History of violence

History Of Violence 

A History Of Violence is a filmed directed by David Cronenberg. This film is based on a man who kills two robbers in self defense who tried to rob his small diner and this then leads to his violent past.
It was ranked the best film of 2005 in the Village Voice Film Poll also the film had a budget of $32m and it sold over $60m and it is minutes long.

Camera Analysis 
The first 4 minutes of the film is all one continuous shot, which tracking cam is used in to follow the car and also there are extreme close up shot of the gun when the guy is about to shot the little girl and this shows that the gun is the most powerful thing in the shot because it is the biggest. There is also a pan shot during when the guy goes to get water from the phone box its a pan shot as it carries on going towards the right and there is also a low angle shot when the guy bends down to shot the little girl.

Sound Analysis 
There are many types of sounds in this first starting scene which include diegetic and non diegetic sound. There is the sound of the radio which is a diegetic, also there is the sound of the truck which is a diegetic sound, sound of the gun shot and many more. There is also one non-diegetic sound where the music builds up the tension. 

Editing
Slow editing but they also had one whole continuous shot in the first 3 minuets of the movie and there was about 5 cuts in that first scene.



  
In this key opening scene we see there are not a lot of cuts because the director wants the audience to focus on the scenery and on specific character for the time being because in that same scene the first character who was driving the car at first kills a little girl around 3 mins into the film which he plays an important role in the first 4 mins of the film.

Genre

Genre

Genre
Genre is what films are split into because of the type of film they are e.g. Comedy,Horror,Thriller and many more.

Narrative
Narrative is when there is a set up for the play e.g. Begging Middle and End.

Narrative is the made up of two components and these are the way the story is presented and also the second component is the process of how it is told and how it is narrated. Narrative can be organized in a number of formal categories: non-fiction creative non-fiction, biography, fiction and many more.

Genre was made to be able to split films into different categories and for it to be easier for people to watch the right type of genre that suits them and genres are made for a specific type of audience e.g. thrillers are made for people who want a thrill out of the movie.

Genre can also be be combined to make hybrid genres like also romantic comedy which is comedy and romance combined, this can happen with many genres to create the film and this is also called cross genre, genres can also be done by categorising the target audience.

North by North West 

One of the greatest 1950's thrillers

North by North west is an American based thriller film which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this film includes the following stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. This thriller film had a budget of $4.3m at the box offices it made over $9.8m.

In all films Hitchcock has directed he has planned every scene visually in advance. In the 1950's there was not a lot of technology that was accessible by the directors to add different effects to films it was mainly camera work and pre planned scenes, not a lot of editing or film effects were added in those times. Hitchcock believed the stress on the visual makes cinema accessible in different languages.                                                                                                          


Blog 2 Laura Mulvey,representation of women in North By North West
Laura Mulvey had a theory, which was Laura Melvey's theory of male gaze. This theory was about the erotic scenes in films and how men were always seeing women as sexual objects and the audience is forced to identify when there is a male gaze scene. Cinema reflects patriarchal (male dominance) e.g. in cinema guns=phallus (penis)=power.
  
Her two theories she has are visual pleasure and narrative cinema.


Camera Work in North By North West
In North by North west there are many types of camera angles including wide shot,steady cam,tracking,pov and many more.

In this fight scene in North by North west the camera is focusing on them in a type of wide shot from an angle. The camera is in that angle because it gives a more intense and wider scene to be able to see more on the background and the scenery.



Another camera shot, this is a tracking shot when the supposed Roger Thornhill is being attacked by a crop duster plane and it shows the intensity in the actors face and also tracks so you can see the speed and closeness.

Media Theory 

Engima (mystery) - 'Engima codes' Roland Barthes.

Heroes and Villains 'binary opposite' Levi Strauss.

Todorov Narrative Theory

In 1969 Todorov produced a theory which he believed to be able to applied to any film.

Roland Barthes

Born 12th November 1915 Cherbourg, France.

 Died- 26th March 1980 ( aged 64)

Roland Barthes: All texts are 'complex' bundles of meaning

• Engima Codes (problem introduced) - usually in 'disruption' stage.
• Open- not resolved at end 
• Closed texts- resolved at end
• Polysemic texts- lots of different meanings. 

Levi Strauss

Born 28th November 1908 Brussels Belgium.

Died 30th October 2009

Levi Strauss was a big part of the structuralism theory and also the structural anthropology.



Laura Melvy:  
Laura Melvey was a lady who had a theory on males and how they look at women in movies or in general. She believes that 'the male gaze' her theory is women viewed as the objects of male erotic desire in film. Women do not plan this the audience is forced to identify the male gaze. Cinema reflects a male dominated society, – phallus (penis) a symbol of power – e.g. in cinema guns = phallus = power.

Objectification is related to the gaze

The persons gazed at are objectified, treated as an object whose sole value is to be enjoyed or possessed by the voyeur

Objectified characters are devalued and their humanity removed.

Patriarchal society = Men dictate the rules

Mulvey argued we live in a patriarchal society in which men set the majority of the rules and construct and represent the ideal visions, roles and male dominance over woman.