Jet Li vs Donnie Yen Question 2 Analysis

The place where the action is placed in is a chess house courtyard which looks surprisingly like a Buddhist temple. Donnie Yen, aka Broken Sword, is armed with a spear whilst Jet Li has a straight broad sword which has a quite surprising shape because it's middle part is missing. Donnie Yen is wearing yellow robes with a tang of orange whilst Jet Li is wearing black breaches and shirt so that we could easily know which is which. The chess courtyard has also a small bench on which the old man musician sits and plays his strange to us and very native Chinese harp/guitar instrument.

The extract has a lot of video editing involved, such as: wires and the fact that the antagonist and the protagonist seem to be flying through the air when they jump. Also when they have the battle of the minds the scene turns monochromatic to indicate that the battle switches from real life to the battle of the minds. Here we see the characters float again through the air and do acrobatic fight moves such as fighting whilst one is hanging upside down from the roof.

In the background we could see the natural sound of water droplets falling into ceramic vases, oriental music which is played by the old man and there is also the sound of clashing steel. The music keeps changing pace and volume which changes the temp of the fight. For example when it gets faster or higher the fighters do some sort of acrobatic trick. When the music comes to loud snapping stop, the fighters begin the real fight because the music was the source of their trans. The silence is also indicated by the fact that we can  hear the coins hit the bottom of the old mans bowl to show the surreal silence.

In this extract there are a lot of close ups and extreme close ups. This is done for a number of reasons one of them going for the extreme close up on Donnie's face so that we could see all of its cold and expressionless. Most of the time we have a two shot, starting from the moment when the fighters begin the mind battle with the old man sitting in between them overlooking them. We also have a macro shot of Donnie's spear creating a water cloud so that he can distract his opponent, but then we see Jet's face going through the cloud without even blinking.

Sounds in Serenity Extract

At the start of the extract we can hear a powerful engine roaring as the space shuttle comes to settle on an alien land surface. Behind it we have the sounds of a guitar playing a quite cheerful tune which makes the atmosphere a bit more relaxed. Then  we switch to the ships interior where the commander is preparing to leave the safety of his ship and go on a 'job'. There is also then a clicking sound of the ships commander putting on his belt and him cocking and checking his pistol. Then other string instruments such as some viola's and a piano joining into the symphony with a couple high percussion beats.

The commander's voice is very calm with a tint of sarcasm which is contrasted with the girls quiet yet strong voice which is very serious. The commander greets the girl with the words 'Hello little one' which states that he's very sarcastic and patronizing. He says it in a voice that a parent might use to greet his/her child which doesn't make any sense because it seems that the commander and the girls brother don't go well together.

The music picks up pace when we see the 'mule', the yellow machine which the crew is riding, in the garage and ready to go. This is to create tension because what they're about to do is going to be quite dangerous and jeopardous. There is a loud clang as the commander drops his pistol into the box with many others which must make the audience jolt at the sound because the steady hum of the 'mule' was quite relaxed whilst this is a rigid and loud noise.

Mis-en-Scene of the Pod Race out of Star Wars

 The action takes place in an alien desert environment on planet that some may call third world planet. It looks a lot like the Grand Canyon with the same colour  scheme, reddish-yellow,  used and there are cliff edges and actual canyons in the film background. Within the canyons there are a lot of caves and obstacles such as massive pieces of cliff and general rubble.

The pods which Anakin and his opponents race across the terrain have a very rusty and dare I say steampunk look to them. But the rust and dust doesn't make them look any less cool since the two front engines are joined by what seems to be electrical lighting rope and the originality of the actual machines is incredible since it's like a Roman chariot with the only difference that it has some anti gravity thing instead of the wheels and the horses are substituted by two engines which look as if they came from a superjet. The pods also come in different shapes and sizes which makes them and their design even more unpredictable and interesting.

The cockpit of such a pod looks very complicated and they even bothered creating alien symbols to indicate that this isn't our universe at all. Then we have the tribunes. They look very dusty and not made for comfort since the people who came to see the pod race have to stand outside in the blazing sun with no shelter. Yet however they still seem to be filled to the brim with people who came to see the match. They all dress in the same quite dirty looking clothing which are either white or brown. The commentators cabin looks more like a bunker than what it was meant to be and we don't see much new sound transmitting tech in there. No we see a some basic screens and a very basic microphone.

We also see how dangerous this race is after the antagonists pod crashes and he was lucky to survive the crash. 

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Mis-en-Scene Hurt Locker

The action is placed in an American forces war camp which is situated somewhere in Afghanistan, which means that the terrain must be very sandy and it also requires some middle-east desert worn mud houses and low skyscrapers. The men seem to be very sweaty and there isn't a single cloud in the sky which makes it easier for the audience to believe that these men are all alone stranded in the middle of the hostile desert.

Also because it's an army camp there should be US forces uniform and weaponry present. To make it seem even more genuine the producer makes the soldiers use bottled water which they use to spit out the tooth paste which indicates that there is no water coming out of the town's bathroom taps. When we leave the cool of the inside and venture into the very warm outside environment we see bigger US armaments such as Hums armed with high caliber weapons. This is once again done to make the viewer believe that this is a real army camp. 

There are also other uniforms present there, such as the Arabian trooper to whom our protagonist spoke to. Then we see the bomb defuse suit after the viewer understands that there is a car with a possible bomb in it. After that the enemies sniper appears wearing typical terrorist uniform with a masked face and an AKA-12 in his hands. This is done so that the viewer could feel instinctive hate to the antagonist which will get the audience on the American side and to make them feel sorry, worried and tense for the protagonist in the bomb defuse suit. To add oil to the fire the antagonist sniper lights the petrol tank in the bomb car which adds even further feeling of jeopardy.

Then the hero see's the bombs in the boot of the car. This is done so that we see his reaction to this sort of danger so that the producer get's a chance to  prove that the person in the bomb suit is the narratives hero. The car is very dusty and after the fire it looks in an even more sorry state. This was then performed so that the audience could see that the protagonist was facing real danger from the fire which decimated the car which would've blown up any time it liked, which creates jeopardy.

In the last scene we could see an explosion which indicates that the hero would've been easily have been killed in action by this car. 

Audience Pleasures in The In Betweeners

The In Betweeners is a comedy hosted by E4 about teenagers and the awkward situations they get themselves in and which they have to face. This is aimed at real teenagers because a lot of the stuff they might have experienced in real life and they easily grow a connection with the main characters. Will, who used to go to a private school, often finds himself in situations which his friends don't mind yet are a pain to him because of his character and his morale's.

First of all, what the teenage audience might like is the slapstick humor which the comedy show uses, for example in the field trip how Simon had to get undressed because he got out of the boat and lost his girlfriend because everyone saw him naked.

Another thing that the audience might enjoy is the familiarity and however hard the friends prank and mock each other they still stay as one. A lot of past teenagers might see some references to their earlier life and enjoy reliving it. Some of the audience use this to escape the reality and go back to their early days before adulthood and live relive it again, which tells us that even some of the older generations might be enjoying the In Betweeners. For example they could remember the excitement of getting their first car and then the disappointment because it would be a bucket of bolts that they can't appear out of in front of the girls and their friends.

The crude and rude which the friends often refer to is appealing to the modern youth because not many of them use it and it is a bit unrealistic but at the same time entertaining because it's something new that normal TV comedies don't really go to. For example Wills friends sometimes call him 'suitcase wanker' because of the suitcase which he can't bear to leave and get a normal bag and because of the story of how they got together.






  

Hot Fuzz Analysis

From this extract we understand that this is an action and adventure film because of the characters we see in the film. Nic Angel is clearly a hero because we see him being cool and calm when he arrives at the ‘hive’, the village, where all the villains are living. We see him arrive on a white horse, which is very unusual in real life, and white is normally the colour of the hero and this also creates a parody on the boss battle in Westerns, where just like here the hero arrives on a horse and challenges the villain to a battle. We see that the villains are shocked to see Nic come, because only a fool would come to a place where he knows that he’s going to get brutally killed and, they think, would come out in one piece. During this time Nic looks very calm and casual, which he shows by slowly spitting out the tooth pick, which strengthens the feeling of a Western parody, and waits for the villains to make the first move because he didn’t come to kill them but he knows that they’re not going to give up easily so he’s ready for them. Nic’s future sidekick looks also very gobsmacked when he sees him, but then soon he joins him and, like in many Westerns, Nick isn’t all alone now against the hive. When the villains come back to their senses they look very angry and they want to kill Nic as fast as they can which makes them look very ugly and we feel sorry for Nic who has to face the lot of them. This is a hybrid because, even though the scene is different, it has a western feel to it, like the toothpick, however it also has some elements of modern shoot em’ all films with the modern shot guns and assault rifles.

We Nic Angel being very creative and tactical by using a group of local teenagers, who the villains couldn’t have shot, to cover the surveillance cameras, so that he could walk undetected until he wanted to be uncovered, and to help him out in the tight spots, like when he sent the teens to drag the woman with the rifle away from the window. This contrasts highly with the villain’s tactics, which is basically to stand in the open, shoot as much as they can at the target and have no tactics. Nic also shoots not to kill but to indirectly injure his attackers, like when he shot the flower basket which hit the woman on the head and where he shot a trucks tyre so that all of the heavy barrels rolled onto his attacker. This is made to increase the contrast between his and the villains plans. All they want to do is kill him whilst he wants to bring them in. Like all heroes, Nick gets a sidekick, who knocks over the vicious woman on the bicycle duel welding two pistols, which demonstrates that he’s on Nic’s side and ready to be his sidekick.