Deconstruction of the characters in "It's kind of a funny story"

Vladimir Propp's theory of narrative

Vladimir Propp suggested that characters took on the role of narrative 'spheres of action' or functions. He came up with 7 different character types:

• The hero - usually male, is the agent who restores the narrative equilibrium often by embarking upon a quest. The hero is invariably the texts central character.

• The villain - usually creates the narrative disruption

• The donor - gives the hero something, it may be the object, information or advice, which helps in resolution of the narrative. 

• The princess - is usually the character most threatened by the villain and has to saved by the hero.

• The dispatcher sends the hero on her or his task

• The false hero appears to be good but is revealed at the narrative's end to be bad.

Craig Gilner is 15 years old and suffers from depression. He started having symptom's a few weeks after starting highschool at Executive Pre-Professional. The school's intense academic pressure caused him much stress. After going to countless doctors and therapist's he stops taking his medicationand his suicidal thought's become greater to the point he contemplated jumping off the Brooklyn bridge. He then check's himself into a hospital and meets other patients. This is the main protagonist as the story revolves around him and his mental illness. I decided to look into this character because they are very similar to the protagonist in our teaser trailer; both suffering  from depression and suicidal thoughts.

Noelle is a patient at the hospital that Craig forms a strong bond with. Like Craig, Noelle broke under the pressure and became very stressed, leading to her depression. Unlike Craig however, she was pressured by boys. She cut her face with scissor's and was admitted into the hospital for self-harm. According to Propp's theory, Noelle can be seen as the helper as she forms a strong bond with Craig and helps him through his depression. 

Bobby is one of the mental patient's in the hospital. Bobby and Craig form a quick bond and Craig looks up to him, almost like a mentor. Bobby end's up getting a job, after Craig let's him borrow one of his shirts to wear to a job interview. Bobby can be seen as the donor in this film because Craig looks up to him and he offers advice for Craig.


Our trailer
Our character fulfils more than one sphere character type; the victim and the villain. She is self-destructive and destroys her own life by taking drugs. This was done by featuring a close up shot of her heating up syrup on a spoon which acted as heroin, followed by a tracking shot of her running away in a subway under low-key lighting; further emphasizing how her life has changed and that there is little hope. This shows that there is not always a hero and that she has to face her problems alone; conforming to social realism.

Representation of youths

To help with our teaser trailer, I decided to research into youth culture and how they are represented. British youth culture has changed dramatically over the past 50 years due to the strong influence of technology and the demonization of youths in the media. 

The wariness of youth culture made it easy for the media to demonise youth in the 50's, shown in the creation of films such as "Blackboard Jungle", "Rebel Without A Cause" and "Teenage Bad Girl". These are some of the oldest examples of demonization of youth by the media. During the 2000s, hoodies had gained a negative image and was associated with trouble making teens and anti-social behaviour. Due to the increase in gang violence crimes, hoodies became nationally feared and there were many protests in favour to have hoodies banned. Chav refers to an anti-social subculture. Chav is an informal British derogatory meaning a young lower-class person who displays brash and loutish behaviour and wears real or imitation designer clothes.

Teenagers are often represented in the media as being rebellious, disrespectful, lazy and being associated with drugs and alcohol.

Representation of teenage boys

Teenage boys are usually presented as violent, irresponsible and having little respect for authority. Some teenage males have modelled their behaviour on representations these films promote, leading to the rise of gang culture, in particular, middle and lower class areas.

Hoodies have become a symbol of this representation and the wearing of them and constant reinforcement of the representation by the media has created a climate of fear surrounding one item of clothing.

Representation of teenage girls

Another representation is the sexualisation of teenage girls; ie. "Angus, thongs and perfect snogging". Girls are still portrayed as sex/boy obsessed and concerned with their appearance. Girls are bombarded with images of how they should look by the media, causing their perceptions of beauty to be altered. As a result, the distortion of reality causes insecurities and low self esteem as girls feel as if they don't look like the models in magazines

Examples

Breakfast Club(1985)

• Their dress sense is much more covered up and dull
• Youths didn't do many bad things as the consequence would be a weak punishment (detention)

Kidulthood (2006)

• Teenagers are much more free
• Their dress sense has changed; much more revealing with trackies and short clothing
• Youths are much more rebellious and the punishment is much more severe (jail)

Mean Girls (2004)

• Based on a group of girls
• Lots of different hierarchy/segregated
• Much more deceitful

Final poster

Final poster

Process

This is the original image that I started off with. I thought that this image was effective due to the brick wall behind her; conforming to conventions in urban films. I also liked how we took the golden rule into consideration when we took this photo so that the majority of the writing could go on the left hand side.

I took the feedback I got from my first draft into account and made the walls darker by using the burn tool on Photoshop as well as duplicating another layer of our actress to give the appearance of a shadow behind her. To make this appropriate for our genre, I also found some photos of graffiti on google images then layering this on top and lowering the opacity. I rubbed some parts of the graffiti out using the eraser tool to give it a more realistic, faded appearance.

I then added our title and billing block created by Chloe onto our poster. We decided to use the title from our teaser trailer with the orange background instead of a plain white or black title because we wanted to ensure that our fonts were the same throughout our trailer, poster and website. Due to the black background on the billing block, I had to use the effect 'divide' to get rid of the black background but keep the white text. 

The star ratings/reviews were created by finding an image of a 5 star rating on google then writing the review using the text tool on Photoshop. These reviews were taken from our previous poster deconstructions. This was repeated three times vertically to give us 3 reviews. I also included images of the awards received for this film on the side of our poster but making them white to follow the colour scheme.

Lastly, I added our age rating by our billing block and "From the producer of Fishtank" so that those who enjoyed Fishtank may also enjoy our film. We then added our tagline "Freedom comes with responsibility. Consciousness comes with pain" ensuring that it was smaller than our title.

British social realism

Social realism is a genre of film that focuses on issues in modern society which is represented in different ideologies. Some themes that occur in modern contemporary social realism films include money, drugs, prostitution and sex as well as class and political views.

Common conventions

• Usually focuses on the working class
• Based in run down areas in different cities
• Young teenagers and young adults; appeals to a young audience

Examples of social realist films

• This is England
• London to Brighton
• Fishtank
• Adulthood
• Kidulthood
• Anuvahood
• Billy Elliot
• Trainspotting

Deconstruction of mise-en scene and titles in Ill Manors

Ill Manors is a British crime drama film written, co-scored and directed by Plan B. The film revolves around the lives of eight main characters and features six original songs by Plan B, which act as a narration for the film. Ill Manors is a multi-character story, set over the course of seven days, a scenario where everyone is fighting for respect. The film focuses on eight core characters, and their circles of violence, as they struggle to survive on the streets. Each story is also represented by a different rap song performed by Plan B.

Mise-en Scene

I feel that the mise-en scene in this trailer is relevant to our teaser trailer as it includes shots of cocaine, a teenage girl smoking, a blade, abuse and alcohol. These are all issues that teenagers might face so I think that we can take inspiration from these mise-en scene and incorporate them into our teaser trailer. The shots of the blade, cocaine, smoking and alcohol are effective because our genre is based on teen urban/social realism and these are some things that people associate teenagers with. Our teaser trailer has a sense of mental illness so the blade may be effective as it could symbolize that she has to turn to self harm because she is struggling to cope with her problems.

Titles/Reviews

These titles are placed in front of a time-lapse of a motorway. I think that this is effective as establishing/wide shots are usually used in urban films and the time-lapse captures the movement of the cars and how busy the city is.

Deconstruction of film posters

 

  

• Pastel/neutral colour scheme; blue and pink connotes elements of romance that may occur throughout the film which is commonly used in romance/teen films
• Reviews, star ratings and awards that the film has won stand out to show that it's a film worth seeing
• The main actress is the only one in the poster so this shows that she is the main focus and the film most likely revolves around her and her life
• Effective positioning as the golden rule has been used so your eyes automatically focus on the girl
• Sans serif font which is a contemporary font
• The torn wallpaper in the background could symbolize neglect and the poor lifestyle

•  Unique film poster which incorporates the use of illustrations, shading and black outlines which makes it look quite animated - the illustrations and shading further enhances the idea of a typical diary for a teenage girl as it makes it quite personal
• Again, the same colour scheme as Fishtank and the use of reviews and star ratings, conforming to common conventions in teen urban film posters
• The font is quite messy unlike Fishtank which is looks tidy with sharp edges, the font used in the poster imitates her handwriting since it's a diary
• "Some things are best kept secret" - the tagline is relevant to the film and title since it's about a diary
• This is a social realist film; the mum is holding a cigarette which could show that issues such as smoking/drug-use is covered in this film. Also, the review "finally a film that gets youth" shows that it is a relatable film which covers issues that youths will face

• The gun in the poster is coincidentally pointing to the young girl
• London and Brighton are both very different locations so there is a strong contrast; both London and Brighton are in bold
• Font has a scratched effect to show that it's an urban movie that covers social realism
• "Innocence has nowhere to hide" - although she is an innocent young girl, she still has to face reality and issues such as prostitution, being independent, etc.

• A young boy is laying on the grass which is effective as this film is about a boy growing up and we usually associate grass with childhood, parks and fun.
• The poster is very simple as the quote at the top of the poster tells us what it's about
• The font of 'Boyhood' looks quite messy, almost like a child wrote it; very simple colours - possibly enhancing how simple childhood is?