QE Media

Example responses

A* response:

1. Explain two ways the narrative (characters and events) in the extract fits the action adventure genre.

Use examples from the extract.

 

The characters fit the action adventure genre as Ingrid and Gregorio are both good looking.  Ingrid wore light coloured clothing at the wedding, along with the guests and Gregorio was wearing light colours except the darker parts of his suit, but these dark colours aren’t displayed as threatening because of the setting.  Ingrid is portrayed as strong and agile as when her wedding was about to commence, she smashed an ice sculpture with her fist very suddenly.  The audience had the warning she was about to do this and you can hear the noise of her fist coming through the air showing she is agile and powerful typical of protagonists in action adventure.

            The events fit the action adventure genre because it follows the typical storyline.  There is a quest the protagonist must go on (Ingrid ‘taking out’ Gregorio), the protagonists find love and get married.  Then the antagonists appear and try to sabotage them, where a fight commences as the antagonists come in suddenly.  The protagonists escape and defeat the antagonists, displaying the stereotypical good defeats evil plot, in this case love conquers all.  Therefore the narrative fits the action adventure genre.

10/10

 

2.  Explain how each of the following elements is used to create effects:

• soundtrack

• editing

• mise-en-scene

• camerawork

You should use at least two examples from the extract for each element.

 

Soundtrack

Non-diegetic music begins when Ingrid is telling Carmen about how she had a mission to take Gregorio out.  The music starts when she is begins her dramatic tale and the scene changes to a flashback, where Ingrid is narrating the story.  The non-diegetic music commences abruptly, with the use of brass and string instruments to create a tense atmosphere full of anticipation.  This atmosphere is successfully achieved as the volume of the music is very loud ad dramatic, causing the audience to perceive something dramatic is about to happen.

            Diegetic sound is used when the helicopters fly over them and when the antagonists fire things out of the helicopters and things begin getting destroyed at the wedding. Screams for the guests can also be heard.  These diegetic sounds create a dramatic and tense atmosphere as you know the antagonist are approaching and may end up hurting someone.

 

Editing

The pace of the editing increases as the scene gets more tense.  For example at the wedding, when the antagonists arrive and everything is very chaotic with things breaking and people screaming and running, the pace of the edits speeds up.  This is effective because everything appears more chaotic and disruptive, causing the action to seem much more dramatic.

            Slow motion is used at the wedding when the protagonists escape from the antagonist as they’re running and about to jump into the sea.  The use of slow motion is effective as it makes the protagonists seem very agile as you see all the action in the background, but they’re able to outrun it all.

            A wipe-cut is used at the beginning, when the flashback begins to play out. An aeroplane flies overhead and the camera follows the plan in its direction of travel and leads to it onto the next scene.  This is effective as it all happens very fast, implying a dramatic scene will follow.

 

Mise-en-scene

An exotic location is used during the scene where Ingrid and Gregorio get married. This is typical of the action adventure genre for an exotic location to be used. 

            The antagonists, while you never actually see them, all have black or dark grey equipment, for example, their helicopters are all a very dark colour and this is clearly displayed at the wedding as the protagonists and the wedding guests are all dressed in light colours, portraying good over evil, which is the antagonists.  Black smoke appears with the antagonists, displaying darkness both metaphorically and physically, exemplifying that they’re the antagonist immediately before anything actually happens, whereas the protagonists and their side all radiate positivity due to the setting of the wedding and their light coloured clothing.

Also consider the gadgets used.

 

Camerawork

The camera tracks the action (match on action) as it is going on, for example, when Ingrid and Gregorio run away, just before they jump off the cliff into the ocean where they parachute down, the camera tracks them on their run. This suggests they are the most important characters as they are the ones being tracked by the camera, rather than anyone else.

            While they run, there is a close up angle of the protagonists’ faces, displaying their determination and courage.  This is because they are both smiling, showing they’re not scared by danger, showing their bravery.

            A low-angle is used as the antagonists arrive, portraying them as deadly and powerful. It makes them appear larger, further aided by a long shot, displaying the mass of helicopters that are there to harm the protagonists.  This is effective as it portrays danger within the fight scene that is about to commence.

18/20

 

3. Discuss the representations in the extract.

Refer to stereotypes in your answer.

Refer to examples from the extract.

 

You might consider the representation of:

• gender

• race and nationality

• spies

• family, love and marriage

 

Females are displayed as good-looking, fast, stealthy, witty and agile.  This is displayed when Ingrid follows Gregorio at the beginning, changing outfits and accessories very quickly and sneakily. Agility is displayed when she hits the ice sculpture of the swan, as it was a sudden movement, she didn’t prepare herself for it. 

            However, while gender equality is mostly displayed, men are still displayed as better than women in the action adventure genre.  While Ingrid may not be a damsel in distress, Gregorio does outwit her in the mall when she goes to find him.  He knew what she was doing and planned ahead, showing he is smarter.

            Additionally, at the wedding, when they antagonists arrive, Gregorio shields Ingrid as if she needs protecting – a common thing used.

            While Ingrid may not take the stereotypical gender role of damsel in distress, she still displays many stereotypical qualities women have in action adventures.

            Foreigners are depicted as bad in this clip, something widely used in action adventure.  For example, in the beginning when Ingrid had been told she had to ‘take out’ Gregorio, he was portrayed as a bad man, so when you realise he’s foreign it further implies this. When he catches Ingrid at the top of the elevator, you think something bad might happen because of his race and nationality and how its commonly used and manipulated in action adventures.  However, he turns out to be a countertype as while he is foreign, he also turns out to be the protagonist, flipping this usual stereotypical representation of different races and nationalities.

            Furthermore, spies are portrayed as almost like the master race as in the beginning, Ingrid describes them as a “new species” implying they’ve been changed to behave that way.  Also, they have no feelings that will interrupt their jobs.  Many are portrayed as bad as they all sneak around and many get into bad situations, implying many other spies are evil as spies’ enemies are other spies, which Ingrid says.

            Finally, family, love and marriage is represented as more powerful than anything else.  This is a theme commonly used as action adventures are usually family orientated films, so have an aspect of love in them.  Love is displayed as something that affects your whole lie in a positive way as Ingrid described the “Assignment that changed her life” as something positive because she met Gregorio.  She couldn’t do the job she was meant to do, as it was love at first sight, representing love as something that conquers all, especially evil, as shown when they escape the antagonist in heart shaped parachutes.

18/20

 

C/B Borderline response:

 

1. Explain two ways the narrative (characters and events) in the extract fits the action adventure genre.

Use examples from the extract.

 

There are two ways you can tell that the clip fits into action adventure, the first is shown by the way they are in pursuit of each other as spies. They are supposed to “take each other out,” yet you never see blood, gore or violence. The genre is also shown during the wedding when helicopters appear, they are in pursuit of one of the couple and are going to “take them out” because of how dangerous together they would be. But you never see any violence or anyone getting injured in any way - this represents an action adventure film.  

Be careful not to repeat the same points, consider the exotic location and outnumbered protagonists.   

7/10

 

2.  Explain how each of the following elements is used to create effects:

• soundtrack

• editing

• mise-en-scene

• camerawork

You should use at least two examples from the extract for each element.

 

Soundtrack

The soundtrack during the clip is very upbeat and heroic. For example during the telling of the story it was a non-diegetic soundtrack that wasn’t really that parallel to the scene because it was like a French band playing music. Also during the clip when Ingrid explained that they were spies, it was a soundtrack such as Mission Impossible to give you the effect of experienced spies. During this scene there are sound effects to represent gadgets and spy related technology. In the lift it was a slow rolling love song which was parallel to the scene in the lift when they first encountered each other.

 

Editing

In parts such as the scene when both Ingrid and Gregorio were in the lift the cut scenes were very long and single clips lasted long periods of time to give the effect that it was a very loving moment. Other than this the rest of the cut scenes seem to be reasonably quick to keep up and fit in time with the soundtrack. This is used to create effect that possibly a lot of stuff happened at once or the fact but everything was moving fast in the relationship or time. Having such quick changing scenes further enhances the fact that it was action adventure because this type of editing and cut scenes and stereotypical to this genre.  

Be a little more specific when the cuts take place and also comment on the slow motion.                                      

 

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene in this clip didn’t seem very relevant to what they’re wearing and the type of items they had and the props available.  This is because the clothes they wore in the first few scenes of the clip seemed to be very old styled clothing and wouldn’t relate to this genre.  You see further on in the clip that the two spies were actually dressed very smart which is very stereotypical for spies to wear.  However, referring to the props they had, it wasn’t clear to see that they had any sort of weapons on them but more of the tech type, for example the glasses she wore were able to follow his footprints.  

You could stress the props – the gadgets and typical iconography of helicopters, speed boats and parachutes.  You could also discuss location too.

 

Camerawork

The camera work in this clip mainly consisted of a long shot to allow people to see what was going on around them and to give the impression of them watching.  Also every now and then there would be a low angle shot to give the impression of someone being tall or to show the height and power of someone. For example, you could see this camerawork when you first meet Gregorio when the camera starts low and then pans up, giving the effect of power and importance.  A similar scene that used this angle was when the helicopters arrived and you saw someone jump off a wall onto someone else’s back, giving the impression of how high up it was.

 

15/20

 

3. Discuss the representations in the extract.

Refer to stereotypes in your answer.

Refer to examples from the extract.

 

You might consider the representation of:

• gender

• race and nationality

• spies

• family, love and marriage

 

During the clip there were several representations to being stereotypical and various others that weren’t.  For example, the girl being a spy and set out to kill another spy isn’t stereotypical for a woman to do because stereotypically the girls are normally the damsel in distresses and need saving.  However although her being a spy isn’t very stereotypical, her being dressed up in very fancy and posh clothes is very stereotypical because it shows importance to herself.  Also stereotypically for the male in action adventures they are usually a white British male.  In this clip it seems to be that the male spy is French, however the same as the female he is wearing very posh clothes.

          In the clip you see two spies trying to “take each other out”.  This isn’t usually the case for action adventure films because typically it is one good spy assigned to get rid of the bad person.  This is what a stereotypical film in this genre would consist of, but in this clip you are unaware of who the bad person is, or who the good person is.

          Everything else aside, it is very stereotypical for a couple as the one in the clip to fall in love and to get married.  Even though the fact that they are effectively enemies they seem to fall in love and want to get married.  As a result of this and them getting married, a load of helicopters arrive and have completely managed to ruin the wedding, but despite Ingrid and Gregorio being so outnumbered, they managed to escape and get away without being harmed. 

15/20