Wednesday, 9 March 2011

The Representation of Men and Women in Action Adventure Films


Men and Women are often represented differently in Action Adventure films; for example, it is conventionalk for men to be the strong, brave fighters, where women are inferior and are rescued by the male, dominant hero.  A new image is emerging for women, however, which represents them as strong minded individuals with great fighting skills, going against well-known stereotypes.  Not only does this bring variety and a new face to action adventure films, it is inviting a new audience, that of mostly women, to watch these films who previously felt left out from a male dominated genre.  Lara Croft is a great example of a woman who seems to have filled the role of a conventional male hero.  She is superior to many men in the film, and her strength and courage are admirable, which may encourage more women to watch this film as it shows their superiority to men.
In this way, the unconventional representation of women may begin to become the new idea of conventional.

Monday, 14 February 2011

Action Adventure Film USP

Assassination is a film about a top spy in World War III who must escape the many asassination attempts of his enemies, and must eventually escape North Korea.

Thursday, 3 February 2011

Action Adventure Film Pitch: Assassination

Synopsis
The film I am pitching will be called Assassination.
The film is about a secret agent who is on the run from an evil organisation that has ordered his assassination, and narrowly escapes death on several occasions
The film begins when secret agent Dave Johnson breaks into a maximum security enemy base, in the middle of world war III.  It is a nuclear war between mainly the USA and North Korea, and Dave Johnson is a secret agent, breaking into a North Korean Nuclear Weapons development facility.  He manages to steal a large amount of weapon blueprints but gets caught trying to escape, and only narrowly gets out alive.  The enemy, however, took the blueprints away, and he can only remember what they were like.  One day, when at home, Dave is attacked by a North Korean agent who has come to kill him because he knows all the plans of North Korea, and only just survives.  There is a fight scene here that takes place on the rooftops of a city.  The Koreans hire another assasin, but Dave manages to escape again.  A ninja is then sent to take Dave, and he wakes up in North Korea, as a prisoner.  He breaks out of the prison but can't leave North Korea without being found by the enemy.  He is chased many times through the streets of North Korea, and then arranges to fly out of the country, and there is a final fight scene at the end and he narrowly escapes on the plane.  When he touches down in the USA, he tells them of the Koreans' plans to use their nukes, and they manages to stop a huge missile attack from destroying North America.  Dave Johnson is awarded many awards for his brave work.

Target Audience
The film will be aimed at teenagers and young adults of both genders, but more specifially to the male gender.  The film should appeal to fans of the Jason Bourne and James Bond films.  It is expected to be a high-profile, mainstream film.

Age Certification
The flm is expected to be rated 12a

Release Plan
The film will be released on 8th June 2013.  Teaser posters and a teaser trailer will begin to make appearances a year before the film's release.  The full Trailer will be released 4 months before the film's release, along with the real poster, which will be displayed increasingly often towards the film's release.  1 month before the film's release, a T.V. Spot will be aired on major T.V. channels such as I.T.V and Sky.  This should grab the attention of the target audience.

Saturday, 29 January 2011

Jurassic Park: Narrative, Iconography, Character and Settings Analysis

Narrative

The film Jurassic Park follows a somewhat conventional storyline, featuring Todorov's equilibrium, disruption and restoration.  The main story begins in equilibrium, where Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler lead happy lives as paleontologists.  There is then a small (but not necessarily negative) disruption, where the two are invited to an island inhabited by dinosaurs.  The real disruption comes when the dinosaurs break loose and the visitors must get away from the island alive.  Eventually, the restoration comes when most of the visitors catch a helicopter and fly away from the island alive.
The story is rather conventional of an action adventure, as it involves a lot of near death experiences and desperate survival, as commonly found in almost every action adventure.  The constant threat of being eaten by dinosaurs adds to this

Iconography

Jurassic Park contains a lot of action adventure iconography.  One of the main ones is Dr. Grant's typically western/Indiana Jones style hat, which connotes advenure, marking him from early on as an explorer.  The use of land rovers reinforces this idea of adventure, as they are often associated wiht being driven through rough, dangerous terrain, and play a part in an action scene where characters are quickly driving away from a dinosaur.  Obvious icons of action adenture are the dinosaurs themelves; the fact that they are from a different time period and nobody hs ever seen one before fits into the idea of adventure being about exploring the unknown.  Their great size, speed and teeth make them fearsome creatures which plays a strong role in the action element of this film.

Characters

The characters in Jurassic Park are mostly stereotypical adventurers, but the lawyer, Gennaro, is an example of an unconventional explorer, and doesn't last long in Jurassic Park, not only adding comedy effect as to how out of place he is in a dangerous and adventurous situation, but showing how formiddable the dinosaurs are as predators, and emphasiing the importance of suvival in such a situation.
Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler are both paleontogists, so the audience knows that they have at least some experience with dinosaurs, which automatically sets them up as the heroes, and Dr. Sattler could be described as the story's princess.  Malcolm is the helper, as he helps other characters to survive, as well as Robert Muldoon, who gives his life to save Dr. Sattler.  John Hammond could be described as the donor because he gives the gift of an invitation to his park to the other characters.  The villain is Dennis, who is trying to steal from Jurassic Park and, in doing so, allows all the dinosaurs to escpe.  This classic set of characters is common in action adventure films.

Settings

Setting the story mostly in the jungle strongly connotes the adventure genre, as it is easy to get lost in the jungle, and anything could be hidden there.  The far away island connotes isolation, adding to the adventure and also showing how hard it is going to be for the characters to escape the island.  The control room and labs are full of technology which add to the science-fiction genre in the film, which is a common part of action adventure.  There is a scene where Dr. Grant, Lex and Tim are hiding from the T-Rex in a tree, the connotations here being safety, especially when they meet the harmless Brachiosaurus.  Another scene depicts Dr. Sattler escaping a velociraptor down a dark, underground, metal corridor; this gives a feeling of being trapped, and there is no way of escaping the dinosaur, which connotes action and also gives Jurassic Park a thriller theme.  Therefore, the settings in Jurassic Park connote action and adventure, as well as some elements of the sci-fi and thriller genres.

Jurassic Park: Flim Clip

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

GET SMART: Genre Analysis

Get Smart is an action/adventure/comedy film; it achieves all of these by being a blatant spoof of typical spy movies such as James Bond, including the action adenture elements of such films and creating comedy by making a joke of it. The fight scenes, car/plane chases and the explosions all make Get Smart an action film, and the common blunders of the characters in addition the unconventional hero of Max make Get Smart a comedy.  The idea of Max working in a spying agency instantly sets up the action and adventure genre, and the settings are often in heavily secured enemy headquaters, which strongly connotes espionage and therefore action and adventure.

GET SMART: Character Analysis

The Hero: Maxwell Smart
Max is the hero of the film, as he eventually stops a terrorist attack by KAOS and the audience follows him in his quest to become a field agent.  Max Smart is, however, an unconventional hero, as he often makes silly and humorous mistakes, adding to the comedy value and creating an unstereotypical character.

The Princess: Agent 99
Max admires Agent 99, and he saves her on several occasions.  Agent 99 is a stereotypical princess, which contrasts humorously with Max's unconventional, accident-prone character.

The Villain: Siegfried, Leader of KAOS
Siegfried is the leader of an international terrorist organisation called KAOS, and is the obvious villain as he steals nuclear weapons and attempts to destroy Los Angeles and the president with one of them.  He is a very stereotypical villain, with a 'posh' english accent, as seen often in the likes of James Bond, and he is quite ruthless and undisturbed by the deaths of thousands of people at his hand.  He also has an evil sidekick, fitting in well with the stereotypes.

The False Hero: Agent 23
Agent 23 is the most popular and successful agent in CONTROL.  He is admired by his colleagues and is friendly towards Max, and is seen as the real hero.  As the story unfolds, however, he turns out to be a double agent working for KAOS, and tries to frame Max as the traitor instead.  This double agent theme commonly creates false heros, and Agent 23 is a classic example of one.

The Helper: Dalip
Dalip is a russian who originally worked for KAOS, but Max manages to make him understand that he is being exploited by Siegfried.  Dalip then sends a coded message to Max warning him of the impending terrorist attack, and eventually throwing Siegfried out of a car from a bridge.  He is an unconventional helper, as he originally tries to kill Max and Agent 99 several times, and he is exceptionally strong but shown to be very emotionally sensitive, the irony here creating comedy.

The Donor(s): Bruce and Lloyd
Bruce and Lloyd develop technology for CONTROL and are great friends with Max, and they give him a lot of technology and help throughout the film.  The two are very funny, which adds comedy value to the film; there aren't really stereotypes for the donor, but the two are stereotypical 'nerds' which also creates humour.

GET SMART: Narrative Analysis

Get Smart has 3 clear sections of the narrative, which follow Todorov's principle extremely well, showing an equilibrium, a disruption and a final restoration.

  • Equilibrium: Get Smart begins with the morning life of Maxwell Smart, preparing for a normal day as an analyst for a spying agency called CONTROL.  He likes his job of intercepting, translating and analysing Russian chatter, and does it very well, but he has always dreamed of becoming a field agent for CONTROL.  He never, however, gets the job; even though he is capable, he is such a good analyst that he would be a great loss.

  • Disruption: One day, Max returns to CONTROL headquarters and realises that there has been a break in.  This leads to every agent in CONTROL having their identities compromised, except for Agent 99, who has recently had a change in appearance.  Max is then promoted to an agent, and can finally live his dream, but must stop KAOS, a terrorist group threatening the world with nuclear force.
  • Restoration: Max makes it to the performance for the president of the United States in time to prevent a nuclear bomb being detonated, and not only saves many innocent lives and the city of Los Angeles from destruction, he proves his worth as a competent (yet clumsy and accident-prone) field agent for CONTROL
  • Restoration: Max makes it to the performance for the president of the United States in time to prevent a nuclear bomb fro KAOS being detonated, and not only saves many innocent lives and the city of Los Angeles from destruction, he proves his worth as a competent (yet clumsy and accident-prone) field agent for CONTROL

GET SMART: Movie Trailer (2008)

Thursday, 20 January 2011

Welcome to the Action Adventure Blog

Welcome to the Action Adventure Blog, where every day is an action-packed adventure.
This blog is all about analysing the Action Adventure genre, so we can understand why we all love it so much, from the ear-splitting explosions to the heart-pounding tension.
Action Adventure is awesome.