Exploring Themes
A question that I found really intriguing is, when does a child lose its innocence? From asking different people I have a conclusion that for everyone it’s different. In the film Maria Full of Grace to escape her life of poverty, she makes this deal to swallow bags of money at such a young age. Getting involved in certain things may get her to grow up faster than she should and have a different insight of life and mentality. Things that can affect this are the environment you are in, the music you listen to, the people you are surrounded by and the hard things you have to deal with in life and decisions you have to make.The character Mathilda (Natalie Portman) in The Professional (1994) is a 12-year-old with mental issues who in the film is introduced hiding that she smokes from her dad. When her family members are killed and she meets Leon, a hitman, she is quickly taught how to kill for a living in order to survive and hide those hitman’s looking for her. Her character is very interesting as she had no connections to her family members other than her little brother and when he was killed she lost interest in life and all she wanted to do was have revenge on those who murdered her family.
This theme is very versatile as there’s a lot you can do with it, and different ways of telling a story effectively. Writing a screenplay for a short film with this theme would allow me to explore a range of scenario’s, such as a child moving out their parent’s house too early, a teenager who has to kill to make a living, losing virginity too early and someone who sells their body to escape poverty. Of course, there are certain topics that may be very tricky to do and I will have to very careful when writing my script due to what view the audience might have about it and the seriousness of the topic.
Individual vs Society refers to the tension that results when an individual does not want to live within the confines of their culture or society. For instance, if someone wants to be a nudist but their society requires clothes, that person may feel out of place, socially awkward or upset with society. In this type of theme, the character always has something to fight for, which is really interesting because you get to witness how they choose to deal with it and carry on that story. Using this theme would allow me to write a script for a powerful character with a good background story. However, this may turn out too long so I plan on exploring different around the timescale of the short film I am planning on writing.
LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirited, queer, intersex, asexual and ally. + stands for pansexual, a gender, gender queer, bigender, gender variant, pangender. TV shows such as Glee, The Carries Diaries and Riverdale the character who fancies the same sex is usually a male who is a girl’s best friend. TV shows can be very stereotypical and conform to the media to gain a bigger audience. This can sell us the wrong story, not all male who are gay has to have a female best friend. I could use this theme to show the opposite that their sex doesn’t determine what type of person they are or how they act. I think that this would be an interesting script to follow up on for my FMP.
With the Man vs Self-theme, the character experiences an inner struggle, it usually takes place in their inner mind. Sometimes it also has something to do with choice or overcoming emotions and mixed feelings. An example of a Man vs self-film is The Lord of the rings: The Return Of The King. In this film, the main goal is to destroy the ring which bears a heavy burden on its bearer Frodo whom if wears the ring will become power hungry and lose sight of the importance of the mission. This type of theme is very interesting as it gives you an insight of how the character think, why they act the way they do and sometimes this makes it easier to sympathize with them because we can understand or want to understand how they feel. Using this theme it would be nice to write a personal screenplay, a relatable story that can appeal to a wider audience with a positive message.
Rebirth stories generally focus on villain protagonists who redeem themselves over the course of the story, after spiraling deeper into villainy and meeting a redemption figure. Redemption figures usually come in the form of a child or the protagonist’s other half, and they serve to remind the villain-hero what compassion or love feels like. They also help the villain-hero see what the world alignment is actually like, instead of the warped perception that the protagonist has that has given them the proclivity towards villainy. Castaway and The Matrix are both films based on rebirth. The Matrix covers the story of a computer programmer who is unplugged from the system and is introduced to the real world as the chosen one who is supposed to be their savior.
Wolf of Wall Street, Limitless, The Pursuit of Happiness and Slumdog Millionaire are all films with the rags to riches theme. Rags to riches refer to a person’s rise from extreme poverty to great wealth. From Limitless (2011) we learn about an aspiring author who is suffering from chronic writer’s block. His life drastically changes when an old friend introduces him to NZT a revolutionary new pharmaceutical that allows him to tap his full potential. With this drug, his accomplishments manage to interest the eye of mega-mogul Carl Van Loon who invites him to help broker the largest merger in corporate history. Unluckily the brutal side effects of the drugs are grinding him down, however, he manages to dodge mysterious stalkers, a vicious gangster, and an intense police investigation as he attempts to hang on to his dwindling supply long enough to outwit his enemies. Rags to riches theme would allow me to show the interesting come up with a character, what they were willing to do, what values they willing to sacrifice and what they were willing to lose. I find Limitless to be a great example, because not only does our protagonist nearly lose his ex-wife who decided to give him another chance but also the skills he had learned and the job he fought for.
The Goonies, Star Wars, Star Trek and The Princess Bride are all films that have the theme adventure. In Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983) Luke Skywalker’s( our protagonist) main goal is to defeat Jabba the Hut and Darth Vader to save his comrades in the Rebel Alliance. Even though Luke desires to destroy the Dark side, he wishes to bring his father Darth Vader to the light side of the force. During act three of the film, Vader takes Luke to the death star to meet the Emperor, intent on turning him to the dark side. The emperor also tempts Luke to give in to his anger and entreats Luke to kill Vader and take his place but Luke refuses and is attacked by the Emperor with Force lighting. Not willing to let his son die Vader kills the Emperor and ends up mortally wounded. I presume that the audience felt sympathy for Vader during this moment, as he was able to finally connect with Luke and make an attempt to redeem himself. I believe that every adventure film consists of a quest and in Return of the Jedi Luke finding his father was something the audience craved to see.
Betrayal is found in films such as Road to Perdition, Macbeth, Get out and The Dark Knight. Get out (2017) is written and directed by Jordan Peele, it’s a horror slash thriller film with some comedy in it. It underlines the ideology of racial supremacy and the discomfort of liberal racism. SPOILER ALERT. The film is based on a talented young black photographer named Chris played by actor Daniel Kaluuya. Chris goes on a trip with his girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) to visit her parents. Chris is worried that her parents are racist and is disturbed to find out that the seemingly liberal family has a few black ‘servants’ who behave like zombies, and are seemingly controlled/manipulated by an unseen force. He is very unsettled by (mostly white) visitors to the house who make gauche passive racially-charged comments, crooning over Chris’s frame and genetic outlook and announcing “Black is in fashion!” Throughout the film, we find out that Rose’s parents is putting white people’s minds in a black individuals body. Rose denies to Chris of ever having a black boyfriend, however during the climax of the film when Chris is packing to leave, he finds an unlocked room with a box full of photographs of all of her previous black boyfriends. This is a big plot twist, and a huge act of betrayal for Chris and the audience as they both realize at the same time that his girlfriend who claimed to love him was also invested in their scheme.
It’s very satisfying that there aren’t any hints until the end of the movie that his girlfriend is also plotting to erase him. This is a very useful technique that I could use when writing any media project to add more suspense to it and keep the audience guessing.
Titanic(1997) directed by James Cameron, entails the story of a ship named Titanic that sinks. In this ship, there are three fictional characters one of them is Rose( Kate Winslet) who’s engaged to Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). Rose hates her life, she’s surrounded by really contentious rich people and when she meets young Jack played by Leonardo Di Caprio who’s this fun free spirit kind of guy who’s really poor and third class on the Titanic she ends up taking a liking of him and building a forbidden romance with a partner other than her fiancé. Titanic entertains the theme of forbidden love which is seen in other films such as Romeo & Juliet. Titanic allows us to explore the reactions of the characters and also how this affects them and the direction that the story is going to take. This could be used to write a love/hate friendship and how this affects friendships on the daily basis. This would be very easy to do as it could only require two characters, therefore, two actors which would be smarter to work on as I could use the extra time to fully develop these characters.
An advertising theme is a repetitive message that’s used to promote brand awareness and its aim is to provide an impact beyond just individual or disconnected ads. Its central idea is intended in trigger desired action from customers. This is often seen in infographics which for example this Apple advert:
In the advert, we are shown kinetic typography, which is the technical name for moving text. It’s an animation technique mixing motion and text ideas using video animation. It also includes video footage and motion graphics. This can be all done in Adobe after effects CC 2017 and Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017.
Another example could be this Apple motion graphics advert:
This advert contains a simple set of keyframes that can change the opacity, rotation, position, scale, and effects that make a motion graphics animation. By using motion graphics I would be able to create a professional infographics advert creating awareness about topics such as what food are bad for your health? Are fizzy drinks bad for you? And how pathogens cause disease in the body. This would allow me to hone my skills and possibly also make people aware of the things that affect us.
Analog vs digital explores the advantages and disadvantages of using analog or digital and helps us to come to a conclusion on which one is better to use for different situations. Analog photography uses a progressively changing recording medium, that can be either chemical process based, e.g. photographic film or plate. Or electronic, e.g. vidicon or CCD sensor. The latent image is subjected to photographic processing, makes it visible and also insensitive to light. On the other hand, digital photography uses a camera with arrays of electronic photodetectors to capture images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. We can argue that digital cameras are better than analogs however it depends on the look you are going for and how much you are willing to spend.
Luana Santos 