Blockbusters

What similarities?

• previous audience

What characteristics?

• Post-Genre
• Widest possible audience appeal (male skew?)
• Spectacle - heavy focus on CGI, SFX and animation
• Event Movie
• Big Budget ($100,000,000 plus)
• Star driven
• Product - heavily marketed & hyped/tie-ins/merch
• Not character driven/motivation/depth (non CHN)
• Visual excess & Set Pieces over story & plot
• Franchises & Sequels/Prequels
• Homogenous & Cross-cultural - universal locale or identity
• Video game like experience blurs line between film & gaming
• Pre-sold audience based on novels, comics and games

What are the main points in the article?

• Piracy
• Development
• Hype of movies
• Global appeal to make more money - marketing

Why is Jaws so important?

• It was released nationwide rather than in cinemas at different times
• It was the highest earning movie in history, before Star Wars, at $260,000,000, and it was also the first film to ever exceed $100,000,000. 
• Unfortunately, it also changed the way people looked at sharks, and so a lot of people are now scared of them, and so whenever there is a shark attack, people hunt and kill them. 

CONCLUSION

I think that the summer blockbuster focuses on global appeal to make more money for marketing and they rely on the hype of the movie and 'film geeks'. I think that they have no depth in their ploy and they focus on CGI/SFX/animation. Re-creating similar plots. They are scared that if they recreate plots they will lose their fan base. 

Film Text & Context

New Info Unit F631: Film Text and Context Section B: Cinema:

The exam and its requirements – skim & present (2 mins – Trailer for Avengers)

How many questions & what topics?

Section A: Contemporary English-language Film

You must answer Question 1 or Question 2

1. Discuss how different groups in society are represented in the films you have studied.[40]

2. How are the key messages and values communicated in the films you have studied?[40]

Section B: Cinema in Context

Answer two questions in this section. Each question must be from a different topic area.

Early Cinema (1895-1915) 

3. Choose two films that were noted as significant in early cinema history. Explain why the two films
you have chosen are significant. [30] 

4. Why did the American film industry eventually base itself in Hollywood? [30]

The impact of World War II on British Cinema (1939-45)

5. Explain the reasons for the popularity of cinema-going during World War II (1939-1945). [30]

6. “Cinema became an extension of the British war effort in World War II (1939-1945).” With reference to examples, discuss to what extent this statement is true. [30]

The rise of the blockbuster, format wars and multiplexes (1972 – 1984)

7. What factors led to the decline of town or city centre cinemas in the late 1970s and early 1980s? [30]

8. “Film censorship is motivated by fears about audiences and technologies.” Discuss this statement in reference to the concerns expressed about uncensored and unregulated video content in Britain in the early 1980s. [30]

Developments in 21st century cinema and film (2000 – present)

9. ”The introduction of the digital cinema network in the UK in recent years has greatly extended audience choice.” How far do you agree with this statement? [30]

10. To what extent does internet piracy pose a threat to the film industry? [30]

What relevance are knowing about Blockbusters?

There's more to write about them. Because they have a  higher budget, there's more depth to go into about production.

What case studies are you writing about?


What is Production? 


What is Distribution & Marketing?

What is Exhibition/Exchange?

What do we mean by context?

 BONUS Name the 2 most influential directors of these emerging types of films in 70's/80's?

Task: Defining the Blockbuster – what is it? Mentor pairs

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aep3Xdzi0H8 anatomy of a blockbuster & http://leighmediaasfilmessays12.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/context-economic-blockbuster-marketing.html – percentage of the total spend is the marketing budget – how is this broken down?

Work way through and create a mind map in your notes Characteristics of the Summer Blockbuster

Create Meaning

Top 5 & Micro Teach carousel

Create Meaning

What are the arguments around Blockbusters? Case Study: Transformers

Kermode on Transformers 3 & Truth about Blockbusters

Transformers 4 Product & Star-driven

Big Dumb Movies: Transformers

Your opinions – discussion on post it notes

Create Meaning – opinions on

Context: Economic Blockbuster Marketing Budgets (F...

Create Meaning

Identify Context & rewrite explanation in your own words – carousel and apply to a recent blockbuster you watched for Homework (Case Study)

http://leighmediaasfilmessays12.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/1975-rise-of-blockbuster-social.html

http://leighmediaasfilmessays12.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/1975-rise-of-blockbuster-social.html

http://leighmediaasfilmessays12.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/skyfall-to-70s-cinema-attendance.html

Group 1: Social

Group 2: Technology

Group 3: Economic

Group 4: Conclusion – summarise how have all 3 contexts have affected the Production of these films? (Record a Mark Kermode style review of Summer Blockbusters 2012)

Discuss & Video feedback

End – Kermode on Transformers 4

Session 2

Die Hard Franchise - Geri-Action Blockbuster

Apply to demonstrate Activity: The next Blockbuster

Justify the quote

Create your own campaign poster for an Event Movie 2013 & pitch 'High Concept'

Star Wars & The Blockbuster

Apply to demonstrate/Review

Why are Blockbusters Lucas & Spielberg's Legacy? Use the video clips (Star Wars & Jaws) & the Lucasfilm image to write a response

Argument

RoboCop Synopsis

BUDGET: $13 million

In 2028, multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years but the Dreyfuss Act, a publically-supported act preventing drones from being allowed to bear firearms, prevents the drones from being used locally. OmniCorp CEO Raymond Sellars has his marketing team, in conjunction with scientist Dr. Dennett Norton, to create a new law enforcement product by combining human and machine in the hopes of changing public opinion and raising OmniCorp's profits.

Policeman Alex Murphy is critically injured by a carbomb planted by crooked cops outside his house under the payroll of local crime boss Antoine Vallon. Norton picks Murphy for the Robocop program, and after getting consent from Murphy's wife, Clara, has him outfitted with the Robocop body and software, which gives him enhanced strength along with instant computing information in his brain. Alex at first rejects his current condition, but is convinced by Norton to be strong for his wife and son. Rick Mattox, OmniCorp's military tactician, is skeptical of Alex's abilities and points out he will never be as efficient as a drone. In order to make Alex perform better, Norton tampers with Alex's brain, making him believe that his tactical decisions are his own when he is actually executing programs.

While preparing for a public press conference to unveil Robocop, Alex is emotionally overwhelmed and has a seizure while downloading the police database information into his brain. Pressed for time, Norton has Alex's brain chemistry altered, lowering his dopamine levels until he no longer displays any emotions. Under control, Alex attends the press conference, where he ignores his waiting wife and son, and efficiently apprehends a criminal in the crowd. RoboCop is a public relations success, and afterward Alex is successful in drastically reducing the crime rate in Detroit. Public opinion on the Dreyfuss Act begins to turn.

Clara, who has been prevented by OmniCorp from seeing Alex, manages to confront her husband as he is leaving the station, telling him about his son David's nightmares. Alex leaves, but then overrides his programming and detours from his current case to go to his house. He reviews the CCTV footage of his accident and realizes that David saw his body and was traumatized by it. Alex then pursues Vallon for revenge, tracking him down to a warehouse where Alex then kills everyone. Alex then returns to the station to apprehend the two cops who sold him out; they tell him that the Chief of Police is in on it. Alex kills the two cops, and is about to arrest the Chief of Police when Mattox, who has been given full access to the Robocop program, remotely shuts him down.

Sellars decides to spin this turn of events to his advantage, via television presenter Pat Novak, who thanks RoboCop for revealing the fallibility of the police, and points out that drones are incorruptible. A repeal of the Dreyfuss Act goes underway, with votes overwhelmingly in support of the repeal. Sellars tells Norton that RoboCop is no longer relevant, and sends Mattox to destroy him. Norton reaches Alex in the lab first and has him brought back to consciousness, telling him everything. Alex, feeling betrayed, goes after Sellars.

Sellars has the OmniCorp building shut down and armed with drones. Alex manages to gain entry with the help of his former partner, Jack Lewis (Michael K. Williams) and other police officers. Alex reaches the roof, where Sellars is waiting for a helicopter and has Clara and David as hostages. Alex's programming prevents him from arresting Sellars, but he manages to overcome it just long enough to shoot Sellars, killing him.

In the closing scenes, OmniCorp's parent company, OCP, decides to review the drone and RoboCop program. The President vetoes the repeal of the Dreyfuss Act based on the testimony of Norton, who confesses everything they'd done in the RoboCop program. Alex's body is rebuilt in Norton's laboratory, and then he waits for Clara and David, who are coming to visit him.

Animation Storyboard

Sock Puppet Practising

For our last film lesson we made sock puppets to practice our scripts. This helps to develop our scripts as we can practice a normal conversation between characters. This also helps for the scene to be natural and fluent.

12-Step Screenwriting Videos

Sundance Film Festival 2014

The 2014 Sundance Film Festival kicked off on Jan. 16, once again bringing dozens of new and innovative films to Park City, Utah. The 11 day event, which runs through Jan. 26, featured stars such as actor and festival founder Robert Redford.

WHIPLASH

The film Whiplash was premiered is about a drama about an aspiring drummer (Miles Teller) who is criticized by his art college professor (J.K. Simmons) has received one of the warmest receptions for an opening film in recent memory at the Sundance festival. Miles Teller — who can be seen on screen later this month with Zac Efron in That Awkward Moment — took four-hour drum lessons three times a week to play the lead in Whiplash, shown below in the movie scenes.

CAMP X-RAY

Camp X-Ray is about a young woman who joins the military to be part of something bigger than herself and her small-town roots. Instead, she ends up as a new guard at Guantanamo Bay, where her mission is far from black and white. Surrounded by hostile jihadists and aggressive squadmates, she strikes up an unusual friendship with one of the detainees. As two people on opposite sides of a war, they struggle to find their way through the ethical quagmire of Guantanamo Bay. In the process, they form an unlikely bond that changes them both.

INFINITELY POLAR BEAR

The year is 1978, and the Stuart family is struggling to hold it together. Cameron (played by Mark Ruffalo), is a bipolar father, and has had a nervous breakdown that leaves him unemployable, and Maggie, a hardworking mother, can’t quite make ends meet. Despite Cameron’s aristocratic genes and the couple’s top-notch education, they’re broke. When Maggie decides to accept a scholarship to pursue her MBA in New York, she must leave her daughters, Faith and Amelia, in Boston with their now-somewhat-convalesced father. So begins an untamed, unpredictable, 18-month experiment as eccentric, exuberant Cameron takes over primary parenting of his precocious, sensitive little girls. 

Inspired by writer/director Maya Forbes’s childhood, Infinitely Polar Bear lovingly and honestly portrays the pain and frustration of being raised by a father incapable of managing adult responsibilities and explores the gifts inherent in not being sheltered from that reality.

Marking

Out of 100
                 - 40% Textual Analysis (Essay w/ pics)
                 - 10% Planning - Recce (Location Report)
                 - 30% Ideas - Prequel/Sequel Script (9 Key Frames) - Creative Writing
                 - 20% Evaluation

What is a prequel and how do you make one?
A prequel is a literary, dramatic, or filmic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative.
ICONIC MOMENT
An iconic moment is one that is memorable and links to the prequel in order for people to want to watch a sequel.

Examples:

The Thing: This moment shows them uncovering their find as they discover 'the Thing'. This sets up the storyline for the rest of the film.

Prometheus: This scene is iconic because it shows her when she is fighting till the end. We watch to find whether she survives or not.

Batman Begins: This moment is iconic because it is the first time he is introduced to his suit and his suit is iconic to his character.

Why do you need an Iconic Moment?

• To carry on a sequel
• To remember a scene/movie

Emotional Subconscious Psychoanalysis

This video that was shown in our Film Studies lesson to show how companies use Psychoanalysis to tap into our Emotional Subconscious in order to convince consumers to buy their products. This video was from Unilever who showed images and messages that would shock and sadden their customers with something close to their heart, but then turned the situation into something positive because of their products, and that because of their company, and other companies, the world is a better place. 

Representation of parents in We Need To Talk About Kevin and Juno

In We Need to Talk About Kevin, the story isn't told in chronological order as there is a mix of past and present throughout the film. However, as the film goes on, we piece together clues as to why Kevin did what he did and why he's the way he is. The final scene ends with Eva hearing about the high school massacre and the shock on her face when she finds out her sons the killer. What makes her more distraught is that she sees all the young dead bodies and realises that she is partially responsible for their deaths. The film should tell about the horrors of pregnancy, however the real horror is after Eva gives birth to Kevin. The two main characters in this film are Kevin, played by Ezra Miller, and Eva, played by Tilda Swinton. Eva struggles with motherhood and her only strength to keep trying is the need to please her husband and the father of her children, Franklin. However, the only time when her love becomes unconditional is when she sticks by her son even though he has brutally murdered 9 people. She shows that even though she didn't show any love throughout the times when it mattered most. She did try to show a young Kevin love but motherhood didn't come easy to her. Eva also has to struggle with containing her hate towards her son around Franklin who is ignorant to how estranged their son is. This frustrates her and leads her into a state of depression as she feels nothing can make the relationship between her and her son better. She is blamed for the acts that her son did, in which she shares the blame herself. Kevin is the other main character in We Need To Talk About Kevin. Kevin's lack of sympathy for mother makes this story. Ezra Miller plays the satanic child who even though his struggling mother tries to give him the love she could give, but he is not accepting of her love. He channels his hate for his mother to fool his ignorant dad. In the end he easily murders 9 people that he knows for reasons that are hard to understand, for he is a psychological killer. He has no remorse for his victims and he sheds no light as to why he did what he did.The acts that are seen in the film affect the audience by shocking them and leaving them wondering why Kevin has turned out the way he has. We also wonder why Eva lacks so much in motherhood and why she is so deterred to get help. 

In Juno, the story is told over four seasons, starting in autumn when Juno, a 16-year-old high-school junior in Minnesota, discovers she's pregnant after one event in a chair with her best friend, Bleeker. The whole idea plays on the fact that 'it all began with a chair' and it all ended with a chair. The final scene with Juno and bleeker ends in the summer, which could be a message that they have overcome nature to shine once again. The main characters of this film are Juno MacGuff, played by Ellen Page, and Paulie Bleeker, played by Michael Cera. They are two teenagers who along with growing up, have to face the problem of a teenage pregnancy. Juno, who is faced with a teenage pregnancy, makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child. That decision is to have the baby but give it up for adoption. However when her chosen couple faces flaws in their relationship and a divorce is settled, Juno finds that months into her pregnancy her perfect idea isn't going to plan. On top of this she has to face the struggles of a teenagers life.I think that Juno acts like an adult and in fact feels a strong pull toward Mark Loring, the husband in the couple who are set to adopt Juno’s baby. But then she runs around doing childish things like setting up furniture on Paulie’s front lawn, eating Red Vines, and using a hamburger phone. The other main character is Paulie Bleeker, and although he's a quiet and unnoticable character I would say that he is one of the protagonists because of his involved with Juno and how their relationship progresses is shown in the film. He struggles to realise the amount of problems that Juno has to deal with and why she acts mean towards him. By the end of the film Juno realises that her relationship with Paulie Bleeker is strong enough to overcome the heartbreak of giving up their baby. She also realises that a maternal love doesn't have to be with a biological mother. The scene ends with Juno singing a song with Paulie about their unconditional love.

This scene comes after the incident with Kevin's sister. His chilling attitude for his sister makes this one of the most disturbing scenes in this film. What makes this more disturbing is the way Kevin peels a lychee fruit with an almost devilish glee. The scene begins with the camera at a medium long shot so that Kevin is at the head of the table while Eva and Franklin are placed secondary to him, as if to say that Kevin has control over them, that he can do anything he wants. For the main part of this scene is that the actors are placed in the middle of the shot. Ignoring the rule of thirds the director takes risks in whether the audience will find that this scene lacks in something, however the results are quite the opposite as the setup intrigues the viewer. The way that the shot is setup when Kevin eats the lychee is clever because during the whole scene Kevin taunts Eva in a way that isn't obvious to his father, Walter. Then when Kevin eats the lychee we can see the juice that spurts out of the lychee, we can also see a close-up of him chewing it. What makes this part of the scene so sinister is that we can also hear the squirting of the juice coming out from the lychee. There is very little sound when nobody is speaking so that we hear the silence in the room, at best we hear the subtle clinking of glasses and knives and forks. As for the props, kitchen utensils and food is needed as it fits with the set. Without these, the scene would not get the desired effect that it has on the audience. I think the most essential thing in this scene is the sound and that fact that its so minimalistic which makes it so cold.

This scene comes near the end of the film when the plot is reaching its resolution. The scene consists of Juno and her father talking in the kitchen. She discusses with him her love life briefly, "...find a person who loves you for exactly what you are," says Juno's father in which Juno replies, "I sort of already have". This is when she questions "relationships", i.e., between not only her and Bleeker but between a mother and her unborn child, a couple who are facing a major cross road in their marriage, her father and his second marriage, and even her best friend's crush on a high school teacher. The scene was shot in a fairly small set as judging by their intentions I think the idea was to make it intimate as Juno was discussing something personal with her father. With dimmed lighting to create a better ambience it ties the scene together. The camerawork is manly shot over-the-shoulder each time the character speaks to another, this is mainly shot like this because its a conversation between the two. When the scene begins, Juno comes out from behind the kitchen countertop, almost as if to show her pregnant belly so it's almost as if she's saying that she's not covering up anymore and it shows that she's about to open up. The scene has been edited so that we see the over-the shoulder camera angles one after the other. This would have been filmed separately and then collected together for editing. Juno starts the scene by talking quietly but as she opens up more her voice gets louder to represent her finding her voice. The props inside the scene fit with the set because if they don't fit with the set then it distracts the viewer from the acting in the scene.

Psychoanalysis and Phallic Imagery

Film Lesson: See documentary called The Century of the Self

Bernay's that in his view, cigarettes for women were a form of liberation, a sign of the new, free woman. Cigarettes were seen as something for men, and were a phallic symbol, for women then, smoking was a sign of new feminine power as they took on roles which had traditionally been for men elsewhere: the vote they had just achieved, taking on men's jobs, etc.

National Identity In Children of Men and V for Vendetta