Text 15: A summary of the plot of The Great Gatsby by iTunes
The Great Gatsby follows would-be author Nick Carraway
(Tobey Macguire) as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York in the spring
of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz, bootleg kings and
sky-rocketing stocks. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to
the mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and
across the bay from his cousin, Daisy (Carey Muligan) and her philandering,
blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). It is thus that Nick is
drawn into the captivating world of the super-rich, their illusions, lovers and
deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without of the world he inhabits, he
pens a tale of the impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane
tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.
Audience: People who are going to buy the movie The Great Gatsby from iTunes
Purpose: To give an insight into what the movie is about, as well as making it sound appealing and entertaining, so customers will want to buy it and watch it.
Format: a paragraph on the iTunes store online.
Interesting language features: It has a lot of powerful description in it, for example 'glittering jazz' and 'sky-rocketing stocks' and 'high-octane tragedy' that makes the movie sound exciting and action-packed. All the main characters are introduced straight away, which would make it easier once you are watching the movie.
How does this text exert power: Lots of big describing words have been used, and the more people and situations are described the more it builds up tension, and it sets the reader's imagination going, and therefore by the end of the paragraph the reader could be imagining lots of action and how good the film sounds.
Good analysis into a range of different examples of language from the real world, with especially good in-depth exploration of how gender and power has influenced texts.
ReplyDeleteReally good blog, maybe include more about the graphics and images on the packaging? Apart from that everything, especially analysis of language, is great.
Hollie M :)
I agree with Hollie - cracking blog!
ReplyDeleteA couple of questions on this text:
Which tense is this written in, and why do you think the producers made this decision?
Do you think its description is effective for its audience of iTunes users?
I think its written in present tense, because it would be harder to relate if they thought about the people being in a whole other century, but making it seem like its happening in modern times they may follow it better.
DeleteI think its good because it makes it sound interesting, so for selling purposes it works, but it could be a bit shorter as iTunes users are probably not looking to read stacks about the film, they just want to know if its good or not.
I agree with you about the length - it's a little long for a digital text. I think as well perhaps the present tense is there to give it a sense of urgency and immediacy - we tend see this tense used a lot in 'media' texts.
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