Django Unchained script analysis
Django Unchained script analysis
Style
The Django Unchained script is a reading script, I know this because it doesn’t state different shot types and therefore it isn’t a shooting script. Also, I can tell that it is a film script by looking at the layout, first it’s too long to be a TV script and whereas a TV script has columns showing the visuals and sounds of what’s happening, a film script relies on tabs and margins, with its text formatted and aligned to the centre of the page
I can tell that this is a western movie about slaves by looking at the very first few sentences of description as it states an opening scene with a “spaghetti western theme song” and “we see seven shirtless and shoeless black male slaves”.
Content
Typically, the script contains headings stating where the scene is taking place, characters names and parentheticals. The first couple pages of the script just state the location of the place, “EXT – COUNTRYSIDE – BOILING HOT DAY”, introduces us to characters and visually tells us what this movie could be about and the relationship between each character.
In addition, the script contains flash back moments in a couple paragraphs of writing titled whose flash back it is, for example “DJANGO SPAGHETTI WESTERN FLASHBACK” this emphasises the characters hatred towards the “Brittle Brothers” and how he is certain that he remembers who they are to get revenge.
Genre
The genre of Django Unchained is a western adventure film.
I know that this is an adventure film, because the script is about a slave who gets his freedom from a bounty hunter who then helps Django look for his wife while seeking revenge on those who hurt them both. The script also contains a description of the two men riding across the western landscape as dawn breaks in search of a town, this symbolises the beginning of the adventure they are about to go on.
Moreover, I know that this is a western film because of the time which the script is set, as we know most Westerns are set in the 19th century in the American Old West, it involves cowboys on horseback shooting revolvers and handling dynamite, the locations that it is set such as “Daughtrey Texas” and the general theme throughout of Django’s conquest through the wild west getting revenge.
Narrative
The script of Django Unchained has non-linear plot, I know this because it contains flash backs to Django’s past as a slave and the things that happened to him and his wife, and each time this happens it links to a future event or what has already happened which helps the audience understand what’s going on while also building the character development of him and his wife. You can see this straight away from the first 23 pages of the script I am analysing.
Target Audience
The script is aimed at an adult audience ranging from 40 to 59 years; this is because a western genre would predominantly attract an older audience as it was the most popular Hollywood genre from the early 20th century to the 1960’s, an era the they were brought up in and watching these films.
Furthermore, the script contains quite strong language, gore and sexual content which young audiences wouldn’t want to see in a movie and wouldn’t understand. The target audience would also have been mostly male as it runs along the stereotypical theme of a man saving his venerable woman from being in captivity; it also contains a lot of action sequences with gun fire and explosions which doesn’t appeal to a vast amount of female audience.
The script also contains a strong male cast, most of which are violent to women as it does have some demeaning scenes to them.
Sources of information:
How do these affect the target audience or content?
How do these affect the target audience or content?
- Impact and effect on the audience and representation issues
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 does have an impact on the audience, but mostly the younger audience. As one of the most beloved comic book heroes, Spider-Man is relatable to a large amount of young people, influencing them to be strong and stand up for themselves just like Peter Parker does when he is being picked on. In addition, it has a strong male gender role, as the most powerful people in the movie are men such as, Spider-Man, Electro, Green Goblin and Rhino, this along with the roles of the women in the movie such as Gwen emphasises the males powerful roles, as Peters main focus is to keep her safe because it was his last promise to her Dad before he died. This links with the stereotypes within the film, there are only two main female characters which are Gwen Stacey and Aunt May, who are presented full of stereotypes. They use Gwen Stacey’s death in order to progress the male protagonists storyline, this can be known as “Fridging” and is often an overused trope within superhero movies, and Gwen is also shown to always wanting to help Peter, however, he always pushes her away highlighting the stereotype that men should be the ones doing the more physical work and not put the women in danger etc. so because of this last dying promise Peter has made to her Dad, we are constantly reminded of the message that females need to be saved and protected, from danger and even their own wishes. Moreover, Aunt May is also shown throughout the film without much depth or complex, for example, she is the provider of wisdom and support to Peter while Uncle Ben is gone but other than that she is fully conveyed a stereotypical mum/wife, staying at home doing the washing and cooking for Peter.
There have also been some stereotypes found in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 linked with wrongfully representing people with mental illnesses. During the movie we see Harry Osborne visit the “Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane” which contains people with mental illnesses that also happen to be criminals, this is where a lot people think that Marvel shouldn’t have named or presented this place way it is because it shows a negative and wrong interpretation of people within the institute, as it feeds on the idea that the reason for these people being criminals is because they have a mental illness, which isn’t always the case. This is accompanied by other characters having mental problems too, such as Max Dillon (Electro) having an attachment disorder and Harry Osborne displaying problems with abandonment, people think that the writers should explore different ways to justify the villains actions rather than give them a mental illness for the reason they turn out the way they end up.
- Relevant legal and/or ethical issues and regulatory bodies
The BBFC is a trusted guide to media content, they classify all films as an aim to protect the public but especially children, keeping them from seeing films that may harm them. They help parents to make choices to what they want their children to watch etc. there is more of their aims and objective on the website.
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-bbfc/our-mission
Every film is made attempting to stay clear of all legal and ethical issues, but these can’t always be dodged. The certification of the film is 12A; however, the parents are warned that the 3D version may be more of an intense experience for their children, the reason behind it being rated a 12A is because of the violence and the mild bad language. In the movie there is violence along the lines of punches being thrown that result in blood on the face etc. people being shot at with guns and Tasers and also there are close ups of the villains and their creepy looking features, the mild bad language includes words such as “pissed”, but it is not used excessively. If the violence or language was any worse than it is could lead to some ethical issues regarding the audience’s social behaviour, however, it could be already affected by what is included in the film. By using this certification and Ofcom guidelines, the film could be shown on TV before watershed hours as the guideline states the film/TV show should not be shown if it impairs the physical or mental development of people under 18, which The Amazing Spider-man 2 does not do.
According to some rumours, Sony’s rights for the franchise would expire if they don’t release a film every now and again, and because the last director of the previous trilogy backed out after Spider-Man 3 in 2007, Sony decided to do a reboot of the franchise soon after, the new two movies are seen just as cash cows for Sony, which affected the content as a lot of the audience feel these movies could be done so much better if they really put thought on how they could branch out the story and stick to the comics more accurately.
Furthermore, depending on whether or not the audience is active or passive or whatever theory they apply to, they will be affected by the film differently. Active audiences look at the film and stay aware of what things could mean and not be swayed so easily into thinking one thing, whereas passive audiences won’t think into things that much and aren’t curious/aware of what the film is getting across, they are usually quite vulnerable in being gullible to the fake information some films or TV put across. The Uses and Gratifications (McQuail & Katz, 1974) theory, they said there were reasons why audiences watch some films or TV and came up with these reasons
- To be informed or educated
- In order to identify with characters and situations
- To be entertained
- For social purposes, so they can interact with others
- To escape from their daily troubles
If you put this into perspective with The Amazing Spider-Man 2, by looking at we can see people would want to watch this movie as a form of escapism from their normal life as they are able to dive into a world of a relatable superhero and watch him do things most people wish they could do.
Sources of information:
- http://www.bustle.com/articles/23250-amazing-spider-man-2s-gwen-stacy-suffers-a-stereotypical-fate-that-does-women-no-good
- http://www.nerdyfeminist.com/2012/07/amazing-spiderman-says-ladies-are-for.html
- https://mamatanap.wordpress.com/2014/05/20/spiderman-2-and-the-criminally-insane/
- http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/amazing-spider-man-2-film
- http://lawandthemultiverse.com/2012/07/05/the-amazing-spider-man-background/
- http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/protecting-under-18s/
- http://www.slideshare.net/simsimma/audience-theories-7445753
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_and_gratifications_theory
Tagged with: Analysing media products and audiences, Media, The Amazing Spider-Man
Posted in Analysing media products and audiences
Posted in Analysing media products and audiences
How The Amazing Spider-Man 2 reaches its audience
Advertising and Distribution is a vital stage in making the movie successful, The Amazing Spider-Man a few methods of doing this.
- Distribution channels
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was distributed all over the world mostly by “Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE)” and “Sony Pictures Releasing” and also Columbia Pictures. The movie has been released into cinemas worldwide, and is now on DVD, and it can be rented from Netfix on DVD. However, there is a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment called “Sony Pix” which is based in India, that has put in 24-30% of their budget into promoting the movie in India, this is spreading the promotion of the movie to multiple cities across India that is also the most beneficial cities as each one is known for its high financial status, modern technology and most populated places in India. By Sony doing this, they get to promote their movie across the world and specifically in the world’s second most populated country, therefore being able to reach a large amount of its target audience.
In addition, the channel from Sony Pix is advertising the premier of the film to be “Powered by Ford”, this applies to one of the target audiences interests as we can see by looking at Yougov profiler it says the audience’s fourth most likely car is a Ford.
- Advertising
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was advertised in a lot of ways, one of them including a partnership between USPS (United States Postal Service) and Sony Pictures, to promote Priority mail and the release of the film, this multi-channel marketing campaign went through the whole of May. The promotion contains USPS trucks featuring a picture of Spider-Man and the title of the new movie, there is also limited edition Spider-Man Shipping boxes that have the image of him and the film title as well.
Furthermore, advertising of the film also took place on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, where updates and countdown to the film are released and also the trailer. Using these social media sites helped reach the target audience as Facebook, Twitter etc. are common websites that the audience of this movie go on.
Moreover, Sony partnered up with Evian and other water companies to promote the film by producing 700 million bottles of TASM2 branded water, this helps Sony advertise the film all around the world while also helping out Evian and the other water companies so it’s a win, win situation.
Here’s one of the official posters for the Amazing Spider-Man 2.
This is quite a simplistic poster compared to some of the other posters done for other movies, but it’s simple with a lot of meaning and ideas of what the movie will be like. We see a high angle medium shot of Spider-Man looking over the city of New York, which implies how he looks over it as its guardian and is also looked up to as an idol, also symbolising his power. One of the first things you see when you look at this poster is the tagline “His greatest battle begins” and the release date of the film, this suggests that this film will show Spider-Man go through more of a challenging battle than the last movie, testing his powers. In addition, we also see what looks like lightening in the gloomy sky of New York, this implies the presence and power of one of the new villains Spider-Man has to face which is Electro.
Furthermore, the product is conveyed through a number of different modes of address including, imagery, style, language and content. However, I think that imagery will have the most prominent effect on the audience because posters are mostly visual. By looking at the imagery in this poster, it tells us that that this is a heroic movie of on superhero taking on the responsibility to save an entire city; it also tells us the audience, information about the character and possible content of the film. We know the setting of the film is a city as we see Spider-Man above it in the gloomy, turbulent sky. Spider-man is the only character physically shown in this poster makes him seem powerful, and the way he is looking over the city from high up in the sky exemplifies and emphasises his power and significance in the film. Also, the red and blue costume and the stance is easily recognisable, as we all know Spider-Man is a comic book hero, so this helps us know that the content of this film will show him saving the us and the city, if not world. Not only is this character well known to everyone, he is has the particular interest of the comic book fans and followers from the previous Raimi trilogy, so we know that Spider-man is commonly found in action/fantasy films and the content that this poster is communicating to us we know that the movie is action and fantasy.
Moreover, the imagery and colours used in this poster would appeal to an older audience and also teenagers, as it has a slightly gloomy, sinister feel to it with the overcast dark city covered in lightening implying a world in great danger. The text in the poster is limited and aims to hook the audience to watch the films, and I think the tagline “His greatest battle begins” achieves this well.
Sources of information:
- http://www.afaqs.com/news/story/43372_Sony-Pix-to-spend-25–of-its-marketing-budget-to-promote-The-Amazing-Spider-Man-2
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_PIX
- https://yougov.co.uk/profiler#/The_Amazing_Spider_Man_2/brands
- https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2014/pr14_018.pdf
- http://www.sonypictures.com/corp/press_releases/2013/12_13/120513_spiderman.html
The Horror of Bridgwater – Production Meeting 18
This is our last production meeting and we started to do our evaluations from the feedback that we got from the focus group we did for our movie. The feedback was mostly positive and seemed to achieve what we wanted, we also wrote a letter to the BBFC justifying the certification of our movie and if they agreed or disagreed.
The Horror of Bridgwater – Production Meeting 17
Once I had come back from holiday the group met and went over the pre-production work folder one last time to make sure everything was done, we managed to complete all the unfinished tasks and a revise work which wasn’t up to good standard.
The Horror of Bridgwater – Production Meeting 16
I couldn’t make it to this production meeting due to being on holiday, but to prepare for that I had completed my share of Pre-Production work and also collected all the dream sequences that we had so far and graded them for the rest of the group to use while I was gone, I also stitched together a scene near the end when Dave goes to sleep on the couch for them to use. Also I managed to get the poster for the movie complete and updated from what it was before and get the contact details of all the actors that they would need.
The Horror of Bridgwater – Production Meeting 15
Today we logged the footage from the night/dream sequence scenes and I began to experiment on ways I could present this dream sequence. I eventually came up with the idea that we should have the dream sequences presented in black and white with only red showing, that way Daves shirt and bag strap will only be the only colour to stand out, symbolising the danger in the dream sequences making them different. For this I began using Final Cut Pro and managed to isolate the reds in each sequence there was.
The Horror of Bridgwater – Production Meeting 14
On to the next day of shooting, we were less successful in getting all the scenes done that we hoped for because of it getting too dark to shoot, but we stuck to the contingency plans and agreed to shoot the rest of it another day. We also agreed to log the footage straight away the next day.
The Horror of Bridgwater – Production Meeting 13
We met up today to start the editing of the first couple scenes and see how it was looking, we looked for any changes we could quickly make by re-shooting and different techniques of editing, it was a productive meeting as we clipped together the first couple scenes and I managed to get some grading and sound done on it also.
Andrew MediaBWC 