Jean-Luc Burch Film Studies Blog

Wasp Vs Soft Genre: Wasp: Wasp is a drama that is based around the life of Zoe who is a single mother struggling financially as she attempts to form a relationship with an old friend. Soft: Soft is also a drama like wasp and it focuses on the relationship between a father and son as they both face harassment from a gang. Themes: Wasp: Wasp covers many themes to do with family and money. It covers neglect as Zoe fails to watch over her kids when going out (I don’t blame her as it is clear she is struggling) and her baby ends up almost eating a wasp. It also covers themes on poverty as Zoe can barely afford clothes and even has to resort to feeding her children flour. There is also the ever-present threat of Zoe having her children taken away by social services which links in with her neglect and adds a sense of danger to the plot. Soft: Soft covers many themes such as male gender roles (men being seen as strong and having to stand up for themselves), gang violence a...

Film Review Saw 3 The saw movies despite devolving to pure torture porn in the later films still holds a soft spot in my heart. The first few movies use many clever practical effects and settings due to their comparatively low budget. Using fast moving camera switches of close ups allows the film makers to convey gory horrific scenes without actually showing much of it. Context: The saw movies come from a background of low budget college level films. The original saw idea was a feature length development of a ten minute short film (created by James Wan and Leigh Whannell) of the same name in which Leigh Whannell plays David, a victim of the jigsaw killer. The short was simply a demonstration of the concept created to pitch the idea to production companies hence why a director plays the lead role. However due to low budget Leigh Whannell would also go on to play a lead role in the first saw film. Budget is a large part of what impresses me about the saw movies, the first one in...

Techniques and Comparison of Get Off My Land and Ralph Camera Angles: Both short films contain many interesting camera angles particularly towards their beginnings. Ralph uses large open scenery shots whereas Get Off My Land starts with a tighter closer angled shot. Ralph uses these wide shots to establish how far out of his comfort zone ralph is. It shows how small he is in this unwelcoming new place. Whereas Get Off My Land begins with a more constricted close angle shot focusing on the ground and the feet of the characters. This is done to focus the camera onto the characters feet. The feet are a focus because it is used to show how the male character is unprepared for the countryside as he is wearing unsuitable shoes compared to the walking boots that his partner is wearing. Sound (Scene): Sound is used to set the scene in Ralph. The audience hears the sound of trains and lots of people which tells us that Ralph is in a busy train station. We also hear a train platform ann...

Genre and Narrative in Film Genre is an interesting subject because it is something that has developed a lot through time. Looking back hundreds of years most plays fell into only two genres, comedy and tragedy, and yet when we look at the extensive list of genres available now it is simply mind-blowing. A quick look on IMDB reveals almost 100 genres and those are just the ones that IMDB recognises. However, it is interesting to note that most films fall into these categories with very little variation. There are very few new ideas in modern film as most films use concepts from films that came before it. This is why films mostly fit into genres very easily. An interesting way to visualise this is through the seven basic plotlines. The idea of the seven basic plotlines is that pretty much all movies follow at least one of these basic plot lines. For example, there is “overcoming a monster” where the protagonist sets out to fight an evil force that threatens the protagonist’s homeland...