WEEK 10 - Cult Films

WEEK 10 - Cult Films (Trick or Treat)

Cult films are very complicated, not in the fact that the films themselves are complicated, in the fact that if you ask someone what a cult film is, their is never an exact answer, some people will argue that a cult film would be cheesy and humorous to people, but others may argue that a cult film has a small selective audience and some people may say they have an audience that interact with the film, a few examples of this would be "High School Musical" which contains some cheese and a huge audience of people who may walk around wearing the merchandise and singing the songs, "Piranha" completely cheesy and has a selective audience of people who enjoy watching cheese, and "Trick or Treat" a film from 1986 which has a small audience, this i know due to the fact that not many people i have asked know what it is let alone have seen it.

The Horror genre itself is classed as 'Cult' simply because of the fact that not many people watch horror films unless it's a hugely advertised one for example "Paranormnal Activity" had a massive advertisment and was also claimed to be a "true story", but the film however, other than it being under the 'Horror' genre and based around holloween night like most obvious horror films such as "Halloween", "Hocus Pocus" (childrens horror), "Night of the Demons" and "The Crow"
(you can find more films on this link)
http://voices.yahoo.com/13-movies-set-during-halloween--6573034.html

has other aspects of being a cult film, like the small audience, some of the scenes like one certain scene in the film where Lisa Orgolini  is listening to music (follow the link, couldnt get the full thing).

here is a trailer to Trick or Treat:

The audience have their share of favourate quotes from this film which you can you can see some of if you follow this link:

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0221766/

this is one of the many types of fan interaction with the film (which is also one part of what a cult film is described to be). After watching and liking the film, you may also find yourself in love with Sammi Curr's character of a dead metal hero who not only makes great music, but also turns out to be an evil, demon loving, devil worshipping selfish guy, yet their's still something about him that the audience connect with and instantly love causing that small audience who are in love with the whole idea of the film, to want  to watch it over and over again, and want to listen to the music just as much.

In conclusion, my opinion on what makes a cult film is generally films that are redeemed less popular to people and have a selective (small) audience, like the film i have chosen to write about here, although despite the many different things that people argue about a cult film, like the fan interaction, the cheese, the small audience, etc. i agree with them all but my personal opinion is to agree with the small audience aspect the most. One could even argue that the deffinition of cult and mainstream films in a way is extremly similar to alternatative and mainstream things/people/styles in the fact that it's always changing and rediffining itself so that the meaning of it is completly different to what is was a year ago maybe?

WEEK 9 - The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

WEEK 9 - The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

A number of critics have suggested that while Adele Blanc-Sec is 'a gorgeous folly' and 'a tasty trifle', it is 'altogether without point'. I think that these critisisms are not very legitimate because they arn't very precise and are only focusing on the fact that the narrative is weak compared to most films. I think the critics need to focus more on the entertainment and unique side of the film, for example, the film comes accross as a good childrens comedy considering it isn't to complicated and has a simple humour aspect, so in that area, the fact that the film doesn't have a strong narative is perfect for entertaining children.

Escapism is a very common thing in films nowdays, some films give escapism at their full and others not at all, on a scale of 1 to 10 i reckon that films should be on a scale of 5 for escapism, offering both the needs of escaping from whatever stress your day to day life may throw at you, yet still keeping you in reality and making it more real at the same time. If it is an educational film, i think that it shouldn't offer any form of escapism and and just focus on the reality of the subject that it is focusing on.

The types of films i generally enjoy are Horrors and Comedys, these films usually have a narrative to them but sometimes it may pay more attention to the parts of the films like, who's gonna die or if it's a comedy, what humorous thing is going to be brought up next. When they do this it can sometimes make the film more entertaining than it would if the narrative was the highlight of the film.

WEEK 8 - The Woman In Black

WEEK 8

The company who made woman in black are called Momentum and they're based in London
they're quite well known in the UK, they have 8, 148 Followers on twitter, 5, 413 Likes on facebook and on youtube they have 1,001 subscribers and 4, 502, 712 video veiws altogether!

Woman in Black was released into the following countries:
United Kingdom, United States, Philipines, Argentina, Denmark, Greece, Columbia, Ireland, Mexico, Kuwait, Canada, India, Pakistan, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Turkey, Belgium, Sweden, France, Chile, Russia, Singapore, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria.

The way they advertised the film was by getting Daniel Radcliff to be interveiwed several times on talk shows. They chose to market the film in this way because they probably wanted tho advertise it without making it completely obviouse that it was an advertisment, to give the public more information on the film than a poster can give and to put it in your face more ways than a poster can.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=daniel+radcliffe+interview+woman+in+black&oq=daniel+radcliffe+interview+w&aq=0&aqi=g4&aql=&gs_l=youtube-reduced.3.0.0l4.2657.20344.0.23047.24.19.4.1.2.0.265.1859.6j8j1.15.0...0.0.fOdC9vkPLCs
(if you follow the link, it shows a few interveiws done)
The reason that they chose to interveiw Daniel during the daytime was so that they could reach their target audience better, which i assume would be 7-17 year olds mainly, they also chose to have him interveiwed on variouse channels so that if you flick onto another breakfast show or dinner time special, he would 8 times out of 10 be on the tele.

From what i have heard about the film in the aftermath of it being released at the cinema, people started thinking that the film should have been a 15 rating instead of a 12A's simply because of the fact that the 12 year olds that went to go see the film were "terrified" but the fact that it's a 12A and not a 15 was actually quite simple, the BBFC's job is to catigorise a film into a certain certificate based on how much sex, violence, gore, swearing etc. is put into the film...but the film didn't show anyone getting hurt, having sex, swearing, taking drugs or anything, yet! it had a simple horror element which mad it unsuitable for a PG or a U, but considering 12A certificate was made due to the simple fact that "you know your own childs maturity" they must have clasified it as a 12A because the only things that made the film scary was the fact that it scares you mentally using lighting, sound, pacing and music. But mostly, through 'word of mouth' all you can hear is that everyone was surprised at the fact it's a 12 and was expecting it to be mild, making it really good for a 12A certificate.

From what I've found on the film, i don't think that it's won any "awards" as such, but it has been written about as a questionable nominee etc.

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/01/12/hobbit-woman-in-black-brawl/
(The Hobbit vs Woman In Black)

http://www.awardscircuit.com/2012/02/04/film-review-the-woman-in-black-%C2%BD/
(Woman in Black Review, award nomination?)

WEEK 7 - Queer Theory

WEEK 7 - Queer Theory (But I'm A Cheerleader)

The "Female Gaze" is when a woman accepts that women can also gain Voyeuristic pleasure from looking at a subjuct, and that film techniques can sometimes be used to position the female and to do so.
a "voyeuristic gaze" is a gaze which objectifies the recipient of the gaze in a non-sexual manner, rather through admiration.
using this knowlege taken from the "Beginners guide to Laura Mulvey" I will argue how the "Female Gaze" is used for "But I'm A Cheerleader".
Megan is a normal everyday teenager, she goes to high school, she's a cheerleader, she has a boyfriend and friends, a loving family except, she has pictures of women in her room and locker, she has "strange" thoughts about women and she hates kissing her boyfriend, eventualy her parents send her to a rehabilitation camp called "true directions" who can "make you strait again"
the audience of the film will watch this and admire Megan for going through what she's been through and coping with it in the most rationalle and mature way she possibly could at her age, and for being true to herself and doing the right thing, people who are in the same position as her will also admire her because they will relate to the film and won't feel as alone anymore.



The Target Audience for "But I'm a Cheerleader" is teenagers who are going through the tuff stage of finding out their sexualtities and try to hide their actual feelings towards the same gender to 'fit in' with sociaties expectations of sexuality, and are also scared of being disowned by their parents and their friends. The reason i think this is because of the way everything is constructed together to show the struggle of megan and her new freinds at "true directions".
The steriotypes which are used in this film are the "gay male" steriotypes, which are usually used in films, the 'how women should act' steriotype and the 'how men should act' steriotype, these steriotypes are used in a humorous way.

The way different characters perform gender are by most of the males at "true directions" acting like a steriotypical female, and most of the females acting like a steriotypical male, the only times these are put intotheir normal areas (for a film) is when the males are doing "man things" and the females are doing "woman things".

The fact that the film is a 15 rating doesn't suprise me nowadays because of how over protective parents can be, adults notice things in films that children don't, hence why they spot something instantly in a film and think, "This is unsuitable for my child to see!" but they don't realise that their child would probably be paying more attention to a silly outfit the character might have on. Considering the film was aimed at teenagers, i think the film should have been a 12 because all in all, their's nothing overley shocking or bad in the film but a few things like over 5 "f**k"s and 3 "b*****d"s could make the rating boards put it higher in the ratings.

I think the film is trying to put a message across that if your gay, you shouldn't let anybody try and change you just to fit in with the rest of the "normal" society, and that even if it seems like your family may disown you for being yourself, it might not even turn out that bad and everything might just carry on as normal, The Director has made this pretty clear throughout the film.
The style of this film was unusual because of the way they made the costumes, music and the way they filmed it to make it look out of the ordinary. I dont think this film is a mainstream film because it's more unique to most films and could be considered for more smaller audiences.

The style of the film helps pull the message accross because of the way the outfits are over the top, the way they make being gay seem more normal and less strange than being strait (which is made to look creepy and over the top), the way they made it seem when megan was kissing her boyfreind was also a way they pulled the message across and the shots of what she was thinking about when she was kissing him (with the cheerleaders).

This film might be considered a queer film for 2 reasons:
1. The way the director has set the costumes and peiced the film together (queer as in odd)
and
2. The fact that the narrative is focused on Megan and showing her path of opening up to being a lesbian (which she doesn't know she is till she goes to "true directions").
although this films aim was to help gay teenagers, i beleive that it's still possible for strait people to watch it and enjoy it aswell, except, they might relate to it differently, for e.g, a gay person who might be unsure weather they're gay or strait might be able to relate to it in some aspects but not all, and a strait person could just watch it for its comedy aspect.

If i was marketing this film, i would promote the Narrative, the Genre and the Stars, the Narrative because it's an important part of film that people need to know about before deciding they want to watch it, Genre because it's also another important thing that people need to know to decide on weather or not they want to watch it, and Stars because people might want to know who the actors are who are in the film. 

WEEK 6 - Feminist Theory

WEEK 6 - Feminists

"An alternative lifestyle is a lifestyle generally perceived to be outside the cultural norm. Usually, but not always, it implies an affinity or identification within some matching subculture (examples include hippies, yuppies, goths and punks)." So an alternative Man or Woman would mean a woman or man to act different to the mainstream crowd.

(Full Deffinition Below)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_lifestyle



This is alternative because of the way she acts, changing her accent and acting like she's mentally insane and as you'd say, different to "the norm". the dress sense is also different because of the messy hair, and the bandana used as a scarf.

 

WEEK 5 - Marxism

WEEK 5 - Marxism

 Marxism is a profoundly influential system of thought, which origenated in the writings of German Philosopher, economist and revolutionary Karl Marx, and was developed by his followers. Although Marx claimed that he was not himself a Marxist, his ideas led directly to the creation of the left-wing communist and socialist ideologies, the foundation of the labour party in the UK, and the Russian Revolution of 1917, which resulted in the worlds first communist government, under lenin.

WEEK 4 - La Haine

La Haine - "The Hate" - WEEK 4

La Haine is French film based around the times that France had losts of riots and people who wasn't 'true french' people were practicly being left to rot in cheaper area's of france by 'proper french people', it shows a darker side to Paris than what most films set in Franch or that show France do!

La Haine was Shot in Black and White despite having the option of colour which not only braught out the contrast and lighting, but it also brings out a silent message to the veiwer that back then, everything was dark and in black and white, because everyone had so much pain and confussion going on in their lives that they felt everything could only get worse...

Steriotypical associations we have with the french is that they're all passionate and dramatic with everything they do, they're artistic and they're all love crazed, they also have a taste for fine foods and wines!

(steriotypical french person)

in films set in France/Paris they usually glamourise it like, One film that shows the glamour and magic of Paris is animated film Ratatoullie:

 It's about a young rat that is an outcast to his clan and only once to live an easy life as a chef in Paris and walk the same path as his idol Goustoe, this clip shows how magical Remmie finds Paris and how overwelmed he is when he discovers that he's been under Paris the whole time, it also shows the steriotypical Paris life with the love, passion and artistic flow!

(couldn't find an english clip on youtube)

This clip is a 9 minute and 59 second long clip from when they're in paris in La Haine, this clip shows a completely different side to paris than what most clips show, as seen in Ratatoullie, Midnight in Paris and most other movies set in Paris.

This is a 10 minute clip of the story of Freedom Writers, the reason i chose this film to compare to La Haine is because of the fact that it has similarities, it has gang violence, racism, hatred and the majority of the place looks down their noses at them!

Freedom Writers is set in California around the times that gang violence and killings were going on, everyone was scared of stepping out of their door incase they got shot, and most of the white American citizens had a strict point of veiw that ALL of the coloured people were out to cause trouble and did it purposly just to make the entire place a horrible place.

WEEK 3 - Tim Burton

                                                                 WEEK 3  Tim Burton

Tim Burtons Visual Style is usually an unusual and gothic kind of approach, using "black and White" to his advantage eg, Corpes Bride has greys, blacks, whites and blues in the living world and in the dead world, even though he's using more posotive colors, he still keeps it dark whilst using green, purple, and tints of yellows, In Nightmare Before Christmas he does this same thing. In Edward Scissorhands he keeps the dark gothic feel to the film as he does in his animations, he still using the same kind of color tones to go with the feel of the film, same with Alice in Wonderland, Sleepy Hollow, Sweedney Todd and his make of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, despite the fact it's supposed to be a happier kind of film, yet the gothic, dark kind of look pulls the film off well.

The shots that Burton usually uses are distanced shots and medium long shots, he also likes to have the camera circulate its focus and break the 180 degree rule, he also likes to twist his camera around, an example of this is shown in this clip form the begining of Nightmare Before Christmas

His editing techniques are usually fades as seen in this clip from Corpse Bride

(follow the link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyBb95tp9Yo

Most of his films contain the same theme, no-matter how different they are to one another,

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

Inside the factory it has a strange and mysterious, yet wonderfull layout!

the gothic theme flows through the film, and Willie Wonka (Johnny Depp) has a dark and gothic yet extremley strange appearance all in one as does the other locations

 Charlie's house is one, but it also has the curvey and swirly thing going on

and it's also shown alot in his shots aswell, as you can see here.

Sleepy Hollow

The tree that the headless huntsman comes from everynight has the dark gothic theme as well as an eerie, mysterious look, along with his trademark of the curvey and crooked things

the items are also strange, like this magnifying glass/benocular type object (Johnny Depp as IchaboCrane)

and again in this one with the curveyness and swirly crookedness!

Edward Scissorhands 

In this film Johnny Depp is starring as Edward, a mysterious character with scissors for hands, it goes through his struggles and his possitive and negative points.

the strangness is more visable in this film with the gothic look still being part of the film, and you can still see the curvey/bendyness in it.

this is edward sat in the dark mantion where he was created, you can see strange objects in this shot.

Alice In Wonderland 

In Alice in Wonderland, he has captured the the gothic and strange look really well and managed to link it in with the film sucessfully!

he's put the curls and bends in the scenes again as you can see...

and the Mad Hatter is played by Johnny Depp, notice a consistencey?

Burton usually takes role of being a writer and a producer for films he directs, he has produced Corpse Bride, Beetlejuice, Ed Wood, Batman Returns, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands and he has written the Corpse Bride (Characters), The Nightmare Before Christmas (Story and Characters) and Edward Scissorhands (Story).
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000318/
(Evidence)
The people that work with Tim Burton regurlary in his films are actors, Johnny Depp, Helenna Bonham Carter and Christopher Lee.

Tim Burton grew up watching old films and drawing cartoons, he was fond of films that had Vincent Price in them I pressume this may have been a majour influence considering he went on to make a film called "Vincent" in1982, which was about a boy who wanted to grow up to be just like Vincent Price.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000318/bio
(Evidence)

WEEK 2 - ChungKing Express

WEEK 2

Term meanings:

French New Wave:

A Cinema movement of the 1950's and 60's founded by young critics of caheirs du cinema magazine. Ecponents included Claude Chabrol (Le Beau Serge, 1959), Francois Truffaut (The 400 Blows, 1959), Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless, 1960), Eric Rohmer (My Night At Maud's, 1969) and Jaques Rivette (Paris Belongs To Us, 1960). They rejected the bourgeois 'cinema du papa' that had dominated French cinema since the second world war and made Low-Budget films that deliberatly broke with narrative and stylistic convention through the use of improvised dialogue, Location shooting, long tracking shots, and jump cuts, and a spontaneous, informal manner. The French New Wave, or 'nouvelle vague', influenced many key hollywood directors, notably Arthur Penn, Robert Altman and Quentin Tarantino.

Film Noir:

A highly influencial style of crime or detective film popular in the 1940's and 50's, and revived frequently since. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, USA, 1941) is generally considered to be the first, and Touch Of Evil (Orson Welles, USA, 1958) the last of the 'classic' period. Stylistic features include minimal, high-contrast lighting, 'hard-boiled' dialogue, dramatic orchestral music, sadistic violence, and a down beat plot with an un-happy ending.

Leitmotif:

In music, a repeated phrase or theme used to suggest an idea or character in a story.

Intertextuality:

Where a Media Text contains references to another media text or texts, with the expectation that the audience will be able to recognise its significance. for example, when you can here that the chipmunks ar watching Spongebob Squarpants in the first Alvin and the Chipmunks film.

Euteur Theory:

The term Auteur came from Andre Bazin when he wrote about  it in a French magazine called 'Cahiers Du Cinema' it sggests that the director is the main creative force behind a film and that they have their own repeted use of unique methods which distinguish a group of films from any other.

Book: Complete A-Z media & film studies handbook
Author: Richard Harvey

I think this film could be remade as a Hollywood film, BUT! the alterations which would be made to it would take away the films unique intention and change it entirley because the focus would be based so much on the actors that the beggining sequence would be less effective, and the camera probably would be less shakey and more steady in comparision to the version we have seen, so to say it strait to the point...the film makers in hollywood would base the films whole construction on perfection that they would take away the shakey camera at the beginning which adds the effect to the film in the first place. The 4 main roles would probably be played by:

1: Zac Efron

2: Robert Pattinson

3: Selena Gomez

4: Taylor Swift

I chose these particular actors because of 3 main reasons:

1: they're all well known, good looking actors.

2: they have a big fan base.

3: they're on the 20 best romance actors/singers list as a romance actor

http://www.imdb.com/list/TgSOr2kHR-0/

(evidence)

 Most things in Chungking Express which are media/music related are from America because America is a huge country and controls most of what we hear and see, which makes American entertainment more popular and consumed worldwide. For example, Faye (the girl who works in the take away) repetedly plays "country song" California Dreamin' extremly loud whilst working her job.

(This clip shows how Faye is Childish) 

We learn that faye is complicated and that she likes to be playfull, and mess around rather than take her job seriously, for example, when she was messing about in Cop 633's appartment instead of getting on with her job that her boss had asked her to do, and she lied saying it was raining to get out of doing her job. 

(clip of how she acts towards customers)

The way Faye is repressented is childish and complicated, childish because of the way she acts and runs around playing with everything, entering peoples homes without permission and not thinking about her job, complicated because she comes across as though she likes Cop 633, but it comes across that it's in an obsessive way and that she's strange for expressing it the way she does.

California Dreamin' is used in chungking express repetedly to show the personality of Faye (leitmotif) it is used because Faye wants to go to California one day and she mentions this to Cop 633 at one point in the movie.

WEEK 1 - Higanjima: Escape From Vampire Island

Higanjima : Escape From Vampire Island

is a film made in japan about blood sucking vampires that have taken over a full island

and left the survivers under fear, hate and sorrow, when Rei bumps into

Akira and saves him from a gang of punks everything starts to go downhill for him

and his friends when they find out that Akira's brother Atshushi is still alive on this

vampire infested island!

The film was origenally a Manga written by Kôji Matsumoto (Writer of Defnote) and director

Tae-Gyun Kim turned it into a full length non-animated film!

For More Information On The Film Go To:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270767/

(not all information included)

The colours used on the case are dark shade of blue, purple and grey, a blood red colour and black and white, these colours all blend in with the "Horror" genre to bring out an un-easy and unwelcoming over all impression, the way these colours are used and blended bring this out! starting from the first thing you see, which is a close up of the main vampire 's face (miyabi), first of all he's in a shadow with a little bit of light on his face, this could mean that he's the bad guy, but his facial expression and the way the lighting is possitioned makes us automaticly think he's hiding in some way, possibly more ways than one, his pale skin makes you have the assumption that he's ice cold and possibly dead, then you see the red eyes and fangs which piece it all together that he's a vampire. In the background you can see an island which seems dark and misterious, the reason it seems this way is the blends of the dark colours and surrounded by water which is rough, not calm, also the fork lightning gives off a feel of danger especially with the mysterious bat-like creature flying around it, the faqct that Miyabi's head is hiding the island also gives off a mysterious feel to the island.

Trailer to Higanjima: Escape From Vampire Island

(in japanese couldn't find a subtitled trailer)

My thoughts on world cinema are that it's

 more interesting than the Mainstream/Hollywood cinema

because of 3 particular reasons;

1: The actors in the film arn't that well known, so you know nothing about them or their acting methods.

2: It isn't all hyped up and overspent on to make it "Hollywood Perfection" standard.

3: The narrrative appears to usually have more to it than most Hollywood films do, in Hollywood they usually like to keep it short and sweet so they don't lose out on money.

E.g, if i compare this film to Twilight:

for Higanjima the main Vampire is Koji Yamamoto (Miyabi) that you wouldn't have heard of till i told you

for Twilight the main vampire is Robert Pattinson (Edward) who is well known for being Sedrick Digory in Harry Potter and is also well know for being a "Pretty Boy"

Higanjima has a different quality on the cover compared to Twilight, not only does twilight have a massive amount of effects on the cover, but also had a massive hype up before the film was actually released.

although! both of these films are actually based on books!

 

Escape From Vampire islands distribution company is Manga "a starz company"

Manga Entertainment Ltd. is an entertainment company specialising in the production, marketing and distribution of japanese animation for theatrical, telivision, internet, DVD and home video release world wide. The manga film library is marketed and distributed in the U.S, through anchor bay entertainment, The company is headquarterd in L.A with offices in New York and London. Manga is a division of starz media, a programming production and distribution company operating world wide. It includes the film roman and anchor bay entertainment brands. It's units create animated and live-action programming -including theatrical films- and programming created under contract for other media companies. It distributes that programming through home video retailers, theartres, broadcasters, ad supported and premium television channels, and internet and wireless video distributors in the U.S and internationally. Starz media is an operating unit of starz, LLC, which is controlled subsidary of liberty media corporation, and is attributed to liberty capital group.

information on company from:

http://www.animetion.co.uk/pressreleases/pressrelease63.htm