video ad's i could use

fragrance advertisement analysis (early draft).

 The 'Vega' advertisement is from the 20's, but by then, Guerlain have already been around for almost one hundred years, so I guess you could say that Guerlain have had some experience in the field of perfume advertising. There were a multitude of advertisements I could have chose from the 20's, but I chose the minimalistic one because of how different it is. Firstly, in the 20's, photography was becoming more mainstream. Ad agency's wanted to have the best technology in their advert's to seem progressive and fresh. Guerlain were either ignorant of recent innovations, or this was intentional. They made a simplistic and minimal poster with a mere six colours. Guerlain proved that they don't need fancy new technology to make a powerful advert, as they're skilled enough to do so with a bare-bones simple design. Unlike the other perfume adverts I saw that demean and objectify women, this empowers women. This shows a woman with a spiky chess piece behind her head, empowering her as an authoritative and threatening figure. You can see that she's the higher figure in this poster; that she is above all. She's not objectified or demeaned by anyone; she looks like she's the type of woman that could run a business, or a state, not the type of woman that gets drunk at parties and sells herself. 'But Guerlain' they shriek, 'how can I be like this powerful and competent-looking woman?' Simple. Buy their perfume. That's obviously what they're selling, because you have to sell something in this industry, so why not sell something positive and less demeaning?


After feeling positive about the advertising industry for a short moment, let's move on to Centaur, a surprisingly sexualised image for the 1950's. I thought the 50's was a relatively conservative decade, and the liberalism emerged a decade later, but this advert is making me feel differently about that time period. Of course, it was a sexist time, so the rampant sexualisation of women wasn't uncommon, as displayed here. Of course, retro and nostalgia sells, as proven with most Indie Games and period dramas like Mad Men or Downton Abbey or Boardwalk Empire, but Centaur is taking retro to its logical conclusion. Instead of basing the advert 50 or so years into the past, it goes Ancient Greek. I've noticed that perfume adverts feed off needs like desire and lust. This one, for example, depicts an old man who probably wouldn't have been a ladies man, using Centaur, and then becoming a ladies man. This shows that if you use Centaur, you will become attractive and desirable with no real effort. It's slightly depressing how our society wants everything the easy way. For instance, 'The secret how to lose weight fast!' or some other demeaning untruth for the shallow. In this case, the advert is selling the idea of having beautiful women for the price of a perfume bottle. Anyway, Centaur is actually a Greek Mythological creature that is half man, half horse, or put simply, 'Half man, half animal'. The name of the perfume is subtly alluding that it's okay to let your animal side go.

Contrary to popular belief, women aren't the only group of people marginalized and stereotyped. What could be more obvious than a man's clenched fist as a fragrance bottle to sell masculinity and male pride/superiority? It uses typically male colours, black and blue (slang for the bruising of a persons flesh) and uses a block capital, bold and rugged font as its title. It's the most male-power fragrance I've seen in a while. A clenched fist represents a fighters fist, almost explicitly saying that this cologne will strengthen you. If you buy this cologne, you will become one of 'the brave', further selling exclusivity and desire.

The 'Vega' advert is almost 100 years old, yet little has changed. These three fragrance adverts all sell similar desires, whether it be power, ownership, masculinity, and yet a sense of falseness. Of course spraying cologne on your clothes wont make you stronger, of course spraying perfume wont make you powerful, but they want you to think that it does.

stock characters in film.

the chief. - Jules Winnfield - Pulp Fiction
Throughout the film, we have a constant sense that Jules (played by Samuel L. Jackson, well enough for him to be nominated for an Oscar) knows exactly what he's doing, and he does so with extreme confidence and calmness. When we first meeting, he has a human conversation with his partner (John Travolta) about burgers, above all things. They look like they're just driving to work, until you realize they're hitmen that recite Bible verses before killing their targets, as well as enjoying a good burger. It creates an effective contrast that most action films fail to see. We have to have a sense of humanness in their characters, otherwise they're merely a plot device for action scenes.

the bad boy. - Randle McMurphy - One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
Randle is one of the most iconic example of rebellion in film and even literature, up there with Tyler Durden (Fight Club) and Holden Caulfield (Catcher in the Rye). The book was written in a time where people were constantly rebelling against the norm, and breaking the mold and pushing boundaries. Yes, the 60s was a magical time, and the rebellion of that era is personified in Randle McMurphy. Ken Kesey substituted Western Society with a Mental Asylum, and the Authoritarian Government was personified by Nurse Ratched, a cruel and wicked nurse that keeps the chronics and the acutes repressed under her tyranny. Until McMurphy comes along and raises hell. He questions authority, refuses constant medication, takes the patients out of the asylum to go fishing, and teaches the patients how to gamble. Jack Nicholson (who won the Oscar for his role) truly embodies the free spirit of the 60s , so much so that he is still iconic and relevant to this very day.

the best friend. - Francis Begbie - Trainspotting
Robert Carlyle often plays serious, dramatic roles, for example: Hitler. But in Trainspotting he plays a dangerously insane, fould-mouthed and violent friend of Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) and his circle of friends. The interesting thing about Begbie is that you can't say no to him. He threatens to stab Mark at one point and actually does stab another one of his friends at another point. He starts a bar fight by throwing a half-full glass of beer into a crowd of people and raises hell. He constantly picks bar fights for the most petty reasons, like someone distracting him at Snooker. All of this is rebuttaled by Tommy where he says "What can you do? He's a mate." With someone like Begbie, you don't say no to him.

the lost soul. - Jesse Pinkman - Breaking Bad (Season 4 and 5) 
For the first half of Breaking Bad, Jesse was the comic relief sidekick of Walter White. For the latter half, without meaning to spoil, he becomes a tortured soul. Endlessly tormented after he killed an innocent man to keep an illegal business going. He is essentially a harmless character, so when he is put out of his comfort zone, he becomes unstable. He becomes vague, distant, dissatisfied with life,  enough to throw thousands of dollars out the window of a movie car. He can't live happily due to the fact that all of his profit is 'Blood Money'.


the charmer. - Jack Cole - Sideways

Sideways is essentially about a week-long bachelor party, before Miles' (Paul Giamatti) friend gets married. Miles is a divorced and unhappy writer, but Jack (Thomas Hayden Church) is like a teenager in his 40s. He is constantly looking around for women, often for Miles' sake, but is often more successful anyway. Unlike Miles, who is serious and rather pretentious, Jack doesn't pretend, and acts like a child. He's forgetful, irresponsible and dishonest, but does have a way with the ladies. This makes him more of a human character with real flaws and vulnerabilities, instead of a
one-dimensional ladies man.

the professor. - Walter White - Breaking Bad
Walter White is an underachieving chemistry genius. Instead of staying at a company he founded which is now worth billions, he's a high school teacher. Due to recent news that he has lung cancer, he uses his knowledge of chemistry to cook Crystal Meth to support his family after he's gone. Even after his family is secured, he still cooks meth and risks his life. Why? When meeting up with his former colleagues who are now millionaires due to their successes, Walter is embarrassed by his lack of achievement in comparison. When cooking methamphetamine, he makes thousands upon thousands, feeling a sense of accomplishment. After all that studying of chemistry he did, he has finally found something that has value. This adds much more depth to his character, than simply an impossibly smart lab-dweller, which most 'mad scientists' in film fall under.

 
 the swashbuckler - Beatrix Kiddo - Kill Bill
This might seem like an offbeat choice for a swashbuckler. 1. She's female. 2. She's a ninja. 3. She's not Jack Sparrow, which everyone else chose. But the very definition of an archetypical swashbuckler is: The word swashbuckler generally describes a protagonist who is heroic and idealistic to the bone and who rescues damsels in distress. His opponent is typically characterized as the dastardly villain. There is a long list of swashbucklers who combine outstanding courage, swordfighting skill, resourcefulness, chivalry and a distinctive sense of honor and justice. By this standard, she fits perfectly, apart from the damsel in distress bit; you can ignore that. She's the main protagonist of the Kill Bill series, she's very courageous, she has immaculate sword fighting skill (as evidenced in the Crazy 88 fight), she's resourceful of her surroundings (again, see the Crazy 88 fight), and believes strongly in justice and honor. The main theme of Kill Bill is revenge, and this all ties in with justice for the perpetrators of her near-death, and honor for the discipline of warriorhood she's in. This makes her a particularly interesting character, as she breaks the mold of a damsel in distress and is the sword-fighting hero herself.

the warrior - Bruce Willis - Die Hard 
As the later Die Hard films descended into obscurity, the first Die Hard remains a prolific action film in the sense that it used an average Joe as their main hero. "Bruce Willis?" they shrieked, "You mean that TV actor from that awful rom-com series? No way will he make an action hero!"  But it was because of this that he was so successful. It wasn't an action film starring impossibly muscular body builders (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone), but it was about a regular cop thrown in to impossible situations. Unlike the later Die Hard films, he doesn't drive cars into helicopters, but has vulnerabilities and motives like real human beings do. He's just a good guy that wants to do the right thing, with a veneer of sly wit.

'Inception' analysis.

Christopher Nolan's Inception is an outstanding action movie. Not just in terms of quality, but in the way it distinguished itself from other run-of-the-mill, bog standard action movies released as of recent. It had a clever concept of manipulating dreams, and how that can be made meaningful in a way. For me, it's the best action film since Matrix, in the sense that it's viscerally entertaining and fun to watch, but also has a fair amount of thought put into it, using the theme of dreams to explore deeper themes, ideas and messages. This scene in particular revolves around a dream within a dream (the hallway) that is heavily affected by the dream that it's in (the car chase). The truck swerves and barrel rolls, causing Arthur's dream world (the fight sequence) to shift its centre of gravity. It's almost as if the hallway is on wheels and it's swerving and barrel rolling.

The spectacle, of course, is the constantly-shifting centre of gravity in the hallway, and the fight that happens throughout it. It's an original idea; having a standard, recognizable hand-to-hand combat sequence with the reaching-for-the-ever-moving-gun cliche thrown into the mix, but having the world shift and twist and jolt around it. The music is incredibly effective, starting out with a deep bass and fast violin, evolving into a faster tempo with ascending notes. The constant ascension of the notes ties in with the theme of anticipation. The tension builds up and up and up, until it abruptly ends, just as Arthur kills the last guard. The movement and shifting of the hallway is also random. We can see how each moment of the fight is affected by the change in gravity, linking to the next moment of action. The randomness of the world movement keeps us on edge, as a fight is taking place anyway.

The action alternates between hand-to-hand combat and a car chase that ends in a crash. The car chase revolves around a van full of people tied up to another dream world, so they're not conscious of the drivers dream world. The driver swiftly escapes oncoming threats by pulling men off bikes and using the traffic to his advantage. The danger here is twofold: the threat of Arthur being neutralized by security guards, or the car, with all the vital characters on board, crashing and killing everyone inside, locking them inside someone elses dream forever. The car chase physically effects the hallway scene, as opposed to two separate action scenes going on at the same time, causing two ongoing threats.

By this point, the audience is either nauseated or engaged. The tension caused by the two ongoing threats may lose audiences, but this scene is relatively manageable compared to the rest of the film. The rest of the film switches between a dream, a dream within a dream, a dream within a dream within a dream, etc. It's sometimes hard to keep track, but this small moment of 3 minute action lets the audience forget all the previous confusion and let them enjoy something everyone understands: violence. If this film was a cerebral drama that still revolved around the idea of dreams within dreams, I doubt it would have succeeded as much as it did. Weaving in action with cerebral set pieces can appeal to two audiences at once, entertaining the smarter film audience in a different way to the common film audience. Even if you didn't understand the film, a simple hand-to-hand combat scene with a cool twist, will engage you no matter how high-brow you consider yourself.

Leonardo Di Caprio plays the main hero of the film, Dom Cobb, but this scene revolves around his assistant, Arthur. He's initially sent on a recruit mission, but encounters problems along the way, with the drivers world constantly affecting his world, and the trouble it takes to neutralize Ken Wantanbe's character, Saito. He has an overtly suave attitude when dealing with stressful situations, and can easily navigate a room where the floors are ceilings in a matter of seconds. Despite not having a word of dialogue in this scene, actions define a character. With that thought in mind, we see that Arthur is incredibly capable, smart and tactical. There's more character development in the rest of the film, but this is where he shines as a character, taking on the seemingly impossible task of pulling off a flawless combat sequence in a nausea-inducing hallway. He is made to seem like the only competent one in this scene, with the security guard constantly tripping over and Saito falling into an elevator door.

This is one of the better action films out there, with all the pointless Transformers and Fast and Furious sequels out there, at least Inception has a brain. A confusing, twisting and often frustrating brain, but a brain nonetheless.