My TV and Film Dramas

Feature Film:
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Rating: 8.1/10 (IMDb)

FACTUAL INFORMATION

Director: James Gunn
Writers: James Gunn, Nicole Perlman
Year of Release: 2014
Main Cast: Chris Pratt as Star Lord
                   Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot
                   Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket
                   Zoe Saldana as Gamora
                   Dave Bautista as Drax
                   Lee Pace as Ronan
                   Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta
                   Karen Gillan as Nebula

Plot: A group of intergalactic criminals are forced to come together to stop a warrior from blowing up            a planet and from controlling the universe

FORMAT AND GENRE

Guardians of the Galaxy is a movie about the themes love, family and caring. The theme of love is conveyed a lot during this film, a example of this is in the last few scenes of the film when Corpsman Dey (played by John C. Reily is reunited with his wife and daughter. This is also used as an example of family as well in the film. Another example of love in this film was when the Guardians were about to meet the Collector, Gamora and Star Lord almost kiss when they are alone together and she is introduced to music made by humans. An example of caring in this film was when the five guardians team together to fight Ronan near the end of the movie. This is a clip of that scene, after the scene, they all stand up and say that they will fight beside Peter Quill's side:

NARRATIVE ELEMENTS

The basic plot of 2014's Guardians Of The Galaxy is about a group of intergalactic criminals are forced to come together to stop a warrior from blowing up a planet and from controlling the universe.
This is a linear storyline but also has elements of non-linear elements in it. Examples of this are shown at the beginning when there is a flashback of the main character, Peter Quill, and it shows his mother being killed from what looks like cancer and was abducted by aliens. Another example of this shows Peter Quill holding an infinity stone, then looks at Gamora (played by Zoe Saldana and is one of the guardians), but in Peter's eyes, he sees the figure of his mother, telling him to take her hand. This film is set in outer space and other planets but it is not set in real life, so it is an anti-realist film but also has elements of realistic in it. The only scene we got that was set in real life was at the beginning of the film where Peter's mother dies. There are also a lot of anti-realistic characters in this film as well as this is set in other planets in outer space. These are a couple of images that show the different aliens in this film:




CHARACTERS

Hero: There are many heroes in this particular film, but the main hero we follow is a human from Earth named Peter Quill, (who likes to be called Star-Lord). He was abducted by scavengers when he was a young boy, soon after his mother died of, what looked like, cancer. His purpose in this story is to show a human side to this story and how a human would react when he's around aliens of different planets all the time.

The other heroes are all part of a group called the Guardians of the Galaxy. First, we have Gamora, played by Zoe Saldana. Gamora is portrayed as a villain servant under the main villain, Ronan. When she is sent to retrieve an orb that contains a gem that can destroy worlds, she meets Peter Quill and we see her being moved from a villain to a hero character as soon as the story went on. Her purpose in this story is to show that even bad characters can become good when she works with a team. Next, we have Rocket the Racoon and Groot, a tree. These two characters are both made by CGI. These two are almost the comedic duo of the film in which they are the very best of friends who do everything together. Their purpose in this story is to appeal to the audience and make them specifically remember these two characters. Last we have Drax, played by Dave Bautista. This character wants revenge against Ronan (villain), who killed his wife and daughter. His purpose in this story is to finally get the people who killed his family and kill them so that they can eventually 'sleep in peace'.

Villain: There are also many villains in this film as well, but the main villain we follow is known as Ronan the Accuser, played by Lee Pace. His objective in this film is to collect an orb that contains something called an infinity stone, which is part of five stones that can be collected together to make something called an infinity gautlet. This infinity stone has the ability to destroy worlds, which he wants to do to the planet Xandar, his home planet's rival.

There are two other villains that we take in as the audience. First of all, we have Thanos, who will be the main villain in the next Avengers movie, 'Avengers: Infinity War Part 1' (May 2018) and 'Avengers: Infinity War Part 2' (May 2019). When he appears alongside Ronan, he treats him like a little boy, which gives us a sense as the audience, that his purpose is when he appears in 'Avengers: Infinity War', he will be a very ruling and intimidating character, and hope to rule the galaxy. Next, we have Nebula, played by Karen Gillan. Her character appears to be one of Thanos' daughter and one of Ronan's henchman. She was working alongside Gamora, who worked with Ronan at the beginning. Her purpose in this story is to always follow what Ronan says, even if that means battling against Gamora.

THEMES

There is many themes in this particular film that reaches out towards the audience. The first and main theme would be FAMILY. This is conveyed in many different ways, the first way is when all five heroes, Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot, all come together as one to defeat Ronan. Throughout the movie, these five characters were all trying to settle their differences by fighting each other, but near the end of the movie, we see these characters working together as a team, talking as if they were friends. They also cared about each other very much which is another example of family. This is really conveyed when Groot makes a shelter out of his body when they are all crashing down into Xandar. What the audience didn't know until Rocket said, was he was sacrificing himself to make sure the other four characters survived. Another example of family in Guardians of the Galaxy is the clip shown above when Thanos confronts Ronan. Thanos refers to Gamora being his 'favourite' daughter which angers Nebula (his other daughter). This is completely opposite to my other example with the Guardians coming together. This example is negative because it shows that Thanos favours the daughter that betrayed him more than the daughter that is still more loyal to him and Ronan.


TV Series
Family Guy (1999-)
Rating: 8.3/10 (IMDb)

FACTUAL INFORMATION

Creators: Seth MacFarlane, David Zuckerman
Main Cast: Seth MacFarlane as Peter Griffin/Stewie Griffin/Brian Griffin and more...
                   Alex Borstein as Lois Griffin/Tricia Takanawa and more...
                   Seth Green as Chris Griffin/Neil Goldman and more...
                   Mila Kunis as Meg Griffin/Bank Teller and more...
                   Mike Henry as Cleveland Brown/John Herbert and more...
                   Danny Smith as Jim Kaplan/Evil Monkey and more...
                   John Viener as Announcer/TV Announcer and more...
                   Patrick Warburton as Joe Swanson and more...

Plot: In a wacky Rhode Island town, a dysfunctional family strive to cope with everyday life as they are thrown from one crazy scenario to another.

FORMAT AND GENRE

This is a serial animation comedy. Since its broadcast in 1999, every episode has been very different, but all containing very comedic elements. The shows last for 20 - 25 minutes, but at times in different seasons, there are feature long episodes. Examples of this is Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, and the Star Wars parody original trilogy.

NARRATIVE ELEMENTS

Each episode in its 15 season long reign follows a very basic plot line. The plots in episodes normally follow the story of a member of the Griffins: Petter, Lois, Chris, Meg, Brian and Stewie. Every season, we always get a story line containing Brian and Stewie (the dog and the baby), who always do everything together, whether it being these two trying to save Christmas or when Stewie wants to find his real father when it turns out to be Stewie from the future. Each episode contains a closed ending, which means the plot is normally wrapped up in one episode and then we get the next episode.

CHARACTERS

There are no good characters or bad characters in Family Guy but we do focus on the Griffin family the most. First, we have Peter Griffin, the father and the so-called 'title' character of Family Guy, who is not very intelligent and is their purely for entertainment. Then we have his rather attractive wife in Quahog, Lois Griffin, who every guy finds attractive and their three children: Chris Griffin, a prepubescent teenager, Meg Griffin, the oldest and not liked that much by the family because she is boring and, compared to Lois, quite unattractive, and Stewie Griffin, a baby who has the ability to speak in a rich English accent. We also have their pet dog, Brian Griffin, who is extremely intelligent, who also has the ability to talk. Other characters that we see are Glenn Quagmire, the neighbour, and loves having sex with random girls, Joe Swanson, a disabled cop and Cleveland Brown, who eventually got his own show called The Cleveland Show (2009-2013). These three characters I've listed are supporting characters and are best friends to Peter.

THEMES

There are many themes in each episode of Family Guy. The main themes however, that are shown a lot in each episode are LOVE, FRIENDSHIP and FAMILY. We see the theme of love a lot as the theme is presented in various different ways, whether it being a love relationship, for example Peter and Lois Griffin being in love all the time, or the love and compassion that is giving to two friends, such as Brian and Stewie Griffin. There was also a episode dedicated to love called 'Valentine's Day in Quahog' in Season 11, and it shows how the different characters in Family Guy spend their Valentine's Day. The second theme is Friendship. This is conveyed a lot between Brian and Stewie Griffin. From my opinion, their friendship is really conveyed in the episode 'Brian and Stewie' in Season 8. Here is a clip in the episode where I think their friendship is shown and it shows Stewie and Brian opening up about each other:

The last theme is Family which is very effective in every episode of Family Guy. The theme is conveyed in every ending of each episode when the Griffin family are sat on their couch as a family after everything that happened in each episode.

 








               

Abomination Union Film Evaluation

My film is called Abomination Union and is about a woman who wakes up after an explosion inside Big Ben to find that the population of the UK has turned into zombies. She then finds a man, which they develop a love relationship between each other. She then finds out that he is working with a group called Abomination Union who plan to release all the flesh eating zombies in the UK into Europe so that they can then rebuild their lives. She rejects these ideas and now on the run from the group. My film has various themes that could excite the audience, the main theme being a zombie/apocalypse in which the audience can get to see loads of action (e.g. buildings being blown up, zombies getting killed etc). With the zombie/apocalyptic theme, I also wanted the audience to see the theme of romance to show the relationship between the two main characters during a zombie apocalypse and how their relationship grows whilst killing so many zombies. They are also expecting to see very famous faces as well, with the likes of Keira Knightley, Christian Bale and Helena Bonan Carter, headlining the blockbuster which would motivate the audience even more to go and see the film.

Whilst watching the film, I want the audience to be excited with what they're watching. I want them to think about the danger that the main characters are under and how much terror they need to prevail, so I also want the audience to be also quite scared as well. I also want the audience to be given a sense if they were in a particular situation, how would they deal with it and what they would do. I also want to give the audience questions as well, the main question would be if they were put in that situation, would you really kill another zombie? Before they turned, they were normal human beings, the question would be would they have the courage or the audacity to do such a crime.   

I think my production pack, which includes the poster, storyboard and trailer is a very effective preview of the content of my film. I created a very dark poster to catch the audience's eyes and make them remember after seeing it. I spent a lot of time creating this poster, and when I handed out my questionnaire to peers in my class, they were very, very impressed with what they saw. For my poster, I wanted to catch the audience's eyes, I did this by using red font and colour to represent blood and I used very good detail at the credits below. My demo sequence or trailer I think was also very effective. I used iMovie with my trailer because I thought it was easier to make with iMovie rather than any other software. I think it was an effective preview because you had a very good idea on what the story was, despite being a teaser trailer. There was a lot of good detail that is in the trailer that the audience could understand and, from the feedback I got, it was hugely entertaining to watch. The key scenes they said they enjoyed were the particular fast pace scenes of zombies killing humans, so I used more of those clips in my advert and the audience enjoyed it even more. If I could think of any changes to my demo sequence, I could have used more shots from my own camera, rather than using clips from YouTube as the audience could have related to it more because it is near where they live.

If I had to encourage 'fandom', I would create a website that the audience can look at, before and after watching the film, to keep that sense of anticipation more, so that the audience can see if there is any future plans for a second film, and with this website, I would allow a setting where the audience can pre-book the DVD after seeing the film if they enjoyed it more.

When my film gets released, I would want my movie to have a standard release, which means that it is released on DVD and blu-ray. I would want my movie to be released to cinemas in July, if that is the case, I would want my DVD to be released in the middle of November/end of November, as with a standard release the DVD is released 16 and a half weeks after cinema release. I don't think I would want my movie to be made available for free-to-air TV because some scenes in my movie would be very unsuitable for children aged between 12-15 and might scare or frighten them.