American Beauty - What do we learn about the family?

The family are creatures of habit

• Carolyn puts the same music on every day, this is clear because the Daughter asks why they play the same music every day at dinner. 
• In the first seen, we get the idea that Lester has this same routine in the morning; put slippers on, have shower.

They used to be a close family

• Lester says that his wife 'wasn't always like this' and that he wishes he was close to his daughter again.
• Family pictures are shown of them looking happy and they are shown in the stereotypically correct way with Lester above Carolyn 

They have a dull home and family-life 

• There dining room has very plain and dull colours in it, blue cloths stand out and blue bowl in kitchen. 
• Lester has poor posture, slumped, could again reflect boredom and dullness. 

Hot Fuzz, This is England comparison

This is England, Hot Fuzz Comparison

Warp Films

Warp films is a sister company of Warp Records (known for artists such as Maximo Park & Aphex Twin). 
They were set up in 1999, it is based in Sheffield with offices in London, they have 14 full time staff. 
Warp Film releases:

• My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117 (Dir: Chris Morris - 2003)
• Dead Man's Shoes (Dir: Shane Meadows - 2004)
• Rubber Johnny (Dir: Chris Cunningham - 2005)
• Scummy Man (Arctic Monkeys short film/music video)
• This Is England (Dir: Shane Meadows - 2006)
• Grow Your Own (Dir: Richard Laxton - 2007)
• Dog Altogether (Dir: Paddy Considine - 2007)
• At the Apollo (Arctic Monkeys Dir: Richard Ayoade - 2008)
• Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (Dir: Shane Meadows- 2009)
• Four Lions (Dir: Chris Morris- 2009)

Shane Meadows

Shane Meadows is a British film director and screenwriter. He was born in 1972 in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. His Father was a lorry driver, his mum a worker in a fish and chip shop. At school he was bullied due to his Father being a suspect for murdering a young girl, when he discovered her body. When he was young he worked on a fruit and veg stall and enjoyed many trips to the local cinema. He left school with no GSCE's, he moved to Nottingham at the age of 20 and made around 30 short films with his friends there, these films became popular within the town he was living in. 


Most of his films are set in the Midlands area, and are based around his own childhood. He usually encourages actors to ad lib to add realism. 
His feature length films:-
Small time (1996)
Twenty Four Seven (1997)
A Room For Romeo Bass (1999)
Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002)
Dead Man's Shoes (2004)
This is England (2006)
Somers Town (2008)
Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee (2009)


Twenty Four Seven and This is England won several awards, including 'best independent british film' (This is England). Dead Man's Shoes was nominated for BAFTA's best British film. 

Preliminary Magazine Cover

Cover

Contents

Skins Series 1

Tony 

Impressions from opening sequence - 

• Eccentric, his bed sheets
• Neat, his clothes are folded up perfectly, no creases in bed sheet could have OCD
• Crafty, winds up his Dad, leaves through the window
• Confident, sexually ambitious with woman across street
• Knows how to work his dad, with his routine to let his sister in
• Cares about his appearance, with his work out and nice, neat clothes
• Arrogant, ignores his Dad, maybe over-ambitious
• Quirky, unusual - plain room, reading 'Nausea' book 

American Beauty

Opening Scene 

In the beginning of the film, it shows the character Lester Burnham, played by Kevin Spacey he is shown as a man dominated by his wife and not looked up by his daughter. His life seems boring and he is fed up of it.

From the opening few minutes you can identify a few themes:-

He is trapped - There are many images where Lester is behind bars or trapped behind something but he is also trapped by his wife, in the opening scene he is is bed on his own and puts on some slippers which his wife seems to make him put on. He is then shown in the shower behind the glass door and then shown looking at his wife talking to the neighbours from behind the window. Shortly after he is shown in the back seat of a car, again behind glass. The most clear indication that this film tries to set a theme of imprisonment is when his reflection is shown in the screen behind bars on the screen. 

His wife is dominant over him - his wife seems to like things a certain way, like the way her things match with colour, again the way Lester is made to put the slippers on indicates his Wife's dominance. The stereotype of families is that the father is first up and first to work and has the only or most important job, however it seems his wife does this instead of him. When he leaves the house he is being rushed by his wife, she and his daughter look on at him with a look of disapproval, and more disappointment from his daughter. 

Colour themes - The colours in the opening sequence are very dull and boring, this could represent how Lester Burnham sees his life, in his bedroom, lots of beige and off-white is used. Even his suit is grey, as is the family car. The colours that shine out are red, white and blue (the colours of the American flag) you see red in the roses, white in the fences and blue in the shutter of the house. 

Music - The music used at the start is quite upbeat but repetitive and arguably boring, which again could link to Lester Burnham's boring and repetitive life. The music is a motif, like the roses and is used throughout the film. 

Hot Fuzz

Cast
Nick Frost and Simon Pegg play police officers Danny Butterworth and Nicholas Angel, these two actors have previously worked with each other in previous productions; including 'Spaced' and 'Shaun of the Dead'. Nicholas Angel is an over committed Metropolitan police officer who is seen as 'too good' for the city and is transferred to the countryside to work with the laid-back PC Danny Butterworth, who is obsessed by the idea of being an action-cop. Jim Broadbent plays Danny's father Inspector Frank Butterworth and Timothy Dalton plays a sinister supermarket manager. There are also cameos from Steve Coogan,Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman and Stephen Merchant


Location 

The film begins in London at the Metropolitan Police Station but swiftly moves to the picturesque village of Sandford in Gloucestershire.












Directors 

The film is directed by Edgar Wright, He also directed Shaun of the Dead and Spaced with Nick Frost and Simon Pegg. He is the Writer, along with Simon Pegg of Hot fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. He also plays a cameo in the film as a shelf stacker in Somerfield. 














Sterotypes

In the film there are two main stereotypes shown, that of a Metropolitan police officer who is obsessed and overly committed and lets the job take over his life and of Police officers in the countryside who are stereotypically lazy and very casual about their jobs. 








Humour 

Hot Fuzz is a comedy film, it follows along the same lines as Shaun of the Dead, it mocks conventional cop-action films similar to the way Shaun of the Dead mocks a horror film. The film uses many typical British puns and mocking jokes throughout the film, the over-seriousness of Sergeant Angel makes some of the situations he is put in seem very funny. 




Camera work

The camera work and angles are used to make situations in the film seem more exciting and typical of action films than it is. It uses quick angles changes and close ups regularly to do so. 












How the film targets British audiences
This film targets British audience with the typical British humour and jokes throughout the film, It uses British stereotypes which british audiences will understand and find funny, It is sort of a British comedic version of a typical American Cop-action film. 

Representation - The Man

At first glance this man can be described as a tramp or homeless person, maybe his scarf seems a bit scruffy but in particular his trousers draw attention because they have patches on, that arguably look scrappy because they do not match his trousers. After a further look at the picture though, you an see that none of his clothes are dirty or oversized which you would think typical of a tramp, his shoes are of decent quality as well. When you look at his trousers, as well as the patches they are neatly rolled up at the bottom in a way that looks like it is out of his own fashion and not out of necessity with the trousers being too long. He is also wearing a check shirt, which is quite fashionable and a cardigan to go with it, tramps are stereotypically long-haired  and have a lot of facial hair, this man has a neatly trimmed beard, you can't really see his hair because of his beanie hat. 

About Me

Academic

• GCSE Results - 2 A's 5 B's 1 C - B in English Language.
• AS Courses - Media, Geography, English Language, Economics (A2)  

Media Interests 

• Films - Toy Story, A Bug's Life (Pixar), Shaun Of The Dead, Men In Black, Iron Man, Bad Boys II, Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.
• TV - The Office, The Inbetweeners, Ashes To Ashes, The IT Crowd, Soccer AM, Gavin And Stacey, Scrubs, Men Behaving Badly. 
• Music - The Maccabees, The XX, Two Door Cinema Club, Foals, Klaxons, Bloc Party, Coldplay, Delphic, Daft Punk

Why I'm Studying Media

• I have a keen interest in Music, Tv and Film, I enjoy things like Magazines as well, so with my outside interests i thought it would be a subject i would enjoy doing at AS level.