Homeland

I wanted to write about something that I've watched and loved in the media. One TV drama I've been completely hooked on since series 2 started is Homeland. It follows a CIA officer, Carrie and a US soldier, Brody, who went missing for nine years in Afghanistan, presumed dead. However his return lead to Carries assumption that while he was prisoner in Afghanistan, he was converted into a terrorist, and has returned to plot against the USA in secret. Her assumption was proven true in series 2, and once again, I am hooked.
What I love about homeland is the fact that every episode never fails to keep me on the edge of my seat the whole time. The story lines are always so raw and so unique, and what happens never fails to surprise me. In the last episode I watched on Sunday, series 2 episode 8, we see Brody becoming more and more fragile, and sick of the lies he has to keep telling to everyone. He has shifted sides so many times I am surprised he can keep up with his own life. However, we see Carrie taking a hold of him, and trying to help him get back on track to help the CIA. By the end of the episode, Brody is kidnapped and taken into a helicopter to an unknown location. The ending for me felt like a new side to the story, and has made me anticipate more what might happen next.
The show has officially announced a third series, but what worries me is if they'll be able to hold another brilliant series, or whether they'll run out of things to write. Frankly however, I cannot wait. For me, it's the best program on TV at the moment.

American Beauty Review

American Beauty Review – Media Studies

American Beauty is a unique and quirky film directed by Sam Mendes in 1999. It is a sour and twisted tale, with a dark humorous side about love, hate, passion and murder. Lester and Carolyn are married and ‘in love’, or that’s what they want people to believe. Carolyn is over-ambitious whereas Lester is lazy, and fed up with his same, boring life. However they stay together for the sake of their oddball daughter, Jane.

However, in the film we see a change in Lester, when he meets his daughter’s best friend, the blonde and beautiful Angela, who he immediately falls lustfully in love with when he sees her perform a cheerleading dance. On top of this, he also meets Ricky, who introduces him to marijuana and is also his daughter’s boyfriend. This leads to a drastic change in Lester, which sees ghastly consequences for the family.

The beginning of the film started with the father, Lester, revealing to the audience he was going to die at the end. This immediately drew me into the film and made me want to watch more. As the film continued, the scenes showed the aspects of Lester, Carolyn and Jane’s lives, which allowed the audience to empathize with each character in different ways, which I feel is a good way in portraying characters in a film. When Lester comes across Angela, Jane’s friend, in the film, the use of red rose petals is used in an abstract way to symbolise his sexual attraction and longing for her. These red petals were used throughout the film to heighten the idea of sexual attraction from Lester towards Angela in the film. This image actually became very famous in the cinematic world, proving it a successful idea from Sam Mendes, the director.

The story I felt was very unique, and I have never seen a film like it. In the end, when Lester is shot dead, bright red blood is used to emphasise the passionate death of him. It also made it scary and tense. I feel the colour red symbolised many things in the film such as love, lust, sex, and passion, through the use of red roses and blood, to very different things.

I would definitely recommend this film, and it is on one of my favourite film lists. 4 stars.

Video Script

SCRIPT

Jess: Quick, I’ve got a lesson.

Charlie: Nah man, you ain’t paid me in six weeks

Jess: (Looks around anxiously) I’ll get you the money. I promise.

Charlie: (pushes Jess against the metal fence) (Whispers in her ear) you better.

Charlie passes Jess the bag. He walks off. Jess sighs and walks off fast.

Video Plan

Dépendance

Genre: Drama

Setting: School playground.

Hair/costume:

Girl: school uniform. Hair tied up. Looks tired and uneasy. Dark eyes.

Boy: wearing hoodie or jacket. Dark colours. Angry face.

Story: Drug dealer who’s in sixth form approaches young secondary school girl in a playground to sell her cocaine.

Character Profiles:

Charlie: Eighteen year old college student. Aspiring DJ living in Hackney Downs.  Troubled home life, and makes a lot of money from dealing drugs as he doesn’t have money at home. His father supports his drug dealing so he can provide for his dad. His dad is an alcoholic and beats him up when he doesn’t get the money.

Jess: Fourteen years old. Found her mums stash when she was twelve and felt like experimenting with her friends. He friends didn’t like it, so she pretended she didn’t. However she was hooked and now has no friends or money as she spends it all on drugs. She’s failing at school and her mum is always out with men so has no time for her and barely notices her.

Costume and Props:

·         Mossbourne school blazer

·         Bag of flour (drugs)

Script:

Panorama shot of the school playground with Jess sitting on the bench.

Charlie walks down sixth form corridor – Long shot of him walking through corridor towards camera. We see him passing the office, looking around suspiciously.  Opens green door.

Shot from outside of Charlie walking out of the door.

Shot of Charlie from behind walking towards Jess.

Shot of Jess from behind with Charlie walking towards her.

Shot of Charlie talking to Jess.

Shot of Jess talking to Charlie.

Video Shots

Low Angle

Pan Shot

                                         

Tilt Shot

                                         

Travel Shot

 

James Bond Editing

Here we see James Bond and his villains in action. The high angle shot of the setting and then close up of both mens faces tell the audience where they are and what is going on. We see an over the shoulder the shot, where we see the back of the villains head, but the whole of Bond's body, which could inidcate Bond is in some sort of trouble, as he is coming towards the villain, however the villain stands there, fearless. We see a huge explosion behind James Bond, making the audeince jump. Cables flicker and parts of the building fall down, but Bond seems quite safe. You think everything is okay until you see a train driving through the hole in the building made by the explosion. The train looks like it is coming towards the audience creating tention. We then see a high angle shot of the large train filling the whole setting of the scene, almost killing James Bond. The editing in this scene, and the way the train is filmed to drive quickly towards the audience and fill the whole chamber looks really realistic and scary.