Structuralism – Claude Levi-Strauss

 1) Shaolin Soccer

The main purpose of the scene is comedy/obscenity. Meaning is created between the Shaolin monks and the sport of soccer. This is because they are basically polar opposites on how they are known. Soccer is more of a western worldwide sport while Shaolin monks are primarily found in East Asia and are very secluded. The Shaolin created identifiable characters though. Their team is wearing all orange and is quiet unlike the other team that was gloating at the start of the match.  The gloating is stopped after the first monk striker scores a midfield goal. The other team could not even believe it was real, they thought they were hallucinating.

2) The Quick and the Dead

The main purpose of this scene is suspenseful. Meaning is made between the expensive top quality guns and the $5 one that he purchased. This is the case because the person buying it for him does not want to spend too much on the man. The men buying the guns are polar opposites which clearly explains ideas. The older man is wearing a much more wealthy looking outfit, while the younger one is scraping by with Revolutionary War seeming clothing. However, the younger one seems like a very experienced gunslinger as he twirls the gun given to him in about 5 different ways.

Genre Theory – Steve Neale

 1) Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

A) Believed Genre- Action

B) Which of 5 Conventions to Determine That- Narrative Considerations, Evelyn is seen fighting in almost every scene.

C) Text Genre Subversion Applying to Film- Cultural Effects, I saw that Daoism is very prevalent in the film.

D) Genre Hybridity and why Relevant- family-drama, sci-fi, thriller-action, romantic comedy. The film uses aspects from all of these genres so it is very diverse and hard to deconstruct properly.

2) Phantom of the Paradise

A) Believed Genre- Comedy

B) Which of 5 Conventions to Determine That- Iconography, the plunger silence during the shower is comical.

C) Text Genre Subversion Applying to Film- Social Context, it appears that everyone there seems fine with the bird man killing people, or maybe they do not know.

D) Genre Hybridity and why Relevant- Comedy, Rock Opera, and Horror. This is relevant because all of these highly differing genres are hard to incorporate together without it turning into chaos.

3) Electric Dreams

A) Believed Genre- Comedy

B) Which of 5 Conventions to Determine That- Narrative Considerations, a talking computer and the narrator speaking funny.

C) Text Genre Subversion Applying to Film- Audience Saturation Effects, the girl that he is talking to does not know that the love is artificial and from the computer.

D) Genre Hybridity and why Relevant-  Comedy, Romance, and Sci-Fi, these work together as the computer and man are fighting over the girl. Even though, the man used the computer to help get the girl.

Narrative Equilibrium – Tzvetan Todorov

 1) Proppian Characters

Hero- Ethan

Villain- Russians

Donor- Benji and Headquarters

Princess- The package on the plane

Princess' Father- Headquarters

Helper- Luther

False Hero- Benji?

2) Others

Equilibrium- The package was safe and out of enemy hands.

Disruption- The Russians have obtained control of the package.

New Equilibrium- Ethan (Tom Cruise) gets it back from the inside of the plane.

3) Paragraph

The meaning of this clip is to show the recapture of the package from the Russians, the capture of it was the disruption. This clip shows an entire intelligence team working together to recapture the package before it travels off too far. Therefore, it is simple to infer that after they captured it, it restored the equilibrium.

Semiotics – Roland Barthes

 In the clip find an example of,

Sign- Piano left in front of him

Signifier- Piano

Signified- He ordered it, or it was a mistake.

Denotative Meaning- The piano being left there is most likely just a mistake by the shipping company or he ordered it.

Connotative Meaning- The piano is somehow involved in the car crash that took place seconds before it was delivered.

Code (group of signs)- Desk, Telephone, Coffee show that he was in there for a long amount of time doing some kind of business.

Semiotic theory is clearly prevalent with the delivery of the piano. The instrument was delivered seconds after a terrible car crash took place directly in front of the character. Along with that, this can be supported by how quickly they left the piano and sped off, almost as to send a message.

Depth of Field

 1) Existing Media

Deep

Still image from The Wolf of Wallstreet, 2013

This image has most of the frame in focus. Neither the foreground nor background is blurred out.

Shallow

Still image from Bladerunner 2049, 2017

This still shows Officer K as the main focus in the shot. He is in the foreground while the background is blurred.

Soft

Still image from Focus, 2015

This image shows the foreground being slightly blurred while the background is clearer.

2) Media I made

Deep

Lego on top of podium

This shows how both the foreground and background are clear.

Shallow

Lego standing ominously

This image though, has the Lego as the primary focus of the shot, while the background is blurred.

Soft

Lego in front of the podium

This still shows how the foreground is blurred but the background is not.

3) Reflection

This blog post was considerably harder. The focus on my phone was very hard to pinpoint to certain aspects of the shot. The one that has the foreground blurred and the background not was the hardest one to shoot in my case. That one required a lot of positioning and manually selecting aspects that needed to be focused on. This one shot took at least five times longer than the rest. Besides that, it did not take long for me to find the materials for it. They were all on my desk. Overall, I am happy with the final result even though it took a bit more effort.

Camera Position

 1) Camera Position in existing media

Angle

Still image from The Dark Knight, 2008

This shows how low angles creates power

Level

Still image from The Dark Knight, 2008

This still is in eye level to show Batman's facial expressions

Height

Still image from The Dark Knight Rises, 2012

This still shows Bane as being more powerful over Batman in the moment.

Distance

Still image from The Dark Knight, 2008

This still shows Batman across the room interrogating Joker. This shows the upcoming for the interrogation.

2) Camera position in my media

Angle

Lego character looking upwards towards camera

This still shows how a high angle can show weakness in the character portrayed.

Level

Lego character looking into the camera

This shot shows eye level with the Lego.

Height

Lego character commanding other figure from a higher post.

This one shows how height is used to show power over other characters.

Distance

Lego character about to assassinate his commander

This shows conflict between the two characters. 

3) Reflection

    The shots were very hard to obtain. The Legos did not want to stand up. This was solved somewhat by the introduction of a raised platform. This fixed the issue of them not standing up straight. However, it was also hard to pick what figures to use. These two were probably one of the more basic ones so they would not seem too weird to pick, unlike some of the other Star Wars and Marvel figures I have. The yellow and brown figure is actually also a Star Wars figure. Something to do with Naboo. He does not look too fictional though, so I decided to use him. The focus on my phone was also pretty hard to pinpoint to the tiny characters. I had to manually click around and find a focus that worked. Same with the distance and zoom. It was hard to find a happy medium between the two. Besides that, I had a pretty fair understanding on how to actually set up the shots to achieve the desired image. The shots that I got were very fulfilling on the requirements of the assignment.  I believe that I did a very good job on completing the criteria with minimal defects besides just errors with the blur/depth of field.

Mise en Scène

 1) MeS in existing media

Still image from Bladerunner 2049, 2017

This still clearly shows contrast. It is shown between the dark officer K and the light background and pillars.

Still image from Bladerunner 2049, 2017

The main noticeable thing in this picture is the varying color near the middle. It is red which shows love/attraction. This brings attention by color.

Still image from Bladerunner 2049, 2017

Most people would look towards the giant purple hologram in the middle. This shows attention by size. Officer K is barely noticeable.

Still image from Bladerunner 2049, 2017

Frontality is very prevalent in this still. The main subject is Officer K who is staring at the hologram.

2) Stills made by me

Nerf dart on green folder

This still shows a clear contrast between the yellow of the dart and the surrounding green of the folder.

Nerf dart on green folder surrounded by pens

Color difference is shown here. All the pens and the folder are all green. This creates high differences between the yellow and the green.

Big nerf dart on folder

This one was supposed to demonstrate a difference by size. It was very hard to get a right angle though.

Very frontal nerf dart on folder

This shows heavy frontality. So much so you can see the imperfections on the dart itself.

3) Reflection

Getting the images was very hard. Not for the movie part. I am referring to the self made ones. The size especially was hard to pinpoint. I was not sure how big it had to be for it's size to be considered big compared to the rest. That was probably the only still that I got wrong. Besides that, I understood all the material. it was fun to find stills from blade runner. it is one of my favorite movies of all time. Besides that, it was really straightforward and I am very proud of my work. I used whatever random stuff I had lying around for the blog. That is probably why it seems very all over the place. I like it though, it gives the blog a very familiar vibe that I think works well with what I wrote along with it.