Tuesday 30 September 2014

Dredd Essay






This essay is about the film Dredd and why it was not success at the box office.
Pre-Production
Pre-production is a huge part of making a film such as the script will be written and changed multiple times and the locations, props, cast members, costumes, special effects and visual effects are all decided. The film's producers were Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald, and Allon Reich. Dredd was distributed by Entertainment Films Distributors and Lionsgate. Entertainment Films are a British distributor of independent films, founded in 1978 by Michael L Green, they have also done films such as The Inbetweeners, Scream 4 and many others. Lionsgate are a Canadian/American entertainment company that was founded in Vancouver, Canada in 1997, the company was founded by Frank Giustra. Lionsgate have distributed films such as the Hunger Games series, Expendables 1-3 and many more. The writer was Alex Garland who has also written films such as Never Let Me Go and Halo. IM global are the biggest film financing, sales and distribution companies in the world, the company was founded in Los Angeles, California in 2007 by Stuart Ford. DNA films are one of the co-producers of Dredd, they are a British film production company founded by Duncan Kenworthy and Andrew Macdonald, they have also produced films such as Love Actually, Never Let Me Go and many others. DNA Films partnered with IM Global, Lionsgate, Reliance BIG Pictures, IMAX and Entertainment Film Distributors to create Dredd. The majority of the film was filmed in Johannesburg South Africa because it lowered the cost of employing cast and crew in place such as Europe, it was also filmed briefly in North London England. Lionsgate announced their three picture deal with IM Global on the 2nd November 2010, this meant that Lionsgate had the agreement to produce three action films. The films distributors had to pay $30 million to show the rights to show the film in the UK, this helped as then it could reach more of an audience. Dredd made $30,000,000 from just pre sales which are companies buying the right to show this film. When Karl Urban announced that he was playing the role of Dredd at Comic-Con 2010, the film makers knew this would be an ideal place to announce this as Dredd was created from an old comic book.
Production
Production is the process in which the film is created. The filming for Dredd took from the 12th November 2010 to early February 2011. Dredd was primarily filmed in 3D using the Red One MX, Phantom Flex, and Silicon Imaging SI-2K, some 2D elements were were concerted to 3D in post production. The camera lenses that was used was the Zeiss Ultra Prime Lenses. Dredd used the same 'slo-mo' as the film 'Never Let Me Go' which Alex Garland was the writer for. The opinion of the film makers that Dredd would be a 18 certificate, they did not mind as they knew that with the amount of gore and drug usage would have made it an 18, although making it an 18 does mean that the film will lose a lot of younger audiences, this could be a reason why it didn't do as well as people thought
Post Production
Post production is the final step of making a film and has the task of editing the entire film, colour correction and adding music. Whilst editing Dredd there was a disagreement between Pete Travis the director and the producers and executives, therefore Travis was not allowed to help the in editing process.
Distribution and Marketing
At the box office Dredd grossed $13,401,683 this is not what he film makers expected. The way the film distributors got people to watch Dredd in 3D was that they only released it in 3D in cinemas. This was a bad step as 4% of audiences physically cannot see 3D imaging, also when a film is created in 3D 30% of the light is lost when watching therefore making it harder to see clearer images. Dredd was unfortunately released after Gareth Evans' film 'The Raid' who's plots are very similar.
 
The Avengers
Pre-Production
The Avengers was produced by Kevin Feige who has also produced films such as Guardian of the Galaxy, Iron Man 1-3 and Captain America 1 and 2. The Avengers is not different to the film Kevin Feige usually produces. The Avengers was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, who have also produced films such as all Disney films and Marvel films, there is no shock that this film did so well in the box office. Having a budget of $220,000,000 meant that they could hire the best actors and film in more expensive locations. This film was announced at Comic-Con this meant that the film would have made an impact as Marvel are one of the biggest comic book companies in the world.
 
Production
The Avengers took from 25th April 2011 to 4th September 2011 which is understandable as long film. The cameras used to film The Avengers were Arri Alexa, Panavision Primo, PCZ and Frazier Lenses, Arriflex 435, Panavision Primo Lenses, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EOS 7D, and Canon Lenses all of these are high quality cameras as they could afford to get the best with such a large budget. Marvel try to make all of their films 12A, PG13 or lower as then their films can reach a wider audience.
 
Post Production

With the developments in CGI this means films such as The Avengers are becoming easier and less expensive to produce. The Avengers grossed $623,279,547 which is almost triple the budget which was expected as Marvel has a very large audience. Unlike Dredd, The Avengers is a one of a kind film as all superheroes have not been in the same film.

Tuesday 23 September 2014

Representation of Skins

Representation of characters:



Tony:
Tony represents the stereotypical rebellious teenager, this is shown by the way he disobeys his father although does overcome this stereotype by helping his sister get into the house, after a night out, without their parents noticing. The audience could think that he is narcissistic by the way he seems to be posing in the mirror after doing his workout. In the opening scene Tony is shown awake in his bed although it does not seem like he has been to sleep as the cover is neat and he is lying in the centre of the bed with his eyes wide open. The bed cover shows a naked man laying face down and a woman facing up, Tony is shown lying in between them, this could suggest that he is sexually confused, although this is cleared up by him gazing across the street at the naked woman, also a shadow is cast over half of Tony's face this could suggest that Tony is lonely. When Tony wakes up and gets the clothes out of his draw his clothes are very neatly folded and some of his shirts are hanging up as of they were in a store, this could suggest that Tony has obsessive compulsive disorder. Tony is shown to be polite to his mother but then passive aggressive towards his father, this suggests that Tony is showing himself as the alpha male of the house. The posters around Tony's room are of old Italian films such as 'Blow Up' by Antonioni and '8 1/2' by Federico Fellini, these are not the types of films that a stereotypical teenager watches. When Tony is in the bathroom he is shown to be reading a book called Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre, this suggests that Tony is intelligent as it is not the stereotypical teenagers book.
The diegetic sound during the opening scenes is Tony and his family, this shows that his family are quite close although it does not look like  he has a good relationship with his father. The music Tony plays when his sister is trying to get into the house suggest that Tony likes the Heavy Metal/Rock music, this does not play a role in the stereotypical teenagers life and does  not match what Tony's room looks like, as his room is cream and it is shown to be neat.
The non-diegetic sounds are at the beginning before Tony turns on the stereo on, the music playing is R'N'B which shows that Tony is into the newer fashions.
In the later scenes when Tony rings up his friends, he is seen as the ring leader of the group as he is making the plans and gets everyone to join in. Tony's friends are introduced at the beginning of the first episode as they are a big part of Tony's life as they share the time on the screen, although Tony does get the majority of screen time as he is the main character. All of Tony's friends are from different social groups such as, Anwar is Muslim and Max is Gay, this suggests that Tony has a variety of friends and does not judge people on what religion or sexuality they are.

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Camera Angles, movement and shots

500 Days of Summer

Camera Angles: 

High angle shot


Low angle shot


Over the shoulder shot


Camera Movement:

Tracking shot


Tilt shot


Zoom


Arc shot


Crane shot


Panning shot


Camera Shots:

Extreme long shot


Establishing shot


Long shot


Mid shot


Two shot


Close up


Extreme close up


American Beauty Representation

Representation about Lester Burnham


  • He says he used to be happy this suggests that he is not content with how his life turned out.
  • He dislikes his wife, we know this as he talks about her in a negative way.
  • When sitting in the car he is slouched against the window falling asleep, this suggests that he has poor posture and does not get enough sleep.
  • The stereotypical husband and wife roles have reversed we see this by the way his wife stands next to the car and that she is telling him to hurry up whereas stereotypical the wife is the one running late.
  • The way he is spoke to by his family suggest that he is not very well respected.
  • He masturbates in the shower and calls it the highlight of his day, which suggests that he does not have a very exciting life and that him and his wife do not have a very successful physical relationship. 

Sound:

Non-diegetic sound is used for the Narrator as we can not see him although we can hear his voice. The voice of the narrator is Lester Burnham giving his views on his life, his voice is very monotone which suggests that he is happy with his life. Another non-diegetic sound is the background music, the music in the background is contrasting the mood of Lester Burnham, as he is quite sad and the  music is up beat. The music is quite repetitive this suggests that Lester Burnham's life is also repetitive. The diegetic sound in the opening scene is giving the audience a feel for how Lester's home life is.


Camera Work:

The camera work is done in a specific way to show how Lester feels about his life, it is shown as if he is imprisoned or trapped in his life. This is shown when Lester is in the shower and the four walls surround him and only a crack of light is shown to be shining through the window. Also when Lester's wife is talking to their next door neighbor and it shows Lester in the window looking distanced from his family and friends. It is shown again when Lester is sitting at his desk at work, the camera is cleverly placed in a way which the numbers on the screen look like bars and the reflection of Lester is behind them suggesting that Lester is imprisoned in his boring job.


Mise en scene:

The colour scheme in this film are plain such as the inside of Lester's bedroom which is beige, this suggests that Lester life is dull and boring. Also Lester's office work space is shown to have a boring colour scheme, this suggest that he does not have a very exciting life. One of the big colour schemes is that the colours red, white, and blue are shown in almost every scene, such as his office having red signs, a white computer, and blue scissors, which are the colours of the United States flag. The rose is significant to this as  it is shown on the daughters jumper and Lester's wife is shown picking them.