Character: Lestier Bernham - (American Beauty.)
Reveals he's going to be dead in a year, but of course he isn't aware of that yet, however says he feels dead already. He's lost something about himself and is determined to get it back. His life is so dull at present and he seems quite unhappy that he reveals that the shower will be the highlight of his day, as everything goes downhill from there. We learn he has a wife named Caraen, who likes to keep busy - Lestier gets exhausted just watching her. She seems to be very organised, as Leister says she matches her clothing. He also says Caren's changed, the two of them used to be happy, him saying this indicates that they no longer are. Furthermore, the start of the film also reveals Leister has an only daughter called Jane, a typical teenager and two next-door neighbours, a couple, both of which are named Jim.
Character: Jerry Mcguire - (Jerry Mcguire.)
The film starts off talking about famous sports people and Jerry reveals that he looks after all these successful sports people. He comes across fairly arrogant and is very pro America, he seems to think it's where everything good happens. Jerry gets hundreds of clients per day phoning him and doesn't seem to be shy about asking clients for large amounts of money for his services. He appears to think he is the best of the best claiming he wont stop until people win. Jerry is obviously largely career driven, especially when there's money involved. He comes across a bit shallow, only thinking really about himself and the benefits he will receive rather than thinking about the success of his clients. - seems to just want the money.
Comparison: Leister Bernham and Jerry Mcguire:
If you compare the two characters from each film (Leister Bernham and Jerry Mcguire.) Leister appears to be rather unhappy in his life and doesn't really know who he is anymore. He seems quite unselfish, not really wanting anything apart from to feel himself again and to be the person he used to be. This contrasts with Jerry Mcguire, who seems to be very happy with his life, but comes across as very selfish. Another difference between them is that Leister has his family and in my opinion, although they are not very close, he secretly relies on them, whereas Leister is independent, he only ''needs'' his clients for financial gain.
Character: Ken - (Early Doors.)
Ken seems a jolly character, at the start he is singing and cleaning the toilet, so appears to be an average ''normal'' person, with nothing particularly unique or special about his life (the fact his clothes do not look very expensive but instead are just everyday/average clothing also shows this.) This may help the audience relate to him as he is just like one of them. He earns his livelihood as a pub owner. At first I thought Ken was going to be quite an honest person, however he poured cheap alcohol into expensive bottles, which surprised me. I didn't expect ''the average looking person.'' to be dishonest. When someone comes into the pub he listens to what the customer says but seems to be rather disinterested in what he has to say. It is as though he responses because he has to and its part of his job to sell. Ken is quite humorous and laid back.
Comparing all three: American Beauty, Jerry Mcguire, Early Doors
When compared to the two previous American films there seems to be extremes, either depressed or rich and really happy (like the american dream - the ideal life.) Whereas as this is an English comedy, Len seems to be an average person.
Opening Sequences: - (London to Brighton.)
Dramatic start, mother and daughter look like they've been hurt, there seems to be a feeling of desperation and danger as though they're running away from someone/something. Their costumes emphasize the fact they're running away as does the fact they ran into the toilets, as if they were hiding from someone. They don't look like they have a lot of money, this is shown by the ragged-like clothes they were wearing and having to just share one portion of chips between them. The background of the scene emphasized their lifestyle, as did the way they behaved. The setting was unclean and contained rather a lot of graffiti, plus the fact the mother's language used by the mother was rather explicit and the fact she left her daughter all alone locked in a toilet cubical.
(The Graduate.)
It is a very simple start to this film. Personally I found it rather boring, the colours used in the opening are also fairly plain and ordinary. However, it reflects well how the character feels. He's graduated and is just coming back from university and is flying back home and probably doesn't want to go back - doesn't feel like his life is going anywhere. Although I didn't really like the start of the film, I think the director did very well at communicating how the character was feeling to the audience. A good technique he used which I picked up on was the fact the audience could hear the instructions being given by the air hostesses over the tannoy to the passengers but the character wasn't taking any notice. Perhaps this reflects the fact having been at university he has been told what to do for along time, therefore now he has decided he is going to rebel and not listen to the instructions he's been given.
(Napoleon Dynamite.)
The opening to this film was quite different to the others, no people were involved, just background colours and objects, yet it was quite an original idea. They had some good close ups of some of the objects, which allowed the audience to see them in greater detail. Also it allowed the audience to take more notice of the credits because of the fact there wasn't a huge amount going on. In my opinion, although it was a simple opening to the film, it worked well and surprisingly wasn't boring to watch.
Outcome:
Having now watched the first two minute openings of several films and analysed them in terms of what works well/what doesn't work well, what techniques (like camera shots) were good and what weren't, and how we portrayed the characters, my group and I are now debating which film to re-create for our two minute opening. Although we have not come to a definite decision on which film to choose we have came up with the following ideas:
1) Angus thongs and perfect snogging
2) Thirteen going on thirty
3) Love Actually
4) Football Factory
5) Bend it like Beckham
No comments:
Post a Comment