Spirit Surge
Target Audience: This product is for all genders aged 12 years and older. This product is for all interests but especially for exercise and training at gyms.
Technical Conventions: This advert is to have an overt message at the end of the advert, saying 'The Drink To Motivate'. An overt message is used to be told directly to the audience. This message would be ideal for people who do exercise because that means this product would get recommended more to those people at gyms and training centres. This advert is also to have a lifestyle appeal to do exercise because when people watch this advert, this might be a motivation to drink this thing to make them exercise more.
Form: This is a realist narrative advert because it seems to be set in real life following one man jogging in a normal street. This advert is supposed to remain realistic and believable with a story behind it.
Style: This advert is supposed to have a humorous style because this advert is supposed to be humorous in the way the audience remembers this product through its sense of humour. It also has a overt message meaning it speaks visibly directly to the audience.
Codes: The mise-en-scene of this particular is that with the surroundings around the advert, it looks like it is modern day life surrounding one teenage man jogging and suddenly getting out of breath. The man would be wearing a sweaty vest to explain he is out of breath, trainers and shorts. The use of camera would be, first of all, using a long establishing shot of the man running into the camera, then I would cut to a full head shot from the floor when the man is bent down gasping for air. Then we have a medium shot/full body shot of the man after he drunk the drink and as he begins to speed off. There would be music building up after he drunk the drink, maybe motivational music to get people working hard.
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Friday, 27 February 2015
Wednesday, 25 February 2015
Analysis of Genre Conventions of Zombie Horror
Zombie Horror Films: Dawn Of The Dead
Shaun Of The Dead
28 Days Later
Zombieland
Cargo (Short Film)
Dawn Of The Dead is the sequel to Night Of The Living Dead (1968), we follow four survivors trying to survive from a zombie apocalypse in a supermarket. The initial setting of Dawn Of The Dead is set in the state of Philadelphia in the United States. At the beginning of the film, we see that the location is set in a warehouse where a SWAT evacuation happens. Also, right at the beginning, we see the main female character's workplace, which is set in a chaotic newsroom, where obviously something has happened majorly. The main location, though, is set in a shopping mall where the four main characters arm themselves and fight off the zombies.
The narrative of this film is about four characters who are surviving from a zombie apocalypse that has affected mainly America but may have affected the whole world. From the four survivors, we have two police soldiers who we saw in the warehouse and a couple. The films tells a story of the couple trying to survive together as they were going to have the baby and another story of the soldiers trying to fight off the soldiers together.
There are four characters that we follow throughout the movie who team up in order to survive. There is the hero, Peter Washington, played by Ken Foree who is a member of the SWAT team where an evacuation and then, from what we see, the zombie outbreak starts. There is the heroine, Francine Parker, played by Gaylen Ross, who was in a relationship with Stephen Andrews, played by David Emre. He eventually dies and turns into a zombie, leaving her all alone, trying to live with a baby inside of her. The false hero I would say is Roger DiMarco, played by Scott H. Reiniger, who is also a member of the SWAT team where they evacuated apartments, was almost like the partner to fellow SWAT member and hero to the film, Peter Washington. He got too much carried away killing zombies that eventually he got killed by getting bitten by zombies whilst filling up the trucks with supplies and petrol, he eventually got shot by the hero, Peter Washington.
Dawn Of The Dead has a linear ending which means that there is an open ending meaning we as the audience don't know what is going to happen. In this particular film ending, the hero, Peter Washington and the heroine, Francine Parker managed to escape the shopping mall after their shelter was found by zombie turned Stephen Andrews. They managed to get on to Stephen's plane and they fled away. In the end when they fly away, gave us as the audience a sense of hope that there is a safe place nearby.
Dawn Of The Dead uses many technical conventions. The director, George A. Romero, uses a lot of techniques surrounding mise-en-scene. The mise-en-scene of the characters clothing is very significant. Our hero, Peter Washington and our almost false hero, Roger DiMarco are wearing police costumes, very heavy gear and guns for props. These elements for clothing are to show that these two characters are policemen or SWAT members. The villains, (zombies) however wear completely different uniforms, as their costumes are very ragged and torn to show that they are dead or have been injured by being shot. They have no guns or weapons as props to show that the zombies are defenceless and have nothing to protect themselves with. There are a lot of camera close-ups of the zombies and characters to show different facial expressions. Here are only a few close-ups of many of characters in Dawn Of The Dead.
Shaun Of The Dead follows the story of a character called Shaun Riley, who decides to turn his life around by getting his ex girlfriend, Liz, back but what he does not realise is that whilst he is doing this, he is in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. With this, Shaun presents the situation as an opportunity to show everyone how useful he can become by saving everyone closest to him. The initial setting of Shaun Of The Dead is set in North London, England from the yellow pages book we see. The first setting, at the beginning of the film through what we see, is set at a pub called The Winchester where Shaun, Liz, Shaun's friend Ed and Liz's friends Dianne and David, meet all together. This is a very key part in the film because from what we see so far, it is a meeting point where Shaun normally comes to, but near to the end of the film, it is a place of shelter from the zombies that have terrorised London. This is also to be considered as the main location of the entire film. Another location that is key is Shaun's home which is considered shelter on a day to day business but when the zombies arrive, it gets rampaged and Shaun and his flatmate, Ed had to find somewhere else for shelter, and no surprise that they go to the Winchester Pub.
The narrative of this film is about a character called Shaun trying to sort his life out in sake of getting his girlfriend back. For example, getting a good relationship with her mum and step-dad and sorting out his healthy life. When the zombie outbreak occurs, Shaun and everyone closest to him must join together as survivors and team up and fight against the zombies. The place of refuge they take shelter from the zombies is The Winchester Pub which is important as Liz hates going there but she got no choice as they needed a place to stay and take shelter. Similar to Dawn Of The Dead, Shaun Of The Dead has a linear narrative with a few glimpses of non-linear narratives as well. Linear narratives means that the story of the film is unbroken but there are some parts that are non linear meaning the line of narrative is broken up by flashbacks. An example of this was Shaun's different plans to get to the Winchester Pub by also picking up Liz and Shaun's mum, Barbara. This film has a closed ending at the ending of this film. This means that Shaun eventually made up with his girlfriend and it gave us as the audience a sense that Shaun has completed his objective, despite his close friends and family died and turned into zombies.
There are six characters that we see and follow during the zombie apocalypse. These survivors are called Shaun Riley (the main character), Ed (Shaun's Flatmate), Liz (Shaun Ex Girlfriend), Barbara (Shaun's Mother), and Diane and David (Liz's Friends). There is the hero and expert, Shaun Riley, played by Simon Pegg, who struggles to cope with his girlfriend's and mum's relationships. The film follows his journey, struggles and successes as he tries to sort it out whilst in a zombie apocalypse. There is the heroine, Liz, played by Kate Ashfield, who was the girlfriend to Shaun but could not cope with him always meeting at The Winchester and him not keeping his promises. When the zombie apocalypse happens, she once realises that she must stick with Shaun in order to survive and to also be together. There is the false hero, David, played by Dylan Moran, who struggles to see Shaun and Liz get back together, as David presents himself to have feelings for her. This feeling inside of him comes out when he threatens Shaun with a gun to kill his own mum. He eventually got what he deserves and zombies burst through the Winchester Pub's windows and eats David's guts and insides. The villains in this film are of course the zombies that killed Shaun's mother, Barbara, played by Penelope Wilton, Shaun's Step-Dad, Phillip, played by Bill Nighy, Shaun's flatmates, Pete, played by Pete Serafinowicz and Ed, played by Nick Frost. They are presented as very slow creatures with very little intelligence, so it would be very easy to get away from one. Despite their speed, when they attack, they bite into flesh very easily. An example of this was when David got caught by the zombies and the zombies immediately ripped apart his flesh and ate him with comfortable ease.
Shaun Of The Dead also uses many technical conventions. The director, Edgar Wright, uses a lot of techniques surrounding mise-en-scene. The mise-en-scene of the character's costumes is very important throughout the movie. For example, Shaun Riley is dressed up as a electrical salesman with a red tie and red label. He also had leaked red ink on his top before he realised there was a zombie apocalypse. This is interesting because the colour red is supposed to present the colour of blood, which is interesting because zombies eat and drink blood. Ed, Shaun's flatmate, is presented as a normal unemployed man, but his costume is interesting because his dirty shirt and trousers represents a normal teenager and at times throughout the movie, he speaks like a teenager at a pub, for example "F*** her, why don't we stay at the pub and have a few pints for the whole day." When the zombie apocalypse occurs, Shaun and Ed prepare themselves with a cricket bat and a metal spade that is use throughout the movie. It is unusual because many characters in zombie genre movies would supply themselves with guns or any thing that could kill zombies instantly, the director, Edgar Wright uses every day tools that could fight back against the zombies and not just guns. Another prop that is very important in this film is the flowers. The flowers were brought by Shaun to give to his mum, Barbara for Mother's Day. When he failed trying to book a table at a restaurant for his girlfriend, he goes round to her house and tries patches up with her. As a present to his girlfriend, Shaun gives her the flowers. These flowers are significant later on in the film as his mother picks out the same flowers from a bin outside the Winchester. The director, Edgar Wright, also uses two same walks by Shaun as he walks to the shops. There is a lot of comparisons between the two, these are the clips side by side:
As you can see from the clips, you can see on the top that Shaun is stuck in a romantic comedy where he is trying to sort out his life and below, you can see the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse in which where car alarms go off, telephone rings, and there are zombies walking towards him but he does not realise that there is one happening right at that moment because he is still trying to sort his life out. Featured in this clip is when he goes to the shops. This is important because as he goes in to buy his drinks, in the 1st walk, he first picks out a diet coke then puts it back and picks up a normal coke. In the 2nd walk however when he aims to sort out his life during the zombie apocalypse, he goes to the fridge once again and first picks out the normal coke, then puts it back and picks out a diet coke instead aiming to sorting out his life to get his girlfriend back. The music and sound is also very important as well. An example of this is at the beginning of the film where there is a blackout with very creepy, eerie music in the background, the kind you would normally hear in a zombie horror film. This is the soundtrack but in a very comedic fashion:
This is a very similar theme to Dawn Of The Dead as it is also a zombie genre movie. This music was composed and created by Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford. The use of keyboards is very important because this piece shows a much more darker theme to this song compared to the end credits of the 1978 film, Dawn Of The Dead, which their theme would normally be heard in many shopping centres in America which the audience can relate to.
There are a lot of themes in Shaun Of The Dead that is very similar to the 1978 film, Dawn Of The Dead. For example, the main theme in this film that is similar to Dawn Of The Dead is love relationships. In this case, there is a love relationship between Shaun and Liz as they try to work it out during a zombie apocalypse. This is very similar to Francine Parker and Stephen Andrews as they try to stick together during the apocalypse. The only different between the two relationships is that Stephen died and actually turned into a zombie, leaving Francine all alone, but Shaun and Liz seemed to live throughout all the events. There is also the theme of family relationships. As he tries to sort his life out, Shaun got confronted by his step-father Phillip, played by Bill Nighy telling him to visit his mother. This showed that Shaun was a very lazy man and never went to see his parents. As he tried to sort his life out, he was in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and unfortunately Phillip got bitten. Shaun never really like Phillip as he wasn't his real dad, but when Phillip was about to die, Shaun and he had a little love moment with Phillip saying 'I wasn't the dad you wanted', and then Shaun did not want him to go.
Cargo is a short film set in Australia and came out in 2013. We follow one man and his baby as they travel to get to a safe zone where there would be no infected zombies. The name 'Cargo' is very significant because the title is supposed to portray the man or father carrying his most precious cargo ever - his infant daughter. We see as the audience is set inside a crashed car with a family inside. We can tell that this particular location is not set in a city because there is a lot of woodlands around. Most of the scenes in this short movie is set in the forests and woods, where there is a lot of greenery. There is one scene at a house where the man, carrying the baby on his back, tries to find something that would distract the baby and not cry as much as she did at the beginning of the film. The house is set at a birthday party, we could see this by him holding up a traditional colourful party hat and him holding and pumping up a balloon. This film has a linear ending which means the film is very chronological, from beginning to end. This film also has a closed ending. At the end, we see the man (father) has completely turned into a zombie, maybe because of the car crash we saw at the beginning of the film. He got shot by one of the four survivors, three males and 1 female, as he successfully got his baby daughter, Rosie, to safety. This is significant because throughout the whole film, he has been on a journey to get his baby daughter to safety.
There are 10 characters in the whole of this film. There is the hero, portrayed as a middle aged father, who recently was a victim to a car crash, has to take his daughter to safety. He had to take matters into his own hands and look after his child. There is the villain, portrayed as a mother who, at the beginning, had turned into a zombie. She was the villain because she had wanted to eat her whole family. She was eventually killed and her death was not seen on camera, but from what we know, she was killed by her husband, the hero. There is the heroines, which are two characters. One of them were the girl survivor because when the hero turned zombie character got shot by a sniper, she went over to check if he was dead, or if he had supplies. She didn't want to leave him because she thought that something was wrong but the long haired survivor told him to come over. She started to go over, but was halted by a baby's call, and she ran over and looked under him and saw the hero's baby daughter. At the ending, we see that the girl survivor seems to be looking after the baby, almost like what a mother would do. Secondly, there is the baby daughter. We also follow her story along with the hero as she is carried on his back. This character is important because at the end of the film, when the girl survivor started to walk away from the hero's corpse, the baby let out a massive call for somebody to come over. If she did not do this, she would have still lied with her dead father or maybe crawled someplace else, which could have led her to zombies and she might have been eaten and then turned. There are two false heroes. Firstly, there is the sniper that shoots our hero that had been turned. When he was shot, we lost our main character in the whole film and the sniper was responsible for it. Secondly, there is the long haired survivor. He was almost portrayed as the 'leader of the pack' by giving the thumbs up to the sniper and telling the girl survivor to come along. If the girl survivor had listened to him, she might not have found the baby and so could have put the baby's life at risk.
There are many themes to this short film. The first theme that is featured is family breakdown. At the beginning of this short film, we immediately see a family together, but when the mother turns into a zombie and the father is forced to kill her, we immediately see a family background. The key scene that resembled family breakdown would be when the father had to peel off the sticker at the back of the car, which was portrayed as a woman, and he threw it away. The second theme is survival. There are two examples in the whole film. The first example is the father and daughter trying to survive and get into a safe zone after recently being in a car crash. The second example of survival in the whole film is the survivors at the end of the film. We see that they are survivors through their very ragged clothing and no weaponry except one gun and two shuffles. We could tell that they really wanted to survive because when a zombie walked past, they would immediately shoot it, the example of the sniper shooting the zombie turned hero. The third theme of this film is love and loyalty. There were two portrayals of love and loyalty in this film. The first portrayal showed the father looking after his baby after a car crash and he is trying to only get her to safety, as he knew he was going to be turned into a zombie, so he prepared many distractions for his zombie self to make him distracted from his daughter, as it looked like she was the only thing left in his life. The second portrayal of love and loyalty came from the girl survivor after finding the baby. She could have left her, instead she took her in and treated her as if she was her own child. Right at the end, we see her playing with the baby as the rest of the survivors were digging what looked like the hero's grave.
There are many props and costumes that are visible on the screen. First of all, the father's clothes are very torn and also very ragged to show that something major has happened in the world and also that he has been in a car crash. A prop that is very important is the map. The map indicates which zones were SAFE labelled with black ink. In the map, some zones were crossed off to show that the hero had been there but may have been infected with zombies. Another prop that is important was the pink balloon to distract the baby. As the hero turned zombie held the balloon in his hands, it was almost like a symbol of hope or also a symbol of the baby as he holds the balloon for the very last time. Another key moment that is very important that is also a prop was the sticker of mum at the back of the car. The sticker got peeled off by the father, leaving the father and child sticker left there, this would be a symbol of death as the father appeared to kill the mother as soon as she turned into a zombie. Another moment that is key, but was also a prop but some could say a setting, was the crashed car. The crashed car was a resemblance or even a symbol of no more transportation so that meant for the entire film, he would have to walk the rest of the way to the safe zone.
There is a lot of music, sound effects, lighting and colour that is very significant in the film. First of all, it seems throughout the whole show, there is a lot of baby crying sound effects to represent the baby at certain times in the film when she is upset or when she is calm. Secondly, at the beginning of the film, there is a lot of shouting and breathing that comes from a woman, almost certain to be the mother at the beginning of the film in the crashed car. When we hear the breathing sound effect, we notice that she is quite normal and a breath that suits a normal breathing pace. We also hear a shouting sound effect to represent before the car crash, as soon as she was about to crash the car into the woodlands. Near to the end of the film, we hear a gunshot sound effect. This was used by the sniper as he shot the zombie turned hero. At that particular point, we hear no other sound effects, then we get a sudden gunshot that fills the entire shot and he crashes to the floor, dead. When we see his lying corpse after being shot by the sniper and the survivors are checking him, there is a crow call sound effect. This is significant at the ending of the film because it gives an appropriate theme of death to follow with the hero. In comparison to the beginning, we see when the hero and baby daughter are alive or not turned zombie, there is a birdsong sound effect to present the theme of hope meaning that their journey will lead them to somewhere alive and well.
Shaun Of The Dead
28 Days Later
Zombieland
Cargo (Short Film)
Dawn Of The Dead is the sequel to Night Of The Living Dead (1968), we follow four survivors trying to survive from a zombie apocalypse in a supermarket. The initial setting of Dawn Of The Dead is set in the state of Philadelphia in the United States. At the beginning of the film, we see that the location is set in a warehouse where a SWAT evacuation happens. Also, right at the beginning, we see the main female character's workplace, which is set in a chaotic newsroom, where obviously something has happened majorly. The main location, though, is set in a shopping mall where the four main characters arm themselves and fight off the zombies.
The narrative of this film is about four characters who are surviving from a zombie apocalypse that has affected mainly America but may have affected the whole world. From the four survivors, we have two police soldiers who we saw in the warehouse and a couple. The films tells a story of the couple trying to survive together as they were going to have the baby and another story of the soldiers trying to fight off the soldiers together.
There are four characters that we follow throughout the movie who team up in order to survive. There is the hero, Peter Washington, played by Ken Foree who is a member of the SWAT team where an evacuation and then, from what we see, the zombie outbreak starts. There is the heroine, Francine Parker, played by Gaylen Ross, who was in a relationship with Stephen Andrews, played by David Emre. He eventually dies and turns into a zombie, leaving her all alone, trying to live with a baby inside of her. The false hero I would say is Roger DiMarco, played by Scott H. Reiniger, who is also a member of the SWAT team where they evacuated apartments, was almost like the partner to fellow SWAT member and hero to the film, Peter Washington. He got too much carried away killing zombies that eventually he got killed by getting bitten by zombies whilst filling up the trucks with supplies and petrol, he eventually got shot by the hero, Peter Washington.
Dawn Of The Dead has a linear ending which means that there is an open ending meaning we as the audience don't know what is going to happen. In this particular film ending, the hero, Peter Washington and the heroine, Francine Parker managed to escape the shopping mall after their shelter was found by zombie turned Stephen Andrews. They managed to get on to Stephen's plane and they fled away. In the end when they fly away, gave us as the audience a sense of hope that there is a safe place nearby.
Dawn Of The Dead uses many technical conventions. The director, George A. Romero, uses a lot of techniques surrounding mise-en-scene. The mise-en-scene of the characters clothing is very significant. Our hero, Peter Washington and our almost false hero, Roger DiMarco are wearing police costumes, very heavy gear and guns for props. These elements for clothing are to show that these two characters are policemen or SWAT members. The villains, (zombies) however wear completely different uniforms, as their costumes are very ragged and torn to show that they are dead or have been injured by being shot. They have no guns or weapons as props to show that the zombies are defenceless and have nothing to protect themselves with. There are a lot of camera close-ups of the zombies and characters to show different facial expressions. Here are only a few close-ups of many of characters in Dawn Of The Dead.
 |
| Zombies |
| Roger DiMarco (Scott H. Reiniger) and Stephen Andrews (David Emre) |
 |
| Peter Washington (Ken Foree) |
| Zombie turned Stephen Andrews (David Emre) |
As you can see from these images of camera close-ups, these characters have different emotions. The first image are the zombies that are about to feast on Stephen Andrews. As you can see from their emotions, they are very angry and desperate for human flesh. The second image is of Peter Washington holding a gun about to survive the zombie apocalypse. His facial expressions show him being quite frightened that he is fighting off all the zombies alone. The third image is of Roger DiMarco and Stephen Andrews also fighting off the zombies. Roger DiMarco is pointing a gun at what seems to be like a zombie and he looks like he is focused on what he is trying to achieve and that is killing zombies. Stephen Andrews, however, looks like he is afraid of holding the gun which shows he is frightened of the situation that he is in. The last image is of a zombie-turned Stephen Andrews. You can tell he has turned into a zombie by blood stains all over his clothes/costume and also by the colour of his skin (all zombies seem to turn blue when infected). There is a lot of music and sound that is used a lot in 'Dawn Of The Dead'. One example of this is used at the end of the film when Peter Washington and Francine Parker escaped by plane and the zombies are left to terrorize the whole centre which was once the survivor's shelter. This is the clip:
In this clip, we see the end credits to the film. This clip is important because it involves a certain type of music. This music is quite jolly and happy which in comparison to this particular film is quite odd as this is a zombie horror movie. In a normal zombie horror movie, you, as the audience, would expect to hear very eerie and dark music to suit with the genre. This movie tended to show a comparison between good and bad, in this case George A. Romero used happy, jolly music as the good with the zombies attacking the mall and showing their dominance as the bad.
There are many themes that are in this film that show great importance towards zombie horror. First of all, there is the theme of family relationships. Ever since the four survivors teamed up against the terror of the zombies, the four had to come together as a family unit for shelter. A part of this in the film was when Peter Washington, Francine Parker and Stephen Andrews were sitting down at a dinner table in their shelter eating dinner not talking at all. This is important as it shows what a normal family is like, even though they are in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Secondly, there is the theme of trust. Trust was a key element in order to survive in this film. When the apocalypse came, all the four survivors could do was to trust each other and get each other to safety, no matter if you really knew them or not. Roger DiMarco (played by Scott H. Reiniger) was too much focused on killing zombies and having fun whilst there was an apocalypse going on. Peter Washington, his team mate, pulled him over and said he needed to stop playing around, (almost like what a father would say to his son) and told to trust each other. This was a key scene as soon after Peter told him, Roger got bitten by a zombie and he eventually turned into a zombie. Thirdly, there is the theme of love. Throughout the entire movie, we see a love relationship between Francine Parker and Stephen Andrews. You could tell that they were in a relationship wen Stephen was talking with Peter and Roger about Francine having a baby, and the two also having a dinner meal together with Peter, who was the waiter. These were very important scene because at the beginning of the movie, we could tell they were in love and in a relationship. Differently, near the end of the movie, when Stephen gets killed and turns into a zombie, Francine almost gives up on him, telling Peter 'He's dead, he's not coming back'. This shows that when he died, a bit of Stephen inside of Francine melted away and she seemed to think he did not exist. Shaun Of The Dead follows the story of a character called Shaun Riley, who decides to turn his life around by getting his ex girlfriend, Liz, back but what he does not realise is that whilst he is doing this, he is in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. With this, Shaun presents the situation as an opportunity to show everyone how useful he can become by saving everyone closest to him. The initial setting of Shaun Of The Dead is set in North London, England from the yellow pages book we see. The first setting, at the beginning of the film through what we see, is set at a pub called The Winchester where Shaun, Liz, Shaun's friend Ed and Liz's friends Dianne and David, meet all together. This is a very key part in the film because from what we see so far, it is a meeting point where Shaun normally comes to, but near to the end of the film, it is a place of shelter from the zombies that have terrorised London. This is also to be considered as the main location of the entire film. Another location that is key is Shaun's home which is considered shelter on a day to day business but when the zombies arrive, it gets rampaged and Shaun and his flatmate, Ed had to find somewhere else for shelter, and no surprise that they go to the Winchester Pub.
The narrative of this film is about a character called Shaun trying to sort his life out in sake of getting his girlfriend back. For example, getting a good relationship with her mum and step-dad and sorting out his healthy life. When the zombie outbreak occurs, Shaun and everyone closest to him must join together as survivors and team up and fight against the zombies. The place of refuge they take shelter from the zombies is The Winchester Pub which is important as Liz hates going there but she got no choice as they needed a place to stay and take shelter. Similar to Dawn Of The Dead, Shaun Of The Dead has a linear narrative with a few glimpses of non-linear narratives as well. Linear narratives means that the story of the film is unbroken but there are some parts that are non linear meaning the line of narrative is broken up by flashbacks. An example of this was Shaun's different plans to get to the Winchester Pub by also picking up Liz and Shaun's mum, Barbara. This film has a closed ending at the ending of this film. This means that Shaun eventually made up with his girlfriend and it gave us as the audience a sense that Shaun has completed his objective, despite his close friends and family died and turned into zombies.
There are six characters that we see and follow during the zombie apocalypse. These survivors are called Shaun Riley (the main character), Ed (Shaun's Flatmate), Liz (Shaun Ex Girlfriend), Barbara (Shaun's Mother), and Diane and David (Liz's Friends). There is the hero and expert, Shaun Riley, played by Simon Pegg, who struggles to cope with his girlfriend's and mum's relationships. The film follows his journey, struggles and successes as he tries to sort it out whilst in a zombie apocalypse. There is the heroine, Liz, played by Kate Ashfield, who was the girlfriend to Shaun but could not cope with him always meeting at The Winchester and him not keeping his promises. When the zombie apocalypse happens, she once realises that she must stick with Shaun in order to survive and to also be together. There is the false hero, David, played by Dylan Moran, who struggles to see Shaun and Liz get back together, as David presents himself to have feelings for her. This feeling inside of him comes out when he threatens Shaun with a gun to kill his own mum. He eventually got what he deserves and zombies burst through the Winchester Pub's windows and eats David's guts and insides. The villains in this film are of course the zombies that killed Shaun's mother, Barbara, played by Penelope Wilton, Shaun's Step-Dad, Phillip, played by Bill Nighy, Shaun's flatmates, Pete, played by Pete Serafinowicz and Ed, played by Nick Frost. They are presented as very slow creatures with very little intelligence, so it would be very easy to get away from one. Despite their speed, when they attack, they bite into flesh very easily. An example of this was when David got caught by the zombies and the zombies immediately ripped apart his flesh and ate him with comfortable ease.
Shaun Of The Dead also uses many technical conventions. The director, Edgar Wright, uses a lot of techniques surrounding mise-en-scene. The mise-en-scene of the character's costumes is very important throughout the movie. For example, Shaun Riley is dressed up as a electrical salesman with a red tie and red label. He also had leaked red ink on his top before he realised there was a zombie apocalypse. This is interesting because the colour red is supposed to present the colour of blood, which is interesting because zombies eat and drink blood. Ed, Shaun's flatmate, is presented as a normal unemployed man, but his costume is interesting because his dirty shirt and trousers represents a normal teenager and at times throughout the movie, he speaks like a teenager at a pub, for example "F*** her, why don't we stay at the pub and have a few pints for the whole day." When the zombie apocalypse occurs, Shaun and Ed prepare themselves with a cricket bat and a metal spade that is use throughout the movie. It is unusual because many characters in zombie genre movies would supply themselves with guns or any thing that could kill zombies instantly, the director, Edgar Wright uses every day tools that could fight back against the zombies and not just guns. Another prop that is very important in this film is the flowers. The flowers were brought by Shaun to give to his mum, Barbara for Mother's Day. When he failed trying to book a table at a restaurant for his girlfriend, he goes round to her house and tries patches up with her. As a present to his girlfriend, Shaun gives her the flowers. These flowers are significant later on in the film as his mother picks out the same flowers from a bin outside the Winchester. The director, Edgar Wright, also uses two same walks by Shaun as he walks to the shops. There is a lot of comparisons between the two, these are the clips side by side:
As you can see from the clips, you can see on the top that Shaun is stuck in a romantic comedy where he is trying to sort out his life and below, you can see the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse in which where car alarms go off, telephone rings, and there are zombies walking towards him but he does not realise that there is one happening right at that moment because he is still trying to sort his life out. Featured in this clip is when he goes to the shops. This is important because as he goes in to buy his drinks, in the 1st walk, he first picks out a diet coke then puts it back and picks up a normal coke. In the 2nd walk however when he aims to sort out his life during the zombie apocalypse, he goes to the fridge once again and first picks out the normal coke, then puts it back and picks out a diet coke instead aiming to sorting out his life to get his girlfriend back. The music and sound is also very important as well. An example of this is at the beginning of the film where there is a blackout with very creepy, eerie music in the background, the kind you would normally hear in a zombie horror film. This is the soundtrack but in a very comedic fashion:
This is a very similar theme to Dawn Of The Dead as it is also a zombie genre movie. This music was composed and created by Pete Woodhead and Daniel Mudford. The use of keyboards is very important because this piece shows a much more darker theme to this song compared to the end credits of the 1978 film, Dawn Of The Dead, which their theme would normally be heard in many shopping centres in America which the audience can relate to.
There are a lot of themes in Shaun Of The Dead that is very similar to the 1978 film, Dawn Of The Dead. For example, the main theme in this film that is similar to Dawn Of The Dead is love relationships. In this case, there is a love relationship between Shaun and Liz as they try to work it out during a zombie apocalypse. This is very similar to Francine Parker and Stephen Andrews as they try to stick together during the apocalypse. The only different between the two relationships is that Stephen died and actually turned into a zombie, leaving Francine all alone, but Shaun and Liz seemed to live throughout all the events. There is also the theme of family relationships. As he tries to sort his life out, Shaun got confronted by his step-father Phillip, played by Bill Nighy telling him to visit his mother. This showed that Shaun was a very lazy man and never went to see his parents. As he tried to sort his life out, he was in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and unfortunately Phillip got bitten. Shaun never really like Phillip as he wasn't his real dad, but when Phillip was about to die, Shaun and he had a little love moment with Phillip saying 'I wasn't the dad you wanted', and then Shaun did not want him to go.
Cargo is a short film set in Australia and came out in 2013. We follow one man and his baby as they travel to get to a safe zone where there would be no infected zombies. The name 'Cargo' is very significant because the title is supposed to portray the man or father carrying his most precious cargo ever - his infant daughter. We see as the audience is set inside a crashed car with a family inside. We can tell that this particular location is not set in a city because there is a lot of woodlands around. Most of the scenes in this short movie is set in the forests and woods, where there is a lot of greenery. There is one scene at a house where the man, carrying the baby on his back, tries to find something that would distract the baby and not cry as much as she did at the beginning of the film. The house is set at a birthday party, we could see this by him holding up a traditional colourful party hat and him holding and pumping up a balloon. This film has a linear ending which means the film is very chronological, from beginning to end. This film also has a closed ending. At the end, we see the man (father) has completely turned into a zombie, maybe because of the car crash we saw at the beginning of the film. He got shot by one of the four survivors, three males and 1 female, as he successfully got his baby daughter, Rosie, to safety. This is significant because throughout the whole film, he has been on a journey to get his baby daughter to safety.
There are 10 characters in the whole of this film. There is the hero, portrayed as a middle aged father, who recently was a victim to a car crash, has to take his daughter to safety. He had to take matters into his own hands and look after his child. There is the villain, portrayed as a mother who, at the beginning, had turned into a zombie. She was the villain because she had wanted to eat her whole family. She was eventually killed and her death was not seen on camera, but from what we know, she was killed by her husband, the hero. There is the heroines, which are two characters. One of them were the girl survivor because when the hero turned zombie character got shot by a sniper, she went over to check if he was dead, or if he had supplies. She didn't want to leave him because she thought that something was wrong but the long haired survivor told him to come over. She started to go over, but was halted by a baby's call, and she ran over and looked under him and saw the hero's baby daughter. At the ending, we see that the girl survivor seems to be looking after the baby, almost like what a mother would do. Secondly, there is the baby daughter. We also follow her story along with the hero as she is carried on his back. This character is important because at the end of the film, when the girl survivor started to walk away from the hero's corpse, the baby let out a massive call for somebody to come over. If she did not do this, she would have still lied with her dead father or maybe crawled someplace else, which could have led her to zombies and she might have been eaten and then turned. There are two false heroes. Firstly, there is the sniper that shoots our hero that had been turned. When he was shot, we lost our main character in the whole film and the sniper was responsible for it. Secondly, there is the long haired survivor. He was almost portrayed as the 'leader of the pack' by giving the thumbs up to the sniper and telling the girl survivor to come along. If the girl survivor had listened to him, she might not have found the baby and so could have put the baby's life at risk.
There are many themes to this short film. The first theme that is featured is family breakdown. At the beginning of this short film, we immediately see a family together, but when the mother turns into a zombie and the father is forced to kill her, we immediately see a family background. The key scene that resembled family breakdown would be when the father had to peel off the sticker at the back of the car, which was portrayed as a woman, and he threw it away. The second theme is survival. There are two examples in the whole film. The first example is the father and daughter trying to survive and get into a safe zone after recently being in a car crash. The second example of survival in the whole film is the survivors at the end of the film. We see that they are survivors through their very ragged clothing and no weaponry except one gun and two shuffles. We could tell that they really wanted to survive because when a zombie walked past, they would immediately shoot it, the example of the sniper shooting the zombie turned hero. The third theme of this film is love and loyalty. There were two portrayals of love and loyalty in this film. The first portrayal showed the father looking after his baby after a car crash and he is trying to only get her to safety, as he knew he was going to be turned into a zombie, so he prepared many distractions for his zombie self to make him distracted from his daughter, as it looked like she was the only thing left in his life. The second portrayal of love and loyalty came from the girl survivor after finding the baby. She could have left her, instead she took her in and treated her as if she was her own child. Right at the end, we see her playing with the baby as the rest of the survivors were digging what looked like the hero's grave.
There are many props and costumes that are visible on the screen. First of all, the father's clothes are very torn and also very ragged to show that something major has happened in the world and also that he has been in a car crash. A prop that is very important is the map. The map indicates which zones were SAFE labelled with black ink. In the map, some zones were crossed off to show that the hero had been there but may have been infected with zombies. Another prop that is important was the pink balloon to distract the baby. As the hero turned zombie held the balloon in his hands, it was almost like a symbol of hope or also a symbol of the baby as he holds the balloon for the very last time. Another key moment that is very important that is also a prop was the sticker of mum at the back of the car. The sticker got peeled off by the father, leaving the father and child sticker left there, this would be a symbol of death as the father appeared to kill the mother as soon as she turned into a zombie. Another moment that is key, but was also a prop but some could say a setting, was the crashed car. The crashed car was a resemblance or even a symbol of no more transportation so that meant for the entire film, he would have to walk the rest of the way to the safe zone.
There are many uses of editing in this short film. Firstly, there are a lot of close ups of our villain's (mother) dead body after she was killed by our hero which is the father. There are a lot of close ups of the baby daughter as well. This is very important because the director, Ben Howling portrays as the baby's generation might be the last to ever be lived on planet Earth and then killed by zombies. Secondly, there is a long establishing shot near to the end of the short film when the hero gets shot by the sniper. This is important as we, the audience, should not be seeing the hero dying when he was turned because we have followed his journey throughout the entire film so it might have been upsetting. There is also a lot of transitions between focus and unfocus in the camera lens. We mainly see this background where there is a unfocused shot of a woman who appeared to be injured but seemed normal. This was supposedly presented to show the hero's eye sight as he was unconscious as suddenly started to wake up. Then there is a complete focus shot of her fully turned zombie self trying to eat the hero and baby in which was the beginning of the journey. During a lot of shots in the film, there are a lot of point of view (PoV) shots. This is shown when the man is travelling with her infant daughter to try and get her to one of the many safe zones that were labelled on the map. From these PoV shots, we see a lot of head shots of the hero sweating and grunting as he struggles to get her infant daughter to safety. This is also very significant because PoV shots, all the time, look handhold and so in the case of Cargo, the hero has a lot of PoV shots to make it look like the hero is carrying his own personal camera. Lastly, the pace of cuts is very significant in this short film. At the start of the film, the pace of cuts was at a very fast and dramatic pace to match the same feeling as our hero when he is in the car crash and rushes to get his baby to safety. Near to the finish of the film, the pace of cuts is very slow and a reassuring pace to match the zombie turned father. In this short film, zombies are presented as very slow creatures, so near to the end of the film, the pace suits the hero.
There is a lot of music, sound effects, lighting and colour that is very significant in the film. First of all, it seems throughout the whole show, there is a lot of baby crying sound effects to represent the baby at certain times in the film when she is upset or when she is calm. Secondly, at the beginning of the film, there is a lot of shouting and breathing that comes from a woman, almost certain to be the mother at the beginning of the film in the crashed car. When we hear the breathing sound effect, we notice that she is quite normal and a breath that suits a normal breathing pace. We also hear a shouting sound effect to represent before the car crash, as soon as she was about to crash the car into the woodlands. Near to the end of the film, we hear a gunshot sound effect. This was used by the sniper as he shot the zombie turned hero. At that particular point, we hear no other sound effects, then we get a sudden gunshot that fills the entire shot and he crashes to the floor, dead. When we see his lying corpse after being shot by the sniper and the survivors are checking him, there is a crow call sound effect. This is significant at the ending of the film because it gives an appropriate theme of death to follow with the hero. In comparison to the beginning, we see when the hero and baby daughter are alive or not turned zombie, there is a birdsong sound effect to present the theme of hope meaning that their journey will lead them to somewhere alive and well.
Monday, 23 February 2015
Pros and Cons of Different Research Methods
Different Types Of Research
Questionnaires
Internet Research
Book Research
Interviews
Focus Groups
Focus Groups
Focus Groups are an example of a way of bringing a range of people together to all come together to discuss a certain topic or product, in this case different media products. The Pros of this is that it is quick and cheap as it is very easy to assemble every single person who is there. Ideas may be shared between a group as individuals can bounce off any ideas that another person made. However, the Cons of this is that if it is a smaller group, (for example 5-8 people) might not be as the same as in a larger group. It may be difficult to get an answer out of somebody if the discussion becomes heated, also certain people can become dominant meaning they only want their point across.
Internet Research
Internet Research is a fast and easy way to find information from various different search engines, the most popular being Google. You can find various different pages and exactly specify what you want. It is a lot easier than book research because looking through books to find exactly what you want is longer than searching on search engines on computers as it probably would take a shorter time (Pros). The Cons of this is that if you are searching on search engines, you might miss relevant information. An example of a website that is very reliable for information is Wikipedia, although the information on certain pages might be completely wrong as Wikipedia allows people of the world to write their own information.
Questionnaires
Internet Research
Book Research
Interviews
Focus Groups
Focus Groups
Focus Groups are an example of a way of bringing a range of people together to all come together to discuss a certain topic or product, in this case different media products. The Pros of this is that it is quick and cheap as it is very easy to assemble every single person who is there. Ideas may be shared between a group as individuals can bounce off any ideas that another person made. However, the Cons of this is that if it is a smaller group, (for example 5-8 people) might not be as the same as in a larger group. It may be difficult to get an answer out of somebody if the discussion becomes heated, also certain people can become dominant meaning they only want their point across.
Internet Research
Internet Research is a fast and easy way to find information from various different search engines, the most popular being Google. You can find various different pages and exactly specify what you want. It is a lot easier than book research because looking through books to find exactly what you want is longer than searching on search engines on computers as it probably would take a shorter time (Pros). The Cons of this is that if you are searching on search engines, you might miss relevant information. An example of a website that is very reliable for information is Wikipedia, although the information on certain pages might be completely wrong as Wikipedia allows people of the world to write their own information.
Monday, 9 February 2015
BBC Research Task Questions 3 and 4
History
3) What were radios called in the 1920s? They were called 'The Wireless Telephone according to a picture from Wikipedia
4) When was the first BBC radio broadcast? 14th November 1922 when the first BBC broadcasts went out from london
Audience
3) What groups of people to the BBC cater for (age, gender, race, religion)? What programmes might appeal to these groups (give specific examples)? The BBC Trust, after public consultation, has divided this remit into six specific priorities:
3) What were radios called in the 1920s? They were called 'The Wireless Telephone according to a picture from Wikipedia
4) When was the first BBC radio broadcast? 14th November 1922 when the first BBC broadcasts went out from london
Audience
3) What groups of people to the BBC cater for (age, gender, race, religion)? What programmes might appeal to these groups (give specific examples)? The BBC Trust, after public consultation, has divided this remit into six specific priorities:
This means that they don't cater for age meaning they cater for all ages. They cater for both genders. Above, are the BBC's trust catering for both race and religions.
Some programmes cater for different genders, for example men like playing sport so the BBC cater for them bringing out such programmes like Match of the Day and Wimbledon, whilst women may like many family quiz shows, so the BBC caters for them bringing out such programmes like Pointless and Wish List. Many young people (aged under 16) may watch the children's television channel made by BBC called CBBC (Children's British Broadcasting Company), whilst many older audiences watch soaps and many antique television shows such as EastEnders, Antiques Roadshow and Bargain Hunt.
4) How does the BBC cater for regional audiences? The BBC cater for regional audiences by releasing many radio stations and television stations that cover not just London but many cities like Manchester and Birmingham.
Radio
3) When was Radio 1 born? Their first air date was 30th September 1967
4) What is the most listened BBC radio show - why do you think this is? The most listened BBC radio show is BBC Radio 2 with 15,568,000 listeners which, according to MediaUK, viewers has rose by 0.4% on 09/02/2015. BBC Radio 2 appeals more to a older audience compared to BBC Radio 1 which appeals more to a younger audience. Older audiences listen more to the radio compared to younger audiences who listen to music on YouTube and on their phone.
Television
3) In the 1980's, which royal event drew in one of the largest ever recorded TV audiences? It was the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Dianne Spencer on 29th July 1981 at 11:20am which drew an estimated global TV audience of 750 million.
4) When did Breakfast TV launch? On the 28th December 1980, Breakfast TV launched on the BBC and their logo for TV-AM launched in 1983 (below).
Television
3) In the 1980's, which royal event drew in one of the largest ever recorded TV audiences? It was the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Dianne Spencer on 29th July 1981 at 11:20am which drew an estimated global TV audience of 750 million.
4) When did Breakfast TV launch? On the 28th December 1980, Breakfast TV launched on the BBC and their logo for TV-AM launched in 1983 (below).
Tuesday, 3 February 2015
Television Advert Analysis
Television Advertising Analysis
Cravendale's 'Milk Matters' Advert
Unicef's 'Lend your voice to children' Advert
Cravendale's 'Milk Matter's' Advert
The first advert I have chosen is an animation advert in a part of a series, which features puppets or plastic dolls you would normally see in a doll farm set. There are voiceovers in this advert with the only words being 'MILK!!!', 'Winner' and 'Lovely', but there is no live action from any human actors. In 2007, Cravendale released a series featuring a Cow, a Pirate and a Cyclist from the scenery recycled from the puppet show, A Town Called Panic. The styles that they use are very humorous for the way they talk and their actions, for example when the three characters have a dance off to determine which character gets to have the last glass of milk. The advert tries to make the product memorable through the use of humour, in this case Cravendale makes this advert memorable by adding puppets to make sure the audience remembers the advert. From the beginning to 0:02, we see that the setting (mise-en-scene) is set in the countryside because of the sheep that is outside of the house. From 0:11 to 0:14 we see a 'hidden' message which explains that if a the audience buys this product, this milk would be much purer because it is filtered which is not used by other milk brands. As this was one of the first of many adverts created by Cravendale, this advert is aiming to raise brand awareness and brand identity so audiences can go to supermarkets and buy their products. This television advert came out on YouTube on April 4th 2009 and has has 2,455 views. The target audience for this advert would appeal more to children aged 11-16 because of the language that is used is very comedic and would not appeal more to a more older audience.
Unicef's 'Lend your voice to children' Advert
Cravendale's 'Milk Matters' Advert
Unicef's 'Lend your voice to children' Advert
Cravendale's 'Milk Matter's' Advert
The first advert I have chosen is an animation advert in a part of a series, which features puppets or plastic dolls you would normally see in a doll farm set. There are voiceovers in this advert with the only words being 'MILK!!!', 'Winner' and 'Lovely', but there is no live action from any human actors. In 2007, Cravendale released a series featuring a Cow, a Pirate and a Cyclist from the scenery recycled from the puppet show, A Town Called Panic. The styles that they use are very humorous for the way they talk and their actions, for example when the three characters have a dance off to determine which character gets to have the last glass of milk. The advert tries to make the product memorable through the use of humour, in this case Cravendale makes this advert memorable by adding puppets to make sure the audience remembers the advert. From the beginning to 0:02, we see that the setting (mise-en-scene) is set in the countryside because of the sheep that is outside of the house. From 0:11 to 0:14 we see a 'hidden' message which explains that if a the audience buys this product, this milk would be much purer because it is filtered which is not used by other milk brands. As this was one of the first of many adverts created by Cravendale, this advert is aiming to raise brand awareness and brand identity so audiences can go to supermarkets and buy their products. This television advert came out on YouTube on April 4th 2009 and has has 2,455 views. The target audience for this advert would appeal more to children aged 11-16 because of the language that is used is very comedic and would not appeal more to a more older audience.
Unicef's 'Lend your voice to children' Advert
The second advert I have chosen is a talking heads advert starring Ewan McGregor. A talking heads advert is where people talk directly into the camera, in this case Ewan McGregor and a little boy named Mustapha talk directly into the camera motivating the audience to donate to Unicef. Ewan McGregor uses blank facial expressions, direct human contact and is voice to sell the product, in this case motivating people to donate to help people, especially children in war-hit countries find a better place. The advert's style is very dramatic as it talks about a serious issue that is affecting many people, in the advert Ewan McGregor takes on a story from a child called Mustapha. Ewan McGregor emphasises to the audience that his voice can't be heard, so the use of a well-known celebrity to say his story would motivate the audience to help war-hit countries, otherwise known as humanitarian emergencies. At 0:22 to 0:28, we only see one location (mise-en-scene) and it looks like Mustapha's house with a curtain in the background to show that this is a poverty background and they are desperate for the audience's help. For the most of the advert, (0:00 to 0:21 and 0:29 to 0:41), we see a full head shot of celebrity Ewan McGregor talking directly towards the camera. Ewan McGregor is a UNICEF Ambassador, so the charity wanted him to make an advert that would appeal to the audience and make them donate because there is a famous face that people would recognise. From 0:42 to 0:50, we see the various peoples from different countries that UNICEF is aiming to help with people's donations. These countries, from what I know, are mainly 2 countries: Syria and many regions in Africa. This television advert came out on Youtube on May 15th 2014 and has 7,580 views. The target audience for this advert would be those of an older audience because as it is a charity, those of an older audience, aged 30-50, would want to do something about it compared to those of a younger audience, aged 11-16 who can't do anything about it.
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