Travelling & Arriving Analysis: Characters

The Characters of Donnie Darko

Just by looking at the opening it wasn't hard to identify who the main characters were going to be in the movie. We were able to identify a few through representation and what they were doing during the opening scene.

 

1) The Head Boy: 

It was pretty clear that he is this main character of the movie, considering the fact that he's the first character the audience comes to contact with. I'm guessing he's going to be the good guy as he's surrounded by friends, not afraid to share a smile and so on. 

2) The Rebel:

You can just tell the way he walks and his smug look that he's clearly bad news. Walking alone and sharing quite a mean stare with the head boy allows the audience to pick up the fact that there is tension between the two of them. 

 Oh... And the fact that he does drugs. In the hallways. Classy (!)

3) The Pretty Girl:

Brown locks, bright eyes... Even she can't believe her natural beauty. The audience are able to identify that this characters is more likely to play the main character. I mean, it's a teen movie. It's pretty obvious. 

 

4) The Nerd:

Okay... Maybe she's not a nerd ust because she's reading a book. But then again this is a teen movie. Sitting on her own, the audience can tell that this is an individual that tends to spend most of her time alone. Nothing wrong with that... 

 5)The(Annoying)Teachers: 

The audience are easily able to point them out as they're the only indivduals out of uniform! That and ahem... They look a little older... They're the characters that will make sure the younger folks stay out of trouble (meaning they'll make sure they ca't have any fun -_-)

6) The Young Girls:

They're sweet, cool and filled with lots of energy! But they do look a little too young for a teen movies... Maybe these characters are a reminder on how much of a transformation we make once we enter 'Big School'. 

Order of Titles Explanation

At the start of a film there's a title sequence which give's credit to the people who have made a contribution to the film e.g writers, Actors, Costume designers, musicians ect.

There is a specific order in the way the titles in the sequence are displayed, the order of the title sequence can be changed by different variables such as: Famous Actors, Big Directors and multiple production company's 

Here are pictures showing you the order titles should come in

• Production indent
• Distribution indent
• Distributor in title sequence 
• production in title sequence 
• Actor 1
• Actor 2 
• Film title
• Actor 3 

• Actor 4 
• Actor 5 ect
• Casting
• Costume 

• Music supervisor 
• Music by
• Edited by
• Production Designer

• Director of photography 
• Executive Producers 
• Written by 
• Director

Here's an example of a title sequences in the start of the film THE ROOM MATE

The Room-mate

Screen genius indent

Screen genius title (Distributor) 

Production company
Film title

Actors

Casting

Costume designers

Music

Editor 

Music

Production Designer 

Director of photography

Executive producer 

Writer

Director 

1) The Film name came before the actors which is fine there's sometime slight variations in the order of titles. (Or the actors aren't well known )

2) There is a second music title after the editor which is slightly unusual but as its a big production company there is going to be alot of people on the cast and the editor was more important than the second musician. 

Travelling & Arriving analysis (mise-en-scene) Travelling and arriving

Mise-en-scene

Donnie Darko clip

Location 

The first thing we see at the start of the scene is a obscured image of a school bus, from this prop the audience are able to recognise that the location is set in a school. 

The different locations we see around the school are the:

The Playground 

The classroom

 

The corridors

 Front of school

Props

Half way through the scene the camera gases on a statue of a bull dog which I presume is some king of math-scott or iconic figure for the school. Not all High schools are able to afford luxury pieces such as statues or expensive piece of art work, So the statute tells the audience that the school is probably a school with a good reputation and a lot of funding. 

 Costume 

 The purpose of wearing school uniform is to make sure all the pupils are equal, but in high-school it's impossible to be equal. There are alot of different cliques and social groups which creates a clear division between the 'cool kids' and nerds. Small accessories such as Handbags and Trainers are visual way's pupils can differentiate themselves from the crowd.

In this image the principle of the school is excitedly greeting a handsome man in a premium gold blazer, the gold blazer the man is wearing tells us that this man has a lot of authority as he is wearing a gold piece which allows him to stand out from the other characters ,this man is probably a celebrity or a important figure in society. 

Juno- Order of Titles & The Explaination

Explaination of Order of Titles: 

Order of Titles (definition): A title sequence that both film and TV programmes use this method to present both their cast members and crew; they tend to do this with both visual pictures and sound.

There'a reason why certain title comes in a certain order. Many of you may never actually notice this but at times the order can change and that usually depends on how big the movie is and who's apart of of it (e.g. the cast, the crew etc).

- Most title sequence tend to start of off with an ident, this tends to be the distriubution or production company of the film.

- In the title sequence of Juno, the stars went first before the crew. This was probably because the stars in the movie are well known in the movie world (e.g. Ellen Page who's knwon for her work in 'Hard Candy' and 'X-Men: The Last Stand').  



Order of titles- THE ROOMMATE

Title sequences are used at the beginning of films to introduce the cast, crew, company ident and production company. The order of these titles in 'the roommate' were that the company ident came first (Screen gems) the came the title of the company ident presents (Screen gems presents) and then the title of 'The Roommate'. The cast names came next and then crew names; the last title was who the film was directed by. The order that the cast titles are presented usually depends on the actors (the more well known actors go first).

Travelling & Arriving Editing & Camera - 'Head Over Heels'

Editing & Camera Techniques

Editing Techniques:

• Transition 
• Speed up motion
• Slow motion
• Cross Dissolve

The editing affects the sequence in a way to increase tension and to show different events happening within the scene. It also gives the audience clues to identify what personalities certain characters portray.For example slow motion can reveal one's actions and a very detailed way.

Camera Techniques:

• Cut 
• Panning
• Tilting 
• Zooming
• Range of camera angles

These techniques affect the sequence as it helps to catch every element in the surroundings shown. Panning and tilting techniques are used for this. For example the zooming has been used to view close ups of characters' expressions and to show emotions.

Representation

In teen films the representation of character is extremely important. Characters usually have a trait that will be enhanced and used to represent them. This could also be seen as a stereotype. A stereotype is a feature or characteristic used to identify a person and say they are a certain way. For example the stereotype the blondes are dumb or asians are smart. This is common used in teen film so as to make it relatable  as teenagers in schools will have experienced someone like the character in the film.

Signs and symbols are used to convey something about a character and so that the characteristic is easy to identify. For example the 'popular' boy in a teen film will carry a football and wear a jersey jacket. While not all popular males are on the sports/football team, this is how they will be portrayed in the film as it is easy to identify with.

Another example is that the 'nerdy' girl will wear classes and oversized clothing with her hair pulled back.

The characters in 'Not Another Teen Movie' are typical teen film characters. You have the 'popular jock', 'desperate virgin', 'pretty ugly girl', 'popular mean girl', 'token black guy' etc.

These characters are represented by their costumes and locations. They are also characters that we see often in other teen films for example the film 'She's All That' has all these characters and 'Project X'.