Wednesday 17 November 2010

Cinema City - State of independence

The best time of the year for cinemas overall is July/August (the school holidays). This is when the big Hollywood blockbusters are released. But this is not the best time of year for Cinema City. When does Cinema City get it's highest audiences and what factors effect this?

Cinema City gets its highest audience when they hold live events, broadcast via satellite including music, comedy, filmmaker Q&A's, red-carpet premieres and productions transmitted in high definition from the New York Metropolitan Opera and Royal Opera House. These events often get sold out screens and audiences quickly embrace the new concept of 'cinecasts'. 

What technological and cultural factors have affected cinema takings? Consider the 1950's, 1980's and late 2000's. What have cinemas done to respond to these technological and cultural factors?

In the 1950's there was the advent of the TV, people started to get televisions in their home. This meant that less people went out and watched things at cinemas, there takings decreased and they lost money. In the 1980's the multiple cinema was introduced and because a lot more money was going into these and they were showing new films from America they became more popular than the independent cinemas. Also, this was the time when video was introduced so people could buy tapes of films instead of going out and paying money to go and watch them once at the cinemas. In late 2000's Internet was introduced into homes which meant that more people downloaded films instead of buying them on video or going to see them at the cinemas. This saved people money, but meant that the takings of cinemas reduced. To respond to these technological and cultural factors cinemas have started showing films in 3D, at home we cannot get this which means it would make cinema more popular again and the takings increase. 

In 1945 the top 20 films accounted for 25% of the market.
In 2000 the top 20 films accounted for 50% of the market.
U.S films took a 20% share of the market in early 1970's.
In 1998 U.S films took a 63.3% share of the market.
What can we learn from these statistics?

From these statistics we learn that there is an increase of shares and that more U.S films are flooding the market. When the multiplex cinemas were built the rule that for every American film shown a British film is shown was dropped. This meant that American companies took over and they are now dominating our film industry.

Exhibition related leisure pursuits now = 14% of household spend.
Home - based ancillary (TV/video etc.) markets = 43% of household spend.
What can we learn from these statistics?

From these statistics we learn that most films are now viewed at home meaning that there is a decrease in cinema takings.

A cinema such as Cinema City used to get around 80% income from subsidies and 20% from ticket sales. How has this changed? Compare this to Vue/Odeon. How are cinemas funding new revenue streams?

These cinemas used to get the majority of their money from the government. This has now changed because the government is no longer giving subsidies therefore they have a lack of money, they only have the 20% they used to make from ticket sales. They are no longer making the amount of money that they need to make to buy new films to show etc. Unlike Cinema City, Vue cinemas are funded by the Bank Of Scotland meaning that along with the ticket sales they have another source of funding. Cinema City is now making extra money by putting on live events.

Cinema City underwent a significant refurbishment programme in and reopened in 2007. Why would Cinema City be unable to carry out these refurbishments if it was trying to do so today?

They wouldn't be able to carry out these refurbishments today if it was trying to do so because they are no longer getting subsidies therefore they would not be able to afford it. Also because it is a listed building so they would have to appeal for it to be refurbished.

Why did Cinema City install a 3D projector in 2010?
Cinema City installed a 3D projector because it will broaden the audience that they appeal to, it means that they can show a wider variety of films that are only available in 3D. More people are likely to go to Cinema City to watch a film in 3D than a Multiplex cinema because it is cheaper and not as busy than a multiplex.

What is a 'sleeper' film? How is Cinema City better positioned to adjust schedules for 'sleepers'?

A 'sleeper' film is a film that has a slow start with not a very big audience that gradually becomes more popular and eventually turns into a big film that is popular. Cinema City is better positioned to adjust schedules for sleepers because they can bring old films that have suddenly become more popular back unlike the multiplex cinemas.

Why wouldn't Cinema City show 'The Expendables' but they would show a Tarantino film?

'The Expendables' wouldn't attract the audience that Cinema City appeals to. A Tarantino films appeals to a different audience that 'The Expendables'. 

Why do Cinema City show Sex and the City/Mamma Mia? 

Cinema City show these films because the actors and actresses that play on these films are older and would appeal to the audience that Cinema City attracts. It appeals to a large group of women, aged 40+ and the films appeal to these women because of the people in them. 





How do Cinema City cater for minority/ niche audiences such as parents with children under one; students; local history enthusiasts; older audiences; parents with autistic children? 

Cinema City run clubs such as: Kid's club, parents and babies' screenings and senior citizens matinees. Also they run a Slackers Club which is set up by E4 for students. They also do screenings for parents with autistic children. 

What does Cinema City use its screens for other than showing films?

Cinema City also uses its screens for numerous live events, broadcast via satellite, including music, comedy, filmmaker Q&A's, red-carpet premieres and productions transmitted in high definition from the New York Metropolitan Opera and Royal Opera House.

Describe the audience of Cinema City.

Cinema City's audience is mainly women and men that are 40+. They cater for them because they bring back old films that these people will remember when they first came out. Also they do specific groups for them and they are comfy cinemas that their audience can enjoy.

Treatment

In the opening sequence of our thriller there is a girl sat in a dark dingy room with light coming from a laptop and a TV. There is a video camera plugged into the television and a video is playing. It is of a girl that the person who filmed it is stalking. There will be a variety of shots which will indicate to the audience what the girl sat in the dark room is doing and will create tension immediately portraying this girl as the evil character. To start with there will be a panning shot of the room gradually zooming in on a mid shot of the girls back and then an over the shoulder shot of the laptop. We will use a lot of close ups on the equipment that is around the room, including the camera and the laptop screen which will have the facebook of an innocent girl that the evil character is looking at. She is jealous and is finding out all that she can about her. The stalker girl is looking through the pictures and to start with there is eerie music playing in the background which suddenly stops and all you can hear is a mouse clicking. The camera then changes to a close up of the TV which has a camera plugged into it and on the screen is a girl in her garden picking up her rabbit; this is filmed from a bush. There is a flashback to when this was filmed. We see the girl picking the rabbit up and then hear a rustle in the bush. She suddenly turns around and there is a close up on her face, it then cuts to a close up of the bush. It then cuts back to the dark dingy room. To end our sequence the stalker will shut the laptop, walk over to the video camera, pick it up and turn and face the camera. The shot then switches to a close up of her face and she smiles.

In the room we are filming in there will only be light from the TV, laptop and maybe a small lamp. The room won't have anything in other than a laptop, TV, video camera, lamp and a seat that the girl is sitting on. There will be two characters in our sequence, the stalker and the girl being stalked. The first character that we see is the 'evil' one, we will show this by lots of weird behaviour, close ups of her and close ups of what she is doing. Our villain is a young woman who was abused by her parents and left on her own when she was young. Three years ago, when she was 15 she killed her parents because of what they did to her - she never got caught. She has grown to be a woman of no feelings and she is left mentally scarred by her past. She is ambiguous and seems that she would never harm a fly, but that is her external personality. Internally she is very childlike and doesn’t realize the extent of her actions when she harms or kills people. She doesn’t let anyone get close to her and all the people that once loved her are dead. She is a quiet person who doesn't socialize with the rest of the world; she sits in her dingy, dirty flat preying on her next victim. She wants to take someone else’s personality because she is tired of being her, lonely and disliked. We will represent her as isolated by showing the room being empty, this will connote how empty and lonely she is. Our other character is a girl who is also 18, her dad died in a car accident when she was 16 leaving her vulnerable as she has only her mother to protect her. Although her life is far from perfect she is a happy and pretty girl with a lot of friends. She is naive and childlike and doesn't realise that some people can be cruel. She is exactly what the stalker wants to be. We will represent her as childlike by dressing her in childlike clothes, barely any makeup and playing with her rabbit and talking to it. To represent her happiness, she will always be smiling and there will be lots of close ups of this. The narrative behind our opening sequence is to show that there is a girl who is lonely and sad who is stalking a girl who has completely the opposite personality. We see that she has been stalking her by the pictures she is saving onto her computer and the video she has of her following the girl.

The scene I have described links to the film Red Road in a way because at the start the women is clicking on all the different screens, watching everyone else in the city. Instead of watching everyone, our stalker is only watching one girl, but she is still clicking on the different screens, watching what she is doing. The film we are going to make will be an independent film because it is not the typical thriller including blood and gore and it is also not going to have any money being spent on it. We are showing the crime that can actually happen and how girls using websites to talk to people can actually get them in a lot of trouble and can get them in all sorts of problems and puts their lives at risk. Our thriller will include many conventions that a thriller film contains such as, ambiguous characters, strong key lighting from the laptop and lamp, shadows of the stalker on the wall and close ups and panning shots of the room. The opening scene will appeal to our audience because it will have young people in so that they can relate to our audience. Also the storyline will appeal to young people because they are using facebook everyday and some people may be in the same situation as these girls.

Friday 12 November 2010

Thriller Openings

Film
Average shot length
Number of shots
Use of titles
Taxi Driver
dir. Martin Scorsese
(1976)
4-20 seconds
9
Blood red on a black
background.
Nikita
dir. Luc Besson
(1990)

5 Seconds
20
Blood red on a black background
Leon
dir. Luc Besson
(1994)
2 – 14 seconds
28
White on a black background.
Momento
dir. Christopher Nolan
1-2 seconds
17

London To Brighton
dir. Paul Andrew Williams (2006)
2-3 seconds
31
White on a black background. Shows the time.
Red Road
dir. Andrea Arnold (2006)
1-10 seconds
32
Blue and white on a black background

Thursday 11 November 2010

Comparing Warp and Working Titles

Warp Films
Warp Films, a sister company of Warp Records, was set up in 1999 with funding of £150 K from NESTA. It is based in Sheffield, England with a further office in London and has 14 full-time staff. This shows the true size of Warp Films, an extremely small film producing compamy. Warp films show the true society how it really is without making it seem all lovely and like nothing bad in society happens, they think it is important to raise the profile of British film making worldwide.  Their aims are to be cutting edge, innovative, interesting and independant. They don't want to have carbon copy, Hollywood blockbuster films. They create pioneering British cinema, short films and music videos. In April 2008, Australian film distributor Madman Entertainment announced a collaboration with Warp Films. Warp and Madman plan to make at least 2 films together over the next 3 years. Warp films budget to spend on a film is £1,000,000 unlike the major film companys who spend much much more on a film. This means that they are lacking in special effects etc, yet with the little budget, Warp films still make good films with the materials they do have. Warp Films are funded by British companies such as the national lottery, film 4 and the UK film council.

Some films made by Warp Films are as followed:  
This is England 86'
Four Lions
Bunny and the bull
All Tomorrows parties
Hush
Exhibit A


Working Title
Working Title films is a British film production company based in London UK.The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions. Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan are now the co-owners of the company. Although it is British, it is partly funded by Universal films, an American film production company. Working Title films are allowed to produce any film with a budget of up to £25 million. This means that they can make films with much more special effects, the films they make are more action based and their demographic is teenage boys who like action and little dialogue.

Some films made by Working Title Films include:     
Atonement
Nanny Mcphee
Nanny Mcphee and the big bang
Burn after reading
Hot Fuzz
Johnny English
etc.

There are alot more films made by Working Titles as it is a main stream where as Warp Films is independant therefore it hasn't got the funding to make lots of films.


Comparing films from each producing companies
Working titles made the film Atonement, it cost about £30 million to make and has well known actors, Keira Knightly and James McAvoy in. In comparison to Working titles, Warp made the film This is England 86', it cost around £1.5 million to make and has unkown actors in. Atonement made $130 million worldwide, and in USA alone it made $50 million. Even though it is a UK film, it only made half of what it made in USA in England. This is because Working Titles is funded by American film companies. Unlike Atonement, This is England 86' made $8 million worldwide and in USA alone it only made $0.3 million, where as in the UK it made $3.1 million. Atonement was shown in 1335 cinemas in the UK and even though it was made by a British film producing company, it was only showed in 424 cinemas in the UK which is a big difference to how many it was shown in in the USA. Unlike Atonement, This is England 86' was shown in only 14 cinemas in USA which is a big difference to the 151 cinemas it was shown in in the UK. The genre of films made by the two film producing companies are very different. Whilst Working titles make films that are literary adaptions about love and romance, Warp films make dramas about the British society, racism and single parent families which are true events that happens worldwide.

Thriller Character

The villain is a young woman who was abused by her parents and left on her own when she was young. When she was 15 she got her revenge. She has grown to be a woman of no feelings and she is left mentally scarred by her past. She is ambiguous and seems that she would never harm a fly, but that is her external personality. Internally she is very childlike and doesn’t realize the extent of her actions when she harms or kills people. She doesn’t let anyone get close to her and all the people that once loved her are dead. She is a quiet person who doesn't socialise with the rest of the world, she sits in her dingy, dirty flat preying on her next victim. She wants a friend and wants to take someone elses personality because she is tired of being her, lonely and disliked.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Shooting techniques

There are many ways in which you can shoot a conversation. This includes the 180 degree rule, this is where the cameras are shooting from one side of a line. This is good because the audience don't get confused about who is sat or stood where and who the person is talking at the time. Another shot used whilst shooting a conversation is the over the shoulder shot. This is where we see over the shoulder of the person being spoke to looking at the person speaking. This gives the effect that we are involved in the conversation making it engage the audience more. Other shots used when shooting a conversation consist of Wide, close up and extreme close up which seem as though the person speaking is actually speaking to the audience making them engage into the conversation more. All these are ways of shooting conversations and there are more such as a cutaway, eyeline match, noddy, two shot and action match/ match on action. These make the conversation effective and engage the audience making the conversations through the films more interesting and less boring.

When shooting someone walking there is usually a variety of shot types and a variety of shot angles. The most common shot to use when filming someone walking is an extreme close up of their feet. This builds tension as we want to know who the feet belong to and where they are walking to. The pace of the persons walking and also the times they place their feet on the floor are often edited to be in sync with music if there is some. The camera speed matches the speed at which the person is walking making it seem as though the audience is either following them or infront of them.

The variety of shot types used in both these everyday things in films makes it a lot more interesting to watch and engages the audience more instead of if it was just one shot all the time.

Saturday 6 November 2010

How does Hitchcock use binary opposites to create suspense in Psycho?


In the thriller 'Psycho' Alfred Hitchcock uses binary oppositions to create suspense. The film starts with a binary opposite - wide open spaces versus claustrophobic confined spaces. There is a wide aerial shot of Phoenix, Arizona and then there is a crane shot which moves in through Venetian blinds into a small, dark, confined hotel room. When there is a wide panning shot of the city it gives the feeling of freedom but as soon as the shot changes it makes the audience feel trapped and claustrophobic in a room that is barely the size of a cupboard. It creates suspense because whilst we know the rest of the city is going along with their everyday business, there are people such as Marion and Sam who are doing things that we know they shouldn't be doing. Tension is caused because we know that something is bound to happen to one of them because of the feeling of being trapped.











In Psycho another binary opposite is wedded bliss versus extramarital misery. Marion wants security and a respectable marriage to Sam instead of what she has now and she is unhappy with the situation that her and Sam are in. Unfortunately because Sam is still married he can't have any of that and the couple in love have to sneak around behind peoples backs and it's not what she wants to do anymore. This creates suspense because they talk about needing money for the divorce and so that they can have a life together and then ironically when Marion gets back to her office there is a man with £40,000 cash and Marion has the opportunity to take it and we are made to question whether she takes it for the right reasons but it is obvious she still in the wrong. The audience feel tense because they want to know whether she gets caught and what will happen.  

The next obvious binary opposite that we see is Marion's underwear. Before the money was stolen she was wearing white underwear, this connotes the innocence and purity she has. Although what she is doing with Sam is wrong she knows that and wants to have dinner with him and her sister, with a photo of her mum on the mantle piece so that they are no longer doing wrong. This all changes after she takes the money, her underwear is now black and as she looks longingly at the money she knows she is wrong to take it but doesn't care. The black underwear connotes the wrong she is doing and that she has gone over to the dark side by committing this crime. There is two binary opposites within this because although there is the obvious one of black underwear versus white underwear, there is also good versus evil. This creates suspense because we want to know whether she ever gets caught or whether she lives happily ever after. The genre of the film makes it a little more obvious that she will get caught, but it creates suspense because we want to know who by and what could happen to her in the meantime.











A well known binary opposite in Psycho is the predator versus its prey. When Marion pulls up at Bates motel she is greeted by Norman, the owner of the motel and by what the audience can see he is also the carer for his mother. To Marion he just seems like a very normal man, but from what the audience watches they can tell that Norman is stalking Marion when we see him watch her getting changed for a shower, just before the very famous shower scene. It builds suspense because the audience don't know if he is planning to kill her for his prey or if he is just simply watching her - we want to know what he has planned for her fate! Also it builds tension because the audience can see that if Marion was in danger, she would be helpless because she is on her own in the middle of nowhere without anyone she knows.



Norman Bates is a binary opposite in himself, his internal personality versus his external personality. On the outside he seems like a very charming man who wants to help a woman who has been travelling a long way and is hungry and tired. But juxtaposed with this on the inside he is evil, it is as though he is stalking his prey ready to kill which is what he does in the very famous shower scene. Norman has dual personalities. He was abused by his mother and never got on with her, but once she had died he couldn't bare to be alone so one of is his personalities is the real Norman Bates and the other is that of his mother. This create suspense because to start with we think that Norman is a very nice character and we feel sorry for him because of the way his 'mother' shouts at him when he hasn't done anything wrong but really it isn't his mother at all. We think throughout the film that it is his mother who is the murderer and he is trying to protect her, but it is him all along and this creates tension because when we find out that it is him who is the murder Marion's sister and Sam are with Norman.
All these binary opposites fill Psycho with suspense and leave the audience on the edge of their seats.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Marketing Films



This is the trailer for paranormal activity 2 being show at the multiplex cinemas. The film comes out on Friday the 22nd October and is an American film. The target audience of this film is both genders between the ages of 15 - 19 because it is a 15 rating so people under the age of 15 cannot see it and I think that people over the age of 19 would find the story line unbelievable and silly. This film would appeal to me because I like the genre horror/thriller and because I have seen the first film I am interested in watching the second film. The trailer does justice for the film because it is scary, which means that the film is most likely to be scary as well. People who like this genre of film will go and watch it. The trailer could put some people off because they could think that all of the good parts of the film are shown in the trailer therefore it would be pointless going to see the film. Also people who didn't like the first film are not necessarily going to be convinced by the trailer. The trailer is shown from a video camera and this could make people more interested in seeing the film because it could be as if they are shooting it from behind the camera watching everything that is happening first hand. The sounds in the trailer make the film seem every more scary because it builds tension and the cuts in the trailer to the  next scene are accompanied with a camera sound which shows that this could have happened in real life making the film seem even scarier and people wanting to watch it more.



This is the trailer for the film Despicable me that was released on the , also being shown at multiplex cinemas. The target audience for this film is the younger audience aged around 7 - 11 that are males. This is because of the action element in the film and it is not the sort of thing that most younger girls would like to see. I think that the trailer would put me off watching the film because I am not interested in the genre animation. The trailer is appealing to the audience it is targeting because it has elements in that younger children will find funny but as an older audience I wouldn't find as amusing as I would have been as a young child. Although when I saw the trailer I was interested in the film so I looked it up and read more about it. I think that the storyline of the film doesn't appeal to me because I am not interested in animation crime films where someone is planning to do something out of the ordinary that is a complete fantasy. The music in the trailer is upbeat which would appeal to the audience that it is targeting because it doesn't get boring.