Pre production is one of the main elements of film making, but difficult to get information on. Shynola said that the process of getting their films off the ground starts with work going to them, rather than them finding commercial work. Usually, the film/video directors are given a song or a script to look at, while there is already dates, budget and the airtime booked.
However, the film that Shynola are trying to make at the moment is one they have been writing for over two years, and one unsolicited. In this case, rather than work finding them, they bought the rights to the book that they are making a film of. Once the script was polished, Shynola planned to show the draft to friends, then get the view of an outsider and a layman. They would then tweak anything that needed to be, and finish the first draft properly, mailing it to those on the rollerdex; two production companies here and in the US, who have connections with Ridley Scott's and Francis Ford Coppola film companies. If they are not possible companies to produce the film, Shynola know someone at Warp films, though there would then be difficulty in finding the funds required for it. They will potentially get agents in America, and then as it is a film set in England, hope to get money from France and possibly Canal+, though a main problem is the funds, and where to find them.
Shynola hope to show film making in a truer light; rather than posting pictures of meeting famous people, they will try to show how something is made, how the ideas come about and how they develop.
After the draft of the script was mailed to film companies, the project was frozen. They had meetings with agents and small studios, getting the response of both excitement and interest, and 'critical damnation.' .........
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
The King's Speech Poster
The two banner posters for The King's Speech convey general information about the film, such as the cast, reviews and date of release. The reviews are by critics from well known sources such as Empire and Daily Mail to bring in a wide range of audience.
On the character poster of Colin Firth as King George VI, the basic information on the film is at the bottom, in smaller writing on the centre of the page. The main text is in the middle in the biggest font, reading "God Save the King" which is to draw attention to the tagline; appealing to British audiences in particular, and those interested in the history of England. The image goes well with this, as Colin Firth's facial expression is expressing calm authority as King, looking stern and powerful, making eye contact.
There is more text on the poster of Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, with many film critics. The reviews also may appeal to British audiences as strong adjectives which are typically English such as "marvellous" and "exquisite" are used, which will encourage people to watch it. The rest of the informative text is organized in the exact same way as the Colin Firth one; keeping it simple and well structured. The facial expression of Geoffrey Rush is less stern, with him not looking at the camera, yet he is smiling kindly; reflecting both his character in the film and the reviews which are on the poster.
The genre and style of the film is portrayed well through the colour, message, image and layout used. By using the neutral colours of black and white, contrasting against the gold of 'The King's Speech' this indicates the genre, as gold has connotations of royalty and prosperity. This combines well with the expressions of both of the characters; you would expect a King to look determined and strong. As well as the reviews and tagline being associated with typical English language, the adjectives in the reviews can also be linked to royalty; "majestic", giving the viewer a sense of the film's subject style.
By including not only Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush in the information for cast on the poster, but also actors such as Helena Bonham Carter, Timothy Spall and Michael Gambon, this will appeal to a wider audience range; as well as encouraging audiences due to them being extremely well known actors, their fans would also go to see the film.
On the character poster of Colin Firth as King George VI, the basic information on the film is at the bottom, in smaller writing on the centre of the page. The main text is in the middle in the biggest font, reading "God Save the King" which is to draw attention to the tagline; appealing to British audiences in particular, and those interested in the history of England. The image goes well with this, as Colin Firth's facial expression is expressing calm authority as King, looking stern and powerful, making eye contact.
There is more text on the poster of Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, with many film critics. The reviews also may appeal to British audiences as strong adjectives which are typically English such as "marvellous" and "exquisite" are used, which will encourage people to watch it. The rest of the informative text is organized in the exact same way as the Colin Firth one; keeping it simple and well structured. The facial expression of Geoffrey Rush is less stern, with him not looking at the camera, yet he is smiling kindly; reflecting both his character in the film and the reviews which are on the poster.
The genre and style of the film is portrayed well through the colour, message, image and layout used. By using the neutral colours of black and white, contrasting against the gold of 'The King's Speech' this indicates the genre, as gold has connotations of royalty and prosperity. This combines well with the expressions of both of the characters; you would expect a King to look determined and strong. As well as the reviews and tagline being associated with typical English language, the adjectives in the reviews can also be linked to royalty; "majestic", giving the viewer a sense of the film's subject style.
By including not only Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush in the information for cast on the poster, but also actors such as Helena Bonham Carter, Timothy Spall and Michael Gambon, this will appeal to a wider audience range; as well as encouraging audiences due to them being extremely well known actors, their fans would also go to see the film.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Red One Filmography
"Red Canvas" was the first ever feature film which was shot and completed on the Red One 4k. Both parts of "Che" were shot by Steven Soderbergh, the director, using only Red One camera. He later said that "Red is going to change everything," being "jaw-dropping imagery," and an amazingly light camera. Because Soderbergh enjoyed Red One so much the first time, he used it again for both "The Girlfriend Experience" and "The Informant!"
"District 9," nominated for four Academey Awards, was mostly shot using Red One cameras.
Not everyone was so pleased with Red One; Werner Herzog said "It drove me insane," due to the camera's long reboot times, calling it immature and extremely badly created. The film that he used Red One for was "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?"
Shows such as "Leverage" have used the cameras for all of their episodes, "Degrassi: The Next Generation" using them from the tenth season onwards. The first television series in North America to use the Red One camera exclusively was "Sanctuary."
At 4k resolution, the successful "The Social Network" was shot on the Red One camera in 2010, as was "Yakshiyum Njanum," being the first Malayalam film shot using it.
"District 9," nominated for four Academey Awards, was mostly shot using Red One cameras.
Not everyone was so pleased with Red One; Werner Herzog said "It drove me insane," due to the camera's long reboot times, calling it immature and extremely badly created. The film that he used Red One for was "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?"
Shows such as "Leverage" have used the cameras for all of their episodes, "Degrassi: The Next Generation" using them from the tenth season onwards. The first television series in North America to use the Red One camera exclusively was "Sanctuary."
At 4k resolution, the successful "The Social Network" was shot on the Red One camera in 2010, as was "Yakshiyum Njanum," being the first Malayalam film shot using it.
Disney's "Mars Needs Moms" a Flop?
A film's failure is said to be often more instructive than it being successful. Disney's "Mars Needs Moms" $175 million "flop" could be the end of the wave of 3D film making, ending expensive spending in digital technology on special effects, such as CGI. The recession could potentially get a lot worse after the summer, impacting 3D movies dramatically, particularly when there are films winning Oscars and Baftas on little budget, such as "The King's Speech" which was produced for less than $12 million.
"Mars Needs Moms" entertained most children enough, being a "far-fetched yarn about Milo, a nine-year-old who doesn't eat his broccoli and whose mother up being kidnapped by Martians." The film is in the centre of a debate on the pricing of 3D tickets, however, which threatens 3D film-making generally.
Though it cost a massive $175 million to make, "Mars Needs Moms" grossed under $7 million on it's first weekend in the US. Thus, the film was a flop.
"Mars Needs Moms" entertained most children enough, being a "far-fetched yarn about Milo, a nine-year-old who doesn't eat his broccoli and whose mother up being kidnapped by Martians." The film is in the centre of a debate on the pricing of 3D tickets, however, which threatens 3D film-making generally.
Though it cost a massive $175 million to make, "Mars Needs Moms" grossed under $7 million on it's first weekend in the US. Thus, the film was a flop.
3D Cinema
It had been assumed that 3D format would overtake theatrical distribution shortly after almost 80% of people who viewed "Avatar", did so in 3D. However, what was supposed to be a "3D explosion," doesn't seem to be happening. Since then, in fact, moviegoers are seemingly growing to be uninterested in paying the higher price, therefore 3D's box-office trajectory has been going rapidly downhill. Examples of this being Universal's "Dispicible Me" having just 40% of box-office revenue coming from the distribution of 3D, and 3D's worst gross yet being $6.9 million for "Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore." "Bulls" are awaiting releases such as Disney's "Step Up 3D" to inspect just how many ticket sales are in fact those in 3D, as they will be for the many, almost 60, 3D releases upcoming in the next two years. It is repeatedly denied that the public are losing interest, despite the fact that there is data to prove the downfall in money spent on 3D tickets.
Recently, movies have been competing for the limited amount of 3D venues which are equipped, so it has been suggested that as well as the audience growing for 3D, the "screen count" is too. To agree with this, Dan Fellman said that there will be fewer admissions drawn from movies targeted at families, than ones aimed particularly at adults, such as "Avatar."
It has also been suggested that perhaps there should not be that many movies in 3D, as this may cause people to become uninterested, whereas before, it was new and exciting. Big movies with a broad target audience will almost definitely still gross a huge amount; "Transformers 3" is still expected to be massive when it is released, but not so much the smaller movies like "Step Up 3D."
If production tools get better and filmmakers improve the embedding of 3D into their "storytelling", the percentage will continue to grow for 3D movies.
In order for 3D to be "here to stay", the movie industry has been said to have to carefully choose the films in which they either make, or convert to, 3D.
It has also been suggested that perhaps there should not be that many movies in 3D, as this may cause people to become uninterested, whereas before, it was new and exciting. Big movies with a broad target audience will almost definitely still gross a huge amount; "Transformers 3" is still expected to be massive when it is released, but not so much the smaller movies like "Step Up 3D."
If production tools get better and filmmakers improve the embedding of 3D into their "storytelling", the percentage will continue to grow for 3D movies.
In order for 3D to be "here to stay", the movie industry has been said to have to carefully choose the films in which they either make, or convert to, 3D.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Film Four Institution Questions
Film Four's main 'purpose' for being is to publicly provide a wide enough range of programming, particularly for people from a culturally diverse society to have interest in. A particular aim of theirs is to produce and create something new which most other channels do not cater, while still keeping the form of current programming. It is needed for Film Four's programmes to exhibit a unique style, while still having significant educational qualities as it is required for the 'licenced public service channels.'
Film Four green-lights films which have individual, often raw and controversial memorable qualities. For example, 'Trainspotting', 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Shallow Grave', all directed by Danny Boyle. Another is 'This Is England', a crime drama, as many of Film Four's films are, as well as thriller and romance.
Tessa Ross is regarded as "the mother of British film-making" due to ensuring that deserved talent is nutured
and directors which are potentially feeling 'unloved' get to make the films that they want. Ross has faith in these talents and when she believes them to be something special, makes it a project to get the films made. Because of this, she is instrumental for Film Four's success, purely because she is the one who made the majority of their films happen.
Film Four's yearly budget is low, recently decided to raise to £15 million a year, which will occur at some point in 2011. ......
4. How much is Film4's yearly budget and how much of it did "Slumdog Millionaire take up? ( Be careful with this one as co-productions, UK Lottery money and deals with Pathe, etc. helps make Film4's budget stretch further!)
5. Why does Film4 form partnerships with other companies/individuals?
6. What is the future for Film4 - budget and film-wise?
7. What problems did Film Four face in the naughties?
Film Four green-lights films which have individual, often raw and controversial memorable qualities. For example, 'Trainspotting', 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Shallow Grave', all directed by Danny Boyle. Another is 'This Is England', a crime drama, as many of Film Four's films are, as well as thriller and romance.
Tessa Ross is regarded as "the mother of British film-making" due to ensuring that deserved talent is nutured
and directors which are potentially feeling 'unloved' get to make the films that they want. Ross has faith in these talents and when she believes them to be something special, makes it a project to get the films made. Because of this, she is instrumental for Film Four's success, purely because she is the one who made the majority of their films happen.
Film Four's yearly budget is low, recently decided to raise to £15 million a year, which will occur at some point in 2011. ......
4. How much is Film4's yearly budget and how much of it did "Slumdog Millionaire take up? ( Be careful with this one as co-productions, UK Lottery money and deals with Pathe, etc. helps make Film4's budget stretch further!)
5. Why does Film4 form partnerships with other companies/individuals?
6. What is the future for Film4 - budget and film-wise?
7. What problems did Film Four face in the naughties?
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Avatar.
Avatar stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana as the main characters, the only well-known actors in it being Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez. However, Avatar was still extremely successful; one of the reasons being that James Cameron directed it who is a winning director who made films such as Titanic and the Terminator movies. It was also distributed by 20th Century Fox, which ensured that the film would be a success as 20th Century Fox is a big distribution company and globally well-known.
James Cameron started writing the film in 1994 and then plan was for it to be released two years after the release of Titanic, but James Cameron thought that there were not at that point the ‘necessary technology’ which was needed so had worked on it since.
The genre of Avatar is adventure, action and fantasy which would encourage a variety of people to go and see it, from children to adults.
There was an estimated budget of $310 million and in the first weekend it made $4,007,750 in the US, showed on 812 and £8,509,050 in the UK on 505 screens.
The marketing for Avatar was wide, which was also a main attribute to the achievement of it; there were images shown a while before the film’s release, books, video games and 2 minute trailers made online followed by positive reviews from critics. More infrequent ways of marketing were the Coca Cola Company collaborating with Fox to market the film world-wide by making bottles of Coke which people could hold in front of a webcam in order to interact with the website they made for it, and use the reality 3D features. The film being the first complete 3D experience also contributed to the success of Avatar as it was highly anticipated by all.
The genre of Avatar is adventure, action and fantasy which would encourage a variety of people to go and see it, from children to adults.
There was an estimated budget of $310 million and in the first weekend it made $4,007,750 in the US, showed on 812 and £8,509,050 in the UK on 505 screens.
The marketing for Avatar was wide, which was also a main attribute to the achievement of it; there were images shown a while before the film’s release, books, video games and 2 minute trailers made online followed by positive reviews from critics. More infrequent ways of marketing were the Coca Cola Company collaborating with Fox to market the film world-wide by making bottles of Coke which people could hold in front of a webcam in order to interact with the website they made for it, and use the reality 3D features. The film being the first complete 3D experience also contributed to the success of Avatar as it was highly anticipated by all.
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