The Big Issue Cover Evaluation

WWW: I feel that I've captured the bold, bright colour design typical of BI covers, and thus is very eye-catching. The mast head is prominent, the focal image is large and fills up the space. The headline "Marvin Singer" is bold and easily readable.

EBI: Have more of a variation in topic of the inside stories other than just music and artists. Perhaps try out different colours and textures of text other than just white. Wear a different costume, one with brighter bolder colours so as to fit with the background more.

Disney Trailer Analysis: The Incredibles 2

The trailer opens with a very familiar and relatable situation - the family dinner. As well as establishing the film's theme of family life mixing with superhero life, it appeals to family audiences (Disney 4-Quadrant Marketing Plan)and gives the audience a sense of the ordinary with only a dash (no pun intended) of superpowers, preparing them for the extraordinary things they are about to witness. The sibling rivalry in this scene provides comedy, and is again, very relatable, but with a superhero twist.

After setting up the family dynamic, the audience is shown a montage of the inciting incident and first act of the film, where Elastigirl is recruited to spearhead a publicity stunt to regain the public's trust in superheroes. This montage will appeal to female members of the audience, giving them a powerful (literally) action-hero role model. The rising cinematic action hits in the soundtrack reinforce the superhero genre, and create a triumphant atmosphere, perhaps suggestive of the sequel finally being released into theatres - the wait is over.

Immediately after this, the iconic Incredibles musical motif plays, while the institution information is displayed in an intertitle. The music speeds up, indicative of rising action, and we see the comical gender role reversal of the dad having to stay at home and take care of the kids while the mum is out working. The fast-paced and dramatic music here suggests another of the film's themes, that parenting is just as much of a heroic act as stopping supervillains.

Then, as the trailer reaches its climax, the music and editing pace building, while intertitles saying "It's time to get back... to being Incredible" would appeal to the nostalgia of general adult audiences and hardcore Disney fans, as they would remember the original film from their childhoods. The return of beloved characters Edna Mode and Lucius (Frozone) would also appeal to fans of the original.

The climax of the trailer is interrupted by an almost-fourth-wall-break, as the film's main villain, the Screen Slaver, hijacks the trailer. This creates intrigue and mystery, as the audience would want to find out more about this powerful new villain whose powers have leaked into the real world.

In my opinion, the trailer for The Incredibles 2 is highly successful in selling the film, as it appeals to a broad range of audiences, doesn't give away too much of the plot, and remains faithful to the original.

Reflections on Practical: TV Drama Still - 'Western' Genre

The Cowboy Showdown

Planning
Our group really wanted to play around with interesting props, costume and locations, while staying realistic to our limitations. Therefore we ruled out Drama, High Fantasy and Adventure and were left to decide between the genres Heist or Western. Since I had a few items of Western-style clothing and I knew a friend who could lend us a few props, we decided to go with Western, as we thought it would be a challenging but fun genre to attempt. We knew we couldn't use the conventional iconography of the sprawling desert scenery of Westerns (since we didn't happen to have one handy in school), so we decided to focus more on indoor shots, such as stone staircases or wooden saloon interiors. We  opened a group chat where we sent photos and exchanged ideas of props and clothing that we could wear on the day, and I contacted my friend to borrow some props.

Analysis
We wanted to use as many genre conventions as possible in our shots, and in my shot above, we utilized the semic codes of the costumes (cowboy hat, leather waistcoat, jeans) as well as the props (the pistol), which are all signifiers of the Western genre. The shot is framed so that the cowboys are on opposite sides of the mise-en-scene, connoting their conflict, and the juxtaposition of the characters - we are focused on the cowboy in the foreground, who is a lot bigger than the other cowboy in the frame - suggests that we are following the foreground cowboy's point of view, or that he has more power in this situation.

Audience Interpretation
The high noon cowboy duel is a conventional narrative moment in Westerns, and following Barthe's action code, the audience can infer that only one cowboy will walk out of this scene alive. There is also enigma created as the audience wonders who these cowboys are, why they are having a duel, and what the stakes are.

What Was Succesful
I'm happy with how the costumes and props turned out - since we used actual items of clothing instead of cheap "cowboy costumes", and the pistol is also actually made of metal, so there is a good level of realism to the characters. I also think the framing was quite successful in connoting the power and conflict of the scene, especially the focus on the pistol.

What I Would Do Differently
If I had the chance to do it again, I would choose a different location, as the modern row of seating and clean-cut wood does spoil the realism a little bit, considering it's set in the American West in the 19th Century. I would also spend more time experimenting with angles and framing. Since the shot is supposed to be a tense, dramatic showdown I would especially like try out different ways of lighting the scene for more dramatic impact, since the shot at the moment seems a bit too evenly lit. I would experiment with low-key lighting; having the sun in the back so as to back-light the characters, creating silhouettes; or even go a bit abstract and use spotlights on the characters, to signify that in this moment, nothing else matters, they have zoned out of the world and are focused only on killing the other.

The Planning Storyboard

TV Drama Still Analysis: Breaking Bad

An iconic moment from the show

This still from Season 1 Episode 1 of the TV Drama Breaking Bad is extremely effective in connoting the show's main premise of an ordinary man turned bad, as well as its subgenres: 

Crime, Black Comedy, and Western.

The still is a long shot of Walter White, our protagonist, alone on a desert road with his back to us. 

He is not wearing any trousers.

Walt is also carrying a gun in his hand - a signifier of the Crime genre. His wide, ready stance combined with the sprawling desert scenery and use of shadows is highly suggestive of the Western genre - he looks like a cowboy preparing for a duel.

The most striking thing about Walt is the fact that we see his bare legs and underwear. This is a very comical image that, in addition to showing Walt as just an ordinary Joe in an extraordinary situation, it also signifies that we can expect the show to be darkly funny.

What can we learn from this? Well, this proves that a simple pair of tighty-whities can indeed successfully show both narrative and genre.

Good on you!