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What has more influence in your response: filmmakers technique or subject matter?

I believe that both factors are equally as important. A good film needs a strong subject matter that an audience can relate to, but if people can't connect with the film, then the film-maker needs to create this through cinematic techniques. For example in the film 'The History Boys' the character of Hector touches on themes of Homosexuality and Peadophilia.  In the scene where he is in the classroom with the students and they are criticizing his teaching, he breaks down and cries. We have previously seen him getting a dismissal from the headteacher over allegations of innapropriatley touching a pupil, so this changes the way in which we respond to him crying, however the cinematic techniques used do make us feel some slight sympathy for him, as the director uses lots of wide shots to make Hector seem very small in this huge room of people.

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Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

In this sequence, we see Pavill - a jewish servant outside with Bruno. Bruno makes a swing in his garden, falls and cuts his leg. Pavill quickly rushes over to Bruno and carries him home.

From an Acting Point of View, Pavill looks very weak as he scuttles around. This makes us feel sympathy for him

Bruno is still extremely innocent - and asks a lot of questions to Pavill.

Pavill tells Bruno that he was a practicing doctor - before he came 'here'.

From this conversation, we get a real sense of the degradation that Pavill has faced, and even his position in the room - sitting on a low stool- shows us his status within the house. 

When the mother enters the kitchen, she gives quite scowling looks to Pavill, but there is an element of compassion shown when she says 'Thank you' underneath her breath.

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HAHAHAHAHAH LOOK AT THIS PRICK USING BIG WORDS

The Grandmother figure had views that opposed the Nazi regime which is an opinion we seldom hear in films which feature German’s living in the times of the Nazi rulership. She shares the opinion of most people nowadays which creates a good bond between the audience and the character.

Orchestral...

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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

In the first 18 mins we are introduced to the protagonist Bruno. He is a young, naive boy travelling through the streets of Berlin.

The cinematography is interesting as the film is coloured in grey/brown to replicate the grim nature of the time.

The Soundtrack is mostly constant, but does raise with intensity when a moment of intensity is shown.

In the scene where the Jews are taken away, the noise of the Dogs Barking is much louder than the rest. This could be a stylistic choice made by the director to shock the audience and to make them feel 'on edge'

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This is England - Emotional Response

In the opening sequence we're presented with a montage of clips, to make us understand the geographical and historical context of the time. This allows us to see everything that's going on at the time, and therefore we sympathise with Sean as we can see the unstable country that he is growing up in. In reality, we wouldn't really sympathise with him as he is a little 'runt', but the context allows us to connect with him.

When Sean goes out with the gang , we see them really enjoying themselves whilst smashing up the derelict house. We know that this is not really affecting or hurting anyone, and we can also see that this is a very cathartic moment for them all - it is a moment of escapism.

We do feel empathy for Gaj is we see the shot of him climbing the stairs and out of breath - and when they all hide from him we feel very sad, especially when he says that he's 'gone down the ranks'

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Danny Boyle 127 Hours Interview - Emotional Response

What does he mean by Intimate?

When Danny Boyle mentions 'intimate' - he is referencing the small distance between the audience and the action on-screen. He says that he achieves this in his film by using just one actor and a digital camera -allowing the audience to empathise with the charachter.

What are the benefits for a director in predominantly using one charachter?

The audience feel more gripped by what is happening as they just have to focus on one charachter.

Could there be any negative aspects?

The audience could become bored following just one character.

How does technology benefit the filmmaker?

In '127 Hours' Boyle mentions that due to the location used (Grand Canyon) , film cameras would not fit into the space, and therefore smaller digital cameras were used.

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City of God

In the opening sequence of the film, we are firstly presented with an image of the main character - Rocket- behind what looks like some sort of isolated set of bars. This gives the audience the impression of isolation and could foreshadow what is going to happen later in the film....complimenting this idea of isolation also is the characters dialogue in this opening sequence - "If you run, they get you, and if you stay they get you too" - this gives the audience an insight into how dangerous it is to live in the 'City of God'.

In this sequence also, there are many different shots, each of very short durations that depict chickens being killed and skinned on this brazillian market. The short shot lengths add lots of impact to the scene and gives it a gritty and edgy feel. The sounds of the knifes being sharpened also heighten the tension of the scene - making us feel that this is a dangerous and hustled environment to be in.

The sequence in the brothel alligns us towards those in the brothel rather than the charachters who are raiding it. This is achieved by low level lighting and also the charachters raiding the brothel are out of focus - adding an element of mystery and suspense to shock the audience.

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Both films portray the theme of injustice in some form. In ‘Inside Man’, the police show signs of injustice towards the Sikh Man Vikram, when instantly assuming that he is a terroist. This displays the police force’s arrogance and marginalization over foreign people living in the USA after the...

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HB

Alice has conflict in herself. (personal) should she pursue that Harry Brown was killing? challenges her own valves and judgement, shows conflict within the police.

conflicting attitudes ‘deathogram’

Hicock was born on the estate and Alice wasn’t

conflict of peer-pressure - taking...

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Additional notes on Living with Crime Conflict Question -

Look deeper, don't just immediately jump in with the obvious problems/conflicts that are presented to us. Even talk about individual conflicts, and how they link with the narrative conventions/genre aspects of the film

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ATB - conflict between the gangs and Sam (women) throughout the film you realise it was necessary because if she didn’t know them she would have been attacked by the aliens

If Sam hadn’t have initially agreed to help heal Pest’s leg, then she wouldn’t have gained the gang’s respect- and they...

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Essay Answer 1

How important is film marketing in attracting an audience?

  When a producer chooses to market a film, it is extremely important that they choose the most viable avenues to do so, as the success or failure of a film can often be influenced much by the way it had been marketed.

  ‘Green Zone’ – released in 2010 is a perfect example as to how the marketing of a film can lead to failure. The film itself was produced by Universal Pictures, and brought back together actor  Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass once again. Universal essentially ‘cashed in’ on the fact that the pair had been responsible for the success of the ‘Bourne’ series of films, and used this information to mislead cinema-goers into thinking that they were going to see another film of this standard – even though the concept of ‘Green Zone’ was far different to that of any of the ‘Bourne’ films. The promotional poster released for the film presents us with a large image of Matt Damon, with large Block-lettering ‘billing’ the star’s name. This poster is very similar again to the ‘Bourne’ franchise, and after seeing the film, many audience members left dis-satisfied and felt cheated by the fact that they had been mis-led. This negative word of mouth was obviously spurred on by the marketing of the film, and thus we can only really blame the marketing team at Universal for its huge loss at the box office.

  ‘The Hurt Locker’ is also an excellent example as to how a film’s marketing can contribute to its failure. Unlike ‘GZ’, the film does not mislead its audience by its poster, but it doesn’t exactly entice them into watching the film either. The film tells the story of members of a bomb-disposal team in Iraq, and as Hollywood Talk show Host Betty Jo Tucker says ‘most people go to the movies for escapist entertainment’. This quotation directly addresses the problem that the producers of this film were faced with when releasing the film, as many people do not want to go to the cinema to be entertained by a topic that they have been saturated with from the media at home.

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What are the some of the issues for UK producers and audiences In Hollywood's domination of the UK film industry?

British Films are not usually as successful as Hollywood Films - as they do not usually have big-budgets, and are funded by the lottery fun...

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How Important is film Marketing in Attracting an Audience?

Resource Material

Green Zone's Marketing was very influential in its failure, as it was marketed as being another 'Bourne' style film with Matt Damon, and the public were misled and this sparked negative word of mouth reviews which led to its failure. 

Hurt-Locker didn't really have a large marketing campaign - the film was not really known that well. The subject matter was very similar to what was going on in the media at the time, and usually the most successful films often offer a form of escapism to audience members - this didn't. The audience members were already saturated with negative media regarding the Iraq war, and don't want to delve even deeper into it.

Case-Study Material

The film "Submarine' didn't do very well in box office in the UK, nor the USA, but in the USA, the film was marketed as being produced by Ben Stiller - this proves that the concept of the film was not enough to draw an audience in, but having a 'star' as the film's producer was obviously the right way of attempting to attract a U.S. Audience. It wasn't advertised enough on US TV, but was on British Television.

The film 'Tower Heist' had a lot of guest appearances from its stars on TV Chat-shows worldwide. It also was advertised a lot on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. There was a lot of merchandise linked to the film as well that could be won in competitions run by film websites etc. This consequently created a lot of hype over the film, leading to people going to visit the cinema to see the film.