Pleasantville, shows a series of clichés put together by Gary Ross in order to attempt to reach the same success 'big' had with Tom Hanks in 1988.

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Gary Ross, quite a known writer and director for his more famous movies such as the 'Hunger Games' and 'big' directed Pleasantville which came out on the 23rd of October 1998. This comedy/drama/fantasy is very similar to a previous movie which he made called big where a boy goes into different world. Sound familiar? Pleasantville tells the story of two siblings; a popular rebellious girl called Jennifer and a weirdish-creepish teenage boy called David addicted to the 1950s sitcom, Pleasantville. Due to a mishap, they both end up in the show as two of the main characters, Mary Sue and Bud Parker, and have to deal with this strange world where everyone and everything is 'perfect'. Very sadly, Jennifer is not ready to live their way and ignore all the things that happen in her world and that Pleasantville does not know about. David and Jennifer slowly start making the inhabitants of Pleasantville experience new things which makes them turn colorful. Slowly, the black-and-white town of Pleasantville was washed away with color, but during this change came great debate and discrimination as the town divided into two.

Apart from its strong connectivity to the movie 'big', Gary Ross has also placed some very predictable codes throughout the movie. The first one is the symbolic code of the red button. We all know what happens when you push the red button or cut the red wire, something goes wrong, especially when it's some strange man who delivered it to you randomly in the middle of the night. Obviously the red button is only accidentally pressed leaving the characters surprised and the audience bored in front of a predictableish scene. Another code is seen with the first item of color seen in Pleasantville, ared rose, symbol for love and beauty. Skip Martin is the first to see this after spending the night with Mary Sue at lover's lane. The rose is also perfectly placed in a bush which seems to have not a single other rose, right where Skip drives by and sees it. Despite everything bad there is to say, the sound is quite good. In terms of non-diegetic sound the music is from the 1950s and usually matches the scene very well. For example, David and Betty take a romantic drive to lover's lane under the falling petals of the cherry blossom trees while Etta James sings At Last in the background making the mood of the scene much more romantic. The diegetic sound also matches the image very well with simple car noises and voices apart from some quite dramatised lightning sound precisely placed at unnatural and awkward moments.

The mise scene is also quite stereotypical and reminds us of many known movies. The usual prop of the umbrella gives a shout out to Mary Poppins. A dreamy-magic girl in an imaginary world. Typical. A perfect world where the only weather is sunny and yet there is a weather channel, the most simple way to show change is with rain leaving all characters confused over the concept that water falls from the sky once in a while along with some strange light and rumbling sound. The very badly placed lighting and thunder comes to replace the response to the catchphrase "Honey, I'm home" showing the husband dramatically left alone in the dark at the entrance of his home. The sets seem quite good and appropriate but the costumes show a very stereotypical view of things. Jennifer, the main female character is shown as a rebellious girl in the beginning, wearing low-cut tops and choker necklaces. As soon as she enters Pleasantville, her outfit changes to button-up shirts and the usual nerdy glasses. Gary Ross really couldn't have shown these characters in any more of a stereotypical way.

Now the obvious other technique throughout the whole movie is color. The use of color causes a bit of confusion in the beginning of the movie as at the start, it is made to believe that the change from black and white to color is linked with sexual experience but is proven wrong by Jennifer. Jennifer questions why all the other girls have turned colourful while she is still grey. We only discover what makes people turn colourful after Jennifer herself turns colorful after a night of reading. Finally this makes us understand that what causes people to gain colour is by having tried something new, having tried something out of their world. In Jennifer's world, Jennifer would never have spent a night reading a book she enjoyed due to her personality and the way she was, but Pleasantville changed her.This can also be seen with David as he only changes to color after having spent the night at Lover's Lane with his new girlfriend. Despite the fact that there is quite a good feeling that we develop with the people who are colored, they seem to be quite insecure about it for example Betty Parker gets her son Bud to cover her up with make up as she feels so ashamed to be incolour. This movie also has strong links with the period of the 1920s due to some of its high discrimination, for example, many no coloreds signs are held up around the shop which reminds us of the time when 'coloreds' and 'non-coloreds' were not allowed to be together.

Overall, Pleasantville would have been quite a good movie if Gary Ross had not made some things so obvious or cliché. The use of most techniques are irrelevant and make the audience quite bored as they are obvious and predictable.

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Radiohead's All I Need video shows two boys' from two completely different worlds go through their typical usual way but it shows their life in a way that makes the audience rethink their whole lifestyle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV1hQSt2hSE

Image result for radiohead in rainbows

Do we ever think about things come from? Do we ever realise the value of things? Do we see the luck some of us have? I do not think so. This music video really shows that to us. "All I Need" is track #7 on the album In Rainbows by radiohead. The video conveys this feeling of sadness and self-questioning to the audience. When simply looking at the video, we can see the true and deeper message of this video.

The camera angles used really makes the audience feel sad and create a connection between the children as there are close up of their faces and hands as one of them is in school and the other working in a factory. There is a clear division between both screens but despite the fact that the movements of the camera are usually similar on both sides, the camera also takes a lot of far shots to really show the simple surrounding difference in the two children's lives.

What really shows a true difference between both scenes though is the difference in color and lighting. The scene on the left where a slightly wealthier and healthier boy is shown, the lighting is very bright and beautiful colors are shown on the walls, but the other side of the screen shows a much darker environment with sad colours.

There are also many hidden codes in the video. Such as the setting. The child on the right is very often outside and the sun is shining and he seems to have a big house with bright-colored walls while on the other side, the boy is working in a dark and small enclosed area. There is also a close up of the boy drawing a colourful, creative drawing while the other boy is gluing soles to black shoes. There is also a slow motion of the children playing outside being compared to the boy still at work.

In terms of sound, most of it is non-diegetic as the song is playing in the background and we never see any signs of the band members or anyone singing. There is only light diegetic sound with a little background noise of the children playing on the playground.

This is not the original video for this song. This video was actually made for MTV's exit campaign, in order to raise awareness about human-trafficking and child labour so the lyrics were not actually made to fit this video but some links can be seen between the text and the video. For example in the line "I am a moth, who just wants to share your light". It uses the metaphor of the moth as moths tend to be attracted by light. In this video, the little boy making shoes would be the moth and he would want to live in a brighter world. The line "It's all wrong, it's all right also shows that in the video both boys are shown very differently. One living in a sad world, where it is 'all wrong' and the other living in a bright world where it is 'all right'.

The last scene shows the final pair of shoes that the boy has made compared to the shoes that the other boy has been wearing all day and they seem to be the same. On top of that the message "Some things cost more than you realise" Those simple words really make the audience think about where the stuff they buy comes from. Maybe these shoes were bought for very cheap, but children spend their days making them and the consumers will never realise.

I decided to write this film review in the voice of Betsy Sharkey, a Los Angeles Times writer. I chose her because I really liked her structure and the language she used which was really clear and sometimes funny. I used a similar structure to her and I also tried to give an interesting title and short introduction of what the review was going to be about.

Spielberg's Schindler's List takes the audience back on a terrorising terrible trip back to the Holocaust. The trailer shows the horrendous holocaust through the eyes of Schindler and the millions murdered.

The semi-traumatising trailer crosscuts through piles of footage of human remains being tossed around and the freakish voice of a man – "Today is history" repeating over. This is all accompanied with some melancholic and depressive piano piece making the audience gaze at the human horrors portrayed in the trailer. Spielberg purposely shows the full bodies of the generals making them seem dominant and larger like wild beasts. On the other hand, the jews are all portrayed as small and desperate. The slight mention of a list is also heard – Schindler's list. A list of names of people we do not know about and that no one probably remembers. He also uses the image of deadish-looking children, full of despair.

And to close off the trailer, the simple image of a little girl. A little girl in a red jacket among the black and white crowd surrounding her, almost in a suffocating way. The screen goes dark and a lonely candle burning down appears.

Overall the trailer clearly shows that the movie is about the holocaust and its horrors. I really want to watch the movie as it does not only show the holocaust in a documentary-type way but instead focuses on someone who really existed and shows it from their point of view. This makes the movie more subjective and manages to connect with the audience in a more emotional way.

The short film 'Administrators' may seem simple but has quite a deep meaning behind it. The film shows a rabbit whose house is on fire and who has to go through a lot of administration in order to acquire a fire extinguisher. The director uses several techniques in order to make the audience feel pressure. The film uses quite a lot of close-ups on the rabbits but also on the red flames. This makes us think that the rabbit whose house is burning down is always thinking about the fire in the forest. The film includes both diegetic and non-diegetic sound to make the audience feel pressure. I think they both work very well as the rabbit screams the words "help" and "fire" a lot and the music gets more intense and faster throughout the film. Crosscutting between the office and the forest on fire builds intensity. There is also a huge contrast between the black, white and grey office and people and the bright red flames symbolising fear and negativity. These all help build a high level of tension throughout the film. The director does this to make the audience relate to the rabbit whose house is burning down as we also start to get frustrated with the administration. The scenes that cause the most tension are the cross cuts between the fire and the rabbit as it reminds the audience that the fire has not stopped and is still burning the forest down. I think the film asks the audience a very important question which is At what point is administration taken too seriously. With the simple story of the rabbit trying to get a fire extinguisher, the author manages to make the audience think a lot about administration. The whole short film really shows administration as slightly ridiculous. I find that it is represented to a point that they become inhuman due to their focus on rules. This can be shown very well in the scene where the rabbit runs into the office yelling help and no one reacts but as soon as he presses the button, he starts getting attention. This shows that the people are sometimes so focused on rules and everyone doing what they are told that they lose their caring side. The short film also shows that administration can sometimes be influenced like when the female rabbit tells him that he does not have the right paper work but after he hands her a carrot, she lets him in. Overall I think that despite the very simple story in this short film it has a very deep meaning that I feel is becoming more and more true and widespread in today's world.