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Research and Planning 16/20: Well done Ellis - some really good research into film openings and genre. Start to link film openings and genres to their target audiences and your own project ideas to make your analysis even better - and analyse even more film openings to assure band four marks. Well done!

Horror Cliches

Action Cliches

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark 

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the first grate action films. Made in 1981, directed by the legendary Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford what more could you ask for in a film! The film set in 1936 about a renowned archaeologist and expert in the occult, Dr.Indiana Jones, is hired by the U.S. Government to find the Ark of the Covenant, which is believed to still hold the Ten Commandments. Unfortunately, agents of Hitler are also after the Ark. Indy, and his ex-flame Marion, escape from various close scrapes in a quest that takes them from Nepal to Cairo. This film though It may not have seemed like it at the time if full of clichés from saving the damsel in distress to having the “kryptonite” factor in this case snakes. 

Indy our hero is very masculine takes on 5 men with only a gun and a whip kind of guy much like the heroes of today for example in Batman begins(2005), Bruce Wayne (Christian bale) takes on a gang of prison harden convicts with no weapons and still comes out on top without a scratch on him. Unlike Batman, Indy gets beaten up a lot, but don’t worry he always beats the villain’s evil henchmen in the end. The villain or oppositional character in our film is a Dr. Rene Belloq a fellow archaeologist  but working for the “dark side” which is naturally the Nazis-  Steven Spielberg famously uses Nazis in his films to play bad guys as they need to back story, everyone knows that the Nazis are bad. The heavy accents of the villain has become one of the main clichés for defining the villains in films is used thought out the genres; form being used in the James bond franchise to the lion king (scar). 

Some of the best examples of a chase scene is in this film from Indy running to the rescue of a wicker basket trapped Marion and fighting of the evil henchmen to chasing a convoy of military trucks with only a horse. Although many of the classic chase scenes have been up graded to fast cars and free running (James bond) you can still see the basic outline of the classics in the modern action films today. 

the cliches of a romance film

Notting HIll



Notting hill like most other romcoms infuses itself with the clichés we all love but adds slight differences to keep it fresh, for instance our unlucky in love character who is normally portrayed as “Bridget Jones” is now the attractive William Thacker (Huge Grant) but with all the floors of Jones for instance; he owns a unsuccessful book shop, has been in a bad relationship in the case his wife left him for a man who looked like Harrison Ford and is clumsy.

In the case of Notting hill the faithful yet hopeless sidekick who gets in the way of him and  Anna Scott(Julia Roberts) is the stupid but well-meaning  Spike (Rhys Ifans) a lodger in Williams house Spike is very much a cliché in the film for instance he is also unlucky in love so there is an element of them being in the same boat together he is also in every way the stranger one of the two “ there’s something wrong with this yogurt” “is mayonnaise” this helps the audience connect with the film as everyone at some stage has had that type of hapless but lovable friend. 

In the film there is also a lot of typical will they won’t they moments between William and Anna this keeps the audience at the edge of their seat as seen in almost every romcom film like pretty woman, four wedding and a funeral, sweet home Alabama and the proposal. The will they won`t they moment has now become a must have cliché in any romcom as it helps bulk out the film and make the moment when they do kiss even better, and well what is the point in watching a film where the guy gets the girl on the first date.

The tag line for this film “Can the most famous film star in the world fall for just an ordinary guy?” plays on the opposites attract cliché another example of this being used is pretty woman where a millionaire business man  falls in love with a penniless hooker. This cliché works well in Notting hill as it present the love struck couple with a hurdle on lovers lane, in this case it is the press finding out about the two of them and Anna assuming that Will tipped them off this is also a case of showing Dramatic irony; we no will dint do it but she doesn’t.

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Well done Ellis - a good opening to you research into film. To make your responses even better consider how these films hook in their target audience even more by commenting in details on their effects on us. How do they try to encaptivate us, to hook us in, through introducing genre, narrative and character. Soem good opinions and a very promising start to your research. Well done!

a nights tale

The knights tale, a film released in 2001 by the Sony production company Columbia. Colombia is a well-known production company  who have made films like the “men in black” and “spider man” franchises. The fact that is it’s a big production company with a lot of money suggests that this film is going to be big budget with impressive sets and realistic action scenes. The film had an estimated budget of $41,000,000 which shows that peoples assumptions were correct.  The plot of the film is loosely inspired by a mix match of “The Canterbury Tales" and the story of Ulrich von Lichtenstein, ultimately it is the story of William a young squire who over comes the odds and becomes a knight, not forgetting winning the fair maidens hart. 

The slow motion camera shot of the two knights jousting, allows the viewer to become engaged In the scene e.g. stop whatever they were doing in the cinema/ livening room and take interest in the scene waiting for the action of the wood splintering. The reason this was not put at the very start of the film could be because this first bit of text is not vital to the film it is the text after the action scene that Is of real importance to the film and explains the circumstances of where we meet some of the key characters

The first line in the film is introducing the viewer with the immediate problem “he has to be at the lists in two minutes” this gives the audience something to think about and with give them questions like “ how will they get him there”, “where is there” and “ what If they can’t”. The scene also introduces us to two of the key characters in the film although at this stage the viewer does not know for certain who the main character is you can take a good guess at him not being the plump balling man and more likely the scruffy blonde one on the other side of him.   

Accompanied by the diegetic sound of fly’s  buzzing the news of the knights death is announced to the scruffy blonde and a fiery redheaded man in a humorous way “ the spirit is gone but his stench remains” this tells the audience that his death will not be mourned and he wasn’t a very nice man, this is also backed up by the fact that the firefly redhead starts to beat the dead night in an effort to wake him up but is it no good. The death of the knight and the hungry squires now presents the audience with a different question, what are they going to do now when they are so close to an easy win? Break the rules or give up? When the scruffy blonde lies about him being on his way sets the ball rolling for the film.

The setting of the first scene is important as it helps to show how desperate they are, with their knight smelling and in a ditch. By having the first scene in a field it will create a bigger contrast between the beginning and the ending, making the fact that he becomes a knight even more of a feet as he started off in a filed.

 The clothes of the characters also do the same thing and thought the film the clothes increase in standard as he wins more.The language in the film is also modern allowing the viewer not to be put off by going to watch a film with old language they would not understand, it also adds to the humour of the film as the viewer can feel that something is not adding up and our modern English is out of place in this old setting.