Mad Max character study - Character and Challengers

 1.  Choose one character and describe a challenge in their life. Identify which part of the hero's journey this is.

Max Rockatansky is a character who'd rather live a reclusive life in a world in which has gone to waste. He isolated himself from society because of his dark past - dark past of losing the people he loves. Through the end of his journey of escaping Immortan Joe, along with Furiosa and the wives, I believe that one of the challenges in his life he faced was during the last battle with Immortan Joe. It was a challenge for him because he was fighting alongside the people who grew a connection with. One of the reasons why he chose to live such a reclusive life was because of the experience he had of losing the people he cared for. This fits in the 10th step Apotheosis of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey Steps. It fits in this area because Max gained his understanding of his true purpose of encountering Furiosa and the wives. He then requested for the last battle in order to achieve his true purpose as a hero even if it costs his life. If looking at Christopher Vogler's 12 step Hero's Journey, this challenge would have been Max's Ordeal step where he faces not only a near death situation but also the risk of having to repeat the same experience that he had which is loosing the people he had a bond with. If he had, it may be likely for him to return back to living a reclusive life and worse, mentally & emotionally dead. 

2. Explain how they coped with it. Aim  for 3 ways. 

1. Through bonding with Furiosa and the wives, I believe he gained more characteristics of what being a human truly looks like. Because of this, he urged to help them fight for humanity and redemption by taking them back to the citadel even if it costs him his life. 

2. Morality. Max is a character who was ethical, noble and virtuous. Because of these characteristics he had, he would fight for what is right for not only himself but for the rest of humanity. He was chose to be a cop for a reason and that reason was to look for a righteous cause. 

3.  Refusing the worse outcomes - the prevention of Furiosa's death. When he fought alongside Furiosa in the last battle, he saw that Furiosa was about to die. Because of this, he pushed harder for their survival - he won't accept that she will die. The thought of her dying gave him the urge to push harder, he carries on fighting as their is still hope for their survival. 

3. Describe 2 visual/oral techniques that support your ideas plus one quotation. 

Point of view shots and two shots. 

A point of view shot that enhances the moral of his character was when the camera showed us what he sees in his visions. Visions of the people who lost, however, the last visions we as the audience would encounter, his POV, is when a girl tells him, 'cmon pa, let's go' directly at Furiosa and the wives. After the POV shot, he enters the stage of being the Hero of the film. The POV shows us what's been going on in Max's head. For instance, the last vision we saw. Through it, we were aware that he wasn't going to leave Furiosa and the wives alone, but to actually go and help them fight their way to their true destination. 

The two shot of Max and Furiosa in the scene of 'the tree of life' visualized the idea of his trust, and some form of a relationship between him and Furiosa. Through their two shot, we came to understand that Max is finally regaining back his true sense of being a human, furthermore, that his true personality is very righteous.

4.  Explain what the director wants us to learn from this character and how they dealt with their challenges/conflicts. What important messages can we take away from their struggle?

Going back to question three, he dealt his struggles by having hope, driven harder as he refuses negative outcomes and what we value as people. Thinking back to ourselves, we always encounter a situation where we there is a negative outcome and a positive outcome. For instance, senior students in school aiming for University. If we badly want to reach for university, then of course getting some not achieves won't help, in order for us to stay away from those marks, we must refuse it and keep going. Being righteous by studying hard and complete the tasks and also to not give up when there is hope. There are many situations where we face an ethical issue, however if we have the values Max hold and his state of mind, we will make it. 

Third question of 'Unfamiliar Text': Compare and Contrast

 Both authors are discussing about their experience in New Zealand except one writes about how she faces the poor reality of it being shattered away with new changes of the city as her memories were a dream of primeval beaches, whereas the other one writes about how her first sight of New Zealand comes to be a  dismal and gloomy country in terms of first setting foot there as a refugee. Although both authors sets a melancholy tone about New Zealand when they arrive or as they return, both have differing approach of their writing. With using strong connotation and the use of diction, the first paragraph of the poem approaches the reader with a very gloomy tone as it compares New Zealand hills "are packed like cement", diction like"cemeteries lush with centuries of flesh" and "The people smile with missing teeth like hosts of a drunk party...clearly, the North has been here forever". Cemeteries lush with centuries of flesh, the choice of diction in this sentence was to intentionally reinforce an image in the readers mind of the North of New Zealand as a very old spooky place, shifting us away from an image of a bright and happy place. Comparing the people to a drunk hosts engages us to the author meeting the kiwis during her arrival in New Zealand as if they never gave her a express of kindness or respect. With hills like packed of cement sets to say that the mountains in New Zealand aren't as captivating. 

Whereas Fiona on the other hand approaches the reader with a more enchanting and bright tone in her first paragraph with the use of her choice of diction. For example, she says "as the plane climbs up over Europe and watch it turn into a pristine place of rested hills and snow-topped mountains through which win the rivers..." the words like pristine, and snow-topped mountains gives out a bright tone as we as the reader create vivid imagery of beautiful landscape and snow, the word snow gives out a happy sense of emotion as snow reminds us of happy memories and Christmas movies.

Both authors approach the reader describing a country and the characteristics of it with a differing tone. Fiona talks about the mountains of Europe as "snow-topped" whereas the poem says that hills of North of NZ are "packed like cement".  

However, when coming further down with Fiona's writing, we start to have a similar mood of how we felt when reading the poem. She expressed a similar tone of despondency with such choice of diction to form a melancholy tone, "that dream of primeval beaches scattered with driftwood...", "plains burned to a tawny hide in late summer.", "That dream she knows to be corrupted by reality: the beach is already threatened...

Reflection on Music & Drama Performance (June 30th 2021)

Here is my reflection on my night of the performance. Wednesday 30th June

After frequently practising my piano piece, 'Easy' by the Commodores, I was confident because the practices I've been doing sustained my ability to play through the whole song. While standing behind the curtains, waiting to announce my piece and my name, I was a bit agitated but also exited because I had an opportunity to show my parents plus the school what I am able to do on the keys. Agitated because although I know how to play the whole piece, once I'm nervous, my hands won't do well. So I keep saying "Just relax". Once my name was announced, the sound coming from the audience motivated me to really 'play' the piano other then just do it. So despite the nervous feelings I had, all I can think of is making sure that the sound coming out of the piano will astonish my parents. What motivated me to be relaxed is my parents and my friends listening and watching me play. 

Before all this, once the first act have begun, everyone was well behaved, calm and listened to what Matua Solomon and Ms Clark and Ms Beer's instructions. What I love the most was the encouragement and support we gave to each other, especially to those who were about to go on stage and needed it. The applause from the audience after each act was amazing as everyone who took part in the performance received really loud applause by the audience. No one had to feel shamed. The flow of the whole performance went smoothly, although it was long, we managed to go through everyone by how it was planned out. After the performance, all I hear is positive comments by evryone, especially from my friends and parents. What made my night was knowing that my dad made it and filmed me, and knowing that my mum cried through it. The positive comments I got from Ms Beer, Ms Clark and Matua Solomon made my night too. Not just me but to everyone else. Everyone had a great time after the performance and nothing troublesome happened in between or start and end of the performance.

Practice: Redemption scene

 Redemption scene

In the redemption scene of Mad Max: Fury Road, we as the audience were able to capture more of Furiosa's affectionate nature and the relationship between Max and Furiosa; as in this scene, George Miller effectively interpreted more of where she came from through the use of Dialogue between Furiosa and Max. For instance, when Max wakes up from a nightmare with fear in his eyes, Furiosa then comforts him by saying “It’s OK go to sleep, get some rest”. Instead of sleeping, Max decides to use the time as they were finally riding smoothly, he asked Furiosa how she knows if the green place exists, she then says “I was born there”, “Why’d you lead” he asked, Furiosa replies “I didn’t..I was taken as a child...stolen”. The conversation went further by Max’s questions in concern of what the wives and Furiosa are looking for. “And them(referring to the wives)” Max asked, “they’re looking for hope” Furiosa replies, “What about you?” Max asks, a bit of a pause until Furiosa replies “..Redemption”. Miller’s purpose of this was clearly signifying to the audience that the relationship between Max and Furiosa is starting to become more open even to a point where emotional intimacy was involved. Lines like “I was taken as a child, stolen” was a sign of emotional intimacy as it was a line that entered Max into a deep vulnerable past of Furiosa; showing him that she had experienced a dark pass in her life. Miller also used the use of questions to show how Max is starting to become concerned regarding Furiosa and the wives. He asked many questions like “Why’d you leave?”, “Have you done this before”, “and them?”, “What about you” which shows us how intrigued he is towards them. Compared to Max from the start of the movie, he has always been travelling by himself independently and has never shown interest or wanting to engage with other people. Although it was a small and short portion of the film, Miller perfected the dialogue as it wasn’t seen as a normal scene of Max and Furiosa but more of a ‘moment’ between the two. The effect this had on the audience gave us a bigger concept of where their relationship will be positioned throughout this movie. Knowing that Furiosa has been through a dark past, it came clear to us that Furiosa would be the character Max can relate to the most as he has also experienced a dark past in his life. Miller's use of dialogue also links us to the wider world. “I was taken as a child..stolen”, Miller immersed these words into this scene through the voice of Furiosa as it is words that have been spoken out by various young women and children into the world we exist in at this moment. Women across the world have spoken out about how they have been taken as a child through child trafficking, and have been stolen from their homes and their families. Like what Furiosa did, fighting for what they have done to her, we need to fight for justice, for the countries to act on preventing child trafficking and children being taken away from their homes.

This is a paragraph explaining how the director of Mad Max: Fury Road controls the use of dialogue within the scene of Redemption.

Furiosa's Hero's Journey

Auteur Theory - Concentric circles

Andrew Sarris - Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962

On page 563 of the article titled to Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962 written by Sarris, he mentioned his point of view about the Concentric circle. The concentric circle is used to see the premises of an auteur theory visually in three areas: Outer circle - technician, second circle - style (personal style) and then the inner circle - interior meaning. He states that there are no prescribed courses by which a director passes through the three circles. There have been directors who were an auteur but did not go through one of the parts of the Concentric circle e.g like Bunuel. Even before he could assemble the first technique of the outer circle, he became an auteur. Visconti and Rossellini evolved in a opposite direction from being a metteur to a auteur and from being a auteur to a mettuer. (Sarris,1997,pp.563).

Sarris, A. (1962). Andrew Sarris: Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962,pp.563.