Script - Vlog 2
X-Men Origins Wolverine
I will be analysing X-Men Origins Wolverine and to explain
in depth of what its purpose, genre, form and style. Narrative will also be
explained with this along with narrative and Mise-en-scene that is used in the
film.
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 for
example, 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 it could touch on some form morality
issues i.e. if mutants were to exists, how would the 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 the event which led to him being forced
to do so and through the story, Logan and his brother Victor go through
history, from war to war to 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
disruption 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 hard to create real-time or it would be too low to hear.
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 fade in further connotes the effect of loss because the image slowly
dissipates away and shows a different scene. This could connote the fact that
Wolverine is trying to forget that memory. This is also an ellipsis to connote
the passage of time although the fade could also mean that Wolverine hasn’t
completely forgotten the memory of losing his partner. This doesn’t necessarily
factor into the preferred reading as it is not a romance.
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 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, Wolverine 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 proceeds 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, props and sound and these are
all considered during the pre-production. Camera work is planned out during
pre-production and is 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. It 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 artificially 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.
Foley sound is done in post-production to create sounds that
doesn’t necessarily happen naturally or are not loud enough to be heard from
the just the footage. They are done to simulate realistic sounds effects and
are made by other materials that are not linked to the actual material. Foley
sounds are made to create verisimilitude and to create a feel of personal
involvement. The sounds can easily make people believe they are with the
characters on-screen. They are edited in afterwards, replacing the quieter
sounds and creating a better effect due to its close relation to the original
material.
No comments:
Post a Comment