The Lego Movie: Genre Codes

The movie title plays a huge role in any movie poster because it stands out the most to the audience and is the first thing they will read. The movie title gives audiences an idea and understanding of what the film will bring about and attracts certain genres and audiences. For example "The Lego Movie" will attract the younger generation towards the film. In the Ensemble Movie poster, the movie title is bold and easily recognizable. Also, to appeal to the target movie audiences (younger generations) the title is made out of Lego bricks.

In all of the individual movie posters, the main characters are identified by name. For example, Chris Pratt is Emmet. This comes under Relationships from the blumler and katz theory. The audience recognize Chris Pratt from other movies and we identify with him. This persuades audiences to watch the film. Another individual movie poster is the vitruvius poster. This poster has a close up of vitruvius and in bold, Morgan Freeman is vitruvius. This has the same affect as the Emmet poster. Audiences definitely recognize Morgan Freemen but mainly adults. Naming the cast in all off the posters convinces the parents to take their children to see the movie as even the parents want to see the movie knowing the cast.

The last movie poster has written in bold, Elizabeth Banks is wildstyle. In the movie wildstyle represents women and appeals to the female audiences. Putting this on a poster works in both ways, it appeals to the female audiences and also attracts parents who know Elizabeth banks and identify with her.

The second convention of the movie poster is the tagline. The tagline in the main Ensemble poster reads, The story of a nobody who saves everybody. This tagline is very important for attracting family audiences. The tagline allows everyday people, the target audience, to relate and identify with Emmet which plays a huge role in persuading people to watch the movie. Also the rhyme is appealing to younger audiences and effectively sums up the movie for them.

In the main Ensemble poster, all of the main characters are identified as the main central image. All of the most familiar recognizable characters are shown running away from an explosion. This sets the scene to show how action packed, the film is going to be and also shows the audience the characters in action. This genre code hugely attracts the family audiences.

Seb Hardy

Corrections:
In the close up with Lord Business, we see that he is very close up, in an extreme close up and his facial expression tells the audience straight away that he is an angry/evil character that is going to be the villain. The tagline says "Will Ferrell is Lord Business". This has two effects on the audience. Will Ferrell is a very established actor and his name is recognized and admired by many. This draws in and persuades the audience to go and watch the film so that they can see him in this role. Also, Lord Business sounds very corporal and gives the impression that the main villain is like a boss. This idea of a mean boss in the work place appeals to many adults and because of this, it allows them to see themselves as Emmit, defeating their boss.

Exam Q8: Uses and Gratifications of the Lego Movie

One of the uses and gratifications of the Lego movie is personal identity. In the movie, this idea is represented through Emmit who is the main character. Throughout the movie, Emmit is shown to be a completely normal, average person who follows current trends and his most redeeming feature is his lack of redeeming features. This idea of Emmit being a normal person is hammered into the main plot of the story and expands Emmit as the ordinary person who despite all the odds becomes a hero. This is a vital part of the media aspect of the Lego movie as we, the audience, are supposed to reflect our own values with Emmit and relate to him. This is key when the idea of good versus evil later develops in the movie as the audience already relate and support Emmit and can see themselves in their own fight for good versus evil. Also, younger children can see Emmit as a role model. Emmit is just an ordinary person like you or I and so when younger children see Emmit as this figure who saves the world, they can also relate and admire him.

Another use and gratification of the Lego movie is the idea of escapism which is represented throughout the entire screening time of the film. The Lego movie is a perfect example of how media  is used in Movies and Games to draw out interest from a variety of audiences. For example, many people see the Lego as an ideal place where everything can be fixed and no one ever gets hurt, you can do whatever you want. This especially appeals to the younger generations because basically everything they know is what they can do and what they cant do. The Lego movie game is used as escapism to leave go to a place where rules do not apply and they have their won free will to do as they like.

Seb Hardy

MOJO MAGAZINE COVER

This Magazine features the name of the company (MOJO) featured in bold, obvious, font at the top of the magazine. The main splash of this Magazine cover is David Bowie who is placed in front of the logo so you cant miss it. Also, magazines often do this, they use part of the main splash, usually the head, to cover part of the Cover name. They do this as magazine company's such as MOJO are established and the readers know what the name of the magazine is from just 3 words that appear on the front.

The use of boxes and columns in the magazine cover are used so that the reader is attracted to the magazine when they see it in shops and also, so they can put small pieces of information in them that otherwise would have been missed. For example, 'Free CD' is in its own box in bold in the top left hand side of the magazine so that people who see it will be encouraged to buy it. In this magazine, the headline and caption stand out above all other things and tell the reader whats going to be inside the magazine and also give the readers encouraging information such as, 'untold, unseen David Bowie', this makes the reader intrigued as to what the magazine has inside.

Along the sides of the magazine cover there are other articles that are featured in the magazine. In  the sidelines, to make the articles look fun and appealing they use slang. For example, in the Liam Gallagher strap line, he says 'id do an oasis re union for a fiver'. This is not necessarily what he said but the magazine paraphrases to make for an appealing sub heading.

Seb Hardy 

MUSIC VIDEO CODES AND CONVENTIONS

Wheatus Teenage Dirtbag

SK8ER BOI

1. Performance - the singer / band are seen to be singing and playing (including lip synching), to provide authenticity, so that followers believe in the talent and can see their star. Record labels sign stars and promote them  to ensure sales. Avril Lavigne sings throughout the video using a mike and draws a huge crowd of fans around her when she jumps onto a car roof in the street. She sings with great passion, energy and conviction, holding the mike close to her mouth. Close-ups show her every word (lip synching is a feature of music videos.) She performs for her fans and for her 'boyfriend' the sk8er boi who features in the narrative. Screens often feature in music video and the sk8er boi is videoing Avril Lavigne as he gazes adoringly up at her
2. Star - use of close-ups, sometimes direct eye contact with audience, to build relationship with audience. The star of the music video is obviously Avril Lavigne as she sings throughout the video and the story she tells directly relates to her love story about her and the 'skater boi'. Moments when, for example, they are in the car and she is with her friends all looking into the camera, almost involving the audience in her song and making it as though she is singing to them.
3. The visuals (what the star and other characters are seen doing) illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics (the 'story in the words'). Illustration = the visuals play out the story more or less literally; amplify = the words in the lyrics are only the starting point and the story develops in other directions; contradiction / disjuncture = the visuals do not interpret the words of the lyrics and may even show something contradictory. Avril Lavigne spends the whole duration of the video jamming out on her guitar which relates to the sk8er boi and the genre of rock and roll that the song is based on. For example, she is holding and playing the guitar as she sings about how the skater boi is on mtv.
4. The narrative usually features the performer in 'real life' situations but often with experimental types of film making such as hand-held, dramatic camera angles, symbolic codes and lighting
5. The visuals are usually cut to the beat of the music; the editing is often fast-paced; there is often use of montage, ellipsis and intercutting, stylish effects
6. Refrain - repeated chorus, sometimes with variations
7. Intertextuality - references to other media, films, performances, events

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Editing In Cuffs

Editing is used in cuffs to create meaning throughout the extract. The first example of editing being used in Cuffs is when the police are training in the car park. Dissolves and fades are used to show time passing which shows the viewer that the police are training hard, which makes the audience both respect the police and their hard work and gives the audience an idea of how difficult their job's are.

My second point which shows how editing creates meaning in the extract, is when the father is about to jump off the building but the man talks him out of it and then eventually pulls him off the balcony before he can jump. Shot reverse shot is used constantly as the man tries to persuade him not to jump. In this scene we also see a cut to his daughter watching T.V in the room opposite. This makes the audience feel very sad as they now know that he has a daughter he's abandoning. At the end of the scene the police who stopped the man from killing himself walked off casually, walking away from the camera.

Seb Hardy

Mise-en-scene

In the first episode of Cuffs, we see Jake and Nathan go to the home of an alcoholic/drug addict and after calming him down and entering his house, we see mise-en-scene. The house is very dirty and un kept, also there is very little light. We are also shown bottles upon bottles scattered all over the house. This scene portrays the difficulty of being a police man and the painful situations they are in everyday through mise-en-scene.

In the nudist beach scene, we see drunken men intimidating and making fun of the naturists.The mise-en-scene in this scene is the drunken men's outfits and appearances. For example, the drunk men were wearing matching rugby jerseys and viking horns. This represents there masculine appearance and their ravaging relating to the vikings. When the police arrive, we see a contrast in the smart appearance and uniform of the police, to the drunken men all wearing viking horns.

Seb Hardy