Boyz in the Hood

The movie is set in 1984. The main character, Tre, and the environment he lives in is introduced in the following scene:

Camera 

D

I

S- A black neighborhood, in the 1984. A lot of people, who the movie was intended for, lived and remembered the oppression black people faced from both, police and white citizens. At the time, racism was still prominent and so the time period and setting are extremely important to the plot of the story 

T-Important themes which can already be picked up right from the opening scene are "Overcoming the odds", because the main character, Tre, is clearly stuck in a bad place and to get out of his violent neighbourhood he would have to overcome many obstacles. Another important theme is "violence". From the very beginning of the movie, gunshots can be heard, and throughout the opening scene, more violence can be witnessed, such as the fight between Tre and another boy, the blood, going yellow, on the ground and someone being beaten up on the street.

I-A good example of an icon is the black superhero Tre is drawing, it symbolises hopefulness for a world of equal opportunities

N-  The plot revolves around Tre and his journey into adulthood, on which he has to overcome a lot of obstacles such as living in a bad neighbourhood .

C- Tre, teacher, three kids he walked with, his mother

T-Zooming in on the 'stop' sign at the beginning of the film to create a foreboding atmosphere.

Mise en scene

C- Tre is wearing something that isn't typical of kids of that time period, which can be seen from comparing him to other kids in his class. Whereas other kids in Trey's class are wearing informal clothes, Tre is wearing a suit which separates him from the other kids and makes him seem smarter and more mature.

L- throughout the opening scene, natural lighting seems to be used. While the kids are walking to school the sky looks bleak and grey, providing enough for the audience to be able to clearly decipher everything on the screen, while at the same time setting a foreboding  atmosphere

A- The film follows a young boy, who experiences a rough upbringing. Many people would feel close to the child actor because they know his backstory and what he went through, which creates an intimate relationship between the audience and the cast

M- No make-up used for effect

P- Props such as the police line and the stop sign, as well as the poster of the president all represent the fight to end oppression against black people. At the beginning, a plane can be seen flying over the stop sign and the police line is crossed, showing that even though there are many restrictions, they can be destroyed. The poster of the president has many bullet holes in it and is flipped off by a black boy.

S- The scene is set during daytime, however, this does not make the opening seem safe because despite the good lighting, the background sounds of shootings and police sirens create a nonchalantly dangerous scene, almost as if the characters are so used to it, it doesn't matter

Sounds

M-When the children are about to enter the alleyway and cross the police line,  a mysterious, quirky music is playing, building up suspense of what they are about to discover  

C- No contrapuntal music

D- Diegetic sounds such as dogs and police sirens, non-diegetic: music

O- Off-screen, police sirens can be heard, as well as gunshots and people cursing and shouting. 

V- No voiceover

E- The children seem almost nonchalant towards the whole unsafe environment they are in. Their reaction to blood is not as shocked as the audience would expect them to be, they seem to be quite collected, more like teenagers than kids

D- Tre's speech sounds more sophisticated than that of his peers and his mother also seems well educated. 

Editing

S- Tre, as the main character, gets the most screen time. They also span for quite a few seconds over the drawings of young children, growing up in a harsh environment, whose imagination seems to be filled with violence and fear

T- An interesting transition is when the shot goes from the blood to the drawings, which suggests there is violence even in a place like a primary school, which is actually supposed to be safe

O- Chronological, the opening scene (4 minutes) would only, in fact, be about 4-5 hours long in real life

P- At the beginning, with the gunshots, sirens and cursing, the pacing is fast but then it slows and stabilises, only to be occasionally interrupted by  bouts of violence such as the fight in school

S- No special effects used

Sound, Editing and Mise En Scene + Camera

Sound                 

Music-genre

Contraparallel 

Diegetic

Offscreen

Voiceover

Emotion

Dialogue

Editing                

Screen time
Transitions
Order of narrative
Pace
Special effects

Mise en scene

Costume
Lighting
Actors-position
Makeup
Props

Setting-daytime/night time

Camera

Describe In detail

Setting-location, time period

Themes-love, guilt, revenge, good vs evil

Icons-props

Narrative-Plot/Storyline

Characters-People/Those who the story is about

Textual analysis-camera angle

First editing

We were told to use Adobe Premier Editing CS6 to create a, one minute or longer, video. We had to add effects to create an original piece of footage.
Some of the tools I used included:

• Razor-chop up video and audio  
• Trimming footage with red line
• Video effects and transitions
• Duration and speed of footage

Semiotics

The official definition of semiotics is:

"the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation."

The poster you see above is what I am going to analyse as an example.

The dictionary meaning of Denotation is the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests

Some denotations in this photo are:

• Person on a bird in front of the sunset
• Two large faces, one completely blue, the other with a bluish tint
• Floating island
• Mostly Red and Blue colours
• Glowing blue 'avatar'

 According to the dictionary a connotation is an idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning (The association evoked by the denotation)

• Person on bird-Adventure
• Two faces and floating islands-Sci fi
• Red and blue- contrasting ideas of peace and danger/adventure
• Glowing blue 'Avatar'- Peaceful nature of the protagonist

We can also look at the anagram 'Distinct', which stands for:

Describe in detail
Setting - location,time period
Themes - love, guilt, revenge, good vs evil
Icons - Props 
Narrative -  Plot/Storyline
Characters - People/Those who the story is about
Textual analysis - camera angle

If we apply this to the poster we will see that the setting is the sky which suggests the movie is a sci fi, the time period seems to be futuristic. From the person on the bird and the planes in the background the viewer is lead to believe that the movie is 'good vs evil' as well as adventure. The most significant props used in the poster are  The sun and the floating islands which create a surreal atmosphere in the poster. Finally, in the centre we have two characters, one human, another avatar. The avatar is looking straight ahead, whereas the man is looking to the side and hiding half of the avatars face. Because of this we can only see half of each character's face creating a romantic atmosphere around the two.

Camera Shots, Angle and Movement

Shot sizes

XLS- Head and feet have to be in the picture

MS- Stomach and head

MLS- above the knees

MCU-Chest and above, head included

CU- Collarbones and above

BCU-Without neck or top of head

XCU-Extreme close up (Just an eye)

Shot angles

Low - From underneath

Eye Level-Same height

                                                             

High-From above

Worm's eye-From below, close to the body

Canted- Tilt the camera

Bird's eye-From above

                                                                                             

Camera and Lens movement

Pan right+left - Tilt camera

Crab left+right - Physically move camera left and right

Track out track in- Physically go towards the person and away

Zoom in/out

Ped up/down- Physically move camera up and down

Tilt up/down

Genre

We received two genres, for each we had to take a photograph which could be used as a poster for that particular genre of film. The genres our group got was 'sci-fi' and 'teen film'.

For sci fi we decided to use the image of two hands holding a fire, because the image has connotations of supernatural. The setting is unclear, only a greenish background can be seen which creates a mysterious atmosphere. The props used were a Bunsen burner and the screen which we put in front of the fire for effect. The characters are unclear, however from the poster you can see that the character can control/ has something to do with fire. We used a close-up of the flame so that you can't see anything around it other than the hands and the green background.
The teen film photo is taken in a stereotypical school environment. It is a long shot, as well as crab right. This makes the character seem isolated and makes themes such as loneliness come through. The props we used was the hoodie and the phone to make the  character look secluded which is common among teenagers. 

Steve Neale came up with the genre theory which suggests that genres are the repetitions of repetitions of differences and similarities and differences

Hybrid genre means having two or more themes in a single genre

Introduction to A level media (LIAR)

Liar is an acronym which stands for:

Language (Camera, music, editing)
Industry 
Audience   (Who is it targeting?)
Representation  (Who-class, age, gender, ethnicity and sexuality. What-message, place)

It is designed to aid with identifying the purpose of a piece of media such as an advert. Watch the following advert.

The industry is probably the easiest to see, Adidas, as is mentioned at the end. The following is a LIAR for this advert.

Language-tilted camera, mirrors 
Industry-Adidas
Audience-people of any ethnicity and age   
Representation-References religion, famous paintings and a positive outlook on minorities, who are all united by adidas