BEXLEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL PERFORMING ARTS
  • Home
  • DRAMA
    • Drama skills and techniques >
      • Freeze frame/ Still image
      • Mime
      • Thought in The Head
      • Narration
    • Practitoners and theorists >
      • Alecky Blyth
      • Artaud
      • Berkoff
      • Brecht
      • Dario Fo
      • Godber
      • Stanislavski
    • Theatre Companies >
      • Complicite
      • DV8
      • Ex Machina
      • Fevered Sleep
      • Forced Entertainment
      • Forkbeard Fantasy
      • Frantic Assembly
      • Gecko
      • Kneehigh
      • The Paper Birds
      • Pig Pen Theatre
      • Punchdrunk
      • Trestle
      • Tangled feet
      • The Wooster Group
      • 1927
    • Theatre Styles and Traditions >
      • Commedia dell'arte
      • Creative Adaptation
      • Docudrama
      • Multimedia
      • Physical Theatre
      • Puppetry
      • Total Theatre
    • Design Element >
      • Lighting
    • Year 7 Drama >
      • Introduction to Drama
      • year 7 self assessment
      • Haunted Lift
      • Exam revision
    • Year 8 Drama >
      • year 8 exam revision
      • Romeo and Juliet
      • Anne Frank
      • previous year 8 >
        • 8MLO
        • 8EA
        • 8NSS
        • 8DJB
        • 8AWS
        • 8SFG
        • 8JR
        • 8JS
        • 8MPL
        • 8MML
        • 8RPP
        • 8WEA
    • Year 9 Drama >
      • Devising
      • Billy Liar
      • Theatre in Education
      • Blue Remembered Hills
      • KAG Year 9 self assessment
    • GCSE Drama >
      • Blood Brothers >
        • Blood Brothers full performance
      • GCSE (year 10) blog
      • Devising
      • Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time
      • GCSE Revision
    • IB Theatre and Lit and Performance >
      • IB blog
      • IB Theatre Blog 2015-16
    • Literature and Performance 2015
    • Archived pages >
      • A-Level Drama >
        • A Doll's House
        • Response To Live Theatre >
          • The Play That Goes Wrong
          • Dead Dog in a Suitcase
        • A Servant of Two Masters
        • Our Country's Good >
          • OCG lesson materials
          • act 1 videos
        • Supporting notes AS guidance
        • Supporting notes A2
      • Trip letters
      • 39 Steps
      • Camera Lucida
      • John
      • Old GCSE work >
        • Choral narration
        • Year 10- telling the story physically >
          • Bazier- Telling story to Music
  • MUSIC
    • INSTRUMENTAL LESSONS >
      • Terms & Conditions
    • Extra-curricular music 2022-23
    • IB Music
    • GCSE MUSIC >
      • GCSE MUSIC SET WORKS
  • PRODUCTIONS
    • The Ash Girl
    • Sister Act 2019 >
      • Sister Act CAST FORM
      • SAcharacters
      • SASongs
    • Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
    • SchoolOfRock >
      • SOR-CAST-FORM
      • SORcharacters
      • SORsong
    • Romeo and Juliet
    • Olivertwist
    • SPAMALOT!
    • Sound of Music 2016
    • Concert videos
    • QuizNight
    • TheWonderfulWizardofOz >
      • wiztops
    • Cinelive- Gregory's Girl at the Barbican
    • Peter Pan 2015
    • Beauty&Beast
    • As You Like It 2015
    • Alice in Wonderland 2015
    • FAME 2014
    • Summer Fayre 2014 Performing Arts Tent
    • Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe 2013
    • Shakespeare Schools Festival 2013
    • 'The Innocents' at The Barbican 2013
    • Hairspray 2013
  • Film Studies
    • Mr. Otley's film blog
    • Best film studies youtube
    • Film Podcasts

The Film Blog

Comparitive Study- David Brent Life on The Road and Toy Story 4

7/15/2019

2 Comments

 
I just watched 2 films that were essentially the same movie within 24 hours;
 
They are remarkably similar-
Both are Road Movies,
Both feature a protagonist who is delusional and clinging onto their past
Both are chasing a dream they cannot fulfill
Both are late 90s/ early 2000s characters that were brought back (actually that is every film these days)
Both are Comedies,
Both follow the hero’s journey plot structure
 
Except there is one big difference- one is really good and one is amusing but clumsily executed.
 
Woody and David Brent are rather different characters- but essentially in these films, they have the same Hero's journey;
Brent
 
[call to adventure] Brent, former reality TV star- is now just a sales rep. But most importantly he feels he is ‘too good’ to simply be a sales rep, because he has (in his mind) all the skills required to be a professional entertainer [acceptance of call]
 
Brent:
I like making people feel, more importantly. Comedy, music, poetry, philosophy, whatever, you know. I get inside your head. Maybe get inside your heart.
 
[rising action] So he overpays session muscians and a sound engineer to go on tour with him, booking venues and hotels along the way, blowing his pension fund. [defeat, death and rebirth] Over the course of the movie he tries too hard to achieve something that will never happen, the gigs are poorly attended and record companies are not interested in him- all the while holding back his more talented protégé Dom Johnson (Ben Bailey Smith). His band essentially ignore him and abandon him socially. By the end of the film, he realises that his pretence and refusal to listen to anyone else was the problem-
 
Dan:
You seem to think 
that unless you're on stage performing, that people aren't gonna like you. They're probably not. Well, then why would you wanna be liked by people like that anyway? You know, you don't have to be on stage to be worth something. And people who like you are still gonna like you even if you're not performing.
 
Brent
Problem is not a lot of people like me,

do they?
 

[atonement] By the end Brent gains a bit of self-esteem, sees the more talented Dom get a record deal. [journey home]  he returns to his office and unspectacularly finds love with a woman from the office, who liked him before he was a ‘rock star’- the only person who was nice to him in the first place. [new normal]
Woody
[call to adventure] Woody, no longer a favourite toy but used to being in charge of the playroom, devotes himself to protecting ‘forky’ a spork that his owner, Bonnie has created in her first day at Kindergarten- the only thing that helped her through the day.

​Woody

Being there for a child is the most noble thing a toy can do.
 
[rising action]Forky, however, thinks he is ‘trash’ and keeps trying to jump into the bin, Woody devotes himself to preventing this. Bonnie’s parents take her on a road trip and Woody at every turn, has to try and stop forky throwing himself away.
 
Forky
[I am Trash] Useless. Like your purpose has been filled.
 
The irony is that it is in fact Woody whose purpose has been fulfilled, but he cannot accept it (like David Brent can’t accept he will never be a rock star)
 
Forky eventually jumps out a moving RV and Woody follows him… they end up in an antique shop because Woody, still holding on to the past, thinks he sees Bo Peep (a Toy he used to live with) and Forky ends up being taken hostage by a doll (Gabby) with a broken voice box, and being held ransom for Woody’s working voice box. [defeat, death and rebirth] Woody finds Bo Peep, who is now a ‘Lost toy’ and mounts un successful mission to save Forky- at the end of this, he tries to re- enter the antique shop, but the other toys tell him to just give up, he cannot defeat Gabby.
 
[atonement] Woody admits that saving Forky is ‘all I have left’ (can’t get the quote, the film only just came out! He remeets Gabby and we realise she is not the villain, but simply a doll desperate for a child to be there for (which Woody, if you remember, is all about) Woody sacrifices his voice box for Gabby to get Forky back
[journey home]Woody, on the verge of returning to the RV with all his friends, suddenly realises Bonnie doesn’t need him anyway (he’s (full)filled his purpose.) and descides to stay with Bo Peep as she now emotionally needs him.
[new normal]Woody, like Brent, has found love, has a new level of self esteem- seeing people will love/ like him for different things than he thought.
 ​
I guess all films revolve around a protagonist coming to a realisation, but having watched these so close together, they just seemed so similar.
 
With Toy Story 4 there is a much deeper element; the notion of being thrown away and becoming junk (the plastic spork, the antique shop, the defective toy, the toy that a child no longer plays with). Woody is now not wanted by Bonnie, he is desperately trying to remain important, but its over and he needs to learn to accept this. The audience eventually realise Woody is trying too hard, but that is because he has always been right the previous movies so they route for him, and then feel sorry for him- thus when Bo Peep loves him for who he is, not what he is trying to be, it is a beautiful ending.
 
David Brent is not really wanted anywhere; most people he works with think he is irritating, he is desperately trying to be an entertainer, but needs to accept it is over- this is clear from the start of the film, there are no overarching themes or subtle storytelling, the audience know Brent is a joke and they laugh at him accordingly. Yes, he has something of a resolution and the audience are happy that he has found a potential date who likes him for who he is, but has he earned this?
 
Both films are funny, both are entertaining, but only 1 is going to make people cry and cheer… and it’s not Life on The Road
2 Comments

Iron Man 3- It's much better than people tell you it is. (Films I watched 2)

7/7/2019

4 Comments

 
People don’t like this film, I don’t know why- I think it’s one of Marvel’s best.


Writer/ director Shane Black has made at least 2 other great films: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Monster Squad (or as I like to call it, Stranger Things from the actual 80s- look at the trailer!)
Tony Stark’s character arc (Tony's St-arc?) is brilliant;


Iron man 1, he is selfish and uncaring. Narcisistic, arrogant, arms dealer.

Iron Man 2, his arrogance returns, he becomes grandiose about being a superhero- Iron Man becomes bigger than Tony

Avengers Assemble, despite what Captain America says about him not being willing to make the ultimzte sacrifice, he makes the Ultimate sacrifice and nearly dies after throwning a nuke into a worm hole

Iron Man 3 he has PTSD, he has to go back to basics striped of his wealth and tech. His previous bad behaviour is his downfall, even though he’s morally beyond that. The woman he had a one night stand with and a man he humiliated through his arrogance. Even though he’s now a good guy, his hubris from before still haunts him. He discovers that it is Tony Stark and his compassion and love that is super, not the Iron Man suit

then a million other things happen- but consider Civil War and ENd Game and tell me this is not increadible story telling!



Knowing the End Game, this is a very significant part of the story.  It is here he first has a patriachal relationship with someone- setting up Spiderman and parenthood in End Game

Random thoughts (minimal spoilers)

I love the iconography with The Mandarin’s videos, he’s such a mishmash of different cultures and religious symbols- he is all about appearance and perception- it all fits intot he theme of armour and outside perception

The theme of having armour and/ or how you are perceived. Tony loses the suit, which became an unhealthy obsession (he's made 40 odd, he is only focused on that and not his girlfriend or company)- but Harley (the child) makes him realise it is his skills in engineering and invention that make him special, not the suits.. The Mandarin is not what he seems, people are fixed by the serum to look fine on the outside. But on the inside they are endangered. The serum can fix the outside, but not the inside- the people grow back the limb they lost, but on the inside they are damaged still- same problem Tony has
​
Best bit- 75 minutes in, a toilet flushes and one of the best comedy twists of all time kicks in. I love Shane Black
Real best bit- 94 minutes people falling out of a plane, brilliantly directed to create tension and then the second great comedy moment!

I don’t want to spoil it if you haven’t seen it, but it’s much better than Mr Husbands tells you it is
​


Finally, if you ever want to write about or do a comparative study on superhero movies- I recommend William irwin’s The Avengers and Philosophy. Chapter 1 is about Tony Stark's ethics (and Captain America's and Thor's)
4 Comments

Film's I watched part 1: The Innocents

7/1/2019

0 Comments

 
The Innocents is a British Horror film from 1961, it is an adaptation of The Turn of The Screw by Henry James

Genre- horror, suspense thriller

Clip of where it is Brilliant- 

It'd be great for a comparitive study in the genre of horror, especially looking at use of sound or literary adaptations.

You can see a great number of horror tropes here-
  • Sound collage (the use of sound design in this film is amazing.)
  • Old Manor Houses
  • Issolation
  • Vengeful spirits/ possessed children (or are they)
  • Peadophobia
  • Long dark coridors
  • Jump scares
  • long camera shots held on the protagonists to build suspense

The film being in black and white gives it a better depth of field than a colour film (this is 1961, it could have been made in colour, although most British films in this era were blakc and white as it was cheaper and also seen as more artistic)
0 Comments

    Author

    Mr. Otley

    Opinions and Spelling mistakes are all my own and in no way reflect those of BGS

    Archives

    July 2019

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • DRAMA
    • Drama skills and techniques >
      • Freeze frame/ Still image
      • Mime
      • Thought in The Head
      • Narration
    • Practitoners and theorists >
      • Alecky Blyth
      • Artaud
      • Berkoff
      • Brecht
      • Dario Fo
      • Godber
      • Stanislavski
    • Theatre Companies >
      • Complicite
      • DV8
      • Ex Machina
      • Fevered Sleep
      • Forced Entertainment
      • Forkbeard Fantasy
      • Frantic Assembly
      • Gecko
      • Kneehigh
      • The Paper Birds
      • Pig Pen Theatre
      • Punchdrunk
      • Trestle
      • Tangled feet
      • The Wooster Group
      • 1927
    • Theatre Styles and Traditions >
      • Commedia dell'arte
      • Creative Adaptation
      • Docudrama
      • Multimedia
      • Physical Theatre
      • Puppetry
      • Total Theatre
    • Design Element >
      • Lighting
    • Year 7 Drama >
      • Introduction to Drama
      • year 7 self assessment
      • Haunted Lift
      • Exam revision
    • Year 8 Drama >
      • year 8 exam revision
      • Romeo and Juliet
      • Anne Frank
      • previous year 8 >
        • 8MLO
        • 8EA
        • 8NSS
        • 8DJB
        • 8AWS
        • 8SFG
        • 8JR
        • 8JS
        • 8MPL
        • 8MML
        • 8RPP
        • 8WEA
    • Year 9 Drama >
      • Devising
      • Billy Liar
      • Theatre in Education
      • Blue Remembered Hills
      • KAG Year 9 self assessment
    • GCSE Drama >
      • Blood Brothers >
        • Blood Brothers full performance
      • GCSE (year 10) blog
      • Devising
      • Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time
      • GCSE Revision
    • IB Theatre and Lit and Performance >
      • IB blog
      • IB Theatre Blog 2015-16
    • Literature and Performance 2015
    • Archived pages >
      • A-Level Drama >
        • A Doll's House
        • Response To Live Theatre >
          • The Play That Goes Wrong
          • Dead Dog in a Suitcase
        • A Servant of Two Masters
        • Our Country's Good >
          • OCG lesson materials
          • act 1 videos
        • Supporting notes AS guidance
        • Supporting notes A2
      • Trip letters
      • 39 Steps
      • Camera Lucida
      • John
      • Old GCSE work >
        • Choral narration
        • Year 10- telling the story physically >
          • Bazier- Telling story to Music
  • MUSIC
    • INSTRUMENTAL LESSONS >
      • Terms & Conditions
    • Extra-curricular music 2022-23
    • IB Music
    • GCSE MUSIC >
      • GCSE MUSIC SET WORKS
  • PRODUCTIONS
    • The Ash Girl
    • Sister Act 2019 >
      • Sister Act CAST FORM
      • SAcharacters
      • SASongs
    • Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
    • SchoolOfRock >
      • SOR-CAST-FORM
      • SORcharacters
      • SORsong
    • Romeo and Juliet
    • Olivertwist
    • SPAMALOT!
    • Sound of Music 2016
    • Concert videos
    • QuizNight
    • TheWonderfulWizardofOz >
      • wiztops
    • Cinelive- Gregory's Girl at the Barbican
    • Peter Pan 2015
    • Beauty&Beast
    • As You Like It 2015
    • Alice in Wonderland 2015
    • FAME 2014
    • Summer Fayre 2014 Performing Arts Tent
    • Lion, Witch & the Wardrobe 2013
    • Shakespeare Schools Festival 2013
    • 'The Innocents' at The Barbican 2013
    • Hairspray 2013
  • Film Studies
    • Mr. Otley's film blog
    • Best film studies youtube
    • Film Podcasts