2. • Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
• The Avengers
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
GENRE: FANTASY ACTION FILM
3. REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
Director: Michael Bay
Release Dates: June 19th 2009 (UK)
June 24th 2009 (US)
PLOT
The film is set two years after the events of
Transformers. The Autobots have found a home in
"NEST", a secret military unit created to eliminate
the remaining Decepticons, and Sam is starting
college and trying to leave his Transformer-laden
past behind. The Decepticons are regrouping,
however. Megatron is restored to life, and his
master, The Fallen, schemes to activate an
energon-producing Star Harvester on Earth,
which will destroy the planet and provide the
Decepticons with enough energon to raise an
army. The Harvester's location, and the means to
activate it, are hidden within Sam's mind, leading
the Decepticons to wage war across the Earth as
they hunt down the human. Witwicky turns to
some unlikely allies to escape and survive.
Ultimately, the last of the Primes defeats The
Fallen, destroys the Harvester, and proves the
Autobots' greatest power is found in their
unexpectedly-ancient alliance with the humans.
4. THE AVENGERS:
Director: Joss Whedon
Release Dates: April 11th 2012
PLOT:
Loki, the stepbrother of Thor, teams-up with
the Chitauri Army and uses the Tesseract
power to travel from Asgard to Earth to plot
the invasion of Earth by the Chitauri and
become the king of Earth. The director of the
agency S.H.I.E.L.D Nick Fury sets in motion
the project The Avengers, joining Tony Stark
a.k.a. the Iron Man; Steve Rogers, a.k.a.
Captain America; Bruce Banner, a.k.a. The
Hulk; Thor; Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black
Widow; and Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, to
save the world from the powerful Loki and
the alien invasion.
5. HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE
PHOENIX:
Director: David Yates
Release Dates: July 11th 2007
PLOT:
After a lonely summer on Privet Drive, Harry
returns to a Hogwarts full of ill-fortune. Few of
students and parents believe him or Dumbledore
that Voldemort is really back. The ministry had
decided to step in by appointing a new Defence
Against the Dark Arts teacher that proves to be the
nastiest person Harry has ever encountered. Harry
also can't help stealing glances with the beautiful
Cho Chang. To top it off are dreams that Harry can't
explain, and a mystery behind something
Voldemort is searching for. With these many things
Harry begins one of his toughest years at Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
6. CHOSEN GENRE
The genre I’ve chosen is ‘Fantasy Action’, the type of fantasy in all three of my chosen films
is ‘heroic fantasy.’ All 3 films also include the ‘sci-fi’ genre, I chose this genre because I like
films which include fictional characters, lands and etc… Instead of just making a film on
actual events or people they’re making their own characters and putting more thought into
their films. It shows the creativity which has been put into a film. Also I think the actors are
important in a film for example in the The Avengers the characters/actors made me want to
watch the film because all of the superheroes have their own films which I enjoyed
watching for example Thor, Iron man, The hulk, Captain American and etc… Even though
the trailer was one of the main reasons for me wanting to watch ‘The Avengers.’ Also when
watching the sneak peaks and trailers I liked the look of the special effects, this was a main
factor for me wanting to watch all three of these film. Another reason is because of the
sound effects, I think it made some scenes more intense.
7. Reception theory is how we reach to films based on our age, social class and cultural background. The
media producer will encode meaning in the film which the audience decodes by either agreeing with
them (preferred), understanding the meaning of the film but neither like or dislike it (negotiation) and
finally completely disagreeing with the director and disliking the film (oppositional.) One of my
preferred films is transformers, I love all three films and the fantasy side to them. Also most ‘superhero’
films use people with super powers to help save the world, instead of using people they’ve used
transforming robots, I also like the idea of how they disguise as cars so no body suspects them. One of
my favourite things about this film is the special effects. This is one of my favourite genres of film, I
think this is because of my age and my upbringing.
Reception Theory
8. Intertexuality
Intertexuality is when a media products like films, music
videos and TV shows include text from other media
products, for example in ‘Transformers: Dark of the
Moon 2011’ Leonard Nemoy voices a characters. At the
beginning of the film two other characters are watching
‘Star Trek’, this is a reference to Leanord Nemoy’s most
famous iconic role as Spock. Intertexuality sometimes
encourages me to watch films, I don’t look up what
Intertexuality a film has but sometimes I notice it while
watching certain films. Intertexuality can be shown in a
variety of ways for example The Black Widow from The
Avengers has a variety of different characters from other
films which are similar such as Elastigirl from The
Incredibles and Selene from Underworld. Harry Potter
has a lot of Intertexuality with Lord Of the Rings, for
example they both have wise wizards who look like each
other and the protagonists like to lean on them. Also
both of the protagonists are orphans, this has been used
in a variety of films with this genre now. Another
Intertexuality is the gifts the Elf queen gives the hobbits
and the gifts Dumbledore gives Harry, Ron and
Hermione. The cloak of invisibility and the light.
9. STAR THEORY:
Star Theory is when a certain star in a film attracts you to watch it. Theirs a lot of stars which I
like and I watch films because they’re in such as The Avengers, the characters/actors made
me want to watch the film because all of the superheroes have their own films which I
enjoyed watching for example Thor, Iron man, The hulk, Captain American and etc… Also
Captain American ‘Chris Evans’ is in a variety of other films which I like such as fantastic four
and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, he’s a good actor in these films and is also good looking.
Since watching all of the Harry Potter films I watch new films or trailers which include certain
actors from the film such as Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson because they’re good actors.
10. Frameworks of interpretation:
Spiderman
http://youtu.be/atCfTRMyjGU• Code & Conventions:
Keeps the normal conventions of a fantasy action film e.g. superhero has to spot the antagonist
from taking over the world and succeeds, during this he falls in love with the woman who wants to
help him.
Theirs a variety of props used in the trailer such as weapons, cards, football and needles. This
conforms to the genre of the film.
• Setting:
New York City, Science lab, high school.
• Character:
Peter Parker/Spiderman: Main character, hides his identity, parents died, protagonist.
Peters Uncle: Father figure, helps Peter find himself and his father.
DR Conner’s/ Lizard: Antagonist, tries to destroys the world, Spiderman helped create him and he worked
with Peters father before he died.
• Themes:
The themes in this trailer are revenge, good triumphing over evil, life & death and romance. This
conforms to the genre.
• Narrative:
The narrative on the trailer is sequential, it goes back in time to when Peter is younger, also
Denouement because the hero lives.
• Iconography:
New York skyline and Yellow taxis.
• Ideological message:
The messages the trailer gives are goodness will prevail, all will end well and goodness will
triumph over evil.
11. • Code & Conventions:
keeps the normal conventions to the fantasy action genre e.g. the superhero has to stop the
antagonist (his brother) and succeeds, during this he falls in love with the woman who wants to
help him.
Their isn’t many props in the trailer, some of the props I saw are a lorry, Thors hammer and cars.
• Setting:
New york- Asgrad (world of gods)
• Character:
Thor: protagonist, Brave, good looking.
Loki: Antagonist, Thor’s brother.
Dr Jane Foster: Scientist, helps protagonist, falls in love with Thor
• Themes:
The themes in this trailer are revenge, life & death and romance.
• Narrative:
The trailers narrative is sequential because it goes back in time, narrative and denouement because
the hero lives.
• Iconography:
The only iconography I can see in the trailer is power.
• Ideological message:
The messages given while watching this trailer are goodness will prevail and all will end well.
Frameworks of interpretation:
Thor 2
http://youtu.be/3bFZJ-3zNFg
12. Frameworks of interpretation:
Xmen
• Code & Conventions:
keeps the normal conventions of the fantasy action genre e.g. The group of superhero’s stop
the antagonists from destroying the world, eventually they succeed. The story is done in a
different way to my other chosen film trailers though.
The props that are in the trailer are computers/laptops, cars and weapons.
• Character:
Wolverine: Protagonist, brave, strong Sabretooth: Antagonist
Cyclops: Protagonist Mystique: Antagonist
Storm: Protagonist, brave Toad: Antagonist, cocky
Rogue: Protagonist, scared Magneto: Antagonist, leader.
Jean Grey: Protagonist
Professor X: Protagonist, main character, in charge.
• Themes:
Life & Death and good triumphing over evil.
• Iconography:
Power
• Ideological message:
The messages the trailer gives out are goodness will prevail and all will end well.
13. There’s a variety of ways I find out about films the main one is friends and family telling
me about trailers or films they’ve seen, another way I find out about films is social
networking, Facebook is a big one when scrolling down my news feeds I sometimes see
film trailers which other people have shared/ liked. Also twitter because I follow actors
which I like and they sometimes post new films which they’re acting in.
Majority of the time I look on cinema websites, mainly Odeon, to see what films have
recently come out and I watch trailers on YouTube to see if I’d enjoy it.
MEDIA LITERACY:
14. ACTIVE SPECTATORSHIP:
Every viewer is different and many of them will question the film and react to it in different ways than
others, this is similar to reception theory.
Sometimes the audience of a film become a big fan and create fan clubs to get the film a wider audience
and to organise things such as conventions. This has happened with many films such as Star wars, the
Star wars convention happens every year in Europe and thousands of fans from all around the world
come to it, some dressed up in darth vador, storm troopers and etc….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBb0sbOLgfY
There’s also some conventions for the genre I’ve chosen for example theirs one in Manchester every year
for comic books which is organised by ‘ComicCon’, this year it’s on 19-20th July at Manchester Central it’s
open from 11am-6pm on both days. A variety of comic book fans, which includes Xmen and Marvel,
from all over the world come to see it and some even go dressed up as their favourite superhero. They
have a variety of activities going on all day and you’re able to meet some famous people at this
convention.
http://vimeo.com/71808905
Theirs also a variety of different comic book conventions across the world which is organised by
ComicCon. Another big film with quite a few conventions across the world is Harry Potter, theirs one in
London every year.
