Tuesday 6 May 2014

piracy essay

Piracy poses a threat to the film industry because it decreases the amount of revenue of which the film industry needs to carry on with their business. Also director's are forced to make their films in 3D to prevent piracy, so directors don't have as much control over their own film. Piracy alone can be accessed by clicking on any site like "megaupload" or "viooz" via the Internet, and considering the Internet is accessible to almost everyone in the world, its possible for anyone to commit film piracy or even start their own site themselves.

3D was brought back because of the rise in Internet piracy to stop or atleast lower the rate of piracy. The resurgence of 3D plays a huge role in piracy as it affects the production,  distribution and exhibition of films. 3D affects production because it's more expensive to make a 3D movie and it also takes the freedom away from the director as they may have to change the film to work with the 3D, for example Guilermo Deltoro who directed "Pacific Rim" had to alter the film to make it work for 3D so it would be harder to pirate. This is also how it affects distribution as 3D movies are harder to pirate than normal films, so they can't be illegally distributed. Finally, 3D affects exhibition because the it's meant to attract audiences back to cinema because of all the spectacle which 3D offers, to make up for the loss in revenue from the piracy.

Although the surge of internet piracy was going on all over the internet, but film industry's were trying to make the most of the situation by making websites such as "Netflix" and "Hulu". The sites work in similar says to the pirate sites like "Megaupload" were it is a plethora of  films available, but you would need a subscription to use a site like "Netflix". The purpose behind the subscriptions was that it provided the subscriber with information and could organize their films on the site, also it came in different variety's like apps. This was film industries way of making money because of the lose in revenue due to internet piracy and hopefully  replace the illegal sites.



Monday 5 May 2014

video nasties essay

Film censorship is originated from the fears of audiences and technologies, these fears led to the creation of the BBFC who is a organisation in-charge of censorship and regulation of films. Censorship of film means that either a particular part of a movie would be removed by the BBFC or the film may be so explicit that the entire film itself gets censored to the point were it is not view-able by normal means. This also affected the audiences as the people that for some reason or another would still want to see the censored film would then go through illegal means to view it, such as piracy. The regulation standards are put forward so that only certain people can view or buy movies based on their age. The reason why the BBFC does these things to "protect" the audiences psychological needs. Although they are in-charge of regulation, they have no control over the regulation of VHS tapes, which means that anyone could watch any movie they want without "government supervision".

The video nasties spurred on a "moral panic" which brought about Mary Whitehouse. She brought it on herself while working alongside Margrate Thatcher to be rid of "video nasties". She had an agenda that basically blamed anything that contained violence, gore or is explicit in anyway was used as a scapegoat for the bleak scenario at the time as there was a resection going on at the time. the blame and turmoil toward films like "Evil dead" or "i spit on your grave" were seen as "satanic" by Mary Whitehouse and shunned through the media as she found a lot of supposed reasons to why they should be out right banned. Such as mugging, thefts and murders that were based around ideas from movies that were acted out by audiences.

Monday 21 April 2014

Blockbuster essay

Cinema attendance between 1975 and 1985 started to decreases as Hollywood film industry's began building multiplexes to feature their own movies, namely blockbusters, which could have multiple showings at once hence the name. Normal cinemas, or "flea pits" as they went on to be called, could only have one showing at a time so they were limited to what films were available. Also "flea pits" didn't necessarily have the same technological advancements as multiplexes like better speakers for more immersion and better projectors for picture quality. Alongside this, the location of where the multiplexes were built had a lot to do with the decrease in regular cinemas attendance. This was because multiplexes were built inside or attached to shopping centers, this made the multiplexes have a bunch of extras to go along with them, this attracted younger audiences to multiplexes as it made seeing a movie more of a thing to do on a social gathering instead of a stand alone event which in turn took audiences away from smaller cinemas. Eventually after not having the regular income to keep the cinemas going, they all went bust because all the business was going to the multiplexes which were getting more and more popular in towns and city's to the point were there was one in almost every shopping center.

The Big Screen soon became dominated by blockbuster movies crammed full of special effects shortly after the release of one of the biggest blockbuster franchises "Star Wars". This came down to the sheer popularity of the saga of si-fi movies and there special effects every left, right and center that the Hollywood film industry began creating more franchises to use special effects as they were so popular. Reason being is because the audiences at the time were mostly teens so they were more than likely into seeing movies for spectacle rather than story. This then led on to more and more blockbusters being made that were just spectacle and nothing else.

When a movie receives a lot of hype of the course up to its release, over the trailer or huge budget, it is then known as a event movie. The first of these event movies was "Jaws", it was increasingly more popular after the first showing, so it then continued to be shown for another 6 weeks. What helped the spread of the hype i believe was the marketing, as trailers posters and articles for "Jaws" were everywhere up to its release.


Tuesday 1 April 2014

Q1. What were the aims of the script & 9 key frames?

"The purpose of the script was to create either a disruption or resolution scene (I did a disruption scene) for a prequel film (I did the film Harry Brown)." -David

Q2. What codes and conventions identified in the textual analysis essay were used in the script & 9 key frames?

"I used the conventions of a hybrid genre thriller-drama that I recognized during the textual analysis essay that I added into my script through dialogue and scene directions." -David

Q3. How was the location report used in the construction of the nine key frames?

"By completing a location report I knew how I wanted my shots in my nine key frames to look with the use of the location." -Rebecca

Q4. How successful was the script & 9 key frames in achieving the aims?

"I believe that my script and nine key frames was rather successful in fulfilling what I set out to achieve, I believe that I done well in breaking some if the conventions to show how genres have to adapt over time to help satisfy and interest a new age audience." -Benn

Friday 21 March 2014

(Essay Plan UN-FINISHED) What Factors led to the decline of town or city centre cinemas in the late 1970s and 1980s?

Intro
A combination of things led to the decline of town or city centre cinemas in late 1970s and early 1980s such as hollywood film industries building Multiplexes, the rise of teen audiences becoming more popular due to spectacle driven films, also Multiplexes being built in shopping centres with all these extra activities attached to the film experience and the technology of film VFX and the technology used in Multiplexes to view blockbusters. 

Social: Teen audiences becoming more popular in multiplexes because viewing films becomes a more social gathering as apposed to a "event", which in cases devalues films. 

Economical: The hollywood film industries that built the multiplexes, show the blockbusters that they made, therefor saving the hollywood film industries money because they don't have to pay money for distribution.

Technological: Blockbusters became progressively more popular because of the spectacle


Tuesday 18 March 2014

Production:Economic influence

Economic
Jaws was the first ever blockbuster, it was also an event movie due to all the hype it received, making a lot of money in return. The Hollywood film industry saw this as a ultimate success and then went on to make nothing but blockbusters so that they have guaranteed revenue.
imdb data base (Jaws bugdet/gross)


 Godfather was also a blockbuster but which received a large revenue but also boasted a sizeable budget because of its "A list" actors.

imdb database (godfather budget/gross)




PDE Context and notes


PDE

Production- how they make the film
Distribution- how they get it to cinemas + marketing
Exhibition- sales, revenue from advertising - which films are shown, where and experience

Films are formulaic- effects etc 

Box office focused on revenue 
Box office figures skyrocketed meaning cinema attendance increased dramatically 

Write 35 minute timed essay answering question: what factors led to the decline of the town or city centres....

VFX/ technology- Star Wars meant people went to multiplex cinemas
Massively marketed- jaws
E.T first VCR released and hugely pirated 
godfather was a blockbuster counterpoint 

Hollywood film studio was the reason for multiplex cinemas to make money and advertise their own films 

Big recession in 70's meaning decrease in cinema attendance 

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg made industrial light and magic 

1. Milton keys in Birminghamshire 1983 was the first multiplex cinema to be built

2. The cinema attendance was low at this time which is why the multiplexes were invested in and built in the UK to advertise the blockbusters

3. Saturday night fever in 1977, Jaws in 1975, Star Wars 1977, E.T 1982

4. Built on the upper floor of shopping centres near the motorway so easy access to the destination also had other attraction such as restaurants and shops to draw in the numbers

5. People were intrigued by new and exciting experience at the multiplex cinema with the illusion of choice meaning flea pits were discarded as the old ways. 

6. Better sounds and audio quality, free parking, more of a variety meaning there were more screens meaning more seats meaning more people meaning more money for film distributors

7. Tv was invented meaning fashionability of stay at home came around and invention of VCR meaning people could watch films at home, recession affected what people could do due to lack of income. 

Illusion of choice