Assignments

45.A Radio Advertising Analysis: Style,Structure,Purpose and Regulation.

Fay Stowe

https://youtu.be/5Oz_YKUtcaU

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26.1 The Theory of Films

Marina Alexon

Loryah Coke

In Media over the past couple months we have been studying the types of theories that are associated
with films and the production,and have been used to show the difference between the films based on
genre,what the content of the film is and also the unique styles that the creator. The four theories that
was looked at were:

1. Auteur Theory
2. Feminist Theory
3. Marxism
4. Queer Theory

In this report I shall be looking into two different directors and two of their films.
What you will expect to read about are things such as whether I see filmmakers as an Auteur,
Feminist, Marxist or Queer, the background of the directors ,their choices within casting and
what sort of characters they play, techniques they use and details on their creative influence.

The first director that I have chosen to analyse is Mr Tim Burton. He was born on the 25th August
1958 in Burbank, California. His parents, Jean Rae Erickson and William Reed Burton both worked,
his mother was the owner of a cat themed gift shop whereas his father worked for the Burbank Park
and Recreation Department. Burton has had two wives, the first was Lena Gieseke (born 12th
September 1965) and they were together from 1989-1991. His second wife was Helena Bonham Carter
(born 26th May 1966) which he has two children with, their marriage lasted 13 years from 2001-14.

Burton has directed 38 films in total,for instance: Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, Alice in wonderland
and so much more. Although he’s directed all of those films, he only produced 25, such as: James and
the giant peach, The nightmare before Christmas and other titles.

I would consider Burton to be an Auteur because whenever a film is released by him, it’s almost as if
people don’t have to read the credits or ask questions about it because his style and the way he
chooses to edit his films are so unique that his work is instantly recognised.

I had noticed that Burton uses Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in quite a few of his
films and the two that I am going to write about has both of them in it, as they work really well
together because they both get along.

The first film I am going to analyse is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which is a film about a
young man who goes by the name of ‘Willy Wonka’ (Johnny Depp),where as a young boy,his father
was a dentist so Wonka was banned from eating all sorts of sweets or chocolates. My theory is that
because he was deprived of having the free will of eating the sweets,he grew up to own the biggest
chocolate factory to give back to the kids in his town. His way to give people a chance to explore
the factory,was to put out five golden tickets in random chocolate bars that were sold in shops.
One of the children was called Charlie,he was one of the lucky children to win a ticket,his mother
was played by Helena Bonham Carter.

A few special effects that I discovered was a green screen,which for example,was used in the scene
where the oompa loompas were rowing the boat down the stream. The green screen is used because
here is no way of them actually being able to go down a stream through a tunnel at that speed and go
through waterfalls and drop down wells. The person who plays the oompa loompas was the one
drumming,as it is not physically possible to duplicate a person in real life,so the crew had made
dolls to ‘row’ the boat. They then made them look realistic by using CGI.

The second director I have chosen to analyse is Henry Selick,he was born 30th November 1952 in
New Jersey. When he was young,he took up drawing and decided to put that to very good use as he
got older. He made the decision to continue animation after watching two films: the animated one
was “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” (1926) by Lotte Reiniger which was one of the first animated
films (the first one was actually released in 1917) and the second film he watched was actually a live
action film which was called “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” in 1958. This film used stop motion,this
led me to believe that the movie that I have chosen to look at had sprung from when he watched this
film. Another thing is that he used to work for Disney as a Animator Trainee.

Selick has had two wives,his first spouse was called Alexandra Glay (1995-2010) and then he married
Heather Selick and has been married to her since. They have two children together,George and Harry
Selick.

I would also consider Henry as an auteur as he also seems to have a specific style,theme or type of
film and is also recognisable but can sometimes be mixed up with Tim Burton due to the same kind
of look to it.

The film I have chosen is Coraline,which was made in 2009 and is a stop-motion,animated film which
Selick decided to remake of Neil Gaiman’s book that he wrote in 2002. He also made the choice to use
Dakota Fanning as the voice of Coraline,Teri Hatcher as the mother. I feel as though this was a good
combination because as a mother (Teri),this sort of role was perfect seeing as Dakota was playing the
daughter (Coraline) and Teri actually has a daughter so the role seemed pretty natural to the both of
them as rehearsals would have most likely been a ‘breeze’.

A basic summary of the film is that one there is an 11 year old girl who goes by the name of coraline
who had just moved into a new house far out compared to where she used to live. When she first moved
there,she automatically assumed it was better than where she lived before as she had a life back home
and it was where she grew up,until one day she was being nosey around her new house and decided to
take a trip into another world through a small door in her room which her mother had purposely hidden
the key for as she knew exactly what she was going to try and do. In this other life she has another
mother,where in the first instance,she prefers the “Other Mother” as she seems more fun and has less
rules. The tables turn when the “Other Mother” wants Coraline to join her forever but she has to sew
buttons into her eyes. Coraline refuses and then escapes back to the real world,but the “Other Mother”
is not having it at all and kidnaps her real parents ,which Coraline has to help save her parents through
the tunnel. I feel like there is a secret message behind this saying “the grass isn’t always greener on the
other side” - meaning life isn’t always better on the other side.

The techniques I discovered,were the camera angles. They were mostly close up shots or point of
view as it was not a horror,but there were a couple of jump scares,low angles on the camera are used
when the boy she meets her new friend Wybie and he is wearing a mask that makes Coraline jump.
The high angle used shows Coraline making her way up a steep set of steps on the side of what looks
like a cliff,below you can see her house and her mother’s car in the background to indicate how high
up she was.

The lighting used is mainly dark as the genre of the film is a fantasy with a slight insinuation of
emo/goth horror. Stop motion is when there are dolls or clay puppets that are used to create the
film,the dolls are put in a certain scene at a time,then are moved slightly and have a picture taken
to show movement in each frame. These frames are then all edited together at the end to form the
movie at the end. Even though the lighting is usually dark throughout the film,they change constantly -
for example when Coraline goes through the passageway the first time,the lights are bright and
enticing,causing Coraline,as the child who is interested in the colours,to venture on.