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Peebles High School
Key Aspects
Categories
Languages
Narratives
Representations
Audiences
Institutions
Technologies
Key Aspects in Questions
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Possible essay focus
What kind of film is this?
How does it make its meaning?
What’s its story and how does it tell it?
How are people, places, events and ideas
shown in the film?
• Who watches the film, what pleasures do they
get and what effects might it have?
• Who made the film and how and why?
• What were the technologies used in
production, distribution and exhibition
Setting our Expectations - Posters
The most direct way our expectations are influenced are by trailers and
teaser trailers .
WALL-E trailer from the Apple site.
Hold down Ctrl and click
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/trailer_large.html
Categories - What kind of film is this?
Producers -
e.g. a Disney / Pixar
Director -
e.g. a Spielberg
Stars -
e.g. a Jim Carey
Technique -
e.g. an Animation
Audience-
e.g. a children’s film
Categories:
Producers
Categories: Technique
Types of Animation
We can divide animation into 4 major kinds:
1.Toys
2.Drawn animation
3.Object animation
4.Computer animation
Animation: Toys
flick books
thaumatrope
phenakistoscope
zoetrope
praxinoscope
Animation Techniques
Drawn (Cell) Animation
Computer generated
(Traditional drawn style)
Animation Techniques
Japanese Manga
Howl’s Moving Castle
Manga Romeo and Juliet
Animation Techniques
Object animation
(stop/ motion)
Animation Techniques
Political Subjects
Traditional comic style
Persepolis
Hybrid Computer drawn
and live action film
Waltz with Bashir
Animation Techniques
Hybrid - Animation on film
Sin City
Computer Game
Grand Theft Auto IV
Categories : Genre
e.g.
comedy,
romance,
adventure,
science -fiction,
musical etc.
recognising genre is a process of comparison
of the similarities and differences among films
Genre
Iconography:
elements of set and setting, props, costume
Science fiction - set in future. space
space ships, robots, ray-guns
(Dystopian sub-genre/ satire)
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Categories:
Genre
Not all genres are distinguishable by their iconography
Categories:
Genre
Categories:
Genre
Categories:
Genre
Categories - Genre
Many films are mixtures of genres ( hybrids )
WALL-E mixes
SCI-FI
COMEDY (silent/ slapstick/ satire)
ROMANCE
MUSICAL
Categories: Genre
Elements of different genres in WALL-E
Languages: How does it make its meaning?
Visual -
composition - (‘mise-en-scene’)
camera codes - (angle, distance, movement)
editing
Sound -
dialogue
sound effects
music
Languages: visual
Composition (mise-en-scene)
arrangement within the frame
lighting
colour palette
depth of field
(focus pull)
camera
distance
angle
movement
editing
continuity
transitions
Languages: Lighting
Contrast the light and shade of the earth
sequence with the even light in the Axiom.
Languages: Colour
Languages: Colour
Languages: Colour
Languages: visual
Camera:
Angle
(high, low, straight on, canted)
Distance
(long, medium, close)
Movement
(pan, track, zoom, tilt)
Long Shot (Ariel tracking) Opening establishing shot.
Establishing/ confirming expectations of the film
Long shot, tracking. To establish setting and character
Medium shot for action.
Medium close up for action and character emotion
Close up to draw attention to
important narrative information.
Close up to draw attention to
important narrative information.
Close up to draw attention to
important narrative information.
Close up to draw attention to
important narrative information.
Languages: the POV shot
Wall-E POV
Wall-E POV
EVE POV
MO POV
Languages: Sound
Dialogue: ‘silent’ movie? Tone/ Inflection
Sound Effects: to convey information/ comic effect
Music: to convey information/ emotional effect
‘themes’ (Lietmotifs) for characters e.g. often harp and
strings for EVE
Play a sequence with the sound only. Can you guess what
is happening?
Languages: Music -Track List
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
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10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
Put On Your Sunday
Clothes
2815 A.D.
Wall-E
The Spaceship
EVE
Thrust
Bubble Wrap
La Vie En Rose
Eye Surgery
Worry Wait
First Date
Eve Retrieve
The Axiom
BNL
Foreign Contaminant
Repair Ward
72 Degrees and Sunny
Typing Bot
Septuacentennial
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
Gopher
Wall-E’s Pod Adventure
Define Dancing
No Splashing No Diving
All That Love’s About
M-O
Directive A-113
Mutiny!
Fixing Wall-E
Rogue Robots
March of the Gels
Tilt
The Holo-Detector
Hyperjump
Desperate Eve
Static
It Only Takes a Moment
Down to Earth
Horizon 12.2
Languages: cultural codes
Connotations - ideas or information suggested by
elements of the film which depend on resonances with
our wider cultural understanding of meaning.
e.g. - hand holding
- the boot
Narratives:
What’s its story
and how does it tell it?
Narrative structure;
Classical narrative structure (Todorov)
1. Equilibrium (normality). The world of the film is established
2. Disruption of this world by some force which causes
problems
3. Recognition of disruption
4. Attempt to repair disruption and solve the problems
5. Return to second equilibrium different from the first.
Does Wall-E fit this structure?
Narratives: Time
Over what period of time does the story take place?
(Seven or eight days?)
What takes place before the screen narrative and what after?
(pollution/ abandonment of Earth. Return /Recovery
Over what period of time?
( Seven hundred years; ten or twenty years)
PLOT/ STORY DISTINCTION
Narratives: Scene List
1.
2
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
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12.
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15.
16.
Out There (opening)
Walk Home
Wall-E’s Truck
A Day at Work
EVE Arrives
Confrontation
La Vie en Rose
Courting
Wall-E’s Favourite Things
Bad Date
Time to Go
Space Travel
Docking
Welcome to the Axiom
Bridge Lobby
Captain on Deck
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
Define Earth
Repair Ward
Rogue Robots
Escape Pod
Cruising Speed
Spacewalk
The Lido Deck
It Only Takes a Moment
Code A113
Garbage Airlock
EVE to the Rescue
Captain v. Auto
All Feet on Deck
Homecoming
Back Together
End Credits
Narratives: Mythic structure
Quest
Hero’s journey to the ‘other’ world
A hero enters an underworld, fights the forces of evil
with the aid of helpers and a wise man. He defeats
evil and returns to the everyday world with gifts to give
to his fellows.
Films:Star Wars
Lord of the Rings
Shrek
Wall E
Narratives: Themes and motifs
Repeated images/objects/events
hand holding/ spark kiss
boot/ feet/ walking
dancing
extinguisher
Oppositions (binary codes)
corporatism v. individual
stagnation v. change
control v. anarchy
Moral?
Narratives - Character
Who changes during the story? How?
Who are the ‘goodies’/ the heroes.
Who are the ‘baddies’/ villains.
Representations:
How are people, places, events and ideas shown in the film?
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Gender - How are Wall-E and Eve depicted as male and female?
In what ways are stereotyping or anti-stereotyping involved?
Representations: Gender?
What gender are the other robots? How can you tell?
Representations: Humans
How are the humans shown? Stereotyping?
Representation
Discourses.
These are messages which the film carries either
intentionally or unintentionally.
• Humans are too wrapped up in computers
• Humans are destroying their world
• Humans are adaptable and willing to learn
• Humans will stagnate unless challenged.
Audiences:
Who watches the film, what pleasures do they get
and what effects might it have?
Target Audience? - age range? gender?
At what other audiences might it be aimed?
Audiences:
Mode of Address
Who does the film think you are?
Texts ‘speak’ to their audience using familiar ‘vocabulary’.
Wall-E tries to convince audience that cameras have been
used.
Audience comfortable with recognisable techniques adding to
the ‘realism’ of the film.
e.g. limited use of ‘first person’ POV as in games.
Recognisable ‘slapstick’ comedy
Robot thoughts/emotions conveyed through ‘body language’
and intelligible sounds.
Music/Sound Effects reinforce this.
To maximise audience in U.S. and rest of World
Audiences
Family audience: children and adults
Pleasures for children and adults: comedy, narrative,
spectacle, happy ending.
Pleasures for adults:
e.g. (intertextuality) recognition of references to other
films
Star Wars, Dark Star, 2001, Alien series
(Sigourney Weaver as ship’s voice)
Satire: BnL, ‘devolved’ humans
Audiences - ‘Preferred’ meaning
Did the producers of the film expect the audience
to take a particular moral from this story?
If so what?
Can it be interpreted in different ways?
What is your personal response?
Audiences
Some people do not like the film
“ The film's apocalyptic vision of a world rendered
uninhabitable by mankind's rapacious materialism has
been interpreted in America as An Inconvenient Truth for
children. Conservative bloggers have described it as ‘
left-wing propaganda’, and Pixar's parent company,
Disney, has been accused of hypocrisy for criticising
consumerism on the one hand while profiting from spinoff products on the other. The film's creator, meanwhile,
says he was just trying to tell a love story.”
Observer July 6 2008
Institutions:
Who made the film and how and why?
http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/overview.html
Institutions:
The Disney Corporation is a world wide media conglomerate with interests in film
production, travel, theme parks, television companies, music publishing,
merchandising, and consumer products.
Its revenues in 2007 were $35.5
billion and net income was $4.7 billion.
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Animation Studios,
Pixar Animation Studios
DisneyToon Studios
Touchstone Pictures
Hollywood Pictures
Miramax Films
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International distributes films worldwide
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment distributes Disney and other film titles
to the rental and sell-through home entertainment markets internationally.
Institutions: Disney businesses
Disney Theatrical Productions is one of the largest producers of Broadway
musicals and includes Disney Live Family Entertainment and Disney on Ice.
Disney Music Group distributes original music and motion picture soundtracks
through Walt Disney Records, Hollywood Records and Lyric Street Records
Disneyland Resorts in California, Florida, France and Hong Kong.
Other travel business includes Disney cruises and adventure holidays
Consumer products: Disney Toys; Apparel, Accessories & Footwear; Food,
Health & Beauty; Disney Home and Disney Stationery.
Media Networks include broadcast, cable, radio, publishing and Internet
businesses such as Disney-ABC Television Group, and ABC owned television
stations; cable and sports broadcaster ESPN Inc.; and the Walt Disney Internet
Group,
Institutions: Disney Recycling?
Short
Circuit
Wall-E
Do you think that these robots could be related?
Two successful films called ‘Short Circuit’ featuring robots were
released in 1986 and 1988. If a film makes money, then the
formula is often repeated to …make more money. This bring us
to marketing.
Institutions: Marketing Wall-E
Institutions:
Pixar
Pixar Animation began in 1984 and made short films
and adverts for the first ten years. Its breakthrough
film was Toy Story in 1995, the first fully computer
generated animated film. It followed this success with
films such as Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars and
The Incredibles.
Pixar was taken over by the Disney corporation in
2006
http://www.pixar.com/index.html
Institutions:
Wall-E
Production Cost $180 million (est.)
USA Gross over $223 million
Additional revenue from worldwide theatrical release
(almost no language/cultural barrier)
DVD sales, TV sales, music CD, Games, toys and
other marketing likely to raise gross to over $1 billion.
Present figure is $534 million.
Institutions: Certification
The British Board of Film Classification issues certificates for films
distributed in Britain. Wall-E was given a U certificate- suitable for all
audiences. The Board does not actually censor films but will advise
on cuts to be made to keep a film within one classification area.
DVDs, because there is less control over who watches, may require
further cuts to remain within a certificate classification.
Local authorities have the actual power over whether a film can be
shown in their area and very occasionally use it.
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/
Institutions:
Personnel
Key Creatives
Director: Andrew Stanton. Joined Pixar in 1990 and has worked on most of their
films, as an animator at first, also as an actor doing voices in Toy Story, Bug’s Life,
Nemo, then as a writer, a director and a producr. He co-wrote Wall-E
Writer: Pete Docter. Another early member of the Pixar team. Has worked as
animator, directed Monsters Inc. and wrote Toy Story and Toy Story 2
Production Designer: Ralph Egglestone also began as an animator. Has written
and Art Directed. Production Designer in Finding Nemo
Sound Designer: Ben Burt joined Pixar in 2005 from Lucas Films where he was
sound designer on (among others) the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films. Also voice
of Wall-E
Music by Thomas Newman. Music for over 80 films and TV programmes including
The Shawshanks Redemption, The Green Mile, American Beauty and Finding Nemo
Technologies
CGI – Computer Generated Images
‘Drawn’ on computer but begins with actually drawn
storyboards and paintings.
Sometimes actual models are made and captured into
computer.
Software allows animation of characters, creation of
backgrounds, lighting etc.
Wall-E animators given lessons in traditional lighting and
camera lenses.
Computer file then transferred to film for exhibition in cinemas.
Thousands of prints needed for simultaneous showings.
DVD/ Blue Ray for secondary distribution and sales.
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Links
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/wall-e/
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/trailer_large.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/
http://www.pixar.com/howwedoit/index.html#
http://wall-e.playthq.com/
http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/11/14/the-art-of-wall-e-20-photos/
http://www.musicfromthemovies.com/composer.asp?ID=32
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/jul/06/news.features
http://disneystudiosawards.movies.go.com/wall-e_script.pdf
http://www.wdsfilmpr.com