1) Nowadays the main character of the film you will notice will make a huge impact to the final result of the film. The higher the status of the actor the more decisions they will make on what they are prepared to do in the film; sometimes this may make the director feel inferior and unable to have their say at times.
2) The most recent film that I have seen is 'The Pursuit of Happyness' produced by a few people but one of them being Will Smith. He is an actor, rapper, film producer, record producer and television producer, he has been working since 1985 and is still continuing to make an appearance in very successful films today. He has starred in many winning films such as 'Seven Pounds', 'Hancock', 'I Am Legend', 'Hitch' and many more; looking at his film-biography he has approximately been in one film each year.
3) The films that tend to be such a huge success when they come out are films that are well planned and have such a gripping story line. Most recent horrors that have been released have been a waste of the audience's time, because they try to hard to purely scare you rather than create a story line to catch you. This is where many films go wrong, the occasional jump or fear in a film is going to leave the viewer disappointed. Films like 'AVATAR' that has so much thought and detail put into it will really pay off and engage the viewer much better. Thinking up something so different and bizarre will make the film unique, this will attract more people as I couldn't think of another film that comes anywhere close to 'AVATAR' in terms of exclusiveness.
4) The genre's that seem to be popular at present are chick flick type films and although 3D isn't a genre; it is attracting more people to the big screen to view the film through glasses that will make you feel as if you are involved in the film yourself.
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Tuesday 20 April 2010
Thursday 11 February 2010
Hollywood Case Study - Focus Questions
My Sisters Keeper (2009)
Pre Production and Production-
My Sisters Keeper is a film is a 2004 novel written by Jodi Picoult, the film hit the cinema's on June 26th 2009. The main characters in the film are a close family, Mum, Dad and two daughters. One of the daughters Kate is born with acute promyelocytic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, there is no way that she can stay alive without a doner that will be able to give her what she needs throughout her life. The other daughter Anna was conceived by in vitro fertilization to become a donor; the medical procedures started when she was only 5 years old to donate to her sister.
The budget for the film was $30 million, and the worldwide gross revenue amounted to $78,771,734. I found the overall total of the gross revenue very shocking, it was a very heart warming, beautiful film and I honestly don't know why that's all they managed to make worldwide especially being an American film. The production companies involved in this film are New Line Cinema, Mark Johnson Productions and Curmudgeon Films. I wouldn't say it is based on a very popular genre as you very rarely come across a film that leaves you feeling so distraught, I also wouldn't actually say that I've ever seen a film quite like it or which had a similar storyline.
I feel the use of the music in the film is so cleverly selected and adds to the emotions built up and felt by the audience. The music used at the very beginning of the film starts off revealing her feelings and how she is quite happy, but then as the song choice goes on they become more sad which reflects her feelings as well as her families. Later on and nearer towards the end of the film where the scrap book scene is I felt it so emotional everything that was written inside it, their whole journey together and all the pictures of the fun days out and comments. With the music in the background to this it really makes you empathise and you can't help but to get emotionally involved, and for me that was one of the best parts of the film.
Distribution-
Distribution company - New Line Cinema
Budget - $30 million
Marketing - posters, trailers, internet and television advertisement
Promotion - all I could find was t-shirts, because of the genre of the film I don't think it draws in all ages and audiences, and you usually find lots of merchandise with a film targeted at children which this film isn't with it being more serious.
Number of countries - from what I found, Australia, UK and USA
Exhibition-
Date of release - June 26th 2009
Amount of screens used for opening weekend - 2,606 (USA)
Box office taking for the opening weekend - $12, 422, 212 (USA)
Length of time on release in cinemas - (June 26th 2009 - October 8th 2009), so in release for 15 weeks/ 105 days.
Releases after cinema - DVD and Sky Box Office
Pre Production and Production-
My Sisters Keeper is a film is a 2004 novel written by Jodi Picoult, the film hit the cinema's on June 26th 2009. The main characters in the film are a close family, Mum, Dad and two daughters. One of the daughters Kate is born with acute promyelocytic leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, there is no way that she can stay alive without a doner that will be able to give her what she needs throughout her life. The other daughter Anna was conceived by in vitro fertilization to become a donor; the medical procedures started when she was only 5 years old to donate to her sister.
The budget for the film was $30 million, and the worldwide gross revenue amounted to $78,771,734. I found the overall total of the gross revenue very shocking, it was a very heart warming, beautiful film and I honestly don't know why that's all they managed to make worldwide especially being an American film. The production companies involved in this film are New Line Cinema, Mark Johnson Productions and Curmudgeon Films. I wouldn't say it is based on a very popular genre as you very rarely come across a film that leaves you feeling so distraught, I also wouldn't actually say that I've ever seen a film quite like it or which had a similar storyline.
I feel the use of the music in the film is so cleverly selected and adds to the emotions built up and felt by the audience. The music used at the very beginning of the film starts off revealing her feelings and how she is quite happy, but then as the song choice goes on they become more sad which reflects her feelings as well as her families. Later on and nearer towards the end of the film where the scrap book scene is I felt it so emotional everything that was written inside it, their whole journey together and all the pictures of the fun days out and comments. With the music in the background to this it really makes you empathise and you can't help but to get emotionally involved, and for me that was one of the best parts of the film.
Distribution-
Distribution company - New Line Cinema
Budget - $30 million
Marketing - posters, trailers, internet and television advertisement
Promotion - all I could find was t-shirts, because of the genre of the film I don't think it draws in all ages and audiences, and you usually find lots of merchandise with a film targeted at children which this film isn't with it being more serious.
Number of countries - from what I found, Australia, UK and USA
Exhibition-
Date of release - June 26th 2009
Amount of screens used for opening weekend - 2,606 (USA)
Box office taking for the opening weekend - $12, 422, 212 (USA)
Length of time on release in cinemas - (June 26th 2009 - October 8th 2009), so in release for 15 weeks/ 105 days.
Releases after cinema - DVD and Sky Box Office
Thursday 4 February 2010
Top Gun
'Post-generic' film making-
"Post generic" meaning to combine two classic genre's into one film. This is not a completely new method of film making, but yet it still continues to progress as film becomes more extra ordinary, exciting and different. This also draws in different sets of audiences of course with the more genres' you include in your film. Take romantic comedy's for example, these are my two favourite film genre's and when they are cleverly combined into one film it couldn't appeal more to me e.g. Ghost Town starring Ricky Gervais, this film is probably one of the funniest films I've ever seen, with the contrasting romance lets out a more gentle and caring side; so the character reveals two completely different sides to the audience. Overall using this technique I feel the film will tend to be much more successful as apposed to other films which stick to one.
Use of extended montages-
There are two main songs played throughout Top Gun, one is at the beginning and called 'playing with the boys of danger' the title of the song even shows reveals the action in the film as the film is based on a group of young men who are given the opportunity to train at the Navy's Fighter Weapons School, after the pilot above him in the ranking system resigns after a very stressful and frightening mission. The song is a rock song and was created by American singer Kenny Loggins and is the famous soundtrack for top gun, Kenny Loggins also created the famous song 'footloose' which is also in the film called Footloose which was a huge success and a famously recognisable song today, just like playing with the boys. The other famous used in this film 'take my breath away', the song title immediately shows romance or some hint of lust but that idea is already there. This song is used as the two characters Charlie and Maverick grow a bond together and gradually become closer, the song is appropriate for the relationship they and it goes with any mood or situation like when they are around each other, talking and when they are intimate the song just suits any atmosphere. It is a memorable song that everyone knows and is very "chick flicky", similar to the characters bond. You notice in parts of the film when they are intimate there is no dialogue just the diagetic music being played as sometimes you don't need words the music talks for them and the facial expressions also play a huge part in this.
Design reflects advertising styles-
When looking for advertising I couldn't find a lot on Top Gun except for promotional posters, some of them just featured Tom Cruise with the film title on them. But the ones for me that really helped to advertise the film best was the ones with both Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis on the motorbike together. At the very top of the poster it included text saying "UP THERE WITH THE BEST OF THE BEST", you could relate this to the fact of how the film is so well created and also how if you want to be a pilot in the academy then you have to be 'the best of the best' pilots.
Easily replicated in publicity-
It is essential to use the most interesting, funny, scary etc parts of the film when making the trailer as that's what draws in the audience to start with, if the trailer looks decent then people will want to see the film, which is all pretty self explanatory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN8ze3S0Uj8
Formal excess-
"Post generic" meaning to combine two classic genre's into one film. This is not a completely new method of film making, but yet it still continues to progress as film becomes more extra ordinary, exciting and different. This also draws in different sets of audiences of course with the more genres' you include in your film. Take romantic comedy's for example, these are my two favourite film genre's and when they are cleverly combined into one film it couldn't appeal more to me e.g. Ghost Town starring Ricky Gervais, this film is probably one of the funniest films I've ever seen, with the contrasting romance lets out a more gentle and caring side; so the character reveals two completely different sides to the audience. Overall using this technique I feel the film will tend to be much more successful as apposed to other films which stick to one.
Use of extended montages-
There are two main songs played throughout Top Gun, one is at the beginning and called 'playing with the boys of danger' the title of the song even shows reveals the action in the film as the film is based on a group of young men who are given the opportunity to train at the Navy's Fighter Weapons School, after the pilot above him in the ranking system resigns after a very stressful and frightening mission. The song is a rock song and was created by American singer Kenny Loggins and is the famous soundtrack for top gun, Kenny Loggins also created the famous song 'footloose' which is also in the film called Footloose which was a huge success and a famously recognisable song today, just like playing with the boys. The other famous used in this film 'take my breath away', the song title immediately shows romance or some hint of lust but that idea is already there. This song is used as the two characters Charlie and Maverick grow a bond together and gradually become closer, the song is appropriate for the relationship they and it goes with any mood or situation like when they are around each other, talking and when they are intimate the song just suits any atmosphere. It is a memorable song that everyone knows and is very "chick flicky", similar to the characters bond. You notice in parts of the film when they are intimate there is no dialogue just the diagetic music being played as sometimes you don't need words the music talks for them and the facial expressions also play a huge part in this.
Design reflects advertising styles-
When looking for advertising I couldn't find a lot on Top Gun except for promotional posters, some of them just featured Tom Cruise with the film title on them. But the ones for me that really helped to advertise the film best was the ones with both Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis on the motorbike together. At the very top of the poster it included text saying "UP THERE WITH THE BEST OF THE BEST", you could relate this to the fact of how the film is so well created and also how if you want to be a pilot in the academy then you have to be 'the best of the best' pilots.
Easily replicated in publicity-
It is essential to use the most interesting, funny, scary etc parts of the film when making the trailer as that's what draws in the audience to start with, if the trailer looks decent then people will want to see the film, which is all pretty self explanatory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN8ze3S0Uj8
Formal excess-
Thursday 21 January 2010
Film Selection
There are so much film variety available to see, and so many different opinions on all of them and everybody likes something different. So the person I asked these questions upon I feel is not biased when it comes to films and could gave me a general view of what he feels most people are attracted to.
He felt that adverts and trailers were the biggest draw in to start to provoke interest in the film, and wanting to find out more about it. As trailers reveal some of the best parts of the film, for example comedy 'witty jokes', horror 'terrifying and jumpy moments' etc... Those 3-5 minutes can have massive impact upon somebody and completely grab them in that short amount of time. They are also very clever at manipulating their target audience and knowing the right things to show at the right time for the best effect. Leaving the audience anticipating and wanting to see what happens and leaving the release date a little while after the trailer is released for urge to watch it and leave you in suspense.
Your peers reviews on films can really sway your decision on whether to watch it or not, for example if you have a close friend and have similar interests, and they find the film awful then you are less likely to want to see it; therefore every individual opinion really does count and can have a massive impact on the films overall income. Reviews on cinema websites using the 5 star rating system can also either encourage or discourage people to see the film. If your searching for a good film to watch at the cinema and you see a film that has 1*'s across the border then you will question why this is, and immediately look for another film.
Films that tend to use the same star all the time can tend to get a bit "samey" and predictable e.g. in my opinion Hugh Grant holds onto the same personality in basically every film that he's in, making the film predictable and disappointing. Media hype also helps to get a film well known like Harry Potter it gets bigger and better everytime and pulls in a range of audiences, theres posters put up around town and on buses etc, trailers getting more thrilling each time, merchandise and much more. If a specific actor has been in a film that I've really enjoyed like Renee Zellweger who can pull off pretty much any role then I am more likely to want to see her in different films even if it is a different role, in my opinion.
He felt that adverts and trailers were the biggest draw in to start to provoke interest in the film, and wanting to find out more about it. As trailers reveal some of the best parts of the film, for example comedy 'witty jokes', horror 'terrifying and jumpy moments' etc... Those 3-5 minutes can have massive impact upon somebody and completely grab them in that short amount of time. They are also very clever at manipulating their target audience and knowing the right things to show at the right time for the best effect. Leaving the audience anticipating and wanting to see what happens and leaving the release date a little while after the trailer is released for urge to watch it and leave you in suspense.
Your peers reviews on films can really sway your decision on whether to watch it or not, for example if you have a close friend and have similar interests, and they find the film awful then you are less likely to want to see it; therefore every individual opinion really does count and can have a massive impact on the films overall income. Reviews on cinema websites using the 5 star rating system can also either encourage or discourage people to see the film. If your searching for a good film to watch at the cinema and you see a film that has 1*'s across the border then you will question why this is, and immediately look for another film.
Films that tend to use the same star all the time can tend to get a bit "samey" and predictable e.g. in my opinion Hugh Grant holds onto the same personality in basically every film that he's in, making the film predictable and disappointing. Media hype also helps to get a film well known like Harry Potter it gets bigger and better everytime and pulls in a range of audiences, theres posters put up around town and on buses etc, trailers getting more thrilling each time, merchandise and much more. If a specific actor has been in a film that I've really enjoyed like Renee Zellweger who can pull off pretty much any role then I am more likely to want to see her in different films even if it is a different role, in my opinion.
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