Wednesday, 30 November 2016
Wednesday, 16 November 2016
Character types
Prop’s Character
Theory:
Vladimir Prop was a literary critic and a scholar who founded the
idea that a certain type of character was to be used in every narrative
structure; this also was applied to fairy tales. Prop’s character theory says
that all characters fall into 7
broad character types, all of which can be found in a variety of
different media. These types are; the villain, the donor, the helper,
the princess, the dispatcher, the hero, and the false hero.
·
The villain: Usually locked in a constant struggle with the hero, often
trying to harm princess. It is often seen, more so in current days, that the
villain has some kind of mental or physically disability, from James Bond’s
Scar Face all the way to Disney’s Captain Hook.
·
The donor: Gives the hero an object or
a piece of information that helps them prepare for what is
to come. An example of this would be Lucas Fox in Batman, this was most
recently displayed by Morgan Freeman; He is the man who provides batman with
all his weapons and gadgets.
·
The helper: Assists the hero with their quest, often referred to
as their 'sidekick'. An example of this is again in batman, this would be
Robin, arguably the most well known ‘sidekick’
·
The princess: Needs assistance from the hero, usually because they are
in some form of danger, typically the princess is the victim within
the narrative. An example of the princess would be Gwen in Spider man,
often the goal or reward for the hero and is manipulated by the villain.
·
The dispatcher: Is the character that sends that hero
on their mission or quest. An example of this would be Nick Fury in
The Avengers. The dispatcher is often the leader and does not get heavily
involved in the action.
·
Hero: Reacts to the donor and saves the princess, often resulting in them
falling in love with the princess. The example for the hero is Batman or
Superman, often the face franchise.
·
False hero: May appear good but has an ulterior motive, or attempts to
take credit for the hero's actions.
Logo Analysis - DreamWorks
DreamWorks Analysis
While most movie
production companies start from the bottom making small, low budget movie, the
DreamWorks entertainment company actually started with a serious status within
the media world. Steven Spielberg, Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and
record producer David Geffen came together to form the company in 1994, which
all but sky rocketed the company to greatness. Since then this company has come
to create such blockbusters as “Shrek”, “Kung Fu Panda” and “How to Train Your
Dragon.” DreamWorks has shown no signs of slowing down and is sure to be a
powerhouse in the entertainment industry for years to come.
One
important factor that has helped DreamWorks to obtain its lofty perch is the
distinctiveness of their logo. Before many a popular movie, the hugely recognisable
logo is what If the people in the cinema
enjoy the movie that comes after the logo, then they are much more likely to
seek out other DreamWorks movies. Anyone seeking to create a branding empire of
their own should consider the lessons of DreamWorks.
The first logo came about through
the imagination of Steven Spielberg. He wanted a logo that reminded others of
Hollywood’s golden age. To that end he suggested the concept of a man fishing
while atop the moon. He at first wanted it to be a computer generated image
but, in the end, an artist named Robert Hunt was asked to hand-draw the image.
It was Hunt that suggested that the man become a boy and Spielberg agreed. As
an added bonus, the boy on the moon was modelled after Hunt’s son.
As a nod to the three people who had come together to make
DreamWorks, the initials SKG were added to the bottom of the logo. This stood
for Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen, the three original founders.
This logo, although not massively
recognisable today, was a foundation for greater things. The boy sitting on the
moon could have a connotation of night and dreams, and along with this idea
this could be the reason for the child sat on it. Therefore the logo itself could
be a symbolism of children’s dreams (hence the word ‘Dream’ in the com
panies title), or even their bed time stories etc. The colour and shade of the blue is very neutral and is also synoptic to the night time theme.
As the company grew, the logo needed to be updated to reflect its
growing popularity. While they stayed with the original logo of the fishing
boy, they decided to update the logo with the use of computer graphics to give
it a more modern feel. This included giving the boy and the moon some updated
artwork as well as adding digitally created clouds to give the logo an illusion
of depth.
This logo created secondly concurs the ideas of DreamWorks being a
reincarnation of children’s dreams and the logo is no longer plain, it has
greater depth and different shades of colour. The log is no more realistic – in
terms of the moon. And the title is now white, which is in collaboration with
the idea it being night time. The night time lexical field is finally added to
by the addition of clouds. This could show a few different things – for example
for a religious stand point, it could connote that the boy on the moon is in
heaven, he is above the clouds, looking down, showing that DreamWorks is a kids
heaven. On the other hand, it could show the companies ambitions to cater to
children’s needs and bedtime story desires.
The current logo of DreamWorks has
stayed true to its predecessors. It too shows the idyllic image of a young boy
fishing from the moon with clouds surrounding him. However the “DreamWorks”
name itself was changed. Each letter was given a bright colour so as to stand
out and make the logo that much more visible. The logo is now so what more
child-friendly. It is much more colourful, its letters are now bolder and stand
out more, and the clouds and moon are also much more bold and colourful. The
child, now much smaller compared to the moon, is now still sitting in the
centre but doesn’t appear to be the main focus of the logo. Is this because
DreamWorks is trying to evolve into a more serious, adult company? Maybe, but
the ‘DreamWorks’ text itself is more colourful and childlike, contradictory to
the lesser image of a child. The clouds and now more white and fluffy, this
again, going back to a heavenly scenario, is again more light hearted and childish.
Overtime the DreamWorks logo has changed and adapted to all and any
technological advances and has constantly been on the rise because of it. Today
the DreamWorks logo is much more recognisable and up to date.
20 Word Summary
A group of
innocent school boys go to the party of the century as their determination and
friendship is tested.
This is the 20 word summary of our final product we are
striving to create. This product is targeted at a teen audience with the
ideology of young school males and females who aim to explore this lavish
lifestyle the media has created. This type of party lifestyle is often shown
through television and movies to tempt and intrigue a teen audience who either
have never done anything of that calibre or who enjoy to rebel and party. As
three teen males ourselves, all of which soon to be 18, this is something that
is the next milestone in our lives – the right to party. Taking the lead from
critically acclaimed films such as ‘Super bad’ and even ‘The Hangover’, we want
to rectify the issues and outdated nature that these films provide and purpose
a much more up to date and down to earth scenario which we are sure most teens
will relate to.
After presenting our initial ideas to the class and a group
of our peers who are the targeted age group, we took on board their feedback
and decided that we were going into a blind alley with no real intentions. So
once we had realised this we took a step back and decided collectively to start
over. So when drafting ideas we had the suggestion that we were being too
farfetched and that we had to give the audience something to relate to.
Therefore, we decided to take real life experiences into consideration. So, we
went around that same group of peers and asked what issues and experiences they
have faced (which they were willing to share) and came to the conclusion the
majority had been involved in similar problems. Therefore we took the most
gruesome and funny problems we could and combined them to create a basis for
the film we now wish to create.
As before, we took this new film idea in front of the panel
of judges we had previously faced and asked them once again for their opinion
and for any question or improvements they might have for us. As a whole,
despite the odd one or two not completely understanding (or maybe due to a lack
of interest) the majority vote was an astounding improvement. The group of
judges stated that this was a film idea that they believe, and we also believe,
that a teen audience could relate and reform to – which all in all was the main
goal. Of course limiting the audience down to one strict guidance is always
going to be risky but we thought that the most common viewers of films
(especially independents such as ourselves) in the present day are teens; due
to platforms such as Youtube and Netflix
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