Narrative theories applied to three case study films

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Zero Dark Thirty

There are many narrative codes used in Zero Dark Thirty, most of which are action codes (proairetic codes). The ending of the movie is all made up of action codes, where the US Black Ops troops go into the compound where Osama Bin Laden is ‘supposedly’ hiding. A clear example of an action code used in a scene is when a soldier draws his gun and shoots through a door. This is followed by a moan, which leaves the audience in suspense on whether the man on the other side is dead or not, the audience wonders what the resolution of this action will be. We wait to see if he kills his opponent or is wounded himself. Therefore suspense is created by action rather than by a reader’s or a viewer’s wish to have mysteries explained. Most of these action codes take part with complete silence, or diegetic sounds only. The reason why diegetic sound is playing is because it puts the audience in the scene, which creates more climax. However, at times there are non-diegetic sounds playing such as music to set the mood of the scene and create more of a dramatic effect. There are also hermeneutic codes in the beginning of the film. For example, there is a scene where a ‘terrorists’ body is shown holding a weapon but his face is not shown. This leaves the audience in suspense leaving them to wonder who this person is, what are his intentions. The movie also starts of with a man, believed to be a terrorist, being tortured by a CIA operative. This also leaves the audience in question for why this man is being tortured. These codes leave the audiences desires to continue viewing the story in order to find out the resolution.

Slumdog Millionaire

 

The Narrative structure of Slumdog Millionaire can be described as confusing, manipulation of the audience through enigma codes. Throughout this film, flashbacks are used as 1 of the 3 strands of narrative. To an extent it is due to the collection of interrelated stories told in a single narrative. This is shown throughout the film as it jump cuts from different story lines to one being on the show, another being in the office discussing his ‘cheating tactics’ and the last being the flashbacks of his childhood and how Jamal knew every answer to every question. The montage of Jamal and Latika scenes are shown near the end of the film as a narrative device to portray the ideologies of this film as being no matter what happens and no matter what obstacles couples may face, as long as they love each other, they will overcome anything. This film challenges audiences expectations as the typical audience member will expect Jamal and Latika to be together, however because of the constant pulling apart of the characters, expectations slowly turn into enigma codes of are they going to eventually be together or will all the things getting in the way really affect their relationship? Also, people expect Jamal and Salim to stick together due to the fact they are brothers but when Salim betrays Jamal and harshly turns against Jamal, again the audience slowly start to believe that their expectations have been challenged. These elements are action codes, they move the narrative on for example, the flashback feed the plot and enables Jamal to answer the questions in the game show.  After few questions the audience assumes that there will be a story behind each question, and eventually are used as enigma codes for the audience. The development of the characters is shown through the flashbacks as each flashback reveals a character story which is relevant to what happens in the present. It is used to demonstrate the characters arc. Finally, Todorovs equilibrium Structure is used. This is shown by giving the impression that although the story is there somewhere in the film, it is in the wrong order and only if the audience works out what is happening and the order of the events, they will understand the concept of what Danny Boyle is trying to achieve.

 

Looper


Looper mainly uses the ‘Three-act’’ structure, For Looper there is the Set-up in the beginning for when the protagonist is shown to the audience and the audience learns about the protagonist and his characteristics. Act 1 of the movie is mostly about learning about the protagonist, what he does, who he is, what kind of person he is. Act 2 of the movie is when the dilemma of the plot begins. This is the part of the movie where the audience begins to develop an interest to the narrative of the story. In Act 2 there are many action codes used to keep the audience interested. For example, Joe (protagonist) falls of the building and the screen blacks out. This leaves the audience in question in whether the character is still alive or if he is dead. Act 3 is mainly about the resolution of the dilemma where the protagonist, the Hero of the story, resolves the dilemma.           

      

Eminem 2010 Promo

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Eminem 2010 Promo (LINK to Video)

Audience: –

  • Primary Target audience is for teenagers and young adults (14 – 25), mainly male. People who are a fan of Eminem and who enjoy listening to his music. People who are lower to middle class because of Eminem’s song meanings and he’s background. People who are Caucasian and African-American but mainly to American’s who are especially from Detroit.
  • Secondary Target Audience is for people who may be older aged, i.e. 30 to 40. People who don’t necessarily listen to Eminem occasionally but enjoy Rap music in general. Some females who enjoy listening to Rap/Hip-Hop.
  • Audience pleasures – Emotions, because of the deep lyrics in Eminem’s songs. Some people may relate to Eminem’s life journey emotionally. Schadenfreude, some people might enjoy listening to Eminem rap about his painful journey and find pleasure in his pain. Action packed, this particular video does have some action and interesting effects.  Cathartic, because in the video Eminem is telling the audience that they are not alone and that he is by their side. This will cause psychiatric relief through the strong emotions he shows.

Narrative:-

  • Enigma codes are used; firstly Eminem is crawling out of a car as he is injured. At the end of the video the injured Eminem touches the strong Eminem in order for him to become as one. There are kids who help the injured Eminem join them. This shows that Eminem is helping others and that his message is that he is not alone.
  • The video does show restricted narrative because the video does not play all of Eminem’s songs in this new album, hiding them from the audience. The song played in the background is ‘Not Afraid’ by Eminem, a song in this new album. The whole song is not played only some lines from the chorus.
  • The video follows a texture of a linear narrative. The story line is chronological and is easy to understand the story in the video.
  • The voice over’s and other audio narrations are used efficiently in this video. The video’s first audio narration is form the song, ‘Not Afraid’. It starts of with the lyrics, ‘I’m Not Afraid’, and this is played as the car on the scene explodes behind Eminem. This is effective because it shows that Eminem is not afraid and won’t give up. This helps us tell the story of the video about it’s message. The voice over of Eminem also adds a massive effect to the audience. He says, ‘Now some of you might still be in that place, if you’re trying to get out, just follow me, I’ll get you there’. This helps the audience understand that Eminem’s new album is about helping those who are in need of help. It shows that Eminem is encouraging people to fight and to follow him so they can, ‘Walk this road together’.
  • The title at the beginning reads, ‘Eminem’s road to the music awards’. This shows how much effort and work Eminem had to put in to his career in order to get this far, to the music awards and perform.

Genre:- 

  • The genre for this media text is basically a trailer meant for people who are into Hip-Hop and Rap music.
  • The narration of the media text makes the video dramatic and emotional. It also combines with inspirational. The video inspires the audience because of the narration and the cinematic meaning.
  • Eminem is one of the characters in the scenes; he plays a struggling character which creates dramatic tension in the video. There are also teenagers who are in the scenes watching Eminem struggle, they help him get up and become stronger. This shows some drama in the video. There is also a car explosion in the beginning of the video which creates some cinematic action in the video.
  • At 0:20 of the video there is a iconography of a DJ Scratch Disc which represents the Rap industry. Eminem falls on this iconography and stares at it anchoring his role in the music industry.

 

Media Language:-

  • I found the editing very interesting and unique in this video. The whole video is in a Grayscale tone apart from Eminem’s red jacket and his bruises on his face.
  • The music was very well chosen for this media text because they played the subject’s music for his own commercial which inspired me to do the same.
  • At 1:04, there is a wide shot of the crowd following Eminem. This looked very professional and was a good choice of shot to use.
  • There were 33 shots used in this video, which makes it look better because there are different points of views in the video.
  • At 1:05, there is a good shot of the camera movement. The camera pans upwards from behind Eminem to the city of Detroit showing the landscape and scenery, to the clouds and the sun.

Representation:-

  • There are many teenagers in this video which represent that Eminem has many people in this age group supporting him. This shows the positive side to Eminem’s music. The people in the scene are also multi-coloured which shows that any race could listen to Eminem’s music.
  • Detroit is shown as a peaceful city with the calm clouds and sun above it representing that it is a good city whilst in other films and documentaries; Detroit is a city with one of the highest rime rates.

Ideology:-

  • The ideology in this video is that Eminem needs his fans to help him be successful and healthy.
  • The video represents his fans helping him up and watching him which could show that because of his fans, Eminem has become who he is today and that without his fans he would not be able to be as successful.
  • The kind of message the video is showing is that Eminem wants his fans to not give up and to follow him as they fight together.

 Institution:-

  • The institution that presents this video is called, ‘MTV’. MTV is a very famous American institution.
  • The institution helps bring out the advert because it is so popular and there a large amount of people who watch the channel.

Paralympian Advert

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Paralympian Advert

   The Paralympics advert portrays the image of Paralympians as powerful mighty athletes and humans. One of the adverts characteristics was that it sends an efficacious message across to the viewers that the Paralympians are an equal to other Olympic athletes, even though the Paralympians are disabled, the commercial crucially shows how willing and determined these handicapped legends are to accomplish their goals and dreams. This is why this commercial is showing the positive side of the Paralympians which sets out to inspire and impress the audience tremendously. There are various media aspects that this video uses in order to set out their goal. These media features are used effectively in order to put the spotlight on the aim of the commercial.

   Firstly, the first Paralympian we see is at (0:11). The media feature used in this first vision of the Paralympian is a Silhouette effect which initiates a dramatic effect. This effect makes the subject look almighty. Because the man is ‘in Silhouette’, it gives the shot a paramount effect towards the subject. Another interpretation for why this Silhouette was used could be to ultimately anchor what the commercial is about as it is the first shot of a Paralympian not a normal Olympian. The effect helps give a dramatic anchoring to the storyboard because the Silhouetting effect clearly outlines the shape of the small and muscular, handicapped athlete, contrasting him with the high key background, which images to the audience that this commercial is about Paralympians. The next shot is a Mid Shot of a group of handicapped basketball players showing sportsmen ship to one another (0:15). This clearly shows the positive environment around Paralympians and how they treat each other with a positive attitude towards one another. The use of the Mid Shot is to demonstrate part of the subject(s) in more detail which still gives an impression of the whole subject. Also, the athletes are under a high key lighting and in a wide focus whilst contrasting to an unfocused/darker toned background. A silhouette effect is once again used, (0:18), showing the wheel chaired basketball players moving towards the light. Usually a High Key light represents a positive sign, so this idea could be a connotation that the players are moving ‘towards the light’, to a more positive place. After all, the clip does show the players moving away from a dark lighted place towards the bright light. There are many connotative imaging showed throughout the commercial. This is when the camera sees the scene and shows a deep meaning without the obvious text, dialogue. For Example, in 0:31, there is a Paralympian sitting in a office looking at a diagram of the complete human body. The diagram is charted as, ‘The Muscular System’. The Paralympian then looks straight at the audience (Camera) as if to show that he doesn’t have all the Muscles in his body but yet he is still an athlete. This creates sympathy for the Paralympian(s), and shows that they are still Positive and Powerful people in this world. At 0:42, the commercial changes the mood and the mise en scene of the video to show different unfortunate events which occur to leave these Paralympians in the position they are in, but none the less the music starts up again and continues to show the determination of these hard working athletes as if to tell us that their life is not over and that they won’t give up. The text used in this video also creates a certain Ideology for the audience that even though Paralympian’s are disabled and may be socially different to everyone else, they still are very successful people. In 1:16, ‘Meet the Super humans’, is used to describe the Paralympians. This makes us feel proud and inspired of the Paralympians. This text also makes us feel that these handicapped people aren’t equal or beneath us, they are much more superior to us and should be treated with much more respect than us because of their never ending will to fight back to life.  

   The sound editing in this video helps move the video to reach its goal. Firstly, the music is loud and inspiring because of its motivating beat and lyrics. Throughout the video the lyrics repeat, ‘Get up, just like that’. This relates to the point of the video as the Paralympians are getting up and working hard so the song is telling the audience to get up like the Paralympians are (‘Get up, Just Like That’). The music also stops at some points of the video to let the audience hear the diagetic sounds in the video which creates a dramatic effect and puts the audience inside the video. For Example, at 1:10, the swimmer dives into the water. At this point the sound is edited so the music is mixed with the sound of someone diving in water. This helps put the audience into the action which helps the video feel more realistic.  

   I feel that this is a very effective advert because of various amounts of its Connotative and Denotative media. There were many shots and cut scenes which created excitement and meaning in the video for example when the camera closes up on the Paralympians face and disabled features. There was a good range of editing the video with different midtones and lighting as well as speed of certain clips. Some clips would be speeded up whilst some would be in slow motion which puts the significant clips in motion. I especially enjoyed the message of the video and how it was successful as an advert. The advert not only made me want to watch and meet the Paralympians but it gave a new perspective on these Paralympians. I can now really commit into understanding what they go through and how hard working all Paralympians are. This advert really convinced me that these Paralympians are actually in fact ‘Superhumans’.

Media Studies HW – Lawless Trailer

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1. There are many different techniques used to portray an excellent trailer. There are various camera angles and lighting effects which show different meanings and different interpretations.

   The main effect that this trailer used was a number of camera angles. There were alot of two-shots and many over the shoulder shots which puts the audience into the story. An example of well portrayed camera shots was when the camera was inside the grave of a character the audience is not aware of (1:54).

   The use of sound was mixed in this video. There were both Diagetic and Non-Diagetic sounds used in this trailer. The trailer starts of setting a light cheerful mood with light music. As the trailer anchors the plot of the story the music transitions to a more dark and dramatic tone which contrast the mood of the audience.

    The lighting of the trailer is mainly constant throughout the video. Most the setting is outside in a natural area which is mainly why the lighting stays stationary. A common lighting effect used in many movies were also used in this trailer where the enemy has half his face lit up whilst the other half of his face is dark. This shows the contrast in this bad characters and the good characters. This also creates a source of mystery for the audience towards the enemy.

   The trailer is mainly sert up for an age group of young adults. The film’s story is mature and is best fitted for adults, however the cinematography and the action is well suited for young adults. There is alot of action and dark drama in this video so it will mainly appeal male genders.