How does my clip
hook the audience?
This film is an
animation film, it’s about a young mermaid who falls in love with a human, and
her father finds out but isn't happy about it but eventually allows her to live
on the land with Eric the prince. The target audience is young children and
families; the story line hooks the young audience because it’s a fantasy, a
princess falling in love with her prince. Todorov’s theory is the start of the
film there is an equilibrium which is Ariel living in the sea, going off on
adventures without her Father knowing. This dis- equilibrium is when she goes
to the sea witch and gets legs for the price of her voice. The new equilibrium
is her living on the land with her prince; the dis- equilibrium hooks the
audience because it makes them want to know what’s going to happen. Weather she
will live on the land or not.
Vladimir Propp’s
theory is the idea that all films need character roles which are; the princess,
prince, king, donor, dispatcher, father and the villain. Which the little
mermaid does have. Ariel is the princess, Eric is the prince, the donor and
dispatcher is Sebastian, the king and father is King Triton and the villain is
Ursula. This hooks the children as the audience again because it’s the idea of
the fantasy story being real.
Strauss’s theory is
binary oppositions; this film includes various binary oppositions. One of these
is the land vs. the sea, this hooks the audience as they want to know who which
side will win, the audience are also likely to take sides in this situation, so
would like their preferred binary opposition to get what their fighting for.
Another binary opposition is good vs. evil, which is King Triton vs. Ursula,
this hooks the audience because they are on King Triton side as he’s the good
side. The audience know Ursula is up to know good by the signature mysterious
evil laugh that is used in many films. This instantly hooks the audience
because they know something bad is going to happen soon.
Barthes’s theory is
the 5 codes. Action, enigma, symbolic, semic and culture. The only action in
the clip is when the chef chases Sebastian with the knife but it’s still
action, the enigma in the clip is weather her father is going to let her live
on the land with Eric or take her back to the sea with him. There are
connotations and denotations throughout the film and clip as I have and will
mention some, and the culture code links with the myth of mermaids, whether
they are real or not, which again is another enigma code. Another part of
culture is how English the people are in the film, the royal clothing they wear
for example the shoulder pads Eric wears.
There are many
different camera angles used throughout the clip, an over the shoulder shot is
used to show King Triton, Ariel and Eric all in one shot, it allows us to see
King Triton emotions towards Ariel but also Ariel’s emotions towards Eric.
High angles and low angles are used to show the different levels of authority
between the different characters, e.g. they use a low angle looking up at King
Triton to show his he is more powerful that the character he is looking down
on, which in this case is Sebastian, this allows the audience to see who’s more
important in the story without being verbally told.
The lighting in the
clip changes from start to finish, at the start of the clip the lighting is
dull and brown connoting the mood is sombre and dull, but towards the end of
the clip the colour of the sea changes to a bright blue colour which connotes
the mood has also changed to a happier mood, this makes the audience fell the
same emotions as the mood in the clip, when the colours are a happy colour the
audience tend to fell happier too as what’s going on in the clip usually is a
happy event.
At the very end of
the clip Ariel and Eric are getting married so Ariel is wearing a white wedding
dress, Eric is in a very formal suit with gold shoulder pads, all of the guests
aboard the boat are wearing formally clothing. The audience instantly know it’s
a wedding due to the costume their wearing even the younger audiences would
know. There is also a white wedding cake in the scene which would also connote
it’s a wedding so the children would know.
In this clip there
is Non-dietetic sound towards the end of the clip, it’s a happy tune played
which shows the ‘happy ever after’ ending that the children in the audience
believe in, this will hook the audience because their emotions will be happy
like the tune played. The sound throughout the clip is parallel sound as the
matches the emotions and content of the clip.
Throughout the
whole film there is continuity editing as it’s an animation film, this is to
make the film more realistic for the children, they try and make it as
realistic as possible, as it’s a family film adults will also be watching the
film when they take the children to see it in cinema or in their own homes with
the children, so it needs to have a sense of realism for the adults. Which is
usually does as many adults will watch Disney films like the little mermaid and
tear up, for example Bambi. The Disney films can always pull on the heart
strings.
Overall the clip hooks the audience in many
different ways even though it’s the clip is of the end of the film, it makes
the audience want to keep watching or watch the second one when it comes out
because they want to know what else will happy, another Bathes enigma code, is
it really a happy ending? Or will Ursula come back?
