Under The Skin; Homework Good vs Bad

Under The Skin;What Makes A Good Human?

Good Human:

• Compassionate
• Hard -Working
• Ethical 
• Empathy 
• Forgiving
• Easily approachable
• Good with people

Bad Human;

• Not compassionate 
• Doesn't follow the rules
• Lacks of understanding of Right vs Wrong
• Creates a bad atmosphere
• Lacks Empathy 

We need to talk about Kevin Notes

• The uses of flashbacks and parellism in the structure of the film can be usefully explored. The film begins in the aftermath of the massacre, then flashes back to the events leading up to the massacre ( including flashbacks to the beginnings of Franklin and Eva’s relationship). The complex inter-realtionship of the narrative timelines culminates in the massacre itself and then flashes forward to the meeting between Eva and Kevin one year after the killing . 
• The effects of this complex structuring of time in the plot can be usefully explored by considering the opportunities it affords the storyteller for showing parallels between characters and event, and in raising question about cause and effect.
• How exposition of the narrative occurs in the film can be an intresting source of inquiry. We are presented with fractured elements of a story at the beginning that 

We Need To Talk About Kevin; Family Death Scene

Scene 1:
Family death scene (Flashback)

The death of of Eva's family is a prime example to show how flash backs are used to portray the feelings and also potentially provide a red herring or foresee the future. This scene starts with a long, slow pan up to the curtains, with non-diegetic sounds, such as scratchy violins. The noises used are to put the audience on edge, as they are commonly signified within horror films. Just before reaching the curtains, the screen becomes heavily over exposed, again, another convention for flashbacks. This creates parallelism, as the flashback goes back to something at the beginning of the film, a large food fight. However,  the colour of the tomatoes and food is red. The meanings love and danger can be denoted from the colour red, both of which are relevant with what the audience is about to see; making this flashback a foreshadow, as subsequently, Kevin has killed the other people that Eva loves within her family.

The demographic isn't subconsciously aware of what the flashbacks offer in terms of understanding the narrative, as well as the importance of them. As i mentioned, the narrative allows the audience to work out what is about to happen. However, this is not always the case, as sometimes the flashbacks offer a red herring, leading the audience in a different direction. The audience later feels gratified... in a horrific way, as they now see the curtains again, but rather than stopping at that, it cuts to still medium  shots of Eva's family with arrows in them. The diegetic water sprinklers now replace the violins, and speed up once the audience sees the deceased characters. This effect speeds. up the heart rate, making the audience feel even more tension, emphasising the importance as to what they have just witnessed.

The film does not work in a chronological order. The scene the I have chosen is a prime example, as it conveys how Eva is in between the two time spans. The protagonist has now developed and is living in a new, small home. There is a flash forward to the death scene, but then a flashback, to before the time at which she is in now. Yet the more the audience watches, the more they are able to place bits of this fractured narrative together, to create a, some what, chronological narrative.


The use of flashbacks and parallelism in the structure of the film can be usefully explored. The film begins in the aftermath of the massacre, then flashes back to the events leading up to it (including flashbacks to the beginnings of Franklin and Eva’s relationship). The complex inter-relationship of narrative timelines culminates in the massacre itself and then flashes forward to the meeting between Eva and Kevin one year after the killings. The effects of this complex structuring of time in the plot can be usefully explored by considering the opportunities it affords the storyteller for showing parallels between characters and events, and in raising questions about cause and effect.


> How exposition of the narrative occurs in the film can be an interesting source of inquiry. We are presented with fractured elements of a story at the beginning that we have to piece together with little indication of how to organise these into a chronological framework of time and space. The difficulty of doing this is compounded by the fact that there is a lack of expositional dialogue and conventional establish of narrative setting. The first three scenes are the net curtains blowing in the wind, the tomato festival and Eva waking up which all occur in very different places and times (which we discover later) but how we can organise these scenes into a story is restricted from us until much later in the film.


> Eva’s and Kevin’s characters provide many sources for inquiry, particularly in their position within the narrative. The questions about who is the film’s protagonist and antagonist, who is the ‘centre’ or initiator of the drama and how we are supposed to respond to the characters is complex and ambiguous at times. This complexity of character identification and function within the narrative is further complicated by the use of mirroring. The characters are made to look like each other and often display very similar expressions and body language… frequent graphic matches force a further comparison which suggests characters that are connected in more ways than simply a mother-son relationship.

How useful has an ideological approach been in understanding binary oppostions in the narrative of Trainspotting?

How useful has an ideological approach been in understanding binary oppostions in the narrative of Trainspotting?


Binary oppositions often create conflict, which drives the narrative. The films I have studied use a wide range of oppositions that reflect internal dilemmas and external forces that represent ideological values that pull the protagonists and their worlds in different directions, creating the drive and drama of the films and fuel the demographics desire for resolution.

The primary binary opposite I would like to discuss is the betrayal vs friendship opposition that creates a sense of mistrust and fear within the characters as well as the narrative and questions the demographics morals and everyday ideological views.

In the penultimate sequence we see the binary opposite visualised in the moment where Renton embezzles the money and flees from his so call "Friends". The scene is shot from a long shot of Renton walking across a bridge in London, the protagonist  then makes direct address to the camera and smirks as he makes the realisation that he has gotten away with the task. Renton symbolises right-winged Thatcherism showing the selfishness of politics and London in the 1980's where as his friends symbolise the 1970's where Margret Thatcher was in power and they also convey the sense of not being selfish.

Through-out the film, Renton's voice over is deemed convincing to the audience in adjacent with non-diegetic "Brit-Pop" soundtrack it offers us (the demographic) an energetic youthful and immersive hyper-reality. The aesthetic of addiction is used from the outset of the motion picture to explore this binary opposition, later in the sequence the visuals show us the contrast; At the opium den. The mis-en-scene of the location is dingy and sickly green , the camera pans along the floor from the perspective of Sick Boy's baby showing us that their world is revolting and dangerous and therefore their ideology is less desirable then ours.

Another binary opposition I would like to explore is that of 1980's vs. 1990's. The demographic see the 1980's through the character lens of Renton and the group however, we see 1990's through the character lens of Diane , a school girl from Leith. From the moment we meet Diane on screen she asserts her dominance through her confident demeanour. When Renton meets Diane the audience automatically realise that she has the control in the convosation. This can be interpreted as the 1980's (Renton) being pushed and controlled by the 1990's (Diane) showing how society is moving on from the 80's. We see this when Diane lectures Renton on how "Life is moving on. You can't sit in your flat all day smoking pot. The world is moving on, everything is changing. Drugs are changing. Clubs are changing. People are changing. You have to move with the times or be forgotten about.". This shows how Renton knew he had to change or he would be stuck in a pit of the 1980's and stay the heroin junkie he is perceived to be throughout the film.

An additional binary opposite I would like to discuss is that of group vs. the individual, this leads the demographic to reflect on political ideologies, the individual representing a capitalist idea and the group portrayed as a socialist idea. Renton is portrayed as an alienated individual throughout Trainspotting. We are shown this through the camera as he is shot apart from the rest of the group. In the opening scene he lies in a corpse like and unconscious manner in another room from the others, this shows the physical barriers between him and the rest of the group. In my opinion, this could be used to imply that he is not the same type of addict as the rest of the group but rather he is less of a threat to society and himself. This allows us, the audience, to sympathise and emote with him more than the other characters. However, this could be argued that if the audience saw the story through perhaps Spud or Sick Boy's point of view, would we as the audience align ourselves with Renton. Would we sympathise with him or rather have an oppositional reading to him? Renton betrays his friends ( as previously stated in the first paragraph) which reinforces that a strong willed , possibly even a capitalist individual is more powerful then a group of socialists.

A male vs. female binary opposite is not at the forefront of the films messages or ideologies however plays a massive part in the subliminal messages through out the film. In the motion picture, the narrative is delivered to us through Renton's point of view, a male voice and a male story. Women are seen as "extras" in the film and do not play a huge role narratively. This is shown in the opening scene the camera lingers on Alison (the only female addict) as Renton describes the feeling of Heroin as orgasmic. We can also tell that female characters do not play a massive part in the narrative as the camera has a different style of movement and cuts away from their reactions much quicker. We can also link the ideology of group vs. individual to Alison as when baby Dawn  dies , Renton doesn't show the same amount of empathy as the rest of the male group does.

To conclude, binary oppositions have shown the audience through the narrative that without them, there would be no conflicts to be resolved and no narrative journey. Binary oppositions allow the screen writer and director to put hegemonic and counter beliefs against each other and explore the messages and power of opposing ideas.

How Useful Is An Ideological Critical Approach Been In Understanding The Narrative Resolution?

How Useful Is An Ideological Critical Approach Been In   Understanding The Narrative Resolution?

This is England (Shane Meadows 2006), is the story of a gang of British teenagers and their endeavours over the course of the summer holidays. The narrative is centred on young skin heads in the 1980's, specifically twelve-year-old Shawn, a lonely and isolated boy growing up in a grim, costal town after his father died in the Falkland's war.

Over the course of the holidays, he finds comfort in his new-found friends where he discovers a world of parties, drugs, love and racism. Shawn meets Combo, an older, racist skinhead who has recently been released from prison. As the targeted demographic, we begin to see the films ideology through the character lens of Combo and his actions. One of the primary scenes we see of Combo is him harassing the towns ethnic minorities which therefore illustrates a nationalist image of Combo to the audience. We again recognise this in the scene where Combo gifts Shawn with a Union Jack. This scene intertwines with another ideology that runs through the film; "masculinity"

Trainspotting; Overdose scene 1

Trainspotting; Overdose Scene

At the outset of the scene, we see Mark Renton pounce into the low shot of the bedsit. The audience automatically makes the assumption that Renton has reverted back to his "old" drug abusing self. Renton and Swanney ( the supplier of Heroin), make the exchanging of drugs seem a comical and restaurant like through the use of the dialogue.

The scene then moves on to Renton passed out on the floor, when Swanney then says "Sir, would you like me to call a taxi.", this is a continuation of the inside restaurant joke which actually means "Should I call an ambulance ?". The camera quickly shifts to a longshot of an ambulance which the demographic actually assumes is for Renton but ironically the ambulance drives past Renton in the middle of the road.

Throughout the scene, the non-diegetic music which is playing is written and sung by a Heroin addict and the lyrics is a metaphor for overdosing and death via drugs. The overdose does not come to a shock to the nurses & doctors at the hospital but implies that it is a second nature to them. In the 1980's Heroin and drug abuse was not uncommon, we see this in how supportive Renton's parents are after the over dose and during the detox. 



Maggie Thatcher Information

Information On Margret Thatcher

School Milk Controversy;

The Conservative government had to find substantial cuts to meet election pledges on tax.Removing free school milk for the over seven’s became the most notorious saving introduced.Edward Short, then Labour education spokesman said scrapping milk was ‘the meanest and most unworthy thing’ he had seen in 20 years.It earned Mrs Thatcher the nickname, Milk Snatcher, and haunted her throughout her career. In 1985 she was refused an honorary degree from Oxford University because of her education cuts.After the war under Clement Attlee the 1946 Free Milk Act was passed providing `one third of a pint to all children

under the age of 18.Previous research had linked poor nutrition, low income and underachievement.

Unions;

 

Margaret Thatcher's governments weakened the powers of the unions in the 1980s, in particular by making it more difficult to strike legally, and some within the British trades union movement criticised Tony Blair's Labour government for not reversing some of Thatcher's changes

 

Miners;

 

Margaret Thatcher, like her predecessor governments, closed coal mines because they were uneconomic tax guzzlers and the unions were preventing the opening up of new energy sources which could benefit the British people and the economy.In early 1984, the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher announced plans to close 20 coal pits which led to the year-long miners' strike which ended in March 1985.In 1964, 545 mines where open, but Labour governments shut down 326 of them, more than half. When Thatcher took over, the pace of closures actually slowed, with only 6 closing in her first year as Prime Minister.