One Missed Call

Which was better - American or Japanese version?

Barthes and his Codes

Roland Barthes was a thinker closely associated with Levi-Strauss. he came to the conclusion that narratives could be understood in terms of codes.

The three main codes were enigma, action and cultural. All these codes interlinked. Enigmas were snares which hooked the audience into the film. Although it is not always obvious to the audience why enigmas occur (such as why is David so interested in Michael) they enjoy trying to discover the solutions.

Action codes were caused by the characters in the film who are seeking answers or are seeking to 'act'. The audience enjoy action codes since they propel the narrative forwards. For example Michael follows David's gang to their cave and what he discovers there leads to his subsequent problems. This leads to the involvement of his brother and the Froggs and to his romance with Star.

Cultural codes are things which the audience as a group or society share with the film. For example the idea of vampires is a shared idea which helps us with the film. So too is the rebellious behaviour of the youngsters. Our society has similar problems. Cultural codes are very similar to the verisimilar idea in Classic Narrative Formula.

Dawg get your Claude Levi Strauss On :)

Levi-Strauss was known as part of the Structuralist school of thinkers. One of the main parts of his theory was the concept of BINARY OPPOSITIONS

Strauss argued that we can understand many things in this way. This theory is often applied to understanding narrative in cinema. It is a good theory for understanding genre in cinema.

So for example if we were to take the example of The Lost Boys we can explore binaries within the film and then look at how they fit or don't fit when The Lost Boys is placed within the Horror genre and the Vampire sub-genre.

In the Lost Boys we have good forces in opposition to evil forces. There is also the chaos of Santa Carla and the order which the Frogg Bros try to restore. There are other binaries such as those between the lure of the otherness and revulsion at the otherness. There is the also the opposition of Night to Day and between youth and older age.

It is interesting that Binaries compliment Classic Narrative Formula in the sense that CNF is concerned with equilibrium and disequilibrium. For Strauss these are binary oppositions!

Our film for June

How are females presented in this film? The Church actually assists Dracula in his bloody attacks!

Let the Right One In

Perhaps the most hotly anticipated horror movie of the year! Scandinavian vampires!

Whisky Street

This extract would be suitable for the medium of film for several reasons. Firstly it suggests to me several very visual ideas such as the central character/narrator who has lost everything 'documents, passport, licence...' and even the will to live when he tells us 'there was nowhere left to run, no way out...'. He is a character who with proper casting, my young target demographic could connect with and I feel I could make a film which would engage them in his dilemmas which we read about in the extract when he tells us about the revolver in his coat pocket.

Secondly the location of Whisky street with its vividly described colours and noises (garish purple bruises and sirens) would be ideal in the medium of film and could be created to stunning effect with green screen technology in the same style as Frank Miller's Sin City. This again would help target my student demographic.

There are other compelling reasons for making this text into a film including the fact that screen adaptations of novels have usually always been succesful in cinema. Also because I feel this film/text lends itself to two very succesful genres in cinema, namely Horror and Thriller. This intertextual mix would be appealing to the demographic in the same way as Fincher's Seven has been. The horror elements are suggested by the genre markers such as the terrible place - Whisky St and the 'ghostly footsteps' and of course the night-time setting. On the other hand the man faced with a situation he does not understand suggests one of the key markers of the Thriller. It might be possible to introduce a double crossing female into my film thus giving the movie a Film Noir aspect.

I see this film attracting a young student demographic 15- 25 who are the most common cinema goers and who are keen on the thriller/horror mix. The film I intend to make would undoubtedly be a multiplex movie with action and enigmas which would seek to please its target audience with visceral and cognitive pleasures. It being a multiplex movie there would be a need for a good sized budget, a 15 certificate and perhaps an A list star to generate the kind of profits expected from multiplex screenings.

The film would as I have said, rely somewhat on a major star to bring alive the narrator of the text. Discussions with my Casting Director would centre on Josh Hartnett as one possibility or Mark Ruffalo (pictured above) or Colin Farrell. The casting of any one of these established actors with their distinctive features would help the mise en scene of the battered and troubled narrator and his life on Whisky street. A blonde Ann Hathaway or Jessica Alba would broaden the draw of the film for its audience and would also be considered in casting. Of course their availability and willingness to undertake the progress plus their fee would have to be taken into consideration.

The description of Whisky Street in the extract is so evocative and precise with its 'dark sheets of rain' that the only sensible option in terms of location would be the use of a soundstage with green screen and post production CGI to recreate it. My locations manager and producers would be looking for a studio with these facilities in order to maximise complete control over the colours and types of rainfall and the camera work needed to visualise the moment in the text which describes the gun. the text also mentions a good deal of foley (even the noise of the gun chamber is mentioned) so my Sound Editor would benefit from a controlled environment in which to record these fx.

My Cinematograher and I would need to have lengthy discussions about the look of my film. As I have suggested horror combined with film noir there is a need to film with a view to using a lot of shadows and light (as Hitchcock did with Psycho or like the noir films of Nicholas Ray). Therefore the possibility of shooting in grainy b/w should be discussed or even de-saturated colour. I would of course be looking for 35mm standard which would be pleasurable to my audience as would be the b/w.

The music for the film most try to create for the young demographic the mood and feeling of Whisky Street and the troubled narrator. This being the case I would discuss with my Music Director the need for a dark electronic, original score and even the possibility of a signature piece of music which help the audience understand the darkness of the street. Craig Armstrong or Thomas Newman (who has worked closely with Sam Mendes on Jarhead and Revolutionary Road) are two composers capable of sonically conveying the darkness of Whisky street with 'its filth and grease...'

I would like to explore now some of the Technical and Cultural Codes for the opening shots of this movie.

Without doubt the location is one of the stars of the movie and integral to its success with the target audience. It has to be gritty and powerful and memorable to the audience. Therefore my first shot will need to be a panning wide of the street using green screen as indicated above. The right to left pan in moderate speed will attept to convey the darkness and danger of the street to the the audience presenting them with a pleasurable sense of fear and anticipation. The shot will be at eye level possibly the view of a pedestrian. Sheets of rain will seem almost white against the purple sky with other aspects of mise en scene present such as demolished houses, burnt out cars, neon lit clubs etc. This combined with the signature music mentioned above will anchor for the audience the sheer presence of this location and its dangers.

The second shot will be a continuaion of the pan which will grind to a halt at our narrator slumped in the tunnel wearing a large shapeless coat in dark colours suggesting he is powerless and hopeless. The pan will then zoom to a midshot of our anti hero as he contemplates his future, the rain driving into his face. The fx of rain and sirens and shouts will then be heightened for the audience anchoring a sense of his inner torment and need for escape. the signature music will then rise to a crescendo as he fumbles for his old rusted gun in the shadowy low key lighting.

Shot three will be a choker close up of the gun ( a special set up will be needed here as the audience is taken into one of the chambers and can see the bullet there) the noise of the chamber can be heard. This shot will be angled down on thebullet anchoring the sense that it will be fired soon.

Shot four will zoom out from the man and tilt slightly upwards in the direction of the tunnel entrance. The mise en scene here will be of a tunnel like the opening of hell, dark and foreboding with the foley of 'ghostly' noises approaching. Here the signature music will switch dramatically to a horror chord anchoring for the audience along with the dark shadowy lighting with expressionistic colourings, the sense of danger to the anti-hero narrator. Sound editing will be crucial in the creation of the otherness.

Revolutionary Road the novel is better!

I thoroughly enjoyed the Richard Yates' novel so I was looking forward to the film. It was a fairly good film but put against other Oscar contenders such as Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire, it felt pretty ordinary. One of the things I noticed was how few people were in the film! Although the central parts were convincing you couldn't help but think that what they were worried about (loss of their dream and ideals) wasn't worth getting really worked up about. Oh and the amount of smoking was unreal as was the amount of time pouring drinks!