Writing Template

BEFORE YOU WRITE

CLOSE READING AS 91480

KNOW YOUR DIRECTOR - If youre writing about a director and his/her films you should expect to know something about this director. Do a little research about their career, along these lines chronology, highlights (awards or box office success?), lowlights (bombs?), type/genre of films they tend to direct, stylistic hallmarks they tend to lean towards KNOW YOUR EXTRACTS be ready to explain them: whats happening? Whats REALLY happening (thinking metaphors), what are SIGNIFICANT production-features being employed? Why is the director using these features? What is an audience reaction going to be?

Writing an INTRODUCTION
Introduce your director, his/her stylistic hallmarks, the film extracts youll be focusing on and WHAT THESE EXTRACTS TELL US
New Zealand director Sir Peter Jackson has made a huge impression internationally with his ground-breaking adaptations of JRR Tolkiens Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001 2003) and he has continued the momentum created by these modern-day fantasy film classics with his current adaptations of Tolkiens The Hobbit (2012-2014). While some critics might argue that despite Jacksons success he is essentially riding on the considerable coat-tails of Tolkiens massively popular classic novels, it is important to note that prior to these films Jackson had fair successes with films made on considerably smaller budgets; these early films let us appreciate Jacksons preference for special effects and also horror-as-comedy. Jacksons early homage to splatter-gore films, Braindead (1992) and his 1987 debut alien-invader feature, Bad Taste, both allow his audiences the chance to see Jacksons penchant for extravagant non-human costuming and liberal use of special effects involving blood and dismemberment. Jackson relies on the unknown and the paranormal in order to give his chief protagonists the opportunity to find their true selves and confront their own demons and shortcomings. Jackson uses the evil unreal, whether it is aliens (Bad Taste) or zombies (Braindead) to help his principle characters (and by extension, his audience) grow and define themselves as real, good people. The extract in Bad Taste which exemplifies Jacksons stance occurs at the end of the film when blah blah blah.. Jackson continues this over-arching theme in Braindead when blah blah blah

BOTH EXTRACTS
Detailed plot summary (for want of a better word) of your extract, which includes: What happens Production features used Your INTERPRETATION of WHY these features are used by the director Your INTERPRETATION of how an audience will react to what the directors done

Doing the little things correctly: Film titles with (dates) Showing background knowledge of my chosen director Ive come up with a connecting idea for my TWO extracts and explained it Ive outlined my two extracts

WHAT NEXT?
The key for you is to RESPOND CRITICALLY and PERCEPTIVELY to what youve written. This is the chance for you to STEP AWAY FROM THE EXTRACTS and talk generally
Peter Jackson has forged a monumentally successful career making films depicting unreal evils, whether alien invaders, man-eating zombies, or even the classic Tolkien villain Sauron, who force their real counterparts to face their chaos. In doing so Jacksons protagonists must journey (both real and metaphorically) to discover their true selves. Jacksons heroes are beset by self-doubt and worry but they find their real selves in the face of fear. Jacksons recurring theme in many of his films is a common one. We are all held back by our fears, our inhibitions and our insecurities. For many, the only way to move beyond these is by stepping out of our comfort zones, as xxxxx does in Braindead, and xxxxx does in Bad Taste. Jackson successfully touches onto a key facet of human nature and in doing so has created a massive following for his work and a long-reaching accomplishment that arguably the whole of New Zealand benefits from.

PREPARE WELL DRAFT WITH CONFIDENCE BE PREPARED TO MAKE CHANGES

FIRST DRAFT MUST BE HANDWRITTEN