La Zona Research Tasks

1.Names of the main characters:

Alejandro- He is the son of the dual head detective in La Zona.

Daniel- Alejandro's father and dual head detective in La Zona.

Mercedes- The victim of the murder which the film is revolved around.

Gerardo- Daniel's partner as head detective in La Zona.

Rigoberto- The Captain of the Police Force in the surrounding area of La Zona. He has various disagreements with the committee of La Zona

Miguel- The only remaining survivor of the three that murdered Mercedes.

2. Relationships between characters:

Daniel and Alejandro are father and son living in La Zona. At the start of the film, the two seem to be apart of a close-knit family but as the film evolves and Alejandro becomes more independent, the two begin to drift apart as Daniel puts his job infront of his family; metaphorically. Gerardo and Daniel are the two main detectives who look for Miguel the so called murderer in their eyes. The two have a good relationship at their work, both working together to discover the whereabouts of Miguel. Rigoberto and the chief of police De La Garza have a more abrupt relationship as Rigoberto is nearly dragged over the edge in frustration throughout the film whereas De La Garza does his best to keep him in check with a more relaxed approach to solving the crime.

3. Character Traits - What are they like?

Alejandro is a very independent character but with a soft side aswell. He regularly falls out with his parents and is very abrupt in his speech towards them, but still has a social side when hanging around with his mates. The soft side comes out when he takes in Miguel and allows him to stay undercover in his basement. Adding to his soft side he doesn't tell anyone about his lodger resulting in the search for Miguel becoming much more intense. Rigoberto is a very aggressive and assertive character because of his violent and abusive approach to anyone that questions him. He frequently threatens the public trying to find information about the murder enquiry and even threatens his counterpart detective Gerardo on numerous occasions. Daniel is more of a laid back detective who takes a more sympathetic approach to the people in need of information. He is also very democratic for example when he finds Miguel he trys to order the people of La Zona to make a decision on what to do about him at the gym where they have their meetings.

4. Character Development

The only character that has a dramatic change during the film is Alejandro. He begins the film by enjoying spending time with his dad and joining him on his investigations. As Alejandro grows more wise to the whole situation in La Zona he becomes more independent for example trying to find the culprits with a few of his friends. He begins looking for the culprit by carrying a gun but in the end he becomes friends with Miguel and sympathises with him before he is eventually killed by all the civillians of La Zona

Essay response Ideas for the questions:

How do aspects of mise-en-scene and camerawork reinforce the differences between rich and poor?

• Long shots of the poor social class area
• High angle panning to show the differences
• Mise-en-scene aspects showing the types of cars in the rich area compared to the poor area
• The contrast in professions that characters from each area do.

What fears do the inhabitants of The Zone have? Are they shown in the film?

• They have fears of the lowlife that life in the poorer areas stealing from them.
• The fear of being attacked by the people outside of La Zona

Similarities between La Zona and Tsotsi?

• Both films deal with the different social classes in an area.
• The poorer people rely on stealing to earn a living for their families and themselves.
• There are fears from the richer classes towards the poorer.
• The poorer people are very violent.

La Zona showing similarities to a Mexican Society?

• Yes because of the gulf in wealth between the people
• The slums which the poor live in.
• The extents the poor go to, in order to get money.

Essay from Cancelled Lesson

How far do the American Films you have studied for this topic express similar messages and values to one another? From the viewing of the American Films, there are many clear similarities between them, not including the storyline. As ‘The Invasion’ was a remake of ‘Invasion of the body snatchers, the events throughout the films are quite similar, although ‘The Invasion’ takes upon a more modern outlook at the key scenes throughout. The 2007 remake, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig has is a more scientific approach to the original version. The main reason of this is due to the fact that scientific technology wasn’t as widespread around the era of the making of ‘Invasion of the body snatchers’. The first value which is similar in both films is the fact that the close friends of both of the soon to be known main protagonists are the characters that are firstly seen to be suffering from delusions. From ‘Invasion of the body snatchers’ the character who seems to be suffering is Teddy Belicic. She is the wife of Dr.Bennell’s close friend Jack Belicic. From ‘The Invasion’ the first character that seems to be suffering is a friend of Carol Bennell’s son. This value shows that a virus can spread from anywhere or anyone and even the most unlikely of people can catch it and end up causing a pandemic. Another message from the two films is that the only way the world will be free of terrorism and pain is for something like this to happen. From ‘Invasion of the body snatchers, in a communistic community in the 1950s, the majority of the population were wishing that something would happen to overturn Joseph McCarthy. Because 1950s America was so engrossed in communism, the people didn’t want to be governed in the way in which McCarthy was, so they wanted a way out. In the film, it seems that the only way to avoid the regime was to join the people who already had been duplicated. In the 2007 remake, communism has pretty much died down in American although it’s still around in other places around the world. The biggest threat facing modern American is terrorism. Again, the people of America are paranoid and on alert 24/7 for any threats since 9/11. Due to the threat of terrorism, the people of America want a permanent end to the threat therefore they decide to become duplicates where there is no emotion therefore terrorism is no longer existent. Although some people, despite the fact the threat will continue, don’t want to become a duplicate because of the threat to society. The value of trust is apparent in both films. Due to the epidemic, the characters that remain sane are in doubt as to who to trust. This is apparent in ‘Invasion of the body snatchers’ when Dr.Bennell and Becky Driscoll are filling up at the petrol station and Myles doesn’t know whether to trust the filler with his car. Earlier in the film this would be classed as paranoia but now the film has evolved its clear he is quite right to question everyone around him. Once he was out of sight of the crew after driving away, he checked his boot only to find the filler had placed two of the duplicate pods in it. This is a clear example in the film that you never know who you can trust. In ‘The Invasion’ a scene designed around trust is where Carol Bennell and her son Oliver are on the tube train surrounded by what seems to be people who are already duplicated. They are faced with the task of trying to look as blunt and as emotionless as possible throughout the journey. Lucky for them though, one of the passengers tells them that they are acting like they are duplicates. Carol and Oliver are now faced with the unprecedented task of deciding whether they are telling the truth or not. It turns out they were and they continued their journey posing as a duplicate. The value of truth is the most predominant throughout the two films. For any no duplicates, they need to find out who’s telling the truth or else they will be forced to become a duplicate and live a life of no emotion or love. Probably the most important message given through both films is the fact that the American societies of both eras are not prepared to deal with any pandemics that would hit their nation. During both films, society doesn’t know what to do or where it’s come from. ‘Invasion of the body snatchers’ the leading doctors fail to realise the severity of the pandemic about to hit their town therefore are not prepared or notified of its consequences. Similarly in ‘The Invasion’ the doctors and government fail to realise the importance of a diagnosis of the strange goings on around them. As they are not ready or prepared the infection spreads over a vast area in no time, leaving the majority of the doctors who should have prevented the infection now becoming duplicates.

The Visual Pleasure of Sci-Fi Films: Part One and Part Two

Asocial :Not sociable or gregarious; withdrawn from society.

Indifferent  to or averse to conforming to conventional standards of behavior.

inconsiderate of others; selfish; egocentric.

Aesthetics:

The study of the mind and emotions in relation to the sense of beauty.

Assuage:

To soothe, calm, or mollify: to assuage his fears; to assuage her anger.

Q1. By saying 'Aesthetics of Destruction' Susan Sontag is saying that some of the characters in the films have minds of destruction. They are empowered by evil and they have no space in their lives for loving or passion.

Q2. The term is relevant to Sci-Fi because the usual themes during Sci-Fi films are about someone being infected or taken over by some sort of disease.

Q3. An example of 'Aesthetics of Destruction' in Invasion of the body snatchers is where Teddy is convinced that her Uncle isnt really who he is, and she is having doubts about his reality. Another is a similar style of scene where Dr.Bennell is also convinced that everyone has become infected in his local settlement. Again, Invasion deals with the similar style of 'Aesthetics of Destruction' as the characters who already have been infected, are refusing to stop anyone escaping the area without becoming 'one of them'.

Q4. In my opinion, film lovers love Sci-Fi films involving end of the world scenarios because its a very debatable idea. This scenario could be covered by many genres of films, but with Sci-Fi, it has a more believable and complex way of occurring. Sci-Fi films offer a usual occurrence of a worldwide pandemic to cover the 'end of the world' scenario. This has a more realistic chance of ending the world whereas some ideas in other genres. Also disease pandemics is a very real scenario in this day and age with people being able to travel the globe in 24hours who could carry the disease from one side of the world to the other just like that. As this scenario is a possibility  in the future, it gives the audience a chance to see how its expected that authorities would handle it.

Q5. This theme would be monstrous for 1950s film goers because it wasn't even considered in that era. In that specific era, the world as we know it was being manufactured. Motor Vehicles were beginning to become more modernised and more widely produced at a reasonable price. New organisations and freedom was being made at a high level around the world with minimal amounts of danger at all as climate change and terrorism was an almost unknown act. With the globe rapidly becoming a more social and mechanised area, the threat of the end of the world was not a welcomed theme. With all things looking to be going in the right direction, all the work that was being put into development and mechanisation would all be in jeopardy if the threat of the end of the world would be widely scrutinised. In 2007, the threat of the end of the world is a more potent theme as we are living in a much more diverse community with many more corrupt people living in it that the 1950s. This threat is a more believable situation nowadays with the many threats our world is exposed to. Acts of terrorism like 9/11 and nuclear power which is dominant mostly in the Far East are the most dominant human threat along with the natural occurrence of global warming. With these situations looming over the 7bn people on the planet, the subject of the end of the world is again a subject which is enjoyed viewing or being talked about.

Sci-FI Zombie Blog

Sci-Fi is a television genre which usually deals with futuristic and imaginary themes and settings. The films usually include themes of Alien Invasion, Space Travel and Paranormal abilities. The similarities between Sci-Fi and Fantasy genres are quite large, but Sci-Fi storylines are usually more scientifically possible within the laws of nature. Some of the most successful Sci-Fi films of all time also fall into the best films of any genre of all time. Films such as: 'The Star Wars Saga, Inception, Matrix and Alien are some of the most successful Sci-Fi movies made,

 

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

This 1956 film, directed by Don Siegal, deals with a small-town doctor learns that the population of his community are being infected with a toxic chemical and are being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates. Little does he know that it is the plan of the duplicates to ensure that the whole world becomes infected.

Explicit fears are that of which the actors are afraid of in the film and those that the audience can see on the screen. The sudden outbreak of the disease is an explicit fear in the film 'Invasion of the body snatchers' as to is the fact they dont know where its come from. Also when Miles finds the cloned bodies is an explicit fear in the film because character doesnt know what to do about it. Implicit fears are that of which society that the film may portray or represent. In Invasion of the Body Snatchers the implicit fears are the fears of Communism in America in the 1950s. Also in this film, an implicit fear is that the governor of the area in the film has become a clone aswell, so there are only a handful of characters that are normal.

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Explicit fears in the film 'Invasion' are the clear presence of the zombies in the film. The detail of the characters makes it easy to see that they have been infected to the other characters and to the audience. Another is the fact that Dr.Bennell has lost her son, and not even the audience know where he is.

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Similarities between the two movies

There are quite a few similarities between our chosen focus films and zombie films. Firstly, Zombie films usually contains innocent characters trying to stop a worldwide epidemic or worse to that effect. The courageous characters are usually also a male and female who eventually get together in zombie films, and this trend continues into the focus films. The clue is in the title for Zombie films. They contain people who are out to get or hurt other characters. This trend is also continued in the two focus films.

Sci Fi Mood Board

1. What themes and issues do your selected films deal with? Are there any similarities between your chosen films? Are there any differences?

The majority of the 1950s Sci Fi films deal with the main characters being normal people but with abnormal powers. The characters in costumes are not in as much detail as the ones in the more recent films. The 1950s storylines are quite basic wheras recent ones have more of a license to make more futuristic storylines with the technology available. There are lots of similarities between the recent Sci-Fi megamovies. Most of the ones ive chosen involve space exploration or similar to that. Star Wars and Star Trek are obviously made by a futurisitic script. The differences between the two eras of Sci-Fi films is clear. As in the 1950s, technology and the ability to make films look more real and clear wasnt available, the films usually involved a monster of some sort, or a disease epidemic. Nowadays, the Sci-Fi movie industry involves more unreal circumstances which makes for a more widespread audience.

The main reason for Sci-Fi movie themes changing is the use of technology. In the 1950s movie technology was not around. The film crews relied on costume design and set design to make their films look realistic. Now, the use of computer technology is used to create a more sureal atmosphere and a better graphical experience.

Essay Plans ' How far do the narratives of the films you have studied for this topic explore explore questions of belonging and exclusion?

How far do the narratives of the films you have studied for this topic explore questions of belonging and exclusion?

• Introduce background info about Ghosts and Last Resort
• Introduce the problems faced in both films
• Compare the belonging and exlusion in one of Last Resort
• Talk about the problems with Tanya from Last Resort
• Compare the belongings and exclusion in Ghosts
• Talk about the problems being faced for Ai Qi

Shane Meadows

FILMS HE HAS MADE.

2011 This Is England '88 (TV series)

– Episode #1.3(2011)

– Episode #1.2(2011)

– Episode #1.1(2011)

2010 This Is England '86 (TV series)

– Episode #1.4(2010)

– Episode #1.3(2010)

2009 Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee

2008 Somers Town

2006 This Is England

2005 The Stairwell (short)

2004 Northern Soul (short)

2004 Dead Man's Shoes

2002 Once Upon a Time in the Midlands

1999 A Room for Romeo Brass

199724 7: Twenty Four Seven

1996Where's the Money, Ronnie? (short)

The majority of his work is on the genre of social realism. This is England, and Somers Town show this in full voice.

Shane Meadows likes to act in his own films. This is a good idea because he act the exact way he wants his film to look.

Oscars Research Task

Who were the big winners in last nights oscars?

• The Artist
• Hugo
• The Descendents

What won best film?
The winner of best film was 'The Artist'

Who won the major categories?
The Artist won best picture and the director of The Artist Michel Hazanavicius. Best actor was won by Jean Dujardin and Best Actress was won by Meryl Streep for her performance in Iron Lady.

The only British film that did well was 'The Iron Lady' which won best actress by Meryl Streep.

The winners of the Golden Globes and the Oscars are very similar. The winner of the majority was 'The Artist' in the Golden Globes, and then followed it up with 5 Oscar winners.

Iron Lady wasnt nominated at the Golden Globes but won at the Oscars.

Independent film research task

Independent film distributor research.

1.       An Independent film is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system.

2.       Film festivals are important for independent film distributors because they can screen their films in front of an audience only at the festival to see up and coming films.

3.       Lionsgate Films, Palm Pictures

Research project on: Lionsgate

Lionsgate doesn’t specialise in any specific genre. It covers all genres from animation to thriller.

The company produced the film Saw which was a high budget and successful film.

Advantages of independent films:

Can control what they want to make

The funding comes from private investors.

Disadvantages:

Not having the backing from major companies which could reduce ShowTime.

Film Studies homework

Why should the government fund British films?

The government should fund the British Film industry to insure that it countinues to rival the American film industry. The American film industry makes some of the most succesful films in the world and Britain needs to try and rival them.

Film 4 is a television channel which shows some of the biggest movies of all time. Film 4 benifits the film industry by promoting movies on a free tv channel where people can view them and if they enjoy them they will go out and buy them. Film 4 benifits the audience because they can watch the films before they decide to go out and buy them. They can watch the film before buying them so they can see if its worth buying. Some films they have shown in 2011 are: Slumdog Millionaire and The Whistleblower. The films which are shown on Film 4 havent got any themes just that they were all very popular on release.

Extended questions:

This weeks film releases: Haywire, J.Edgar, The Sitter.

Most of the releases are distributed by major companies like Warner Bros. and Paramount.

Film Homework

Josh Joachim

                                                                British Film Industry: Closing credits

Work.

How much is the British film industry worth?

The British film industry is currently worth £4bn.

What British films won recognition in 2011?

The British film which won recognition was ‘The Kings Speech’. Mention what The Kings Speech Won. Were any other British Film Mentioned in the article?

How many films go on to recover their production costs?

Couldn’t find the answer. Only 1 in 10 films recover initial investment.

What film was Warp Films’ biggest commercial success?

Warp Films’ biggest commercial success was the film ‘Four Lions’.

Why does Warp Films’ Mark Herbert believe that low-key, low-budget films should be supported?

Mark Herbert believes that low- budget films should be supported so they can have a chance to pull off a blockbuster. Yes he also says that young film makers need experience of working on low-budget, innovative movies to develop.

What are of the British film industry would Mark Kermode change? From your research and your knowledge – Why does he believe that change is necessary?

Mark Kermode believes that more British films should be given the chance to get a foothold in cinemas. Yes, he believes that Government money should be spent on film distribution so that British films are shown in UK cinemas

Do you believe that the government should support British film makers with tax relief and funding? If so, where should the money go? To films that have the potential to be commercially successful and reach a large audience; or films that are culturally significant but may only reach a small niche audience? Give reasons for your answer?

In my opinion the government should focus on backing British films which are not made by the big 6 film produces e.g. Warner Bros. They should focus on the films with not as much of a financial backing as these are less likely to be shown in cinemas and be advertised where it would be recognised. This would potentially be a good thing as British directors would produce films that are relevant to a British audience

Given the current political climate what do you think will happen to the British film industry over the next few years?

In my view the British Film Industry will have to come up with more ideas on lower budgets. Films like Paranormal Activity was made on a very small budget and then made a massive profit. Films like this will not always be a success but they are much more likely to become more frequent  in the new few years as investors will be more reluctant to invest their money.

Useful comments Josh. In the exam you will be expected to have opinion on film topics - so make sure that you buy and read the Mark Kermode book 'The Good, the bad and the multiplex'. Guy

Producers and Audiences Task

The film I have chosen to do is 'War Horse'.
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo.
Dreamworks Pictures
Starring: Jeremy Ervine
               Emily Watson
               David Thewlis
Written by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis - (Writer of hit tv comedy Vicar of Dibley)

Here is the official trailer for 'War Horse'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7lf9HgFAwQ

Jeremy Irvine                                                                     David Thewlis

 

                                 Emily Watson

War Horse

Production year: 2011

Country: USA

Cert (UK): 12A

Runtime: 146 mins

Directors: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, David Kross, David Thewlis, Emily Watson, Jeremy Irvine, Niels Arestrup, Peter Mullan, Toby Kebbell, Tom Hiddleston

Production Company : Dreamworks



It's not out until Christmas, but Steven Spielberg's War Horse already looks like classic Oscar bait for next year's ceremony. The first trailer for the movie, just live online, suggests a sweeping epic of the great war, replete with a veritable who's who of established and up-and-coming Brit thesp talent and backed with a stirring, grandiose score from the unmistakable John Williams.