Hairspray is a 2007 romantic comedy film based on the 2002 Broadway musical. Filming took place on locations in Toronto, Ontario and Hamilton, Ontario in Canada and on sound stages at Toronto's Showline studios. Recording sessions for the film's songs and soundtrack took place in Los Angeles, California in the United States. The film was directed and choreographed by Adam Shankman and has an ensemble cast including John Travolta, Michelle Pfieffer, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, James Marsden, Queen Latifah, Zac Efron, Brittany Snow, Elijah Kelley, and Nikki Blonsky in her feature film debut. It was produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. The certificate for the film is a PG. Hairspray is a fun and snappy with constant comedy that moves at a good pace. There is some mild innuendo but the dialogue moves along very quickly and the racism is handled sensitively.
Tracy Turnblad is an overweight teenager who loves to dance and dreams of dancing on her favorite TV show, The Corny Collins Show. With the help of her friend Seaweed Tracy makes it on the show. She becomes very popular on the show and attracts the attention of teenage heart throb Link Larkin. But however not everybody is happy with Tracy dancing on the show and the stage manager, Velma Von Tussle will do anything to get Tracy off the show. Tracy then decides that its not fair that the black kids can only dance on the Corny Collins Show once a month and with the help of Seaweed, Link, Penny, Motormouth Maybelle, her father and mother, she's going to integrate the show.
Comedy Subgenre
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Action Sub-genre
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Drama Sub-genre
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Musical Comedies
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Romantic Comedies
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School Days
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Family Comedies
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Action or Adventure Comedy
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Action/Adventure Drama
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Road film
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romance
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Subject Matter
The theme is that Tracy Turnblad is overcoming her weight and racism in her city. The setting is in Baltimore 1960s, around civil rights era and desegregation and the narrative structure is straight forward.The character Tracy is the protagonist, who's hated because she is obese and also is fine with desegregation, and the antagonist is Velma who's a racist and dislikes Tracy because of her weight. The setting is all very bright with lights and the coloring in the sets is to keep the movie at an upbeat feel. There is full make up and costumes used, as well as wigs to convey the era the film was representing. There is also conflict in the movie as Tracy is having conflict with herself due to her being self conscious about her weight, and outer conflict her verses society to fight racism. Us as an audience feel empathy as we want to take the challenge to help Tracy desegregate the Corny Collins Show.
Film Content Analysis
The entire movie is non dietetic and all the music has a 1960s rhythm. The music in this movie is very powerful and moving. For example When Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah) sings "I Know Where I've Been", this song moves the story from the bright, often silly tone of the rest of the movie and brings attention to the racial strain.This song is the theme of this protest, sung while they march toward the TV station. The lyrics speak of the struggle of the blacks and the hope for the changes that are coming. It has a low sounding tome and the melody is beautiful as the main artist hits lower notes and the backup singers hit higher notes. The tempo is slow and it is mostly performed by a piano. Throughout most of the movie the pace is fast and it consist of a lot of scene within scene editing. For example during the song "Without Love" there is a lot of cuts back and forth throughout the characters, while changing venues but it still keeps the song and tempo throughout the scene.Throughout most of the movie the angles are straight on but in the musical numbers the director changes the angling to add to film realism.
The Woman in Black is a 2012 British-American supernatural period horror film directed by James Watkins and written by Jane Goldman. It's the second adaptations of Susan Hill's 1983 novel of The Woman in Black, which was previously filmed in 1989. Produced by Hammer film productions, the film stars Daniel Radcliffe , Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer, Sophie Stuckey and Liz White.The film was released in the United States and Canada on 3 February 2012 to generally positive reviews, and was released in the United Kingdom on 10 February 2012. Filming took place in early october and was completed on the 4th November 2010. Eel Marsh House were filmed at Cotterstock Hall near Oundle in central England. The fictional Nine Lives Causeway leading to it was filmed at Osea Island in Essex. The village of Crythin Gifford was filmed at Halton Gill, north of Settle in the Yorkshire Dales. The certificate for this film is a 12A. However it received 134 complaints from individual saying that the rating was too low. The target audience for this film will be 12 and older and also it will also be aimed at Harry Potter fans as Daniel Radcliffe is the main character in the film.
The Woman in Black is about Arther Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) a widowed lawyer who travels to a remote village to sort out the affairs of a recently deceased eccentric, where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman who is terrorizing the locals.
Narrative analysis
The main character is Arthur Kipps who is the protagonist and The woman in black is the antagonist. The setting is set in 1889 so its very old, but its also very dark as there is not much color which darkens the mood which makes it a very dark and cold place to be. The audience will be clinging to their seats the whole time and will be emotionally involved as they will be on Mr Kipps side to save the village and the children from the woman in black.The main themes for this movie is family and revenge, and the message to take away from this movie is to always forgive as revenge will lead to nothing but sadness and loneliness.
Film Content Analysis
The lighting throughout the film is mostly darkness which created a very depressing and uncomfortable atmosphere. There were be very extreme close ups for example there will be a close up of the woman in black's face, a doll, a rocking chair or a grave. The lighting in a room was shadowy to create quite a haunting and scary effect.
Conclusion
I chose these films as they were completely different and I surprisingly enjoyed both of them. I absolutely love Hairspray mostly because of the songs as I think that they brought life and energy to the musical. I'm not a fan of horror movies and I definitely wouldn't watch The Woman in Black on my own but what I loved about it was the story line as it kept me gripped and I kept on wanting to know what was going to happen next. The setting and lighting very much brought the whole film together as it gave the film a tense atmosphere which is what a horror movie is meant to have.
Comedy Subgenre
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Black Comedy
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Comedy Horror
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Classic Horror
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Film Noir
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melancholy,
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alienation
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bleakness,
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disillusionment,
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disenchantment,
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pessimism
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ambiguity
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moral
corruption
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Evil
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guilt
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paranoia.
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Supernatural drama
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Tragedy
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