US Independent film: Sharknado

Sharknado is a low-budget sci-fi independent film from 2010. It is independent as it was distributed by The Asylum, an independent film distribution company who are notorious for creating cheap, quick-to-make mockbusters which are released at the same time as popular, mainstream blockbusters & bare uncanny similarities with them in order to trick consumers into buying their cheaper product instead of the blockbuster.
Sharknado cost $250,000 to make
Tara Reid starred in Sharknado, bringing an element of credibility to the film as she has starred in famous films such as 3 of the popular American Pie films & also in the TV series Scrubs.
Ian Zeiring had previously starred in TV series Beverly Hills, 90210 before gaining notoriety for his role in Sharknado.
John Heard had starred in the first 2 Home Alone films & the Tom Hanks film Big, showing he was popular in the 80s.
Cassie Scerbo has had & continues to have small & bit parts in lots of American TV programmes & also a few starring roles such as the role of Brooke in Bring It On To Win It.
Jaason Simmons was best known for his role as Logan Fowler in Baywatch, but little else.
Julie McCulloch is an actress, model & now a stand-up comedienne & had been Playboy Magazine's Playmate of the month in February of 1986.
Robbie Rist is an actor & musician who was a child star.
Sharknado has not won any awards but it trended on Twitter on the premiere TV broadcast, with stars like Wil Wheaton & the late Cory Monteith commenting on the film. Thepremiere was watched by 1.37 Million people, which was slightly less than the usual 1.5 million for a Syfy original. On its encore premiere thin increased to 1.89 million, then by its third encore showing it surpassed any Syfy original by getting 2.1 million views. This made it the most watched Syfy original in history.
Many organisations, including the National Weather Service & the Red Cross of Oklahoma used footage from Sharknado in their adverse weather safety advertising campaigns, drawing in more popularity for the film which resulted in its distribution into around 200 cinemas in the US. Ticjkets for these showings soon sold-out, so the cinemas had to add even more dates to appease the audience demand. Sharknado Trailer

British film case study: The World's End

Budget: $20 million
Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike, Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman, Pierce Brosnan
Genre: Sci-fi, urban, comedy
Box Office: $46,089,287
Production company: Relativity Media, Big Talk Productions, and Working Title Films.
Certificate: 15
Marketing: soundtrack album, DVD boxsets of Cornetto trilogy, mugs, shirts, map posters
Release date: 10 July 2013(Leicester Square), 19 July 2013(United Kingdom), 23 August 2013(United States) (coincided with release of Monsters University)
Reviews: The World's End exceeded expectations for financial success & is mostly rated positively. Rotten Tomatoes give it an 89% rating & this is fairly similar to most websites
Empire Online said of The World's End "Bravely refusing to rigidly adhere to a formula that has been so successful, Wright, Pegg and Frost's Cornetto Trilogy closer has tonal shifts you won't expect, but the same beating heart you've been craving."
The World's End International Trailer

The Hunger Games- Catching Fire: Why is it successful?

The Hunger Games- Catching Fire is the second film in the hotly anticipated Hunger Games series, based on the multimillion selling series of books. The books themselves made over 36.5 million dollars in the US alone. The first film in the trilogy made a 5-day total of $173,707,733 which has now been topped by the second film which is $186,356,317, probably because the first film was so successful, then everyone who went to see it told their friends to see the next one. The first Hunger Games was successful because the books already had an enormous cult following which reflected in the film sales.

Aims & Context of BROCA

'BROCA'-film/video production
Sci-fi, avant-garde short
Target audience of quiet children over 10, quiet, arty teenagers (probably girls), adults interested in arty films
Use abstract synthesiser sound inspired by Tarkovsy, Herzog, Kubrick
Explore film issues such as isolation, medial negligence, neglect of children, breakdowns in communication & apply work on creating meaning almost solely through visuals & abstract sound
Try out techniques from Tarkovsky, Kubrick in directing
Use non-verbal communication & mime (see Marcel Marceau)

Caligari Scene Analysis

Das Kabinet Des Doktor Caligari-Kidnap & chases scene analysis

The kidnap & chase scene of Das Kabinet Des Doktor Caligari is set at night, suggested by the inter-title “Night Again” & the blue tint. The night-time setting ups the sense of danger for me, as I know that a convention of the horror genre is that bad things happen in the dark. Being a low-budget German Expressionist horror film, the entire film was filmed in a studio on simplistic painted black & white sets, which give an interesting mise-en-scene full of hidden meanings & a startling contrast between black & white with little grey in between. The low budget, & subsequently poor quality of equipment, meant that the filmmakers had little access to lighting equipment. They made do with putting their expressionist artistry to good use by painting the shadows required onto the sets in thick black paint. The contrast between black & white symbolizes the stark space between ‘good’ & ‘evil’ in this allegorical world.

The first shot in this scene is a long shot where the mise-en-scene is showing Francis (Friedrich Feher), the protagonist, climbing down a staircase or walkway with the fictional town of Holstenwall in the background. His performance is tentative; he keeps looking from side to side as he walks. There have been so many murders in the narrative lately so he has to watch his back.  Watching, I also know of the imminent danger awaiting the main characters, which causes feelings of dread. He looks round the corner, is satisfied that coast is clear & he disappears around the corner.

We then cut to a long shot of the fairground, as Francis appears round the corner, still apprehensive. The circus tents create a distorted mise-en-scene & disorienting backdrop that echoes both the insanity of the situation that poor Francis is finding himself in & also the real insanity creating the entire delusion in his mind.

Francis becomes a dark shape against the angular background as he scuttles tentatively from one tent to another, checking each time to ensure no assailants lie behind any corners. He is paranoid & I sympathize with this paranoia & this is reflected in the bizarrely leaning buildings around him show that his life & mind are dangerously close to falling apart around him.

Throughout the film, stark contrast between black & white are drawn up to show otherness & the lack of middle ground in the old-fashioned town of Holstenwall, in the insular mind of Francis himself & in the wider world of post-war Germany. Francis is being proactive; he is actually trying to solve the crimes committed by Cesare by investigating. He is acting to affect the situation, he is trying to change his situation, and thus he wears black.

In the next shot, we see the caravan Dr. Caligari shares with his beloved sleeping slave. The caravan is leaning sharply to the side, almost as if it could tip over at any moment (like Francis’ mind) & the white façade cocoons the evil within.

Francis sneaks up to the window (which we subsequently cut to a close up shot of) as Francis gingerly looks inside. We then get to see what Francis sees (eye-line shot) inside. We are shown the dozing Dr. Caligari as he guards what Francis thinks is a sleeping Cesare (but is actually a dummy as the real Cesare is creeping into Jane’s room). The bars of the window frame the faces of the Doctor & his slave-dummy. The centre bar separates the two faces, showing the mounting separation between the two characters; Caligari thinks he is still totally in control of his beloved slave, but in reality his hold is more easily broken than he’d like to think. As is a convention of horror films, the obsessive love of a beautiful woman is the downfall of man; Caligari loses his dearest servant to a woman & Cesare loses his life to her.  This symbolism dates back to time immemorial, when early tales such as the tale of The Fall in Judaeo-Christian mythology, where the first woman cause the first man to lose paradise.

The window bars also show dominance in the relationship between Caligari & Cesare as Caligari is placed above Cesare. He is in control but the separation down the middle shows that his slave is beginning to develop his own autonomy, albeit a distorted view of freedom that is tragically cut short. It is also interesting to note that the camera is looking down through the window (a high angle), perhaps showing the power Francis feels as he takes the investigation into his own hands & takes control of his own destiny. The next shot comes from behind Francis as he looks through the window into the darkness. He gasps & we can feel his relief, which, in the next shot, we find out to be badly judged, as all is not well. As he feels relief at Cesare’s supposed stillness, the real Cesare is outside his girlfriend’s house, about to make every boyfriend’s worst nightmare a reality (at least in the world of the flashback/delusion in Francis’ head). 

The next shot is mostly black, showing only the pretty, delicate head of the sleeping Jane, but then we iris-out to see her full bedroom in all its Expressionistic glory. The mise-en-scene screams of secret danger & the false security provided by wealth & social normality. There are sharp points hanging over the window where Cesare will soon be standing & huge, dark spaces either side of Jane’s bed, which highlight her angelic sleeping appearance. She lies as if she is a young teenage girl who is lost in romantic infatuation with the man she loves. Whether the man in her dreams is Cesare or Francis is never quite revealed. I personally prefer to think that she is dreaming of Cesare as her reaction to him earlier in the film betrayed her confusion. Caligari presents Cesare to her in his cabinet & he turns slowly to lock eyes with her. She stares into his eyes then suddenly looks very shocked & runs away. As Cesare was not doing anything scary or dangerous at this point, I can only speculate that Jane’s reaction of fear was down to a fear of her own attraction to the somnambulist, as opposed to the somnambulist himself. 

Our First Film: DeadTension

http://youtu.be/_86j4jGJBhk

see post below for analysis

Our first creative project reflective analysis

The genre of our group project was horror. We made sure it complied with genre conventions by turning the lights off to make low-key lighting, having the principle character as a vulnerable female (in the same vein as Halloween, Happy Birthday to Me & Black Christmas), having a shadowy antagonist with no discernible face, making use of shadows on walls (like in Nosferatu), minimalistic dialogue to add tension & jerky camera-work to show the disorienting & twisted nature of the antagonist's brain.
The first shot is a travelling shot down some stairs from the point of view of the antagonist. He walks down the stairs then stops at the door, where the camera tilts upwards & we are able to see through the porthole. Through this porthole, we can see the female protagonist as she sits at a table, trying to write.
The next shot was taken in the corner of the room & pans around the room to show how empty the room is, giving the female protagonist a sense of isolation. At one point while the camera pans past some roof beams in the shape of a cross on its side, which shows that goodness has been overturned by evil in this sequence. The next shot shows the protagonist twirling a pen in her hand as she tries to think of something to write. This is a mid-shot. Suddenly, she gets a sense that something is happening, which causes her to drop the pen. The next shot shows her going under the table to retrieve it as she crawls towards the camera, which shows the danger she is in as she is in a very claustrophobic space. The next shot is a long shot of the door swinging open with nobody behind it. This is often used in the horror genre, as the audience would expect a person to be behind the door but instead there is nothing, which shows the supernatural aspect of the antagonist. The next shot shows the protagonist looking scared of the unknown threat. She crawls out from under the table & the camera follows her. The next shot shows her standing nervously, looking around for her assailant, as he walks past her & casts a shadow on the wall behind her. She calls out & walks past the camera, revealing the shadowy figure of the antagonist, his face obscured by darkness. The camera zooms in on him, showing his power & importance. 

The Shining scene analysis

The Shining

The Shining in a 1980 psychological horror film by renowned perfectionist director Stanley Kubrick. I can tell that the film fits into the psych-horror genre because scenes in the film display many conventions of the genre. An example of this is in the 'Come Play With Us' scene, where young protagonist Danny has a disturbing vision of two young girls in a corridor. The scene begins with a slow forward tracking shot which follows Danny as he rides his tricycle down the corridor. Kubrick was famous for his one-point perspective shots, often employed in corridors, where the shot is composed in such a way that the eye is drawn to a single point in the centre of the frame, in this case this object is Danny. Suddenly, Danny makes a sharp turn on his tricycle & disappears from the shot, but the camera continues to track slowly forwards down the corridor. The corridor at this point is painted mostly light green in colour, a safe & unalarming shade, but then halfway down the corridor, just before Danny disappears round the corner, the paint changes to red, a sign of the impending danger & blood which young Danny is about to face. This immediately sets alarm bells ringing in me, as I subconsciously note the dangerous red & begin to worry for Danny, who is so young & innocent. As a viewer, I am unconsciously protective over the sweet, gifted young boy & do not wish for any of the inevitable harm to come to him. This manipulation of audience sympathy in order to enhance the shock value is an oft-used tactic in the horror genre, especially in the psychological sub-genre.  One convention seen in the Shining but not usually seen in horror films is the stark, bright, high-key lighting all the way through the scene.

When we cut from the first corridor to rejoin Danny, the camera closely & smoothly tracks him as he wheels around the corners of the labyrinthine Overlook. The disorienting smoothness with which the camera is able to track Danny's every twist & turn is an early example of the revolutionary Steadicam, a technology which enabled camera movement to be incredibly smooth & one pioneered by Kubrick. The way the camera seems to effortlessly glide along behind Danny suggests the movement of a flying bird or, more appropriately to the genre, a wraith which is haunting the hotel & Danny. This effortless glide makes the sudden stop Danny makes when he first becomes aware of the figures of the girls even more jarring for me, as we went from smooth, fairly fast gliding to sudden static.

As Danny cycles along the corridors, I noticed a recurrence of a colour theme running throughout the film; that of red, white & blue- the colours of the American flag. The repeated juxtaposition of these familiar colours seems to suggest to me that Kubrick was subliminally commenting on the so-called American Dream & the typical All-American Family ideals, which are, more often than not, a crushing oppression  on the individual, as the hotel is a mentally crushing influence on Jack Torrance. These colours could also represent the CIA & their supposed mind-control experiments & other psychological tortures, which could often leave unsuspecting victims irreparably changed for the worse, as was Jack Torrance.

When the two girls first are shown on camera, we do not immediately get to have a close-up or even a mid-shot of them. Instead we are treated to the close up of Danny's expression. He is understandably perturbed by the sudden appearance of the girls, & Kubrick's use of close up at this point helps me feel Danny's terror with him. Then it cuts to another one-point perspective long shot of Danny in the bottom-centre of the frame with his back to the camera as he watches the girls in the centre (the 'one-point'). We still have not been treated to a closer look at these ghostly young ladies & this is Kubrick's teasing way of building up the tension as we long to see for ourselves exactly what Danny is so scared of. We then cut back to another close up of Danny, trying to remain calm & control his breathing.  This builds even more tension, as we start holding our breath for Danny, letting the character breathe for us as he faces the impossible. We then hear the mysterious girls saying "Come play with us" in unison. This unison is at once enchantingly childlike & eerily sinister at the same time, as we the audience know exactly what sort of 'playing' these girls are thinking of. It is of the dead variety &, as we sympathise with Danny, we do not want him to be dead like the girls. Cut back to the one-point shot over Danny's shoulders, & we see the girls again, still as far away as ever. The chant "Come play with us, Danny". With the quiet, gentle way this seemingly innocent phrase is said, one could be forgiven for thinking it really was a wholesome request (out of context), but as we are with Danny & can see how bizarre their appearance in the supposedly deserted house is, we know the sinister & deathly consequences of playing with former guests of the Overlook.

Suddenly, the one-point long shot is interspersed with a horrifying shot of the same two young girls, only both dead on the floor with blood everywhere, an overturned chair & a bloody axe lying with them. The picture on the wall is askew & covered in blood & the dark, red puddles on the carpet show the extent of the carnage wreaked on these poor girls. Having seen the opening scene & interview, we, the audience, are aware of the identity of these girls as the murdered daughters of previous caretaker Charles Grady. It is not specified whether Danny is explicitly aware of the story of his father's predecessor, but that does not subtract our own knowledge & also the confused terror Danny feels, which we sympathise with.

The girls have not finished talking, though, & they emphasise their request for Danny to play with them by adding "Forever... & Ever... & Ever..." We go from the bloody shot of the hacked up girls to a shot of the girls slightly further down the corridor (closer to us & Danny) as they say "Forever", when we are again presented with the bloody shot. Then we immediately see Danny's shocked & afraid face, but not for long. Then we see the girls alive (to an extent) again, but even closer this time as they say "& Ever", which then reverts to the bloody shot, then back to the girls (closer again) as they say the final "& Ever". We are left with the bloody shot again & it is at this point that we cut back to the close up on Danny, who covers his eyes.

Cold Mountain & Trainspotting

CAMERA:

all characters on same level as each other. Static. Closeups
LIGHTING: Fill lights shroud everything in darkness except their faces which are illuminated. This makes their faces look pink & warm which contrasts with the dark, blue, cold background. Telephoto means people are in focus but background is blurry, making us focus on the characters & their personalities.
EDITING: parallel: shows the relationship between lady & man: lady is warm indoors & man is out in the cold but they both pine for each other.
MES: forest, fire, dead animal on fire, snow. Warmth of fire contrasts with coldness of snow & blueness of background.
SOUND: epic music at beginning, breathless voiceover linking 2 shots (sound bridge), crackling of fire, singing & music: starts off with nice lyrics then baddie sings nasty lyrics
PR: sad, feel sorry for characters, sense of impending doom

CAMERA:tracks characters, low angle on female characters shows them to be powerful, high angle on the man showing how weak they are compared to the women. The big space around the two men as the camera zooms shows how alone they are.
LIGHTING: blue lighting shows that the men are feeling 'blue', green lighting shows how envious he is as he watches the man talking to the girl he likes & green also represents illness, the illness of an addict. The deep red shows passion, chemistry & sexual tension between the characters. The other important characters in the scene are highlighted. These are the womanising character who is highlighted between two women & the alcoholic guy who is shown underneath a board listing sex-themed alcoholic cocktails. When the couple are in the taxi, red light flashes through
EDITING: shot-reverse-shot shows us the people through his eyes as he watches them getting off with women. Parallel editing to show the women talking about the men while the men talk about the women.
MES: Gun on poster behind him represents his dangerous life & criminality. The board listing the sex-themed cocktails is placed above the alcoholic character which gives those of us who haven't seen the film a clue about who he is. There is an intertextual reference to A Clockwork Orange; the sofa-bench the men are sitting on & the words on the wall behind them are from the film. I think this intertextual reference is showing the similarity of the dangerous lives both groups of young people lead.
SOUND: Temptation & Atomic are both passionate songs. Temptation shows how tempted the male characters are by the female characters & Atomic represents the explosive chemistry between characters.
PR: intrigued, wonder what will happen

Identifying the features of a genre: The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers is an action adventure of the swashbuckler sub-genre. We can tell this because there are dramatic, long-drawn-out scenes of sword-fighting which are often emphasised by slow motion closeups. The costumes & scenery are lavish, over the top & accordant with the time period the film is set in.
 The music is sweeping & epic to demonstrate the importance of the events in the film. There are many points in the film when royalty & the royal palace are involved; the regal music matches the regal setting for these segments.

My favourite film this summer- Hannibal (second induction task)

The film I enjoyed the most this summer was Hannibal, the 2nd film in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy but the third in the chronology of the storyline. The film follows disgraced FBI agent Clarice Starling as she tries to track down cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter, not only to arrest him but also to protect him the hordes of corrupt cops out to kidnap him on the orders of wealthy child molester Mason Verger, who wishes to feed Dr. Lecter to his wild boar herd. The characters & plot are interesting as there are lots of skewed morals to think about. I found the idea of a child molester being able to control police (who are supposed to protect the world from child molesters) because of money to be deliciously terrifying, especially as it is still poignant today with the BBC's cover-up of the Savile Scandal only recently being unearthed. The fact that Dr. Lecter can be seen as something of a victim, hero & almost a love-interest in this installment is very gratifying to a self-confessed Lecter fangirl & is also very interesting from a more objective point of view. The role of Lecter as good-guy (sort of) despite being a cannibalistic serial killer is a very interesting move, especially as it highlights Lecter's own morals of only killing people who he thinks deserve to be killed.

The emotion is relatable, the action & chase is exciting, the humour is dark & the scenes of cannibalism are delightfully disturbing. All of these factors add up to make a wonderful film.

I'm sure many households would not consider films about cannibalism to be wholesome family viewing, but as my household consists of just my mother & I (both avid horror fans since birth), the Hannibal Lecter trilogy bridged the taste-gap between mother & daughter & enabled us to settle down together & enjoy these wonderful films, making the experience of watching them all the more wonderful.

I was a little privately disappointed that the film did not end the same way as the book, which involved Clarice & Hannibal becoming a couple & going on the run to Argentina together. Although the fangirl  part of me was a little disappointed by this not being the case, the logical part of me realised that this was probably for the best as the ending in the film is more realistic with regards to the character of Clarice. Clarice Starling is a straight-edged FBI agent who could never realistically forsake her duties or acknowledge her love (if there is/was any) for a cannibalistic serial killer. This gives the underlying 'love-story' (if one could call it that) an extra layer of tragedy & realism which makes the film even better.

There are many reasons why Hannibal was my favourite film this summer. In summary, these reasons are: the exciting story & pace, the wonderful chemistry between the superb lead actors, the gore -which is effective without being gratuitous-, the underlying romantic 7 sexual tension between the main characters & the good production values which all add up to make a fantastic film from a series of fantastic films.

Why 'The Lone Ranger' was a flop (first induction task)

The Lone Ranger, directed by Gore Verbinski & starring Johnny Depp & Armie Hammer, was undoubtedly a commercial failure. We know this because, despite an large estimated budget of $225 million, the film only grossed $239 million worldwide.

Many people found that The Lone Ranger lacked vision. This can be seen (according to James Gadea of policymic) by the ballooning of the budget to almost $250 million. When a company has to keep changing the budget, it is a sign that the creative talent behind the film are doing lots of re-writes & re-imaginings & thus losing the original vision (if indeed there was vision to begin with). This lack of vision can often lead to a lack of direction & feeling of pointlessness for an audience.

Aside from the budgetary problems (& the subsequent  loss of vision caused by them), the shoot for The Lone Ranger was plagued with disaster. Often the weather on location could not be trusted, even resulting in wildfires on some occasions. This, of course, meant that filming took longer than expected. The weather & budgetary concerns were certainly not helped when an outbreak of chickenpox & even the death of a safety expert (Michael Andrew Bridger) decreased morale & slowed down production considerably. Also, many cast members had to extra formal training on horseback, gunslinging & lassoing.

These numerous problems looked very bad to the reviewers, many of whom published scathing reviews of The Lone Ranger long before it was released, which would have discouraged many potential viewers from making the effort of going to see it in the cinema. Actor Johnny Depp said "I think the reviews were written seven to eight months before we even released the film", which for many reviewers is true. These reviews placed a metaphorical curse upon the film.

The reviewers had ample reason to notice The Lone Ranger & set their sights on it to shoot it down before it was even released, as the date of this release kept drastically changing. The film was originally set for a mid-2011 release but it was pushed aside in favour of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, because Pirates was considered to be a priority & a fail-safe success & The Lone Ranger did not have a director at the time. After Gore Verbinski signed as director, the release date was moved to the 21st of December 2012 but this was pushed even further forward to the 31st of May 2013 due to production problems. When Dreamworks' Robopocalypse encountered its own problems & could not make the 4th of July weekend release date, Disney jumped into its place with The Lone Ranger.

The sum of all these negative factors can be seen in the losses made by the film, as this shows the negative response from audiences. The release date would have really affected this, as many huge-budget & highly anticipated films (such as Man Of Steel, Monsters University, White House Down & Despicable Me 2) were out slightly before The Lone Ranger, meaning most film-goers had already spent all their time & money on tickets for this film & thus had little reason to see The Lone Ranger after the unfavourable reviews, bland colour palette on the trailer & the general unfamiliarity with the character for youths (especially those not living in America).

sources: www.policymic.com, www.today.com, wikipedia