PR3 how we respond to media productions

Leon

P1 we respond to media productions in many ways, some of the approaches may be in the manner in which we analyse. Such as genre, narrative, semiotics and representation.

Genre –Genre was originally a French word meaning a kind but was adapted into cinematography meaning a style or category of art ,music or literature .Genre in a film sense is used to show the style of the film for example action ,horror , drama. In the case of Leon the genre is an action thriller with hints of a drama .This is shown by recurring themes throughout such as guns, violence and vengeance these are all common things that are found within the action movie genre.

Narrative- The definition narrative means a spoken or written account of commented events or a story. There are a few ways that narrative is used in films .The first one is a 3 act structure this originated from Greek theatre which states that there must be three acts in a film act 1 exposition ,act 2 rising action and act 3 falling action . This way is the most common form of narrative in movies. Another form is Character arc this means that the characters that appear in the film must grow in some way as the movie proceeds .This can be split up into two forms uphill arcs and downhill arcs. Uphill arcs are when the character improves throughout the movie and downhill arcs where the character decreases throughout the film. There is also episodic native where the story is split up into episodes .There are also linier and non linier narrative. linier is the traditional form of film making where the movie has a begin middle and end and non linier may not follow this Patton .The narrative structure of Leon is a 3 act linier story this is split into 3 acts with act 1 exposition then followed by inciting incident then act 2 rising action then the climax then the final act being falling action followed by the denouement.

Semiotics –Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols to find the hidden meaning behind them for example this is used a lot in colours; the colour blue could be looked at to represent loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith and truth. On the poster of Leon the colours on it are red and black .These colours are meant to symbolise things .The red means blood and violence this shows us that it is probably going to have action involved .The colour black can be used to symbolise death darkness and misery .This shows that it probably won’t be a happy movie .In Leon they use semiotics throughout the movie to show a constant theme of life and death. For example a killer Leon carry’s around a plant winch is representation life. So a killer is protecting life.

Representation- Representation means to portray someone of something. Leon use Representation well in the movie for example with gender .In a lot of action movies women are represented as being good looking women who need to be saved by the main character this is considered as being the conventional way of action movies .But in Leon went for an unconventional approach the female protagonist is a strong confident young girl who want revenge for her father’s death.

P2 I will be talking about the topics above and how they effected to movie.

Leon(The Professional international release ) is a movie that was released in 1994(1995 in the UK)this was directed by the French director Luc Besson .There was some star actors that was in this movie Jean Reno who plays the main protagonist Leon , Gary Oldman played the role as the antagonist Stansfield. This movie was also the debut of Nataly Portman who played the role of Mathilda when she was 12 years old.

The story line of Leon was as followed.

act 1

the exposition we see Leon an Mathilda being introduces .With Leon it shows of him using his skills to kill a group of gangsters .We hen learn about Mathilda family life and how she has a desorbing family life . Then there is some inciting incident that takes place in this act. The incident that happens is the murder of Mathilda’s mother, Father, sister and her 8 year old brother .

Act 2 In this act we start to see the rising action of the movie the first thing we see is Mathilda gets taken in by Leon in order to protect her from the crocked cops that killed her family .Once she found out what Leon’s job is she ask him to train her in “cleaning ” the reason for this is because she want revenge for her brother which is a very conventional plot line in action thrillers .At first he denies her training but in the end he starts to show her how to do it .

Climax this is set up by Mathilda going to try to kill Stansfield in order to avenge her family’s death but she fails to do so. This leads Leon to killing one of Stansfield’s colleges and brakes Mathilda out of police custody. Because of this Stanfield gets the SWAT team to attack the hotel where Leon is staying in. This becomes a shootout which is the main part of the climax which ends with Leon killing Stanfield along with himself with a grenade.

Act 3 Falling Action this is the part where Mathilda goes to Tony Leon’s contractor who gives her some of the money that he has held onto for Leon this means that she is pretty much set for life .She also starts to get her life back on track by going back to a private school.

Denouement this is the ending of the movie in this part Mathilda plants Leon’s plant in the ground this shows that although it is a movie about death there is still new life in the end .

P3

Setting – The setting for this movie Is New York city which is very conventional for an action movie because they are always

set in large cities. It’s also usually in a place with a large population of people it’s also the type of places where the most crime takes place this means that it would be a perfect place for an action movie to take place .It’s a very iconic place that people will know the look of it and guess the location of the movie within the first 30 seconds .It is shown by the iconic skyline. But what is unconventional about it is although it was set in New York the main location was little Italy which is a location not seen a lot in films.

Character - the characters is in this movie is considered to be unconventional than in most other action thrillers .For example with the main character Leon in most action movies the main hero is usually a smooth talking ,good looking guy just like James bond is .Whereas Leon dose not talk much during and you barely see his face during the first half of the movie because it is covered up by his glasses .Also in a lot of these types of movies the main character is usually a good guy fighting against evil whereas Leon could be considered as being an antihero considering that he “cleans”. The other main character female is a unconventional character .In most action movies the female tends to be a young attractive

woman who usually falls in love with the main character. Whereas Mathilda is a 12 year old girl who wants revenge after a group of corrupt police officer killed her brother .Her and Leon developed a father daughter type relationship but there were hints throughout the movie that suggest that Mathilda wanted something more .This is something that is strange to see in films a relationship between a man and a minor just the through of this happening may put people off from watching Leon this may be one of the reasons why Leon did not do too well at the box office

Iconography –these are things that are seen on the movie that are iconic to the movie genre for example in the first 10 minutes of the movie we see a gun fight which is very iconic to these types of movies .There is also a scene in the movie that has Leon holding a gun to a gangsters head and has the gangster trying to call the emergency number this symbols life and death which is what the movies theme is .Life being the phone with the police on the other end giving life .And a gun only used to bring death .This is also used with Leon plant with somebody who only used to take life is protecting life within the plant .At the end of the movie Mathilda plants Leon’s plant in the ground to symbolise that even though Leon died life still grows .

Style- This movie kept a constant style of having a theme of life and death and they did this by making Leon someone who’s job is to kill and remove life ,help protect two life’s with Mathilda and the plant .One of the styles of the movie is to be unconventional with the characters that are in the movie .Anther one is that we don’t see Leon face much in the movie this is done because the director wanted to add some mystery with his character .Because of the directors style this movie became known as being an auteur movie which gave the movie stylistic credit which is one of the reasons why it has stayed around for all this time and still considered to be a popular movie . Because of Luc Besson use of style the movie did not do well short term but managed to prevailed in the long term and stand the test of time

Troy

P1

Genre- The genre of this movie is an action, adventure and historical movie. There are several ongoing themes that show that it is this genre such as swords spears and horse.

Narrative- Just like Leon this movie keeps the same 3 act liner story line with exposition, rising action and then the falling action I shall show the 3 act structure in p2.

Semiotics- The first sign that we see that this is an historic action movie is the title “troy” this shows us what type of movie it would be and where it is set it also gives us the insight to Homers Odyssey so those who know about his story of troy with the wooden horse . There are also a lot of mentions to the Greek gods and goddess with the movie mentioning Apollo the god of light, Athena the goddess of wisdom and Poseidon the god of the sea .This shows us the time when the movie was set and where.

Representation- In this movie gender is represented quite badly there is only really three important female roles in the movie compared to the large cast of males .And even the three women are only really used as romance towards the three main characters . Also two of them could be considered as being prisoners Paris cousin was being held captive in the Greek camp and Hellen could be considered as being a captured of troy with a whole army trying to take her back to Sparta .This can be represented as bad view of female ,but considering that this is a historical film the representation of women in the movie may have been what it was like in the time when the movie was set

P2

Troy was received on the 14th of May 2004 and was directed by Wolfgang Petersen with music by James Horner. The movie is a historical action movie which stars Orlando Bloom who plays one of the protagonists, Eric Bana the other protagonist, Brad Pitt who plays the anti-hero and Diane Kruger the female protagonist.

Act 1 exasperation this is how the movie starts off by explaining the characters I would say that troy had two parts of the exposition .The first part was with Paris (prince of troy) sleeping with Menelaus wife Hellen and running off with her leading to a war between Greece and Troy .We also see Achilles fighting as a champion for the Greeks in a battle which shows us that he is the best warrior in the whole of Greek.

Act 2 rising action during this part of the movie a lot happens first the Greek Armada assembles and attacks the coast of troy which allows them to camp of the beaches of troy for their campaign .Achilles captures a Trojan priestess who is also Paris cousin .Then there is a duel between Paris and Menelaus over the love of Hellen and to end the war although Agamemnon planned to attack troy weather he won or

lost .The inexperience Paris lost the battle with Menelaus but was saved when Hector (price of troy) intervened by killing Menelaus .The Greeks then fought and lost against the Trojan fours’ with

Hector killing Ajax the great .after the battle the Trojans suggested a counter attack at the Greeks camp later that night during this the Trojans beat the Greeks in their camp .Hector fought and killed someone who he thought was Achilles but turned out the be Achilles cousin Patroclus. Because of this both the Greeks and the Trojans agree to end the battle there.

Climax – because of the death of Patroclus Achilles heads towards the city of troy and demands that Hector fights him in single combat .Hector agrees and gets killed by Achilles after their battle Achilles ties his body to his chariot and rides of showing disrespect towards him .

Act 3 falling action – On this part we see that the Greeks was meant to leave Troy and left behind a wooden horse as a gift to Poseidon .The trogons come upon this and suggest that they should take it into their temple as a gift to the gods .Paris disagrees and says that they should burn it .The Trojans go against Paris judgment and brings it to their temple .Later that night Greek solders come out of the wooden horse and open to gate to allow the Greek army in .This leads to the sack of the city of troy .Paris and Hellen try to escape trough underground tunnels along with others .

Denouement- this is the ending of the movie where Paris shoots Achilles with arrows multiple times until he shoots him in the heel and kills him.

P3

Setting – The setting of the movie can be quite conventional with action historical movies. For example we see a Greek temple which shows us that it is obviously set in Greece .This can show the viewer’s where this movie is set since this is such an iconic building. We also see the some other Greek location like Sparta and the city of Troy these are both very conventional locations to be found in historical action movies especially those that are based on the ancient Greeks

Character – the characters within this movie are very conventional in the way they are acted out .For example the two of the main characters hector and Achilles. Both shear similar characteristics .They are both strong and powerful characters who are considered as the strongest warrior from both sides. This can be considered as being conventional in historic action movies with having strong characters that can’t be defeated. In history they are both known as being heroes of their country’s and both names have gone down in Greek legends. The female protagonist is also considered to be conventional because she is seen as being a damsel in distress that people need to protect this could be given as being a bad message towards the

female audience .This is completely different to Leon who’s character are very unconventional and don’t follow the common themes this may be the reason why Troy has not stood the test of time.

Iconography – There are several things that this movie has that are iconic to the genre of the movie. For starters the weapons that are used during the movie gladius, javelins and chariots these are considered as being iconic tools that are related to this era that the movie is set in. Also the use of the Greek Gods (even if they did not get them entirely accurate). By adding them in it gives the

viewers a clear understanding of the setting of the movie and also the time period that it was set in. This will then show to its audience that it is a historical action movie.

Style- throughout the movie they keep a constant style .One of the themes that this movie dose is love and war. During the movie there are three love interest going on in a time of war this Is a way of saying that even I war love can still provable . They also keep to the same theme of a Greek tragedy they did this by killing off main characters and the ending when the Greeks set fire to the city of Troy. This also shows that it is historically accurate to the real events.

Pulp Fiction

Pulp fiction is a crime drama thriller movie that was directed by Quentin Tarantino. This came out in 1994 some of the main cast are as follow Samael l Jackson, John Travolta and Bruce Willis .the movie is a non-liner episodic story this means that the movie is told in episodes and might not be told in the right order which means that some characters might die on one part of the movie but then return on another because It has not been told in the correct order. So one of the good things about this movie is trying to piece out the order of the movie.

I shall now talk about the storyline as if it was set in a normal narrative story line.

The exposition of the movie is Bruce’s dad’s friend giving him a watch. Alight this Is the begging of the movie it does not show this scene for about a hour Into the film .There is also the part where John Travolta and Samael L Jackson goes to take back the brief case .

This is where the rising action starts Johns character shoot someone and they need to dispose of the evidence. So they ring up a fixer to help deal with the problem. Once this happens they go to a dinner which two people are about to rob. Although in order this part of the movie should be in the middle. In the film this part is shown at the begin and the end .they pay the robbers to leave after threatening them and this is then considered to be the end of the movie but if we did it in the correct order then the movie carry’s on

They then go and return to case to their boss marcel. This is where they meet the character Butch played by Bruce Willis who is told to fake a fall in one of his boxing matches. He does not do this so marcel sends johns character to kill him this could be considered as being a second rising action . Butch goes back to his old house where Johns character is waiting for him which leads to Butch killing Johns character , this scene happens before the diner scene this makes johns character die and then come back in a later scene .

This is now where the falling action takes place . butch try’s to kill marcel but fails and ends up being captured and taken to a sex dungeon . Butch mangers to escape from the sex dungeon and saves marcel from them which makes marcel say that they a even and tells him to leave the city

This leads up the final Denouement with butch and his girlfriend leaving on a motor bike . Although this is the ending of the story this only happens half way through the movie

Although that was how it happens if the story was set out in the right order ,but since Quentin Tarantino wanted to make the narrative style of the movie a nonlinear episodic story line . This meant that the order is mixed up. For example when playing the movie John Travolta’s character archery dies before the dinner scene which was the last scene in the movie .The interceding style works very well and I think this is the reason why both Pulp Fiction and Quentin Tarantino have done so well.

Post modalism

Pulp fiction uses a lot of post modalism to make references to other parts of the media . For example the director uses multiple different types of intertextuality to link this movie to other souses of media .An example of this is that they use the same mise en scene as in Grease they have done this by having the same car scene as grease as well as having references to the pink lades form Grease . This could also be seen as being a pastiche since it is closely copying another artist work this is different to a parade because instead of mocking this they are more celebrating it . Tarantino used people dressed up as old stars from the 50s to 80s to make references to them and their time .For example they had the famous Marylyn Monroe vent scene from the film seven year itch . This would be playing homages towards the director of that movie Billy Wilder this would be a Pastiche. These are quite good reference because people who was born in this era to see tie in’s to starts that may have been around in their child hood.

There is a scene within pulp fiction which makes a parody of John Travolta dancing. This is because in one of his earlier movies Saturday night he had a major dancing roll. But now as he has gotten older and more out of shape he makes a parody of him doing some bad dancing like what and old man would. This is also Self-referentiality because John Travolta makes reference to his own work on Saturday Night Fever with the dance scene in this . This movie also uses Reflexivity this is done on the part where she draws a square on the screen. This breaks the 4th line and shows that the camera is

there.

Quentin Tarantino always makes some self referentiality in all of his moves. He does this to give the audience hints about his new moves and old ones. For example in the case of Pulp fiction Tarantino gives hints about a movie that he had not made at the time Kill Bill. This was done when they was talking at the restaurant John Travolta’s asked mia about her the time she did a pilot and she started talking about assassin women that is a reference to Kill Bill .