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The Queen’s Gambit

This drama tells the growth experience of a female genius from an orphan to a world chess champion. This is a major female lead drama, and it is also a ‘cool drama’. Unlike other dramas of this type, it focuses on the flaw of genius rather than focusing on the coolness and superiority of being a genius.

The story begins with Beth’s mother taking her to commit suicide. However, Beth is miraculously unscathed and she becomes an orphan. After being sent to the orphanage, Beth is obsessed with a sort of green tranquilliser. Under the influence of the drug, Beth can have hallucinations. She has always had the best academic performance in the orphanage. Only those green pills can make her come through nights. By chance, Beth meets Mr. Shaibel, a worker of the orphanage in the basement. Or to be more precise, she knows about chess. Mr. Shaibel and his chess deeply attracts Beth. Beth masters the principles and movements of these pieces just through observing silently. Mr. Shaibel is shocked by her talent and teaches her to get started. Soon after, she makes rapid progress and defeats Mr. Shaibel. However, what Mr. Shaibel teaches her the most important stuff is not the chess game, but learning to admit defeat.

Beth dislikes losing at all. Fortunately, she has never lost again since learning. The teacher of the high school chess club, invited by Mr. Shaibel, goes to the basement to meet Beth and battles with her. As a result, Beth wins without effort. Then, Beth fights with the teacher and Shaibel simultaneously. Without doubt, they both lose. Afterwards, Beth battles with 12 high school students at the same time, 12 people lose. Beth wins very simply. That year, Beth is only 9 years old.

However, it happens to be that year when Beth is already addicted to those green pills. If she doesn’t take pills, she will go crazy. Though, the United States launches a new law that no longer allows minors to take such doses of tranquillisers. After Beth is taken off the medicine, she is extremely upset every day. Eventually, she takes a risk and goes to pharmacy and steals the medicine. She gulps the pills and then faints in front of teachers and other children.

At the age of 15, Beth is adopted. She is incompatible with her classmates in a regular high school. Everything she thinks in her mind is still playing chess. She writes to Mr. Shaibel in order to borrow 5 dollars, which is used to sign up a formal chess game. Then she defeats all masters, including the state champion with 1800+ points and she wins 100 dollars as a reward. Subsequently, her adoptive father runs away from home, leaving her wife and Beth. Beth and her adoptive mother depend on each other. Her adoptive mother starts taking her around to participate in competitions and she never loses one game.

Until she ties with American champion Benny and becomes the American double champion. To Beth, being equal to others is just like losing. What is even more frightening is that she meets Borgov from the Soviet Union. At that time, it is the time when the Soviets dominate the chess world and Borgov has been dominating the chess world for twenty or thirty years. In front of Borgov, Beth is defeated thoroughly. But even worse, when she returns to the hotel and wants to tell her adoptive mother, she finds her adoptive mother has passed away, which symbolises that no matter how talented people are, they are destined to be defeated by life.

After losing her adoptive mother, Beth is devastated. Although everyone around her tells her that chess is not the whole life, she has nothing but chess. She becomes more obsessed with playing chess than before, as well as starts taking drugs and drinking alcohol. She is a mess of decadence.

It is not until one year later in the Paris match that she again faces Borgov. This time is even worse. She has a hangover the night before the game and almost misses the game. However, it is a mess again. In her mind, she is a machine that only wins chess. But if it is unable to win, what is the meaning of life? With the help of her boyfriend, she suddenly discovers that there are many senior chess players in history eventually go crazy. She gradually begins to suspect that being mad is her fate.

At this time, I think the most brilliant reversal of the series has come. From the beginning, Beth’s talent is dependent on tranquillisers. If she does not take tranquillisers for a day, she cannot stand it. Thus, when she falls, she quickly becomes addicted to alcohol and pills. The chessboard is actually the key for her to escape from life. Only by taking pills, she is able to be concentrate on chess so that survive life. She never dares to face her devastating fate as well as this cruel world. She is afraid of thinking of her mother who commits suicide and her childhood experiences.

But in the end, she finally summons the courage to go to Moscow and challenges the Soviet masters again. She returns to the orphanage and finds that Mr. Shaibel has been paying attention to her silently for many years like paying attention to his own daughter. Her best friend in orphanage Jolene, takes out the tuition fees that she has saved for a long time to go to college and supports Beth’s travel cost. Her ex-boyfriends also provide her with technical support. She is no longer a genius fighting alone. Moreover, she no longer needs the help of drugs, but with her own strength, she can predict the chess game on the ceiling.

Eventually, she defeats all the Soviet masters and steps on Borgov’s palace with a knight, becoming a new generation of the world champion.

There are many details in the series that are worth mentioning.

• Beth knows that she will play chess with the Soviets in the future, so she learns Russian in advance.
• In the lift, she meets Borgov for the first time who is followed by two bodyguards. Those two bodyguards are preventing Borgov from defecting to the United States! It is the era of the Cold War.
• In high school, Margaret Neil laughs at Beth’s clothes, which Beth buys them at Ben’s sale loft. After years, Margaret buys clothes for her daughter at this loft.
• Beth and another genius boy named Georgi Girev, he is really talented at playing chess. After the game with Beth, he says he wants to become the world champion in three years. However, he finally becomes a piano player.
• Harry’s teeth

At the end of the series, there is another old man playing chess with Beth. This is to react to the beginning of the story. The story begins with Beth playing chess with an old man (Mr. Shaibel), and ending with playing chess with another old man. It brings a nice conclusion to Beth’s story.

Story circle

Dan Harmon created the story cycle, a distillation of the monomyth into 8 steps, which is believed to be universal for any story in any medium.

The most basic form is we draw a horizontal line through the circle. The top of the circle represents where the character’s journey starts and finishes, the bottom represents the world that needs to be traversed in order to grow and change.

From top to bottom you delineate the moment that the protagonist enters a new situation and is forced to adapted, often struggling to do so. This usually means that the protagonist fights some external force.

The second line is defining the internal struggle of the protagonist. Once the protagonist crosses this dividing line, he or she finally faces and tries to overcome his or her inner flaws or problems.

1. You (establish a protagonist)

When a story starts, the audience is just loading like a ghost, you have to give them place to land. How you do this, how do you put the audience into a character, you just show one is fade in on them and we are them until we have better choices.

2. Need (somethin’ aint quite right)

This is where we find out something is off balance in the universe, no matter how large or small that universe is. We are running the things aren’t perfect and could be better, that is the reason why the story is going to take place.

3. Go (crossing the threshold)

You are in a certain situation and now that situation changes. The top of the circle represents the ordinary world while the bottom half represents the special world. It needs to be contrast between these two worlds.

4. Search (the road of trials)

The protagonist doesn’t need to literally train during this, it’s where they adapt an experiment.

5. Find (meeting the goddess)

The job of the road of trials is to prepare you for the meeting with the goddess. The protagonist found out what they are looking fo, even if it wasn’t what they thought they were looking for. This is where the big revelation happens. the protagonist at this pivot point makes a choice and descends.

6. Take (meet your maker)

This is the hardest part, it’s when protagonist realises something is really important to the point where it’s more important than himself. Protagonist gets full control over his destiny. In the first half of circle, protagonist is reacting to the forces of the universe, adapting, changing, seeking. Now protagonist becomes the universe which makes things happen. The friend has given protagonist time to complete the mission.

7. Return (bringing it home)

For some stories, this is as simple as waking up or others it’s someone who needs to be pulled out of an extreme situation.

8. Change (master of both worlds)

Life will never be the same.

Story arc

Many stories follow a simple, basic plot pattern.

• Exposition – introduces setting, characters and the problems they face
• Rising action – moves the plot forward by showing characters fighting against their problems
• Climax – the tense moment of crisis
• Falling action – something unhappy happens
• Resolution – returns the story to stability

Villain types

• The bully
• The dragon – the one doing all the dirty work and making hard life for protagonist, usually the last challenge for the hero to overcome
• The vengeful
• Fallen hero
• The terrorist
• The beast
• The unhinged
• The machine
• The equal – a mirror image of our protagonist, this villain is so much like the hero
• The supernatural / extraterrestrial

Hero’s journey archetypes

• Hero
• Mentor – provides motivation, supply
• Threshold guardian – provides essential tests to prove a hero’s commitment and worth
• Herald – issues challenges
• Shapeshifter
• Shadow – the opposite of the hero
• Trickster – funny character, could be village idiot
• Allies – fill in the gaps where the hero is deficient

Mise en scène

Mise en scène is the stage design and arrgement of actors in scenes for a theatre or film production, both in visual arts through storyboarding, visual theme, and cinematography, and in narrative storytelling through direction.

Set design

Set design is about the setting of a scene and the objects visible in a scene. Set design can be used to amplify character emotion or dominant mood, which has physical, social, psychological, emotional, economic and cultural significance in film.

Lighting

The intensity, direction and quality of lighting can influence an audience’s understanding of characters, actions, themes and mood. Light and shade can emphasise texture, shape, distance, mood, time of day or night, etc. Lighting affects the way colour are rendered, both in terms of hue and depth, and can focus attention on particular elements of the composition. For example, highlights, call attention to shapes and textures, while shadows often conceal things, creating a sense of mystery or fear.

Space

The representation of space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size and proportions of the places and objects in a film can be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, lighting, set design, effectively determining mood or relationships between elements in the story world.

Composition

Composition is the organisation of objects, actors and space within the frame. One of the most important concepts with the regard to the composition of a film is maintaining a balance of symmetry. This refers to having an equal distribution of light, colour, figures and objects in a shot. Unbalanced composition can be used to emphasise certain elements of a film that the director wishes to be given particular attention to. This tool works because audiences are more inclined to pay attention to something off balance, as it may seem abnormal.

Costume

Costumes in narrative cinema are used to signify characters or to make clear distinctions between characters.

Metaphor

A visual metaphor is also known as an analogical juxtaposition in an idea, a feeling, or a story represented in an object.

Zootopia

For Judy, the police bunny, they serve as a symbol for progress, equality, and opportunity.

• For her, the badge isn’t just a badge.
• It’s sign that she has officially ‘made it’ in the big city and that dreams are truly possible.
• In addition to this, it is a symbol of authority and power – something she has never had much of in her large family nor in society at large (due to being a bunny).

For Nick, the conman fox, the police badge and uniform represent something different.

• To Nick, they represent a type of oppression and as a discriminatory authority.
• Whereas Judy has been given power by the same images, Nick has felt his power has been stripped from him.
• The authority the cop image holds aims to punish him for his hustles.
• This effectively disempowers him because it’s the only way foxes can truly make a good living.
• It proves to Nick that the shiny gold badge is there to keep the status quo and keep him in his ‘place’.

The badge and uniform are dynamic visual metaphors, though. Their meaning changes for Nick by the end of the movie.

• Instead of symbolising oppression, they represent progress just as they did for Judy.
• Nick receiving a real badge represents acceptance, support, and positive change.
• It represents similar things for society in general, as it shows a drastic change in the perception of foxes and bunnies.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics in film is a philosophical study of the art. Aesthetics is a very abstract concept, it cannot be described by words, instead, it can only be felt by heart. There is no rule for deciding what is good or bad aesthetics. However, I think the film with good aesthetics is that it has unique and unusual shooting style (e.g. unbalanced shot, 1/3 composition method), great colour composition which looks harmony but not weird, etc.

Colour composition

Rhythm

The skill of pacing does not mean moving at an exact measured pace all the time, but knowing when to cut out of a certain shot and into the next to create an engaging dynamic. An editor needs to know just how much time is necessary to give the audience a breather to absorb a moment, or when to trim and cut out of a shot before it lingers on for too long. These ups and downs, or waves, are important to avoid moving at a monotonous speed. In his book Art of the Cut, Steve Hullfish gives the perfect example of this by comparing editing to dance. “Dancers do not simply make a movement or a step on every single beat. Dance rushes forward, then holds, then flows elegantly, then spins and drives.” There are innumerable films to use as references here, but as I was recently watching Moneyball, I could not help but notice Christopher Tellefesen’s instinctive editing style. The scenes in which players were being traded over the phone had a fun, back-and-forth exchange between Billy Bean (Brad Pitt), and Peter Brand (Jonah Hill). This dynamic was beautifully juxtaposed with the long and awkward, one-shot scenes of the players receiving the news that they have been cut from the team.

There is no rule or formula to follow to determine the pace and flow of sequences. I think that the majority of editors would agree that it is a matter of instinct, or according to Anne V. Coates, you must “have the courage of your convictions”. It cannot be taught as much as it is felt; you will know when you have made a good editing decision when it feels right emotionally. We all have that one friend who knows how to tell a good joke, or a good story. They know precisely when to hold on a certain beat, or when to pickup the pace to build up to a climax, and surely enough the audience react at just the right moment with a laugh or gasp. This is what editors are meant to be doing when cutting the story, whether by creating tension in long drawn out shots, or cutting an action sequence with a flurry of footage. If you know exactly what you want to be telling in every scene, then how to say it will follow naturally.

Generally, the actors or the genre of the film dictates the rhythm. Often times, however, that natural pace gets thrown off if an actor pauses a bit too long on a beat when delivering lines, or a camera movement is too slow or too fast that it does not feel right. But, I do believe that if a shot is framed beautifully, the acting is adept, and the emotion is there, stay on that shot, because some moments are simply more genuine and powerful when there isn’t a cut.

Game

• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided posited a world of cybernetic enhancements, divided by “mechanical apartheid,” but publisher Square Enix repeatedly denied that its imagery of societal separation and prison camps had anything to do with the real world of racial divisions.
• Far Cry 5portrayed a rural, anti-government American cult in which bastardised crosses were wielded by fanatics, but publisher Ubisoft refused to be drawn on obvious comparisons with currently resurgent white supremacist groups.
• Sony’s Detroit: Become Human flirts with issues like social justice and domestic abuse, but its creator David Cage says it’s “really about androids,” further claiming that the clear real world parallels in his work are merely in the eyes of players.
• Nintendo’s decision to localise Xenoblade Chronicles X, taking out a customisation slider that altered female breast size, sparked harassment and doxxing against a Nintendo employee.
• Battlefield 5’s use of a woman character in a World War II setting has caused untold controversy among reactionaries.

Film

Discussions on gender equality in the film industry have gained increasing momentum in the recent year. Respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights, including gender equality, is a pre-requisite for the creation and distribution of diverse cultural expressions. Gender equality is one of the 11 monitoring areas of UNESCO’s 2005 convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and Goal 5 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

At the same time, the film industry is arguably the most high profile of all the creative industries, with considerable cultural, social as well as economic weight. Film is also a powerful medium that in many ways both reflects and shapes society and culture. Diversity and gender parity are crucial to the film making process if cinema is to reflects experiences and perspectives of various groups in society.

TV

In the digital age, television is an important forum for those ambitious politician. Hard-hitting journalistic formats such as the ABC’s 7.30 and RN Drive remain key platforms for politicians to articulate and defend their policies.

Malcolm Turnbull has adopted a noticeably more active strategy on this front than his predecessor. More than half his media interviews in his first six months as prime minister were given to the ABC.

As US president, Barack Obama won over many hearts and minds with his appearances on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. Tony Abbott appeared on Big Brother in his successful 2013 election campaign. He was judged to have done quite well in targeting a section of the electorate that is less likely to tune into Lateline.

Advertising

A recent analysis of tobacco consumption and advertising bans in 102 countries found that a comprehensive set of tobacco advertising bans can reduce tobacco consumption, whereas a partial ban will have little or no effect.

A nudge is a small factor which attempts to steer consumer behaviour in a certain way. Placing a harrowing image on the dangers of smoking on a packet is able to discourage the purchase of cigarettes.