1. Unit 26 - Film Studies
Part 1:
Films can be analysed in a number of different ways two ways are the analysis of the
film’s genre and another is the application of auteur theory. Genre analysis is when
you look at a film to see what genre it’s under and then see the things within the film
that make it the genre it’s been given, with auteur theory it’s the way a director
creates his film they might have a particular style or if they value the commercial
success of a movie are one who sticks with similar themes. Genre analysis for a film
like James bond it would be under the action genre so the things you would look out
for are the iconography like guns and explosions also the location and the way the
main character acts all that comes together and creates a genre. When looking at
auteur theory for a film it’s focusing on the director of the film and the way he wants
the film to turn out like for example Tim Burton has a very distinct style for his films, if
it’s for one of his animations the way the characters look in his film Frankenweenie
have a very similar look to his characters in Corpse Bride this makes his style relate
to him in a very big way and is recognised by the audience, if you were to watch one
of his films not knowing the director it would be very obvious by looking at the style of
the film.
Analysts define genre by using Lacey’s Repertoire of Elements this is broken down
into Setting, character, narrative, iconography and technical and audio codes these
are all of the genre elements, its then put into conventions where parts of the film is
analysed individually making it easier and giving you a better understanding of the
films genre. An example is A Walk among the Tombstones which I used Lacey’s
Repertoire of Elements to analyse the genre, I found that by the setting in
Washington Heights New York that it’s going to be set in the city in down town
showing a rough area also you see a dark bar with only the natural light coming
through the windows it gives it a dark vibe which establishes genre it shows it’s not
going to be a happy story. Looking at the iconography we see guns, shots of alcohol
and cigarette smoke these are all things seen in the action/thriller genre, character is
another important contribute to genre having a main hero with a dark back story,
Liam Neeson plays an ex-police man you attempt to come to the rescue, then there
is also the bad guys who are mysterious creepy, throughout the film Liam Neeson
the hero character is trying to get to the antagonist again contributes to the genre.
The biggest contributor is the technical and audio codes the music creates suspense
its can change the mood in any scene also fast pace gun scenes and the tense
sound effects gives a build-up, the lighting in the different scenes create an
atmosphere, the dark lighting sets a mood paired with the music lets you get a better
understanding of how the characters feel also goes the same for soft lighting and
sad music gives it a whole different mood.
An auteur filmmaker is when a director's film reflects the director's personal ‘creative

2. vision’ and who influences their films so much that they become their author, usually
a director who has creative control over their works and has a strong personal style.
A good example of an auteur filmmaker Tim Burton he has a very distinct style which
is very recognisable, his films all have very unusual characters they are always in the
same genre fantasy, they are easily identifiable. They have actors and crew
members that are always seen in the movie and the making. The story lines in the
films are always fantasy based and he always has very unusual characters for
example his Alice in the wonderland film he has the original characters but they are
all very exaggerated and odd looking, again it’s the same for Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory the main character is very unusual and has a strange haircut
making it individual.
Leon is directed by Luc Besson and it was released in 1994 and Skyfall is directed
by Sam Mendes was released in 2012 both films are in the crime fiction and thriller
genre, The opening scene in Leon is a shot of New York city it then moves onto a
shot moving up the street and continues this for a while so you can see where the
film is going to be set it shows a rough looking part of New York the camera then
enters the doors to a restaurant in little Italy, the first time you see the main character
Leon it’s a close up shot of his glasses and another man smoking a cigarette all
extreme close ups making him appear mysterious you don’t get to see his face,
comparing it to the Skyfall opening scene they are very different the first time you
see James bond is when he enters from the side into the corridor just like the famous
shot of him walking in and turning and pointing his gun, he then begins the walk
towards the camera only seeing his silhouette the camera is out of focus but when
he comes to a halt the light lights only part of his face showing just his eyes this is
the first time you get to see his face he then instantly holds up a gun showing that
he’s going straight into an action scene it then follows him as he walks up a dimly lit
corridor as he’s holding his gun up still straight away you see a man lying dead on
the floor in a pool of blood followed by another shot of a man lying on the floor in the
same situation as the first one then again another man sat slouched in a chair with
blood all down his shirt, this is only 52 seconds into both films, with the Leon opening
it focuses more on the area the films set in and you don’t get to see Leon’s face
properly at all you see the glasses its all slow camera movements and close up
shots not giving much away the music is playing and as soon as it gets the Leon the
music stops and its very silent and dark, In the Skyfall opening again James bonds
face isn’t revelled straight away you see his dark silhouette the differences is that the
gun is introduced pretty much instantly when James bond holds it up to point in the
cameras direction then again the aftermath of a shoot out is obvious when you see
the two men lying dead on the floor already introducing the typical iconography for
the action thriller genre, with James Bond it makes it clear what genre the film is
almost instantly at the very start but Leon it doesn’t make it clear there are no
weapons showed or main characters revelled. Again looking at both main characters
for the action genre, the lead role is normally a male who’s very attractive the catch
the female part of the audience attention and James Bond in all films has been an

3. attractive man this is the usual look for the person playing James bond you see him
as the cool action undercover agent, when looking at Leon being the lead role in the
movie he’s not the most attractive people comparing him to the James bond actors
he also lives alone where he has a plant which he claims to be his ‘friend’ its a
rough apartment and he doesn’t have the fancy cars and gadgets it’s the complete
opposite of the stereotypical action hero from the usual action thriller movies.
Part 2:
Mean girls is directed by Mark Waters it was released in 2004 the genre is Teen
comedy, Cady Heron has never been to high school because she lived in Africa
being home-schooled, she lived with only her parents she moves out of Africa, she
has to ‘learn the rules of high school’, She makes friends with Damian and Janis,
who, in the terms of the high school, were in the "out crowd." She then meets the
Plastics, the popular girls, with Regina, the unofficial leader, Gretchen, Regina's full-
time follower, and Karen, "one of the dumbest people you will ever meet." They
immediately let her into their group, but Cady, wanting to keep her first friends, is
unsure.

4. The film has a lot of main characters the first one you get introduced to in Cady
Heron played by Lindsay Lohan she is the new girl in her school its her first proper
experience of high school since she came from home schooling, her first day of
school she gets to know Janis Ian played by Lizzy Caplin and Damian played by
Daniel Franzese who become her closest friends they then introduce three girls
called ‘the plastics’ the first one you see is Karen Smith played by Amanda Seyfried
she plays the stereotypical ‘dumb blonde’ she is focused on the least out of all he
three girls, the next one introduced is Gretchen Wieners played by Lacey Chabert
she’s the one who is closest to the main ‘Mean girl’ Regina George who is played by
Rachel Mcadam’s she’s the ‘Leader’ of the group and is the most popular girl in the
school the whole school has cliques all different groups of friends each table has a
name Janis shows this to Cady this is when Cady first speaks to the plastics.
The iconography is a huge part of making it the teen comedy genre, you see the
typical things like yellow school buses and the parties with alcohol and big houses
with the loud music you see this all the time in teen films so it isn’t unusual to expect
this also the rich kids with their fancy cars, they also include the varsity jacket but
instead of having the popular boys wear them the director switches this up
completely and has the ‘mathletes’ wear them when they win their competition this
goes against the stereotypical popular kids routine in teen films.
The setting is obviously the high school also includes the shopping mall and the big
houses. This is a massive contributor to the genre the high school instantly puts it in
the teen films because its in mostly all teen comedy films. The technical and audio
codes includes flash backs to when Cady was younger, there’s several voiceovers
used you hear what Cady is thinking most of the time she in a way narrates parts of
the film, also the teen music playing at the parties.
The narrative of the film is linear the exposition of the films is when Cady has her first
day at high school and she’s walking through the school to her class you get the find
out about her back story how she lived in Africa and was homeschooled and you
meet two of the main characters Janis and Damien they show her around you find
out about the plastics it then goes onto different clips of people talking about the
main mean girl Regina.

5. The inciting incident is when Cady becomes close with the plastics and starts to join
their group she starts to hang around with them a lot more and takes an interest in
Regina’s ex boyfriend Aaron Regina finds out that Cady likes him and Regina ruins
this for Cady by kissing him in front of Cady at a party this causes Cady to seek
revenge.
The rising action of the films is when Cady, Janis and Damien plan to sabotage the
plastics they plot different schemes to ruin them and split them up for good
everything they try back fires the plan starts to get messy when Cady actually starts
acting like a mean girl for real and starts to become more interested in getting Aaron
and staying popular this creates her to become distant to Janis and Damien.
The climax of the movie is when all the girls in the school find the ‘burn book’ which
the plastics created to say horrible things about all the girls in the school, all the girls
start fighting in the hall way of the school this was caused by Regina getting kicked
of the plastics table for wearing the wrong outfit Regina is jealous of Cady because
she’s taking her place as the ‘Leader’ in the plastics.
The falling action in the film is when all the girls are sat in the assembly and talk
about their feelings towards the ‘burn book’ they then go onto the trust fall where
each girl tells the truth and then gets caught by everyone else everyone is getting
things of their chest and everything is becoming more calm.
The denouement is the prom and the mathletes competition then Cady has a
massive speech where everything fits into place and everyone becomes friends
when all the cliques all split up and mixes together and everyone becomes friends it
all works out in the end until it introduces the junior plastics with that the film ends.
Part 3:
Tim Burtons film the Corpse bride year of production is 2005 its genre is
fantasy/animation the film is set back in the late 1800s in a Victorian village, a man
and woman by the names of Victor Van Dort and Victoria Everglot are betrothed
because the Everglots need the money or else they'll be living on the streets and the
Van Dorts want to be height in society. But when things go wrong at the wedding
rehearsal, Victor goes into the woods to practice his vows. Just as soon as he gets

6. them right, he finds himself married to Emily, the corpse bride. Tim Burton is a
filmmaker who demonstrates a particular style His films have a gothic theme also
very dark colours used and always a lot of emotion this could reflect on Tim Burton
himself his film the corpse bride has a very distinct style like most of his animated
film its very similar to his past ones, He has a very recognisable style and look with
his films they always have the unusual story line and the strange characters, Tim
Burton has a very strong option on societies view on how people should act this
inspires him for his films the majority of his films are in the fantasy genre the main
character is always misunderstood and has something else going on for example in
Corpse Bride the corpse bride is misunderstood because all she wants is to marry
someone and be in love and when she though she found this the man killed her
making her the ‘corpse bride’ when victor is practicing his vows and places the ring
on what appears to be a stick ends up being the corpse brides finger making him
married to her he instantly becomes frightened by her because of her appearance
and the fact that she is actually dead so she follows him he starts running away from
her and fails because she catches up you end up finding out that she still acts like a
normal girl but comes across as scary when really all she wanted was to be married
and still be alive this is a good example on Tim Burton having his main characters an
outsider or no one taking time to find out who they really are another thing Tim
Burton is known for is casting the same cast in all of his films you see Johnny Depp
and Helena Bonham Carter playing the lead roles this is because he wants the
characters he writes to be portrayed the way he wants them to be.
In conclusion the two methods help to analyse film using different parts you look at a
break down like setting, narrative, iconography these make the genre what It is all
work together using the 5 act structure again helps break down the film in to sections
so you get to look at the iconography and style in individual parts of a film when
looking at character its such a big contributor again this is part of Lacey’s Repertoire
of Elements along with auteur theory you get to see what sort of vision the director
had for his or hers films you get a better understanding and appreciation of what they
wanted to portray if they have a certain style and how much input they have or if they
demonstrate innovation. So Tim Burton uses personal experience and past film
genres to influence his films his lead role is always very different to everyone else in

7. the movie and misunderstood by everyone around them, a good example is Edward
scissor hands when he is forced to leave his house people instantly label him as
dangerous due to his hands when In fact he’s completely opposite, having this style
of film can impact on a lot of people they can feel sympathy for the characters
making them more involved within the film, making the film a lot more interesting to
analyse as well, this helps make people appreciate films more if they have meaning
or personal feelings again easier to analyse.