ed hamilton's film studies blog: September 2012

Thursday 27 September 2012

Rebel Without A Cause- Analysis

rebel without a cause is set in the 1950s, it is one of the most iconic movies of all time as it started the phase of the classic "teenager". this is because before this film came along kids would obey their parents and do what they say all the time. now however, kids are more likely to not do what their parents say in modern society

The Hype Of The Hobbit

toys
re-release of lord of the rings- 3d
directors cut- 3d
video game
film trailers- cinema
teaser trailer
theatrical trailer- more footage
articles
twitter
faceook pages

My Top Ten Films

1-Pulp Fiction
2-Gladiator
3-The Shawshank Redemption
4-Spirited Away
5-The Big Lebowski
6-Lord Of The Rings Fellowship Of The Ring
7-Star Wars Empire Strikes Back
8-Jaws
9-Bak To The Future
10-Toy Story

casino royale madagascar chase scene

EDITING

The editing of this video attracts the audience to the situation of the character portrayed by the actor “Daniel Craig”. This is most likely because of the genre of the film, which is action. The audience is therefore attracted to the scene, as it evolves the camera taking a lot of different, exciting shots of the two characters involved. In addition to this, the audience is attracted to all of the stunts, supposedly performed by Daniel Craig. However, a stunt double has obviously been hired to perform a lot of those stunts that Daniel Craig could never do. This, therefore engages the audience in the film by fooling the audience that it is Daniel Craig doing the stunts. To add to this, the shots and frames used in the scene help to fool the audience, as they are very fast, some at close or wide angles depending on the stunt being performed and the stage of the chase.

The audience would also be attracted to the scale of some of the shots, for example, when the two characters are running along the edge of the crane whilst immersed in hand to hand combat.

American Film History

What Makes An American Film?
- Its all to do with the production companies that make the film, for example, Harry Potter was made in Britain but under an American company so it can be considered an American-British film.Yes, the author was British and set her books in Britain, but she didn't have that much to do with the making of the films. She simply supplied the source material.

American Film Industry
- The Origins of the American Film IndustryThe origins and development of the American film industry are the period from 1895 to 1930.During this time the emerging industry developed into an important popular medium, organised into clearly defined exhibition, production, and distribution elements

- The Studio Era is the period from 1930 to 1949. By 1930 the American film industry was dominated by five companies known as the ‘Majors’ or the ‘Big Five. The Big Five owned the production studios, the distribution companies, and most of the cinemas in the US. Furthermore, the amount of cinemas situated around america had grown tenfold overnight.

-The End of the Studio Era, In 1949 the major studios were forced to sell off the cinema chains that they owned by the US government.The American film industry declined further in the 1950s due to the rise of television.It wasn’t until the late 1980s that Hollywood studios fully recovered.

- This graph shows us how revennue of america cinema has grown. we can clearly see that from 2006 to 2010 the ox office revenue has grown by 6.3 billion dollars internationally and 1.4 illion dollars in the united states and canada.

How Hollywood Became Hollywood

The film industry started with New York playing a film, which was built in The Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, during the silent film era, it was used by the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields. After the film industry companies multiplied, the film industry company that called themselves biograph chose to expand their filmmakers across America, to such places as the west coast, where they suggested to move their filmmaking from the typical set of downtown Los Angeles north, towards where in, they found a small village named Hollywood. After making a lot of films around the village of Hollywood, they returned to New York. However, after the staggering profits that biograph had made other film companies insisted that their filmmakers take advantage of the village of Hollywood, as the village itself loved the company of the film industry, which therefore boosted Hollywood’s fame from a small unknown village in north California, to the film industry capital of the world.

Gotham City Street Chase

The source of the text appears to be from the wesite" fuel industries". the key points in this case study are to outline the: challenge, strategy, creative and execution and results of the online computer game shown as "Gotham City Street Chase", it was also to raise the expectatio of the film. A point inside this case study that sticks out to me would be "Within a few days of its release, the game had already shot past 100,000 unique visitors with an average engagement time of 10 minutes per person". This quote stands out to me personally because, its amazing how many people can play the game in such little time, it just shows how dedicated these fans are to the idea of batman. My opinion on the subject was that the game's purpose was to boost the franchise of the film, which proved successful, as over 100,000 people went online to play the game just because it was ased on batman. interaction is the main point of every media industry, because a film, game, radio, every media industry needs to have an interacting audience to therefore generate revenue.

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Resevoir Dogs Opening - Analysis

the opening to resevoir dogs takes the audience to a diner in america. the performance of the actors as the camera slowly pans around the table is extraudinary this is purely because it straight awy sows us that this group of iddle class americans are emersed in a conversation involving one of the most popular songs of that time. therefore, the audience can deduce from this that the film is set some time ago. we then see a character whom is not wearing a suit, but has a deep croaky voice, this shows to the audience that he may be the leader of this gang, as everyone goes quiet when he says his line. furthermore, we then see this second man whom is also not wearing a suit, we can deduct from this that he may e part of this gang, ut cannot be bothered to wear a suit, which therefore, tell the audience that his character is lazy.

secondly, the mise en scene plays an important role in this scene, as not all of the characters are wearing the same costumes, but alot of them are, this therefore adds the feeling of safistication to the scene. in addition to this two or three of the characters are smoking cigarettes, which would inform us that these gentlemen dont take they're actions for granted. however, one of these men is smoking a cigar, which would indicate that his character is a bit more safisticated than the rest of the characters.

thirdly, the performance plays a good role in this opening, as all the actors are emersed in coversation in the middle of breakfast. they dont have to act that they are eating, they actually are eating whilst having a chat. furthermore, they are chatting aout the meening of a song at that time, which adds to the performance of the actors as they would have had to reherse this conversation, but overall, it appears that these men are having a non-plus conversation over breakfast.

Lastly the sound creates an eniga of real life, as there are many sounds such as knives and forks clattering, glasses clinking and waitresses asking orders people chatting, eating, so its a very real-life situation. Which therefore creates drama inside a real-life situation.

Example Of Language- Terminator Opening

The opening of terminator takes the audience to a desolate los angeles of the future. The editing is fast paced to create a feeling of displacement and turmoil. in the scene where schwarzenegger faces the gang we see cuts from a switch blade, to actor, to hand, to villain, to villain falling, but what we dont see is the blade going into the antagonist. the editing creates the impression that the 'hero' is quick thinking and physically powerful. already the spectators/audience feel schwarzenegger is superior intact compared to those he will meet in the narrative.

Thursday 13 September 2012

New Threat To Film Industry?

The source of this article is from the website www.pressofatlanticcity.com. The key points of this article are to outline the devastating impacts towards film criticism via Facebook or twitter in this case, The women being interviewed specifically states that "Almost every time after I go out (to a movie), I'll tweet about it." This shows to us that this could mean either a good or bad thing for the films credibility. However, she also tweets this "If you like science or plot, this isn't a movie for you; if you like explosions for no reason, you’ll love it." This could easily put of a film that you have been looking forward to seeing as it would make you think that the film is rubbish. However, if someone like Steven Fry, who has around 4 million twitter followers, was to tweet that a film is not as good as he expected it to be, then the reaction of his 4 million followers would be to not go and see the film in question. But one quote that stood out for me would have to be that “Twitter has broadened the reach of bloggers and other aspiring opinion-makers”. This is because reminds me that twitter can effect so many people worldwide about a film that could potentially be the film of the year. In my opinion, this could persuade people that a film is rubbish when actually it could be very good. I think this is awful because it is a miss representation of the entire film and what people would think of it, and what people would say if they got asked about it.

Section A Exam

TEXTS TO CONSIDER FOR SECTION A OF THE EXAM

Context: Section A is about the application of a your overall knowledge of the film industry (particularly how it is changing) with some information/sources that are given to you within the exam paper.

It is your responsibility to bring in anything you come across that is of interest and study the articles that your teachers offer you also.

Keep a scrap book OR a blog of articles relating to the film industry

For every article you read respond to the questions below:

What is the source of the text?- empire, imd, etc

What are the key points?

Choose one quote to remember. One that sticks out to you

What are your opinions on the subject matter?

Reading MATERIAL FOR SECTION A

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/life/article_87ad43e5-bea4-5eb8-b44a-37d95baad76c.html

Twitter and the film Industry

http://theweek.com/article/index/207513/the-rise-and-fall-of-blockbuster-video

The fall of Blockbuster video