Rope Analysis- Media

In Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 thriller 'Rope',  Hitchcock steers away from the typical thriller conventions. This is shown, for example, in the fact that rather than containing high energy action scenes, 'Rope' contains more tension building scenes, and so the audience is not filled with adrenaline from fast pacing, but rather filled with adrenaline from not wanting our "Heroes" to be found out and the sheer levels of dramatic irony. This is seen especially in the scene where Mrs. Atwater is about to open the drawer that the body is hidden in, and is a second away from blowing their cover and revealing their "Perfect Murder".
As well as this the audience is also consulted with personal conflict. This is because in usual Thriller, the characters that have the most screen time are the heroes, and our exposure to them make us recognise them as a good person.  Therefore, in "Rope", the viewer is most familiar with the two posh boys, and while technically they're the heroes of the movie, they are villains in their acts of killing a person and keeping the corpse so close to their family and girlfriend. Therefore, at the end where the two posh boys and the man are in a room together, we are left to contemplate who the real hero is.
 Secondly, "Rope" is home to many different thriller conventions, such as Levi Strauss' theory of 'Binary Opposites'. These are different characters in the film that, through their main traits or roles, are portrayed as completely opposite from each other. For example, there is a portrayal in the difference and opposition of sexuality in the film. in the film, we see two different sexual preferences displayed, one of a homosexual relationship (Brandon and Phillip) and one of a straight relationship (David and Janet).

Media Studies- Studio Idents

 An 'Ident' is a logo for a film production studio that represents the company as a whole, and since the ident is only shown for a few seconds at the beginning, or rarely at the end, the ident needs to be made as grand as possible, in order to give a much more powerful and successful than their opposition. This is seen in Universal's ident, where it shows the word 'Universal' spinning around the rotating Earth. This would give the impression of the company being bigger and more powerful than the Earth.

 All film studios have studio idents in order to make themselves stand out and to be easily identified. These have varying design and can either be stationary or in motion. Film studios such as 'Metro Goldwyn Meyer' are very well known, and their Ident follows in their recognisability. Their ident features a lion roaring, and due to their success and their well known logo, they have made it to be one of the most recognisable companies and logo in the country, possibly even the world.
 Despite the concept of showing how powerful and successful the Studio is through the ident, some lower budget indie studios such as 'Paramount Vantage' decide to scrap the idea and go for an ident that, rather than looking powerful and grand, they go for a more simple and yet just as effective by going for a more realistic ident.

 This goes for the British indie studio "Working Title" as well. their Ident portrays a more simple image for them, especially when compared with the big studios such as 'Warner Brothers' or 'Paramount'. Their Ident's symbolise the power and the wealth of their Studio, but Working Title show their low budget and their low place in the Film Studio Hierarchy. This contrasts with the films that they have produced, including "Les Miserables" and "Ali G In da house". However, their lacking Idents make them less memorable than film companies such as 'Warner Bros', and so the film companies themselves are lacking in popularity. This proves that, after all, Image is everything.

Media Studies- 'The Birds' Analysis

In Alfred Hitchcock's Thriller film, 'The Birds', starring Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshete and Tippi, there are many Thriller Conventions that are used in order to make it a successful thriller. One way that this is achieved is through creating a new type of villain, which is nature itself. Compared to Hitchcocks other Thrillers, including 'Psycho' and 'North by North-West', the main villains have been people, whether it was an evil organisation trying to take down a secret agent, or a psychotic man who really loved his mother, people have always been the cause for the story progressing. However, in 'The Birds' the villains are birds themselves, and Nature is seen as the evil force. This creates a contrast, and enforces a parallel between the normal Thriller and the abnormality that this movie creates. This follows Vladimir Propp's theory about the different character types in all thrillers. In 'The Birds', there is a villain(The Birds), there is a Helper(Worker from school), there is a Provider(Mother), there is a princess and there is a father. Therefore, this Thriller does follow Propp's Theory of Binary Opposites, and does follow certain Thriller Conventions. There are other themes that are used in 'The Birds' that are used to keep the audience's attention to the film, such as 'Dramatic Irony'. This is where the audience are aware of a plot point or a situation in the film that the main hero doesn't know. This happens in 'The Birds' when the main character is outside of the school, and a flock of killer birds gather behind her without her knowing.

Mise-en-Scene Media Studies

Mise-en-Scene is a French term used in film making meaning "In the scene", and is used to describe everything on the screen at one time. This includes five elements that are; 'Setting and Props', 'Costume, hair and makeup', 'Facial Expressions', 'Lighting and colour' and 'Positioning of characters and objects in the frame'.

 In terms of colour, movies such as "We need to talk about Kevin" use the objects in shot to represent certain moods and emotions, mostly red in this instance. Red is used in "We need to talk about Kevin" because the film is primarily a thought provoking film, and is a form of 'horror' film based around the fear of being a bad parent. The story is enhanced by the mise-en-scene very well, and the section of 'Lighting and Colour' is manipulated in order to enhance the fear and thought provoking factors. Some parts of the film are shown as dark and plain in terms of the lighting in order to enhance the suggestion of the darkness of the story. As previously stated, red is a common colour in the film, and is used to represent violence and anger within the main woman and Kevin, and is often shown at times of anxiety of danger. Black and White are also common colours in the film, as they are both shown in most scenes. An example of this is during the beginning scene, where the first thing that the audience is greeted with is a POV shot of the woman walking into a white curtain blowing in the darkness of night. This would seem to be a strange opening scene, until realising that the same scene is used near the end of the film, and the other side of the curtain is revealed to cover the woman's husband and child dead by being shot by an arrow on the lawn. This can be interpreted to represent the woman life, and the curtain and the darkness are part of this. The complete darkness can represent the woman's life up to that point, covered in darkness with very few parts actually happy, shown by a small collection of illuminated objects. The white curtain can be seen to represent the safety of her happiness, and that contains her husband and her daughter. Therefore, when she peers through the curtain and sees her dead child and spouse, she is piercing through the last safety net of happiness of at least having people in her life other than Kevin.
 'Settings and Props' is also represented well in the film, as there are a handful of scenes that depict points of her life in a non-linear sequence, and one of these takes place directly after the first curtain scene, and shows the past of the woman. the scene shows her taking part of a Spanish festival known as 'La Tomatina'. The festival mainly consists of a large group of people celebrating in Tomato juice and tomatoes being  thrown at each other. Within this festival is the woman, smiling and being carried by a large group of random me. This can be shown to be the one of the last happy moments in her life, as this entire sequence just ends up being recollection in a dream. Therefore, the setting is used to spread a message to the audience, one of how sad and lonely the woman is in order to only be able to revisit enjoyment and ecstasy is through her dreams.