Sherlock Holmes

The genre of this film is historical action and adventure.  The film is in the historical genre because it is based in Victorian London.  The film creates the spectacle of the world of Victorian London in 1891 through its location shots of an old London, all the buildings are old buildings that are still up in London.  Another way that I could tell it was Victorian London was from the fact that the streets of London where light by gas lamps.  A third way of telling that it is Victorian London is that the police and Watson are in a carriage being pulled by horses instead of in fast cars which would be in films based now.  The shot of Saint Paul's cathedral anchors the location as London because it is a monument that I would automatically make me think of London

The camerawork shows that the scene contains speed and motion because the carriages are moving quickly being pulled by the horse's and there is a quickly moving London behind Holmes to show that he is trying to get somewhere fast.  One of the shots that is used is showing how bumpy it is inside one of the carriages because the camera is jumping up and down and juddering, it is probably being held in someones hands instead of a tripod because if it was on a tripod it would be still where as in someones hands it will move with them.

Now on to the editing of this extract.  In this extract from the film we see in to Holmes' thoughts where he is thinking about how to take down one of the men working for the villain of the film.  It is done in slow mo so we can see every last detail of what he does then it is also shown in real time so we can see how he does it. 

The sound at the beginning of the extract is another way of telling that it is based in Victorian London because there is the sound of horse shoes on cobblestone and the sound of wooden wheels turning and rolling over cobblestone roads.  The music in the extract is quite fast this helps build up the tension when Holmes is running.  It probably makes the audience think will he get there in time to rescue the girl and stop lord blackwood or will the Lord succeed.

Robin Hood

The 2010 film Robin Hood is definetly an action and adventure film because within the first nine minutes of it there is already a fight scene.  The action scene in this film is typical for the time period it is set but not for films that are based now or in the future because in this scene they are using medieval weapons such as swords, crossbows, bows and arrows and battering rams.  Instead of films based now where people would probably use more deadly and bigger weapons such as guns and tanks.

In this extract from the film the hero is also met, Robin Hood.  He is the typical hero in this first part of the film a man who fights for the good, right and a man who would risk his life for the inocent.  Him fighting for the good and right is shown by him battleing under the command of the King of England.  Then he shows that he is a man willing to risk his life for the inocent is when I'm guessing a friend gets caught in the gate of the French castle and he runs forwards through the volley of arrows being shot at him to get him down to saftey.

A second man who could be called the hero is King Richard.  In this extract from the film he is the hero because he is leading the English army in to battle and to victory and unlike cowardly generals he is at the front of his troops.  But later in the film he could be called the bad guy because in the text which appears in the extract it says how he is plundering his way to Britain.

This first scene I belive trys to makes the audience feel as if they could trust Robin even thought they know later that he is seen as the bad guy in the eyes of the law he is still a trustworthy man.

Austin powers

The part of the Austin power film Gold member we had to watch was the first four minutes of where the film has gotten Tom Cruise to play Austin Powers in a spoof film opening for a film about Austin Powers directed by Steven Spielberg.  All ready in the first four minutes the film has combat scenes in it with a helicopter chasing after a woman on a motorbike and Tom Cruise shooting the helicopter with machine guns.  Those first four minutes also have speed and motion in them because there is a fast car, a helicopter and a motorbike.  All chasing after one another.

It kind of has a stereotypical secret agent a man who can get the girl straight away but saying that it then it doesn't show stereotypical secret agent by the secret agent being Austin Powers a crazy hippy from the 60's.  In my mind a stereotypical secret agent is not a man wearing glasses, an all blue outfit which is a coat and trousers and weird looking cufflinks.  No I see a man wearing a black suit with a white shirt and a black bow tie.  But I guess that is what makes Austin Powers so different.

Also meet in the first four minutes is a stereotypical bad guy wearing a grey suit and holding a cat.  In my mind that is what I picture when I think of a stereotypical bad guy.  Someone wearing a suit which is grey or white and holding an animal.

Mission Impossible

Today in the media lesson we watched the first ten to fifteen minutes of the first Mission Impossible.  We then had to write down notes about the music and the characters that where meet in those first minutes.  This is those notes and some other things that I am adding in now.

Music.

• The music was very up beat, fast and just like the theme song for James bond if someone where to know the tune they would instantly recognise it
• The music featured mainly drums to make it sound more heavy in tune
• The song itself was very catchy

Characters.

• In the those first ten to fifteen minutes watched all but one of the characters that where introduced where killed, which to me seems kind of odd, the film has just started and then what happens well, all the characters but one are dead
• The one character that survives is called Ethan Hunt he is in all of the Mission Impossible films
• He is first seen in a hero shot
• He is shown to be a strong and resourceful character because even when the mission is going wrong and all his team are being killed he still trys to make the mission a success.  But if you haven't seen the movie I will say now he doesn't managed to make the mission a success and the mission fails.

Representation in Gladiator

In the opening ten minutes of Gladiators the first character is met Maximus played by Russel Crowe.  He is in my mind the General of a Roman army, this was shown in the way he was dressed, the way he spoke and from how the troops reacted when he walked past.  He wore a cape which looked like it had been made out of the fur of an animal and unlike the normal infantry his chest piece had a metal bear head on it and was different to the ones the infantry was wearing.  What made me think he was the General from how he spoke and how the troops reacted was that when walking past the normal infantry they where all bowing to him and how he was giving words of encouragement.

In the opening ten minutes of Gladiators binary opposites are shown from how each different unit of troops wore different things and from the difference in what they where wearing compared to the horde they were about to fight.  Each unit of infantry wore different costumes so the front line troops wore metal helmets and chest plates.  While as the archers had metal helmets and chain mail chest plates.  The differences in costume between the Roman army and the horde was that the Roman army wore metal and where shaved while as the horde wore animal fur and all had beards.  The costumes also counted of the weapons that all the people where holding.  So the Roman troops where holding spears and metal shields, the archers where holding bows and had quivers on their backs loaded with arrows and then the horde had wooden shields and what looked to me like wooden spears.

 The first ten minutes showed stereotypes by making the horde very brutish and angry. Then they also showed this with the Roman infantry and Maximus, because when I hear the word Roman I do think of a man in a metal helmet, metal chest plate and leather trousers.  Also because when I hear the words Roman General I think of a man who is wearing a cape probably red, and had a chest plate that is shinier then all the other Roman infantry.

If the sounds used in the opening ten minutes weren't there then those ten minutes would have just seemed less realistic and fake.  The sounds they had in the background of the ten minutes was the sound of people marching into position ready for a fight and also in the background behind that I could hear someone shouting what sounded like to me orders to the infantry.

Skyfall

Representation of the characters met in the first eleven minutes of the new James Bond film Skyfall. 

The first character met was James Bond himself, wearing what I would picture when I heard the words James Bond, Daniel Craig wearing a suit and holding a pistol.  We see him first in a hero shot where it isn't possible to see his face but it is still obvious it is him by the way he is standing.  He is the hero of the film and also the first character we meet in the film just like many other movies.  He is made to look strong, bold and courageous from how he stands just like you would expect the best agent in MI6 to be.

The next character we meet is M, Judi Dench.  She is shown as a women who can do what she likes and control people because she is the leader of MI6.  We then see in the first part of the scene and later on in the eleven minutes we watched that she has no care for the lives of her agents and that she just wants to get a hard drive that was stolen from MI6 back.  She shows this by telling Bond to leave an agent who is bleeding out, and go get the hard drive back and later on when she tells Bonds sidekick to take a shot even though Bond could get hit instead of the villain.  This could also mean that she just wants the mission to be complete no matter what the consequences.

The third character we meet in this beginning bit of the movie is Bonds sidekick, another agent of MI6.  She sees herself as being just as good as Bond at what they do for a living and believes that they are equal.  She shows this from how she acts.  But at the end of the first elven minutes we see she isn't as good as she could be because she takes a shot and hits Bond instead of the villain, who then gets away.

The final character we meet who we never see again is a stereotypical bad guy who like Bond is also wearing a suit and wielding a machine pistol with an extended ammunition holder.  He shows he is the bad guy by shooting at Bond in the middle of a market place.  Also like other modern day film bad guys (mostly Bond ones) he has a fast car as to make it easier to try and get away from the hero of the film.

action and adventure films

Star wars 2 attack of the clones, Batlestar Galactica razor, The Dark Knight Rises, Terminator 3 rise of the machines, Matrix revolutions, In Time, Avatar, The Bourne Ultimatum, Back to the future, Sherlock Holmes