love actually

Love Actually (2003)

  135 min  -  Comedy | Drama | Romance   

   

Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely and interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.

Director: Richard Curtis

Writer: Richard Curtis

Stars: Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon and Liam Neeson

Country:UK | USA

 

Release Date:21 November 2003 (UK)

 

Filming Locations:Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, France

 

Budget: £30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $1,047,160 (Russia) (11 December 2003) (126 Screens)

Gross: $59,365,105 (USA) (16 February 2004)

Production Co: Universal Pictures, Studio Canal, Working Title Films 

Soundtracks: "River" By Joni Mitchell (as Mitchell) Performed by Joni Mitchell Courtesy of Warner Strategic Marketing UK

Filming Dates: 2 September 2002 - 26 November 2002

Kick-Ass

After watching Kick-Ass you need to write about the film in relation to the 7 key areas of representation: Gender, Age, Ethnicity, Sexuality, Social Class, Physical Ability/ Disability, Regional Identity.

Also refer to the 4 key areas of Textual Analysis: Camera Shots, Angle, Movement and Composition ,Editing ,Sound, Mise-en-Scène.

Kick-Ass as a film contributes to the 7 key areas often breaking the boundaries of stereotypes, for example Genre; men are typically viewed as the strong ones, whereas we witness Hit Girl killing all the men, breaking the stereotype of Women being weak. We see this most ironically when she enters the building to seek her revenge; here she plays with the idea that all you girls are ‘innocent’ and it is this that allows her into the room where she kills and murders everyone. When she enters the building she is dressed in old school uniform comparing this to the mise en scene, which is modern and marble floors, this makes this appearance of Hit Girl more dramatic. The idea of her being in ‘old’ clothing is shadowed by the backing music which is ‘Spaghetti Western’ which brings the tension together but also contradicts the age and gender stereotypes.

            Whilst inside the building she contradicts the idea of Ethnicity, a lot of the guys she is fighting are coloured, this is because they are door men and are more likely to hurt the little girl stereotypically. However Hit Girl fights the guys, where they are dark could this be a metaphor for good & bad? The good is fighting the evil here and the good fight back better.

             The clothing of Hit Girl, Kick-Ass and Big Daddy is loud, obvious and makes them stick out for the others, so their identity is easily seen however we struggle to identify the other men. They all look like an army for Frank that gets destroyed, and he also uses his son as a man in order to protect him. In this fight we seen very clever camera work, we see the picture swapping to the professionals to the armatures. How it swaps back to one and another but yet ironically the armature (Kick-Ass) beats the professional (Frank).

             The second time we meet Big-Daddy is in the factory when we see him destroying the factory, although Big-Daddy looks like a child playing ‘dress-up’ he is the one who wins in the end. Big Daddy plays on the idea of surprise, which contradicts his clothing this is because he is dressed so that he stands out, when the audience see what Red Mist has to show his dad (Frank) we are shown from the hand held camera and then switches back to the film camera and back, I think that this is to symbolize the social class, and how even though Big Daddy is of lower class than Frank then we understand that he can still mess with him. For example they use camera that are of high quality when trying to show Kick-Ass and Big Daddy’s true identity. This is the higher class and then they log into the CCTV in the building that is weak quality, but yet it is intruding into Frank’s place, when Hit Girl is seeking her Revenge. When we see them run out of the factory trying to escape Big Daddy’s place we see the name fall off the factory I think this is foreshadowing Big Daddy bringing down  Franks business.

            The only sexual things that we see is between Kick-Ass and his girl friend, we see how he try’s to impress her being an ordinary guy where we see him struggling to keep their friendship when he likes her so much I see this as Kick-Ass’s own disability as he feels as though  he is not good enough for her and that he needs to be someone else when they are together and we see this in contrast to him being Kick-Ass, it is when his two personas merge that we witness him meeting Big Daddy and Hit girl, So it is this that gets him into trouble but it is also when he gains the courage to tell her and it is then that he gets what he wanted all day along, she loves the real him. He doesn’t have to be different. I think this is also shown in Hit Girl she should have the disability of being a young innocent girl and that she shouldn’t ever do anything wrong however we soon she is not however she does have the awful situation of being a Orphan at the end however we witness her defending herself even when she does go to school she is still able to stand up for her self so it shows her physical ability in contrast to the disability of being a Orphan.

thursdays work

Working Title Films was co-founded by producers Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. In 1992, PolyGram became the company's corporate backer. Radclyffe left Working Title, and Eric Fellner, a fellow independent film producer, joined the company. The company produced a variety of films for PolyGram's London-based production company PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. PolyGram Films became a major Hollywood competitor. In 1999, PolyGram was sold to Seagram and merged with MCA Music Entertainment, to form Universal Music Group. PolyGram Films was merged and sold to Universal Studios in 1999.

Although contractually allowed to produce any film with a budget of up to $25 million, on a practical basis, Bevan and Fellner consult with studio executive at Working Title's parent company NBC Universal.

WT² Productions

In 1999, Bevan and Fellner launched a subsidiary company named Working Title 2 Productions, commonly known as WT². The company is an independent film production arm run by Natascha Wharton, and has produced films that include Billy Elliot, Shaun of the Dead and The Calcium Kid.

Being a conglomerate of universal they’re able to spend a greater amount of money of which would be used to invest on a greater amount of films, so that they’re able to use new and upcoming technologies for example 3D, blue-ray, better cameras for example in the film green zone they used silicon cameras which are the size of a match box therefore allowing them to get more effective action shots that usually wouldn’t be able to get with normal cameras.

 With Working Title being part of a conglomerate with Universal they get far more funding to spent on the cast and directors. This is a huge advantage to a film business, however spending more money on more well known directors then gives you the disadvantage of the director deciding more of the film, taking over it more. Then again with higher experienced cast and crew you are more likely to get a far better effective and successful film.   

With the higher budget you are able to appeal to more genres if you have a weak budget or are not part of a conglomerate then you’re unable to do this for example Warp films can only cater for genres like social realism whereas Working title can produce films for a vaster genre for example: the dramatic, thriller and action,   which means that they can gain more audiences like films in Hollywood where they have the funding to get animation films etc. 

A issue that Working title may face as they’re a conglomerate to Universal is that universal have a lot of control over them, meaning that they’re controlled and restricted in what they can do, so the films are less artistic in order to overcome this issue working title brought working title 2 into action this was created still as a conglomerate so they still receive the funding from universal but get more artistic points for example Billy Elliot so this weakness was overcome.  

TARGETS

Targets

1)      Remember the focus on this section is the BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY, you must use British example.

2)      Example must be used from your case study WT, Warp and Hollywood should be comparison.

3)      Always REFER back to the question. In this case the impact on the film industry

4)      Institutions and Audience is your main focus within any given questions. You MUST discuss these two areas in which you have studied.

5)      Use term audiences as a substitute for ‘people’ and ‘you/us’, unless you are giving your opinion.

6)      Terminology is key, so make use of the terms you know & can include.

7)      Give detailed points & explain, not described, PEE.

I feel I need to improve on examples of just working titles, as I didn’t know that this was our key case study I thought that it was working title and warp and I need to focus on the British film industry.

I need to keep in the impact, so answer the question more rather than explain the terms, so in this case focus more on the IMPACT.

let the right one in essay

Let the Right One In (original title: Låt den rätte komma in), is a 2008 Swedish romantic horror film directed by Tomas Alfredson based on the novel by a Swedish author. The story centers on the relationship between a 12-year-old boy, Oskar, and a centuries-old vampire child, Eli. It takes place in a working class suburb of Sweden I would guess it is set in the early 1980s due to the type of clothing/building/hair styles. The film focuses on the darker side of humanity, dealing with issues such as existential anxiety, bullying, pedophilia and murder.

The two main characters are Eli and Oskar, who couldn’t be more unalike, Eli giving the look of being good and innocent like a 12 year old child should be for example her first killing that we see, she uses her innocence’s and sweet voice to prise her victim to her. Whereas Oskar gives the show that he is evil with his cold and pale coloured skin and his bright blue eyes. We also learn that Oskar carries a knife on him, and we see him keeping a scrap book full of newspaper clippings of murders etc. So we soon learn that he is mentally destructive, the first time that Eli see’s him he striking a tree with a knife, this is what attracts Eli to Oskar.

                In comparison to Vladimir Propp’s theory,   the hero in this film would be Oskar I guess, as he helps Eli, although it’s through evil he is also seeking Eli’s love. The villain I guess is the man who persuades the death of Eli or even Eli herself, the Donor would be the man who kill’s for Eli (Håkan) The princess would also be Eli I think from a perspective.

                When Eli kills her first man we think it’s a bit in reverse when we consider binary opposites, it’s a young girl killing a middle aged man (young V’s old), tall V’s short the short little girl has the power.

Oskar where’s his dads big jacket, when we see them playing on the snow the camera shots are quick as fast pace, and there are a lot of close ups meaning you are not using your imagination, but in comparison to when the murders are played the camera is shot from wide angle so your imagination has to control the film. Although the sound is very clear along with the crunch of the snow, making it more terrifying as everyone’s mind has different fears and this means your mind can cause a perfect situation to make you more terrified. When Håkan kills the first victim he kills people who he thinks he will never have an issue with, this means that they will never get away, the voice is very clear, but when the man is hung and the blood flow is flowing into the tub the camera follows the flow. The corners of the screen often are blurred and the angle the camera is shot from a low perspective this could represent Eli’s or Oskar’s view of everything.

Windows are also used often throughout the film from the beginning to when he finds out that she is a vampire, I think the windows show the separate lives that the children lead, the shot where they are holding each other’s hands through the window shows this, this trend also follows through with the women that Eli turned into a vampire, when she is attacked by the cats we are watching from behind the glass, as if we are in separate worlds as does the wall between them although they are communicating he still is not in her world, like when she walks into his house but he doesn’t ask her to come in that is another sign of the borders that are there in their relationship, but when Oscar’s allows for himself to accept Eli he is okay to go into her world, to defend and to fight for her. It’s as if the walls/windows are the physical equilibrium. The first one being when he sees her coming into the building, he looks through the window, the second being when he has to work out how to be in contact with the worlds but he doesn’t know yet, (when he makes the code of knocks on the wall) then when he gets into the world, but the door is then closed again then we see him looking topless in the window to outside like we did at the beginning.

Disablity

Disability on Prezi

modern technologies

Editing software on Prezi

Media Warp Fact Sheet

Preliminary film - scene opening

Film Financing

how to secure funding.

Goverment Grants, you can secure goverment grants if you can benefit the country in :

• employment
• development of national culture
• advertising a location for international aundiences

these people who fund this is usually the Uk film councel or the National lottery there are also tax schemes, these are like goverment grants but on a larger scale in order to get films back into our country. If films are shot in the uk and they employ british people local to the area in a fair number your likely to get these grants, so you will get a tax reduction if your fit this critearia.

Pre sales.
it goes from the making of the film to the distrubtion and marketing to the Exhibition. this is how you secure most of your money int he distribution of the film.

Production documentury

In class we watched a film on how films are made, we wrote down notes about the film.

The producer, job is to look at the bigger picture to allow the Dirtector to get his vision on the screen, in oder to do this hehas 4 key jobs:

• Gets the Funding
• Develops it
• Helps with making the film
• Takes it into Production

The script, the script may be changed 5-6 times, It is the blue print of the film, after the script writter has written the script the script developer re-writes it. How do you tell if the script is a good script? its down to gut feeling and knowledge.

The Cast, the cast is picked by the Producer and the Writter for the film. these also choose the screen writing. The cast is picked on who plays the most true to the script even if they move or change things to make it adapt to them
The cast and the crew should be the people who attract the finacing, if they are English producers, they  are usually funded by the bbc / channel 4, regional funding, and group funding.  In the uk and world wide you can use co-operation deals.Independant production deals means that they have enough in the film to get control of the film.
You always shoot the hard parts first.

Anaylse of Prelim

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Overview of pitch

We were given the target audience of Middle aged men of working class to produce an idea of a film to, we weren't too sure what to do. We eventually came up with some ideas that middle aged working class men would be interested in:

• Family assosiated as they have been dragged to the cinema by their wife/partner and their children.
• family comedy
• a film from their childhood redone so they can still reminise
• a film that they can relate back to their life/childhood.

After putting up alot more that the above ideas these are the few that we thought we should relate them to, We eventually came up of a film that is about 2 boys, 2 very opperstie boy's who go to the same school. The opening to the Film would be 2 people leaving each other taking a child each (done in black and white, to show that it was a long time ago,) then we'd show the film later on, say 15 years down the line, here we would show two boys, leading different lives; one with their family and one with their own. The boys would bump into each other time and time again. Still showing their different lives, flashing from one life to another. One of the boys being the 'hard man' of the school the other being the 'skater' who plays music etc. Both of them looking simular with some features. Then the 'skater' boy falls inlove with the 'hard' boys younger step sister after taking alot of abouse and a good few hard hits from the 'hard man' the 'skater' boy still stays with the girl. But things get complicated, and the girl ends up pregnant, and the 'skater' and the girl disappear, in this the boys family unite to try and find them. undiscovered Truths comeout..making life alot more complicated than meets the eye.

American Beauty work.

We watched the opening scene of 'American Beauty' in our lesson, we were asked to jot down notes on the Body Language, voice, the clothing, and the mise-en-scene including, colours, backgrounds, lighting and the colours.  
          these are the notes i took down to about Lester Burnham:

• he has simple body Language which would indicate that he is bored.
• The women have more control.
• he is  going through his midlife crisis.
• We see the bit where he's looking through the window this indicates that he is trapped.
• his voice starts of dull and at the end it shows some hope coming into his life.
• his voice when he is talking to his wife, is mutual giving of the idea that he is bored with his life. 
• His monotone Voice links to his simple Body language. his Monotone Body Language could link to his monotone life style and inturn his monotone dream.
•  He has boring clothing, also indicating his monotone life style.
• All the colours in his life, the scenes, the lighting, his clothing, everything is monotone, he has no life. they're all pale pastel colours, then there is a little bit of red which comes in... this stands out so much against the red.. showing his sign of hope.
• he was the one that was late, she drove the car, he sat in the bank. this is so against all sterio types.
• his Daughter is called "jane" a plain boring simple name.

All of my notes, stress his montone lifestlye. This tells us about his life and how he has been and always will have a monotone lifestlye, A "plain jane" life style. This link to the name of his daughter, jane. his whole life has been dull like the colours of the scenes.. but at the end of the opening scenes, we see the him look to the cloud, his voice gets hopefull, and we see a new colour, a brighter colour, hopefully this is the truning point of Lester life.

Representation

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Representation. The man.

My first impression of this man was that he was a man who has travelled the man, and seen alot. That he was a middle class man, as his trousers are sewn up neatly and the hems turned up perfectly. you can tell he is a man that is confident because of his posture, wanting to be unnoticed possibly, as his hat covers his eyes.

Working Title Films Are a British Film Company Based in London, Answes

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