The Hunger Games is a clear adventure film, but has clear conventions of the Sci-Fi genre. The narrative theme of anti-establishment is present within the film. This is seen in a particular scene when the children of District 12 are being forced to sign up for The Hunger Games, with guards surrounding the outskirts to ensure no-one escapes. A film is then shown discussing how the 'minors' fought back against the higher living and the government, and The Hunger Games are more or less their punishment for going against them. A low angle shot is often used to show the children looking up to Effie up on stage, and then a high angle shot to show Effie looking down on the children, this is done to show that Effie and the government have the power, emphasising the ideology and theme of anti-establishment. The guards surrounding the children of District 12 all had weapons, ensuring they would do as they told them, a similar usage iconography is used in the film District 9, where the humans are forcing the aliens to leave their homes by threatening them with weapons. The usage of this shows us that this is a polysemic narrative, a passive audience can simply watch the film and enjoy, and an active audience can decode the film and see that it is about corruption of the government and them abusing their power and treating 'minors' badly.
Thursday 5 December 2013
Wednesday 4 December 2013
Drive (Film Noir Conventions)
The film Drive is a Crime/Drama film, however, certain conventions within the film could make people argue that it has elements of film noir. Throughout the film, the majority of the time, especially with close ups of the characters faces, the lighting is dominant, and the majority of the time, it is low key. Straight away with the first clip we are shown with Driver sitting around a dinner table with Irene and her family, the scene cuts to a close up/mid low angle shot of Driver with a shadow across one side of his face. We are shown this for a reason, it shows that there are two sides to this character, one side is that he is the protagonist, the good guy, who does good things, however, the dark side shows that to achieve these good things, he must do bad things. This is often seen in film noir, like the opening scene of Sin City, where half of the assassins face is shown lit up, and the other half in darkness.
Then we get our Femme Fatale, Blanche. Blanche is first introduced with a mid shot, sat down, smoking a cigarette, a very typical shot to show a Femme Fatale in noir films, Cook also introduces her with 'she is very beautiful'. During the robbery scene, as the robbery is about to take place, the character Standard walks up to the Pawn Shop, the usage of the tracking shot enables us to see the neon signs, which is another noir convention.
After the robbery scene and car chase, Driver and Blanche are then shown in a slightly lit motel room. As Driver and Blanche watch the news, Driver starts implying that Blanche is working for someone else, and accuses her of this and threatens her, the narrative theme then leads to mis-trust and paranoia, a common theme within the film noir genre. As Driver stands up, the camera stays level with Blanche, as we see his fists tighten, he then slaps Blanche and holds her down by her throat, us as an audience could almost fore-see this, as earlier in the scene where everyone was eating dinner, half of Drivers face was in darkness, and this scene now is the dark side of Driver. The use of non-diegtic music in the dinner eating scene also helped us fore-see this, as it was very dark and sinister. Blanche then stands up and goes into the bathroom, we see Blanche in the toilets with lighting from the blinds shining on her, another film noir convention. Then a slow motion effect is added as a police man with a shotgun appears outside the bathroom window, pointing the shotgun towards Blanche. The police officer then kills Blanche, this once again shows the theme of mis-trust and paranoia, as the double crosser Blanche, has been double crossed by the police.
Later on in the clip, Driver goes to see Cook. The scene is introduced with Driver walking from the darkness into the light, as he comes closer, we see he is holding a hammer, at this point, the sinister music we heard earlier is played once again. Driver confronts Cook and breaks his hand by bashing it with the hammer multiple times, Cook drops to the floor and Driver gets a nail out and places it on Cooks forehead, the camera focuses on Cooks face, scared and hurt, and then cuts to Drivers, showing his anger, this once again refers back to the lighting in the earlier scene, where half his face is in darkness, we are once again seeing Driver commit a dark action.
The Protagonist (Driver) gives off typical noir character conventions, for example, after both his partners were dead, he was left with the money, Cook said he should just keep the money, and run away, he told him no, and he would stay and help Irene, this is typical of noir, as in noir films the protagonist doesn't care about himself, and only cares for his Femme Fatale and does things for her, unfortunately, this often leads to their death.
Then we get our Femme Fatale, Blanche. Blanche is first introduced with a mid shot, sat down, smoking a cigarette, a very typical shot to show a Femme Fatale in noir films, Cook also introduces her with 'she is very beautiful'. During the robbery scene, as the robbery is about to take place, the character Standard walks up to the Pawn Shop, the usage of the tracking shot enables us to see the neon signs, which is another noir convention.
After the robbery scene and car chase, Driver and Blanche are then shown in a slightly lit motel room. As Driver and Blanche watch the news, Driver starts implying that Blanche is working for someone else, and accuses her of this and threatens her, the narrative theme then leads to mis-trust and paranoia, a common theme within the film noir genre. As Driver stands up, the camera stays level with Blanche, as we see his fists tighten, he then slaps Blanche and holds her down by her throat, us as an audience could almost fore-see this, as earlier in the scene where everyone was eating dinner, half of Drivers face was in darkness, and this scene now is the dark side of Driver. The use of non-diegtic music in the dinner eating scene also helped us fore-see this, as it was very dark and sinister. Blanche then stands up and goes into the bathroom, we see Blanche in the toilets with lighting from the blinds shining on her, another film noir convention. Then a slow motion effect is added as a police man with a shotgun appears outside the bathroom window, pointing the shotgun towards Blanche. The police officer then kills Blanche, this once again shows the theme of mis-trust and paranoia, as the double crosser Blanche, has been double crossed by the police.
Later on in the clip, Driver goes to see Cook. The scene is introduced with Driver walking from the darkness into the light, as he comes closer, we see he is holding a hammer, at this point, the sinister music we heard earlier is played once again. Driver confronts Cook and breaks his hand by bashing it with the hammer multiple times, Cook drops to the floor and Driver gets a nail out and places it on Cooks forehead, the camera focuses on Cooks face, scared and hurt, and then cuts to Drivers, showing his anger, this once again refers back to the lighting in the earlier scene, where half his face is in darkness, we are once again seeing Driver commit a dark action.
The Protagonist (Driver) gives off typical noir character conventions, for example, after both his partners were dead, he was left with the money, Cook said he should just keep the money, and run away, he told him no, and he would stay and help Irene, this is typical of noir, as in noir films the protagonist doesn't care about himself, and only cares for his Femme Fatale and does things for her, unfortunately, this often leads to their death.
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