Narrative theory: Precious.

The trailer for Precious uses many narrative techniques typical of Hollywood urban dramas. Applying Propp's character theory, we have a clear protagonist in Gabourey Sidibe's character Precious. In many ways, even though some scenes, she is shown to be weak enough to be reduced to tears, she still braves it out as it is her quest (to find happiness and appreciation her miserable surroundings) that drives the narrative. Monique Angela Hicks offers the classic abusive mother portrayal while Paula Patton plays the Mentor role as Precious' teacher and Mariah Carey plays the Helper role as Precious' social worker Ms Weiss. These well known character types quickly help establish the urban drama narrative and allow audiences to understand the protagonist's hardships within the two-minute running time of the trailer.

The film's narrative is clearly introduced in the trailer and follows Todorov's theory of equilibrium. The state of balance is the character of Precious explains her dreams of her wanting to have a singing career and appearing on the channel, BET, also mentioning that she wanted to have a 'light skinned' boyfriend with good hair. The introduction of her abusive mother, Mary and Precious' thoughts fading into reality creates the disequilibrium - along with the physical violence from others towards Precious. The new equilibrium is not shown in the trailer - this is critical because even though a standard Hollywood urban drama narrative would suggest Precious would get a happy ending, the audience have to watch the whole film to enjoy this resolution.

The trailer is full of Barthes' enigma and action codes. These are designed to draw the audience in and encourage them to watch the whole film to resolve their questions. The major enigma codes the audience will ask would revolve around whether Precious would get away from her abusive mother and will she ever find happiness in her life. However, there are other enigma codes such as what has happened towards Mary to make her so abusive and who is the father of Precious' two children. Although action codes aren't that associated with urban dramas, there are still plenty of violent scenes such as Mary chasing Precious up the stairs after Precious kicked a shoe down the stairs which Mary threw at her. This suggests there will be moments of drama and tension in the film and the only way to see these resolved is to watch the whole movie.

Representation - Questions.

How is the traditional dysfunctional American family represented?  As it's mentioned in the film, the family have to make some sacrifices as there is now only one parent providing her children/grandchildren instead of two parents, which could make them struggle emotionally and financially. 

How are black people represented?  Black people are normally represented as an aggressive culture who are often linked to antisocial behaviour. This is a result of media's influence on people and how their racist views can be broadcasted to everybody because of their power.

How are obese people represented? Another result which had a cruel influence by the media is that obese people are lazy and are often blamed for their weight because of their poor diet. In a thin approved society, obese people aren't often recognized as human being and are often insulted by their weight; Precious shows that even some parents can verbally abuse their child for their weight issues.

How are women represented? Women are represented in films to be a slim, light skinned, deemed 'beautiful' damsel in distress. In Precious, it shows the opposite as it shows the mother to be a very blunt character whos strength is subversive when it comes towards female stereotypes. Another reason that the movie is subversive is the protagonist is a woman of colour, something that isn't common with female characters in films and that she is neither slim or deemed 'beautiful' by her peers in the film or by the general audience because the media has mislead them on what 'beautiful is.

How is disability represented?  Disability is represented in two ways; depending on how the disabled person behaves. In film, if the disabled character is a good human being who is likeable to the audience, then the audience will take pity in the character and the actor themselves (depending if they're disabled in real life also). However, if the character is a villain or a person who does not have good qualities, then they will not be liked by the audience.

How is American life represented? Similarly to the disabled issue, it depends on how it's represented It could be like hard, gritty dramas and view a rough, American ghetto where the unfortunate live or it can show a nice, area where often the rich/semi-wealthy would live in. This could also affect how the characters behave as well as their area could influence their nature while growing up. 

Exam topic: TV News

Research 

1) I researched on Newsround and BBC One News Breakfast

2) Watch your two different TV News programmes on three different nights. Watch the whole bulletin each time and make notes on the following:

• Title, date and time of bulletin: 6:00am (BBC News Breakfast) & 8:15am, 3/3/14 (Newsround)
• Presenters: Ayshah Tull (Newsround) Sonya Jessop and Kate Kinsella (BBC Breakfast)
• News stories covered: Problems in the Ukraine, Oscars, Cricket Match, Pool Championships and Climate's affect on penguins (Newsround) Heathrow Terminal 2 Grand Opening, Car crash in Clapton, Weather and Strikes (BBC Breakfast News) 
• Use of graphics, animation, video packages, interviews and live links (key conventions of TV News) Live links, video packages, interviews, graphics to introduce the interviewee and show the map (Newsround) Video packages
• Use of modern or digital technology (cameraphone footage, audience tweets, hashtags, website links etc.) Website promotion (Newsround) Green screen (BBC Breakfast) 
• Anything that encourages the audience to keep watching (dramatic video, animated graphics, previews of news or features later in the programme etc.) Viewer interactions (Newsround) 

3) Research the institutions behind your two TV News programmes. Find out the following for each:

• Who owns or controls the institution: BBC (Newsround) BBC (BBC Breakfast) 
• How the institution is funded or makes money:  They get money from a TV License but they're a non profit company.
• Any controversial issues or complaints that the institution has had to deal with in recent years: Paedophile scandal regarding Jimmy Savile. 

4) Find out the target audience for your two TV News programmes. You should be able to find a detailed breakdown online if you search intelligently. If you cannot find anything, write what you think the target audience for the programme would be and why.


Planning

1) Brainstorm ideas for a new TV News programme aimed at young people. Plan out the following:

• Title: Newsflash
• Channel, day and time broadcast: E4, Mon-Fri, 8pm
• The length and structure of the programme: 15 minutes, 3-5 minutes for each segment. 
• The presenter or presenters: Ina Geraldine, Ashley Blake. 
• The types of news the programme will cover: Celeb, Sport, School/Uni/College, TV (e.g X Factor) and Music Charts.
• The brand identity for the show - logo, slogan, colour scheme etc: 'All the latest news in a flash' (Slogan), Red&Silver (Colour Scheme), NEWSFLASH! (Logo)
• How you will package the news - video, images, graphics, live links, interviews etc: It will be in a random order but every news segment will contain Videos and Images to introduce the story and graphs to introduce what's the story about. 

2) Plan how you will make your TV News programme interactive with opportunities for the audience to submit photos and video and comment on the issues covered.

3) Prepare for the creative task in the exam. Plan, sketch and draw the following:

• Logo and graphic identity for your TV News programme
• Website homepage for your TV News programme
• Storyboard for the opening 30 seconds of your TV News programme
• A storyboard for a TV advert for your TV News programme

Film Pitch.

Invaded:

A sleepover in soon invaded by a masked murderer after a prank gone wrong, leaving the six girls doing every attempt to leave the house alive.

This film is horror which is a cross between My Super Psycho Sweet 16 and Paranormal Activity.

The age rating of the film is 15+ as it does include blood but it isn't too gory for the viewers.

This story is based around 6 girls who you wouldn't believe are best friends due to their personalities: There is a really vain popular girl called Sammii, a nerdy girl who’s really friendly but shy on most topics called Casey, a bullied girl who’s likes to be around her friends more than her family called Ivy, a wild girl who’s not afraid to be loud called Madison, an ordinary girl who just likes to have fun called Jenny and a slightly dim-witted girl who’s quite slow on most topics called Zoey. 

Six of the girls have a sleepover at Sammii’s house where they do all sorts of things, including pranking Casey’s ex-boyfriend by posting his address posing as a 13 year old girl on Craigslist. A facebook post from her ex-boyfriend containing an image of his bloody corpse was posted minutes after, frightening the girls. Soon a knock on the door scares the girls and they cautiously walk to open the front door. A Chinese food delivery man appears to give them their order but soon gets off his sentence by getting shot by the murderer just meters away. Ivy isn’t hesitant to close and lock the door where the girls have a brief convocation, where Casey tries to give the girls an inspiring speech, to where she gets killed first. Ivy and Jenny run away to a room, where a distraction and eventually murder of Madison allows them to escape. The murder soon catches up with them though and slaughters them both, where Sammii and Zoey view it. They run to the bathroom where Sammii has hidden her emergency rifle but can’t find it. Zoey asks where it is and quickly gets shot by the murderer. After a couple seconds of chasing, the murder catches up to Sammii where they reveals that the murderer is Casey and that none of the girls nor her ex-boyfriend never died. Sammii is confused and they tell her that they did this in order to change how she treats others and how badly it can affect them and the ones that they love. Sammii refuses to change her ways and the last scene shows them chasing her with the weapons. 

Film Institution Case Study.

Your chosen movie
1) I have chosen Precious.

2) Because it's an upsetting film which explains the hardships of which some teenagers currently go through; a broken home, an abusive parent, school and raising a family. 


Institutional background
Use IMDB to find out the institutions behind your chosen film. Find your film, click on Company Credits and then look for the production company and UK distributor.

1) The film studio behind 'Precious' was Lionsgate

2) The distributor for 'Precious' in the UK was Icon Film Distribution. 



No brand loyalty
1) The genre that my chosen film fits into is an Urban Drama.

2) This fits into drama because the trailer is fitted with RnB music in the background while the film is mainly circulated around a black cast, which isn't often used in successful Hollywood movies. Another thing that isn't normally used in Hollywood films is an overweight star as they tend to use slim actresses. They use the actresses's flaws in the film and let characters torment that (e.g her features and weight). I can also tell this is a drama because it transmit scenes of physical and verbal abuse, followed by the protagonist crying in result of this. 

3) This film is not a sequel. 

3a) In the theatrical poster, at the on top of the credits, it shows that the film was based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire. In the trailer, Push is also credited but neither the director or the actor's previous work was mentioned. 



It’s all a matter of timing
1) The UK release of the film was 29th January 2010

2) The first trailer for Precious on Youtube was uploaded on 13th May 2009

3) I can find theatrical posters, film trailers, movie snippets on Youtube and film ratings online. 



It’s a social thing
1) I have searched up imdb's user reviews and the majority of them are postive. The amount of stars the film has gained are 7.4 out of 10 stars.  

2) 

1. "Powerfully emotive story filled with hope and optimism." 
2. "A work of art."
3. "Fresh, honest and emotionally punchy."

Risky business
Use IMDB to find out the box office records for your chosen film. Find your film, click on Company Credits and then Box Office/Business.

1) The original budget for my chosen film was $10,000,000 (estimated) 

2) The money it made in the UK on it's opening weekend was £260,921 

3) The amount of money that Precious made in total was $47,536,959.



Stars in their eyes
Research the stars and director for your chosen film.

1) The Director (Lee Daniels) has only directed one film since Precious. Shadowboxer and it is similar to Precious because

2) The main star is Gabourey Sidibe

3) This was her first appearance in a Hollywood Film.

4) The creators of the film are only mentioned in the film.

Genre and NCIS Analysis.

Oculus (2013)

Genre
Horror

Narrative
The storyline is about a woman tries to convince people her brother, who was convicted of murder, was innocent by proving that the crime was committed by a supernatural phenomenon. 

Character
The main protagonists are brothers and sisters but in a twist, the sister is portrayed as the brave yet curious one out of the two. Through scenes where it shows them as both young and older, the brother always seems feeble and frightened. 

Iconography
In every horror film, there is an object or a person which the viewer can immediately tell that it's sinister; Oculus has a mirror. 

Setting
Although the trailer is only two minutes long, it has a home where it's mainly based in. Although, in the first few scenes, it does show the female protagonist unravelling the mirror and speaking to a camera about murders linking to the mirror, supposedly from a different location. Another scene where it isn't based in the house shows the female, collecting her brother from the police station before reminding him to 'keep his promise'; this is effective to a horror movie because the trailer doesn't reveal to the audience to what the 'promise' is. 



Let's Be Cops (2014) 

Genre
Comedy

Narrative
The storyline is about two struggling pals who dress up as police officers for a costume party and become neighbourhood sensations. But when these newly-declared 'heroes' get tangled in real life web of mobsters and dirty detectives, they must put their fake badges on the line.

Character
The characters are typical of a Hollywood comedy. Two close friends who are not particularly smart when it comes to thinking rationally and therefore have to learn their actions the hard way. 

Iconography
There is plenty of iconography typical of the comedy genre: Two friends who are as faking police officers and somehow finding ingenious ideas to get their equipment (e.g a police car, handcuffs, fake guns)  

Setting
The setting is based in a typical american city which becomes more upbeat during the evening

Magazine Cover.