Vlog 2 Script

X-Men Origins Wolverine

Purpose: The purpose of X-Men Origins Wolverine is to entertain the audience by providing a story and a form of narrative. This is done through the use of micro-elements such as Mise en Scene. The other main purpose of the film is to create profit, just like any other film producers. The film costs quite a huge sum of money; therefore profiting would be what film producers are aiming for. Purpose can be different for films, not necessarily to entertain or to create profit as they can sometimes be made for informing or educating others. Documentary films are made to educate and/or inform someone.

Genre: The genre of XMOW is action, adventure, sci-fi and thriller. XMOW has recurring scenes of action and thriller due to events that happen to create tension and suspense throughout the story. Adventure due to the fact that the protagonist in this film (Wolverine) has basically gone through history i.e. American Civil War, WWI and WWII. The recurring themes of sci-fi would be from the mutant powers the characters in the movie have denoted. They (somewhat conveniently) created a fictional metal called adamantium which changed Logan’s skeletal structure to be harder than any metal and this can connote a futuristic theme because the metal is considered to be virtually indestructible unless shot with the same type of metal i.e. adamantium.

Form and Style: It is in the form of a feature length film, with duration of 107 minutes. This was first featured at cinemas before being made for DVD. Its form links to the purpose, in which this was made to tell a story through narrative structure and techniques such as the story being told in an Orpheus style (Kate Domaille 2001). The style of XMOW can be considered futuristic because of the recurring themes of people with genetic powers, also known as mutants and could touch on some form morality issues i.e. if mutants were to exists, how would non-mutants react.

Narrative: The movie style is told through Mise en Scene, dialogue, sound and camera work, along with editing. One can easily tell that through the sound if the character is Wolverine for example, when they hear the ‘shing’ sound that Wolverines claws makes when he releases them. The narrative structure (Tzvetan Todorov 1977) that XMOW denotes begins with the disruption first which doesn’t follow Todorovs’ theory of Equilibrium-Disruption-New Equilibrium. The disruption is that young Logan kills his father due to event prior to this that pretty much forced him to do so and through the story Logan and his brother Victor go through history, from war to war and finally arrive in modern times only to be recruited by a major to a team consisting of other mutants. This isn’t necessarily the equilibrium as it is temporary and the story throws Logan back into another disruptions which follows through the other movies where Wolverines Problem haven’t been solved yet. (Levi Strauss 1977) Talked about how there is almost always a ‘good guy’ and a ‘bad guy’, the binary opposites. In this case, Logan would be the ‘good guy’ and the people who he’s going against are the ‘bad guys’. Logan is the protagonist in this because he is who we follow through the story and the main antagonist would be Stryker, which means he is technically the only ‘bad guy’. Some scenes in XMOW denotes some jump cuts to create suspense and to connote the fast pace of the action. Another editing technique that is denoted in the film is action match shots. An example of this would be when Wolverine escapes the liquid chamber. During this scene, it is also done in slow motion which is another editing technique to connote some form of sustained suspense. The slow motion may connote the sustained fear the antagonists are feeling when Wolverine escapes.

Sound: XMOW contains diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. An example of a diegetic sound would be during the explosion of the helicopter when Wolverine sets it alight. A non-diegetic sound would be the music playing in the background i.e. during the chase the scene with Zero and the helicopter. Another example would be the when Wolverine releases and swings his claws around; it creates a metallic swing sound. The non-diegetic sounds are added during post-production, during the editing. These are added because the sound most likely cannot be made on set as it would be either too had to create real-time or it would be too low to here.

Mise-en-scene

Content and Meaning: Locations denoted through the film begin with an 1850’s house; which follows through to when the protagonist, Logan grows older along with his brother and they are thrown in the American Civil War and then through WWI and WWII. This connotes the passage of time and how much they haven’t aged because of their mutant powers. A very obvious icon of the film would be Wolverines Claws. This links in to the props but the claws are most likely CGI during release, therefore not a physical prop and possibly until fully released. (It may continue being a CGI)

The characters that are most notable in this film is most likely Wolverine and Sabretooth because of how the story is mainly focused in Wolverine and his relation to everyone else and his story of trying to get revenge against those who tried to betray him. There are other characters involved in the story but are only known through Logan because of his connections to ‘Team X’. People would recognize if Wolverine was getting his claws ready because of the gesture he performs during the release of his claws. Somewhat the same for Sabretooth but his claws become enlarged instead.

The costumes that the characters wear seem to have some sort of link to their original themed characters, albeit some differences i.e. Wolverine wearing leather jackets instead of the denoted costume he wears in the comics. This applies to most of the characters who wear costumes that represent their character. This also seems to link in to their props such as Gambit using his cards and staff to attack. The most important prop in the story is most likely Wolverines’ claws which was first bone claws, turned metal during his metal implantation. Wolverine has a signature look in the films and is denoted in XMOW where his hair is made to stay up in a  way to represent some sort of ‘wild’ feeling, most likely to connote the fact that he is ‘Wolverine’ or a wolf.

The film denotes quite a lot of cool colour filtering which could possibly connote some form of feeling of futurism. The lighting mostly consists of high key apart from some certain scenes, which denotes some form of history that Wolverine went through. The colouring used throughout the film is quite natural in the fact that it is trying to create verisimilitude. It is trying to reflect some form of realism so that the audience may actually feel the mutants’ powers are real.

The preferred reading (Stuart Hall 1980) that was being created of XMOW was most likely the fact that the protagonist is on a journey to truly find his true identity and what he lives for. The preferred reading also links in to the fact that he is also on a journey to get his revenge against those who have gone against him. The narrative structure is Orpheus, which is denoted through that the loss of his love interest may have affected his way of life and whether he has the will to live.

The locations that were denoted featured fields in which the wars that Wolverine participated in i.e. American Civil War and both World Wars. This connotes that fact that he has survived this long due to his powers and explains why he doesn’t kill necessarily just for the sake of killing but to survive. This also links in to the fact that his morality is still with him albeit his mutant abilities and the fact that he is able to live longer than average humans because of his mutation.

He is shown to be wearing the same outfits they wore during the wars i.e. American Civil War fatigues displaying the colours and the World War fatigues. This may connote the fact that the protagonist (Logan) has not found his true identity yet and is going through along with history to find his true self instead of committing mindless murder like his brother, Victor. A main prop that the antagonist uses against Wolverine is the revolver loaded with bullets made of the same metal Wolverine has been implanted with. This prevents from using his healing and is ultimately shot in the head and is done to erase his memory. They use an insert shot to denote this scene and is one of the main focus of the story. This is repeated in a previous scene when Wolverine escapes, Stryker is shown with the revolver.

Camera Work: XMOW denotes several types of camera works and a main example would be during the fight scene where Victor and Logan are fighting off Deadpool who clearly overwhelms them. An arc shot is done to show a full view of the action and it connotes the fact that Deadpool is almost impossible to fight against in the situation they are given. It also connotes that everything Logan and Victor have done comes back around to them i.e. the creation of Deadpool. This happened because Victor chose to help Stryker and Logan chose to have the operation to have the metal implanted into him which allowed Stryker to steal his mutant powers.

An insert shot is used to display the Wolverines new claws from his operation. This is used to connote that Wolverine has now made an identity for himself. This is also most likely to show off the icon which is Wolverines and his claws since his claws are easily recognizable. An action match shot is used during the time when Wolverine is chased down by Strykers’ accomplices while Wolverine precedes to the cut the vehicle in front of him while racing down with a motorcycle. This may connote that there could be nothing that could stop Logan from taking his revenge and the fact that his emotions are currently not in check.

Production Process: Location will be considered pre-production because they will have to plan out the scripting and the narrative. It wouldn’t be possible to create narrative if the location was not considered first. Having a random location with no actual preparations wouldn’t make sense for both the story and narrative. Costumes will also have been part of the pre-production as it will be used during the production where they film and ready the costumes to be worn. Lighting and colour filters will be in during the production and the post-production. It will be done during production because having the correct lighting will give the audience a better understanding of the narrative and the story. Colour filters will most likely be added during the post-production where the footage that has been filmed can be edited on editing software. They can add artificial lighting and colouring to produce certain effects i.e. blue tint to create a futuristic feel (which is apparent in XMOW).

Planning the Mise-en-scene will be part of the pre-production and will be added during the production of the film. This is because Mise-en-scene is an important point to the films narrative and without the use of the elements it provides, it is often difficult to tell a good story. These elements consist of costume, lighting, gestures, costumes and sound. These are all considered during the pre-production. Camera work is planned out during pre-production and applied during the production where they begin filming. Planning out the camera work is another factor to the creation of the narrative. Editing is part of the post-production, this is because everything that is necessary such as cutting the footage and putting it together to create linear integrity can only be done once the footage is done. Editing can also provide the film visual effects where things that were not previously on the footage can be placed for example lens flares and brighter lighting. An example of an editing technique could be transitions such as dissolves and fades. This can connote the passage of time and could mean that time is passing. An eye-line shot for example, is used during the scene where Cyclops uses his mutant powers to take out the soldiers that were currently blocking their escape. It shows him as shooting the laser out of his eyes and it switches to his perspective then returns back to him after he finishes using his powers. Another example would be the use of a cut during the part where Logan and Victor are court martialled and it cuts to black after the sound of gun shots. This is to connote a form of ellipsis as it is not necessary to know what happened during when they were shot. This cut to black continues until it fades in on Logan and Victor in after the event.