Monday, 28 November 2011

Sherlock Holmes 2

 
How much did it costs to make?: The information is not available yet, but the original cost 90 million, but the second one will probably cost a bit more around 150 million.
Where is it filmed? In the United Kingdom and The United States. Sherlock Holmes is from England so they have tried to film as much as they could in the United Kingdom. Sherlock Holmes are todays James Bond.
What actors are in it and why?:
Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock Holmes because he is English and famous (e.g Iron man).
Jude Law as Dr. John Watson because he is English and famous (The Holiday a English/American Rom-Com).
Kelly Reilly as Marcy Morstan Watson
Geraldine James as Mrs. Hudsont
What is appeal of the film?: A started to be a book, but have been made to film or TV shows many time. It has a big audience. It’s a very expensive movie so it will most likely have some specials effect.
A red carpet event, the actors of the movies, fans, a-list people, paparazzi, interviewer, autographs, scenery, BCC, widen the demographic, PR (public relation), more money,  


Why does the British audience like these films? (big budget film – Hollywood film): The British audience like these kind of movies because there is a lot of media around them, attention and they create an interesting atmosphere about it.    

 

Sunday, 20 November 2011

Mood Board





 A mood board is a type of a poster design that you can make to develope you ideas about a movie. It is made to get inspiration. It can consist of images, text and samples of objects in a composition of the choice of the mood board creator.
Rom-Com

In my mood board for Rom-Com have I chosen to show some pictures of some famous cities (New York City and Paris) because Rom-com movies always are in big towns.  In every Rom-Com movie is there a love story between at least two people, somehow a wedding, dates, alcohol, shopping, night clubbing etc..  I have chosen to have a picture of: Jennifer Aniston because she is the best example of an actor from a Rom-Com, she has been in a lot of Rom-Com movies. She have been in “The break-up”, “Marley and Me”, “The Bounty Hunter” etc. but she is most famous from the American TV show “Friends”.  Another actor I have a picture of is: Ashton Kutcher; he have also been in a lot of Rom-com example “What happens in Vegas”, “Just married” and a lot more.  I also have a picture of Cameron Diaz she is also a well known Rom-Com actor. She have been in “Charlie’s Angels”, also “What happens in Vegas”, “My best friend’s
wedding” etc.


Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His movies have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. He is world known and is probably the most famous male actor known in the Rom-Com category. He has been in a lot of English Rom-Coms but also in a lot of Americans. He is the face of a Rom-Com actor!
Horror

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres. Horrors also frequently overlap with the thriller genre. In my mood board have I chosen a lot of scary picture most of the pictures are dark or have supernatural creatures. Some are just foggy pictures, but there always happen something bad when it’s foggy. In a Horror movie are there always some victims and usually is it a love couple or two members of a family there are the only ones to survive in the end. So I have also chosen some pictures with that.


Thriller

In my Thriller Mood Board have I chosen to have some pictures of guns, agents, cars etc. because for me thrillers are usually about men in action with fast cars, weapons/violence and lots of moneys. I have some different pictures of Matt Damon because he is one of the most popularly thriller actors we have in these days, but I also chose to have a picture of agent 007 because he is probably the most famous character known through thriller movies. Angelina Jolie is todays most known female actor in thrillers throughout the world. Think the latest one she made was “Salt” or “The Tourist”.
In Thriller movies are there always a pretty young blonde lady there make it difficult for the main man actor during the movie. She’s either very bad and is trying to cheat the main man actor by using what god gave to her or very good and make him fall in love and then he need to safe her from something or someone etc..  


sources: www.wikipedia.com

Monday, 14 November 2011

Contrasting and comparing the opening of romantic comedy

How to lose a guy in 10 days

Kate Hudson is playing: Andie Anderson. 
Matthew McConaughey is playing: Benjamin "Ben" Berry.
It was released in 2003. It is based on a short cartoon book of the same name by Michelle Alexander and Jeannie Long.When the logo “Paramount” is shown is some music over it which is very unusual, but here it tells us that it’s a comedy or at least not a horror movie because of the happy pop music. In the beginning when the titles are coming its coming through a mix of magazines we don’t know yet that those magazines are important, but we kinda get the feeling that they are.  
The first one we see is Andie: she is blond, but she is different from the stereotypes of a blond girl. She works at a fashion magazine as a journalist where she is writing about fashion, make up, what guys like in a women etc. but she would rather like to write about politics, the environment etc.
The titles fade out/ slash in; the surnames are bigger than the first name. In both entries of the characters are there songs playing. When we see Andie the first time is a very girly pop song playing at the same time. We kinda get the feeling of that she has a very bubbly personality just because of the song. When we see Ben the first time is he wearing a leather jacket, riding a motorbike and the music is this time more pop rock, which gives us the impression that he is a little bad boy or a bachelor. He’s the kinda guy their flirts his way out of everything. Every thing is in New York city.
So under 5 minutes have two songs already been playing.

Andie finds herself writing an article called "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days". Andie tells her boss that, to write more freely and creatively, she will date a man and do all the wrong things women tend to do in relationships, and record her experiences for the article. At the same time, avertising executive Ben tells his boss that he can make any woman fall in love with him in just ten days. To prove it, he will find a woman and bring her to the upcoming company ball as his date. If he succeeds, he gets to be in charge of the advertising for the new diamond company account otherwise headed by his boss.



The movie is directed by Donald Petrie.






Just like heaven 
Reese Witherspoon is playing: Dr. Elizabeth Masterson.
Mark Ruffalo is playing: David Abbott.
Just like heaven is Distributed by "DreamWorks". It was released in 2005. It is based on the novel "If only it were true" by Marc Levy.
The titles are drifting/flowing in, it’s very bright colours and a famous girly pop song is playing as the introduction music to the film. After the logo for DreamWorks is the camera flowing down like it came from heaven into a garden full with flowers in the colours pink, red, yellow and orange. In the garden is there a woman, Elizabeth, she is surrounded by the flowers with close eyes, which give us the feeling like she is dreaming.

The first titles name we see is Reese Witherspoon which tells us that she is more important than the male actor (Mark Ruffalo) or more famous than him. When Elizabeth finally wakes up from her dream she’s at a hospital, because she is a doctor (opposite as what the blond stereotypes are). She kinda become an inspiration for people not only in the film but for everyone because she is intelligent and has a good job.

We quickly find out that she is not in a relationship, have no friends, no family (children or a husband) the only thing she does have is work. Her sister is the exact opposite of Elizabeth she have two kids, married, have a house and is cooking for her family dinner. The sister is also looking out for Elizabeth and found her a date, while they are talking together over the phone is Elizabeth in a car accident. (This just tells us not to talk in the phone while driving a car).
Three months later, David, a landscape architect recovering from the death of his wife, moves into Elizabeth's  old apartment. Elizabeth begins to appear to David at the apartment. However with ghostly properties and abilities it is clear something is not normal: She can suddenly appear and disappear, move through walls, and once takes over his actions. When they meet, they are both surprised, as Elizabeth is not aware yet of her condition. For the most part, David is the only one who can see Elizabeth, leading others to believe that he is hallucinating and talking to himself. It is later revealed that one of Elizabeth's young nieces can also sense her presence although she cannot see her.
The movie is in San Francisco.





The movie is directed by Mark Waters.

Thursday, 10 November 2011

Christian Metz model of genre development

Generic elements



The 4 elements:


1) The experimental
- by experimantal we mean the phase of early films which explored  and experimantal with horro themes in its narratives.




Like; Nosferaru from 1922. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (translated as Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror; also known as Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror or just Nosferatu) is a classic 1922 German Expressionist Horror film, directed by F. W. Murnau, starring Max Schreck as the  vampire Couns Orlok. The film, shot in 1921 and released in 1922, was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with names and other details changed because the studio could not obtain the rights to the novel (for instance, "vampire" became "Nosferatu" and "Count Dracula" became "Count Orlok"). The movie just came out after the Second World War, so the Germans had seen worse before. This was the first and last Prana Film; the company declared bankruptcy after Bram Stoker's estate, acting for his widow, Florence Stoker, sued for copyright infringement and won. The court ordered all existing prints of Nosferatu burned, but one purported copy of the film had already been distributed around the world. These prints were duplicated over the years. The movie has received not only a strong cult following, but also has received overwhelmingly positive reviews.

2) The Classic
- by classic we mean the phase of films which established the narrative conventions of the horror genre in its most sussessful and defining period.




Like; Frankenstein from 1931. It's a Pre-code Horror Monster film from Universal Pictures directed be James Whale and adapted from the play by Peggy Webling which in turn is based on the novled of the same name by Mary Shelly.

3) The Parody
- by parody we mean films that have mimicked the horror genre in some comical way.




Like; Carry On Screaming! from 1966. Carry On Screaming! Is the twelfth Carry On film and was released in 1966. It was the last of the series to be distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated before the series moved to The Rank Organisation. It was originally rated in the UK as an 'A' (adult), it is currently rated 'PG' (parental guidance). Of the regular cast, it features Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims. It also features Harry H. Corbett in his only Carry On andvFenella Fielding  making her second and final appearance. Angela Douglas makes the second of her four Carry On appearances. Carry On Screaming! is a parody of the Hammer horror films, which were also popular at the time, and follows a plot similar to that of the 1953 film House of Wax.

4) The Deconstruction
- by deconstructions we mean films which have taken the generic elements of horror genre and amalgamated them into varying sub genres.




Like the Sixth Sense from 1999.The Sixth Sense is a 1999 Ame;rican psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film tells the story of Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a troubled, isolated boy who is able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist (Bruce Willis) who tries to help him. The film established Shyamalan as a writer and director, and introduced the cinema public to his traits, most notably his affinity for surprise endings. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

sources; http://www.wikipedia.com/

Thursday, 3 November 2011

Task 2: Research into existing products

Red dragon - directed by Brett Ratner.

It has a pre-title sequence

Logo universal and DDLC





Mise en scene
A real theatre
On a street (a rich place)


It’s an American movie, but looks very English because of the street and the building (looks a bit like London). We can see that they are rich because of the champagne, live candlelight, the clothes etc..


Camera angles
The titles fade in. Some part of the names are red and some are white: good vs. bad, on a black background which mean danger. It could maybe mean that the actors are good in the beginning and then turn bad.
Baltimore, Maryland 1980 - High angle down at the scene.
A crane shot over the conductor down at the audience, but one man stands out (our main actor) into a close up where you can see that he is worried. Then you are seeing what makes him worried (another man) on the scene. All his focus is now on the man on the scene instead of on the music.


In the house: low angle at the main actor in a three shot while he is standing up, which make him look big and important.


Editing
Shot- reverse-shot between our mian actor and the man he is seeing on the scene
Invisible cuts
The crane shot I described before in camera angles is also a "slowmotion" which is a stylistic edit, which serves to slow down an action and draw our attention to it. So all the attention was on the man.


Sound
In the beginning the music there is playing is what the actors is hearing as well (diegetic sound).
When the titles is going on in the beginning there is some mystery music, and it turns loud when the name Red dragon is shown, after that the music just keep being mystery. The high music at the "red dragon" make us want to know some more about the movie and somehow tells us that the movie is a scary/horror movie.


Special effects
The opening; the main names characters is coming first.
Its like a scrapbook, someone its writing and cutting pictures out. The pictures are black and white which tells us that its old pictures. The first picture of him its where his wearing some nice clothes with a glass of champagne in his hand, so its before he went to prison.
The person who is making this scrapbook is one who admired him.
Shot movement.

Tuesday, 1 November 2011