Week 2: Themes and Moral Premise.

The theme is the underlying message of a story. The theme is usually the writers own opinion about the message they want to send to the world through their story. A lot of the time the difference between a good film and a bad film is its theme. A good film has a strong theme or a few different good themes, where as a bad film without a good theme can be one dimensional, difficult to connect with and at times pointless. Films that are just about blood and gore or viloence usually dont have much of an underlying message. Some widely used themes are redemption, faith, loss of innocence, man vs nature, man vs society, man vs him/herself, triumph over adversity, revenge, love conquers all and good vs evil.

Before I started studying Film & TV, I never used to pay attention to themes and messages. I feel like I used to just get wrapped up in the story but I think sub-conciously I was always paying attention to the themes because I could connect to the stories with strong themes. Since learning about film techniques and what goes into making a film, I cant avoid noticing these things. At first it was annoying because it distracted me  from the film but now I don't mind because it shows me that i'm constantly learning and understading the films I watch.

Another topic we went over was moral premise. The moral premise is a sentance used to decribe the physical and psychological arc of a film. This is a really good way to summarize the problem faced in a film and how something needs to change for a successful conclusion. A template to use is VICE leads to DEFEAT, but VIRTUE leads to SUCCESS. I found this a very helpful way to explain the moral premise in a short concise way. All you need to do is substitute the words in capital letters with those that apply to the film you are trying to explain. For example the moral premise of Liar Liar is DECEPTION leads to REJECTION, but TRUTH leads to ACCEPTANCE. I find it quite difficult to come up with the moral premise of a story but with practice I think it will become easier.

In conclusion a successful film is that of one with a theme that people can connect with and a clear moral premise that decribes the characters journey and problems they must overcome.