What's Your Superpower?

Blog Entry #2 - Film Review

Chronicle (2012) - Josh Trank

Chronicle is unlike any movie I have ever seen before, it clashes fantasy and reality like never before. This movie captures the story of a group of friends who acquire super-human powers and follows them while they embrace and handle the power that they are given. I wanted to look deeper into the movie because I found it so interesting and I wanted to know how they came up with this plot and executed it so well in a film. 

This film follows a troubled but creative teen (Andrew) who has a creative mind and a high-quality HD camera. He is very much an introvert and socially awkward but he has a close group of friends, Matt and Steve, who make a discovery one night that leads them to acquire powerful telekinetic abilities. This is the ability to move things with your mind, this ability can help you do almost anything. The powers test the integrity of their characters as they begin to disagree with each other and become more and more irresponsible in their activities. For Andrew however, he is drawn to a much more darker side. One that leads to a more harrowing and decisive destiny.

Josh Trank is an American film writer, director and editor. He is fairly new to the film world with his best known film being Chronicle. He also directed the cable drama The Kill Point and the short film Big Fan. Josh Trank's directing debut Chronicle opened #1 on it's opening weekend, making him the youngest director in history to top the US box office at the age of 27, he is followed by Steven Spielberg and James Cameron. 

The Kill Point was one of my favorite television shows when it was out and I am not surprised that the same person created the quality film Chronicle. Chronicle is unlike The Kill Point in that it is filmed from a first person point of view and it is also filmed using a handy cam. Because Trank does not have much previous work to relate too especially since The Kill Point is a television show not a film it makes it a little hard. The Kill Point follows a group of Marines attempting a bank heist and the police officers trying to stop them. I can see that Trank likes to produce realistic types of film with most of his work being high quality realistic scenarios that keep the audience engaged and on the edge of their seats. 

Chronicle was filmed in a newer Cinéma vérité ("truthful cinema") style of film making  a type of "found footage" film. This style combines a first person style of documentary film making  which combines naturalistic camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. Chronicle looks at how people can use power for good or evil, as well as what will result from their choices. Power has long been a central preoccupation of social and cultural analysis, and a focus of our world.  A good example of this is; tomorrow the American people are going to give one man the most power in the country. Everyone wants power and Andrew and his friends were given the ultimate power. According to Rotten Tomato the target audience of Chronicle was people younger than 25. I know that this film attracted me with its amount of action it sold and I love the style of filming used. 

The film does not showcase any strong stereotypes but I believe the whole film is based off of an offensive message, power. Power is one of the most corrupt things in our world and this film really represents how power can change people, or in this case bring out their true colors. This film takes such a dark turn that I had no idea was coming and it ended up sending a powerful message to the audience. The best way I can explain it is that Trank captured the power that power has. 

"Chronicle veers to the dark side, turning its wobbly eye on the corrupting force of unshackled and unlimited strength." - Chronicle Review

This film captures naturalism in the super hero genre lie never before. I thought this film was visually and thematically astounding. Positives of Chronicle are the amazing visual effects, the realistic story line and for me the found footage style of filming. I do not think this film would have been what it is without using the style of filing and method that Trank used. Chronicle does lack a back-story and gives you no real build up to who these teens are that the audience is all of a sudden so focused on. It also embraces naturalism in a really good way and a really bad way. I think the naturalism helps the overall build up of the storyline but towards the end it becomes very fantasy like and I think much of the naturalism is lost. Trank does not have many works yet but this is by far his best and I cannot wait to see what Trank produces in the future. 

Quality Interview with Trank - Interview

Cast and Director Interviews (video) - Exclusive Interview

I had already seen some of Trank's past work without even knowing it until I researched Chronicle. Much of Trank's work is right up my alley and I find it quality and worth watching. I own Chronicle personally and I know many of my friends and much of my family has watched the film and enjoyed it. This critique helped me realize that experiencing a film is not just seeing it in the theaters but its deeper than that. By looking into the film deeper I was able to find out more about the Director, the cast and where the plot line came from. I also enjoyed reviews by both regular people and so called "critics" or "experts". I was pleased to see most of the feedback and reviews were positive and the majority felt the same way I do about the film. I would tell anyone to really watch out for Trank in the future and if you haven't seen any of his work I would highly suggest Chronicle and The Kill Point. 

Chronicle - Rotten Tomatoes http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chronicle via @RottenTomatoes

Nike - Find Your Greatness

Blog #1 - Ad Campaign

It is not just the championship athlete or a gold medalist that aspires to push their limits. It is also the everyday person who strives to achieve on their own terms, to set and realize personal goals and reach their own defining moment of greatness.That’s the main idea behind Nike’s "Find Your Greatness" campaign, a powerful message to inspire anyone who wants to achieve their own moment of greatness in sport. This campaign was launched just as the world focuses on the best of the best in the Olympic Games. 

The centerpiece of the Nike campaign is a "Find Your Greatness" film that came to social media and television on July 25, it was featured on the YouTube homepage on July 26th. The campaign was also promoted by a global Twitter #findgreatness hashtag to start conversation  on Twitter around how athletes everywhere find their own greatness. All of the athletes featured in the films are suppose to be average people trying to accomplish great feats for themselves whether it be boxing, skateboarding, water polo or even wheelchair racing. The initial "Find Your Greatness" ad is about one minute long but there are about 20 other commercials that range from about 17 to 20 seconds long, each featuring a different sport. The campaign is primarily video while there are print ads that feature the usual simple Nike sayings. I first saw this  commercial during the Olympics and Nike has continued the campaign with many videos and ads to help promote average athletes to find their greatness. 

The Nike Campaign focuses on the average Joe instead of focusing on already highly achieved athletes  It portrays overweight, disabled and young athletes. By using the plain-folks pitch Nike tries to convey simply that you can go out and accomplish something if the people depicted in the ads can. The slogan is very straight forward, very simple and be applied to everyone. Nike is trying to convey that basically it can help you reach your goals and inspirational people use Nike to reach their goals.You could also see a little bit of the bandwagon effect by showing all these average people accomplishing things it pushes other people to follow in their foot steps. People's insecurities about themselves and things such as being overweight could come into play as well, which would be target by the hidden-fear appeal. The campaign uses the association principle to draw on a positive cultural value (exercise, reaching goals, accomplishing a task).

The "Find Your Greatness" campaign is new in the sense of Nike in that it is focusing on average people instead of all the great accomplished athletes it usually shows. But the idea of using average people to inspire consumers of help sell a product is not that new. Dove has also used overweight women to help showcase its skincare line in the "Real Beauty" campaign. The idea of using average people to help gain consumers is a relatively new idea from what I have seen but I don't think it has much life to it. I think that is proven to be effective but once the idea is used over and over it will no longer be effective. The target audience to this ad could be almost everyone but it is really focusing on the average day to day athlete  The person that works out a couple times a week and tries to stay healthy. The ad's all feature different types of people trying to accomplish different things. I did not find many stereotypes within the ad's but I saw more of inspiration. The ad was showing people in wheelchairs racing, a small child diving, and a woman pogoing. I think Nike tried to show people doing what they are doing on a day to day basis in-order to inspire people to go out an be active.

Achieving greatness does not always mean winning.

The strengths of the ad are that it is entertaining to watch, it is inspirational and they can almost apply to anyone. By covering so much diversity within the ad's Nike accomplishes establishing a huge target market and consumer following. The weaknesses of the advertisements is that they are brief and don't sell and actual product it sells a brand but I think that's what Nike is famous for in its advertising. Nike does not try to sell a shoe, a shirt or a piece of equipment. Nike tries to sell Nike as a whole. These advertisements were very memorable and I am upset I did not look into them further until now. I watched the short film as well as the 20+ video commercials. These ads connected with me very well. usually I do not want to admit that a company sold me based upon an advertisement because of course I would like to think I am above that. But I found these ads so inspiring, so entertaining and after watching them  feel like I'm not doing much with my life, actively. 

After finding many articles discussing the advertisement and the campaign as a whole I discovered that everyone loves it! It was one of the most viewed advertisements of the summer online and all together the commercials have millions of views on YouTube. I think after researching what others had to say everyone feels mutual on these advertisement, they are inspirational and positive! I already own plenty of Nike and love the quality that Nike produces.I have already shown the advertisement campaign to many friends and I urge you too as well! This ad showed me that you don't have to have famous people, flashy things or low prices to have an effective commercial. If you put a positive message with a positive product then of course your going to be successful. These ads represented the little bit of advertising that is positive and is nothing but honest. 

Some interesting links -

Find Your Greatness - Video reviews

Obesity Society Praises Nike

Nike Ambushes Adidas