Thursday, 8 December 2016
Film Theory
Analysis
Film as an industry is huge and has lots of time and money invested in it. As well as in industry it is also considered an art form and much like a lot of art, a film's success is highly subjective due to potential audiences. There are a vast array of genres and narratives in film. Some fit into a niche market while others are aimed at a more generic audience. Studying these genres can be informative and beneficial if you're trying to make your own film as it'll help you understand what content each genre has and how this appeals to it's target audience. A genre is basically a category for a film and while most fit into a single category, some can be hybrids as they can have various different elements. The most basic genres could be considered fiction and non-fiction. From here you could branch off into a genre like sci-fi or a documentary styled film. To start with I'm going to look at several popular genres and what the content and elements are for those genres.
Action -
The action genre itself is very broad however it does follow a certain theme that can be identified rather easily. There will be some form of hero or heroine that has to overcome a series of difficult and life-threatening events usually concluding with a victory over a villain. From this main plot, lots of sub-genres emerge which introduce very slight changes in the content and story so we get a kind of mixed genre. An example of this could be Alien. We follow the general action genre plot however the setting of the film is in space and we have an alien villain so we move into a sci-fi action horror. Like mentioned before, the categorisation of films is very loose and some of the genres within hybrids can be standalone. In general, action films have lots of stunts and special effects are used during the film to show authenticity and give the 'wow' factor for the audience.
The Dark Knight is an incredible film and find itself in the action genre. From the trailer you can see there are a various special effects and action scenes. There's also a villain up against a main protagonist which is key component of an action film.
Comedy -
This genre of film can be very controversial in it's success. It is certainly one of the more difficult genres to get right due to some audiences having a very specific comedic taste. While there are many different sub genres of comedy film, they all aim to evoke laughter to their audience. Visual comedy is the oldest form of film comedy because of the lack of technology to record sound. Older movies had to rely exaggerated action to create a humorous situation. This is often referred to as slapstick comedy as was more common during the older era. Other kinds of comedy are black comedy which is basically making light of subjects that are usually taboo like murder or crime. Another is romantic comedy which is quite popular. This genre relies on the relationship between two people and a stereotypical plot-line of someone losing someone else and then getting them back at a later point. The in-between content such as sexual tension or the extent that the person goes to win back the man/woman is often the main comedic content of this genre.
There are quite a few comedic elements in this trailer. The occasional joke and scene where they're running away are all there to try and invoke laughter. Pineapple Express is received well by those who have ever smoked marijuana as they're able to relate to what the characters are feeling and the kind of situations they find themselves in.
Horror -
Horror films are a lot like comedy in the sense that they are very difficult to get right because people's tastes differ so greatly. Making the audience fearful and creating an adrenaline rush is the genres main aim. Many horror films these days rely on jump scares to scare their audience and while some people like this, a vast majority of film critiques say this is a cheap way of scaring someone in a horror flick. The more well received horror films are the more psychological horrors that play with your imagination and make your own mind scare itself. Horror films generally deal with aspects which are scary to people such as monsters, the dark, gore and zombies. Anything supernatural is scary to most people. Some examples of well popular horror films are The Blair Witch Project and the Paranormal Activity franchise. I mentioned The Blair Witch Project in another unit about how good the marketing for the film was and that it was so successful, people to this day believe the Blair Witch is real. The Paranormal Activity series is another good example. It uses a lot of silent moments filled with paranormal visuals to instil fear onto it's audience. Both of these films are in the style of 'found-film' which is quite sinister in itself.
Paranormal Activity is in the horror genre and from the trailer you can see there are various elements that are meant to scare an audience. Tense moments of silence where things are moving on screen in a surreal manner and the occasional jump scare from loud sounds are put in place to scare an audience. From the public's reaction in the private screening you can see it does a good job of being the horror genre.
I have briefly touched on genre analysis and what content and narrative makes up these genres. The summarise; action films follow a protagonist overcome odds to achieve a win over the antagonist of the film. There're lots of stunts, action sequences and cgi to make it exciting for the viewer. Comedy films usually follow a specific person or group of people through a series of event which try to not take themselves too seriously and make the audience laugh. The content of comedy films can be a wide variety of things such as acts or events that are taboo or are so outlandish and unrealistic that they come across as funny to the viewer. And finally, horror films follow a certain subject/s that are trying to get away from or overcome some form of paranormal or horrific entity. There's usually a lot of spooky sound and dark atmospheric content in horror films to make the audience uneasy.
Audience Reception and fan study -
As well as analysing genres, you can also study how well a film is received by it's audience. This is closely related to producer-audience feedback in section 3 but I will quickly describe this type of analysis. After a film has been made and released it is at the mercy of the public's opinion. Everyone loves to give their opinion and some will have stronger views than others. These opinions and reviews can be a good analytical tool because it gives film makers/producers the information to see what they did right or what they did wrong. Going on to use this information in their next production can be particularly powerful because you're able to take the good things and use them again and also build/ change the bad things so it'll be more well-received by an audience. An example of a film that has done this well is Star Wars VII in 2015. The latest Star Wars film to be released before Star Wars VII was Star Wars III in 2005. This 10 year gap meant that Star Wars fans were particularly excited but nervous as to whether it would live up to expectations. People were nerved even more after Disney actually bought the Star Wars franchise. After all the panic, the release of episode VII was a pleasant surprise for Star Wars fans. I myself went to a midnight screening and the whole film screamed Star Wars. You'd hope that the film would have as much Star Wars DNA in it as it possibly could and it certainly did. The director J.J. Abrams had managed to take the great aspects of the original Star Wars films and pack them into this more modern film. He did this to such an extent that the final battle sequence was almost exactly the same as one of the older Star Wars films but we can overlook this seeing as it was more than 10 years ago!
Film Theories
Semiotics -
This theory focuses on how certain things in films are used to connote feelings and messages. There are two components that are used in semiotic film theory. These being:
Here is a frame taken form Better Call Saul. The two characters in the foreground are deliberating what to do with Saul in the background.
Structuralism -
This film theory focuses on how meanings and messages are conveyed through a sequence. Whereas the previous example is a single frame, structuralism relies on more than one frame to connote a message. Taking into account the narrative, length of shot, type of shot and numerous other aspects which can make up a sequence, we can determine a general idea that is trying to be conveyed. An example of this could be with film genres. Taking single shots from a comedy movie and trying to work out it was a comedy film wouldn't work. Structuralism takes these single shots and looks at that as a sequence. You would have a general idea of what a comedy film entails so seeing a familiar structure that you associate with comedy films would mean you can determine that the film is of that specific genre.
Here is another popular example...
Looking at the two images by themselves doesn't convey much of a message. Using semiotics you could suggest what the emotions the man is feeling and with the food, you'd have a hard time thinking of somethings - even more so with it being black and white. Looking at them together however conveys a new meaning. Going from the man's face to the bowl and then back to his face could suggest that he is feeling hungry. This is quite a simple example but you get get even more in-depth analysis taking into account lighting and shot type.
Auteur Theory -
Auteur theory is the idea that a director's creativity is apparent in the final cut of a film. Its suggests that even though the collaborative process that films go through and the many people that add to the style of the film, the original directors visual style and feel is still noticeable in the final film. Things like camera placement, lighting, the type of shot and how the narrative flows are all kinds of components that can be analysed to determine the type of director that has worked on a film. A notable director which is notorious for having a specific feel in his films is Quentin Tarantino. He is a favourite director of mine and you can always tell that a film has been made by him. First of all you get a very authentic look to his films. Great detail goes into the costumes and props of his films. They all seem very real and real means that an audience can relate to characters and feel invested in a film. Another characteristic of his films is that there's often a 'trunk-shot'. This shot is a low shot looking up at one or more people. This invokes the feeling of power that those character have over a situation or somebody in that situation.
There are a few other things like use of the quick zoom-in to focus an audience's attention or his infamous use of profanity by many of his characters in this films. He also has very emphatic soundtracks which make his films quite memorable.
Feminist and Queer Theory -
The feminism film theory stems from feminist politics and focuses mainly on females presence in film. Feminist film analysts will look at how the woman are portrayed in film whether it be in a positive or negative light. A term used throughout this theory and is thrown around in Hollywood a lot is the 'male-gaze'. This term refers to how men look at woman from their point of view and that they're thought of as just objects. Throughout history it is argued that there have been more examples of male heroes or main roles than there have been female. Females have usually played secondary roles and while they may or may not have a lot of screen time they don't actually add much the the content to the film. Not actually adding much shows a bit of insignificance which is of course, in the eyes of feminist film theory, not acceptable. Feminists will praise films that empower women and put them in a more equal position as men. Instead of being used as a piece of meat or displayed just for their sexuality they would have more impact on a film with the idea that they drive the story instead or as well as a male role. Using camera angles that appear from a woman's point of view is more equal than if they usually predominantly from a males perspective.
The queer theory looks more at the sexual orientation of individuals and it's portrayal in film. This theory goes about challenging the idea of heterosexism. It's not until recent years that sexual orientations other than heterosexual were considered acceptable. Before this social acceptance it was generally quite a taboo subject and people who were gay were less likely to say so. Much like analysts in feminism theory, analysts who work with queer theory will look at how gay men or women have a limited representation in media. They will also look at if there is any kind of segregation between gay and straight groups and if this segregation paints gay people in a more inferior light. Another concept that the queer theory looks at is that gender is a social construct. Media and social interactions play the main role in gender orientation and it's not a result of biology. This theory was suggested by Judith butler in 1999. Over the years more and more films have had characters involved in gay relationships as it has been more accepted by society. An example of one of these films is Brokeback Mountain. This was a big Hollywood success and could suggest that the mindset of accepting homosexuals is growing throughout society.
Both of these theories strive for equality for all groups of individuals in film. There is no reason that one group should be oppressed more than another and it's clear over the past few years that women and gay groups are represented more equally.
Marxism and Psychoanalytical Film Theory -
This film theory is similar to the previous two as it looks at another form of segregation/ classification of certain people. Marxism says that people around the world are organised into different classes based on the kind of work they do. The main groups are capitalists and workers. Most people will fit into the worker category as they will work for a living in offices or factories. The capitalists however are the ones that own the factories and offices and all the tools that come with them. This is a much smaller group of people which are considered the ruling class. As for film, the Marxism film theory is one of the oldest film theories. Soviet filmmakers would try to express Marxism through film. They did this with montages and using the Kuleshov effect. The Kuleshov effect is the idea that someone will derive more meaning through two sequential shots than from a single shot. This sounds a lot like the structuralism theory. This effect and editing style was used to convey some form of power or societal classification.
The psychoanalytical theory is closely tied to the marxist and critical theory. They're all to do with ideas that are related to psychology and society. Psychoanalysis in film has a focus on the unconscious mind. Film had the ability to use techniques that cannot be experience in real life. Things such as superimposing or using slow motion are surreal techniques. It was suggested by surrealists that these techniques mimicked a dreaming state. Because the subconscious is involved while dreaming and many of our thoughts and fantasies derive from this subconscious, watching film with dream-like imagery allows us to be invested in a film and live out our fantasies. Film makers exploiting this can make a more successful film as a result.
All these analytical techniques can be used to analyse films or genres. Some will be more useful than others because there may be things that do not apply due to the kind of film it is. I have already touched on the genres and talked about how they're categorised so I thought analysing a film would be beneficial to show how these techniques can be used.
The Dark Knight
My film of choice is The Dark Night which I have already posted the trailer for. It finds itself in the top 250 best films of all time on IMDB and it is clear why. For a super hero film it has quite a few powerful messages that can be seen if you delve deeper in the film.
Throughout the film there are a lot of choices to be made by certain characters. Most, if not all of these choices have some kind of morality issue attached with them. One notable scene is the boat dilemma that the main villain, The Joker, sets up as a sort or social experiment. There are quite a few messages we can draw from this using a few analytical techniques. Firstly we can use structuralism to determine a message from multiple scenes. Below are a few screenshots form the scene that I'll use to analyse. Just before these scenes we're shown to a view of two boats which are in the harbor of Gotham City. The Joker has told us they're both armed with explosives and each group has a trigger which will save them but consequently kill the others on the other boat. He also gives them a time limit which if there is no decision made they both will explode. Following this we see social experiment unfold
The idea from this can be that two groups are facing a decision that will end with an explosion. You could even use the Marxism film theory to say that both groups have a different social standing/class and there is some segregation taking place. This segregation is obviously not shown as being equal because the boat with the convicts is suggested to be less important because they're imprisoned and the boat with the public on are of higher importance because they haven't committed crimes. The Joker's idea behind the social experiment was to prove that people are selfish and will do anything to save themselves disregarding the consequences even if meant other people died. This was disproven when the convict in first screenshot throws the detonator out the window, the man in the second picture couldn't bring himself to kill the other ferry also and even when the time limit had reached neither boat had blown up. The message from this was that no matter the social standing and will to survive, this couldn't overpower the moral implications of killing someone else.
There is also another scene in the film where someone is given two choices with an outcome that can't be beneficial for both parties. There's a lot of symbolism of good and bad in the film and this scene shows the downfall of someone good.
From this scene we could talk about a few things. The screenshot with Harvey has some foreshadowing. Using some semiotics we can see if there is a messages that the frame is trying to connote. Because I've actually seen the film it is easy for me to see what is being foreshadowed. However it would take someone who hasn't seen it a bit longer to work out what might happen. We see Harvey laying in gasoline with a reflection of his face appearing in it. His face is shown in two different mediums one that's normal and one with the potential to explode. Gasoline is obviously associated with fuel and fuel has the potential to set on fire. If this was to ignite then it would set fire to Harvey's face giving him a disfigurement. This would be the downfall of Harvey. We could go at step further and look at feminism theory. We're initially shown Harvey and Dent in an equal situation however the final part of the scene shows Rachel. Feminist theorists may see this a less desirable result because the male character ends up prevailing.
Representation of Males and Females -
There's definitely some different representations of males and females in The Dark Knight and they're not always in equal light.
He we see two of the main male characters throughout the film. There is a big concentration on portraying them as power and strong in the roles they play. Harvey is a district attorney meaning he same some ties with the government. This is obviously quite a high position and is well respected. Bruce is worth millions of dollars which is shown by the mansion he lives in and the technology he has at hand. When he is being Batman he is shown to have great strength and fast reflexes - things that are all associated with the male gender.
Christopher Nolan (director) actively tried to find ways to empower the Rachel Dawes character. There are often scenes where she takes centre stage and is control of a situation. She does however end up in many 'damsel in distress' type situations where Batman or someone else is trying to save her. This role is a stereotyped role cast the female characters. In the screenshot above it shows her in formal attire which conveys some form of power. She does however have her top unbuttoned which kind of sexualises her character. There is even a scene previously to this one where she's intentionally shown unbuttoning it in hopes of getting through to the Joker.
To conclude, The Dark Knight puts us in/ shows us sort of moral seesaw-type situations which gets the audience thinking. A more media literary audience will pick up on things that can be matched with certain analytical techniques and theories such as using the marxism theory to establish the two different social standings that were shown in the ferry scene. While there are deeper meanings to pick up on there's no lack of stereotypical roles that were given to the main male or female characters. It could be argued that both genders weren't portrayed equally enough but at the end of the day it's a superhero action film meant for entertainment and it does a superb job of this and definitely deserves it's place in the top 250.
There are several film contexts within the film industry and each have their own impact on said industry. Some of these contexts have a much bigger influence that others just because of their size and therefore domination over the market, the most well known probably being Hollywood.
Hollywood has had a huge impact on cinema throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is notably known for making huge and spectacular blockbusters which more often than not have a huge budgets and have huge success upon release. An example of this would be the recent blockbuster, Captain America: Civil War, which is ranked seventh with an estimated budget of $250 million. The Marvel films have been increasingly popular over the past few years and the advancements in CGI and overall improvements in visuals have helped to draw in a wider audience. Captain America: Civil War comes in at 12th place for the highest grossing films of all time with a box office of $1.1 billion. This goes to show that Hollywood, with it's high budget and highly ranked films for profit, has a particularly large domination over the film industry. The trend in overall revenue in the American film industry has been on an increase since the mid 90s and it seems that it will continue to do so for the a while.
Bollywood is another production context that has a substantial market in the film industry. It is based in India and more often than not it's films include a lot of Indian-styled cinematography and are shot in the Hindi language. It represents 43% of the net box office revenue in where it's based and is one of the biggest film industries in the world. Bollywood's first film was produced in 1913 and was the first silent film produced in India. It's producer, Dabasaheb Phalke, was considered the father of Indian cinema because of this. Less than 20 years later India's first sound film was made and was a huge success showing to people that musicals and such had a big market. 1940s through to 1960s saw the Golden Age for Bollywood.where some of the greatest Hindi films of all time were produced. Throughout this period, parts of the world were seeing what India was all about with many films touching on Indian culture and the life of the working-class. The 2000s saw a lot of advancement for Bollywood in terms of film quality. India's fast growing economy meant more demand for entertainment and the industries response to this was to step up production value. Technical advancements were being made in CGI to keep things new and exciting and draw in large audiences. The general consensus for Bollywood's target audience is that its films try to appeal to as wide an audience as possible to maximise box office profits. It is however, likely that some film makers are thinking of moving towards narrower audiences throughout India or internationally.
Its more often than not quite clear a film is of Bollywood origin when you're watching it. They have a very general colour palette of different shades of brown. They're also quite melodramatic in their plots. Love stories, family orientated plots and overcoming difficult odds are at the core of Bollywood cinema. Along with well structured storylines is a strive for creating impressive and artistic visuals, as is tradition with Indian cinema. There is however a definite a move by the Bollywood industry to move toward more Hollywood styled cinema due to western influence in the East.
There have been several influences from Bollywood over the years with it's most notable influence being the revival of American musical films. This occurred after the film Moulin Rouge was made in 2001. Baz Luhrmann stated that Bollywood musicals were the inspiration for making Moulin Rouge. It even incorporated a dance sequence with a song that was originally from the Bollywood film China Gate. Moulin Rouge's success revitalised the interest in the musical genre and from this films such as Chicago, Mamma Mia and Hairspray were produced. Due to Bollywood films mostly being musicals, it is this music aspect which has had the most influence to the rest of the world. The Black Eyed Peas' won a Grammy Award in 2005 for their song 'Don't Phunk with My Heart' which was actually inspired by two songs in the Bollywood film Apradh.
The Dark Knight is an incredible film and find itself in the action genre. From the trailer you can see there are a various special effects and action scenes. There's also a villain up against a main protagonist which is key component of an action film.
Comedy -
This genre of film can be very controversial in it's success. It is certainly one of the more difficult genres to get right due to some audiences having a very specific comedic taste. While there are many different sub genres of comedy film, they all aim to evoke laughter to their audience. Visual comedy is the oldest form of film comedy because of the lack of technology to record sound. Older movies had to rely exaggerated action to create a humorous situation. This is often referred to as slapstick comedy as was more common during the older era. Other kinds of comedy are black comedy which is basically making light of subjects that are usually taboo like murder or crime. Another is romantic comedy which is quite popular. This genre relies on the relationship between two people and a stereotypical plot-line of someone losing someone else and then getting them back at a later point. The in-between content such as sexual tension or the extent that the person goes to win back the man/woman is often the main comedic content of this genre.
There are quite a few comedic elements in this trailer. The occasional joke and scene where they're running away are all there to try and invoke laughter. Pineapple Express is received well by those who have ever smoked marijuana as they're able to relate to what the characters are feeling and the kind of situations they find themselves in.
Horror -
Horror films are a lot like comedy in the sense that they are very difficult to get right because people's tastes differ so greatly. Making the audience fearful and creating an adrenaline rush is the genres main aim. Many horror films these days rely on jump scares to scare their audience and while some people like this, a vast majority of film critiques say this is a cheap way of scaring someone in a horror flick. The more well received horror films are the more psychological horrors that play with your imagination and make your own mind scare itself. Horror films generally deal with aspects which are scary to people such as monsters, the dark, gore and zombies. Anything supernatural is scary to most people. Some examples of well popular horror films are The Blair Witch Project and the Paranormal Activity franchise. I mentioned The Blair Witch Project in another unit about how good the marketing for the film was and that it was so successful, people to this day believe the Blair Witch is real. The Paranormal Activity series is another good example. It uses a lot of silent moments filled with paranormal visuals to instil fear onto it's audience. Both of these films are in the style of 'found-film' which is quite sinister in itself.
Paranormal Activity is in the horror genre and from the trailer you can see there are various elements that are meant to scare an audience. Tense moments of silence where things are moving on screen in a surreal manner and the occasional jump scare from loud sounds are put in place to scare an audience. From the public's reaction in the private screening you can see it does a good job of being the horror genre.
I have briefly touched on genre analysis and what content and narrative makes up these genres. The summarise; action films follow a protagonist overcome odds to achieve a win over the antagonist of the film. There're lots of stunts, action sequences and cgi to make it exciting for the viewer. Comedy films usually follow a specific person or group of people through a series of event which try to not take themselves too seriously and make the audience laugh. The content of comedy films can be a wide variety of things such as acts or events that are taboo or are so outlandish and unrealistic that they come across as funny to the viewer. And finally, horror films follow a certain subject/s that are trying to get away from or overcome some form of paranormal or horrific entity. There's usually a lot of spooky sound and dark atmospheric content in horror films to make the audience uneasy.
Audience Reception and fan study -
As well as analysing genres, you can also study how well a film is received by it's audience. This is closely related to producer-audience feedback in section 3 but I will quickly describe this type of analysis. After a film has been made and released it is at the mercy of the public's opinion. Everyone loves to give their opinion and some will have stronger views than others. These opinions and reviews can be a good analytical tool because it gives film makers/producers the information to see what they did right or what they did wrong. Going on to use this information in their next production can be particularly powerful because you're able to take the good things and use them again and also build/ change the bad things so it'll be more well-received by an audience. An example of a film that has done this well is Star Wars VII in 2015. The latest Star Wars film to be released before Star Wars VII was Star Wars III in 2005. This 10 year gap meant that Star Wars fans were particularly excited but nervous as to whether it would live up to expectations. People were nerved even more after Disney actually bought the Star Wars franchise. After all the panic, the release of episode VII was a pleasant surprise for Star Wars fans. I myself went to a midnight screening and the whole film screamed Star Wars. You'd hope that the film would have as much Star Wars DNA in it as it possibly could and it certainly did. The director J.J. Abrams had managed to take the great aspects of the original Star Wars films and pack them into this more modern film. He did this to such an extent that the final battle sequence was almost exactly the same as one of the older Star Wars films but we can overlook this seeing as it was more than 10 years ago!
Film Theories
Semiotics -
This theory focuses on how certain things in films are used to connote feelings and messages. There are two components that are used in semiotic film theory. These being:
- Signifier
- Signified
Here is a frame taken form Better Call Saul. The two characters in the foreground are deliberating what to do with Saul in the background.
There are few things that can be said about this frame. First of all there are the colours of the shirts. Red (our signifier) usually connotes danger and anger (signified). It is also representative of hell and the devil which are two negative things. Our right hand side character has a red shirt and is shown as the bad guy in this situation. On the left hand side we have someone with a blue shirt. This colour usually symbolises peace. In contrast with the red shirt this could show the good side in this current situation. You can also see the light shining on our left character which could also convey some form of holiness. Although our background character isn't our main focus we could relay some sort of message from his section on screen. The shadow produced by the sun is pointing toward the character which has the more peaceful outcome showing our background character is hoping for this character's decision to be the one that goes ahead.
Structuralism -
This film theory focuses on how meanings and messages are conveyed through a sequence. Whereas the previous example is a single frame, structuralism relies on more than one frame to connote a message. Taking into account the narrative, length of shot, type of shot and numerous other aspects which can make up a sequence, we can determine a general idea that is trying to be conveyed. An example of this could be with film genres. Taking single shots from a comedy movie and trying to work out it was a comedy film wouldn't work. Structuralism takes these single shots and looks at that as a sequence. You would have a general idea of what a comedy film entails so seeing a familiar structure that you associate with comedy films would mean you can determine that the film is of that specific genre.
Here is another popular example...
Looking at the two images by themselves doesn't convey much of a message. Using semiotics you could suggest what the emotions the man is feeling and with the food, you'd have a hard time thinking of somethings - even more so with it being black and white. Looking at them together however conveys a new meaning. Going from the man's face to the bowl and then back to his face could suggest that he is feeling hungry. This is quite a simple example but you get get even more in-depth analysis taking into account lighting and shot type.
Auteur Theory -
Auteur theory is the idea that a director's creativity is apparent in the final cut of a film. Its suggests that even though the collaborative process that films go through and the many people that add to the style of the film, the original directors visual style and feel is still noticeable in the final film. Things like camera placement, lighting, the type of shot and how the narrative flows are all kinds of components that can be analysed to determine the type of director that has worked on a film. A notable director which is notorious for having a specific feel in his films is Quentin Tarantino. He is a favourite director of mine and you can always tell that a film has been made by him. First of all you get a very authentic look to his films. Great detail goes into the costumes and props of his films. They all seem very real and real means that an audience can relate to characters and feel invested in a film. Another characteristic of his films is that there's often a 'trunk-shot'. This shot is a low shot looking up at one or more people. This invokes the feeling of power that those character have over a situation or somebody in that situation.
There are a few other things like use of the quick zoom-in to focus an audience's attention or his infamous use of profanity by many of his characters in this films. He also has very emphatic soundtracks which make his films quite memorable.
Feminist and Queer Theory -
The feminism film theory stems from feminist politics and focuses mainly on females presence in film. Feminist film analysts will look at how the woman are portrayed in film whether it be in a positive or negative light. A term used throughout this theory and is thrown around in Hollywood a lot is the 'male-gaze'. This term refers to how men look at woman from their point of view and that they're thought of as just objects. Throughout history it is argued that there have been more examples of male heroes or main roles than there have been female. Females have usually played secondary roles and while they may or may not have a lot of screen time they don't actually add much the the content to the film. Not actually adding much shows a bit of insignificance which is of course, in the eyes of feminist film theory, not acceptable. Feminists will praise films that empower women and put them in a more equal position as men. Instead of being used as a piece of meat or displayed just for their sexuality they would have more impact on a film with the idea that they drive the story instead or as well as a male role. Using camera angles that appear from a woman's point of view is more equal than if they usually predominantly from a males perspective.
The queer theory looks more at the sexual orientation of individuals and it's portrayal in film. This theory goes about challenging the idea of heterosexism. It's not until recent years that sexual orientations other than heterosexual were considered acceptable. Before this social acceptance it was generally quite a taboo subject and people who were gay were less likely to say so. Much like analysts in feminism theory, analysts who work with queer theory will look at how gay men or women have a limited representation in media. They will also look at if there is any kind of segregation between gay and straight groups and if this segregation paints gay people in a more inferior light. Another concept that the queer theory looks at is that gender is a social construct. Media and social interactions play the main role in gender orientation and it's not a result of biology. This theory was suggested by Judith butler in 1999. Over the years more and more films have had characters involved in gay relationships as it has been more accepted by society. An example of one of these films is Brokeback Mountain. This was a big Hollywood success and could suggest that the mindset of accepting homosexuals is growing throughout society.
Both of these theories strive for equality for all groups of individuals in film. There is no reason that one group should be oppressed more than another and it's clear over the past few years that women and gay groups are represented more equally.
Marxism and Psychoanalytical Film Theory -
This film theory is similar to the previous two as it looks at another form of segregation/ classification of certain people. Marxism says that people around the world are organised into different classes based on the kind of work they do. The main groups are capitalists and workers. Most people will fit into the worker category as they will work for a living in offices or factories. The capitalists however are the ones that own the factories and offices and all the tools that come with them. This is a much smaller group of people which are considered the ruling class. As for film, the Marxism film theory is one of the oldest film theories. Soviet filmmakers would try to express Marxism through film. They did this with montages and using the Kuleshov effect. The Kuleshov effect is the idea that someone will derive more meaning through two sequential shots than from a single shot. This sounds a lot like the structuralism theory. This effect and editing style was used to convey some form of power or societal classification.
The psychoanalytical theory is closely tied to the marxist and critical theory. They're all to do with ideas that are related to psychology and society. Psychoanalysis in film has a focus on the unconscious mind. Film had the ability to use techniques that cannot be experience in real life. Things such as superimposing or using slow motion are surreal techniques. It was suggested by surrealists that these techniques mimicked a dreaming state. Because the subconscious is involved while dreaming and many of our thoughts and fantasies derive from this subconscious, watching film with dream-like imagery allows us to be invested in a film and live out our fantasies. Film makers exploiting this can make a more successful film as a result.
All these analytical techniques can be used to analyse films or genres. Some will be more useful than others because there may be things that do not apply due to the kind of film it is. I have already touched on the genres and talked about how they're categorised so I thought analysing a film would be beneficial to show how these techniques can be used.
The Dark Knight
My film of choice is The Dark Night which I have already posted the trailer for. It finds itself in the top 250 best films of all time on IMDB and it is clear why. For a super hero film it has quite a few powerful messages that can be seen if you delve deeper in the film.
Throughout the film there are a lot of choices to be made by certain characters. Most, if not all of these choices have some kind of morality issue attached with them. One notable scene is the boat dilemma that the main villain, The Joker, sets up as a sort or social experiment. There are quite a few messages we can draw from this using a few analytical techniques. Firstly we can use structuralism to determine a message from multiple scenes. Below are a few screenshots form the scene that I'll use to analyse. Just before these scenes we're shown to a view of two boats which are in the harbor of Gotham City. The Joker has told us they're both armed with explosives and each group has a trigger which will save them but consequently kill the others on the other boat. He also gives them a time limit which if there is no decision made they both will explode. Following this we see social experiment unfold
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| Here is a Frame from one of of the boats that are filled with convicts. The warden has the trigger and he could easily be overthown by the convicts so they could save their own lives. Using structuralism we cannot find any meaning from this frame alone however using another technique like semiotics we could conclude that the convict has a position of power of the warden because he stands taller and the camera points upwards slightly. This angle is used to connote power in a lot of films. There's also some discrimination shown here, the black guy is shown as the criminal which is a typical stereotype of this ethnicity. |
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| This next screen shot is taken from the other boat where a member of the public is debating whether to press the trigger to save their own lives. Conversations take place which have the general idea that the convicts have had their chance in life so they are less deserving to live. This is where the moral dilemma comes in to play. Both the convict in the last screenshot and the man in this one are making the final decisions. Again this screengrab alone will not really connote any kind of message of |
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| Here is a screen shot of the warden on the convict's boat holding the detonator. With all three of these frames put together we could determine a vague message even if we hadn't been told originally the situation both groups were in. The first shows one group, the second shows another group and this final shot shows a detonator. |
The idea from this can be that two groups are facing a decision that will end with an explosion. You could even use the Marxism film theory to say that both groups have a different social standing/class and there is some segregation taking place. This segregation is obviously not shown as being equal because the boat with the convicts is suggested to be less important because they're imprisoned and the boat with the public on are of higher importance because they haven't committed crimes. The Joker's idea behind the social experiment was to prove that people are selfish and will do anything to save themselves disregarding the consequences even if meant other people died. This was disproven when the convict in first screenshot throws the detonator out the window, the man in the second picture couldn't bring himself to kill the other ferry also and even when the time limit had reached neither boat had blown up. The message from this was that no matter the social standing and will to survive, this couldn't overpower the moral implications of killing someone else.
There is also another scene in the film where someone is given two choices with an outcome that can't be beneficial for both parties. There's a lot of symbolism of good and bad in the film and this scene shows the downfall of someone good.
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| Here is Rachel sitting in a warehouse with explosions ready to detonate. Batman has a decision to save Rachel or Harvey in this dilemma. Not much can be said about this scene other than it's quite dark which could connote an outcome that is not desired. |
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| In this screen shot we can see Harvey Dent who is a character that's perceived as being good as he is trying to improve the City of Gotham. We aren't shown until the last minute who Batman is coming to save but we assume it will be Rachel because she is the one that Batman loves. |
From this scene we could talk about a few things. The screenshot with Harvey has some foreshadowing. Using some semiotics we can see if there is a messages that the frame is trying to connote. Because I've actually seen the film it is easy for me to see what is being foreshadowed. However it would take someone who hasn't seen it a bit longer to work out what might happen. We see Harvey laying in gasoline with a reflection of his face appearing in it. His face is shown in two different mediums one that's normal and one with the potential to explode. Gasoline is obviously associated with fuel and fuel has the potential to set on fire. If this was to ignite then it would set fire to Harvey's face giving him a disfigurement. This would be the downfall of Harvey. We could go at step further and look at feminism theory. We're initially shown Harvey and Dent in an equal situation however the final part of the scene shows Rachel. Feminist theorists may see this a less desirable result because the male character ends up prevailing.
Representation of Males and Females -
There's definitely some different representations of males and females in The Dark Knight and they're not always in equal light.
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| Bruce Wayne with his Batman suit |
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| District attorney Harvey Dent |
He we see two of the main male characters throughout the film. There is a big concentration on portraying them as power and strong in the roles they play. Harvey is a district attorney meaning he same some ties with the government. This is obviously quite a high position and is well respected. Bruce is worth millions of dollars which is shown by the mansion he lives in and the technology he has at hand. When he is being Batman he is shown to have great strength and fast reflexes - things that are all associated with the male gender.
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| Interim District Attorney Rachel Dawes |
To conclude, The Dark Knight puts us in/ shows us sort of moral seesaw-type situations which gets the audience thinking. A more media literary audience will pick up on things that can be matched with certain analytical techniques and theories such as using the marxism theory to establish the two different social standings that were shown in the ferry scene. While there are deeper meanings to pick up on there's no lack of stereotypical roles that were given to the main male or female characters. It could be argued that both genders weren't portrayed equally enough but at the end of the day it's a superhero action film meant for entertainment and it does a superb job of this and definitely deserves it's place in the top 250.
There are several film contexts within the film industry and each have their own impact on said industry. Some of these contexts have a much bigger influence that others just because of their size and therefore domination over the market, the most well known probably being Hollywood.
Hollywood has had a huge impact on cinema throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is notably known for making huge and spectacular blockbusters which more often than not have a huge budgets and have huge success upon release. An example of this would be the recent blockbuster, Captain America: Civil War, which is ranked seventh with an estimated budget of $250 million. The Marvel films have been increasingly popular over the past few years and the advancements in CGI and overall improvements in visuals have helped to draw in a wider audience. Captain America: Civil War comes in at 12th place for the highest grossing films of all time with a box office of $1.1 billion. This goes to show that Hollywood, with it's high budget and highly ranked films for profit, has a particularly large domination over the film industry. The trend in overall revenue in the American film industry has been on an increase since the mid 90s and it seems that it will continue to do so for the a while.
Bollywood is another production context that has a substantial market in the film industry. It is based in India and more often than not it's films include a lot of Indian-styled cinematography and are shot in the Hindi language. It represents 43% of the net box office revenue in where it's based and is one of the biggest film industries in the world. Bollywood's first film was produced in 1913 and was the first silent film produced in India. It's producer, Dabasaheb Phalke, was considered the father of Indian cinema because of this. Less than 20 years later India's first sound film was made and was a huge success showing to people that musicals and such had a big market. 1940s through to 1960s saw the Golden Age for Bollywood.where some of the greatest Hindi films of all time were produced. Throughout this period, parts of the world were seeing what India was all about with many films touching on Indian culture and the life of the working-class. The 2000s saw a lot of advancement for Bollywood in terms of film quality. India's fast growing economy meant more demand for entertainment and the industries response to this was to step up production value. Technical advancements were being made in CGI to keep things new and exciting and draw in large audiences. The general consensus for Bollywood's target audience is that its films try to appeal to as wide an audience as possible to maximise box office profits. It is however, likely that some film makers are thinking of moving towards narrower audiences throughout India or internationally.
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| 3 idiots is a hugely successful Bollywood film and it listed in IMDB's 250 top rated films of all time. |
Its more often than not quite clear a film is of Bollywood origin when you're watching it. They have a very general colour palette of different shades of brown. They're also quite melodramatic in their plots. Love stories, family orientated plots and overcoming difficult odds are at the core of Bollywood cinema. Along with well structured storylines is a strive for creating impressive and artistic visuals, as is tradition with Indian cinema. There is however a definite a move by the Bollywood industry to move toward more Hollywood styled cinema due to western influence in the East.
There have been several influences from Bollywood over the years with it's most notable influence being the revival of American musical films. This occurred after the film Moulin Rouge was made in 2001. Baz Luhrmann stated that Bollywood musicals were the inspiration for making Moulin Rouge. It even incorporated a dance sequence with a song that was originally from the Bollywood film China Gate. Moulin Rouge's success revitalised the interest in the musical genre and from this films such as Chicago, Mamma Mia and Hairspray were produced. Due to Bollywood films mostly being musicals, it is this music aspect which has had the most influence to the rest of the world. The Black Eyed Peas' won a Grammy Award in 2005 for their song 'Don't Phunk with My Heart' which was actually inspired by two songs in the Bollywood film Apradh.
The British film industry also has it's place among the larger production context giants. It has had a range of influences on film mostly by incorporating its own british culture. It first of all started in 1888 in Leeds where the first motion picture was captured. Early British film consisted of storylines that represented everyday life. However it was the early 20th century that saw comedic and melodramatic. Film tended to stick to what people knew such as Shakespeare and adaptations of famous novels. Competition was very apparent during earlier years with the US having a bigger home market than the UK. Only 5% of the films shown in the UK were of british origin. This was particularly troublesome for British studios and as a result many had to close. Fast forward several years to the mid 1990s where film investment had a sudden spike. The decade prior had a serious lacklustre amount of films produced due to lack of people attending cinema screenings, however this was short lived as investment increased to £741 million in the 1996. There was a lot of dependance on TV broadcasters such as the BBC for financing which meant that film lacked that 'big-picture' budget to really blow people away. A big portion of financing actually came from Hollywood. Because this production context is so huge it was able to afford giving money to the British film industries. It's clear that the peeks and falls of this film industry was due to budget constraints but nevertheless it continued to produce quality films even through these times. The start of the 21st century was successful for British Film. The Harry Potter saga started in 2001 and was a British-made for US-funded franchise. The eight films that have been produced over the years have been hugely successful. This is most likely down to the already established following from JK Rowling's books but also because of the funding the US was able to offer to produce a good quality, spectacular film.
There were various pieces of technology to have emerged from Britain that have influenced film. Special effects were made at a much lower cost in comparison to those made in the US. British studios have, in the past, been praised for certain aspects of their film such as visual effects. A company called Framestone in London has won awards for their work on films such as The Dark Knight and Gravity which had groundbreaking techniques used. The UK is said to be a world leader in stop motion animation and studios such as Aardman are an example of why we have hold such a title.
International co-production is another production context which has it's place within the film industry. As the name suggests, two or more production companies from different countries will collaborate to produce a film. This way of producing films is probably the more dominant out of all the production contexts because it gives a much broader area of influence for a film. Having more than one production company working on a film means more money being put into a film, more minds available for ideas and generally just a bigger market for potential profit. There can be drawbacks however. Even with the potential for more money to be invested there comes the cost of co-ordinating assets and personnel. With companies being overseas it can become difficult to arrange shoots and have everything running smoothly. This can be made even harder if there is a substantial timezone difference. There is also the problem of regulations between the countries that the two or more companies are situated in. One studio may have ideas that do not sit well with regulatory bodies in that country. For example China have very strict censorship when it comes to film to a degree that some violent films will not be shown there at all. However even with these drawbacks the benefits usually outweigh the negatives. Having cultural differences together in one film can be refreshing and interesting to see for the people it the countries where the film has been produced. More often than not, multiple production companies are just used to spread the cost of producing the film, this also reduces the risk factor for potential loss on a film. An example of a co produced film would be Theory of Everything which stars Eddie Redmayne and is about Steven Hawking and his life so far. The production companies for this film were the British production company Working Title and US based company Focus Features. Even with a small budget of $15 million, the film went on to earn just under $124 million after being well received by the public.
Independent productions are productions that exist separately from the major production companies previously mentioned. They can range from big studios to small crews or even individual people. The increase of independent film is mainly down to the falling cost of consumer film equipment meaning that most people are able to pick something up quite easily, for very little cost and produce something of good quality. An example of a bigger independent studio that has had great success with its films is Black Bear Pictures - founded by Teddy Schwarzman. The studios most successful film is The Imitation game which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and is about cracking the encryption that the German forces used in WWII. Warner Bros. was nearly the studio that would produce the film but after Leonardo DiCaprio would not come on board the film rights went back to the original studio. Black Bear Pictures financed the film for $14 million and ended up grossing £234 million. This is a substantial amount even for a larger independent production company and shows that they have their place among the bigger production giants. At the other end of the scale you have an example like Primer which is a independent sci-fi film about time travel. It had an extremely low budget of just $7000 with a box office of $425000. This is huge profit for a film that was directed, written and produced bye on guy. The plot was very technical and touched on philosophical ideas about time travel. It's not a very widely known film but has gained a cult following since it was shown at Sundance Festival in 2004
It's clear that independent films can be very successful even with extremely low budgets. With the ever growing affordable tech, film plots and ideas won't be limited to the bigger production companies. Smaller indie crews will be able to put their ideas into practice and it is that originality that I believe will allow independent film to continue to grow.
Factors That Impact a Production Context's Relationship With Film.
These production contexts show an overall view on how they have an effects on films and the film industry. Each production context has a number of factors that contribute to these effects and some have a more profound impact than others.
Financial determinants -
This is one of the main factors that has an affect on film. Movies can be funded in many different ways and the amount of money that is put into a film means there is more flexibility making it. This can be both a good and bad thing. It is a good thing in the sense that you're can put more money into GFX or stunts and if anything goes wrong you're able to re-shoot without financial constraints. You also have the budget to cast a-star actors which can have a huge impact on the attractiveness your film has to an audience. On the other hand it can be a negative thing because it could give a director more leeway and they may end up being careless in how they shoot because they know they can just do it again because of their financial backing. Hollywood is known for putting huge budgets on film and producing massive blockbusters than more often then not go on to be very successful. At the other end of the scale we have indie film producers than have very limited budgets and so they have to be clever in how they film. Even with this lack of money indie films can go on to very successful. This shows that it doesn't necessarily mean that huge amounts of money availability means a film is going to be successful and that tightly budgeted productions have their place amongst the huge blockbusters.
Funding Bodies -
Sometimes a Director and/or producer doesn't have the necessary money to be able to fund the film they want to make. It is at this point that they turn to different sources of funding that can help them out. An example that can be taken from the UK is the funding that the National Lottery gives film. In the UK there is a UK Film Council that is the public body put in place to help promote the film industry in the UK. There have been various instances where it has received funding from the National Lottery and this has helped to produce a number of films. Attack The Block is a sci-fi British comedy that was co-produced by many different production companies such as Film 4 and the previously mentioned UK Film Council. These production companies will all offer funding for the film. Having different funding bodies for you film can also bring in different production companies meaning more people working on the film and inevitably increasing it's final quality.
Quotas -
Screen quotas are a policy that says there must be a certain amount of domestic films shown the their respective countries each year. This legislation gives a chance to for domestic films to have their place in cinemas throughout their own country. it stops foreign films overwhelming the market and pushing the smaller films to the bottom of the pile. This would be useful in less developed countries where films are made with smaller budgets than there foreign counterparts (Hollywood films from America.
Technologies of Production -
This factor has a profound affect on the films that are made by a specific production context. Technology within film is advancing at a tremendous rate and the quality of film being show is growing quickly because of this. The way movies have been filmed and the content within these movies has all been affected by the technological advancements. Things the CGI has had a massive impact with whole films being made with non-real elements. Films like Wallace and Gromit were a marvel when they first came out. Wallace and Gromit is a stop-frame animation with characters made out of clay. This is a fairly simple technology but is very time consuming especially if it is to look good.
Another example of older technology would be The Jungle Book which was animated using xerography which is where black and coloured powder attracts to points of an image that are electrically charges. Today this animation isn't particularly impressive but it was very successful at its time. A remake of the 1967 film was released in 2016 and was a massive leap in terms of technology. The team behind the 2016 release used photorealism to make the characters as real as possible. You can see the difference in quality in the screen shots below.
As new technologies arise, they can be quite expensive to use and may not be economical for the film to use. However as time goes on they become less expensive and we end up with impressive results such as The Jungle Book in 2016. I believe that technological advancements in film is the main driving force behind people making movies. Producers and directors are in a constant race to produce the latest and most impressive blockbuster using new techniques and tech that have been discovered.
Distribution and Exhibition -
Certain production contexts will have different influences on where and how their films are distributed. Distribution is all the processes that come before the final exhibition. These processes can be things like marketing and distributing copies of the film to different places such as cinemas or stores. The exhibition is the showing of the film in the cinema. This is the final process in the film's production. The effect that different production contexts has on distribution can be quite profound. Bigger contexts with more money will generally have a more successful time distributing because films with bigger budgets can have more money invested in marketing. As I will mention in section 4, marketing has a big effect on the potential profit of a film. The more successful the marketing the more your target audience is going to want to watch the film. More money can mean a wider spread of advertisement and this can be beneficial for drawing in a big crown come exhibition time. Investing a lot in the final exhibition can be good for a film too. Again the more money put into the exhibition, getting it in to a wider spread of cinemas whether it be domestic or international, means there's more potential for a bigger audience and in turn, a bigger profit. It goes without saying that it takes money to make money and this is where the smaller indie producers will fall short unless they have a distributor that can help fund the film in this distribution and exhibition process.
Trends and Genres -
Keeping up with the current trends can be an onerous task but also quite useful if you want a film to be successful. An example with keeping with the latest trend was when 3D had a sudden spike in popularity. Films like Avatar and Up created an excitement for the public because, even though 3D had been around for a while, the new Real D 3D technology that was being used was particularly impressive. I remember everyone saying this was the latest and greatest thing and that it'd be the future of film due to it's immersive nature. It was definitely impressive technology but the craze was short-lived. Many films after Avatar tried to follow suit with their titles referencing 3D and that being their main push on the marketing side.
Keeping up with the latest special effects can be useful too. If a director is using older technologies that result in a film that doesn't look very impressive then it isn't going to be as well received. At certain points throughout film history there have also been trends in the genre of film being released. Some decades will have an abundance of one kind of genre being released while later on there may be another. This graph is a good visual representation of what the trends in genres has been like.
Short, drama and comedy have been the main contenders throughout history. Western films have slowly started to die out and sci-fi is attempting to break it's way into the industry. Releasing a films which's genre has been well received recently can be good for profits as it'll be quite popular with the audience. Many horror films are released on Halloween which is a good example of an optimal release date and genre type to match this.
Stars -
Who stars in a film can have a big impact on its popularity with its audience. Films with stars that are the current top a-list actors or actresses can a bigger potential at the box office. Many of the public will have their favourites and those that have a big following is good for a film. There are a lot of similarities that 'stars' factor has with 'trends' factor. The popularity of actors and actresses can fluctuate a great deal and it can be a wise decision for producers and directors to capitalise on this. An example of an actress that had a big spike in popularity was Jennifer Lawrence. After her performance in The Hunger Games, everyone was intrigued by her as a person. Before The Hunger Games she was relatively unknown but her performance in that and her down to earth persona she gave when being interviewed meant that the public were very fond of her. Now whenever you hear a release of a film that she stars in, it gets a lot of attention. Obviously the kind of production context will play a big role in who stars in what. Like many other factors it comes down to money again. The more money at a producers disposal, the more a-list actors they're going to be able to hire to star in their films. Hollywood is well known for having big stars like Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and Amy Adams and their popularity is shown by the amount of revenue that the film gets at release. There is an instance though were a big Hollywood actor has taken on a role for very little money. Jonah Hill took the role for only £36000 because he wanted to be in it so much. This amount of money is tiny compared to the pay Leonardo received ($25million).
Social, political issues and regulations -
Social and political issues can have an effect both for production of a movie and the outcome of whether it will be a success at the box office. Certain production contexts will have beliefs or political standpoints that may not be in line with what another production context believes in another country. This could mean that if a movie is being co-produced by producers from more than one production context, and the narrative includes material that is particularly sensitive to one context, the film may not go ahead. Also if there are political issues at the time of a movie release, the film may not be shown. There has been a case in recent years where a film's viewing was cancelled over politics between the countries where the film was being screened and North Korea. The Interview is a comedy-satire film about North Korea and Kim Jong-un's rule over the country. The whole film was meant to be a mockery North Korea and because of this, the country retaliated and threatened to bring harm to any theatres that showed the film. Because of this it was cancelled pretty much everywhere just to be safe.
The smaller production contexts like indie films wouldn't really have that much of a problem with social or political issues. While some may not like a film because of the issues it raises, a negative response from an audience doesn't have as much of an impact on the producers as would a film in a Hollywood production context that is in the industry spotlight.
As well and these issues there can also be regulatory issues also. Like I mention in part 3, Deadpool was banned from being viewed in China because of it's graphical content. Many countries will ban films that are too graphical or portray a government or minority in a bad light. Movies with lots of pornographic content get banned also. There are many film censorship or review organisations that will ban films for political, controversial or moral reasons. Some are done rightly so but these can have a devastating effect on the film's profits.
Vertical and horizontal integration -
Different production contexts will have different levels of vertical and horizontal integration. Bigger productions contexts will have more integration while smaller ones such as indie films will have less integration. Vertical integration is where a single producer/ production company controls all the stages of a film's production, from filming all the way through to exhibition. having one company control everything can be beneficial because there's no need to be communication back and forth with outside companies which takes time. This saved time can be spent in production and used to make a product that's as good as can be. As well as time benefits you would also have profit benefits. Having a single company run every stage means that when the film is released and it starts to make money, all the money comes back to the same company and doesn't need to be distributed amongst others. Solely vertical integration would be done by much smaller production contexts because of lack of contacts and funding necessary to bring in other producers to work with. Horizontal integration is taking the concept of vertical integration and expanding it 'sideways'. This kind of integration would be a production company making a deal with another production company to work on the same film. This is basically co-production of films but this would be at the very top level of the vertical integration. Horizontal integration can take place at any level/ stage in the production of a film. If editor need outside help then third parties can come in from other companies to help out. You can also reach out to more than one distributor to try and maximise a film's coverage during the exhibition stage. It's clear that horizontal integration can take place when more money is available and this is why it would be reserved for the bigger production companies.
The relationship between producer and audience is very important for a films success. A great amount of time and resources will be put into making sure that a film will appeal as much as possible to its intended audience. There are various stages/events that can take place during and after a films production that will involve getting information from the target market and using this to sell the film. This information can be helpful to a producer as it gives them the opportunity to shape a films production so the final product ticks all the right boxes for the audience. A happier audience means more and more people are going to recommend and watch the film. These viewings can potentially add up to a lot of revenue.
The most notable of method of receiving feedback from an audience is hosting a test screening for a film or offering a pilot episode to a tv series. A particular group of people are selected from the population to watch the director's cut of the film and then are asked to give feedback as to what they thought. This group shouldn't necessarily know too much about the film and who's directed it. This will be so there's no biased opinions that are received in the feedback. After conducting some research I found some information on the test screening for one of my favourite films 28 Days Later by director Danny Boyle. The test screening for this film ended with the audience saying that the ending was too downbeat as the final scene was the main character lying in a bed, injured after being shot. As a result of this feedback the ending was actually changed to show the zombie outbreak slowly coming to an end to connote some form of hope for the main characters.
Pilot episodes are the other type of test screening that is offered for TV series. Broadcasting networks will put out a pilot episode to a show to gauge the kind of numbers they're going to get throughout the series. If the pilot episode is successful an there are a lot of viewers then the show will go on to air. On the other hand if it is unsuccessful then the show may not air at all as it will cost the network a lot of money. Some pilot episodes can be particularly expensive and there is always that risk factor of whether it will be a success or not. There have been instances in the past where a show has had a pilot episode, the series has continued to run but the viewer base has dropped dramatically over the series. This forces the network to abandon the show. An example of this would be The Event which was hosted by NBC from 2010-2011. Initial ratings for the series were good but the viewings halved by the 10th episode. This meant the show only lasted for one season.
Marketing can make make or break a film and like mentioned above, a producer will spend a considerable amount of time going over strategies that will potentially make movie release day a success. I've decided to look at Deadpool which is a recent, successful Marvel film that's marketing was somewhat risque but worked wonders for it's success. Deadpool's social marketing presence was huge and you'd be hard-pressed to find someone (who uses social media) that didn't see at least one of it's advertisements. Deadpool wasn't a particularly well known Marvel character to the general public at the time. 20th Century Fox (who are a film distributor) took a big risk with the film just for this reason. If people don't know about the character then why would they care to watch a film about him? To the people that do know of the Deadpool character, they know him to be a rather ruthless, rude and indecent character in the Marvel universe. This meant that fans called for a higher rated end product instead of the more family friendly action films that are usually made around the Marvel comics. This demand for an 18/R rated movie meant another risk to the distributor Fox as it would create a more niche audience on release day. Even with the odds stacked against them, Fox jumped into the deep end and attempted to use these proposed weaknesses to their advantage.
The marketing team aimed to create presence for the film by using short, viral videos, GIFs, billboards and content that could be shared and could permeate its way through social media sites.
Social media sites can be a very powerful tool for marketing because given the right circumstances, videos can go viral and hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, can potentially see it. This is obviously good news for a distributor because the more people that see it, the more potential revenue you can get from viewings. Many videos were uploaded to the video hosting site YouTube during Deadpool's marketing. This already had a large user base so was a good platform to get views on their marketing videos. During the Christmas season in 2015, there were various videos and pieces of content released that were part of the '12 Days of Deadpool' mini campaign. It was revealed that on the 25th of December there would be a new movie trailer which was obviously appealing to the people that had been following the movie so far. Each day from the 14th there was new content for people to look at and this content gave away hints at what kind of movie Deadpool was going to be and what kind of persona the main character would take on. Much of what was released was very tongue-in-cheek with lots of profanity 'bleeped' out and various innuendos to add more comedic value. This obviously appealed to a vast number of people because social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit were rife with Deadpool content and this trend continued on for quite a while. Something that was different to a lot of other films marketing was that there was very little of the movie actually revealed. A lot of what was shown throughout the film's marketing was made specifically to sell the movie. There was lots of extra footage which had no place in the film but was rather used to develop the Deadpool character and make this anti-hero likeable. Efforts were made to show the protagonist to have a dark sense of humour but to also have a comical side.
If distribution on social media wasn't already enough, Fox took it an even bigger step to gain publicity. The release date for the film was very near to the Super Bowl and Fox wanted to take advantage of this. The Super Bowl has a huge amount of viewers that tune in to watch it on TV and it's no secret that a lot of people are going to see your advertisement during the broadcast if you can afford to have it placed ($166,666 per second to have your advert during the breaks). So of course Fox bought a commercial during the game. On top of this there were several events that took place during the Super Bowl weekend at the actual stadium. Ryan Reynolds who plays Deadpool showed up to the event and took over a taco truck to serve up Chimichangas which is a Tex-Mex restaurant that the character loves. They also set up a bar which would go on to be a location/scene that would be in the film. T.J. Miller who co-stared with Ryan also made an appearance to socialise and market the film. These efforts brought about even more publicity for the film which meant it went on to smash records at the box office.
It's clear that the efforts by Fox were not wasted. Deadpool is the highest-grossing R-rated film earning $783 million at the box office. This was a considerable profit for the studio having only spent $58 million. It's profit and success came at an even greater surprise to people due to the fact that it wasn't even released in China because of its graphic content. Of course Fox had a reply for China in the form of a marketing stunt.
They took a big risk taking on a Marvel film that was R rated, had a protagonist that was relatively unknown and that had a budget of only $58 million. The risk paid off though through, what I believe, was marketing alone. The comedy content, hints of dark humour and sheer wackiness of the marketing campaign is what sold the film and has made it so successful. Also stepping outside of the box is obviously a good way to get noticed and being controversial can be good for publicity. After all, there's no such thing as bad publicity; Fox's order for a sequel is evidence of that!
There are countless examples of films throughout history that have captivated audiences and generated dedicated fan bases. Franchises such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones all have huge fan bases and massively successful because of this. People watch film for a number of reasons, pleasure being the main one. Audiences want to feel captivated and immersed in the films they watch and use them as an escape from every day life.
There are two kinds of audiences who watch film or rather two spectatorships. Active spectators are individuals who invest themselves in films and look to get something more than just entertainment out of what they watch. To them the deeper messages that a film conveys are more apparent and from this they can spark debates and criticisms. On the other side there are passive spectators. This kind of audience will go into a film and expect more entertainment without that deeper meaning. They will passively watch something and not generally think about an underlying message that may be there. A personal example that I experienced recently that relates well was when watching The Arrival (2016). It is a fairly recent film which touches on the political aspects of working together when and alien entity lands on Earth and doesn't speak our language. For me I enjoyed the film greatly but my parents and sister didn't so much. I believe that because I have a deeper interest in film making and narrative I will tend to invest myself more in a film or character. I found myself in the main character's shoes quite a lot of the time and tried to relate to the situations as much as I could while watching. For this reason I would say I am actively spectating. There was a scene where Amy Adams (the actress who played the main character) came face to face with the alien. The scene itself wasn't visually spectacular and not a lot happened but to actually think about being in her shoes and how insane the situation would have been was pretty mind blowing to me. Coupled with the intense sfx I really enjoyed a lot of those moments in the film. As for the others watching I can only think that they didn't enjoy it as much as they didn't invest themselves in the characters and being quite a slow placed film it wasn't visually amazing or exciting enough. At a fundamental level I think everyone can either be a passive or active spectator and it is down to what genres or stories are most interesting to you.
Regardless of whether someone active or passively watches a film, everyone does so for pleasure. If we didn't get pleasure out of watching film then no one would watch but what is it in film that we find pleasurable? Like I previously mentioned, many people will find pleasure in escaping from reality for a couple of hours and immersing themselves in a fantasy world. Big, thrilling, fantasy blockbusters are appealing because they're exciting and different from our every day lives. As well as escapism, evoking certain feelings can be pleasurable for audiences. Individuals will have their own favourite genres and tastes that they enjoy. People will go to a comedy film to laugh or a horror film to have that thrilling feeling of being scared. For something like a horror film you know that anything that happens isn't real and cannot actually hurt you. For those brief seconds where you jump you activate the primal flight or flight part of your brain but quickly realise there's no real danger. This can be especially thrilling to some people as they can be scared without no actual consequences. Another pleasurable aspect of films is being able to relate to a character. Being able to relate to a character means you can almost put yourself in their shoes and because you understand what they're feeling you get an emotional response from it. To end with, the idea of being able to derive some kind of message from a film is pleasurable for some. Watching a film to understand something you didn't before and learn about something of importance can be beneficial for exciting for certain people. Films usually have wide distribution so for some learning about other cultures can be very informative and rewarding.
Another way audiences interact with film is through interpretation. This is basically the idea that an audience will interpret different messages from a film. This is a lot to do with what I've already talked about in active spectatorship. There are various components which will change how someone interprets a film and this is called a framework for interpretation. Aspects of you life such as age, where you were born, what you would consider your class, you educational background, your interests and even the kind of parents you have will have have an influence on how you interpret things. For example an member of the older generation will have likes and dislikes that are in conjuncture with how they grew up. This may mean that they enjoy a more simplistic type of film and aren't as accepting of newer technologies like cgi just for the fact that they didn't grow up with it. On the other hand there's me who's part of the younger generation and has grown up with a quickly evolving technologically and have seen lots of changes in films This means I'm more welcoming of change to film and it is more exciting to see advancements on screen. At the most basic level it is all determined by your personality and how you have been shaped by the things around you.
Media literacy and intertextuality closely follows on from frameworks of interpretation. In fact they can both be considered another component of what affects how you interpret films. Media literacy is the term used for how educated you are media-wise. If someone is well-versed in media and knows about the different aspects of film such as cinematography and narrative and how they're used to portray a message, they are generally going to be more critical of a film. For example if an individual knows a lot about lighting and cinematography, they may be constantly looking for fault or notice subtleties that others wouldn't. This can take away the enjoyment of actually watching the film. As for intertextuality, this term refers to the relationships between different pieces of media and how they shape and influence each other. It is the idea that any film created has the DNA (same ideas) of films that have preceded it. Take horror films for example. Most if not all follow the same premise that there is an individual or group trying to get away or overcome some form of paranormal entity. Films will steal ideas from other films within the same genre. An example of one of these ideas would be jump scares. In horror film there are certain points where a suspenseful scene will be building up. In these scenes all sounds and background music will slowly fade out without the audience really knowing. Close up angles of people will be shown so the audience cannot see the peripheral vision of those on screen. Then the jump scare will happen which will consist of a loud noise and something quickly appearing on screen. The is over used throughout horror films and can be very predictable if you've seen it happen may times. This goes back to media literacy. If you've seen it a lot and know how it works you're more thank likely going to see it coming and the predictability can take away from the enjoyment of the film.
Film can have many different effects on an audience, some good and some bad. A theory that has been thrown around the media for many years is that film can have a big influence on how people act. Film that include a lot of violence and graphical content are said to influence an audience in a bad way. Seeing these things on screen can make someone more likely to act them out. Personally I believe this to be false but the media is very quick to throw this accusation around. It's not only in film but video games are a more prominent example. The game Manhunter was said to have influenced Warren Leblanc to kill his 14 year old friend Stefan Pakeerah. The controversy actually got the game banned. The reason that's suggested for why people are more likely to act aggressively after watching violent content is desensitisation. The inoculation theory suggest that when someone is exposed to something over and over again (in this case violence) they become desensitised. This desensitisation causes someone to become detached from the idea that violence is bad and as a consequence they see not bad consequences of committing a violent act.
Although they shouldn't be, age ratings seemed to not be followed as much nowadays as they did in the past most likely because of the availability of films online. The age ratings are there for a reason and indicate the kind of content that might show up in a film. A child should not watch an 18 because the content would be upsetting. They are also impressionable at a young age and it could present bad ideas to them they see as 'ok'. Some highly age-rated films even have to have content cut out because it is too graphic. Like I mentioned in section 3 Deadpool was not allowed to be shown in China because China's censorship deemed the content of the film too taboo and graphical to be shown to the public. If violent content really did influence people to commit violent acts we would have a much larger number of people doing so, just for the fact that these films are watched by hundreds of thousands of people if not millions. I do however believer that there is some truth in the inoculation theory however this doesn't lead people to be violent. If they were going to act out aggressively, they would have done so with or without a film.
A more positive effect that films have on the general public is generating a fan base - this is called fandom. At the start of this section I mentioned that various film franchises have huge followings. Something like Star Wars has generated a mind blowing amount of followers. Lots of events, products and extra material have stemmed from the original Star Wars. People will attend events such as Comic-con dressed as characters from Star Wars. They will also collect figurines which can be quite a lot of money depending on how limited edition they are. Collections can be worth thousands of pounds if you have complete sets. Things such as fan fiction are written also for people to read online which are stories that revolve around the Star Wars universe. This is one of the bigger franchises but there will be smaller ones that will still have quite a big following. If a film has even a small amount of popularity there will always be people who are die hard fans. I myself love the Alien series and am especially excited for Alien: Covenant in 2017.
Public reception pre- and post-viewing is quite a interesting topic when talking about the relationship between audiences and film. A lot of hype can happen before and after a movie is released and this can be determined by a number of things. Fan bases play a big role as does marketing. The marketing for a movie can generate a big following and build expectations for an audience which can be both a good and bad thing. If trailers, promotional clips, advertising and interviews build up too big of an expectation which cannot be delivered in the end product then it leaves a very underwhelmed and disappointed audience. Trailers have a bad habit of showing too much or the best bits of a film leaving much to be desired in the final film. For this reason I actually steer clear of trailers and will just read a synopsis to determine whether I want to watch a film. It's very difficult the get the marketing right but when done well it can be a big pay off, much like my example in section 3.
How you watch your films can have a big impact on your viewing experience. There are many ways nowadays to watch movies. The cinema is probably the best experience you can followed by watching the blu-ray or DVD at. Watching a film at the cinema is quite a spectacle. It is even better now than it was in the past because of advancing technologies. The introduction of 3D, IMAX and high quality surround sound gives a much more immersive experience. Having a fellow audience is also quite nice because you're all in on the same experience. Some people may enjoy watching films alone though as they can be completed invested in the film and there are no distractions but this all depends on your viewing preferences. Having a good home cinema setup can be comparable to the cinema experience if your kit is high quality. Blu-rays offer the greatest quality followed by DVDs. It's also much easier to share films these days and eventhough it's illegal many people do it. It can be a bit hit or miss with this method of viewing because much of the time the movie you download is someone recording it from a handheld camera in a cinema. You will however get the odd blu-ray 1080p release when it gets near to the physical release date. It is easy and free but it's illegal and should not be encouraged. Some people are happy with watching films on their phones or tablets too with a pair of headphones. Often when you buy a DVD you get a digital copy that you can download for free. This can be quite a personal way of watching a film and you can also take it anywhere you go.
Overall there's a lot that goes on between an audience and a film. Some aspects of this interaction are done subconsciously such as how we will critique films based on our personalities. Other aspects, we chose, such as how we're going to watch a movie or whether or not we engage in any fandom. The interaction is huge and it'll only continue to grow as more technology is produced and more films are released.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_the_United_Kingdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadpool_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genres
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_film
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhunt_(video_game)#Legal_status
There were various pieces of technology to have emerged from Britain that have influenced film. Special effects were made at a much lower cost in comparison to those made in the US. British studios have, in the past, been praised for certain aspects of their film such as visual effects. A company called Framestone in London has won awards for their work on films such as The Dark Knight and Gravity which had groundbreaking techniques used. The UK is said to be a world leader in stop motion animation and studios such as Aardman are an example of why we have hold such a title.
International co-production is another production context which has it's place within the film industry. As the name suggests, two or more production companies from different countries will collaborate to produce a film. This way of producing films is probably the more dominant out of all the production contexts because it gives a much broader area of influence for a film. Having more than one production company working on a film means more money being put into a film, more minds available for ideas and generally just a bigger market for potential profit. There can be drawbacks however. Even with the potential for more money to be invested there comes the cost of co-ordinating assets and personnel. With companies being overseas it can become difficult to arrange shoots and have everything running smoothly. This can be made even harder if there is a substantial timezone difference. There is also the problem of regulations between the countries that the two or more companies are situated in. One studio may have ideas that do not sit well with regulatory bodies in that country. For example China have very strict censorship when it comes to film to a degree that some violent films will not be shown there at all. However even with these drawbacks the benefits usually outweigh the negatives. Having cultural differences together in one film can be refreshing and interesting to see for the people it the countries where the film has been produced. More often than not, multiple production companies are just used to spread the cost of producing the film, this also reduces the risk factor for potential loss on a film. An example of a co produced film would be Theory of Everything which stars Eddie Redmayne and is about Steven Hawking and his life so far. The production companies for this film were the British production company Working Title and US based company Focus Features. Even with a small budget of $15 million, the film went on to earn just under $124 million after being well received by the public.
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| Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in Theory of Everything. |
Independent productions are productions that exist separately from the major production companies previously mentioned. They can range from big studios to small crews or even individual people. The increase of independent film is mainly down to the falling cost of consumer film equipment meaning that most people are able to pick something up quite easily, for very little cost and produce something of good quality. An example of a bigger independent studio that has had great success with its films is Black Bear Pictures - founded by Teddy Schwarzman. The studios most successful film is The Imitation game which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and is about cracking the encryption that the German forces used in WWII. Warner Bros. was nearly the studio that would produce the film but after Leonardo DiCaprio would not come on board the film rights went back to the original studio. Black Bear Pictures financed the film for $14 million and ended up grossing £234 million. This is a substantial amount even for a larger independent production company and shows that they have their place among the bigger production giants. At the other end of the scale you have an example like Primer which is a independent sci-fi film about time travel. It had an extremely low budget of just $7000 with a box office of $425000. This is huge profit for a film that was directed, written and produced bye on guy. The plot was very technical and touched on philosophical ideas about time travel. It's not a very widely known film but has gained a cult following since it was shown at Sundance Festival in 2004
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| The convoluted operation of time travel in Primer. |
Factors That Impact a Production Context's Relationship With Film.
These production contexts show an overall view on how they have an effects on films and the film industry. Each production context has a number of factors that contribute to these effects and some have a more profound impact than others.
Financial determinants -
This is one of the main factors that has an affect on film. Movies can be funded in many different ways and the amount of money that is put into a film means there is more flexibility making it. This can be both a good and bad thing. It is a good thing in the sense that you're can put more money into GFX or stunts and if anything goes wrong you're able to re-shoot without financial constraints. You also have the budget to cast a-star actors which can have a huge impact on the attractiveness your film has to an audience. On the other hand it can be a negative thing because it could give a director more leeway and they may end up being careless in how they shoot because they know they can just do it again because of their financial backing. Hollywood is known for putting huge budgets on film and producing massive blockbusters than more often then not go on to be very successful. At the other end of the scale we have indie film producers than have very limited budgets and so they have to be clever in how they film. Even with this lack of money indie films can go on to very successful. This shows that it doesn't necessarily mean that huge amounts of money availability means a film is going to be successful and that tightly budgeted productions have their place amongst the huge blockbusters.
Funding Bodies -
Sometimes a Director and/or producer doesn't have the necessary money to be able to fund the film they want to make. It is at this point that they turn to different sources of funding that can help them out. An example that can be taken from the UK is the funding that the National Lottery gives film. In the UK there is a UK Film Council that is the public body put in place to help promote the film industry in the UK. There have been various instances where it has received funding from the National Lottery and this has helped to produce a number of films. Attack The Block is a sci-fi British comedy that was co-produced by many different production companies such as Film 4 and the previously mentioned UK Film Council. These production companies will all offer funding for the film. Having different funding bodies for you film can also bring in different production companies meaning more people working on the film and inevitably increasing it's final quality.
Quotas -
Screen quotas are a policy that says there must be a certain amount of domestic films shown the their respective countries each year. This legislation gives a chance to for domestic films to have their place in cinemas throughout their own country. it stops foreign films overwhelming the market and pushing the smaller films to the bottom of the pile. This would be useful in less developed countries where films are made with smaller budgets than there foreign counterparts (Hollywood films from America.
Technologies of Production -
This factor has a profound affect on the films that are made by a specific production context. Technology within film is advancing at a tremendous rate and the quality of film being show is growing quickly because of this. The way movies have been filmed and the content within these movies has all been affected by the technological advancements. Things the CGI has had a massive impact with whole films being made with non-real elements. Films like Wallace and Gromit were a marvel when they first came out. Wallace and Gromit is a stop-frame animation with characters made out of clay. This is a fairly simple technology but is very time consuming especially if it is to look good.
Another example of older technology would be The Jungle Book which was animated using xerography which is where black and coloured powder attracts to points of an image that are electrically charges. Today this animation isn't particularly impressive but it was very successful at its time. A remake of the 1967 film was released in 2016 and was a massive leap in terms of technology. The team behind the 2016 release used photorealism to make the characters as real as possible. You can see the difference in quality in the screen shots below.
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| The Jungle Book 1967 |
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| The Jungle Book 2016 |
As new technologies arise, they can be quite expensive to use and may not be economical for the film to use. However as time goes on they become less expensive and we end up with impressive results such as The Jungle Book in 2016. I believe that technological advancements in film is the main driving force behind people making movies. Producers and directors are in a constant race to produce the latest and most impressive blockbuster using new techniques and tech that have been discovered.
Distribution and Exhibition -
Certain production contexts will have different influences on where and how their films are distributed. Distribution is all the processes that come before the final exhibition. These processes can be things like marketing and distributing copies of the film to different places such as cinemas or stores. The exhibition is the showing of the film in the cinema. This is the final process in the film's production. The effect that different production contexts has on distribution can be quite profound. Bigger contexts with more money will generally have a more successful time distributing because films with bigger budgets can have more money invested in marketing. As I will mention in section 4, marketing has a big effect on the potential profit of a film. The more successful the marketing the more your target audience is going to want to watch the film. More money can mean a wider spread of advertisement and this can be beneficial for drawing in a big crown come exhibition time. Investing a lot in the final exhibition can be good for a film too. Again the more money put into the exhibition, getting it in to a wider spread of cinemas whether it be domestic or international, means there's more potential for a bigger audience and in turn, a bigger profit. It goes without saying that it takes money to make money and this is where the smaller indie producers will fall short unless they have a distributor that can help fund the film in this distribution and exhibition process.
Trends and Genres -
Keeping up with the current trends can be an onerous task but also quite useful if you want a film to be successful. An example with keeping with the latest trend was when 3D had a sudden spike in popularity. Films like Avatar and Up created an excitement for the public because, even though 3D had been around for a while, the new Real D 3D technology that was being used was particularly impressive. I remember everyone saying this was the latest and greatest thing and that it'd be the future of film due to it's immersive nature. It was definitely impressive technology but the craze was short-lived. Many films after Avatar tried to follow suit with their titles referencing 3D and that being their main push on the marketing side.
Keeping up with the latest special effects can be useful too. If a director is using older technologies that result in a film that doesn't look very impressive then it isn't going to be as well received. At certain points throughout film history there have also been trends in the genre of film being released. Some decades will have an abundance of one kind of genre being released while later on there may be another. This graph is a good visual representation of what the trends in genres has been like.
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| A graph of film genre trends created by Richard Burgess and Jonathan Richards (IMDB data) |
Stars -
Who stars in a film can have a big impact on its popularity with its audience. Films with stars that are the current top a-list actors or actresses can a bigger potential at the box office. Many of the public will have their favourites and those that have a big following is good for a film. There are a lot of similarities that 'stars' factor has with 'trends' factor. The popularity of actors and actresses can fluctuate a great deal and it can be a wise decision for producers and directors to capitalise on this. An example of an actress that had a big spike in popularity was Jennifer Lawrence. After her performance in The Hunger Games, everyone was intrigued by her as a person. Before The Hunger Games she was relatively unknown but her performance in that and her down to earth persona she gave when being interviewed meant that the public were very fond of her. Now whenever you hear a release of a film that she stars in, it gets a lot of attention. Obviously the kind of production context will play a big role in who stars in what. Like many other factors it comes down to money again. The more money at a producers disposal, the more a-list actors they're going to be able to hire to star in their films. Hollywood is well known for having big stars like Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and Amy Adams and their popularity is shown by the amount of revenue that the film gets at release. There is an instance though were a big Hollywood actor has taken on a role for very little money. Jonah Hill took the role for only £36000 because he wanted to be in it so much. This amount of money is tiny compared to the pay Leonardo received ($25million).
Social, political issues and regulations -
Social and political issues can have an effect both for production of a movie and the outcome of whether it will be a success at the box office. Certain production contexts will have beliefs or political standpoints that may not be in line with what another production context believes in another country. This could mean that if a movie is being co-produced by producers from more than one production context, and the narrative includes material that is particularly sensitive to one context, the film may not go ahead. Also if there are political issues at the time of a movie release, the film may not be shown. There has been a case in recent years where a film's viewing was cancelled over politics between the countries where the film was being screened and North Korea. The Interview is a comedy-satire film about North Korea and Kim Jong-un's rule over the country. The whole film was meant to be a mockery North Korea and because of this, the country retaliated and threatened to bring harm to any theatres that showed the film. Because of this it was cancelled pretty much everywhere just to be safe.
The smaller production contexts like indie films wouldn't really have that much of a problem with social or political issues. While some may not like a film because of the issues it raises, a negative response from an audience doesn't have as much of an impact on the producers as would a film in a Hollywood production context that is in the industry spotlight.
As well and these issues there can also be regulatory issues also. Like I mention in part 3, Deadpool was banned from being viewed in China because of it's graphical content. Many countries will ban films that are too graphical or portray a government or minority in a bad light. Movies with lots of pornographic content get banned also. There are many film censorship or review organisations that will ban films for political, controversial or moral reasons. Some are done rightly so but these can have a devastating effect on the film's profits.
Vertical and horizontal integration -
Different production contexts will have different levels of vertical and horizontal integration. Bigger productions contexts will have more integration while smaller ones such as indie films will have less integration. Vertical integration is where a single producer/ production company controls all the stages of a film's production, from filming all the way through to exhibition. having one company control everything can be beneficial because there's no need to be communication back and forth with outside companies which takes time. This saved time can be spent in production and used to make a product that's as good as can be. As well as time benefits you would also have profit benefits. Having a single company run every stage means that when the film is released and it starts to make money, all the money comes back to the same company and doesn't need to be distributed amongst others. Solely vertical integration would be done by much smaller production contexts because of lack of contacts and funding necessary to bring in other producers to work with. Horizontal integration is taking the concept of vertical integration and expanding it 'sideways'. This kind of integration would be a production company making a deal with another production company to work on the same film. This is basically co-production of films but this would be at the very top level of the vertical integration. Horizontal integration can take place at any level/ stage in the production of a film. If editor need outside help then third parties can come in from other companies to help out. You can also reach out to more than one distributor to try and maximise a film's coverage during the exhibition stage. It's clear that horizontal integration can take place when more money is available and this is why it would be reserved for the bigger production companies.
The relationship between producer and audience is very important for a films success. A great amount of time and resources will be put into making sure that a film will appeal as much as possible to its intended audience. There are various stages/events that can take place during and after a films production that will involve getting information from the target market and using this to sell the film. This information can be helpful to a producer as it gives them the opportunity to shape a films production so the final product ticks all the right boxes for the audience. A happier audience means more and more people are going to recommend and watch the film. These viewings can potentially add up to a lot of revenue.
The most notable of method of receiving feedback from an audience is hosting a test screening for a film or offering a pilot episode to a tv series. A particular group of people are selected from the population to watch the director's cut of the film and then are asked to give feedback as to what they thought. This group shouldn't necessarily know too much about the film and who's directed it. This will be so there's no biased opinions that are received in the feedback. After conducting some research I found some information on the test screening for one of my favourite films 28 Days Later by director Danny Boyle. The test screening for this film ended with the audience saying that the ending was too downbeat as the final scene was the main character lying in a bed, injured after being shot. As a result of this feedback the ending was actually changed to show the zombie outbreak slowly coming to an end to connote some form of hope for the main characters.
Pilot episodes are the other type of test screening that is offered for TV series. Broadcasting networks will put out a pilot episode to a show to gauge the kind of numbers they're going to get throughout the series. If the pilot episode is successful an there are a lot of viewers then the show will go on to air. On the other hand if it is unsuccessful then the show may not air at all as it will cost the network a lot of money. Some pilot episodes can be particularly expensive and there is always that risk factor of whether it will be a success or not. There have been instances in the past where a show has had a pilot episode, the series has continued to run but the viewer base has dropped dramatically over the series. This forces the network to abandon the show. An example of this would be The Event which was hosted by NBC from 2010-2011. Initial ratings for the series were good but the viewings halved by the 10th episode. This meant the show only lasted for one season.
Marketing can make make or break a film and like mentioned above, a producer will spend a considerable amount of time going over strategies that will potentially make movie release day a success. I've decided to look at Deadpool which is a recent, successful Marvel film that's marketing was somewhat risque but worked wonders for it's success. Deadpool's social marketing presence was huge and you'd be hard-pressed to find someone (who uses social media) that didn't see at least one of it's advertisements. Deadpool wasn't a particularly well known Marvel character to the general public at the time. 20th Century Fox (who are a film distributor) took a big risk with the film just for this reason. If people don't know about the character then why would they care to watch a film about him? To the people that do know of the Deadpool character, they know him to be a rather ruthless, rude and indecent character in the Marvel universe. This meant that fans called for a higher rated end product instead of the more family friendly action films that are usually made around the Marvel comics. This demand for an 18/R rated movie meant another risk to the distributor Fox as it would create a more niche audience on release day. Even with the odds stacked against them, Fox jumped into the deep end and attempted to use these proposed weaknesses to their advantage.
The marketing team aimed to create presence for the film by using short, viral videos, GIFs, billboards and content that could be shared and could permeate its way through social media sites.
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| Here is a billboard which was advertising the film. There's no clear sign of what film it's showcasing and you could say the marketing methods are unorthodox compared to normal films. Reading the emojis literally does spell out Deadpool (Dead poo L) This obviously has some comedic value which is connoted what kind of film Deadpool was going to be. |
Social media sites can be a very powerful tool for marketing because given the right circumstances, videos can go viral and hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, can potentially see it. This is obviously good news for a distributor because the more people that see it, the more potential revenue you can get from viewings. Many videos were uploaded to the video hosting site YouTube during Deadpool's marketing. This already had a large user base so was a good platform to get views on their marketing videos. During the Christmas season in 2015, there were various videos and pieces of content released that were part of the '12 Days of Deadpool' mini campaign. It was revealed that on the 25th of December there would be a new movie trailer which was obviously appealing to the people that had been following the movie so far. Each day from the 14th there was new content for people to look at and this content gave away hints at what kind of movie Deadpool was going to be and what kind of persona the main character would take on. Much of what was released was very tongue-in-cheek with lots of profanity 'bleeped' out and various innuendos to add more comedic value. This obviously appealed to a vast number of people because social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit were rife with Deadpool content and this trend continued on for quite a while. Something that was different to a lot of other films marketing was that there was very little of the movie actually revealed. A lot of what was shown throughout the film's marketing was made specifically to sell the movie. There was lots of extra footage which had no place in the film but was rather used to develop the Deadpool character and make this anti-hero likeable. Efforts were made to show the protagonist to have a dark sense of humour but to also have a comical side.
Here is an example of one of the videos released by Fox which shows
off some of the characteristics of Deadpool's personality - using witty jokes
and a nonchalant tone of voice. To reiterate there's
no actual film footage and the video is merely done to showcase the
protagonist. The message of the video is a serious topic about
male testicular cancer. While the video is generally informative and suggests itself
to be serious, the introduction of Deadpool adds some comedic value.
If distribution on social media wasn't already enough, Fox took it an even bigger step to gain publicity. The release date for the film was very near to the Super Bowl and Fox wanted to take advantage of this. The Super Bowl has a huge amount of viewers that tune in to watch it on TV and it's no secret that a lot of people are going to see your advertisement during the broadcast if you can afford to have it placed ($166,666 per second to have your advert during the breaks). So of course Fox bought a commercial during the game. On top of this there were several events that took place during the Super Bowl weekend at the actual stadium. Ryan Reynolds who plays Deadpool showed up to the event and took over a taco truck to serve up Chimichangas which is a Tex-Mex restaurant that the character loves. They also set up a bar which would go on to be a location/scene that would be in the film. T.J. Miller who co-stared with Ryan also made an appearance to socialise and market the film. These efforts brought about even more publicity for the film which meant it went on to smash records at the box office.
It's clear that the efforts by Fox were not wasted. Deadpool is the highest-grossing R-rated film earning $783 million at the box office. This was a considerable profit for the studio having only spent $58 million. It's profit and success came at an even greater surprise to people due to the fact that it wasn't even released in China because of its graphic content. Of course Fox had a reply for China in the form of a marketing stunt.
They took a big risk taking on a Marvel film that was R rated, had a protagonist that was relatively unknown and that had a budget of only $58 million. The risk paid off though through, what I believe, was marketing alone. The comedy content, hints of dark humour and sheer wackiness of the marketing campaign is what sold the film and has made it so successful. Also stepping outside of the box is obviously a good way to get noticed and being controversial can be good for publicity. After all, there's no such thing as bad publicity; Fox's order for a sequel is evidence of that!
There are countless examples of films throughout history that have captivated audiences and generated dedicated fan bases. Franchises such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones all have huge fan bases and massively successful because of this. People watch film for a number of reasons, pleasure being the main one. Audiences want to feel captivated and immersed in the films they watch and use them as an escape from every day life.
There are two kinds of audiences who watch film or rather two spectatorships. Active spectators are individuals who invest themselves in films and look to get something more than just entertainment out of what they watch. To them the deeper messages that a film conveys are more apparent and from this they can spark debates and criticisms. On the other side there are passive spectators. This kind of audience will go into a film and expect more entertainment without that deeper meaning. They will passively watch something and not generally think about an underlying message that may be there. A personal example that I experienced recently that relates well was when watching The Arrival (2016). It is a fairly recent film which touches on the political aspects of working together when and alien entity lands on Earth and doesn't speak our language. For me I enjoyed the film greatly but my parents and sister didn't so much. I believe that because I have a deeper interest in film making and narrative I will tend to invest myself more in a film or character. I found myself in the main character's shoes quite a lot of the time and tried to relate to the situations as much as I could while watching. For this reason I would say I am actively spectating. There was a scene where Amy Adams (the actress who played the main character) came face to face with the alien. The scene itself wasn't visually spectacular and not a lot happened but to actually think about being in her shoes and how insane the situation would have been was pretty mind blowing to me. Coupled with the intense sfx I really enjoyed a lot of those moments in the film. As for the others watching I can only think that they didn't enjoy it as much as they didn't invest themselves in the characters and being quite a slow placed film it wasn't visually amazing or exciting enough. At a fundamental level I think everyone can either be a passive or active spectator and it is down to what genres or stories are most interesting to you.
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| Scene from Arrival showing the alien 'Pebble' ship |
Regardless of whether someone active or passively watches a film, everyone does so for pleasure. If we didn't get pleasure out of watching film then no one would watch but what is it in film that we find pleasurable? Like I previously mentioned, many people will find pleasure in escaping from reality for a couple of hours and immersing themselves in a fantasy world. Big, thrilling, fantasy blockbusters are appealing because they're exciting and different from our every day lives. As well as escapism, evoking certain feelings can be pleasurable for audiences. Individuals will have their own favourite genres and tastes that they enjoy. People will go to a comedy film to laugh or a horror film to have that thrilling feeling of being scared. For something like a horror film you know that anything that happens isn't real and cannot actually hurt you. For those brief seconds where you jump you activate the primal flight or flight part of your brain but quickly realise there's no real danger. This can be especially thrilling to some people as they can be scared without no actual consequences. Another pleasurable aspect of films is being able to relate to a character. Being able to relate to a character means you can almost put yourself in their shoes and because you understand what they're feeling you get an emotional response from it. To end with, the idea of being able to derive some kind of message from a film is pleasurable for some. Watching a film to understand something you didn't before and learn about something of importance can be beneficial for exciting for certain people. Films usually have wide distribution so for some learning about other cultures can be very informative and rewarding.
Another way audiences interact with film is through interpretation. This is basically the idea that an audience will interpret different messages from a film. This is a lot to do with what I've already talked about in active spectatorship. There are various components which will change how someone interprets a film and this is called a framework for interpretation. Aspects of you life such as age, where you were born, what you would consider your class, you educational background, your interests and even the kind of parents you have will have have an influence on how you interpret things. For example an member of the older generation will have likes and dislikes that are in conjuncture with how they grew up. This may mean that they enjoy a more simplistic type of film and aren't as accepting of newer technologies like cgi just for the fact that they didn't grow up with it. On the other hand there's me who's part of the younger generation and has grown up with a quickly evolving technologically and have seen lots of changes in films This means I'm more welcoming of change to film and it is more exciting to see advancements on screen. At the most basic level it is all determined by your personality and how you have been shaped by the things around you.
Media literacy and intertextuality closely follows on from frameworks of interpretation. In fact they can both be considered another component of what affects how you interpret films. Media literacy is the term used for how educated you are media-wise. If someone is well-versed in media and knows about the different aspects of film such as cinematography and narrative and how they're used to portray a message, they are generally going to be more critical of a film. For example if an individual knows a lot about lighting and cinematography, they may be constantly looking for fault or notice subtleties that others wouldn't. This can take away the enjoyment of actually watching the film. As for intertextuality, this term refers to the relationships between different pieces of media and how they shape and influence each other. It is the idea that any film created has the DNA (same ideas) of films that have preceded it. Take horror films for example. Most if not all follow the same premise that there is an individual or group trying to get away or overcome some form of paranormal entity. Films will steal ideas from other films within the same genre. An example of one of these ideas would be jump scares. In horror film there are certain points where a suspenseful scene will be building up. In these scenes all sounds and background music will slowly fade out without the audience really knowing. Close up angles of people will be shown so the audience cannot see the peripheral vision of those on screen. Then the jump scare will happen which will consist of a loud noise and something quickly appearing on screen. The is over used throughout horror films and can be very predictable if you've seen it happen may times. This goes back to media literacy. If you've seen it a lot and know how it works you're more thank likely going to see it coming and the predictability can take away from the enjoyment of the film.
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| Jump scare scene from Paranormal Activity 4 |
Film can have many different effects on an audience, some good and some bad. A theory that has been thrown around the media for many years is that film can have a big influence on how people act. Film that include a lot of violence and graphical content are said to influence an audience in a bad way. Seeing these things on screen can make someone more likely to act them out. Personally I believe this to be false but the media is very quick to throw this accusation around. It's not only in film but video games are a more prominent example. The game Manhunter was said to have influenced Warren Leblanc to kill his 14 year old friend Stefan Pakeerah. The controversy actually got the game banned. The reason that's suggested for why people are more likely to act aggressively after watching violent content is desensitisation. The inoculation theory suggest that when someone is exposed to something over and over again (in this case violence) they become desensitised. This desensitisation causes someone to become detached from the idea that violence is bad and as a consequence they see not bad consequences of committing a violent act.
Although they shouldn't be, age ratings seemed to not be followed as much nowadays as they did in the past most likely because of the availability of films online. The age ratings are there for a reason and indicate the kind of content that might show up in a film. A child should not watch an 18 because the content would be upsetting. They are also impressionable at a young age and it could present bad ideas to them they see as 'ok'. Some highly age-rated films even have to have content cut out because it is too graphic. Like I mentioned in section 3 Deadpool was not allowed to be shown in China because China's censorship deemed the content of the film too taboo and graphical to be shown to the public. If violent content really did influence people to commit violent acts we would have a much larger number of people doing so, just for the fact that these films are watched by hundreds of thousands of people if not millions. I do however believer that there is some truth in the inoculation theory however this doesn't lead people to be violent. If they were going to act out aggressively, they would have done so with or without a film.
A more positive effect that films have on the general public is generating a fan base - this is called fandom. At the start of this section I mentioned that various film franchises have huge followings. Something like Star Wars has generated a mind blowing amount of followers. Lots of events, products and extra material have stemmed from the original Star Wars. People will attend events such as Comic-con dressed as characters from Star Wars. They will also collect figurines which can be quite a lot of money depending on how limited edition they are. Collections can be worth thousands of pounds if you have complete sets. Things such as fan fiction are written also for people to read online which are stories that revolve around the Star Wars universe. This is one of the bigger franchises but there will be smaller ones that will still have quite a big following. If a film has even a small amount of popularity there will always be people who are die hard fans. I myself love the Alien series and am especially excited for Alien: Covenant in 2017.
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| Star Wars Merchandise |
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| People dressed up at Comic Con |
Public reception pre- and post-viewing is quite a interesting topic when talking about the relationship between audiences and film. A lot of hype can happen before and after a movie is released and this can be determined by a number of things. Fan bases play a big role as does marketing. The marketing for a movie can generate a big following and build expectations for an audience which can be both a good and bad thing. If trailers, promotional clips, advertising and interviews build up too big of an expectation which cannot be delivered in the end product then it leaves a very underwhelmed and disappointed audience. Trailers have a bad habit of showing too much or the best bits of a film leaving much to be desired in the final film. For this reason I actually steer clear of trailers and will just read a synopsis to determine whether I want to watch a film. It's very difficult the get the marketing right but when done well it can be a big pay off, much like my example in section 3.
How you watch your films can have a big impact on your viewing experience. There are many ways nowadays to watch movies. The cinema is probably the best experience you can followed by watching the blu-ray or DVD at. Watching a film at the cinema is quite a spectacle. It is even better now than it was in the past because of advancing technologies. The introduction of 3D, IMAX and high quality surround sound gives a much more immersive experience. Having a fellow audience is also quite nice because you're all in on the same experience. Some people may enjoy watching films alone though as they can be completed invested in the film and there are no distractions but this all depends on your viewing preferences. Having a good home cinema setup can be comparable to the cinema experience if your kit is high quality. Blu-rays offer the greatest quality followed by DVDs. It's also much easier to share films these days and eventhough it's illegal many people do it. It can be a bit hit or miss with this method of viewing because much of the time the movie you download is someone recording it from a handheld camera in a cinema. You will however get the odd blu-ray 1080p release when it gets near to the physical release date. It is easy and free but it's illegal and should not be encouraged. Some people are happy with watching films on their phones or tablets too with a pair of headphones. Often when you buy a DVD you get a digital copy that you can download for free. This can be quite a personal way of watching a film and you can also take it anywhere you go.
Overall there's a lot that goes on between an audience and a film. Some aspects of this interaction are done subconsciously such as how we will critique films based on our personalities. Other aspects, we chose, such as how we're going to watch a movie or whether or not we engage in any fandom. The interaction is huge and it'll only continue to grow as more technology is produced and more films are released.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_the_United_Kingdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadpool_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genres
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_film
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhunt_(video_game)#Legal_status
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