Development of ideas and structure in moving image

“Every movie needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.” - Jean-Luc Godard

PRINCIPAL 1

At the beginning of the film “Zombieland”, the opening credits show a sequence of slowed down footage of different zombie attacks, not only from the title but from the opening scenes, the au

dience are aware that this film is about the undead. The protagonist “Columbus” is established as the voice over. He sets out “rules” in which the audience can follow to guide them through the film which has been initially set out as a zombie apocalypse. “Columbus” then shows the “beginning” of the Zombie take over, when his rather cliched dumb-blonde, helpless, beautiful neighbour runs in to his flat after being bitten

and turns in to a member of the undead.

The middle part of the film then goes on to show how “Columbus” meets “Tallahassee” (names given to the characters to narrow them down to the country they are from as they are no longer human beings with rights but statistics of humans that are still living) and how they meet “Wichita” and her younger sister who are all trying to get to different locations which they each believe is their safest option, however are playing their own selfish games against each other.
Along the way there is a romance between “Columbus” and “Wichita” as they try to create a mutiny against the zombies.
The Unity of time in the film is not fluid. There are scenes

of flashbacks to happier times, before the zombies were around, to make the audience understand that they once lived in “standard society.”

The ending is then left open but gains a happier tone as it shows that the 4 build not only a strong relationship but a “gang” to fight against the zombies.
The film shows around thirty minutes at the beginning to “establish” the criteria. It then has around an hour to show the main section of the film, and then finishes with around half an hour to end the film on a positive note.
This film relates to Todorov’s theory of “equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium.”

Character Design - four aspects of character.

Protagonist	The protagonist of the film I have chosen to write about is Harry Potter, The books and Films are of course entitled with his name, which insinuates to us that he is the main character/ protagonist.
Antagonist	The antagonist in the film is Voldemort... he is Harry Potter’s enemy “neither can die while the other lives.” It is clear that he is the cause of conflict as in each of the films he comes back with vengeance to try and become stronger and destroy the protagonist of the film.
Dialogue	The words used by characters can give a good insight in to a character so as the audience can understand who they are. For example Neville Longbottom, a cowardice but penultimately brave character in the series, is described with praise: “It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.”
Stereotype	Draco Malfoy is the typical school “bully” who boasts about his families’ financial circumstances and mocks Harry for not having parents. However we do learn that, like most bullies, Draco Malfoy is deep down a coward who puts others down in order to make himself feel adequate.

Appearance	Harry Potter has a geeky and disheveled look which deters the audience from his exceptional power and bravery.
Action	Harry Potter is the typical good conquers evil story. He is the “goody” and Voldemort, his opponent, is the “baddy” He has exceptional power and is the action hero of the films.
Interaction	Harry Potter has different levels of interaction with each character. Each and every character plays a vital part in the story and provides a link to all the back stories within the main story.