We looked into different things that Hollywood can portray as the 'bad guy'. We were given examples and in groups we linked them up with the decades we were given. Some of the examples included: aliens, Germany, Russia, Japan, disease, atomic bombs, terrorists, natural disasters and intelligent computers. Our groups were given 2 decades to research; we had to look into public fears during those decades. We then started linking subjects to our decades and backing up our answers with facts and film examples. We had the 70s and 10s. For the 70s we linked the subjects Russia and Communists. We backed up our subjects using information about the Cold War. In the 70s there was a large worry that WW3 may occur if the Soviets joined the Vietnam war. This particular war was the fist televised war, so US residence knew a great deal about what was going on and were highly concerned. The Soviets were communists. The US were afraid of the US throughout the 70s because the USSR continued to work with experimental versions of missiles. This was a worry until 1979 when the SALT II was signed banning missile programs. During the Vietnam war there was a fear of North Vietnam because they were communists. US President Nixon decided to extend the Vietnam war to Cambodia which caused a lot of problems in the US with anti-war protests. Nixon then declared that the US would withdraw from the Vietnam war.
The executioner. (1970) This film portrayed Russian spys and Soviet agents as the bad guys. The film is about a British spy who is up against Russian spys and there is a mole who is giving the soviets false information. This links to the fear of both the Russians and Communists.
Limbo (1972) This film is about a woman who hears that her husband has died in the Vietnam war. She then attends a peace conference because of it and learns that the American soldiers did horrible things in Vietnam. After learning this she starts anti-war protests. This relates to the many anti-war protests that would have been happening in the US.
For the 10s we linked overseas terrorists, natural disasters, drug dealers and genetic engineering.
Overseas terrorists is an important public fear in the 10s. After terrorism bombings by Islamists in London etc. (This could also be linked to cyber attacks after some computer hackings). Attacks on the government are a popular topic in films during the 10s. Skyfall, Unthinkable, White house down and Zero dark thirty all follow the fear of terrorists. Zero Dark Thirty is about tracking down Bin Laden and his death. He died in 2011 which is why this film was made.
Natural disasters Arctic blast and 2012: Ice age are films about a new ice age linked in with the worry of global warming. 100 degrees below 0 is about the Ash Cloud. There are a lot of natural disaster worries because of Earthquakes, tsunamis and Hurricanes.
If a 70s film was to re-made in the 10s i'd say it would be developed to be about terrorists. The executioner could be re-done, still about a British spy but instead of having trouble with soviet agents it could be big time terrorist groups. It would create fear of terrorists and the country that they are portrayed to come from. They would have to be careful with this because there is a lot of hate towards certain religions because of certain terrorist attacks.
Thursday, 24 October 2013
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Single camera research
Single Camera research
For our single camera production I looked at a lot of things that relate to Alice in Wonderland- because that it what the film is based on. I read the original book again to really understand the characters and be able to predict the sort of dialogue they would use in certain situations. I have seen both Disney Alice films (1951 & 2010) and watched them again to pick up any interesting small references I could put in my film. I have a large list of references both obvious and discrete. These include: changing seats at the 'tea party', falling through the key hole, using the word 'Curious' and even small signs on trees in the background. I also had inspiration from a song by Shinedown called 'Her name is Alice'. This song is written about the dark side of the story of Alice in Wonderland. It made me want to make my film fairly dark and very odd because that's the reality of the original story; it shouldn't be bright and cheery.
My main inspiration came from the cut scenes from an Alice in Wonderland video game called Alice: Madness Returns. This particular game is a sequel about returning to a wonderland being destroyed but is much more inspirational than the original game. Below are some pictures from the game's cut scenes. The characters are made to look like pop-ups and usually don't move their mouths while talking. This is how I decided that I wanted to create life-size pop-ups in my take on wonderland. My characters will be my own design of 3 well-known wonderland residences and will have voices coming from them but they will not move their mouths.
In my film I intend to use the Jabberwocky poem because I think it is a very powerful and amazing poem that can mean whatever you want it to. The odd and mad language used really helps set the mood of uneasiness. I intend to have a deep voice reciting this poem during my chase scene along with music because I think it will be very effective with making the scene tense.
Thursday, 17 October 2013
Reboot Pirates of the Caribbean task.
Pirates of the Caribbean reboot.
We were split into small groups of 4 and were asked to discuss how we would re-boot Pirates of the Caribbean in 2020. We had to come up with a new cast and whether we would change the storylines or main theme too much.
Our group decided to keep the theme fairly similar and just make a new series of storylines so that it isn't too different from the originals. For our cast line up we chose:
Taylor Kitsch/Ryan Gosling - Captain Jack Sparrow
Scarlet Johansson - Elizabeth Swan
Joseph Gordon Levitt - Will Turner
Bill Murray - Captain Barbosa
We then all presented our idea to the other groups and all voted for the best idea. Another group came up with the idea of Pirates of the Caribbean in space. They thought the storyline should be about a search for Pandora's box. We were then all asked to create a teaser poster/logo for the re-boot. Some of us worked in pairs because of there were too many people to computers. In my pair we got a good picture of space. The picture was also a gold colour which relates to the original Pirates colour theme. We then added a metallic-looking skull and put pirate swords crossed behind it. We then put a 'Splatter glow' effect on both layers so that they didn't look like they were just stuck on. We then added a rectangle that looks like metal with a drop shadow and put the title on that. We put the original logo on the metal shape and then put the new film title underneath using the same font as the logo.
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Stig Ident
We were all asked to create an ident for Perry McCarthy aka the original Stig. Most people were making idents with the racing theme but I wanted to do something a bit different. I looked on Perry McCarthy's website and found that his primary business is doing talks in schools, companies etc. I decided to have the Stig walk up on stage to a lectern and move his head as if he's talking. I made this with key framing. I then made ribbon-style titles that said 'The original Stig' and 'Perry McCarthy'. and they came on to the middle of the screen floated there for a few seconds and then left the screen.
My ident was chosen for 2nd place by Perry McCarthy.
My ident was chosen for 2nd place by Perry McCarthy.
Friday, 11 October 2013
Single camera idea & Focus group
I came up with my idea after finding out that it is legal to make something based on or a version of Alice in Wonderland. I want to make my own Alice story set in modern times but with only 1 character.
Genre - Fantasy adventure
Plot - 'Alice' is an ordinary but very curious girl in a modern world. She leads a normal life but is fascinated by knowing more, imagining impossible things and being generally nosey (although she does not see it like that). The film starts with Alice living her ordinary life: getting up in the morning , getting ready and going out. On this particular day Alice goes for a walk to enjoy her surroundings and watch other life and learn from it. - Alice has no real goals in life because an ordinary life seems too boring for her. Whilst walking in a countryside park she finds a keyhole on the ground. Curious, Alice looks into the keyhole and falls through and into a world that looks almost like her own. This world is a little more interesting though. The world is darker and strangely coloured. There are also giant colourful pop-ups just like a pop-up book. First this world is interesting to Alice and she makes her way home to see how her home is different. There she finds a few odd pop-up characters with creepy voices. (They don't move, their voices come from the pop-ups) This is when she realises that even though the real world can be boring, it's better than the madness in this world. She runs from her house and looks for a way out of this world. She can't get back out the Keyhole. After lots of running, searching and avoiding pop-ups she finds a door in the middle of a field. The pop-ups getting closer she goes through the pop-up door and finds herself back in the real world. Behind her the pop-up door falls down and it disappears.
Characters - There is only 1 real character. She is Alice but I may not use her name so that it's not exactly like Alice in Wonderland. I will cast a friend of mine to play Alice. She is a teen Alice even though the original story is about a child.
Locations - I will film in the Country park near my house and in my house.
Style - The style of my film starts as realistic. Then when in the alternate world the colours will be changed in editing to make it both dark and colourful.
Target audience - My target audience is teens and young adults because they can relate to Alice not wanting to grow up and lead a proper life.
Budget - The budget is low because I already have the materials for making the pop-up items.
Focus group.
We were split up into 3 groups of 3 or 4. In these random groups we pitched our ideas to each other and gave feedback to help them with changes. People in my focus group liked my idea and said it sounded do-able and an interesting idea. They didn't have any real advise on how to change it, they just recommended that I colourise the fantasy world - which I had already planned to do. Talking to them about my idea did give me more ideas on how to make and move the pop-ups.
Genre - Fantasy adventure
Plot - 'Alice' is an ordinary but very curious girl in a modern world. She leads a normal life but is fascinated by knowing more, imagining impossible things and being generally nosey (although she does not see it like that). The film starts with Alice living her ordinary life: getting up in the morning , getting ready and going out. On this particular day Alice goes for a walk to enjoy her surroundings and watch other life and learn from it. - Alice has no real goals in life because an ordinary life seems too boring for her. Whilst walking in a countryside park she finds a keyhole on the ground. Curious, Alice looks into the keyhole and falls through and into a world that looks almost like her own. This world is a little more interesting though. The world is darker and strangely coloured. There are also giant colourful pop-ups just like a pop-up book. First this world is interesting to Alice and she makes her way home to see how her home is different. There she finds a few odd pop-up characters with creepy voices. (They don't move, their voices come from the pop-ups) This is when she realises that even though the real world can be boring, it's better than the madness in this world. She runs from her house and looks for a way out of this world. She can't get back out the Keyhole. After lots of running, searching and avoiding pop-ups she finds a door in the middle of a field. The pop-ups getting closer she goes through the pop-up door and finds herself back in the real world. Behind her the pop-up door falls down and it disappears.
Characters - There is only 1 real character. She is Alice but I may not use her name so that it's not exactly like Alice in Wonderland. I will cast a friend of mine to play Alice. She is a teen Alice even though the original story is about a child.
Locations - I will film in the Country park near my house and in my house.
Style - The style of my film starts as realistic. Then when in the alternate world the colours will be changed in editing to make it both dark and colourful.
Target audience - My target audience is teens and young adults because they can relate to Alice not wanting to grow up and lead a proper life.
Budget - The budget is low because I already have the materials for making the pop-up items.
Focus group.
We were split up into 3 groups of 3 or 4. In these random groups we pitched our ideas to each other and gave feedback to help them with changes. People in my focus group liked my idea and said it sounded do-able and an interesting idea. They didn't have any real advise on how to change it, they just recommended that I colourise the fantasy world - which I had already planned to do. Talking to them about my idea did give me more ideas on how to make and move the pop-ups.
Thursday, 10 October 2013
Film advertising essay
Wreck it Ralph was Disney’s 52nd animated classic
and it was a desired and big film of 2013. The expectations of the film were
different dependant on the audience. Children expect a bright, fun and happy
animated Disney film but adults and teens could expect different outcomes. Because
the film is computer animation it was expected to be a Disney-Pixar by some
audiences but Pixar were not part of this film. The expectation of the film was
mostly matched to the final film. The trailers advertised a good amount of the
film and didn't give too much away. Although, in trailers quite a few
well-known game characters were shown and represented as if they were going to
be important characters, like Clyde, DR Egg man and Bowser. Also, the DVD cases
show various video game characters that appear in the film but they are not
main characters like gamer audiences may hope. The UK DVD release has the main
characters on the cover[1].
But it also has 5 well-known video game characters that only appear in the film.
For example, Sonic, he is in the film as a digital image with only 1 line. But
him being on the cover makes it look like he is going to be in it for more than
1 line and a few unnoticeable cameos.
 |
| Japanese Poster |
Different Wreck it Ralph film posters were released in
different countries. The American poster was very simple and had Ralph in the
foreground and behind him all well-known video game characters. Only 1 main
character is shown, the others were not advertised much; same with the
trailers. In American trailers they showed well-known existing characters and Ralph.
On the Spanish poster it shows the 2 main characters with the phrase ‘Game Over’
in English with all other text in Spanish. Game over doesn't seem to make sense
to the actual film, it just relates to the fact that it is about video games.
The best film poster I was able to find was for the Japanese release. This was
the most accurate representation of the film. It showed all of the main
characters in the Sugar rush world – where most of the story is set. In the top
left there are 5 other video game characters to show that there are well- known
characters in it, but they aren't important characters.
When the first trailer was released many Expos were being
held. At both the Electronic Entertainment Expo and Disney’s D23 Expo a mock
arcade game was constructed with a video showing Fix-It Felix game play as the
main preview of the film. This drew in a large amount of fans who want to know
even more about the film.
After the first trailer was released on June 6, 2012 Disney
released browser-based versions of Sugar rush, Fix-It Felix Jr. and Hero’s Duty[3].
Then a second trailer was released on September 12, 2012. The film was due to
be released in February of 2013 in the UK. In the lead up to release Disney
took over London’s Brick Lane for a weekend. Here they created a pixel-themed
street display; they named it 8-bit Lane. They created life- size pixelated
objects such as a dog, taxi cab, trees, post box, pigeons, CCTV cameras and clouds. They also hung a giant poster with pixelated Ralph and the text
“loading in cinemas”. After 8-bit Lane was dismantled and interactive website
was created where you could explore the street from large photos. There was
also a feature where you could click on all the pixel references and try and
find them all. [4]
Wreck it Ralph had a large amount of merchandise from
figures to stationary. Disney even made giant Ralph-style hands and Fix-It
Felix belts and hammers. I personally think that Disney missed out on a massive
Merchandising opportunity. They didn't create a proper console-based game. They
did release a side-scrolling platform game for the Wii, 3DS and DS but it got
negative reviews. It was seen as a story extension, taking place after the
events of the film. It was released at the same time as the film’s American
release. Characters from the film do
appear in other games released afterwards. For example Ralph is in ‘Sonic &
All-Stars Racing Transformed’ as a racer and both Ralph and Vanellope are
playable characters in ‘Disney Infinity’.
Rotten Tomatoes reviews show that 86% of critics gave a positive
response and 87% of audience liked it. Most critics who gave negative reviews
simply pointed out that you could play an actual video game instead. The
overall review said “Equally entertaining for both kids and parents old enough
to catch the references, Wreck-It-Ralph is a clever, colourful adventure built
on familiar themes and joyful nostalgia.”[5]
I think this review fits nicely in with Disney’s expectations and targets. IMDB
has a rating for 7.8
When the film was released in cinemas there was a 2-3 month
gap between America and UK. There was a gap in release because for UK release
they wanted it to be shown in Cinemas during school half-term to maximise
ticket sales. The US DVD release was in March and the UK release was June.
There was a large gap between countries release which is common when a large
American film is released.
Wreck it Ralph is full of references. The amount of video
games they reference is surprising. There are so many hidden meaning and cameos
that most audiences aren't expected to pick up on. There are also a wide range
of obvious video game references such as a vast amount of classic game
characters; some recognisable, some not so much. There are parts of graffiti
that relate to games such as Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft and Street
Fighter. Even the original story games relate to real ones; Fix-it-Felix is
like Donkey Kong, Hero’s Duty is like Gears of War and Sugar Rush has part of a
course that looks like Mario Kart’s Rainbow Road.[6]
Friday, 4 October 2013
Interactive marketing
Interactive marketing is when a company involve their audiences with their marketing campaigns. There are advantages of involving the fans. It is good for the film if fans get excited about it on the build up to release. Fans will try and find out information about the film before release. Giving them teaser images and trailers keeps fans interested and waiting. Also doing this can increase potential audiences because fans can get their friends involved and they can spread the word. One of the most successful interactive marketing campaigns was for the Dark Knight. The fans of the film were excited to know what the Joker was going to look like. So the film company released a photo of the Joker with pixels covering him. The fans then had to send an e-mail to remove one pixel. This meant that a vast amount of fans were e-mailing in and then they got their friends and family to do so. This was a marketing technique that didn't cost anything and got a wide response. The company also set up a real treasure hunt to get the fans out and about looking for clues about the film. They had to search around cities looking for images and items and take photos to send in. The more photos the company received, the more images and teaser trailers they released.
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