Out of the blue March 4th 2011

Media Studies March 4^th 2011    

-         Write 200 words minimum-  

End scene of the film out of the blue. How does it fit into the film.  

-         Rewrite the scene aiming for a different audience. The new audience is in their twenties not afflent and city dwellers. Reshape the film. {scene}

-         The scene where David Gray is killed by the armed terroist squad fits into the film as his death had to be inevitable to correspond with actual real life events when he was killed. It also fits into the film to show the audience the message of mental health of society and the consequences for society being ignorant of people’s mental disabilities and issues. It also is appropriate as David Gray takes off his disguise before he meets his gruesome fate and looks into the mirror without  his hoody and black paint. It is this scene as he realises the inevitably of his actions as the sound of water running down the drain is an analogy of how he is running down the drain to the sewer line to the place of no return.

If I were to rewrite this scene to appeal to a young audience in their 20’s living in the city  I would use different methods of representation to appeal to them. One of these would be to add the sound of a rat writhing in pain when David Gray is shot down and struggling when he meets his final fate. I would do this to appeal to these city dwellers as they would be familiar to the multiple rats in a city and the analogy would be that David Gray is the lowest of the low as rats are small and are thought to have diseases much like David Gray at the end is struggling on the ground like a rat and has a mental disease {schizophrenia}.  

Out of the blue

Out of the blue is a New Zealand film which is  based on the true story of David Gray. The madman who shot' burned and murdered 13 innocent civilians in cold blood in a small South Island town just south of Dunedin.
The director uses an abundance of techniques to accurately portray the character David Gray as "evil" he does this by directing dark lighting through a lot of his body shots. What this does is sub-consciously awaken the racism within some viewers making them despise him because of the colour of his clothing as he wears fully black clothing to hide himself from police as well as black paint all over his face and the dark lighting due to the nature of night. By doing this the director has sub-consciously made the viewers view David Gray as a dark skinned person which makes him despise him more for his murderous actions. This scene occurs when he is hiding from the police in the house and has close ups and mid shots to perhaps awaken fear in the viewers and also for them to see him as a true nutter and not pure evil as he wipes the darkness off his face in fear which brings slight relief as he appears less threatening to some views as he appears white. Racism rules the roost in this movie.

Up review

UP

The best film I saw in the holidays was the highly critically acclaimed animated film

‘ Up’ which won two Academy awards one for best animated film. Up is not the most typical animated film as it delivers real life problems and issues with sensitivity and emotion that can relate to the audience’s own real life stories. For example only a couple of minutes through the film the wife of the man aspiring to fly to South America to an exotic jungle discovers that she cannot conceive any children this is shocking for an animated film as most cartoon characters in movies such as Shrek deal with Supernatural themes and those films often isolate themselves from non-fictional issues in order to appease to the imaginations and limited intelligence of children’ however UP deals with adult issues which makes audiences of all ages become interested as Up in small parts deals with the centre and soul of humanity in society and with barely discussed issues often not suitable for animated films such as Death as the wife “Ellie” meets a tragic end after never reaching her goal of going to Brazil with her husband. The first 10 minutes of the film can be seen as a tragedy best suited for Drama films and these first 10 minutes keep you occupied in the film’s story despite the fact the quality decreases but those 10 minutes remind you of the real message of the film and that is triumph overcoming tragedy rather than a comedic animated film full of Toilet humor and references to celebrities Up could be in those first 10 minutes return to the the traditional animated film that seems to be long away from most films today.

review of Into the wild

Media Studies review of ‘ Into the Wild’

‘ Into the Wild’ is a magnificent film by acclaimed actor and director Sean Penn. It details the life story and wild adventure of Christopher McCandless, a young man with a college education who decides to ditch it all for a country-wide exploration of nature. Along the way he meets: friendly hippies’ shameless nudists’ a teenage girl with a crush and perhaps the most significant ‘ Ron Franz’ portrayed by Hal Halbrook. However the audience is led to believe that the whole film is not about an adventure but about Christopher escaping from his abusive and violent past {courtesy of his unloving parents}. Sean Penn hits a nerve with audiences as we see Christopher unite with Ron Franz in what becomes the most important relationship of the film as we learn from the clever Sean Penn through context that family is important. Audiences will mourn the old man’s loss of his wife and child and his honorary Grandson Christopher through his tremendous acting ability and great close up angle shots. The audience will also be affected by the trouble Christopher overcomes and eventually succumbs to. In conclusion Sean Penn has giving us a Adventure film that has great scenery but with close up shots he shows the real Christopher McCandless’s message that he learned from the great scenery and that is happiness that been represented by the elegant view of nature in the film must be shared to exist. 

Into the wild 'adolescene' scene

Into The Wild  

-         How does this scene fit into film, why is it important, how would the film work without it, what is the relevance. 

In the film ‘Into The Wild’ by Sean Penn Alexander Supertramp portrayed by Emile Hirsch made this scene fit into the film by following a life sequence through the chapter’s name adolescence. It also fits into the film by reminding Supertramp why he left society in the first place.  It is so important as we understand Alex’s point of view and sympathise with his decision to leave because of all the inequality and violence in the walls of society.

How does the scene fit into the film?

The scene fits into the film by showing a hypothetical Christopher McCandless clean shaven as Alexander Supertramp looks at himself symbolically through the mirror of the restaurant and seen that if he joined society he would be arrogant and cocky and would look down on people much like what he turns into. It is also a reminder to him that if he joined society he would be just like his cold’ arrogant parents who for example implore him to get a better car to appear rich and powerful. It is important as we see that Christopher McCandless was always suppose to be Alexander Supertramp because of his decision to be independent by leaving behind the bed in the homeless shelter and walking past the restaurant as soon as he saw the emptiness of the shallow society he may have walked into.

Into the wild

Into the wild was filmed in 2007 and was directed by Sean Penn. It was filmed in Alaska and the graduation scene was actually filmed in Reed College instead of 'Emory University'. The film grossed over 56 million dollars at the box office perhaps because it was directed at a specific audience { Liberal Sophisticates and/or Hippies} however it was nominated for two academy awards and won a golden globe award for best original song which is called Guaranteed by Eddie Veder