Synopsis
This movie was directed by Christopher Nolan. The idea was inspired by a screen play taken up by him and his brother,Jonathan Nolan based on a World Fantasy Award winning novel by Christopher Priest in 1995 which had the same name.
The story shows two London magicians once friends but now rivals, Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, at the end of the nineteenth century. These magicians after a tragic event begin to despise themselves and compete with each other to produce the best stage magical illusion which leads result in tragic happenings, from injuries to loss of lives.
Plot
Magic is performed in three parts, the Pledge, this is when an object is presented to the audience, the Turn, this is where the object is turned into something extraordinary and the Prestige, this is the finishing act where the initial object is brought back.
Angier and Borden were apprentices of a "Milton the Magician" at the start of their career.They worked with Julia ( Angier's wife ) and John Cutter an ingenieur.
Julia drowns in a tank during a magic act, an accident which seemed to be Borden's fault. This results in the end of their master's career, and the beginning of the competitive one-upmanship between the two assistants, hence the beginning of their career.
For a long period of time the two rivals try to discredit each others magic tricks. Borden gets an idea for a new trick where he uses his twin brother no one knows of to create the illusion of disappearing from on point to another. This baffles Angier since it seemed impossible and drew to Borden a lot of crowd. After countless efforts to imitate this trick with the same originality as Borden's, Angier goes to seek for the help of an inventor, Nikola Tesla who invents a cloning machine which produces a perfect double of any object but only works with a specific distance.
Though Angier wins the crowd with this he still has no satisfaction with his work and still thirsts for Borden's secret. Borden ends up in jail after he sneaks backstage to find out the trick behind his rivals trick and is framed for drowning Angier's double.
Olivia brings to Angier the diary of Borden which seems useless because the encryption could not be translated. Fallon, Borden's brother is kidnapped so Borden reveals his secrets. Meanwhile Lord Caldlow, who is actually Angier's real name but hid it to save his family the shame of his chosen career, visits Borden in jail. Borden discovers that the Lord and his rival were the same people and decides not to give out his secrets. The Lord promises to take good care of his daughter after he realizes the diary was useless and Borden was due to be hanged in no time.
Borden urges Fallon to live for them both. The Lord buys all of Angier's tricks. On hearing this Cutter confronts the Lord to destroy the Tesla machine, only to find out the Lord and Angier were the same people.
Fallon shows himself to Angier when he tries getting rid of the Tesla machine and explains to him how a true magician is always ready to take risks and make sacrifices. Angier at this point realizes his rival was a twin and shared his life with his brother. Fallon shoots Angier, but before dying Angier explains how difficult it was for him to perform his tricks with the Tesla machine and how unsatisfied he was because he always envied Borden.
Cutter is left performing magic tricks for Jess, Borden's daughter. Borden then appears to claim his daughter.
Characters
Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier
Christian Bale as Alfred Borden
Michael Caine as John Cutter
Piper Perabo as Julia McCullough
Rebecca Hall as Sarah Borden
Scarlet Johansson as Olivia Wenscombe
David Bowie as Nikola Tesla
Andy Serkis as Mr. Alley
Ricky Jay as " Milton the Magician"
Roger Rees as Owens
W. Morgan Sheppard as Merrit
Daniel Davis as the judge
Icon
The main icons of this movie are a black cat which was the first animal to be cloned by the Tesla machine.
The magician's hat.
The red ball used by Borden.
Julia, Angier's wife
The double created after cloning
The Tesla machine.
Metaphor
The Tesla machine is represented with a light bulb, because the both use electricity and are related.
The cat, black and white to show the element of a double.
The magician's hat to represent magic.
Idea Development
1. The first idea for the poster shows a hand reaching for a ball and a bow tie. The bow tie is a symbol representing prestige. The hand shows is the hand of the magician and the red ball is the main icon. This idea can be developed to give the message of the movie out though it seems not to be filled with enough content.
2. The second idea for the poster is the cat. The cat has a magician's hat on to represent magic. It also has its face divided, black and white to show cloning or a double. The cat is also in a bow tie to represent prestige. This idea if developed will be a suitable idea since it depicts the double idea or cloning as related to the movie.
3. The third idea for the poster shows a hand holding cards with double images of a head on it. The cards represent the magician since it is common to see magicians performing card tricks. The double images of the element of doubles. The hand is obviously the hand of the magician. This idea might give a different message drifted away from the movie to its audience hence not suitable.
4. The fourth idea for the poster is that of a woman in a ball divided into black and white.The woman represents Julia in the story. The ball depicts the red ball. The dividing colors represent the element of doubles. The image of the woman in the middle of the ball also depicts separation or two opposite sides since she was the cause of the rivalry between the two magicians. This is not a suitable idea because it lacks a lot of content.
5. The last idea shows a light bulb coming out of a hat. The light bulb represents electricity in relation to the Tesla machine and the hat represents the magician. This not a suitable idea however though it says a lot because it does not talk about the actual idea of the movie.
The Final Work
After carefully analyzing and assessing my ideas I decided to merge a few icons from these ideas to produce my final work.
First I took the red ball from idea one, this is because it is the symbol which represents the character Borden as it is seen in the movie many times before he performs a magic act.
Also I took the two faced cat in the hat from idea two. This cat in the hat represents Angier and are the first two objects which went into the Tesla machine, with the hat being his personal property. Also the cat shows two different faces but with same features on the same head hence the idea of cloning. It also shows how two people who worked as friends together have become as strangers to themselves. The red ball also depicts danger and how dangerous unhealthy competition and envy can be.
In my final work I used the type face poor Richard. This is a simple font style and easy to read.
I also used a quote " are you watching closely ?" this is a quote in the movie said before a magic act.
Now since we are in a changing world I made my poster in 3D to make it more interesting and appealing.
One advantage of this work is in its simplicity it sends a unique message and engages it's audience aside its 3D modern poster feature.
fig.6
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