Avatar

The story of success wih Avatar

The 2010 blockbuster film Avatar turned out to be a phenominal success. Although it used some different methods to some other typical blockbusters, such as it wasn't full of massive 'A-List' stars so it didn't have the masive effect where the film people wanted to watch the film just because of the actors and actresses that are involved and starring in the films.

First off the film is based around the planet that is called ‘Pandora’ and the main plot of this that the marine Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington who isn’t actually a massive star himself) and the story is that he must decide whether he part of mankind and the human race or whether he is to stick to his roots and stay and stay on the moon planet Pandora, which he still has strong ties with. Whilst on the subject of actors, virtually the whole cast of the film was unknown was when the film was made, but quite obviously many of them became well known due to the success of the film. This proves why the film used ‘untraditional’ methods to become a success.

It has to be said that one of the major reasons why Avatar had was a great success because of the size of the budget that director James Cameron had been given, which was an estimated $310 million, therefore this gave Cameron the opportunity to use many high quality special effects throughout the duration of the film. Maybe a reason why Cameron was given a enormous budget was because he was the director of the ‘Titanic’ which was a blockbuster film. So Cameron would have been trusted to create a spectacular film. Plus he made the film a four quadrant picture so I could stereotypically appeal to male and female genders who are both young and old, it also had 12A rating and plain 12, this attracted more viewers as now parents would be able to legally take their children to watch the film.

One other gigantic reason why Avatar was a massive economic success was because it was the first major blockbuster film that was available to watch in 3D, this attracted and many intrigued many viewers who wouldn’t use usually watch film like Avatar just so they can experience a film in 3D.

The distributors also managed to give the film a high amount of advertising, using both above and below the line techniques, below the line when they would advertise the film on the side of social network websites such as Facebook, they had been working with google and knew if people had been researching the film, so now they could give the film further advertisement. Above the line advertisement was used in scenarios such as in some specialised cinemas 15 minute previews of  the film were being shown, this worked because it tempted viewers to watch the film as the preview had made readers interested in what would in the whole of the film.

Altogether Avatar was a monstrous success, as it’s expenditure was $310 million, the overall profit that the film made was an astounding $760,505,847, so it’s proven that the film was a massive success and talks of a sequel are in order, so just to repeat one more time, the film was a huge success.

 

The Film-Kick Ass!!

The film Kick Ass is based on the Marvel comic books Kick Ass, it was relased in the United Kingdom in April 2010. The films actual director throughout was Matthew Vaughan, although worldwide famous actors like Brad Pitt played parts in directing the film. To compromise for making the film the producer Michaeal Vaughan had to change the basis of the film, pretty much he was told he wasn't allowed to give the film a sad ending if he was going to make the film. So in one of the final scenes when Dave Lizewski told Katie that he was he in the mood for having sex her, as he'd had a thing for her for many years, in the comic she told him to go away, and never spoke ho him, whereas in the film he was forced to make Katie take Dave up on his offer and said she actually wanted to have sex with, and their relationship built form there. Vaughan was forced making this ending a reality against his will as he actually wanted to give the film a sad enging. which resulted in an issue with producing the film itself.


The film was based on the American Marvel comic books, when they realised they wanted to use one of the characters from the film they were struggling to get the copyright and funds together to be able to pay Marvel to even be able to use one of their lower card characters, they were struggling to even get a 'C-grade' character This eventually led to a problem when financing the film, as distributors etc. weren't sure why this film starring the the lesser known Marvel chracters as it's main faeature would bring the audience and the money in.

Controversy surrounding the film, was the amount of explicit language and voilence used by the films young cast. First off 'Hit Girl' is quoted as saying ok you "c***" when she comes up against some criminals, this was opposed to by some viewers because they didn't young children to be influenced by Hit Girl as she was seen a hero in the film, and people didn't want children to imitate this behaviour.

A big reason why the succeeded is because the films rating did not entirely mean it was intended for that age audience because there were different aspects of the film which appealed to a wide ranges of audience, it wasn't just a film that intruiged violent teenagers, it caught the imagination of many peoples eyes and they saw a difference to other films in Kick Ass, this illustrates that unrealistic feautures in films can still be popular, and it can also convince people that comic books still have a life to lead and can remain successful.

If anything, when talking about about the music used in the film, it seems to be that there was a hint ofb laziness used when composing the music. I mean sometimes there can be nothing wrong with re-using music but sometimes the music has a lasting rememberance with a certain film, so when being reused it could just being linked with a previous, therefore giving Kick Ass less independance. So personally I believe if you get the music right then it can define your film, giving it a lasting legacy, which is one thing Kick Ass could lack.

Identify the audience for 'Moon' by using examples from the film

The film 'Moon' which was created in 2009 was a stereotypical Sci-Fi film which was directed by Duncan Jones. Straight away we can tell that Sci-Fi will take a strong interest in the film as it is set around the moon. The Film predominantly contains one actor throughout the whole sequence of the film so Sam Rockwell who has the biggest part in the film would usually straight away appeal to Sci-Fi fans because his the star in the Sci-Fi comedy film 'Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, this could mean that once again Sci-Fi fans will take an interest in the film but also now some comedy film fans may show an interest in the film and may want to watch it. As throughout the film he has the visable mans role to play (along with a computerised screen) so the viewers might have been interested in how the director Duncan Jones managed to use one actor to play two different roles and what special effects he used and how he portrayed them, most the time I believed he used a split or double screen, where he filmed two seperate shots and then placed them together in the film. The most expensive scene to film was where the two Sam Bell's were playing table tennis, it was the most expensive scene because Jones had place a computerised Sam Rockwell in the scene, and it was also the most expensive part of the filming. Quite often they used body doubles, so when you thought there were two Sam Rockwell's in the scene, you could just not see other of the characters face, so in fact they made his body look just like Rockwell when it was actually another, this was done to keep the costs down, there was an exception on the table tennis though.

The two actor that can be recognised as famous faces in the film are Sam Rockwell who played Sam Bell, and had the majority of acting to do. Other than this, Kevin Spacey who is a worldwide recognised actor, he was payed more than anybody else for his part of the film, even though he only worked for one day, and only did the voice over for the robot Gerty.

Also there wasn't a massive amount of advertisment for the film, and the main reason for this was because they didn't have the funds to do so. The Budget for the film was only £5,000,000 and this was for everything including advertising the film and not just for the filming. Duncan Jones couldn't even let his film be nominated for some awards as to do this he would have to take money out of the budget for the film and send copies of the film out. Which by no means he could not afford to do.

Although the Film 'Moon' was altogether a success, and was given the award of the 'Best Independent British Film of the Past 10 Years' and made a profit of plus £4,000,000 which shows the film was worth creating.

Merlin-Male Representaion.

What representations of gender are constructed by the extract through the use of mise en scene, editing, use of camera, sound?

As soon as the trailor starts we can see Merlin sat in what seems to be a big castle, he is sat on his own in a relatively large room, the camera angle looks to be a long shot, which is also similar to when he is stood on his own in some case. This could be done for the two reasons, the first is that it could have been used to show that the male is the dominant, and has superior strenth compared to the female. The other is that the director is trying to show that Merlin will have to deal with some tricky situations on his own, and when it comes down to it, he will have nobody to rely on.

We then see a close up on Merlin's face where we see that there is a sparkle in his eye, this could be used to show that Merlin will be unique to others and do what nobody else can do, and produce magic, which could mean he will once again be dominant and can over power others.

Also usually they the camera pointing upwards when looking at the men e.g. when one of the men is pointing up at the castle, which once again could be used to show that the women had to look up to the men.

The voiceover throughout is a man, this to me sounds like it could be a 'wise man' (maybe like Merlin when he's older) trying to spread his knowledge, but it once again look like the man is dominant, and everything that a man says is more important than whatever a woman says, almost as if a male would make all the decisions and would be seen as more important than the woman. The music also builds up expectations and builds up tension, and it playing as Merlin and somebody else are in a confrontation, this once again makes out men are superior as they are the ones who go and fight battle, and can be more physical.

Throughout the trailer we say that men are treated with more respect, and look like they're more domiant and much more important.

Disability- Tourettes

Monday, 8 November 2010

Disability

Tourettes is now a well known disability but once it was seen a rude and hinderance to society. Nowadays tourettes is accepted by the general public. Big Brother winner Pete Bennett who also suffered with exposed the illness helped explain the misconceptions of the illness, and was a very popular chartacter. This particular clip is taken from a channel four documentary on tourettes.

Animoto Video attempt one

Not 100% sure why I chose this film, i'm not a massive fan of the sequal!

Original Theorists

VLADAMIR PROPP

Propp comes from the country of Russia, the main theory of his work is that always believed that to every narrative there was a 'hero' 'villain' 'false hero' 'helper' and a 'donor' contained inside. This can be related to life on mars because Sam Tyler can be seen as the hero because of his determination and inspiration to get the job done, Colin Reams can be seen as the villain as he is the one who Tyler is trying to convict and Gene Hunt is looked at as the false hero because he can be seen as being a popular character for all the wrong reasons.

Todorov

He originates from the country of Bulgaria. As well as becoming known for his theories he was also a keen author. Most of his work is from the 1960's and he is seen as being very influencial. His main theory was that every narrative had three periods in it, first of all was an introduction where everything is in balance and some cases 'happy' but then something 'big' or disasterous happens with changes things so everything becomes 'pear shaped' finally it will then have an ending where the disaster goes back to how it originally was. In relation to life on mars, we see it when Tyler is doing his normal everyday job when a disater happens and he is took back to te 1970's and he then must work his situation out and get back to the present, which he eventually does.

Levi-Strauss

Strauss who comes from the country of France lived until he was one hundred years old. He main theory was that all narratives contain a feature of Binary Opposites. This is where you two completely opposite things the same narrative for example it can be related to life on mars because during the programme Tyler is living in the present day when suddenly he is hit by a car and taken back in time to the 1970's and this can be seen as binary opposites because there is a complete contrast in settings for Tyler.