywood strings (which features many violins that sound like that they're from other Hollywood productions) and has some science fiction elements hidden in there, I chose an instrument for the main theme to make it sound like a B- movie horror film. This film has the premise of a B- movie, too, so I thought that it would be a good idea to include strange extra- terrestrial sounds to hint at a possible science fiction back story for the attacking birds. During the period of the clip where Mrs. Brenner (the woman seen in the clip) is walking through the hallways of the silent house, I had the Hollywood strings play on one one for a long time to build tension musically, until I stopped it at a certain point.

When Mrs. Brenner finds Farmer Fawcett's dead body, the clip originally had no music as it zoomed in on the farmer's plucked out eyes. With my re edited clip, I included a few seconds of a heavy guitar riff called Mosh Pit, which gives out a heavy/death metal vibe which is commonly used in a lot of modern horror films, so I incorporated it into my clip. I got a mixture of a classic Hollywood orchestra, 80's B- movie science fiction synthesiser type music, and then a small heavy metal tune, so it covers 3 different eras of different theatrical musical styles from horror films throughout the genres run, more specifically 60's- 00's.

I think that the inclusion of the music that I made in GarageBand adds a very good effect, in some cases it makes the film seem more cinematic and dramatic, whilst also keeping in theme with Hitchcock's original campy  1960's horror tone.

Critical Approaches- Task 3

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Critical Approaches

Task 3.3

'Audience Theory and Violence'

Hypodermic Needle Theory

'Scarface'

When I watched the 1983 film 'Scarface', not only did I watch it as part of the task, but I wanted to watch it because, me being quite a movie buff, I thought that it was quite an important film for me to watch. I had heard a lot of positive things about it from my friends and my father, and actually tried to watch it once, but I stopped about half way through because it was too long and I couldn't get into it. After watching it the second time, I have to say that I was really entertained and the over- the top violence was a big factor.

I love violent films and actually started watching them from a very early age, with the first one being 'RoboCop'. After watching so many violent films I actually started to be desensitised, at first I would cringe and feel distress at the sight of a lot of blood in a film but as the years progressed I just shrug it off as if it's nothing because although I know that it's fake, gore in a film isn't anything that remotely bothers me. I started to research other violent films that I could watch (many of them being martial arts films and crime thrillers) I noticed that a lot of them received some controversy due to some audience members copying acts of violence from the exact film. One film that I love is 'Jackass: The Movie', a comedy film where the cast perform dangerous and outrageous stunts, I found out that a few weeks after its initial release, somebody decided to drench his friend in gasoline and light him on fire, claiming that the movie made him do it. I found this weird, because I have watched this film (and it's sequels) every year from 2006 and I have never attempted anything stupid like this. This is called the "hypodermic needle theory" where audience react psychologically to media text differently. With 'Scarface' being a really violent film, and also being about a violent, tortured gangster, I wondered whether certain people react to this film in the same vein. Audiences are split when it comes to film violence because you either love it or you hate it, and nothing comes out clearer than the split audience reception of the apocalyptic production number finale of this film, where the lead character, Tony Montana is trying to get out of his mansion alive after his sister is killed and several rival gangs are after him, and he dies after a bloody battle. It's fair to say that this scene is fairly chaotic and somewhat unrealistic, which is why I personally don't think that many people would be triggered by the scene or film to copy it or do anything similar. Interestingly enough, though, the first video game that acts as a "quasi- sequel" to the movie, 'Scarface: The World is Yours" was banned in Germany after several teen players began their own small drug cartels similar to Montana's, complete with some weapons. Supposedly, the violence in this game had a huge impact on those who bought and played it, meaning that the game somewhat hypnotised the younger audiences even more than the movie, which I don't even think caused that much trouble. I watched this movie to be entertained, and I was, but it seems that other people seem to be psychologically "linked" to the film as if they're brainwashed. On a sort of unrelated topic; the director, Brian De Palma has received major criticism over the years due to his films' trademark style of "women hating wickedness", saying that his films either over sexualise women, use sexual violence on them or "chop them up", this has led many anti- violence organisations to believe that his films are partly responsible for troubled youths, solely in America.

 'City of God'

The hypodermic needle theory, when applied to the violent acts committed in this Brazilian film, is fairly easier to analyse. For one, this film was written and shot to look as realistic as possible, with the director making frequent use of a filming technique called "shaky- cam", where you hand hold the camera for most of the shots, creating a real documentary look. It is easier to say that the hypodermic needle theory would be more affective for this film because it is a very realistic film, with most of the actors having been brought up in the Favela where the movie was based at. The gruesome and violent scenes are also a huge factor, there is a scene where the film's antagonist, Lil' Ze overhears a child gang called 'The Runts' talking about killing him in order to become the top gangsters in the Favela. This causes him to butt in and threaten and torture  two of them. He shoots them both in the foot and hand, and then gets a third child to choose one and brutally murder them in cold blood. In a second scene, Lil' Ze is rejected by a girl who has a boyfriend (Knockout Ned). He becomes enraged and violently rapes her in front of Knockout Ned. These two scenes are very distressing to watch, and the violent acts depicted in the film can be associated with the 'nature vs. nurture' debate, which concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities (nature) versus personal experiences (nurture). This debate can apply both to the characters within the film, and the audience that watch the film and might have the same personality and violent tendencies as the sadistic characters from the film. The films' depiction of gang culture within the Favela could lead to many to recreate or re-enact whatever the gang does for their own wealth and financial gain. In some strange way, it's reversed, as you could say that the violence and gangs in the real life Favela influenced the film- makers to make the film depicting what actually happens between the gangs in the slums.

'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'
Finally, we talk about the British comedy crime thriller, 'Lock, Stock'. Unlike the first two films that we have had a look at that appear to have been very influential in terms of real life gang violence, I don't think that this would influence people to go out and commit crimes and kill people (even though some people do) because the film is so funny. Although the film is very violent and shows many horrible things, it is very comedic and is written in a humorous way, with many quirky characters. The film was made entirely for a British audience, most likely influence young British minds to murder and steal. There is one scene where one character is shot at, but only the middle of his hair his blown off, another scene shows a character being beaten to death by a dildo and there is even one very tough character who commits all of his crimes with his loyal, but impressionable young son by his side, often telling him not to swear and to put his seat belt on. It's parts of the movie like this that shows why it would be very difficult to see how youths could be influenced by the characters in the film, only because the film is so silly and has a very dark and comical mood that ultimately separates itself from the other two films, that are more open to impressionable people.

Uses and Gratification Theory

'Scarface'
The 'Uses and gratification theory' is an audience approach about understanding why people use certain media texts to satisfy different needs. When applying this theory to Brian de Palma's 'Scarface', we can say that audiences would watch 'Scarface' to be entertained and escape reality and have fun and enjoy themselves, but they would still need to pay attention to the film because there are a lot of characters and has a very complex story.. Since this is a very over- the top movie with a lot of chaotic scenes and overblown violence (and an over- the top performance by Al Pacino) audiences could want to watch this to relieve tension and see it as a diversion from real life. That's what it good about most movies because even though they could be quite dark with very serious adult themes such as a story of a dangerous drug kingpin and the somewhat psychological side of the character and his past, they don't ever seem to forget that they're suppose to entertain the audience. This film is clearly for tension release needs.

'City of God'
A film like this could have been made for either tension release for a bit of very dark entertainment, or for cognitive needs. This is for audiences who want to understand something, for example; the trouble with gang violence that happened in a Favela, the film is fictitious, yes, but the film goes through many real life themes. As I mentioned before, the film was shot in an actual Favela (albeit, a less dangerous one than the one the film is based on) and many of the 'actors' had never acted before and the story is actually very true to life. Audiences could find this film to be very interesting and might want to watch it to gain some World knowledge about the crisis that goes on over there. While watching this film, I couldn't help but think about the 2008 action film 'Rambo', the film was actually shot in war torn Burma (now Myanmar) and the entire film revolves around the real life crisis of Burma's strict military rule. Both films, whilst entertaining in their own way, are very realistic and share the exact same gritty directing style. 'Rambo' actually features some news reels about Burma at the beginning of the movie, and some Burmese characters in the film are played by people who actually grew up in Burma in the early days of its rule. That is one similarity between the two film that the knowledgeable audience can identify with.

'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'
Similar to 'Scarface', audiences may want to watch this film to be entertained, because the film is a comedy. Like 'Scarface', there are many different characters, and all of there stories interconnect in a way that makes this film a part of hyperlink cinema; this means a film that has multiple stories happening all at once, so you would need to pay extremely close attention and remember a lot of small moments, as well as key moments in order to understand the film. But, the film is a comedy so audiences may get distracted along the way due to characters or scenes in the film that are overly comedic. I know that I have certainly watched many films that have long, complex stories where I have been continuously distracted from the plot because of the jokes. The film is a crime thriller, but shot as a comedy, which I think was a very clever way to make the film because it could give the audience mixed emotions on what the film is; is it a comedy with a crime backdrop, or a crime thriller with a comedy backdrop. I have always wondered this ever since I watched it and many films' have made me feel like this, Tarantino's films are very comedic in a lot of ways, with quirky characters in funny situations, but accompanied by a dark, serious story and tone. This film is for entertainment reasons.

The Birds clip

SORRY ABOUT THE CRAPPY PICTURE QUALITY

Audience Theory- Hypodermic Needle 'City of God' and 'Scarface'

Tyree

Task 3.2

Hypodermic Needle Model

'City of God' and 'Scarface'

The hypodermic needle model is an audience theory suggesting that an intended message from the media is directly received and accepted by the receiver (the audience). We can apply this theory to two extracts, one from the Brazilian film 'City of God' and 'Scarface'.

City of God

The extract from this film featured the main antagonist, Lil' Ze horrifically torturing two young boys and wannabe up and coming gangsters. He backs them up into a corner and shoots them both in the feet, he then forces a third boy to choose and kill one of them. I found this particular scene to be darkly comic because of the sound of what the scene is like if you describe it with words (to me, anyway) but when watched on screen, then I see why this scene can be deemed very disturbing to any viewer. The actual film itself also features a 'nature vs nurture' psychology of Lil' Ze, you see, he was born and brought up in a 'favela' (which is the slums) and violence is the only thing that he knows, so naturally, Lil' Ze developed into a dangerous drug kingpin and crime lord.

The way that the film- makers shot this scene (and the film) was through the use of shaky cam; which is a cinematography technique where the camera is hand held, creating a realistic and gritty tone. This is mainly used in action films for dramatic effect, but when it is used for films like this, I think it enhances the look and tone of the film. It makes a documentary feel and makes the film seem very realistic, which is good when you want to make the audience feel tense.

With this being a film from Brazil, I don't think many people would be affected by this film and told to kill in the English speaking countries like the US when it was released. I think that this film would have been more affective to Brazilian audiences, due to the harsh reality of an otherwise fictitious film, also the film was completely shot in a real favela to add to the realistic tone.

Scarface

The extract from this film was the entire final shootout scene from the end of the film, this is when Tony is being attacked by several rival gangsters and he is jacked up on cocaine, and starts to go on a violent rampage. Unlike the audience members from when the film was initially released, I didn't find this scene very disturbing or anything, but I do see why it sparked some controversy. I think this scene in particular was a lot of fun, it featured very cathartic and over- the- top violence which just added onto the action packed excitement of the film. This scene has the stylised sensibility of an 80's action movie which contrasts compared to the rest of the film which is very dark and serious. 

The film was shot and edited in a very 80's cheese way, there is a lot of smoke filling the scene within the camera shots and the blood effects in the film are very over the top, quite like an overly violent cartoon. Every time somebody is shot it seems like that the bullets explode once they hit the persons' body. The scene takes itself very seriously which, to me just adds on to the fun and enjoyment of the scene.

Me personally, don't find this scene disturbing in any way, mainly because I have watched a lot of violent action and horror films over the years, so I am desensitised to when it comes to film violence and I think nothing of it when I see it. I don't think that the 'hypodermic needle model' works particularly well with this extract because this film is very cheesy and not at all that disturbing. 'City of God' on the other hand is a bit more possible because of the ultra realistic tone of the film.

Encoding and Decoding Work

Tyree

Task 3.1

Encoding and Decoding

Stuart Hall's Theory

'Scarface'

Uses and gratification theory

This theory is based around the psychology of the audience members and how they react to certain media text, especially when it comes to film. If a film or television programme expresses a negative emotion, the audience would get a negative emotion and it would distract them from watching the film itself. This also works with something like this; if somebody is in a good mood, they would be more interested in watching something or reading a book, as opposed to being in a bad mood. Another way of saying this is that people use different types of media at certain times in order to satisfy their own needs.

Hypodermic Needle Theory
This interesting, but outdated theory tries to prove that an intended audience believes whatever they hear or see in different types of mediums. A good example of this is; in 1991, two boys were prosecuted for the murder of James Bulger, it has been said by the two boys that they were influenced by the horror film 'Child's Play 3' and the films' villain, Chucky to carry out this killing. They were said to have seen the death scenes within the film in a positive way and therefore were inspired to do the same. The actual theory itself was created and developed by Germans during the 1930's with the use of Nazi propaganda, to get people to fear the Nazi's during war time.

Reception study
This theory means when a group of readers/audience members interpret the authors' text in a similar way, and it also helps when the group share the same cultured background as each other. Something like this could be considered immensley difficult if one reader has a less shared heritage to the artist, the more unlikely it is that they would understand what the artist was trying to achieve.   

Passive/active consumption

This theory means two things; passive consumption means that we see the media text shown before us, whether it is fiction of real- life, and we view it and accept it. Active consumption means that once you view the media text you will critically address it and analyse it before ultimately accepting what it is, whilst also keeping your own personal views on it. When it comes to violence in film, and the 1983 film 'Scarface', we can see what the audience's separate reactions are.

For audience reactions to the film's violent content, we can assume that back then there were a lot of people who were not entirely favourable to the bloody mess the film turned out to be, and so those people decided to negatively pick apart what they would believe to be a bad aspect of the film. The director, Brian de Palma actually had to cut the film a total of 3 times in order to make the Studio executives and test audiences happy with the final film. When asking which version of the movie De Palma was allowed to release, the executives at the Studio couldn't tell the difference between the 3 cuts, so De Palma smartly tricked them into releasing the more violeent second cut of the movie, and this is the cut that many people have been having mixed opinions over ever since.

The film recieved a lot of criticism for it's excessive violence when it was originally released, splitting audiences inbetween, the reason for the negative backlash from certain audience members could be due to a personal incident that caused psychological harm that is somehow represented in the film and thus, when viewing this film, triggers bad memories. Overtime, though, the active side of the audience learnt to accept the films' overly violent content and themes, and although they may still not agree with it and how it was dealt with or shown on screen, they respect it for making the film one of the most iconic and recognisable of the genre.

When it comes to passive audiences, they are much easier to deal with. These are the sort of audience members that have no problem with the violence of 'Scarface' or violence in any film for that matter. This could be because they are dissensitised from the hardcore violence they see and don't see anything to worry about. What I mean by 'dissensitised' is that if you have watched gruesome horror films from an early age or violent action films and you have groen up with them, you will be mentally unfazed by recent violent material that you see, hence the desensitization. Although there are some film fans out there that will find the one moment of film that they don't particularly want to watch, they watch it anyway because even though it can look very realistic, they know it's fiction and are psychologically unharmed.

With 'Scarface' and the violent scenes it features, it is well known that part of the film's later success is from the heavy violence, a giant number of cinems goers to enjoy watching violence for entertainment value, and that is still common today, recent films like 'Saw' and 'The Expendables' movies show that violence is no problem to a lot of people, and they accept what they see because, to them, it is a part of the film and fits in perfectly with the tone.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels Blog Journal

Tyree

Task 2.3

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels Blog Journal

Target Audience- British Audiences

Similar to 'City of God', the film was written in its own British dialect with a British speaking targeted audience, the same way that 'City of God' was specifically written for Brazilian speaking audiences. This makes the film very culturally different compared to 'Scarface' which is a big Hollywood production with a big name star and director and in a business side of things, open to a wider audience, whereas this film is on a smaller scale and featured (at the time) unknown actors and an unknown director. Visually and artistically, the film was shot with dark, gloomy lighting, giving the film a slight grey/green tint. The film also has the actors wearing very authentic costumes and speaking in conventional (or stereotypical, if you're an International viewer) London cockney slang. The writer/director, Guy Ritchie immediately knew that American/International audiences would never understand what any of the characters are saying, due to the characters using 'cockney rhyming slang', so in one scene, he edits in some some subtitles so  that the rest of the World can briefly understand what they're saying. The inclusion of these subtitles adds onto the humorous tone of the film, and the scripts dark British wit.

This scene featured subtitles so American/International audiences understood what they were saying. This is a good example of the films' tone and sense of humour.

Genre Convention- Crimes

A common convention for all gangster films, and 'Scarface' and 'City of God', the whole film revolves around several criminals and different crimes. Many of the crimes committed are overly violent and are brought on because of drug and weapons deals that have gone awry. Although the crimes seen in the film are very dangerous and chaotic, very little blood is seen,  particularly in the shoot- out scenes. We can compare the differences in the level of violence and how it is shown with 'Scarface', which similarly features many gun battles, but this film shows a lot of blood and it really goes to show the artistic differences between Guy Ritchie and Brian de Palma. Another common scene that is shown in most gangster films is that the gangsters plan out and strategise what they're all going to do, giving the term "organised crime".

Representation- Anti- Heroes and Villains

When it comes to who the 'heroes' are for this film, it is very difficult to determine who in particular they are. Although we can clearly say that the four heroes are Tom, Soap, Eddy and Bacon, the gangsters that the film centres on mostly, they aren't really anything like a conventional hero seen in a film. They are violent gangsters who re trying to save their own skin and are instead seen as 'anti- heroes', because all of them lack the traditional hero qualities, even though they are quite incompetent and don't seem to know what they're doing half the time, and even if they do know what they're doing, they have trouble knowing how to execute it. It's things like these that make them very likeable. We can compare the representation of the characters to the other two gangster films we've watched in class. In 'Scarface', Tony Montana was, at first, our protagonist; he was the central focus of the film and even had some morals when it came to certain things, but he eventually became the film's antagonist once he becomes a notorious drug kingpin. Rocket from 'City of God', heads to a much different, unconventional route. He is in some way a traditional hero, he doesn't do anything remotely evil, and he's a very quiet, mild mannered character who doesn't dream of becoming a powerful gangster or a drug lord, but instead dreams of being a photographer, which is a try honest occupation. Comparisons like these is what shows the difference between different characters. When it comes to the film's villains, Hatchet Harry and Rory Breaker are very conventional gangster film villains; they are extremely powerful, imposing and threatening, and have a recognisable appearance that other characters would fear, we can compare them as villains to Lil' Ze from 'City of God', he was a very powerful person in his line of work, but unlike Harry and Breaker, he is a lot more cruel and mental, rather than threatening enemies with wise words, he threatens them with with his itchy trigger finger. For the rest of the villains who are seen as lower level employees, they are incompetent, too. This film makes the characters out to appear not very good at their jobs, except for Harry and Breaker, and Big Chris (played by Vinnie Jones) . The 'Big Chris' character though constantly tells his son not to curse whilst he's working, which is very funny considering his image, and it's character traits like this that help out with the comedic tone of an otherwise dark film.

Narrative- Unconventional story

This film doesn't feature a 'rise to power' storyline like any other gangster film. With this being a crime-thriller- comedy, it has to feature a story that is simple enough to allow enough jokes in order to entertain the audience. The story is as follows; one of the four lead gangsters, Tom gets in dept with Hatchet Harry, an all- powerful gangster, so he devises a heist with his friends to save his own life. A story like this has the opportunity for many different jokes, and it is made better by the various other interconnected stories that happen around the main one. The 'hyperlink cinema' aspect of the film, mixed with the darkly comic nature of the film brings me to make small comparisons with another film, Pulp Fiction. This film's plot also features various different stories that all go on at the same time, ultimately building up to the first scene in the film, which is actually its last. The final act of the film sees all of the gangsters going after 3 different objects of desire, respectively. These are a batch of weed, some drug money belonging to Rory and a pair of expensive and rare guns. Seeing all of these chases and funny plots at the end of the film, I can't help but think that the film- makers took some inspiration from the 1963 comedy film, 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World', a very strange sort of comparison, but it does seem possible due to 'Lock Stock's' comedic tone. So, narratively, this film is very unconventional but I think that it helped the film's success by giving a unique spin on the gangster genre, especially in British film, and the tone and style has been replicated for other films like 'Snatch' or 'Big Nothing'.

City of God Blog Journal

Tyree

Task 2.2

City of God Blog Journal

Audience- The main target audience for this film is obviously fans of gangster films, and there are many. The only big difference for this film is that it is a Brazilian film which means that it contains subtitles, which further more could harm the films success with foreign audiences. This gangster film could be considered as an "acquired taste" film because the members of the audience would have to be interested in foreign language film. Even though this film has all of the main narrative and plot points of other gangster films such as 'Carlito's Way' (the lead character 'Rocket' even shares the same goal as Carlito Brigante; to escape a life he did not choose to live in), but I will talk about that when I talk about a later aspect of the film, the success of this film could have been harmed because I think that foreign language films have smaller audience demographics than English speaking films (from an English speaking perspective, of course)

Genre conventions- The film features some of it's own gangster film conventions, as well as sharing some from other gangster films. For example, the film features many shady drug dealings and wars that happen throughout the film, this could be considered similar to 'Scarface' with Tony Montana's drug empire in which he is at war with other kingpin's drug businesses, this is replicated and included in this film with the scenes featuring Lil' Ze (the main antagonist and drug kingpin in 'City of God') who is at war with a smaller scale drug lord named Carrot. Another major genre convention that is played out during the film is the rise and fall of the characters, this is a common plotline for a lot of gangster films like 'Scarface', and it used to full effect in this film when Lil' Ze's "representation" is tattered and his world falls apart and is then ultimately killed. This part of the film is very similar to that of 'Scarface' when Tony gets too big for his boots, although it seems that 'City of God' deals with it in a more realistic way and a more modern way.

Representation- Similar to many other gangster films, the representation of the characters focuses mainly on the men, most notably Lil' Ze and Rocket, who is represented rather differently than in usual gangster films. Lil' Ze is a very powerful man, and in the film, shows that he shows no remorse for any of his actions and he doesn't seem to have any moral grounds, and we can compare this with Tony Montana, even though he is an aggressive and violent man, he does have very high morals and certainly knows when to stop (a good example of this is in the scene in 'Scarface' where Tony is being forced to blow up an enemies car, but has a woman and children inside, so he aggressively refuses and shoots a member of his team instead) whereas in the scene from 'City of God' when Lil' Ze is threatening a duo of small children, he violently shoots them in the foot like it's nothing, and seems to find joy in it. When it comes to our protagonist, Rocket, it is a very different story compared to the conventional main characters from gangster films. Rocket's personal story is  very similar to Carlito from 'Carlito's Way', both characters want to escape the terrible life that they have been brought up in and want to move to a better place. For Carlito, he has just been set free from a sentence in prison and would like to raise enough money from his nightclub in order to move to his own personal 'paradise', but his former life as a legendary gangster holds him back, as well as his moronic lawyer and best friend. In Rocket's story, he is a young man who has grown up and lived in the 'favela' (slums) for his entire life, surrounded by death and misery, and all he wants to do is become a successful photographer. In the end, he accomplishes what he wanted, so this 'rise to power' story is told in an unconventional and positive way.

Narrative- When it comes to the key conventional narratives of gangster films, and how they've been incorporated in this film, they are quite the same but told in a different way. First off, the main character of Rocket is NOT a gangster at all, he is a kind, quiet boy who tries to get through life as honestly as possible, and his troubles in the film are realistic worries that anybody from the slums would worry about. Another similarity with 'Carlito's Way' is that the film shows the ending first and then the rest of the film builds up to what is going to happen., this is called a 'cold open' and many films including Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction' have opened up like this. Another big similarity between Rocket and Carlito (besides both characters wanting to leave the crime- ridden area) is that they both narrate their respective stories, putting us in their shoes in order to view the series of events, it also makes us feel closer to the characters and allows us to relate to them more. Another smaller portion of the narrative could focus on Rocket's crush on a girl named Angelica, who he longs to be with, but she is with somebody else. This small plot line is similar to films such as 'Scarface' and 'Pulp Fiction', where the lead character (Tony Montana and Vincent Vega, respectively) is in love with his boss's/mentors' girlfriend/wife, although the story in 'City of God' is much different because they're just teenagers at that point in the film, but it does share a slightly similar plot point, that is then shrugged off in the rest of the film as a way of developing the characters in a less unconventional way, which is a good thing to do for a gangster film, especially if the film is not a traditional English language one.

Carlito's Way Analysis

The target audience for Carlito's Way are mainly fans of Al Pacino, Brian De Palma and of course, the gangster film genre. But I believe most of the fans come from Al Pacino's fan base, because this is not a conventional gangster film. The main character, Carlito isn't even a gangster throughout the film but a reformed criminal who runs a night club and is trying to raise enough money in order to leave the Country for a better life, all whilst trying to rekindle his relationship with a former flame and keep his drug- addled lawyer out of trouble.

The audience for this film would had to have seen Scarface before viewing this, as the film features all the same editing style, music selections and the overall tone of the film is very similar to Scarface, the only major difference being that this film takes place in 1975, not 1980. Just like Scarface, the film didn't do all that well in the public or critical eye when it was originally released, but gained a cult following and is now considered one of the greatest gangster films of all time, right next to Scarface and The Godfather. The film's cult following was so influential to popular culture of today that many characters appeared, albeit under different names in various video games made today, one example is the character of Ken Rosenberg in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City who is heavily based on Dave Kleinfeld (Sean Penn) in both his mannerisms and appearance. The film's later success also garnered the film a 2006 prequel called Carlito's Way: Rise to Power.

This film is very unconventional when it comes to being a gangster film. The main character in the film, Carlito isn't even a gangster at all in the film, but a person seeking redemption and looking for a quieter life in order to better himself and fit into a humble society. It isn't until his sleazy lawyer, Kleinfeld gets into a lot of trouble with some rival gangsters that forces Carlito to briefly get back into the life of crime. One of the more conventional aspects of the movie and the character of Carlito is his status, as throughout the film he is referred to as legendary and is seen as an influence and idol to any of the upcoming gangsters seen during the film. When it comes to women in the film, we can only say that the female characters (and minor supporting female characters) are treated like objects; in one scene, a dangerous gangster confronts Kleinfeld, threatening him to give 'his girl' back, the girl was just a waitress who served the gangster a lot of times. The women are also very sexualised, wearing very provocative clothing and working as strippers. Carlito's love interest, Gale is a stripper and we can draw comparisons to Tony Montana's Elvira, who also lived a poor lifestyle, although we can sympathise for Gale, as she wants a better life, similar to Carlito.

On the poster, Carlito is in a darkly lit area holding a gun. Even if you've seen the film or you haven't, we, as an audience can assume that Carlito is involved in a deadly battle as the look on his face is that of a truly terrified man who doesn't want to be included in whatever situation he is in. In actual fact, though, the image on the poster is clearly taken from one of the final scenes in the film where Carlito is trying to run and hide from a gang of imposing gangsters who are out for revenge after one of them is brutally murdered by Kleinfeld, the gangsters believe the murderer to be Carlito, as he was once known to them as a formidable gangster and a one- time rival. Another small portion of this analysis should be directed towards the text at the top of the poster, it reads in big, red letters: PACINO, clearly advertising to Al Pacino's fans, other names featured on the poster are Sean Penn and, to a lesser extent because you can't see it that well, Brian De Palma, all very big names at that time being used by the distributors to advertise to the film's intended target audience, to this day, distributors for Hollywood movies use the name of the stars (and sometimes the name of the director) in order to attract a wider audience and make more money.

Carlitos Way Trailer

Carlitos Way Poster

Tyree's Discovery Evaluation

Tyree Webster

Task 4- Continuity Editing
‘The Discovery’ Scenario Evaluation

How did I try to incorporate sound in the video?

The only sound I incorporated in while editing the video was the realistic sound of a breaking twig, and a section of the score from Marcus Nispel’s 2009 remake of ‘Friday the 13^th’. I decided to edit out the diegetic sounds from the actual shoot and replace it with the non- diegetic musical score to make it seem and feel more like a classic horror film, where there was hardly any sound that came from the environment. I feel that it was more affective this way.

What was my contribution to the video?

For this production, my key role was of the camera operator. While filming the scenario, I had to hide in a lot of tight places within the trees and bushes in order to gain the best footage and make it seem that somebody was following/watching Josue, our lead actor. In which later on at the end we reveal that the person who was following him was Tom, who goes to attack him.

How did it end up?

I think the final outcome of the video was really well done, we had some trouble edited the continuity because the first day we shot it was bright and sunny, then the second day we shot it was pouring rain, so there were some mild continuity issues, but it worked out just fine when I edited my individual edit.

I included the piece of music that I chose to specifically set the eery tone of being alone in the woods, I believe that if the music is softer, it makes the scene a lot more tense as towards the end the film could surprise you with something that you wouldn't expect (in this case, Tom attacking Josue). I do wish that I added in a loud frightening sound at the end, as a way of trying to make the audience jump or something. I edited the music to fit in with certain portions of the film sometimes, for example; when we see Tom's POV shot, I edited the music so that the signature Jason Voorhees sound is heard, thereby making Tom's presence known throughout the film, even though you do not see him,.

Tyree's Discovery

Public Enemies Poster Analysis- GANGSTER GENRE STUDY PART 1

Tyree

Public Enemies

Poster Analysis

I think that this poster for the 2009 film, Public Enemies is a very unconventional gangster film poster.

1. Selection of Content

WORDS- The words on the poster are in different sizes, the lead star's name, JOHNNY DEPP is quite small seeing as everybody pretty much knows who he is, his name is actually the same size and colour as the tagline that is above the title. The title of the film, PUBLIC ENEMIES is the largest piece of text on the poster, and has been written in a very bright white, in contrast to the colour of the poster that is quite dark. The release date of the film is also written in white so that it stands out just like the title, as they are the two most important aspects of the poster.

IMAGES- The only image seen on the poster is that of the notorious bank robber/gangster John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), he is standing at a police line- up, which is seen briefly in the background, and he is giving a sinister smile to the audience.

COLOURS- The colours on the poster have a little bit of a brown tint to the rest of the poster, the facial area of the lead character is the brightest image that is seen on the poster (aside from the text), the "border" around the character darkens around the edge of the poster.

FONTS- All I can say about this is that the font used is very bold, and almost looks Russian.

2. Codes and Conventions

ICONOGRAPHY- In the image of John Dillinger, he is wearing a brown suit (which is quite conventional for a gangster film), so it represents and means that he is a well respected gangster, even though he is a small time gangster, it shows that he has at least his own level of power, because it isn't a very flashy suit.

CONNOTATIONS- The poster design is really simple and doesn't show much, but his suit could still show the audience of how highly John Dillinger thinks of himself, and he likes to make sure that his appearance looks good.

MISE- EN- SCENE- Setting- John Dillinger is at a police line- up

                                    Costume- John Dillinger is wearing a nice 1930's suit, to look respectable.

                                    Lighting- The lighting of the poster is set so we clearly see John Dillinger's' face the clearest

                                    Props- There are no props seen on this poster, it is very unconventional

CAMERA- The camera is set on a close- up of John Dillinger's face, so that we can clearly see his facial expression and, in a way, how he truly feels about being caught by the police and taken to a police line- up.

Scarface Blog Journal

Tyree

Task 2.1

Scarface Blog Journal



Target Audience- The target audience for the classic mob film, Scarface has certainly turned out to be something that the film- makers and the distributors weren't expecting. Initially, the film was made for mostly a male audience, due to the tone of the film and the subject matter, as well as how men are portrayed as something of great superiority as opposed to women, who are very much seen as objects for the mobsters to look good, in fact, Michelle Pfeiffer’s character, Elvira, who is at first a trophy wife to Frank Lopez, played by Robert Loggia, eventually becomes Tony’s trophy wife, and she is extremely unhappy with both men, who treat her exactly in the same way, although, I think that Frank treats her a little bit nicer. But, as everybody knows, the film was not really that much of a success, it didn't make that much money, it made $65 million on a $25 million budget, so it didn't become the big hit that the studio were expecting. The film even gathered a mixed to positive reaction from audiences and critics. But, as time went by, the film developed a cult following with the most unlikely of audiences; gangsta rappers. Through a documentary that I watched, it is revealed that gangsta rappers adore and worship the living Hell out of this film to the point where they have tons of memorabilia of the film in their houses, all the way to the point where they name themselves after the lead characters' nickname, Scarface. The reason for this is because the gang culture can relate to Tony Montana, because they understand what it is like to have a rough upbringing and they know that the only way that they could become rich and successful is through the hard way, they lived their lives just like Tony did. They understand what the character goes through and why it happened, and they sympathise with him because to some of them, the gangster life is all they know, even now with all their money and wealth. The film is about a self- made man who came from a horrible background who rises at the top of the food chain the only way he knows how, and through this, the rappers and ultimately, the gang culture and the Black community see themselves in it. I have to say, though. It isn’t just the Black community who embrace Scarface, but anybody who has a massive interest in ‘thug life’, and even something as minimal as the poster is seen on many different things that we have come to know and identify with as gang culture. If anything, the poster is just as iconic as the movie, itself, becoming an instantly recognisable image in film and popular culture.

Genre conventions- The main convention of a gangster film actually serves as the story premise of this movie. A low life thug who only knows about crime is determined to rise through the ranks of criminality and become the  World's top gangster. This premise is used in a lot of gangster films, and of the three films that we have watched in class (City of God and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels) all have that one, or four characters that want to overthrow a higher power (in this film, the higher power is Frank and in Lock, Stock, we have Harry) although the hero/villain dynamic is very odd in this film. but, I will get to that when we talk about representation. The main character, Tony is also an immigrant who heavily dislikes his own status in life and wants more, and the only loyalty he feels is for his own immigrant roots. His wealth and power is shown by his material goods such as his fancy clothes and his mansion, and also, his wife, Elvira, who is, like all women in a gangster film, is also just a symbol of his success. In the end, this backfires and Tony's supposed success backfires.

Representation- The representation of characters in this is highly conventional for a film in this genre. The men (Frank and Tony) all play up the 'machismo' aspect of powerful men, they flaunt off their wealth at any given occasion, and the two characters' personalities reflect the level of power they are at. The female characters seen in the film are all ported as either a nagging mother (who is really just a minor character) or an overly sexualised junkie (Elvira and Gina), who happen to be very close to the lead character, Tony. This shows that the female characters are portrayed in a negative way, even if they are the main characters' wife, Elvira or his sister/second love interest?, Gina. Other minor female characters and extras that are female are also strippers or dancers, or just a girl that is being flirted with by Manny. Even though Elvira Hancock and Gina Montana can be seen as relatively strong characters who stand up to Frank and later, an aggressive Tony, they're still no match compared to the rest of the characters who are all male and happen to be very powerful in the drug trade. One thing I can say is different, though, is that even though Tony is still an aggressive, evil man, he has compassion and a heart, we know this because he seems to care a lot about his mother and sister's well- being when he brings money to them. On one assignment, he even refuses to detonate a bomb attached to a car due to the fact that there is a mother and small child inside, this is very unconventional for a drug lord character.

Narrative- The story of 'Scarface' is the most well known and conventional cinematic criminal story seen on screen; a low life immigrant thug who is sick of his own status in life decides to change that and make a success of himself in a huge drug trade in America. This story is so well known that it even inspired other titles to have similar stories, that are, for the most part, tweaked. In Rockstar Game's 'Grand Theft Auto: Vice City', a low life Italian criminal named Tommy Vercetti attempts to rise up in the ranks of criminality and eventually makes his way up to a drug kingpin, the story even features the same mansion action set piece at the end and is set in the 1980's. Other examples of some form of inspiration include the television series, 'Breaking Bad', where the main character, a mild mannered chemistry teacher, Walter White is diagnosed with lung cancer, and so, to ensure that his family has money for after his dies, he enters the drug business making meth to raise enough money and eventually transforms into a notoriously dangerous drug kingpin named 'Heisenberg'. Finally, in Rockstar Games' 'Grand Theft Auto IV', the main character is an immigrant named Niko Bellic who has travelled to America to seek revenge, but is accidentally dragged into the life of a criminal for a second time. It's other films/games like these that show how influential the story of 'Scarface' is to modern pop culture. The film and its story have many narrative conventions that was made more popular with other gangster films that were made after it. This is a 'cult' film, which means that it was, at first unpopular critically and commercially when first initially released, but over time garners the respect it deserves. Another cult gangster film starring Al Pacino and directed by Brian De Palma is 'Carlito's Way', which can be seen as a 'what- if' story of 'Scarface', and what would have happened if he survived and had a big personality change. This film and 'Scarface' share sort of similar plot lines, although in 'Carlito's Way', instead of Carlito Brigante being a low life thug and wanting to become a high rise gangster, he is a former, well respected gangster to wants to raise enough money to leave the Country he lives in and begin a better life. Both of these films have been influential to many gangster films made in the future, due to their cult statuses.