Essay answer for Slumdog Millionaire - Narrative

Essay Answer

Section A- Narrative

Slumdog Millionaire takes a non linear approach to how the story is told. The movie tells the story in several flashbacks and parallel narratives. This being the interrogation scene from the start of the movie, Jamal playing Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and the extracts of Jamals memories of his younger life. From the beginning the audience are thrown into the story at full speed at the scene of Jamal being interrogated by the police, the audience have to work out for themselves what is happening in the present and what events came before this in order for this to be happening now. In fact, the parallel narratives can even be slightly confusing for the audience at times and they may become confused as to what is happening at what time and which is the present day and which scenes are showing past events. 

Boyle may have chosen to tell the narrative in this way to represent and reinforce the themes of fait and destiny and the idea that 'everything works out in the end' which could tie in with the fact that the audience have to work out what is happening. The non linear approach to narrative may be appealing for the audience as it is different and interesting rather than a movie with a conventional 'one story line' narrative that runs throughout and may loose the audience's attention. The parallel narratives may be appealing for the audience because it provides them with multiple stories and gives them more to think about throughout the film, it may also have an impact on the characters.

Having multiple narratives going on at once can give the characters more depth as we see them at different ages and different stages in their life we feel as though we know them more, they become more real to the audience and we feel as though we have been through their life experiences with them. I imagine that this is the effect that Danny Boyle wanted to give off as the story is supposed to be realistic and the characters are meant to be dynamic and the audience are supposed to empathise and relate to them and the parallel narratives help to do this as we get more information about the characters all at one time. It also helps to squeeze in all of the information needed to make the plot complete. 

Horror Monsters: Research

Horror Monsters

This article is from the 35th edition of Media Magazine in February 2011 and is written by Steph Hendry. The essay disscuses horror movies over the years and the similarities and differences in how they are written, produced and viewed as an audience. The main points of the essay are as follows:

• The essay makes the point that horror is one of the media's most successful genres and that stories that aim to scare their audience have proved to be immensely popular. Daniel Cohen says that "cultures create and ascribe meaning to monsters, endowing them with characteristics derived from their most deep-seated fears and taboos."
• The essay suggests that you could identify general cultural, contextual trends and that there could be a link between social issues and problems of the contemporary culture and the monsters created in horror movies.
• The essay talks about Pre World War 2 and states that 'the vampire' was the monster of this era. The essay says that this could be because at the time Nosferatu was released and Germany was economically and socially devastated after world war 1. This was the time of poverty and disease and in 1918 hundreds of thousands of people died during a flu pandemic. Therefore the Vampire could relate to this and could have been created using social concepts in order to target the audiences most current fears.
• The essay also discusses the 60's. The essay says this was the time of horrors such as Psycho and The Exorcist. The essay states that films such as The Exorcist can cause a great deal of public and media attention and controversy because of its depiction of a girl possessed by the devil. At the time religion was a big thing and using horror monsters such as the devil is very personal and daring.
• The essay also talks about the 1980s being the period of slasher films as horror became a staple of the home video market. It states that this was when horror movies became more outlandish and extreme. It also states though that film franchises got replicated the same ideas over and over and the genre grew tired and cliched. It also discusses how remakes of films such as Scream were lazy and boring.
• The essay discusses Contemporary Monsters, horror films today. It talks about 'torture porn' this being films such as Saw, which means a long running series of films that attempt to find more and more extreme ways to scare or repulse the audience. It then goes on to say that this created films such as Hostel to follow which show torture as a game and a pleasure with the monsters.
• The essay also discusses how horror movies re-work traditional conventions such as The Mad Scientist in The Human Centipede and how even though this should be seen as disturbing and weird, horror still attracts audiences.
• Finally, the essay talks about how in some recent films such as Eden Lake and The Strangers, the monsters are disconceringly emotionally removed. They are also anonymous, eg Eden Lake makes 'the group' the monster and masks are worn by The Strangers. It also discusses how the Saw franchise shows how the monsters victims become monsters themselves in a way of punishment which can be very desensitising for the audience. 

This 2013 horror movie "Dark Skies" is a perfect demonstration for the 2nd point made by the essay (see above.) This movie uses Aliens as its monster which relates to modern day society as recently we have been very curious of life on other planets because of the recent discovery of new planets etc. Using aliens may trigger a fear in the audience and therefore creates the horror. 

The above clip is a scene from the 1996 film Scream. This clip compared with the clip below from the remake 2000 version of Scream,

shows how similar they are and how the re-make has not up-scaled or became any different to the older version and has not changed to target recent and modern social terrors.


The above clip is another demonstration of the point made in the essay when 'torture porn' was mentioned. Another film that uses this technique is Wrong Turn. The above clip is from the 4th edition of Wrong Turn and you can see that they use scenes of a sexual nature for example naked girls and then make this gory by graphically showing bloody scenes like people getting cut in half etc. This reinforces the point made that no matter how weird or gory a film is, it will still attract audiences, if not a greater audience. 


The above clip is the trailer for the film The Strangers. This reinforces the point in the essay about some monsters in horror films being emotionally detatched from themselves- in this case by wearing masks, creating a different sense of horror.
_______________________________________________________________________________

I chose this article because I am interested in horror movies and I am aware of many of them as it is my favourite genre of film to watch for entertainment and therefore I thought that it would be interesting and enjoyable to find out somebody elses views on different types of horror movies.
The article is written by Steph Hendry and it is about the different types of horror movies and concepts of them and how they have changed or remained the same over the year, and what appeals an audience to watch them. The main points of the article are that, "an analysis of horror monsters in the ligh of their cultural contexts can, therefore, give an insight into the anxieties and concerns of the contemporary culture." and it explores the idea that horror movies target the audiences fears depending on the social terrors of that time. I agree with the points made in the article as I think they are very accurate and true and when looking back on horror films I have watched myself, I can agree that these ideas appeal to the audience. My overall opinion of the article is that it is very enjoyable to read and the points made are very accurate and well thought out.

Evaluation

Media Studies

Evaluation - Part 1

The advert that influenced my storyboard the most was by the NSPCC for Childline. The advert had a narrative to it, following a little girl’s life and her struggle with abuse, it included a scene where the girl went into her room, blocked her door shut and called the charity. Close ups were used in the scene to show her facial expressions and to show how scared and vulnerable she was. I found this very effective and this inspired me to use close ups in my storyboard to show the emotions of my character. I used this at the beginning when I used an extreme close up of Sally’s face focusing on her eyes to show that the was sad which creates a connection with the audience and targets their need to nurture.

                 

Another advert that I researched was the NSPCC advert called “Open Your Eyes.” This advert focused on showing the lives of several children and the different ways in which they are mistreated. In order to show the audience what was happening, the advert used a voice over. I found the use of a voice over to be very effective. It makes the advert a lot more emotive because of the carefully chosen words. For example when they said, “A door, A table, A fist.”  This inspired me to use a voice over for my storyboard as I thought it was both helpful to explain to the audience what was happening and also to create a sense of feeling and emotion throughout the advert.

Another advert I researched that had an impact on my story board was another NSPCC advert called “Child’s Voice Appeal.” This advert followed the life of a young girl and shows the audience how her mother mistreats her. I found the use of a narrative/story very effective because it makes the advert extremely personal and creates the sense of ‘ we are watching and not doing anything to help.’ I used this idea of having a narrative/story to my advert, following the life of a young girl in order to make a personal connection with the audience and influence their emotional connections with the characters by creating real life scenario.

Another advert I researched was an advert by Amnesty International called “Waterboarding.” This advert uses a narrative twist. By starting off seeming like it is going to be an advert for a new water bottle brand and then slowly showing that the water is actually being poured into a man’s mouth and the advert is about human rights. I personally didn’t like the tec

Kieth Lemon the Film:

This film has to be one of the most dissapointing films I have ever seen. I couldn't wait to see this. I absolutely love Kieth Lemon and think he is hysterical, so I couldn't wait to see a hole film about him! I was expecting it to be full of jokes and be totally focused on Kieth. But oh how I was wrong. The film starts off with Kieth lying in bed and being woke up by a phone call. The humour at the begining isn't even the type of humour that I associate Kieth with. It was nothing like how he is in Celebrity Juice. From the start I knew I wasn't going to enjoy the film because I was already getting bored within the first five minutes. I found myself staring at the wall in the Cinema not even realising the film was still on. Part of the reason I love Kieth Lemon is his sarcastic and crude humour. Which there was a lottttttt of in the film. But, it was almost a little too much. Some parts where awkward to watch. I can understand why boys may find it funny but as a girl watching it I felt it was really awkward and a little over the top. Also, the story line was just stupid. It included a villain type character called 'Evil Steve' who was also played by Lee Francis (Kieth Lemon.) It made it very very childish and boring. The hole thing looked like it had been put together in half an hour. And I would not reccomend anybody to go and see this film. Even if you think you like Kieth Lemon, trust me- You will be dissapointed.

Rating- 0.