Compare how teenagers are represented in action fantasy films essay

Compare how teenagers are represented in action fantasy films essay

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  Compare how teenagersare represented in Action Fantasy films: Hunger Games and The Amazing Spiderman The two films that we studied from the Action Fantasy genre were the Hunger Games and The Amazing Spiderman. In both of these films the main characters are teenagers; however the teenagers in the films are in two very different environments. Teenagers have to be used as main characters in order to appeal to their target audience of teenagers. The target audience have to be able to relate to the main characters, whether it is through their personality or the situations that they are put in. In the Hunger Games, Katniss is shown as a strong and courageous character throughout, she isn’t made to look and act like a stereotypical teenager that wears hoody’s and goes out drinking every night. One of the key scenes, the Reaping, shows Katniss at one of her most courageous points. After hearing her younger sister, Prim’s name called out to be part of the games Katniss runs out and shouts ‘I volunteer as tribute’. When Katniss volunteers she knows that she is risking her life by going into the games but she would rather it be her to die than her sister. This trait makes her a likeable character because she is putting others before herself and is willing to risk her life. Within the first scene of the film Katniss is shown hunting out in the woods, straight away the audience can tell that she isn’t a ‘girly’ character because of what she is doing. Her dark clothing, not only matches the environment but also her personality. Her hair is tied to the side in a braid, to keep the hair out of her face not in an attempt to make her look pretty. Portraying Katniss as a character that isn’t girly makes the audience like her because she isn’t the stereotypical image generally portrayed by the media of a girly girl. Later, she sings a song to soothe her sister back to sleep,this is similar to how a Mother would be with her child, here we see Katniss’s motherly nature towards Prim. She also refers to her as ‘little duck’, the audience understand that the pair are close and that Katniss is motherly towards Prim. In the gamesKatnissmeetsRue,whoisa similarage toPrim. Whereas the other tributes may have seen Rue as an easy target because she was very young and wouldn’t be very strong or have as many skills as they did, Katniss admired her during training when Rue stole one of the other tributes knives and was hiding on the ceiling. After Rue’s death Katniss takes time to surround the body with flowers and places one in Rue’s hands and clasps them together. This action shows how caring she is as she believes that Rue should have had a better sending off than she did. This makes her likeable to the audience because she doesn’t come across as being selfish and is putting others before herself, especially the younger characters. During the training Katniss has to take part in an individual test showing her hunting skills. At first her arrow doesn’t hit the dummy in the right place, but when she shoots the next arrow she gets a perfect hit and turns to see that the people judging weren’t watching her. To gain their attention she shoots an arrow into the room where they are all stood, and
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  when they lookat her she says ‘Thank you for your consideration’. Here we can see that she has a rebellious side, to a teenage audience this may add to her likeability as the audience may view themselves as being similar. In The Amazing Spiderman the main character, Peter Parker, is a teenager. In one of the first scenes of the filmthe audience sees Peter in a school environment. Choosing this environment early on in the film makes him relatable to the teenage audience as they understand how he feels and the situations that he is put in. Peter’s costume represents his character, he is wearing dark clothes, which shows him as someone who doesn’t want to stand out and wants to blend in. Under Peter’s jacket is a hoody, which is one of the typical clothing items associated with teenagers. Peter’s hair is also messy, looking as if he hasn’t put any effort into it. Peter’s posture is generally slumped over, this makes it seemlike he isn’t open to talking to anyone. His posture suggests that he isn’t very popular as he isn’t walking with anyone else. He appears distant and doesn’t look around for anyone else to come and meet him or talk to him, he keeps on moving and looks like he has somewhere to be. The audience may feel some of the same emotions as Peter is, making him relatable to the audience. Although Peter’s character is portrayed as being shy, his personality changes when he becomes Spiderman. When putting on the costume he gains more confidence and says everything that he normally would be too afraid to say. Part of his costume is a mask which he uses to hide his identity as although he is being a hero, he doesn’t want people to know that it is him. Peter doesn’t want people to know that it is him, because it would lead to unwanted attention. His character is done so that although the audience can’t relate to being a superhero they can understand what it feels like to have something or someone that makes you feel comfortable and confident. Both personalities shown make him likeable and relatable and most teenagers will feel like they have similar personalities. It is important to have two good personalities that don’t make the audience dislike the character ensuring that they don’t lose the close connection with the character. Showing a personality where he is shy makes him more realistic and doesn’t add up to the stereotypical teenager that is egotistical, because in reality although there are some teenagers like that a lot of them are quite reserved and keep themselves to themselves due to the fear of being judged by others. In the Hunger Games there is a scene that shows the reaping when one boy and one girl will have their name picked out from a hat and will be called forward to go into the Hunger Games. When Effie is on the stage, there are glass bowls that look grand but also look similar to a fishbowl, this is done to resemble what it is like to be in the Hunger Games, it is like being in a fish bowl because someone is always watching them. The setting looks similar to a prison with big grey bricks being used as the outside of the building and then there are two guards stood in front of the stage and one by the door as if a lot of protection is
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  needed. Making thesetting similar to a prison helps the audience understand that as the people living in the districts it feels like being in a prison. When focusing on different characters reactions to something that is happening in this scene, the director uses a lot of close up camera shots. When the mother of Katniss and Prim is in the audience a close up camera shot used to draw our attention to het so that we can see how she is reacting to the fact that her youngest daughter’s name has just been called out to enter the Hunger Games. Also, when Katniss volunteers as tribute she is focused on to show the she is the main point of focus and is done so that the audience can understand her character more and can see how determined and courageous she is. In one of the first scenes of the filmin The Amazing Spiderman the scene is set in his school to help us understand the character more and see him in the target audience’s typical environment when at school. Throughout the scene different sounds are used to create the setting of the scene. At the beginning of the scene there is the sound of a school bell signalling the end of a lesson, small details like this have to be added in to make sure that the scene is realistic for the audience. As the scene moves on to the fight scene in the school, there is the sound of the students shouting and chanting at the bully who we had seen before beating up another student. The sounds add to the mise en scene of this scene by making sure that it is a realistic American high school. The lighting in the school is very minimal, as due to the setting it doesn’t need any special lighting because the set is supposed to look like a normal school. Ambient lighting is natural and limited, and is used to create the illusion that there is light coming through doors and windows. The filmcrew have taken into account that this scene is set in a school and the majority of light would be natural daylight to create the most realistic set as possible. Lighting is used throughout the filmto create a mood and atmosphere in different scenes, for example in the sewer scene where the scientist realises that Peter is the one following him, the atmosphere becomes tense and the lighting is dark to reflect the mood on to the audience to make them feel gripped to the film. A lot of the time the camera is showing a medium shot so that the audience can see the scene of the school and the other students in it, while still seeing the main character. When Peter has a conversation with another student, the camera moves to an over the shoulder shot, a shot used when showing a conversation, the camera changes position depending on who is talking. As Peter distances himself from the conversation and leaves, the camera moves back to a medium shot. Peter’s character is given props, used to suggest his interests (eg. photos, a camera and a skateboard). The props also tell the audience about his popularity, because stereotypically popular guys don’t have the job of taking pictures of school clubs. This role within a school is normally taken by people that would stereotypically be ‘geeks’. Other characters are given props that are used to reflect their characters interests and personality. Gwen is seen
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  holding a booka number of times which suggests that she is a smart character, and possibly a bit more interested in school than Peter is. The character that bullies Peter at the beginning of the school scene is not given a name yet the audience can make presumptions about him, they have already seen that he is a bully but by giving him a basketball as his prop suggests that he is more popular and is interested in sports. Throughout a lot of the film the director uses continuity editing to create the illusion of all action flowing normally without it being obvious that different clips are edited together ensuring that the audience’s attention is not lost. Shot reverse shot editing is used in the film when characters are engaging in a conversation. An example of this is during the fight scene at a later stage in the film between Peter as Spiderman and the villain a lot of fast- paced editing is used to emphasise the action within the scene, this type of editing is a key convention in an action fantasy film.