Thursday, 8 December 2016

US Independent film: Ain't Them Bodies Saints

Ain't Them Bodies Saints

Budget: $4 million. Not really a lot for a film.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, lover on the lam. Range of genres to appeal to multiple fans of different genres could be interested to go and see this film.
Stars: Rooney Mara (Academy Award Nominee), Casey Affleck (Academy Award Nominee), Ben Foster. As on the posters it shows what the awards that the actors are nominated for it shows that there acting in the film is good so people will want to see the film. 
Box Office: $26,419. Not a lot. Probably because of the mixed reviews.
Production Company: Sailor Bear, Parts and Labor, Primary Productions.
Certificate: Rated R for violence. Restricts audience to older, an older audience seem to be the target audience.
Marketing: No tag lines found. Not much on social media, target audience is older and may not use much social media. 




Release Date: 16th August 2013. During the holidays so lots of people have time to go and see it. Audience is restricted by the R rating. a film with a r rating has n audience as they are usually more mature and explore more mature topics.
Reviews: Empire-An initially captivating but finally trying attempt at resuscitating the glory-glory days of the ’70s by a talented director who needs to find his own voice.
Common Sense Media-Parents need to know that Ain't Them Bodies Saints is a stylized, atmospheric indie drama that's part Western, part relationship drama. Chronicling the intense romance between an outlaw and his bride, the movie has been compared to both Bonnie and Clyde and Badlands, and you can expect a fair amount of gun violence and on-screen death.
Mixed reviews towards this film, which is probably why there is no profit from this film, as some people look at reviews to decide if they want to see the film or not. Most reviews are negative.
Awards: 
  • National Board of Review (NBR) award top ten independent films
  • Palm Springs International Film Festival, directors to watch David Lowery


Friday, 2 December 2016

Aims and context

Unrated
Waking up, getting ready, eats breakfast.  
Gets shovel and bags from garage. 
Drives away. 
Gets out walks towards field/lake, buries the bags. 
This repeats multiple times, different locations.
Upbeat music. 
Singing along in the car.
Can't hear them.
Last time bag gets opened. 
Item inside. 
Music goes when the bag falls open/is wet.
Only sound is the digging.  
Slams door, cuts to black.
Only sound is car driving away.
carries bag and shovel away, then back without the bag (mystery)

Camera attached to shovel when walking to and from, waving around as they are walking.
Shot of inside garage.
Camera facing up from the floor, facing from inside hole on the last bag.
Shot(s) in mirror of car.
Do not see full face.
Shot of feet walking before/after the shovel shot.
Point of view shot for the last bag.
Aimed at an older audience as not much gore is shown in the sequence

Modern day.
This is one of the opening scenes of a longer film.
Serial killer- the publicity that they would get now.
Inspiration: The difference between the publicity the two pairs of lovers get in badlands and natural born killers.
Not a Lovers on the lam film

Thursday, 1 December 2016

UK Production: David Brent: Life on the Road

David Brent: Life on the Road

Budget: Can't find 
Genre: Comedy
Stars: Ricky Gervais, Doc Brown, Rob Jarvis, Abbie Murphy
Box Office: $5,511,343
Production company: BBC Films, Entertainment one.
Certificate: 15. Restricting the audience. Already has a fan base as it was a TV show before a film (spinoff).
Marketing: Three posters, two tag lines "The Boss is back" and "I'm a friend first, boss second, probably an entertainer third." Clips of the film and adverts were put on social media to try and get a younger audience as well as the pre-existing audience. The clips that were put online were of jokes to give a taste of what is in the film.




Release date: 19th August 2016. Holidays, lots of people could be gone to see this but as it is rated a 15 it restricted the audience to either older families or older fans of the show.  
Reviews: The Guardian-At its worst – some weak gags about fat people, a couple of moments where Brent’s too stupid for his back story – it’s small, shabby and outdated.
Empire-David Brent has experienced all manner of humiliations – accidentally headbutting a potential secretary, getting fired on camera, the grunting majesty of The Dance – but as he wanders through this fitfully funny big screen resurrection you feel sorry for him for an entirely new reason. Slough’s premier chilled-out entertainer has been denied his perfect ending.
Variety-Should have no trouble connecting with the original show's sizable fanbase.
Reviews are mostly negative towards this film, but the film sill got $5 million in profits. This may be because Ricky Gervais is a well known comedian, there were songs that helped promote the film, and the original tv series fan base would want to see it as they watched the show.

Tuesday, 29 November 2016

US Blockbuster: Now you see me 2/The second act

Now you see me 2/The second act

Budget: $90 million.
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller, Action, Adventure, Comedy.
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Daniel Radcliffe, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine. Range of different actors from different genres. A lot of star appeal as there are a lot of big names in the film. 
Box office: $334.9 million. £244.9 million profit. Big profit as it is a sequel, so it already has a fanbase so they would want to see the film which would create a large amount of money/profit. 
Production company: K/O Paper Products, Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment, TIK Films.
Certificate: PG 13 For violence and some language. Not very restrictive so lots of people can go to see it. family film.
Marketing: Tag Lines; Reappearing June 10, "You have seen anything yet", "If you think you've seen it all, take another look". Multiple tag lines for multiple posters. Posters and clips of the film were put online as the target audience for this film is younger and the main users of social media.



Release date: 10th of June 2016. Holidays, lots of people out of school and work so lots can go and see it.
Reviews: The Guardian; magic in films is strongly pointless, break cover for creepy bearded Daniel Radcliffe billionaire, like mission impossible without Tom Cruise.
The Telegraph; So many sequences – take the five straight minutes of ensemble card-palming needed to purloin that chip – make no sense even by the film’s own flashy logic. Just when we thought Eisenberg had reached a nadir of up-himself tomfoolery as Lex Luthor, he makes rain stop in Greenwich and vanishes into the pavement.
The majority of reviews are negative which has a negative impact on the films profits as many people go to see films based on the reviews given.

Wednesday, 9 November 2016

Monday, 31 October 2016

Analysis of two scenes from The Shining


Analysis of two scenes from The Shining


The First Scene
The starting sequence of the film is from the point of view extreme long shot of a bird 'stalking' the car that Jack is driving in a forrest road. The fact that no buildings were shown, shows the isolation of the hotel and maybe even him from his family throughout the film the relationship between him and his wife and kid is strained more and more. By having this from the point of view of a bird swooping from side to side, up and down, it follows the characteristics of a bird of prey, hunting the car\Jack. which foreshadows Jack hunting his wife and son. The lighting is not low key to show that this isn't like a regular horror film as it does not stick to the regular conventions, such as low key lighting which is not used until the last parts of the film when Jack is hunting down his wife, son and the chef. The music is also a convention of the genre as it builds tension. This sequence does have a convention in it which is isolation, this is used so the victim can't get away easily as it is in the middle of nowhere. The car in this sequence looks really small because the camera is so high up, this supports thats isolation is a main theme. It also cuts many times to show the car driving down many bits of road to show that it is very remote and secluded. The first shot is over a lake swooping almost forwards to set the scene. Then it is multiple shots of the car driving but the scenery changes from a forrest area near a lake to a flatter area where you can see a mountain in the background, to a rocky cliff where the camera goes past the car as the opening credits start to roll, then back to a forrest area where you can see some cars either parked at the side of the road or driving the other way, then it cuts to right next to a hill where snow is on the ground, then the final cut is straight after when the opening credits stop, it cuts to a extreme long shot of the hotel and its surroundings. All of these shots support the fact that the main theme is isolation, from the very beginning of the film. The music is very simple but creates tension from the the beginning as it makes you feel as if something is going to happen as the music is slow and basic.



The Maze Chase scene
The start of the clip that I am using is just after Danny has hidden and covered his tracks in the maze. It starts with Danny hiding round the corner and then the camera cuts to Jack hunched over following the tracks until they end. Jack then turns as he thinks he hears something, thinking that he's found Danny smiling and decides to walk down a path in the maze. Then Danny comes out of his hiding place crouched over so he is harder to spot, it then cuts to the empty path ahead. The camera then cuts to a tracking shot of Danny coming out further and running back the way he came. As Danny is running he keeps on looking behind him which shows that he is scared of being caught by his dad, which any one would. After this it cuts to a point of view shot of Danny, this shows that he is following the snow tracks out of the maze. Then it cuts to Jack hunched over with his axe, a convention of the horror genre, a weapon that can cause serious pain. He gets to three other paths in the maze, he stops and spins looking at each path, then decided to go straight ahead. Then it is a tracking shot from in front of Jack and this shows the anger and insanity on his face as he is hunched over head facing down but his eyes looking up which shows a lot of white in his eyes. The scene cuts to Jacks point of view which shows snow that hasn't been stepped on. After that it cuts to another tracking shot of Danny from in front where you can see the fear on his face as he is running. The next shot is of the mother running with a knife just outside of the hotel and maze, she picked up the knife when she locked Jack inside the food room. She stops running outside the maze near the snow machine where she can see the entrance of the maze. After this it cuts to in front of Danny where he is still running and falls over. As soon as he falls it cuts back to his mother where she shouts Danny, she then drops the knife and runs to help him get up. After Danny gets up it pans across as he is running towards his mother and they hug. This entire scene is filmed in low key lighting as it is night time and also this is when Jack has finally broken into insanity from the tension of being isolated for so long. Low key lighting is a convention of the horror genre. after Danny and his mother hug it cuts back to Jack who is still in the maze limping and holding his coat together. It then shows Danny and his mother running, holding each other towards the snow machine. Once they get there his mother lifts him into it. It again cuts to Jack in the maze but this time he is stumbling around and his legs fall from beneath him. He manages to get back up just as Danny and his mum drive away from the hotel, succeeding in their escape. this is also a convention of the horror genre, the protagonist getting away from the antagonist. Jack starts screaming as he can hear the snow machine getting away. There are multiple back and forth shots of the snow machine and Jack. Jack is still in the maze and is still shouting and waving his axe around until again he collapses but this time he stays down. The last shot is of Jack the next day, in the snow, frozen to death.

Sunday, 9 October 2016

At the beginning of the clip, the camera first shows the white curtain in a long shot then zooms into a close up of the curtain, this creates a sense of tension as it looks more like a horror. This makes me feel tense as you feel as though something is going to jump out at the camera. The first scene contrasts with the next scene as it is very dark and the next is bright and has lots of colour to it; the noise also contrasts because it goes from quiet to loud. In the first scene the sound was non diegetic as there is a clock like noise which repeatedly speeds up and gets louder as we get closer to the curtains. The non-dietetic sound then it goes into the crowd’s noise in the next scene. When we first see the second scene in the tomato festival we see the people from a bird’s eye view which zooms into a close up of them. 

The second scene shows how she lived before she had kids and a husband. We know she lived in Spain as there was a lot of tomatoes in the second scene as there is a yearly tomato festival; during this sequence there is a lot of red (the car and house as well as the tomato festival), red connotes blood and can also create the feeling of love. During the festival scene, she gets carried in a shape of a cross. This could represent that she may be a Christian, it could also show that her having kids was a burden as the cross was to Jesus Christ. It could also be an angelic view as she has her arms out like an angel, the way she is covered in red could represent there may be danger. When she is being picked up we see it from a low angle which emphasises her importance. We then see her from a bird’s eye view which is a mid-shot. 
When they put her down in the tomatoes, as the tomatoes look like blood this could foreshadow her families and others deaths. 


In the next scene we see curtains which symbolises that the camera is in someone’s house. The camera zooms in on the dirty plates and food which could tell us she isn't looking after her house, which give us an impression that she's given up. As she gets up she knocks over some pills which signifies the impression that she's given up as she could have over dosed. She looks out the window as she wakes up and it’s an oblique angle as its tilted which could mean that her world is falling apart because when a camera tilts it gives a sense of distortion. When she breaks the door handle after getting up, the way she grabs the door to get it open shows her attitude is saying she's giving up and she doesn't care about her belongings. As she walks outside she faces her house and the background isn't in focus (shallow focus), this shows that she doesn't fit in with the people around her as the other buildings are clean and nice whereas hers isn't. This is because everyone knows about what her son did and they're taking it out on her. The camera changes to her house and the camera goes into focus which can suggest it’s her little corner where she can fit in because it’s her house and she has her own world there. As the house has red paint stains on the front of her house and on her car, it could suggest that a massacre could have happened there; this links to the massacre at the school as her son went and killed a lot of people. Her son killed a lot of people at his school including his dad and little sister. 


When she goes back into the house after closing the door, the camera cuts to a Point Of View shot which we see a nice clean house interior. This could be the house they lived in before. The house which she lived in is the complete opposite to which she is living in now. In the POV shot we see a little girl which is her daughter, as she is only little she could represent innocence. 


The camera cuts to the mother after the girl turns around and smiles, she appears looking down at the camera from a high angle which then makes the camera at a low angle. She then starts refreshing herself in some water, in the water they edited the clip to cut to her sons face; this could represent her trying to cleanse herself or her son trying to take back what he did. It could also suggest that after everything he did, he is trying to overpower her. This could be because he knows she would have nothing left but her memories.


The sense of innocence is repeated as she is dancing with her dad and they're laughing, the scene also creates a sense of security due to the high key lighting and the atmosphere. The scene cuts to the mother smiling at her daughter and husband dancing which could mean that she hasn't smiled in a while. In the next scene her daughter is playing with her red teddy bear which is a dog. 


In the background you can see someone walking to the camera with a black bag as you can't really see their face. This could mean that he is hiding something creating a sense of mystery. He slams it on the table next to her daughter and talks to her, in this scene he appears to have something on his mind which could mean he's feeling a bit conflicted. His dad appears behind him and ruffles his hair, which he forces himself to smile this could suggest he doesn't get on with either of his parents. This could also suggest that he resents them by the way he looks at them when his dad walks away. At the end of the clip the daughter slams down her stuffed animal; this could represent the deaths because the teddy is red.