1. 9) Structure and narrative: What is the establishing shot? What does it show
about the life of the characters? What is the equilibrium? What shots do we
see to establish the equilibrium? What is the disruption to the equilibrium?
How is the disruption to the equilibrium shown? What do we see after the
disruption is introduced? Are there slow paced montages? Are there fast
paced montages? What is the climax of the trailer? What enigma codes are the
audience left with? (Methodology table. Categories: Unit 1 Criterion 2, Unit 1
Criterion 3)
· Stories being with an equilibrium (state of normality- good, bad, neutral)
· Disrupted by another event, setting in motion of series of other events
· Problems are solved so order can be restored, narrative ends with a second,
different equilibrium.
Taken
At the beginning of the trailer, everyone is happy and it is the daughter’s birthday. I
know this because the main character has a big smile on her face, the audience
knows she is happy. Her mum and step dad throw her a big birthday party. The life of
the characters is good, they are all happy, apart from the daughter’s dad. His ex-wife
doesn’t really like him, she has someone else. Amanda (her friend) has a cousin who
wants them both to spend their vacation in Paris with them. They meet a nice guy
who shares the cab with them and takes their address by lying and saying there is a
party and he will come and pick them up. The establishing shot is when the phone
starts ringing and the music with a lot of tension comes in. The disruption is that the
daughter finds out that Amanda’s cousin are not in Paris they are on holiday, the
daughter tells her father through the phone and he becomes worried. After the
disruption is introduced, Amanda gets kidnapped. There are a few slow montages,
for example when Amanda gets kidnapped it goes very slow but then it gets faster as
the father gives the daughter instructions on what to do and where to hide. The
problem is not really solved; after Amanda is kidnapped the trailer just has extremely
fast paced montages of what happens in the movie, and who is killed, at the end the
kidnapper just speaks on the phone to the dad.
Kick Ass
At the beginning of the trailer Dave is not a regular guy who goes to school, and
spends most of his time pleasuring himself. The disruption is when he asks why
people don’t become superheroes and then decides to become one himself. That’s
when he becomes happy because he has something to do with his life. He becomes
famous and is very popular, but he hides his identity, he becomes the latest internet
phenomenon. However there is another disruption, everything just gets crazy and
extremely violent, he gets involved with real crimes and he gets introduced to hit girl

2. and big daddy. This is when the fast paced montage montages come in. The
problems aren’t solved, they just become worse, he gets kidnapped along with big
daddy and they both get battered. The trailer ends with a second equilibrium, which
is when big daddy dies and kick ass lives.
Methods: Secondary
Technique: I will be using the internet to go onto YouTube and talk about the structure
and narrative
Information log: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_MSMPhGu1c
Organisation: I will be uploading this onto the Haverstock website and putting it into the
categories: unit 1 criterion 2 and unit 1 criterion 3
Relevance: This is very useful because it tells me that there has to be an equilibrium, a
disruption and a second event in my trailer