LO1, Task 2
Hi, today I will be analysis a film by 20th
Century Fox, The Day After Tomorrow. I will also be explaining in depth about
the features of the film that you probably won’t have seen when watching to
start with.
Purpose:
The purpose of the film that I have chosen, The Day After
Tomorrow is to entertain the audience that is watching, however there
is an element of educating as the film is about climate change and how it can
affect the earth if nothing is done to relieve it. The main reason why the film
has been made is to make money. The film company, 20th Century Fox, has to
make large revenue otherwise the production process won't have been worth the
while. The target audience would be young adults as it provides a gripping
story with edge of the seat action, this is designed for this audience
but older adults could be interested also. The film would be released on
an international scale to a mass audience as 20th Century Fox are a business
and want to sell their products to as many people as possible. The overall
gross of the film was $528 Million world-wide on an estimated budget of $125
Million.
Genre:
As described by David Chandler in 2001, a genre is a type or
category. In the case of The Day After Tomorrow, it is Adventure/Action.
It does have a subgenre however, Climate Fiction-Disaster. This genre
sums up the film as thrilling and exciting, with extra intensity
thrown in to make you more nervous of those non-existent sea waves.
Form:
The Day After Tomorrow is a full-length feature film and runs
for two hours and four minutes. It will have been distributed to cinemas
worldwide as the target audience is a younger audience. Younger adults go to
the cinema now so this was an ideal place to release the film. The film
can also be bought on DVD in shops, streamed online on sites like Netflix and
downloaded on services like iTunes. Releasing the film a variety of platforms
broadens the market that the film is appealing to, therefore gaining more
viewers and money.
Style:
The film uses lots of Special FX, in particular CGI and
Chroma Key (Green/Blue Screen). These aesthetics give the film a
realistic, modern look. Having these realistic features creates
verisimilitude. Verisimilitude means 'the appearance of being true or
real'. The film gives a surreal reality of what could happen if we do not
act on climate change soon.
Content and
Meaning:
The narrative of the film that I have chosen to talk about is
set out in different ways. The main point of the narrative of The Day After
Tomorrow is that it tells a story. Throughout the film from the beginning, the
middle and to the end, the story is told on a level that the audience
understands. It isn’t too confusing and you can keep track very easily if
you’re watching at all times.
However, the story does put you on edge every now and again, as
there are scenes of disequilibrium where the main characters get caught up in
the storm and only just make it into the safety of the library in time before
the tsunami tears through the streets. This tension signifies drama as the
audience wouldn’t expect this to happen considering the film is only just getting
to the middle of the narrative. This is relatable to Todorov’s narrative
structure theory as this scene can be related to his five stages of narratives;
the equilibrium was indeed “disrupted” when Laura went back into the torrent of
water to retrieve the woman’s handbag, Sam “recognises” that there has been a
disruption so goes to warn and save her, Sam “attempts” to repair the
disruption by running back with Laura to the library and the equilibrium is
“reinstated” when they both make it back into the safe environment of the
library.
In terms of the narrative theory of Kate Domaille in 2001, which
is where any story can fit into one of eight narrative types, The Day After
Tomorrow I’d say would fit into the ‘Candide’ (the indomitable hero) type as
the main male character, Sam, is always there to save Laura and he survives the
cold and natural disasters that are thrown his way in the film.
Sound:
Next I'm going to be talking
about the types of sound that could be found in a film like The Day After
Tomorrow. A diegetic sound is one that is natural to the story world, so noises
that only the characters and audience can hear. Some examples in this clip of
the film could be the noise of the tornado, the sound of the rain splattering
against the ground, the noise of the engines roaring to get away from this
disaster and the horns of the cars when they're all trying to get away at
once. Non-diegetic sounds are sounds that only the audience can
hear, like a voice over by a character that isn't in the story. A few
examples of non-diegetic sound in The Day After Tomorrow are the dramatic music
playing over the top of the clip, the dialogue of the news report (that is
where the TV isn't shown), and the phone beeping over the top of the speech of
the characters.
Now, I'm going to be talking
about the denotation and a connotation in the film, a denotation is
the precise description; a connotation is a description that has wide
range, positive or negative associations. For example (show clips of sound
analysis), the tornados denote that there is a serious problem globally with
climate change. Which in this film, isn't exactly that hard to see. The news
report denotes that the tornado is heading for the Hollywood sign and the
reaction of the public denotes that there is serious panic in everyone's mind.
Some examples of connotations are as follows, the connotation of the storm in
the film is danger, fear is connoted by the reaction of the members of the
public when the tornado approaches and the earthquake reader connote disaster.
The incidental music played in the background is a genre of dramatic music.
It's played at a fast pace to create suspense within the viewer and lure them
into feeling worried for the characters. This kind of music also creates
disequilibrium in the film as you start to believe that the characters won't
make it out of this situation alive. In terms of dialogue in this clip, the
main male character is more dominant over the main female character. I can
infer this from the way in which he shouts at her to get back into the safe
surroundings of the library. It follows the traditional story of a man saving a
woman, and them getting together to "share" their experience. The
mode of address that's being conveyed in this scene is teacher to pupil as the
conversation is very formal; the main male character is screaming at the main
female character, warning her of the tsunami that is heading straight for
them down the street.
Mise-en-scene:
The next area of the film I'm going to be talking about is
the mise en scene. Mise en scene is derived from the French
language and is literally translated as 'everything within
the frame'.
The location of The Day After Tomorrow fits in with the plot
of the film as a disaster film normally threatens a large, well-known area. Los
Angeles fits all the criteria for this and provides the perfect architecture
and scenery for this film. In this second clip, the location connotes a
bustling atmosphere of ordinary working men and women. I can back this up with
the fact that there are only ordinary human beings characters being
played in this scene. The location expresses verisimilitude
as the buildings and scenery looks extremely realistic in this clip.
An example of this would be the skyscrapers as the CGI editors have
gone into very deep detail of things like bricks, windows and the
ripples on the waves hitting the buildings.
The costumes of the characters are very ordinary and plain as
the events for the characters are unplanned. In the clip, they are living
their daily lives, and then all of a sudden a tsunami rocks up in the
centre of Los Angeles! The clothes the actors and actresses are wearing reflect
who they are as characters, not their moods. The audience can then relate to
the characters as they both would normally fit in day to day life and signifies
togetherness. This gives the audience the effect of being with the characters
in the story.
A few props were used in this clip too. A prop is something
that is handheld; it's also short for property. Some examples of props that
were used are the handheld radio that the bus driver was using while trying to
listen to the news of the storm and the handbag that Laura (the main female
character in the film) tries to retrieve for the woman.
The 'icon' in this scene is the rain. This is because it is a
dominant feature in the film as a whole and represents why the characters are in
danger. An icon is something that creates stereotypical representations that
becomes well-known and recognised. This links to the disequilibrium and is
better known as iconography'.
As this scene is set outside mainly, the film uses
CGI to create scenery and backgrounds for the 'disaster' scene, the producers
and director can use electrical lights in the green screen studios to
create brighter scenes or add in virtual lighting in the post production
process. The dim lighting used in the outside scenes connotes suspense and
danger, as the storm is bringing darkness upon Los Angeles. This dim lighting
can also be phrased as 'Low Key lighting', this is lighting that reinforces
disequilibrium. Dark colours are used to generate a gloomy atmosphere for the
characters and the audience. The clouds and the thunder and lightning emphasise
the scene.
Finally I'll be talking about gestures, Sam, (the main male
character), acts as the hero by running to save Laura who is unaware of the
torrent of water heading directly for them. They then both run straight for the
Public Library and only just get inside before the water bursts through
the windows that would've certainly killed Laura if Sam hadn't acted. This
representation in the diegesis is what would normally be expected to happen in
a blockbuster film as this is the general stereotype that circulates society
today. This also backs up John Berger’s theory of “men act, women appear”
(1972).
Camerawork:
There are a variety of camera techniques used by the
directors and producers of The Day After Tomorrow in such short spaces of time.
In the Climate Change discussion scene for example, (around 5 minutes into the
film), the techniques that is used is a panning establishing shot. This gives
the effect that the audience is there in the room, walking around the hall like
one of the representatives. The fact that you can see all of the surroundings
in the clip gives an understanding of what it would be like to be in there.
Another camera technique that is used towards the beginning
of the film is a close up. Around nine and a half minutes in, a man is struck
by falling ice in Tokyo while he is trying to find shelter from the atrocious
weather. He is on the phone at the time to someone, presumably his wife or
girlfriend, at the time he is killed, the camera then zooms into the phone
which is still in the dead man’s hand. This would make the audience tense as
they would not be expecting a death like this so early on in the film. This
scene also relates to the genre as there is a lot of action in this particular
part of the film.
At nearly thirteen and a half minutes in, a shallow depth of
field is used by the camera crew make the background characters on the
aeroplane out of focus and focus only on the main character, Sam. This denotes
the importance of Sam and his role in the film. However, gender representations
are not challenged in this scene as in the background, out of focus, are two
other male characters, not female characters.
The high angle shot at around twenty one and a half minutes
in signifies that the people on the lower floors working on the computers and
listening to the instructions are less powerful than the people above them
giving the instructions. This high angle connotes superiority for the bosses
and weakness for the workers.
The low angle shot at the beginning of the narrative where
the workers are digging into the ice shows the job that they are carrying out
in better detail, rather than just a regular panning shot. This low angle shot
denotes the exasperation that the worker is going through as he looks very
weary of the work he is carrying out. This gives the audience the idea that the
workers are working tirelessly and that they are carrying out their jobs in a
focused manner.
Editing:
The first editing technique used in The Day After Tomorrow
that I’m going to be talking about is cross cutting. Cross cutting is the
cutting of scenes to show different perspectives of the film to the audience.
One notable example in my film is at nearly twenty two minutes in; the
Hollywood sign is destroyed by a tornado. The film is edited to show the
audience the perspective of the news reporters in the helicopter and the people
watching the news when it cuts to a TV with the news report on. This is very
clever imagery as it gives the viewer’s more than one visual idea of what it
would be like to be caught up in this kind of situation.
The second editing technique that I am going to be talking
about is eye line matching. This type of technique shows the audience what a
character is looking at. At nearly twenty five minutes in, you can clearly see
the main characters in the background staring intently at the news on the TV at
the bottom of the picture in a room after the party of the competition. This
gives the audience a full on view of what is happening in this short scene.
The final editing technique that I’ll be talking about is the
insert shot. An insert shot is a type of close up shot that’s designed to draw
the audience’s attention to something that was only part of the previous shot.
In The Day After Tomorrow at around thirty three and a half minutes in, the
climate analysts are frantically worrying about the storm that has already
struck, in this scene they are looking at a screen with information about the
intensity of the storm. To start with you can see the screen as the operator
approaches it to have a look, then it cuts straight to the screen with the
diagrams of the storm.
Production
Process:
To start with, the film crew would have to go through the
post-production process. In this process; the script for the film would be
written, all equipment required would be hired and organised and the locations
where real filming and not CGI or green screens are required, locations would
have to be booked like the Los Angeles Public Library.
In the production stage of filming, all of the scenes must be
filmed so they can be edited in post-production, any audio must be recorded so
it can be synced to the footage to provide excellent quality sound, any make-up
or prosthetics must be applied to the actors/actresses and all the costumes
must be gathered for all of the different characters for all of the different
scenes in the film.
The post-production stage is the stage which finishes off the
film. All the hard work of filming the scenes, achieving the correct angles and
tracking the characters is over. Now it’s down to the editors and producers to
finalise the film and get it ready for release. Some things that the editors will
have to add includes a chroma key background for the green or blue screens, any
audio to be synced up to the footage, CGI for the waves in the Los Angeles
scenes for example and any transitions to smoothly change from one scene to
another.
I hope you enjoyed my talk today on the analysis of The Day
After Tomorrow and I hope to see you next time for another video very soon.
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