28 days later

28 days later takes place in a post apocalyptic Britain four weeks after a mysterious and incurable virus spreads. This is a result of naive activists wishing to release a chimpanzee which is undergoing experiments. One of the characters awake from a coma, 28 days later, to an abandoned hospital. After trying to find life in London, he ends up in a church inhabited by zombies and is saved when he meets two other survivors .

The opening and closing credits use the same font as the front cover of the DVD case. It uses a small white basic font, the opening credits only last a few seconds but is still long enough for the target audience to read and take in the information given. The colours contrast each other, white and black, commonly paired colours, these colours could have been used to show the good and evil within the film (white good, black evil).

At the very start at the film there is no soundtrack or noise, it is completely silent but as it gets into the film you start to see very fast paced movements with quick camera shots, not a lot of narrative is told at the start, however as you get further into the opening you slowly begin to learn a know the back story. The back story is told in a simple way and isn't confusing for the audience. At the start of the film found footage is used showing chaos in the form of a news report, you hear muffled cries this gives the impression of distress and pain.   

 

Institution and audience

 

-          Media institution – companies that provide media content – audio-visual, print-based, internet based, interactive.

-          TV-BBC, ITV

-          Music-Adeline Records, lookout records,

-          Movie- Hammer House 

-          Video Games- rocksteady

 

Cross-media convergence – this is when products are produced and distributed across two different platforms.

Technological convergence – when different technologies come together on one device 

Film synopsis example

Film synopsis example “TOM MULLEN is a rich businessman who made his fortune creating a successful airline company from scratch. While he and his family are in Central Park, his son, SEAN, is kidnapped. Tom and his wife KATE’s worst nightmares are confirmed when a kidnapper contacts them and demands a $2 million ransom. The Mullen’s call the FBI for help”

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/synopsis-example-ransom-thriller

Institution and audience

Institution and audience Media institution – companies that provide media content – audio-visual, print-based, internet based, interactive. - TV-BBC, ITV - Music-Adeline Records, lookout records, - Movie- Hammer House - Video Games Cross-media convergence – this is when products are produced and distributed across two different platforms. Technological convergence – when different technologies come together on one device Media in the 1960s Newspaper - Printed on paper, sold in shops or delivered by paper boy News reports- radio, cinema Music- Radio, Concerts/Festivals , Records Current media Newspaper- Printed and bought in shops, delivered by paper boy, access by phone, tablet, laptop/computer, kindle and TV News reports- radio, TV, Laptop/computer, tablet, phone, kindle, games consoles (PS, Xbox) social networking. Music- radio, concerts/Festivals, CDs, Laptop/ Computer, Phone, Tablet

Narrtive Notes

Narrative

The way that a story is told to convey certain emotions as well as representing characters.

Roland Barthes

Concluded that a text has many meaning, like a galaxy of signifiers. It’s like a ball of thread, you can pull the obvious one (closed meaning) or several (open meaning).

The action code- he defined several types of narrative codes, the most relevant being action and enigma codes.

The action codes allow audiences to interpret and identify what is to come.

The enigma code

Is created by the whole who died, how was he/she murdered by whom? This is the driving force of the narrative to create tension and satisfies the audience.

Combined with action codes it drives the plot forward.

Claude Levi Strauss- binary opposition

Good vs evil, man vs machine, man vs woman

There should be an obvious divide between good and evil. They offer levels of meaning within a text and can summarise a theme of a film. He highlights that several oppositions can be present in a media text.

Binary pairs are never equal.

The Vladimir Propp Tedious Link

A Russian theorist who studied fairy tales and folklore. He identified plot elements and developed this into 8 spheres of action narrative theory.

· Villain

· Hero (seeking something)

· Donor (provides an object with magic properties)

· Helper (side kick)

· Princess/ prince/reward

· Father (rewards hero)

· Dispatcher (sent the hero on his/her way)

· False hero

Todorov’s Equilibrium

· A state of equilibrium

· A disruption of that order by an event

· A recognition that disorder has occurred

· An attempt to repair the damage of disorder

· A return or restoration of new equilibrium

This is a circular narrative.

· Which means a story can start at any part of the narrative.

· The process does involve some transformation.

· Some genres can have multiple disruptions.

 

Time in narrative

       · Stories are rarely told in real time.

· Sequences are then carefully edited and put together in a structure that makes sense to the viewer.

· This process is called casualty, where one thing leads to another. This process forms a pattern known as the plot.

 

Syd Field- 3 act plot structure
· Hollywood screenwriter who believes that a typical film can be split into 3 sections. Set up, confrontation and resolution.

      · To move the action on from one act to another, key plot point occur which in turn around the lives of the main characters.

      · Field says that an audience will decide whether or not they like the film in the first 1o minutes, they will normally be unwilling to change their mind after that time.