Blog 5: Films and fandom

My final blog entry will look closely at the relationship between films and their fans. You must select a specific film or franchise and examine how fans can play an active role in the ongoing success or failure of a production.

In this blog I will be discussing the topic of films and fandom, this is the relationship and the connections that big company name films have with their fans and how they affect or change their life.

• How may the audience for your chosen film or franchise play and active role in spectatorship?

I looked at the fame and franchise that is Star Wars and how they have developed and branded and connect in a way like no other film has and how they started this global trend that has now influenced the way people live their lives and to them it has become everything that their life revolves around.

Star wars fans has a very active spectatorship with the film and it has become so big now that they’ve reached out so that they are turning up to big worldwide events such as comic con dressed as their favourite or crazy star wars characters. People now live for these events and wait all year round and get excited for these one or two events to happen so that they can celebrate the success of the film and get really involved with what’s going on and are proud by the end of it to actually say they were involved and a part of the action.

Along with the big even of comic con there are smaller events that people can take part in actively and theirs such a thing as online star wars fan communities where people can chat, share stories and share experiences and thought with each other and this is great because not only are you talking about something you love but you’re also making friends through this too.

• Examine one way in which the audience for your chosen text have been involved in the continued success of the film or franchise (fandom, social networking and post viewing experiences)

An audience for such thing such as Star Wars have fans and ways where they can continue to strive in success based around the film and franchise.

There are such things such as fandom where fans get truly involved in things to the point where they’re waiting around outside just to have a couple of seconds with their idol from the film and its crazy what people go through just for simple things.

You also have some things such as going on social networking where people talk across chat rooms and play an active role in their film of choice and discuss for hours on end what’s going on with things such as the film itself, stars and all things to do with things such as Star Wars. People also comment on things such as twitter posts and Instagram posts and love what the actors are doing in life.

You also have post viewing experiences so this also includes even the major things such as an analysis but a film critique or a blogger that will go and watch the film then review it so that other people can have a read and get a feel for what the film and franchise are like and then you never know, they may go on to watch the film on the basis of what they’ve read from this and whether they like it. Most people feel this is the best way to get the word out and its also a factor in why films and franchises such as star wars get to where they are today.

• How may the conditions of reception play a role in the appeal of your film or franchise?

You also have Reception theory states that it is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes each particular reader’s reception or interpretation in making meaning from a literary text. Reception theory is generally referred to as audience reception in the analysis of communications models.

The way that people view or see films and especially ones such as Star Wars makes a huge difference in certain aspects.

Condition of reception plays a huge part in how people would see films such as Star Wars in many ways from how people view the characters and how the characters appeal to certain people because many people see things in a different way and a different light to what other people do. The films connects in a certain way and it’s made in a certain way so that it connects and grabs its audience and that’s why it’s become such a big franchise and hats why it is what it is today.

 

 

My Film Idea

In this blog I will be conducting some secondary research onto contemporary Hollywood. I am going to look closely at the sort of things that people would want to see and get from such type of film and then I will look at making a short idea for my own type of film.

10 audience research bullet point summary:

I conducted some primary research and asked people what they think they would like to see or get from a Contemporary Style Hollywood film.

1. Gripping and modern storylines that the audience can get in the thick of and really get an understanding of what’s going on in the scenes.
2. Films that have been influenced by other movements such as Hollywood New Wave.
3. Films that have been taken forward and gathered ideas from directors in the modern day such as Steven Spielberg type films.
4. A main character that the story’s developed round.
5. Support roles around the main character that are played by people that weren’t as well known as the main character was.
6. Movie based on a topic that has the world talking in the modern day.
7. Storylines we can relate to easily.
8. High spec camera work and graphic design.
9. A real modern day film.
10. A sense of freedom when filming and watching.

 

Task two – Film Design:

“The Flash”

This film is based around the idea that, Charles is in a back alley, he has a gun in his hands. We hear police sirens, he shudders and breaks into a sprint down the alley dives over a fence and lands in a back yard. He opens the door and enters this house and theirs an old man standing in the kitchen propped up by his walking stick. The old man proceeds to beat him up and swear at him before throwing him out the door. The old man roles the bleeding burglar out in to the alley. A woman comes up and asks him what happened and he says got beat up by a pensioner, the woman laughs and walks on.

 

Distribution and Justification:

The way that I am going to distribute my film is through the path of cinemas such as imax for it then to be released further on to online platforms such at Netflix.

The vast majority of the people that I spoke to when conducting research decided and told me that releasing the film in the cinema is the biggest hype that you can create when talking about film but releasing the film out onto online platforms after release and everyone sees it in the cinema gives everyone the chance to watch it again.

Millions and billions are spent on making film and distributing and I want to make the film as big a hit as what Jaws is in the modern-day era, if the film is interesting and appeals to a certain audience then it will get views.

Marketing plan and distribution:

The way I plan to distribute this film is through television ads as seeing through secondary figures that most things tend to get looked at and seen through television ads as it targets a wider range of people in the population.

Another way I want to target people is through billboards. Looking at research I have seen that a lot of people don’t get time to watch tv when they’re at work or commuting from their workplace so billboards will be a great way to target audiences of all ages.

 

Contemporary Hollywood Cinema

• Who funds production and what are the financial/artistic ambitions of the industry/film in question?

In contemporary Hollywood there are many ways that a production can get funded from anything through from investors to sales and marketing.

The main way that Hollywood productions get funded is through the film studios and their interest in the films that they are willing to put forward. Film studios become the investors in the film and they are presented a whole package and from this they decide if the like it or not and whether they are willing to take it forward into production but mainly they do so if the producers like it then they will take this forward and 9 times out of 10 this happens.

There are many companies that can become investors in the modern day in Hollywood and they include MGM, Twentieth century fox, Universal, Paramount and DreamWorks just to name a few with four out of the “big five” from the golden age existing to this current day.

When looking at financial/artistic ambitions of what the film and film company want to achieve it has to be pretty big scale mainly to make up all the money that they have spent making on that film and more so that they make a profit from things. Hollywood films are the most artistic in my opinion of this day and age and they achieve this through many things; Hollywood is prevalent for its big name stars and its gripping storylines but they have the authentic way of letting you live the life of the stars through them which, thoroughly, no other type of cinema has done throughout the years. You only have to look at a film such as Love Actually to see this, we as the viewer live the lives of the characters of Liam Neeson and Hugh Grant but then you have the blockbuster era where you have films such as jaws and Star Wars films that were big name high concept films and Steven Spielberg was the creator of all of this ‘era’.

• How is the film from your chosen industry distributed and exhibited? What impact does this have on audiences?

The 1975 picture, Jaws, was the first to have what is called a wide release movement; this is where it is eventually released across all platforms and becomes available to as many people worldwide as possible. When Jaws was released on June 20, 1975, it opened at 464 theatres. The release was subsequently expanded on July 25 to a total of 675 theatres, the largest simultaneous distribution of a film in motion picture history at the time. During the first weekend of wide release, Jaws grossed more than $7 million, and was the top grosser for the following five weeks.

Opening it out to cinemas first creates a real hype for the audience, not that this is needed for such a big film like Jaws but it creates the hype and suddenly become word of mouth where everyone is talking about it and after the hype has died down a little Universal can create a little more hype by releasing on DVD when everyone has been to see it in the cinemas.

• How do both genre and stars relate to your chosen film and industry?

Jaws is an adventure thriller which automatically, with a film such as Universals Jaws, give a real buzz of adrenaline where people can go and watch for escapism And really enjoy themselves when watching the film.

Having this hybrid genre gives the audience creative vision as to the way that they see and view the film and really encourage the creativity when the audience are watching the film which is something that most films do well, or encourage.

As Jaws nowadays is classed as an older film considering it was made in 1975 we don’t see the film as having any big name actors in which we don’t really relate to anything because we don’t see them as big so were purely watching the film for the film and the film only.

Roy Schneider and Richard Dreyfuss are two of the main actors in the storyline and back in the time they would have been real big names but they’re important and the directors and Universal have chosen them specifically for the role and they feel they offer something key and important to the role so that the film is played out in said way they want it to go and I think that this video really goes against the normal stereotype where in high concept film we want and expect to see the big name stars but this really goes against it and they have chosen the right actors for the right roles.

Film Theory Feature: Star Theory

This analytical article will be on the film feature of Star theory as a specific film discipline and this blog will hopefully explain what the theory itself is and why it is important to the study of film and hopefully this will be shown through two films and stars in those film and secondary research that has been done.

The theory chosen; star theory, is the theory that the star is the main person and at the forefront of what we see on screen and is associated with Hollywood and all the fame around it. The Star as a Construction – The image of bands/artists that has been created by management in the industry through advertising, product placement, television etc. This will outline the stars Unique Selling Point with any signature moves which will help construct the star around the specific needs of the target audience

Richard Dyers star theory is the idea that celebrities are made by institutions for money. He believes that stars are made in a way to represent ‘real people’ experiencing real emotions. Stars are made by the industry to serve a purpose; to make money out of audience, who respond to various elements of a star’s personality by becoming fans. (2)

Dyer thought that it was more than just the face and it was all about the Hollywood look. (1)

One film that I decided to take a look at when talking about star theory is the famous “meet the fockers” that was made in 2004 and has the critically acclaimed actor in that is Robert De Niro and what we first noticed about Robert De Niro  is that in “meet the fockers” he doesn’t play his stereotypical role as we’ve seen him before in things such as “goodfellas” and using Richard Dyers theory we can break it down.

His promotion asssets are based on his frontal from goodfellas and this is where we see him as the hard man that nobody would dare messing with but you then flip it and put him in a xcomedy such as meet the fockers and we see this nice sided grandad that doesn’t play to the stereotype that Robert De Niro gives off. De Niro then gets the positive press coverage to go with all of this seeing the transition that he made from 1990 goodfellas to 2004 critically acclaimed meet the fockers as we now see him as the funny guy and hes presented across as the nice guy that everyone warms to.

Then in the films that De Niro’s done, stars are usually associated with certain films and sometimes charcters and people who play them are seen to go against the stereotype of what happens or what we think should happen but we see and think that De Niro should be the hard man and curious but in meet the fockers we get this nice grandad figure that seems very caring and always have the right intentions. Finally, you move into their overall way of doing things and the claims and criticisms of their work and Robert De Niro in meet the fockers is critically acclaimed and hes successful at being a non-controversial award winning actor in his prime.

Another theorist that there is was composed by Christine Gledhill (3) and it applies to both films spoken about in this piece. Christine Gledhill mainly argues that stars reach their audience through their bodies in other words their appearance. Female stars have historically had the fact that there have been few serious roles for older and more mature women.

Again using Dyers theory and the theory of Christine Gledhill we can take a look at two more actors and two more films. We can take a look at Johnny Depp in a film such as pirates of the Caribbean and Leonardo Di Caprio in the wolf of wall street.

Firstly we look at promotion and on the covers of the two films you have Depp looking all cool and almost smug like in stature and people get this from him and straight away this is how the audience perceive this Hollywood actor to be and then you Di Caprio looking the same way on the front of the promotional campaign poster which is also giving off the same connotations in a similar way to how Depp is on his promotional campaign.

Then you look at publicity and what I known from or about the star from the press coverage that one gets and both Depp and Di Caprio get opposite sides of the press coverage. Depp being the bad one with many news stories coming out about him in the news the audience then sees a different side to the man that they believe to be the good guy on screen where as we see Di Caprio as the humble one as going right to the stereotypes that we see behind the camera and on the screen.

Thirdly you look at the films that they are or have been in and you look at Johnny Depp from before all his films were out he had negative press which didn’t help his on screen character which we saw as quite a qwerky human being which gave off this bad persona. Di Caprio starred in films where it’s a serious undertone but has taken on many films where his character and whole persona has to change and he’s a great example of someone who is and can be very versatile to the role and can literally adapt and bring in freshness to any role that is handed to him.

Bibliography of reference:

1. Star theory sheet from textbook studied.
2. http://gabriellaa2media.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/richard-dyer-star-theory.html
3. http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/stars_and_star/
4. Star theory sheet from textbook studied.

 

Saving Private Ryan: Critical Analysis

Saving Private Ryan is a Steven Spielberg 1998 war film. The film presents a realistic depiction of the lives and deaths of the allied forces during the period of World War II. Based upon the Normandy Landings; a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed whilst in action. Amongst the fighting two brothers get shot in the battle whilst a third is then later killed too. Mrs Ryan is the given the telegrams of the three men’s deaths which proceeds into the army chief of staff sending out men to retrieve the fourth brother and bring him back to homeland. This scene that I will now articulate over will discuss such topics as genre, mise en scene and lighting to name a few. 

 

To begin the scene, it opens with low cut panning shot of the beach focusing in on the symbols fixated in the sandy beach. The lighting in this segment of the scene is chosen to be dark and undertone in volume and gives real meaning straight away to the fact that the troops are in a real tough and dark time and there’s almost no light at the end of the tunnel and using the desaturated colours brings out the tragedy and emotion and the real sense of verisimilitude in the scene and that is also in the film which  gives off the fact that were almost there and as if we’re there seeing the dark and naturalistic colours too along with what the characters are seeing. Using the dark three point style lighting also added realism and made you feel the sort of dampness that the characters in the movie were feeling at the time.

 

Sound in Saving Private Ryan is carefully chosen too as Spielberg used loud noises and well as the soundtrack help to create verisimilitude as the loudness of the noises such as the gunshots which are diegetic sound and they make us feel as if we are in the scene with them and feeling the drama and terror that the soldiers are feeling at that specific time of them mounting the breach in battle. Spielberg also creates a mood through the lack of sound too as there are many silences in the scene and this is done with a purpose so that we feel the silence that they feel when a gunshot has gone off and this represents the silence and pinging noise that happens when a loud bang has gone off and this is represented to us in a clever manor to provide a sense of reality.

 

The mise en scene of Saving Private Ryan helps to portray the military image that the director is trying to get across in the scene. Saving Private Ryan was set on the Normandy beaches where the two sets of soldiers went to battle after arriving on the shores and this mise en scene is pivotal to the scene and the film in general because this is significant to all of the families as this was the battleground where their loved ones died and this feature gives off the sense of realism and the natural effect that most movies don’t have so Saving Private Ryan can say they’ve got a natural gem here. The Normandy beach may also have been chosen due to small things that the director would have picked up on such as the Czech hedgehogs that we see at the very start of the scene and these symbolise the standing together proudness of the army soldiers and secondly, just down to the weather, the weather down by the beach and any seafront in countries such as this is one is usually very dim and dark which adds to the scene and compliments it perfectly.

 

Costume in the scene is an accurate view of what the soldiers would have exactly looked like when they actually turned up to battle in Normandy and you can tell straight away through things such as the whiteness on Tom Hanks’ characters helmet that he’s one of the leaders or generals that plays a very important role in the scene and this little small detail helps us to achieve that understanding as soon as we are introduced to the character. Props also help to create the serious and worrying times that we as an audience are meant to feel and at the same time empathise with the characters as you have the usual props such as the helmets and the canteen flasks but its these flasks that are used to clever effect to show that they are going to one of the bloodiest and scariest battles fought in a long while. The camera closes in on the characters shaking hands whilst holding the canteen iron flask and this clever use of a prop gets the message over straight away to the audience that the character is scared and anxious as to what may happen to him and his crew next in the battle.

 

 

Saving Private Ryan: Scene Analysis

Saving Private Ryan is a Steven Spielberg 1998 war film. The film presents a realistic depiction of the lives and deaths of the allied forces during the period of World War II. Based upon the Normandy Landings; a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed whilst in action. Amongst the fighting two brothers get shot in the battle whilst a third is then later killed too. Mrs Ryan is the given the telegrams of the three men’s deaths which proceeds into the army chief of staff sending out men to retrieve the fourth brother and bring him back to homeland. This scene that I will now articulate over will discuss such topics as genre, mise en scene and lighting to name a few. 

To begin the scene, it opens with low cut panning shot of the beach focusing in on the symbols fixated in the sandy beach. The lighting in this segment of the scene is chosen to be dark and undertone in volume and gives real meaning straight away to the fact that the troops are in a real tough and dark time and there’s almost no light at the end of the tunnel and using the desaturated colours brings out the tragedy and emotion and the real sense of verisimilitude in the scene and that is also in the film which  gives off the fact that were almost there and as if we’re there seeing the dark and naturalistic colours too along with what the characters are seeing. Using the dark three point style lighting also added realism and made you feel the sort of dampness that the characters in the movie were feeling at the time.

Sound in Saving Private Ryan is carefully chosen too as Spielberg used loud noises and well as the soundtrack help to create verisimilitude as the loudness of the noises such as the gunshots which are diegetic sound and they make us feel as if we are in the scene with them and feeling the drama and terror that the soldiers are feeling at that specific time of them mounting the breach in battle. Spielberg also creates a mood through the lack of sound too as there are many silences in the scene and this is done with a purpose so that we feel the silence that they feel when a gunshot has gone off and this represents the silence and pinging noise that happens when a loud bang has gone off and this is represented to us in a clever manor to provide a sense of reality.

 The mise en scene of Saving Private Ryan helps to portray the military image that the director is trying to get across in the scene. Saving Private Ryan was set on the Normandy beaches where the two sets of soldiers went to battle after arriving on the shores and this mise en scene is pivotal to the scene and the film in general because this is significant to all of the families as this was the battleground where their loved ones died and this feature gives off the sense of realism and the natural effect that most movies don’t have so Saving Private Ryan can say they’ve got a natural gem here. The Normandy beach may also have been chosen due to small things that the director would have picked up on such as the Czech hedgehogs that we see at the very start of the scene and these symbolise the standing together proudness of the army soldiers and secondly, just down to the weather, the weather down by the beach and any seafront in countries such as this is one is usually very dim and dark which adds to the scene and compliments it perfectly.

Costume in the scene is an accurate view of what the soldiers would have exactly looked like when they actually turned up to battle in Normandy and you can tell straight away through things such as the whiteness on Tom Hanks’ characters helmet that he’s one of the leaders or generals that plays a very important role in the scene and this little small detail helps us to achieve that understanding as soon as we are introduced to the character. Props also help to create the serious and worrying times that we as an audience are meant to feel and at the same time empathise with the characters as you have the usual props such as the helmets and the canteen flasks but its these flasks that are used to clever effect to show that they are going to one of the bloodiest and scariest battles fought in a long while. The camera closes in on the characters shaking hands whilst holding the canteen iron flask and this clever use of a prop gets the message over straight away to the audience that the character is scared and anxious as to what may happen to him and his crew next in the battle.