 |
|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
One of the main influences of our piece had been the dystopian theme. The dystopian genre has recently become extremely popular in movies with target audiences of our age group.
Although our piece resembles In time my main influence was The Hunger games as the arena they use in the movie is projected as a forest. From the feedback in our questionnaire's we had received advice to film our piece in a forest and our piece is also a dystopian, The Hunger Games was the first thing that popped in my mind.
Districts
-
The Capitol Seal. The country of Panem is broken up into 12 Districts and the Capitol.
-
District 1: Luxury. The industry of District 1 is luxury.
-
District 2: Masonry. The industry of District 2 is masonry.
-
District 3: Technology.
-
District 4: Fishing.
-
District 5: Power.
-
District 6: Transportation.
-
District 7: Lumber.
-
District 8: Textiles
-
District 9: Grain
-
District 10: Livestock
-
District 11: Agriculture
-
District 12: Mining
The use of having similar districts in our piece helps meet the dystopian criteria seeing as a majority of the movie following the dystopian genre shows a sort of segregation. Furthermore we had wanted to set our main project in the future so that the plot makes more sense however we struggled on how we were going to show the dystopian theme in our work ( seen in the pitch) we decided to input factions or districts so that the audience are able to relate our piece to the dystopian genre instead of struggling to find appropriate mise-en-scene that would take longer to organise without a budget.
The Hunger Games
Survival of the fittest.
The hunger games is the first movie people think of when they hear Dystopia ( as tested by the questionnaire from my media class) the movie is largely based on th need to survive in this new environment.
This is evident in this shot of them running to retain some sort of weapon in order to protect them from each other, which seems to be an evident trope in Dystopia as the fast paced cuts of them running in fear of each other shows that the enemy is either a dictator and the government or the people around them. The shot reverse shot of Katniss and Petre looking at each other also suggests their relationship and how that will survive in the maze as before stated they have to fear and possibly kill each other in order to survive and the large proximity between them suggests that the relationship that they share might be challenged by being in the Hunger Games.
The camouflage and use of natural colours presents the idea of survival being dominant, Katniss and Peter shown to be the only two weating black and red which foreshaws them being able to win the Hunger Gmes together
This influenced our piece as we used dark greens for the protagonist in the scenes and also made Milo's jacket muddy in order to present the difficulty of survival similar to the one shown in the movies.
Divergent
Factions
Dauntless (the brave)
Amity (the peaceful)
Erudite (the intelligent)
Abnegation (the selfless),
Candor (the honest).
The use of Factions in Divergent reinforces the dystopian theme for the audience. It also makes the audience aware of common
dystopian tropes .
Fight for survival
A common dystopian trope is demonstrated within Divergent.
​
Camera
the Ariel long shot within this scene demonstrates the need to have some sort of conflict, makes the audience fell as if this battle needs to happen for the movie to develop, we are allowing Tris to be thrown to the ground and are subconsciously agreeing with it however we are not the only ones implicit within this confrontation as the long shot also allows us to see other characters watching and observing the brutal force in which Tris is being thrown to the ground
Mise en scene
The black uniform set these characters as soldiers with the inability to express any kind of personality, black is the colour in which the death reaper wears and so these soldiers are sent to kill and are trained for murder. The dim lighting within the room creates tension within the scene as the audience are then told to look at the extreme light placed on the pair battling, reinforcing the idea that these pair are being forced to fight their own audience are observing who will survive, and thus proving the idea that survival of the fittest is a main trope in Divergent.
Sound
Sound is used to show who is fated to win or not, it also creates tension within the scene as not only are the audience spurring on the fight with their harsh bombardments and heckle but create a scene of doom as the shouting is pleading for Peter to win and not Tris. This also establishes the villain and the hero within the movie which is also a trope of Dystopian movies.
The maze runner is another dystopian novel turned movie that i had been exploring. The cast for this movie is based mostly on males and it creates a secluded universe for the viewer especially if you are a female.
The dystopian theme is explored through the simultaneous action shown constantly in The maze runner.
Camera
Suspense created in this extract is evident by the continous variation of long shots to medium long shots or two shots. The audience are able to view the calm atmosphere in the long shots but then cuts to medium long shots of the group of boys or the opening of the maze building tension for the audience. When the two boys appear the amount of cuts to long shots increases thus thrilling the audience as the maze opening is about to close entrapping the boys there forever. However, close ups are used to futher intensify the scene as Thomas makes his decision to enter the maze which then leads to continious cuts of the maze closing in on Thomas. I was inspired by how you can use Camera to create suspense rather then just relying on the plot to build thrill. Although, this would mean needing two cameras, one to be placed at a distance for a long shot and another closer to the place of action for Medium long shots or close ups.
Editing
The low angle shot makes these boys seem more dominant and threat towards the new member of the Maze, the survival of the fittest idea applies as the those in the maze seem threatened by the new member of the maze, "it's a girl", seeing as she might impact their survival or why they are stuck there. They seem feared by the unusual female member as they all step back in surprise, they have not been apart of the world for so long that they seem to have forgotten what a girl was which also brings a comedic aspect to the movie
The low angle can also be interpreted as a POV shot of the new female character, before we even meet the female character we see how threatening this new world would be for her as the only female in the maze.
Sound
Sound reinforces the tension built by Camera. The diegetic sound of the rain pouring suggest a calm before the storm however when the maze begins to close the machinery can be heard which builds anticipation as the audienec are waiting for the two boys to reappear and as the audience and the main characater Thomas become aware that they will not make it an almost choir like harmony is played non diegetically to symbolise that moment of realisation to which with the use of close up's and a slight pan showing the boys screaming for their fellow prisoners reemphasises.
​
In editing i was influenecdd by the use of fast paced cuts, seeing as we have limited time for our final piece we need to be able to create some sort of thrill so that it can forshadow what would happen in the rest of the movie. Thus the use of fast paced cut as when Thomas enters the maze creates major thrill and suspense in a short amount of time. As well as that it enters the audience into a new part of the dystopian world without confusng the audienece.
The use of the four micro elements show that dystopian movies are also about survival and show how the fittest will win.
Mise en scene
There are various long shots of the peaceful agrarian setting that these boys have built for themselves however that is contrasted with the cold greay walls of the maze runner establsihing danger amongst what appears to be a healthy colony and brings the dystopain genre to life