FARGO

 

Minnesota, 1987. Jerry Lundegaard is a car salesman, who, to get himself out of a debt, hires two thugs to kidnap his own wife. Jerry gives the two criminals a car and plans on paying them an additional $80,000 after he gets a $1,000,000 ransom from his wife's wealthy father. It doesn't work out so smoothly.
The thugs murder a state trooper and two innocent bystanders, which ultimately brings Police Chief Marge Gunderson into the investigation. Meanwhile, Jerry's plan continues to fall apart. His father-in-law wants to deliver the money himself which would mess everything up and thugs are beginning to become impatient.

Does FARGO fit any genres?
In the midst of high budget action films and emotional dramas is Fargo, a movie that doesn't seem to really fit into a genre. It's a dark comedy but based on true events which doesn't make it as funny. Some scenes are funny, some scenes are not, and it jumps back and forth throughout the movie. Fargo is unquestionably weird, with a town full of Nordic speakers and a twisted plot where nothing seems to go right. Undeniably Fargo makes fun of the ones who set it all up, expressing the stupidity of it all. Some times, I was lost, but halfway through, I started to pick up what it was all about and began to really enjoy it. The main character, Marge Gunderson, isn't even introduced until halfway through the 98-minute movie, Even though she was a main character I liked her as a character because she didn't fit the steriotypical thriller character, she was a middle aged pregnant woman. Nevertheless, she did a good job and smoothed out the rough edges in Fargo. Still, you have to see it to believe it; words can't describe Fargo.

Pacing:
I found the pacing of FARGO very slow, it's not like a typical thriller where the idea of the movie is to build suspense.
Dialouge:
The dialouge of FARGO was again very slow, it took along time to get to the point in relation to coversations. No suspense was built and the killings, just happened, then it was the next scene, I didn't like this part 0f FARGO.

Conventions of a Thriller

What is a Thriller?

A thriller is a movie genre which follow specific devices in order to bulid a certain effect on the audience.In a thriller-genre film often, the narrative will centre around a crime. Many popular thriller films revolve around a serial killer on the lose. The films try to convey alot of action in order to 'thrill' the audience. This will often involve ordinary situations where extraordinary things occur.
Often the protagonist will ahve an exploitable weakness that the antagonist will take advantage of. this may leas the protagonist to be thrust into perilous situations in order to build up suspense and action in the movie. This is shown in Alfred Hitchcocks ''Vertigo'' where, in one particular scene, the protagonist, det. John Ferguson is chasing after his lover up a bell tower, despite being being a sufferer of acrophobia. Due to his fear, he is unable to continue after her. and sees his lover plunge from the top of the tower to her death when he becomes paralysed by a serge of vertigo- this is sometimes also a characteristic of the thriller gernre, where the movie is named after a difficulty of the protagonist.

Through out the movie, the antagonist will drive the protagonist deeper and deeper in to an intricate, often sinister plot, leaving the protagonist feeling hopeless. This will continue until the climax of the film when the protagonist finds a solution or a method to defeat the antagonist.

Themes of identity often play a big role in thriller genre. They are very common plot devices and include plots revolving arounf amnesia, mistaken identity and even doppelgangers. This theme plays a major role in the thriller ''identity'', which deals with a serial killer who has been given a death sentence and a lawyer who attempts to ahve this overturned by introducing new evidence that the killer suffers from dissocative Identity Disorder, or in other words, has multiple personalities.

Thrillers will often introduce enigma in the beggining of the movie, and then complicate them throughout the story until the climax. Enigmas are essentially mysteries of the plot- this can range from the audience not knowing the true identity of a killer, such as in ''Psycho'' to the audience finding out the identity of ther murderer immediately, but then the characters in the story have to find out who they are such as in ''Dirty Harry''. This plot device is known as dramatic irony and is also used in thriller-genre films to build suspense, as the audience knows more than the characters in the story, and then is able to be fearful for them.

Genre and the acedemic study of films.

What is Genre?
Genre simply means 'type' or 'kind'. It is used in a variety of different disciplines, from music to literature to categorise and define different forms of repetitive practice.

Genre is a set of conventions- recognisable, usually through iconography (which simple means, things you'd expect to see in a film) familiar narrative, mise-en-scene, actors and style of representation.


Genre is a creative strategy used by film producers to ensure audience identification with a film- a means of trying to predict risk.


Genres are not static but constantly  renegociated between industry and audience- a combination of familiar reassurance and new twists.


Genre functions like a language- a set of rukes and a vocabulary with which to organise meaning.


Genre is a way of working through important myths and fears by repition, variation and resolution.


Genres offer comforting reassurance in an uncomftable world. Threat is quashed outlaws become civilized gangsters go to prison, romances end in marriage. Genre is a way of tidying up the mess of life.

Early Genres

The earliest genre's include genres such as western  The term Western, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World Magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th century popular Western Fiction and were firmly in place before film became a popular art form. Western films commonly feature as their protagonists stock characters such as cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters, often depicted as semi-nomadic wanderers who wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, and buckskins, use revolvers or rifles as everyday tools of survival, and ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on trusty steeds. The first Western film was the 1903 film The Great Train Robbery, which was a silent film.

Other film Genres include; Action and Adventure, animation, Bollywood, Comedy, Crime, Documentary, Drama, family, Horror, Music Documentary, Musical, period and Historical, Romance, Science Fiction and Fantasy, thriller, War films and world Cinema.

Rule Of Thirds

What is the Rule of Thirds?

The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts. As follows.


As you’re taking an image you would have done this in your mind through your viewfinder or in the LCD display that you use to frame your shot.
The ‘rule of thirds’ can identifiy four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image.

Another Rule of thirds example: In this image the head is purposly placed on one of the intersecting points- especially his eyes which are a natural point of focus for a portrait. His tie and flower also take up a secondary point of interest.

In this shot the subject is placed along a whole line which means she is considerably off center and therefore creating an additional point of interest. Placing her right in the center of the frame could have resulted in an ‘awkward’  or rather boring shot.

Character In The First Two Minutes Of A Film

American Beauty (plot) tells the story of Lester Burnham, a mid-level ad man going through a mid-life melt down. Lester lives in the suburbs in a two story house surrounded by a white picket fence. But despite the exterior sheen, all is not well in the Burnham household. Lester is burned out, tired of conforming to the expectations of the American middle class. His wife Carolyn is an emasculating shrew, apparently more concerned about appearing "normal" than being happy. Their daughter Jane is a confused and embittered teen who is saving up for breast enhancement surgery despite already being well endowed. The neighbors on one side are the Fitts family, consisting of the Colonel, a homophobic ex-marine, his wife Barbara, a shattered person, and their son Ricky, a drug dealing video voyeur. On the other side live Jim Olmeyer and Jim Berkley, a gay couple who, ironically, are by far the most normal people in the neighborhood. Early in the film Lester meets Jane's friend Angela, on whom he develops a crush that becomes the catalyst for the remainder of the action.

In the first two opening minutes of the film, Lester Burnham comes across as a very pecimistic character, and does not speak greatly of himself. The film opens with an aerial shot of a suburban American landscape. There is music being played, this is called non-diegetic because the characters do not hear it, nor interact with it in any narrative form. An example of a diegetic piece  in a film would be, Lester Burnham turning on the shower, he can hear this because it is something that he is interacting with in the story.  Lester's depressing attituide is clear, as one of the first lines he narrates, he states he'll be dead in just over a year. The following scene opens with Lester lying face down on a bed, the bed is split in to two lights, his side being on the shaded side. It then shows his wife in a bright light, surrounded by a white picket fence, triming roses, this suggests the family is boxed in. The last scene with in the two minuets shows the family Lester, Carolyn and Jane going to work in one car. Carolyn and Jane are found waiting around for lester to get in the car, he then yet again delays time by dropping all his work papers, this again shows him in that pecimistic, sorry state. The car jorney shows Carolyn and Jane sitting in the front of the car and Lester sitting in the back with his head resting on his hand in a semi-concious state, showing a seperation with in the family.

Jerry Maguire: A 1996 American Romantic Comedy starring Tom Cruise as Jerry Maguire, a successful sports agent. From the first two opening moments of the film, Tom Cruises' character comes across very job orientated always mentioning numberz and data, and speaks very little of his family. He plays a smooth talking, hard-working sports agent who suddenly finds himself with only one client.

Coen Brothers Filmography

In Media recently, we have been studying the film FARGO written by the Coen Brothers. The Coen brothers, are American filmmakers. The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly. When they were children, Joel saved money from mowing lawns to buy a VivitarSuper 8 camera. Together, the brothers remade movies they saw on television. Here are just a few of many films the Coen Brothers have produced;

Blood Simple (1984):

The Coen Brothers first major film, A bar-owner in Texas is certain that his wife is cheating on him and hires a private detective to spy on her. The Coen Brothers had an initial Budget of $1.5 million, however they they made a impressive proffit for a first major film of $4.2 million. This film also boosted the career of Frances McDormand (who Joel has been married to since 1984), she also filmed in a further 5 of the coen brother film following this.

Raising Arizona (1987):

When a childless couple of an ex-con and an ex-cop decide to help themselves to one of another family's quintupelets, their lives get more complicated than they anticipated. The film budget was $6 million, It made a Box office Gross Proffit of $22,847,564. This also boosted the career of Nicolas cage, who played H.I. McDunnough, later filming in films such as Kick-Ass, G-force and a Christmas Carol.

FARGO (1996):

Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of pregnant Marge Gunderson. They had  budget of $7,000,000 and made a Box office gross proffit of $60,611,975 making $730,265 in the opening weekend.

The Big Lebowski (1998):

"Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire Lebowski, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it. The budget for this film was $15,000,000 making a box office gross proffit of only $17,451,873. This film starred Steve Buscemi as well as him starring in Fargo.

No Country For Old Men (2007):

Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande. This is one of their many films marked as crime/drama/thriller.The estimated budget for this film was $25,000,000 making a box office gross proffit of $74,273,505 making $1,226,333 on the opening weekend.

Mise-en-Scène

Mise-en-scène is a French term and originates in the theater. It means, literally, "put in the scene." For film, it has a broader meaning, and refers to almost everything that goes into the composition of the shot, including the composition itself: framing, movement of the camera and characters, lighting, set design and gen eral visual environment, even sound as it helps elaborate the composition.


The 5 key aspects of mise en scène...

 Set design ---> The setting of a scene and the props there in. Set design can be used to amplify character emotion or the dominant mood of a film, or to establish aspects of the character. The picture below automatically portrays sadness, due to the thought of the loneliness of a character in a country between droughts and floods. This mood continues when you see the crucifixs' behind, where we'd imagine bodies would be buired. The dull colours of browns help represent this.

Lighting ---> The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting have an effect on the way an image is perceived. Light can emphasise many things such as; texture, shape, distance, mood, time of day or night, season, glamour; it affects the way colors are rendered, and can focus attention on particular elements.  the use of light can influence the meaning of a shot. For example, film makers often portray villains that are heavily shadowed or veiled, using silhouettes and dark lighting. A photo of Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare On Elm Street shows this particulaly well.

Space ---> Space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size and proportions of the places and objects in a film can be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, lighting, set design, effectively determining mood or relationships between elements.

Costume---> Costume simply refers to the clothes that characters wear. Using certain colors or designs, costumes in narrative cinema are used to signify characters. Costume also includes hair and make-up, for example in The Grinch (2000) played by Jim Cary, is depicted as a hermit with green fur, red eyes. This shade of green  can reflect uncertainty and being miserable. The muddier shades often reflect jealousy and possessiveness as well. It can indicate self-doubt and mistrust. The red eyes sybolize evil.

The devious, anti-holiday spirit of the character has led to the name "Grinch" becoming a term used to describe a person opposed to Christmas time celebrations or to someone with a coarse, greedy attitude.

Acting ---> These movements convey the emotional state of the individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information. The 2005 trailer for King Kong tells a story of the characters emotions, thoughts and feelings through facial expressions with out words. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5j_2sRUTbU

Hello!

Hello! My name is Georgina Brooks and this is my As Media Studies Blog, this is where I'll put all my notes from lessons and the task in hand!