Case Study

US Blockbuster = X-Men Days Of Future Past

Budget: 

$200,000,000 (estimated)

Cast: Hugh Jackman – Logan/ wolverine James McAvoy – Charles Xavier Jennifer Lawrence – Raven / Mystique Halle Berry – Storm Nicholas Hoult – Hank/ Beast Ellen Page – Kitty Pryde Sir Ian Mckellen – Magneto Patrick Stewart – Professor X Genre: Action Film Superhero Movie Science Fiction Adventure Film Box Office: Budget: $200,000,000 (Estimated) Opening Weekend: $111,000,000 (USA) (23 may 2014) Gross: $233,914,986 (USA) (3 October 2014) Production: Twentieth Century fox Film Corporation, Marvel Entertainment, TSG Entertainment Certificate: PG- 13 Marketing: Posters: Individual character posters with significant ‘X’ mark Main cinema poster

Posters were seen in the cinema to show that the film was coming imminently to screens it was also seen on billboards on busses and buss stops.

Trailers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK2zYHWDZKo

This trailer was shown in cinemas, and on TV. Other trailers were released that teased the released of the film.

Merchandise:

Tons of merchandise was released before and after he films release, such as;

·      T-Shirts

·      Costumes

·      Cups/mugs

·      Phone cases

·      Key rings

·      Action Figures

·      Toys

·      Replicas

Release Date:

May 22, 2014 (Untied Kingdom)

Reviews:

Rotten Tomatoes: 91%, Average score of 7.6/10

IMDb: 8.1/10 from 454,928 users

Metascore: 74/100

UK Production = The Imitation Game

Budget: 

$14,000,000 (estimated)

Cast:

Benedict Cumberbatch – Alan Turning

Keria Knightley – Joan Clarke

Matthew Goode – Hugh Alexander

Mark Strong – Stewards Menzies

Genre:

Thriller

Drama Film

Biographical Film

War Film

Box Office:

Budget: $14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $479,352 (USA) (28 November 2014)

Gross: $91,121,452 (USA) (8 May 2015)

Production:

Black Bear Pictures, Bristol Automotive

Certificate:

PG-13

Marketing:

Posters:

The main poster used to advertise the imitation game in cinemas, on buses, billboards and buss stops.

Trailers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn-7SNrQWMo

Merchandise:

·      Artwork

·      Pillows

·      Phone Cases

·      Mugs

·      Rubix Cubes

Release Date:

January 7th, 2015 (Egypt)

Reviews:

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%, Average Score of 7.7/10

IMDb: 8.1/10 from 373,913 users

Metascore: 73/100

Us Independent = Project x

Budget: 

$12,000,000

Stars:

Thomas Mann – Thomas

Oliver Cooper – Costa

Jonathan Daniel Brown - JB

Genre:

Comedy

Crime

Box Office:

Budget: $12,000,000

Opening Weekend: $21,051,363

Gross: $54,724,272 (USA) (2 March 2012)

Production:

Green Hat Films, Silver Pictures

Certificate:

R

Marketing:

Posters:

These are the poster that were both commonly used in the marketing of Project X, these were seen in cinema, on buses, and in bus stops.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BP1asqBJ6w

 Merchandise:

·      Hoodies

·      Mugs

·      Posters

·      Soundtrack

Release Date:

March 22nd, 2012 (USA)

Reviews:

Rotten Tomatoes: 28%, average score of 4.2/10

IMDb: 6.7/10 from 148,801 users

Metascore: 48/100

World Cinema Production = The Intouchables

Budget: 

€9,500,000 (estimated)

Stars:

Francois Cluzet – Philippe

Omr Sy – Driss

Anne Le Ny – Yvonne

Audrey Fleurot – Magalie

Genre:

Biography

Comedy

Drama

Box Office:

Budget: €9,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $103,507 (USA) (25 May 2012)

Gross: $13,179,837 (USA) (11 January 2013)

Production:

Quad Productions, Ten Films, Cana+

Certificate:

R

Marketing:

Posters:

This is the main poster that was used for the marketing of this movie and was presented in the many traditional ways such as buses, bus stops, billboards and cinemas.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34WIbmXkewU

Merchandise:

There was no merchandising for this movie, although you could buy posters.

Release Date:

September 21st, 2012 (United Kingdom)

Reviews:

Rotten Tomatoes: 75%, average score of 6.7/10

IMDb: 8.6/10 from 445,309 users

Metascore: 57/100

Coursework Essay

How does the use of mise-en-scène and cinematography shots in a key sequence from The Fall convey a sense of emotion?

During the first shot of this of this scene the two main characters Alexandra (Catnica Untaru) and Roy/The Masked Bandit (Lee Pace) are seen somewhat storming down a long alley way in a garden. This first short insight into their fantasy story at his point in the film tells me how the ‘real’ characters are feeling. The Masked Bandit appears to be pulling Alexandra along which tells us that she doesn’t really want to be in this situation and witness the events that are about to take place, this is linked to how the ‘real’ Alexandra is feeling about Roy changing the story into something more tragic and full of sorrow.

The sequence is somewhat dominated by parallel cuts between the reality of the two characters lives and the fantasy they have created in this story, this causes me to see the effect that this make believe world has on these two characters. A common convention of the Drama genre is to trick the audience into creating a bond with the characters; this therefore triggers a more emotional response to the events in their lives. The parallel cuts allowed me to see how the characters I have come to sympathise for have now become forlorn and enveloped in depression.

While the two ‘real’ characters are talking to each other even when shown in a two shot there appears to be a small gap/distance between them, which tells me that these characters are becoming cold with each other. Apposing to this the hospital shots within this scene show me the characters reactions to the tragic ending to their beloved tale. Even though these characters appear to be falling apart the two shot shows a remaining sense of closeness between the characters.

The extreme difference between the mise-en-scene of the hospital room and the fantasy show me how these characters have created a world which allows them to escape the gloomy and cold environment of the hospital and enter a world full of colour brightness and open space. One example of the extreme change is that the hospital room is very small and restricted creating a feel of suffocation for the characters, contrariwise the environment of the fantasy world is very open and spacious which reflects how these characters a very censored to the world and that their freedom is extremely limited within the hospital. An example of this openness and freedom is shown in an extreme long shot from a high angle, which looks over a garden within the story. This is shown to me right at the beginning of the sequence.

Both of the settings contain high amounts of the colour green, within the hospital the walls are a dark and gloomy green which reflects on the illness of the two characters, as well as reflecting on the physical illness of these characters it also reflects on the mental illness of Roy and how the loss of his career and girlfriend have affected his mental stability. Within the fantasy story line the characters are surrounded by a bright green colour which reflects the emotion of jealousy and greed of the characters in this story and how the bandit and odious are lusting after a woman.

During a shot within in the tell-tale realm the bandit and his adversary odious have a large distance between them which is shown in the two shot of both characters. This two shot and the reaction shows between the two characters show rivalry and tension. A common convention of the drama genre is that there is a love triangle between two men and a woman, and the two men indefinitely end up fighting over the woman, this is shown by the bandit and his opponent Odious fighting for a woman. This ‘stand off’ shot shows a resemblance to the western film the good the bad and the ugly.

The red mask that covers the bandit’s eyes could be a reference to all the traumatic events he has witnesses in his past and foreshadows the traumatic events of his future. Also the red mask could represent how the bandit is blinded by love and he only has eyes for the woman who represents his lost girlfriend and that he’ll do anything to have her.

During most of the scenes within these characters fantasy the world is surrounded in bright colours and intricate surroundings, this could be an implication that both Roy and Alexandra have very vivid and explorative minds, through combining the mind of a imaginative little girl and the mind of a man who has taken on many different characters and roles from his previous job as a stunt double have created a magnificent world of colour and imagination.

The Camera tracks the red bandit from left to right while he is searching for his opponent, while this happens the camera travels behind yellow covered shades, this made me feel as if I was a bystander to the story and only there to watch the events unravel. In a way this made me feel as though I was Alexandra at this point and that I also had no power over what was happening to the characters and had to struggle with the fact I would have to stand by and watch the cruel fate that Roy bestowed upon them unravel which made me feel overall frustrated.

During the climax of this sequence there are small flash back in the story of the bandis past and some of the tragic events that have happened in the story. One of these flash backs is when the bandit is standing in front of a large piece of fabric that is strung up and soaked in blood at the bottom, this shows me that as the bandit is reflecting on the harsh moments in his life so is Roy, this causes a build up of emotion and for Roy and Bandit to feel as though they should just give up.

During the main fight scene between the bandit and odious the bandit begins to say  “ I cant get up, I cant get up” when he is being drowned, this tells me that the fantasy world that Alexandra and Roy have created is now crumbling down and the line between what is real and false has begun to blur causing Roy fictional self to gain the traits of his disability.

During the point of Odious’ death he accidentally plunges a spike into his heart that is conveniently placed directly behind him, as this unfortunate event occurs a parallel shot reveals the woman declaring her love for the masked bandit, so this extravagant impaling of Odious is really a metaphor for how his heart has just been broken and that he has lost the one he loves. Odious’ accidental demise caused me to see him as a character of ridicule and stupidity due to him causing his own death, this also tells me of the childish hatred that Roy has for the ‘real’ Odious (the man who is now dating his girlfriend) because he decided to kill him off in a childish and silly manor. This rivalry between the bandit and Odious shows the rivalry between good and evil and how within a fantasy there will always be a good side and the evil side, but for this story the bandit comes of as more of an anti-hero because in truth he is a criminal who is evidently looking to do good. The bandit being an anti-hero links to comic book movies such as Batman.

At the end of the sequence the bandit removes his red mask. This tell us that Roy appears has realised he was mistaken and no longer has love for this woman and that he now sees clearly and the only woman in his life he should be fighting for is Alexandra. Masks are commonly used in film to show that a character is hiding their true identity and that in reality they are embarrassed by who they truly are, for example this is used in films such as Friday the 13^th or scream. The bandits mask may represent that he doesn’t like who he is and that he feels exposed and weak without is so for him to remove his mask for Alexandra is an extreme ac of trust for him and he feels comfortable and safe with her.

The end shot of the sequence is where both Alexandra and the bandit are looking out over a city; this is shot from a high angle and represented in a long shot. His long shot shows us that the characters have once again become close and have a lot of love for each other because they are standing together and the bandit has his arm over Alexandra. The fact that you can see an entire city in the background of this shot represents that these characters are now free, they have passed the challenges that life has thrown at them and are now be o move on and start a new life together.

The Shining Essay

The Shining Essay 

Bathroom Scene

During the bathroom scene in room 237, our main protagonist Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson) is confronted with a naked woman. While watching this scene i became increasingly more uncomfortable. The overall abnormality and of the situation is represented by a slightly canted angle when the woman glides closer to Jack. 

  

When Nicholson first enters room 237 it is shot with a hand held camera, this gives the feeling of being Jack and entering this dangerous situation, which in turn creates a feeling of fear or anxiety. This entire scene is ruled by non-diegetic sound which emphasizes that this encounter is a a fragment of jack sick and twisted mind. The non-diegetic sound differs between that of a fearful heart beat and a high pitched screeching noise. The incident lighting in the bathroom comes straight from the light above the woman's head this creates a very cold and clinical atmosphere within the scene.

When we first see the woman she is climbing out of the bathtub from behind a shower curtain which is a common horror convention of something hiding behind in a shower, which has been seen in slasher films like Scream.

There are reaction shots between a mid shot of jack and a long-mid shot of the woman as she gets increasingly closer to jack. This reaction shot shows how Nicholson's face gets increasingly more sinister as the shot changes between the two characters. Also you can spot crucifixes in the mirrors of the bathroom which shows how there are many different unholy acts occurring in this scene, like unnecessary nudity and inferences of Adultery and Necrophilia. These unholy acts add to the overall disgust of the scene. Also the Mise-en-Scene in the bathroom imitates the feeling of disgust and illness through the walls being painted green.

When Jack embraces the woman character he closes his eyes and when he opens them the woman has changes into a rotting and decaying living corpse. Jack opening his eyes and seeing the dark and twisted side of his 'reality' refers to how someone can wake up from a dream by closing and opening their eyes. Also when jack opens his eyes he first see's the decaying woman in the mirror which throughout the film has shown when jack is looking into his own mind.

Also within this scene whenever the camera is on jack he never appears to be in the middle of the shot. The fact that Nicholson is never in the center of the shot and does not keep the rule of three’s causes me to get slightly irritated every time Nicholson is in the shot. The fact that there is always something off with his and his surroundings causes me to get agitated and reflect on how Jack’s character is tainted and is made out to be completely obscure and affect his surroundings. In turn this may be a reason why Kubrick has chosen for jacks shot to be tainted and slightly irritating to create a nervous and agitated response.

Finally once Jack starts to evacuate room 237 the camera tracks back from the decaying woman which once again makes me feel as though I am Jack's character and I’m in that situation. The only diegetic sound within the the entire scene is the sinister cackling of the grotesque woman which echoes through the last moment of the scene when jack runs down the hallway away from the room.

The Ballroom Scene

At the beginning of this scene the camera tracks from left to right, which transports Jack from a lonely corridor empty of people to a ballroom packed full of people dressed in 20's style clothing. The theme of the 20's in this scene linking to the zooming shot of a photo of jack in the in the 20's themed ballroom in 1921 at the end of the film. 

During this scene a woman walks past Jack and appears to have a hand print on her dress. this hand print reflects of the extreme sexism and subjection of women during the 1920's and even still in today American society. Also the sly and sneaky way in which the hand print is shown in this shot makes it so it will often go un-noticed, which echoes on how the miss treatment of women often wasn't reported or cared about in this time period.

There is a constant debate on what type of horror film the shining is as it has different aspects of many. During this scene Jack talk to Lloyd a waiter behind the bar, but it appears the Jack is in facts talking to the mirror behind Lloyd, This either tells us that Jack is once again talking to a figment of his imagination or he is talking to a ghost which in turn adds to the belief that The Shining is a ghost film.

Within the ballroom there are many splashes of the colour red which foreshadows bloodshed and may also link to how in the next scene Jack's character is convinced to murder his wife and child. The colour red may also infer that Jacks mental state is at a critical and dangerous state and may push him to commit dangerous acts.

As well as this scene giving references to The Shining being a ghostly horror it also gives clues that is it a 'haunted house' horror. This is enforced when Lloyd says "Orders from the house", which tells me that the hotel is a alive and causing all of the trauma for jack and his family.

Throughout this scene there are also interpretations of the class system. The ballroom appears to only be available for people of higher or upper class status, as well as this the butlers and service men appear to go completely un-noticed by anyone in the ballroom apart from Jack. Finally when Delbert Grady bumps into jack and spills his drink on him he says "you’re the important one" which reflects on how people where taught that they were not important until they were of high class.

Genre

Genre 

Sci-Fi 

Films

Star Wars

Star Trek

Alien

Back to the Future

IT

Common Themes

Aliens 

Time / Space 

Inferior Technology

The future

Groups of people 

Machine Spaceship

Horror

Film

Scream

The Exorcist

The Shining

Insidious

Annabelle

Common Themes

Death

Religion

Good v Evil

Blood

Low key lighting 

Fear 

Isolation

The Banshee Returns (Short Film)

Our short film is set in the mind of a psychopathic patient in an asylum, who hallucinates when they take their daily medicine or 'pill'. In this particular dream the main character appears to be running through different hallways which change randomly, just how it would in an ordinary dream. The main character comes across a body sprawled on the floor, the screen then cuts and their clothes become covered in the victims blood and they appear to be holding the murder weapon. Finally the ending scene of the dream is them curled in a corner after they just saw the body and it cute to them in a straight jacket with a doctor giving them their 'pill'.

The dream sequence of the short film is shot in black and white because it reflects the common fact that psychopaths dream in black and white. Throughout the sequence i used extreme close ups, on the pill and the door to emphasis what is causing the dream and that their is no escape, also i used a close up on the knife which is covered in blood. I switched better the camera being stable and tracking forward and backwards to make the audience question weather they are whats making the character run or wether they are just a by stander.

A criticism of the short film is that we could have got a better actor which reflected the fear and the emotions of the main chapter. also some of the zooming techniques used were patchy and jumped. Also there could have been some clearer shots when we were experimenting with low key lighting.

some positive things about the short film is that it told a detailed story and had hidden meanings. The Mise-en-scene was used effective, for example the character wore a white T-shirt which reflected the straight jacket and in the scene when he runs and hides he is infant of a cold brick wall which reflect that of a prison cell.

I believe that we fulfilled our aim to create and effective short film which fits to the genre of thriller.