Is Max a typical teenager?

Is Max a typical teenager? Explain your answer using only the montage scene. Use Mise on scene.

The Mise en scene of the montage from the film Rushmore would suggest that no, Max is not a normal teenager. It might not be that Max is not normal, just slightly strange. It can be scene from the montage that he is ambitious. He clearly likes being the “president” or “founder” of groups and conventions. Again however the aspect of this that would suggest that Max is not a “normal teenager” is that the things he is keen on and president or founder of are strange topics and choices for hobbies. It  is this aspect that would suggest to audiences that are not from Max’s social standing that he is not normal. Being the president of the French club or the calligraphy club president is not what people would say is a normal hobby in the modern world’s social standing. People who do these hobbies are labelled as being “posh” or “well to do.” I know for certain I’d label them this and I like to think I am not one to stereotype. The Mise en scene shows that Wes Anderson, the director, wanted to clearly focus in on Max. Each shot is identical to the last in some way. This is mainly shown by Max being centre stage and having himself flanked by two people or there being a space for this. Every shot is parallel. The montage takes many different settings emphasizing the fact that Max is busy and that he likes to be busy. Again this differs from what teenagers would think is normal. In the media are teenagers not casted as being youths who merely want to “lounge?”

However you might like to say that Max is normal and that every teenager feels ambition on some level. Yes it may not be as prominent in everyone as it is in max but you can’t deny that the youth like to do well. Also as can be seen in the montage he acts as Russia in the United Nations talks. This is a subtle hint at a wish to be powerful or at least admired or possibly looked up to in some way. This again is not strange in teenagers. Humans are social animals and the wish to be part of a group is obvious in everyone. In some ways this is poignant because this makes Max a very “typical” teenager. Longing for friends is not unusual but the montage just happens to make Max look like the type of guy who is a loner, poor Max.

Frankly it’s either he is an ambitious chap or he’s a teenager with too much spare time. He does however strike me as a little bit odd.

Re-Presentation

Re-presentation (My definition)
Re-presentation is presenting yourself/someone differently to how they'd act or be in society. E.g by posing differently to how they would in real life.

Re-presentation (proper definition)
Re presentation is the way the media present "something" as though it were real, it is not real, merely a copy of something.

Signs and signifiers
A sign is something that communicates a piece of information.
A signifier is multiple ideas or feelings behind a sign.
All signs belong to cultures.

Gatekeepers
These are the people in charge of what we see.

Ideology
This is a belief system, E.g Communism.

Rushmore-Film
Mise en scene:

• camera angle
• props
• setting
• lighting
• acting

Questions on the film:
Where is the film set?
The film starts in a school called Rushmore.It is a all boys, christian school. After the scene in the class room they move to a chapel.

Describe the main characters personality.
From the beginning you we can see that max, the main character is different to everyone else. He seems posher, or more upper class than his peers. Even if they are in private school. He seems this because he is wearing a blazer formally when everyone else is more relaxed and casual.

What is he excellent at?
The opening scene we watched would suggest that he is excellent at Maths because this is what he dreams about and this subject seems to be the focus of the scene. However we do not have enough information on Max and it could just be that he is a superb day dreamer.

How do others view him?
Again like the last question, in his head and his mind the others view him as a maths hero. In reality however, if he dreams that then it is more likely that he is viewed as a bit of a "loner"

How was he dressed?
Like the question "describe the main characters personality" it would seem that he dresses himself to be more upper class than his class mates. I can tell this by his use of a blazer and a tie.

Magazine evaluation

Making my magazine was not easy but I feel I can be proud of what I created and that it is a good piece of work seeing as I had never used Photoshop elements before.

Admittedly my finished product had altered from my mock up. This is because there was aspects of my mock up that i could not create. On the front cover a main aspect that had altered was the main image. I had to make this large and make it touch and overlap the mast head as is custom with magazines. Frustratingly my contents page doesn't look much like my mock up at all. I changed photos round and altered it's appearance.

All together however I feel proud of what i created. It is a school magazine and fulfills what I had to do and what I had to create. I like the colour scheme that is an aspect I like the most. I think it looks like a magazine people would buy because I included articles which appeal to people. Such as one about exams, stress and depression. These are all things people feel and therefore I think would buy. For this reason I feel I have done well.

Magazine production

Per

Front cover of my magazine

 After I created my mock ups the time came to create them in Photoshop. I used my own camera to take the pictures I needed for my magazine. They included pictures of Ryan, Liana and Rhys.

Once these photo's were imported into Photoshop I spent time working on them to make them fit with my magazine, the theme of my magazine and my three colour palette. I cut every picture out and removed it from it's background. I used the magnetic lasso tool a large amount. I used this to remove the element of the picture I wanted from the rest of the photo. Another tool I used is the eraser and all three aspects of it these were:

• The magic eraser
• The background eraser
• The normal eraser

Other tools I used were the box creating tool. I used this a lot as an alternative way to underline a heading. I would fill this box with orange, a colour from my three colour palette. After doing this I would then use the gradient tool to add a little creative design to the colour.

Contents page of magazine

Film task- Production

After our storyboards were created we swapped them with another groups. To my dismay at not getting to use my scripts well designed, well punctuated "wollopingly" funny lines. The storyboards we used were dfficult to grasp. We had to follow what they said however. Word to word.

The equipment we used consisted of a Tripod and a small film camera.





We used a tripod












 

We used a camera

Pre Production on film task.

We gathered ourselves into groups. I went into a group with Rhys, Liana, Jordan and Ryan. On a whole, I like to think our group functioned well. We each were part of or created productive components to our film.
Straight away we decided to do something diferent as none of us were feeling the idea of having a boring walking, door opening and a conversation.

In an attempt at this we all created a part to our groups storyboard. I was tasked with making the groups script for the vital conversation seen in the preliminary task. This was effectively filmed and put into good use.

Our storyboards showed what camera shots were needed for what parts of the board. In my case I used the shot/reverse shot. effective for conversations.

Preliminary exercise

The task
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue.
This task should demonstrate match on action. shot/reverse shot and th 180 degree rule.

Step 1
Storyboards are essentially basic, cartoon versions of what each shot will look like when filmed and edited.

shots

1. long shot
2. Medium shot
3. Close up
4. Extreme close up
5. Match on action
6. Over the shoulder
7. Shot/ reverse shot.

Key shots

1. Character opening a door
2. Crossing the room
3. sitting down opposite second character
4. 180 degree rule going to three or four lines of dialogue (shot reverse shot.)

The five C's

What is media language?:

The five C's:

• Camera angle
• Continuity
• Cutting (aka editing)
• Close ups
• Composition

Camera angle

When telling the audience where the film is set use a long shot. This lets you show the important information

A medium shot is the most commonly used shot in cinema. It is used to show any character interaction.

if there is something/someone important to show to the audience then a close up is used.

Continuity

This generally refers to visual errors. In very basic terms it means having a character in a red top then in the next shot a blue.

Cutting/Editing

This is essential otherwise films would be in real time and would never end.

It allows the director to change locations and is mainly used to add pace to a scene to make it exciting or to slow it down for dramatic emphasis.

• Gender
• Age
• Ethinicity
• Sexuality
• class and status
• Physical ability/disability
• Regional identity

                                                                                             

About me

Not my best moment

 My name is Rupert Radley, I am studying AS level media. I'm in to quite a few different things. My two favourite things are Mountain biking. I Ride a scott mountain bike (my favourite bikes) I have biked at Fort William in scotland on the world champs course.

 My other favourite activety is photography. I own a DSLR camera, it is a Olympus E-600. Once again these are my favourite cameras and Olympus are my favourite company. Frankly they kick Canon and Nikons behind.

I listen to loads of different types of music. From ACDC to acoustic stuff such as Jack Johnson. Jack Johnson is my favourite artist but band wise, i'd have to go with Biffy Clyro/Killers/Chillies/You me at six/snow patrol. Basically I have tons of music.
Film wise I prefer shooters and films based around this genre such as:

Shooter, Saving Private Ryan, The departed, Black Hawk Down.

However a good comedy never fails to tickle me:

Tropic thunder, The sleeper, Happy Gilmore, Ice age-amazing.

T.v show wise I live for Scrubs but I am partial to Family Guy, Friends, Gavin and Stacey and Granma's house, Bear Grylls, Myth busters, Band of brothers and Generation kill.