My AS Coursework Blog

Monday, 25 November 2013

Review of Harry's Dredd Essay

Harry elaborated his points by using numerous examples of films to back up his points. Whether it was to name films the actors were in, or listing films that included similar or complete opposite statistics, Harry expanded his answer to its maximum via different techniques which were all effective. These points, alongside his facts about budget, comparison budgets and income really nailed down why Dredd did fail at the Box Office.

He links his statistics and facts back to his opinion, which creates effect for the reader to not be swayed by what he is saying but believe every word. The reason this is important is because it gets the point across smoothly but extremely quickly and avoids an excess in unimportant information.

By confidently using a negative semantic field of vocabulary, Harry put his points across sharply that Dredd flopped at the Box Office, and links them back through his opinion to the question. By doing this he gained a B grade mark, which is reflected in his writing. Harry's clear line of argument is represented through his constant opinion. By linking back to it after each point, he made out his opinion almost outweighed the facts as if they were supporting him.

To be critical about Harry's response, he could add in additional alternative vocabulary, rather than repeating the same words. 'Cult' seems to be used a bit too much, and different words could make it progressively more fluent. By expanding his knowledge with in the marketing area, he would use excelling understanding if backed up by his forceful opinion.

Global Institution Domination Essay


Tuesday, 19 November 2013

Exam Question Research

Dredd:

Budget - $45 million
Box Office Gross - $36.5 million
Distributed by Entertainment Film and Lionsgate
Running times 95 minutes
Sci-Fi Action Genre
Produced by: DNA Films, IM Global and Reliance Entertainment
 
Actors:
Dredd - Karl Urban
Judge Cassandra Anderson - Olivia Thurlby
Kay - Wood Harris
MaMa - Lena Heady
 
Location it was filmed in was mainly South Africa, the rest was produced in CGI, the costumes tend to be of a science fiction genre.
 
This film took $6,278,491 (USA) (21 September 2012) on the opening weekend.
UK Opening Gross: £1,049,345 and was viewed on 415 screens
 
Dredd is known as an 'exclusive with limited runs release', as it was extremely difficult to find where abouts you could watch it in the cinema as it was screened very narrowly.

Star Trek: Into Darkness:

Budget - £190 million
Box Office Gross - $470 million
Distributed by Paramount Pictures (Big Six)
Running time 133 minutes
Sci-Fi Genre
Produced by: Bad Robot Productions, K/O Paper Productions and SkyDance Productions

Actors:
Chris Pine - Captain Kirk
Benedict Cumberbatch - Khaan
Simon Pegg - Scotty
Zoe Saldana - Uhura
Alice Eve - Dr Marcus
Zachary Quinto - Spock
Karl Urban - Doctor

Star Trek was predominantly filmed with in warehouses, however spaceships are filmed on real life huge dustbins and edited away to look Sci-Fi like. They also used an element of CGI, however JJ Abrams (director) wanted to produce as much props as possible and edit them to make it look more life like and real. The scene in which contains the volcano was filmed via a helicopter, this shows that due to a large budget they can create a variety of camera angles to put empathy with in the scene. CGI however wasn't used for the spaceship scene when Khan comes to attack Starfleet because Abrams wanted it to be more lifelike. The 1000 watts of electricity was used for a few seconds in a scene, this will have cost a lot of money from the budget for a few seconds, however due to large sum of money they have for this film they are able to splash out on accessories and novelties to make the film so much more real.
Star Trek Producers (Paramount) hired a dialect coach, in order for the role of Uhura to ensure the 'alien' language was perfectly produced and pronounced. A British company wouldn't afford this due to the lack of budget, and therefore this makes Star Trek widely successful once again due to the huge budget.
The first 2 minutes of the film shows Captain Kirk and Doctor running through a 'jungle' made from entirely red painted trees, and yes they were painted, by hand. The set managers spent months preparing and producing hundreds and hundreds of trees each with a couple dozen branches and millions of leaves. Without the scale of budget Star Trek had, this wouldn't have been possible at all, as it was very time consuming and costly.

Star Trek used IMAX camera for 30 minutes of the film
This film took $70,165,559 (USA) (17 May 2013) on the opening weekend at the cinema

Star Trek was a wide release film, as it had a heavy investment in all areas in order to ensure its success.

On the opening weekend, Star Trek: Into Darkness was viewed across the UK on 555 different screens. In the second weekend of release it then dropped to 512 screenings throughout the UK.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount have production deals with the following institutions:

  • Bad Robot
  • Di Bonaventura Pictures
  • Disruption Entertainment
  • Fake Empire
  • Michaels Goldwyn Co.
  • Montecito Picture Co.
  • Platinum Dunes
  • Plan B Entertainment
  • SkyDance Productions


  • Paramount are a parent company for DreamWorks

    Films Produced: Shrek, Transformers, Mission: Impossible, Marvel Cinematic Universe (2008-2011), Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Jackass, Beverly Hills Cop, "Crocodile" Dundee, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Paranormal Activity, GI Joe and Friday The 13th


    Entertainment Film

    Based in London
    Distribute films made by New Line Cinema

    What they have Distributed this year:
  • Beautiful Creatures
  • Her
  • The Butler
  • American Hustle
  • The Harry Hill Movie
  • Romeo & Juliet

  • They also distributed the whole of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy


    Lionsgate

    Canadian Entertainment Company

    Industry: Motion pictures, television programming, home video, family entertainment, Video on demand, digital distribution, music, & music publishing

    Serves Areas such as United Kingdom, North America, France and Australasia

    Subsidiaries:
    Celestial Tiger Entertainment (Joint venture)
    Debmar-Mercury
    Mandate Pictures
    Pantelion Films
    Roadside Attractions
    Sea to Sky Entertainment
    Summit Entertainment
    TVGN (joint venture)
    Epix (joint venture)
    CodeBlack Films

    Films they have distributed:
    Dirty Dancing, Earth Girls are Easy, Army of One, Total Recall, On Golden Pond, and the Rambo series.
    Lionsgate also distributes select NBC programs such as Will & Grace, Little House on the Prairie and The Biggest Loser; Mattel's Barbie




    Exam Question Practice

    “Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and services to national audiences” To what extent do you agree with this statement?



    Topic - UK an US Film


    Aspect - Media Production


    Viewpoint - Global Institutions                                           


    Instruction - To what extent (evaluate)

     

           

     

            What I need to know in order to answer the question:

    • Information about two films (1 US and 1 UK, with statistics and facts) Box office, budget, actors, genre etc
    • One of the Big Six - linked with US film (Evaluating Star Trek: Into Darkness - Paramount) - what they own, what they have produced, how successful
    • Production companies UK films (usually 2 or more - Dredd - Entertainment Film and Lionsgate) - what they own collectively and separately, who owns them, films produced, any other type of media influence etc
    • How Star Trek and Dredd are produced - location, props, lighting, cameras, colour, costume
    • National Audiences - Cinema viewings down to distribution and release of films nationally
    • Add opinion with facts - evaluate how negatively UK institutions cannot affect the US big six and why




    Tuesday, 12 November 2013

    British Institution Research

    Screen Yorkshire has been running for over ten years, with an aim to not only provide support for Britain within the film industry, but to make Humber and Yorkshire the most sought after destination for productions in the UK. Investments made by Screen Yorkshire are purposely made to develop talent and content in specific films they target. This is the largest organisation in the UK that invests in content (£15 million). Investments are made on market rate commercial terms with an intention to make sure investment returns are going to produce a legacy fund to support the development of content and production for TV and Film in Yorkshire.
    Screen Yorkshire also run highly regarded talent schemes, such as 'The List' and 'Triangle'. The idea behind these schemes is to encourage national and regional talent to progressively excel in the TV and Film industries.

           Examples of Screen Yorkshire Production:
    • Wuthering Heights
    • Kill List
    • A Passionate Woman
    • The Damned United
    • Tyrannosaur
    • Red Riding
    • This is England '86




    Film 4 started out as a production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation in 1982. It was initially responsible for the production of films with in the UK and across the world. It was originally known as 'FilmFour' to coincide and support the launch of channel 4. In 2002 it was made available to a larger range of customers, instead of just being on the market for subscription to people with SKY and digital terrestrial via ITV. Cuts were then made towards the end of 2002 as Film4 couldn't compete against Hollywood, this meant a decrease in budget (£30 million to £10 million) and a loss of 50 jobs. In 2006 the channel re-launched as 'Film4 Productions' the channel then became free, which boosted viewers from 300,000 subscribers to 18 million households. Broadcasting hours were then increased, and advert breaks during the films would then occur. The original idea for Film4 was that it didn't broadcast big Hollywood blockbusters, however nowadays do. Film4+1 was dropped in August 2007 on satellite, cable and freeview and then replaced with channel 4+1, however then returned in August 2013.

           Examples of Film4 Productions:
    • Never Let Me Go
    • Slumdog Millionaire
    • Dead Mans Shoes
    • The Lovely Bones
    • The Inbetweeners Movie
    • Dr.Easy
    • 12 Years a Slave



    Studio Canal was founded in 1999, which established a reputation for an innovative approach to distribution with in the film industry in the UK. With an aim to work collectively with filmmakers to achieve brilliant results. It is one of Europe’s leading companies in the market for co-production, acquisition, distribution and sale of international feature films. This is the only company which has three main territories in Europe (Germany, UK and France). Studio Canal distribute more than 50 films a year across Europe, and owns one of the most important libraries in the world, which itself holds over 5,000 titles.

           Examples of Films Distributed via Studio Canal:
    • Drug War
    • Rush
    • Robocop
    • In Fear
    • Non-Stop
    • Alan Partidge - Alpha Papa
    • The Bling Ring




    Warp Films is an independent institution in the UK, with a secondary company Warp Films Australia, based in Melbourne. It was officially founded by Warp Records (Rob Mitchell and Steve Beckett). When created, Warp Films gained financial support from NESTA and had to remit and produce a selection of short films. The first short film created - 'My Wrongs' (2002) which then went on to win a BAFTA in 2003, following that then became the first short film DVD single in the UK. Warp Films have worked alongside Channel 4 and Screen Yorkshire numerous times to create films that they feel will turn out successful nationally.


         
           Examples of Warp Film Productions:
    • Dog Altogether
    • Hush
    • Curtains
    • Four Lions
    • The Midnight Beast
    • Grow Your Own
    • Arctic Monkeys At The Apollo