Kieran Jackson

PR3: Critical Responses to media products

https://youtu.be/DcsirofJrlM Leon- Leon is a 1994 French thriller, it was released in September 14th

1994, the film was director by Luc Besson and produced by Patrice ledoux. The movie had a budget of $16 million and had a hit at the box office with $46.1milion. some of the stars in the film are faces such as Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman and Danny Aiello. A soundtrack for the film was released in October 1994. It was commercially successful in Japan, being certified gold for 100,000 copies shipped in December 1999. Leon (played by Jean Reno) lives in New York and is a professional hit man. One of his neighbors, Mathilda (Natalie Portman), is a 12-year old girl with family problems, one of which is that her father is a petty criminal.

After watching the trailer to the film “Leon: the professional” I can clearly see this film is an action thriller /drama movie because of it use of guns and violence and the story of a young girl after losing her family. The genre of the film is very clear from just seeing the short trailer without even knowing what the film is about, it consists of many of the genre conversions of action/thriller such as guns, violence, you can see a clear hero and villain theme, explosions and car crashes. We also get a glimpse of the narrative from the short trailer too, the trailer shows me the narrative and storyline has a linear narrative with a clear beginning, middle and end.

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Nick Lacey defines genre elements as constituting the 5 key areas below: setting character narrative iconography style

As a consuming audience we respond to media products in many different ways, the way we response and react is there the five different areas setting, genre, character, iconography and narrative. In this I will discuss these different genre elements and also link this to films I have watched. Leon the professional, pulp fiction and a movie of my choice. I have applied the theory of Nick Lacey to these films with the five different areas of elements. In film Leon the professional there is clear iconography which shows us the genre and style of the film, we see it’s an action/thriller because of key things such as guns, violence, strong language and characters such as hero, villain and a strange love interest.

Leon-

After watching the film Leon, the professional I made notes on setting, character, narrative, iconography and style. This is from the Nick Lacey theory. New York locations is an establishing shot fish eye lenses, with a camera shot over central park, world trade centre showing the year of the film. Most action films set in big cities such as New York relates to the genre. Shots goes onto a dark and red which show danger and death. Drugs, gangs and guns many conventions of a thriller action film showing us the genre is very clear. Shot of young girl has ideas of being imprisoned in act one. Gangs and mafia.

Two heroes and and one main over the top mental villain. Mathilda’s, Leon, Stansfield, tony, Mathilda’s family. Evil is personified Use of binary opposition, two opposing elements juxtaposing together. Life and death, this film is very much about life or death. At 7.53 in the film. From the theory of strauss with came up with a theory of opposites. It has beginning, middle and end which is a basic liner structure film narrative structure, it has a three act structure, in act one it has an exposition which establishes the film, inciting incident occurred which was the murder of Mathilda’s family.

Act two consists of rising action with the relationship between the characters. Act 3 climax final gun scene, falling action with the death of Leon, Denouement with Mathilda plants the potted plant. Location of New York. Another prop of a New York taxi to showing us we are in New York. Music is unusual, tracking shot into the city like your being taken somewhere. Popular cultural in the film.

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on the sound get more sinister. Extreme close up of man’s hands and mans close up. From the shots we feel claustrophobic from being free from the other shots. Over use of loud diegetic sound to make it feel like the audience is there and experiencing it. Editing is very fast pasted to show the films genre. Other scenes before the action begins but this scene picks ups cross cutting has been used, this goes across different scenes show the paste. Non diegetic sound and diegetic clash a lot in the film works well. Semiotics show from the colours of yellow and green throughout the film, reflects the main villain characters, colours show us the corrupt because of the police being fake. Pointing its finger at society in a way. In the final scenes the use of sfx are used a lot with explosions, blood and gore.The Steve Neale’s theory of “ genre.

Key Terms-

After looking into different media texts I feel intertextuality basically means This is where a media text will reference another one in terms of technical style, conventions, audio or mise en scene, there are different kinds of intertextuality, Bricolage which means merging different styles of media, Parody means where the director makes fun on media conventions and takes the mick. Pastiche is where a media text will make a respectful manor. Media texts will copy in a way past media texts and reconstruct them in a difference way but still making reference to the media.

Post modernism- A post WWII movement in art, philosophy and social science that believes society is no longer governed by history or progress, that instead society is highly independent and diverse, with no "grand narrative", or BIG IDEAS, guiding its development.

Self Referentially- This term is where in a film or TV show an actor will reference to their previous work in a manner of parody.

Opening title credits Dead pool

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Dead pool is a 2016 American superhero movie but also a parody film, the cast consists of Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin and Ed Skrein, the film was directed by Tim Miller and had a budget of 58 million.

After watching the opening title sequence for dead pool I found many key elements of postmodern features such as self-referentiality, reflexivity and parody. As the opening title sequence we instantly know its action film and also a parody, the first thing we get a glimpse of reflexivity from the opening titles making fun of the production team, director, producer and actors. “some douches bag” after this we get self referentiality from the main actor of this film we see a magazine with the actor on the front cover and then we get see a card a super hero card with the green lantern which the actor did this film which wasn’t successful so he was making fun of himself. We can clearly see this film just from the opening is a parody and is making fun of basic superhero action films from the ironic title credits “hot chick” “British villain” using humorful content which takes the mick out of popular superhero films. We can also hear non diegetic sound the song is a smooth soft and love ballet upbeat song which doesn’t reflex the scene of action also the slow paste tracking shot shows us the humor but also showing us that it is an action film and has its violence. Anchorage from the logo marvel so we instantly hocked and we also see other famous production companies.

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Pulp Fiction

Todorov theory of five elements of narrative-

Exposition Inciting incident Rising action Climax Denouement

Pulp fiction is 1994 crime drama film, the film had a budget of 8 Million and made a 107 million box office. The director was Quentin Taratino, Jules Winnfield (and Vincent Vega (J are two hit men who are out to retrieve a suitcase stolen from their employer, mob boss Marsellus Wallace (Wallace has also asked Vincent to take his wife Mia out a few days later when Wallace himself will be out of town. Butch Coolidge is an aging boxer who is paid by Wallace to lose his weight. The lives of these seemingly unrelated people are woven

together comprising of a series of funny, bizarre and uncalled-for

Pulp fiction is well known for having a nonlinear narrative structure, unlike Leon which has linear narrative structure. Pulp fiction still has basic features such as character and has it binary oppositions. From Todorovs theory pulp fiction has all five elements but because of its difficult narrative structure of nonlinear but it still has its five elements but once you watch the film and piece it all together you can find the different elements. In the film the different stories and scenes were chaptered into names which came up as intertitles which was also a nonlinear feature in the structure it was a strange way of having the structure and worked well in a way. There are several sequences in the film and three primary chapters. The nonlinear narrative makes it hard for the audience to identify what is going on in the film and makes the audience lose memory and question what is going on and makes you think why it’s such a controversial, successful and famous film. Pulp Fiction is a postmodern film because it “looks backs” and makes constant reference to earlier films, in pulp fiction they go to retro restaurant older music is playing while they dance to music such as the twist and the waitresses are dressed as Buddy Holly and Marilyn Monroe which is a Pastiche to these people. Postmodern films are inter-textual to other films, in pulp fiction John Travolta stars in the film, the dance scene reminds the audience of his past work in Saturday night fever also in this scene the waitress dressed as Marilyn Monroe where the

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wind blows up white dress from the film seven-year itch. The entire film is just on big look back onto earlier films and other media texts you just have to find them. In my personal view after watching the film the director has just used past films and media texts to create the film by him putting postmodernism in the film it makes it much more interesting and makes the audience really think about what is going on. The structure in the film is has a non-liner structure which makes the film like a puzzle and as an audience you need to piece the scenes together which also makes it an interesting film, because it gets you interested and then you carry on watching to see if the you can piece it together. Another example of postmodernism is a scene pulp fiction where characters Mia and Vincent are sat in a car and it’s a pastiche and self referentiality of the actor John Travolta past work in Grease which his most famous role.

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Postmodernism-Monty python and the holy grail

Monty Python and The Holy Grail is a 1975, Written and performed and directed by the comedy group Monty Python. The postmodern style is apparent in ‘The Holy Grail’, with hyper-realistic characters, elements of meta-fiction and a strong grounding in black humour. The entire film is just based around black humour this means taking serious subjects and turning it around and making comedy through it. The film is based in 10th century England which was created in the late 70s had postmodernism from the 10th century during the time King Arthur along with knights of the round table seek to find the holy grail asked by god and the film is a comedy film which is a parody of this time period.

Even though the film is a comedy and is also a parody It still has some aspects of pastiche, the film has many aspects showing the audience the film is a postmodern film through black humour/ Parody, Magic realism and minimalism/ Minimalism. The film is very clearly a comedy film from the style and iconography. This film does have a well-structured narrative it has Exposition, inciting incident and a climax it is a confusing structure it makes you really think about the story. Black humor is a massive aspect in the film linked to postmodernism, black humor is making a joke out a situation or serious issue which is very offensive for example death, sex and racism, in the film there was a scene where a wedding is taking place and then a knight comes into the wedding and kills every single person, the scene is extremely gory. Black humor was used a lot in early English literature so the creators of the film used bricolage, bricolage is giving a new meaning a new form. The film is a pastiche mixed with parody from religious history and modern day humor, but the film is now 44 years old so at the time of release it would have been classed as a niche.

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Production Technology

Pastiche and parody have been around in the film and video industry for many years now, modern day film have got all their styles and ideas from early productions, from the 50s,60s,70s and the 80s. in the early years (50s to 70s) the production technologies was through film and distributed through cinema, the 80s and 90s brought new technologies such as film and video and also distributed through cinema and video, and 2000s and 2010 brought much more advanced technologies such as cinema, DvD, Blu-ray, streaming online and in modern day we can watch any type of media product such as film tv or music whenever we like. Production technology has allowed parody and pastiche this to happen in modern day films and TV. For example, Netflix is the main way people watch TV and films in modern day and this has been the turning point for production and distribution technology.