AC: Snow Work 12/03/13

Sucker Punch (Snyder, 2011)

Film Language:

• In Sucker Punch, the mise-en-scene is conveying the hopelessness and struggle of the life of a young girl, who has been framed for her actions because of the greed of a man. It conveys a very dark and disturbing opening of a film, which represents the psychological horror of the film. 
• The movement is slow, with many close ups of the characters' facial expressions  which shows the audience their emotions, and ads to the meaning, of depression and a saddened household, after the death of their mother.
• The sound is a backing track of a slow, emotive music, which adds emphasis to the meaning of the film. It anchors the clip by creating atmos for the film, darkening the mood, making it more sinister.
• From the non-verbal language we learn of the struggle of the girls against the antagonist, who is obvious from the beginning of the scene. There is no dialogue apart from the occasional screams from the girls for added effect, but we learn of there life and how it has clearly changed for the worst in their situation, which has led to the feud between the antagonist and the blond girl.
• The director has chosen to use a colour wash, and made the whole scene darker and gloomier, for the added effect to make it appear dismal and unappealing, which adds to the psychological thriller it uses. He also uses extreme close ups on parts of the characters, such as the zoom on the eye through the key hole, which is an effective way to engage the audience, showing the emotion and fear in her eyes, a simple yet effective shot.

21 Jump Street (Lord, 2012)

Media Audiences:

• The target audience for the film '21 Jump Street' would be both genders, but dominantly male, aged 15-24 years old, who would enjoy the film the most, as it is based around similar aged characters, which would allow the audience to relate to the scenarios, and the film in general. The demographics are wide, so would appeal to a mass audience, as it is a comedy, many people can understand the humour used.
• The probable audience readings is the light hearted humour of the film, that the film entails, where two guys go back to school, reliving their fears, which people can obviously relate to. The possible audience readings of the film is that its more of finding yourself again, and becoming more confident as a person, which some audiences may feel is while watching.
• I relate to the text as a British teenager, because although it is set in an American high school, I can still recognise and relate to the conventions and humour they encounter throughout the film. It is highly influenced by my demographics, as I would enjoy the film much more than an elderly person, because it is the society we are used in comparison, making it easier for us to understand.

300 (Snyder, 2006)

Institutional Context:

• In the film 300, Gerard Butler played the leading role in the film. This is important,as it means the audience are attracted to the film because they enjoy the bankable star, and recognise him from his previous films.
• The production studio was 'Legendary Pictures' and 'Montreal Meteor Studios' both which are Independent film producers, meaning they were allowed to freely express their creative ideas. However 'Warner Bros.' did distribute the film which are an industrial company.
• Marketing for the film was highly successful, it was based off the comic book, and history which would have attracted many people in the first place, as well as the bankable stars used.  It was at Comic-con in July 2006, increasing its publicity, and from then onwards trailers were released advertising the film, up until release, where it made $456 million from it's $65 million budget.
• The opening is rather basic, however used at lot of CGI which is where a lot of the money would have been spent to create the realism of the scene, because the titles when they appear are very basic, and low production value.