Idenity Deconstruction

This is a deconstruction of the film poster Identity, this is very useful to our research because this film like ours is to do with Schizophrenia.

Narrative Theory

Claude Levi- Strauss- Binary Opposition

Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values, which reveal the structure of media texts. An example would be good and evil – we understand the concept of good as being the opposite of evil. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. Binary Opposition states that there are a ‘pair of terms or concepts that are theoretical opposites.’ and therefore one cannot be there without another.

Tzvetan Todorov 

Todorov suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of the fiction.

Syd Field- The Paradigm

He came up with the idea of the three act structure, it is the idea that a film must be set up within the first twenty to thirty minutes before the protagonist experiences a 'plot point' that gives the goal that must be achieved. Roughly, half the movie's running time must then be taken up with the character's struggle to achieve the goal: this is the 'Confrontation' period. Field also refers, to the 'Midpoint', a subtler turning point that happens at approximately in Act II, the Confrontation that often has an apparently devastating reversal of the fortune for the main character. The final quarter of the film depicts a climactic struggle by the protagonist to finally achieve the goal and the aftermath of this struggle.

Vladimir Propp- Narrative Theory

He concluded that all characters could be put into 8 character types:

   1. The villain — struggles against the hero, creates narrative disruption.

   2. The dispatcher —character who sends the hero off on the task

   3. The helper — helps the hero in the task to restore equilibrium.

   4. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain. Sometimes also seen as a victim, the character most threatened by the villain, and has to be saved in the climax by the hero.

   5. Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, and marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. His role is usually to give the princess away to the hero at the narratives conclusion.

   6. The donor —prepares the hero or gives the hero something, which helps in the resolution of the narrative.

   7. The hero— Who is usually make, restores the narrative equilibrium by taking on the task, saving the princess and winning her hand. The hero is the protagonist or the central character.

   8. False hero — appears to be good but takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

This theory is based on traditional texts, however these character types are transferable to modern day texts as well. 

Black Swan Trailer Deconstruction

This is a trailer deconstruction of Black Swan, this new way of deconstructing is more interesting and easy to look at when and where things are placed such as fade outs.  We can also see how disequilbrium is important during trailers as this gives more suspense.  Suspense is created throughout this trailer by the orchestral music played with deep violins.   

Time Laspe

From the off, the group has always liked the idea of using time lapse in our trailer - not just because it is a great effect, but because it is unusual in teasers. The effect of time whizzing by is great, and is one we feel would work well in our trailer, in particular, time lapsing the girl writting on the wall, which will show how she has been writing on her wall for a large amount of time. We want it too look smooth, so will film our trailer in 30 f/s and will show between 10 and 20 seconds of time lapse footage, so will need 300-600 photographs for the timpe laspe to flow.

Some inspiration and examples of time laspe are show below:

This is a first draft musical piece we made, the piano we thought needed to start softly to show the innocence of the little girl in our trailer but get built up as we are not shown her face and see what she has written on the wall. One of the limitations of this piece is that it is not long enough for the one minute trailer and it does mostly include the piano as we thought it complements the trailer the most.

Black Swan Website

This is one of our favourite website designs as the layout is simplistic with Natalie Portman (main character) duplicated, the image has an minor effect with it moving slowly side to side.  Clips of the film is playing on top of the main page when you click on the 'Black Swan' title.  Reviews are put on the website (as shown on her back) this entitles the audience to know how the film is and of course the quotes shown will be all positive with one or few powerful words which remain memorable.  A link to another option is created by a fade in transition.  People who visit the website can have a choice either to 'turn on' the music or 'off.' Showing they have the audience in mind.

The main website covers majority of the screen, with a black background and shots of the actual film.  Links to Facebook and Twitter demonstrates the movie likes to have interactivity with their audience, this way, the movie gets to have a greater level of feedback from different sorts of people all over the world. 

This screenshot is illustrating how the film incorportes a short clip of the film with a 'skip intro' tab so it is not compulsory to watch the zoomed in clip.  however it does give a nice insight to what is included in the film.  

Quite long descriptions of the cast and crew is included, this shows how good the actors are within the Black Swan. 

It can also be an attractive trait to audiences to make them watch the movie because they maybe watch films for the actors.  Artistic imagery  

is used as the background to show the elegance of the theme which is all to do with ballet but contrasting with the black to illistrate there is a dark element within Black Swan.    

The website is very easy to navigate from page to page as you don't have reload the whole webpage.  We would like to incorporate this style into our own website as well as how the image is shown- whereby it covers the majority of the screen.  This way, it will be more eye-catching to audiences, keeping them more focused and interested.

Editing Techniques

These are some of the techniques we are looking to use in our trailer.

CUT

A visual transition created in editing in which one shot is instantaneously replaced on screen by another.

DISSOLVE 

A gradual scene transition. The editor overlaps the end of one shot with the beginning of the next one.

FADE 

A visual transition between shots or scenes that appears on screen as a brief interval with no picture. The editor fades one shot to black and then fades in the next. Often used to indicate a change in time and place.

JUMP CUT 

A cut that creates a lack of continuity by leaving out parts of the action.

ERRORS OF CONTINUITY

Disruptions in the flow of a scene, such as a failure to match action or the placement of props across shots.