Wacky stories from around the world

Alternative to win?

In a display unlikely to win him a place in China's Olympic squad, one young student at the Chinese University Games appears to forget the premise of the 110m hurdles, instead of jumping over the hurdles he decides to run through them.

Orangutan ape Tori caught smoking

Indonesian zoo-keepers are trying to warn orangutan Tori off smoking cigarettes - a habit she picked up from human visitors. King Louie had a great desire to learn the secret of man’s red fire .Tori the orangutan has become addicted to cigarettes. Now keepers are putting her on a strict regime in an effort to break her ten-year habit. Tori’s parents also smoked, although her partner at Jurug Animal Park in Java, Indonesia, refuses. Instead, he stamps them out. She learned to smoke by imitating visitors and initially she smoked cigarette butts they tossed at her. But, now when she has a craving, Tori holds two fingers to her mouth to ask visitors for cigarettes. If they refuse, she gets angry and throws things in their direction. 

Love is dangerous!!!!!

In the UK 18-year-old girl passes away immediately after their first kiss in front of astonished fans .Sudden death syndrome takes 18-year-old Briton after her number one kiss.

It was established that the evening before his death, Jemma spent in town with her boyfriend, Daniel Ross, they kissed, she sat on the sofa – and her eyes rolled back, his mouth twisted and she lost consciousness and died. The cause of the bizarre death of Jemma Benjamin doctors says was sudden death syndrome.

Efforts to revive her before the arrival of ambulance have failed and the investigation found that help for her was basically impossible. Jemma’s parents said she showed no symptoms and was very healthy and physically strong, well-sailed long distances, and played hockey.

Two teenagers killed their father because he told them to walk to school

The Fathers body was found five months later. The horrific crime was committed in the village Berezovka Perm. Two teenagers – a brother and sister – murdered in cold blood their own father. The cause of the crime shocked even the cops: siblings killed their father because they were forced to walk to school.

In the house the smell of putrid was intolerable – the spouse deceased called the police. On the same day in their house already hard at work investigative task force. The corpse of the owner found in the basement. He hastily was littered and covered with rubbish and earth. The wife said her husband,. In her words, he was going to town to buy clothes and building materials when he was last seen.

The head of the family was absent for five months. The wife believed that he had some fun or affair and his natural children – 17 – year-old Maria and 15- year-old Ilya were silent on the matter. Only when the police dragged the corpse from the cellar, the teenagers confessed that they murdered their father.

He often beat us and forced to walk to school – admitted Maria.
The girl wrote a confession of guilt stating that she had repeatedly hit her father on the head with an axe after he once again began to educate them and beat them. All this happened in front of her younger brother and then together they hid the body in a shallow grave in the basement.

What are the main rules of good story telling?

In media studies it is always important to distinguish between a story and a narrative. A story is a sequence of events which result as the overall plot, in contrast to a narrative which is the way the reader presents events presented to the audience.
What makes a good story? As an audience the main way for a successful story to be told is that it has to connect with the audience. The method to do this is that it has to follow certain conventions.

The first convention is called the set up/ equilibrium. This is the introduction to the film where as an audience we can establish certain relationships. For example in Red Riding Hood the set up is presented as a girl called red riding hood that has a good relationship with her grandmother. Secondly, she lives with her parents in a cottage which is located at the edge of the forest, added to this; there is a hungry wolf lurking about in the forest. Straight away from the set up we can also see that the wolf is an outsider as people are scared of him.

The second convention is called the ‘rising action’. This is where characters encounter certain obstacles that they face which turn the story in a new direction, this can also be called a plot point. Without plot points there would be no story, the events wouldn’t make sense and the development of the story and the character/characters wouldn’t be logical. For example, in Cinderella the first plot point is that her dad dies. This is a plot point because if her dad didn’t die then Cinderella wouldn’t have to live with her stepsisters, so therefore it turns the story in a different direction which is treated badly for.

The ‘rising action’ is also similar to the ‘disruption’ in the story or the ‘confrontation’ or the ‘dis- equilibrium’. This is the middle part of the story where the main character generally encounters obstacles that keep them from achieving his or her dramatic end. This is again very essential to the story because without it there is no story, there would just be a set up.

The concluding stages of the story are called the resolution/ new equilibrium. This is where the story reaches a climax to where the set up has to have changed and the characters had to have developed in some form. Without the resolution the story wouldn’t have progressed, it wouldn’t be a story it would just be an idea. For example, in red riding hood the resolution is that things were changed by the killing of the wolf, which allowed the family to walk around safely without fear of being eaten. Also, red riding hood developed because she learnt not to talk to strangers anymore. If there was a part 2 of red riding hood the ‘resolution’ would be the start of the new story.

We have also learnt very important lessons when constructing ideas for our own story idea. We discovered how logical causality plays a part in a good story. This causes things to happen, but they have to have a link to each other to lead to a resolution.

Also, the story must;

·         generate interest,

·         create empathy towards characters

·         Must have surprise elements

·         Must create tension,

·         Must have an element of surprise normally at the end

For a story to be successful it must follow these steps. If these steps weren’t followed then it would just be a basic string of events that would just be meaningless to the audience .When making a story it is vital to connect with the audience otherwise if they don’t believe in your film, who will?
We also learnt how in a story goal orientated protagonist is also good as it shows how the relationship between a character for example may have an effect on the story. By doing this, it shows a character that doesn’t lack motivation in order to make the film more intriguing.

Set up and Plot points

Set-up

• Mum leaves Santiago as a child
• Has an distant relationship with his dad even though he works for him
• Santiago lives with his dad, grandma and his little brother
• His grandmother owns the house
• Santiago’s boss in an outsider, people are afraid to disappoint him
• Scout trainer is linked to Newcastle
• Football team mates are very wealthy
• Santiago is most closest to his grandma

Plot points

·        His immigration to the USA, without this he wouldn’t have of become the footballer that he was today

·        His mum left him just recently, without this he wouldn’t behave so angrily towards his dad

·        He gets noticed through a scout that notices him during his local football team, without this also he wouldn’t of been noticed to play for Newcastle

·        The scout manager approaches Santiago, because of this he leaves his job

·        His dad is then angry at him, because of this he takes his money which he saves for the trip to England

·        Also, because he steals his money he buys a truck for Santiago to work for himself

·        Grandmother sells her remaining jewellery, because of this he secretly goes off to England to pursue his dream

·        Travels to England, because of this the scout manager convinces the Newcastle manager to give him a trial

·        Santiago lies about his asthma, because of this he doesn’t play well in the training session.

·        Reserve team player crushes his asthma, because of this the manager of Newcastle has to let him go in order for him to fly back to America.

·        Gets in the taxi to the airport, because of this it then diverts again as his Newcastle team mate convinces the manager to take him back after it is revealed to the manager Santiago has a medical problem

·        Continues to practice on his free kicks, because of this he is allowed to take a free kick in a reserve game and scores the winner for his team

·        Because of this event, his dad watches him play after disapproving of his efforts

·        After the night out he doesn’t really pay attention to the club doctor, because of this outing he realises how beautiful she is and their relationship begins to strengthen

·        Also, because he goes out he finds out the news of his reserve team player’s injury that causes him distress for some days

Why creativity is so important when making a film

The process from pre-production to the exhibition of the film is a time consuming period. There are many decisions in which the producer, director and editor need to make in order for the film to have the best outcome. This would be to sell out in many cinemas; DVD’s and the need to have a worldwide effect on consumers of today. However, in order for the film to be successful, it needs to be creative in the sense that it has to have a strict vision which will then need to be executed in a variety of different ways.  Not long ago the film industry was running out of ideas, the movies where not doing well in box office sales .No one was ready to invest in the movies as they were not sure whether it will return them the profit or not. Prior to this, the only films that are successful have the creativity behind the initial idea. For example, Avatar produced by James Cameron is the highest grossed movie ever, because of the creativity Cameron had for CGI technology which we know took many years to create as at the time the technology he wanted to use wasn’t available.  Creativity also calls for the need for film makers to interact with their product. This is evident by the film makers vision comes from within by they would have a certain ideas they would pick up from different aspirations which would hopefully make consuming the film more interesting. Creativity in filmmaking is the ability to think outside the box and create things outside imagination.

As a class, we are intrigued by many short films and how the use of creativity was used to portray different ideas in simple short films. These may include colours, characters, overall concept and many more.

The first short film in which I was exposed to was ‘We were once a fairytale’ featuring Kayne West. The film was given an interesting twist in how audience exaggerate how brilliant celebrity life is, but Kayne here shows us how it really is. It shows us how he is treated differently just because he is this worldwide icon. Isolation occurs as he feels everyone is against him even though he is drunk. The use of Kayne as a unique selling point engages and targets mass audiences, the young generation especially. The creativity also shines through the different camera angles the director has used to portray Kayne as drunk and isolated. Moreover, the use of composition also re-enforces this point as we never see the main character acquainted with his peers. Through that Kayne is drunk the point of view shots also impressed me because they added the extra certainty to the audience that everything was from his point of view which helped us to establish a certain bond with him and also we felt sympathetic towards him even if we don’t need to be. This short film was a really good example for us as film makers to use because it took a current issue and turned the idea into something very controversial and interesting.

The second film that we were influenced by was ‘Love sick’ which again took another public issue of love which can be related to all audiences. It also added humour which made it more engaging right until the end of the film. The film follows a normal boy who falls in love with girls at first sight, he then confronts them completely unaware of how they will react. As the film is playing it is shown through his point of view which again allows us to establish a certain bond between him and the audience. What is creative about this film is that is keeps us guessing constantly for example, in the train scene we straight away guess that the girl he finds is gone forever, however he finds other alternatives to trace her down by robbing a kids bike where he nearly loses his life. The story ends with him chasing another girl who he see’s in a park which is clear that these sort of issues occur in his everyday life. It represents a certain cycle he has to chase in order to be happy in his life, hence the title Love Sick’ shows he is fed up of the constant disappointment

‘Inside’ was my favourite short film by the fact is was the most creative. It took the simple idea of a man being locked up in a mental institution to represent how abnormal he is. The story has an interesting twist which shows the man has different personalities which are represented through different characters he has in his head, which all talk at the same time. At first it was very hard to understand what the overall concept of the film was, but after I understood the story I felt this was the most effective way to illustrate an idea like this. The use of the setting also added to the creativity of the film, it had to be dark and mysterious otherwise the idea wouldn’t have worked. The most creative use of camera was the fast constant close ups of the man cutting back to the different characters who were playing his different personalities gave emphasis that he was almost about to explode which I thought was a clever technique to use to represent the character. 

‘Tick Tock’ had the most effects used out of all the short films. It had the film starting from forward to backwards to show how after an overdose on drugs leaves him with little time to live, little did he know that his friend was playing a prank on him. Through this short film we learnt many lessons. These were to not dress up effects for the use of it; the effects need to be suitable for the story because a bad film will still be evident with or without effects. Also, the technique that was used in this film to show everything fast forward, this cannot be established in other different genres of film because it won’t work.  However, despite this I liked the overall idea of the words popping up on the screen throughout the sequence to illustrate his character, then the film took the dramatic change as he was about to lose his life which he tried to prove a point to himself that he wasn’t such words as ‘coward’ who he then confronted his girlfriend etc. Also the use of no sound unlike all of the other short films added a more dynamic element and allowed us to engage more on the actions of the character. Also the use of the black and white lighting was also trying to represent how unstable the main character was and the state in which he was presented in.

The last influence in which we were presented to was a film made in 2006 called ‘The Fall’. We were informed that the film unlike many worldwide films that it had no computer generated images, this meant that it was essential for choosing the correct location to shoot the natural aspects of the film such as the fires in the forests etc. The reason why this film was so creative was because the story idea was so plain, however the way in which it was presented to us the audience was highly adventurous. I felt as if I was also involved in the story aswell. I liked that the characters drew parallels to these superheros even though they were normal people in a hospital. The use of the voice over talking about their experience almost didn’t make sense at one point, but that’s what the production team of this film were trying to aspire, they wanted to make us feel as if the story was made up inside the characters head. This is why I think ‘The fall’ will inspire me into making an outstanding film in A2 media.

Here below is a review of the film

http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/The-Fall-3187.html

Theme of Love

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