Blockbuster Marketing

While we are usually desauded from using Blockbusters for Film Analysis, one area they are very useful to look at is marketing. Often in Hollywood Blockbuster cinema, marketing and distribution will be more important to the studios than the overall quality of the film. It helps not only to understand how Hollywood does buisness, but teaches us how films are products, for making money as well as art and entertainment.

We watched a documentary on Trainspotting (1996), an independent film whose success was built on it's powerful marketing campaign. This was a film that couldn't rely on blockbuster spectacle, so had to create it's own media buzz through strong marketing. You can take tactics used by the Trainspotting Production company and apply them not only to the film I have studied for my Marketing Article, Star Trek (2009), but also to other media products.

There are a few key points I picked up on watching the documentary. Firstly, start early and start strong. They started promoting and trying to sell the film during Pre-Production, trying to spread good messages, get the directors vision out to the Distributors. Similarly, Star Trek's director went on a press junket/tour of international distributors before the film was complete, increasing confidence both back home in the US and with International distributors.

Nowadays there is also an increasing Media race to get your work out to the public as soon as possible. For instance, upcoming 2012 release, The Dark Knight Rises got it's first teaser a full year before the film is to be released. Made up of footage from only a few weeks of production, the demand and response for the trailer was huge, but at time of writing, the film hasn't even shooting yet. Create media hype by getting your product out there quickly, is a key point. Similarly, Star Trek had a similary premature teaser trailer, which built massive hype for the film, and even one it award, a year before it's release.

Next, market your film to your target audience. Trainspotting became part of the BritPop cultural trend, which had taken British Youth culture by storm. You could even see this from it's poster, it had the bright oranges for the punky feel, it had the black and white degraded look that was popular in 90's design and it featured a female on the poster to avoid the idea it was a Lad-Centred movie. Compare this to Star Trek, whose target market it is a larger mass audience, mainly teenagers and slightly older family audience as well as existing Trek Fans. The poster features, aliens to appeal to "Trekkies", good looking actors to appeal to a youthfull audience, a female character to appeal to female market, and the poster is designed with mysterious black and white, shadowed style where faces murge into each other. This is similar to other teaser images for say, Termionator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) also a blockbuster Sci Fi. We can see how each film has a different audience but the same ground work in the posters.

Similarities and Differences: Trainspotting & Star Trek

I will be looking at a range of Marketing techniques in my article, taking note of obvious materials like Trailers and Posters and also modern specialost types, looking at the internet and the global village, and the importance of the consumer and mass market.

Comparitive Study - Remakes

Hollywood is currently going through an age of remakes, with a large number of films being reworked and repackaged for the modern Cinema audience. Examples like The Karate Kid, The Italian Job, Clash of the Titans etc are all new versions of old films. But what is the relevance to us?

Well we can look at the differences in production bought about by time. How were films made back then, and what has changed now? I've been comparing 3:10 to Yuma, first made in 1950, remade in 2007. There are man ydiffering factors, from how Hollywood was run, to the themes and content, to marketing etc.

While both films follow the same plot, they differ in nearly every production context. Take the first scene of both films for instance. The '57 version has a song sung by a popular recording aritst, while images of a stagecoach crossing the frontier play out. Come forward to '07, the film is darkly lit, with no soundtarck and a violent attack on the ranch. From one scene you can see the difference in cinematography, sound, levels of violence and storytelling. The modern audience wants violence. As I have explored in Media Studies, the Westernised US/UK Audience is strongly decensitised to violence, and also they seem to enjoy it. It's why games like Grand Theft Auto IV and Call of Duty are big sellers and horror films like the Final Destination series, which take pleasure in violence are still going. So thats why there is a grittier, violent feel to many modern remake.

The remakes opening scene is shot in an interesting way, using candle light and natural light to light the scene. It also uses the modern favourite of Hand Held camera work. It feels grittier and more realistic. The original however has sharp cinematography and everything is purposefully shot. They both have a bold visual style which appeals to the different period audiences.

I will use my comparitive essay to further explore these ideas and find out what has really changed, espcially beyond some of the face value material I have discussed above.

Film Analysis - Auteur Study

Auteur Study is the idea that the Film is the sole creative vision of the Director.  Ofcourse not all Director's cna call themselves Auteur's, but the things we look at in Auteur study, espcially signatures. All media makers tend to carry signatures over from project to project. I think the Auteur study helps us to read signatures, see synergies and understand what the each elemtn means, giving us a more indepth view.

I used a clear and well written example, Stanley Kubrick. He is known for his signatures in composition, shot type, colour contrast as well as use of narrative and character. Kubrick's work is often up for discussion, and he is known as one of the definitve Auteurs. So, can we apply the same ideas to other films, even other media?

Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, best known for the Channel 4 show Peep Show, recently put out the first series of new comedy Fresh Meat. Despite having different narratives, stories and characters, the audience can pick up signatures in the writing and themes. Firstly, look at the settings of both shows. They both feature the residence of the characters as the main setting. Peep Show features a flat that's a bit of a dump, while Fresh Meat features a student house that's a bit of a dump. Next the characters. Peep Show has a pair of mismatched friends, a middle class accountant type and an unemployed musican. Similarly in Fresh Meat, the main set of characters are all from different social backgrounds, with posh kids, poor kids, smart and dumb etc. The writing then makes all the different characters collide, and cause funny situations.

This is an example of signatures, not even from Directors, but just media creatives. The same idea can be applied to all media types. Comic Book writer Frank Miller always uses inner monolgoues and black and white visuals, Rockstar Games always use the same GPS style map in the corner, and tend to have hidden commentories on capitalist society. Doing the initial Auteur study has helped me understand individuals always have influence on  an overall piece and that they carry signatures from piece to piece.

I can then look at signatures, not thinking about them in the context of two or three films, but to further understand why a device or signature has been used. For example, tacking a thought from my submitted Film Analysis, you can see Kubrick uses the contrasting Red in a number of films. Ofcourse many directors use colours in their films, so why is this thought important? Well, when you see high contrast in a handful of examples, you start asking why it's used? In this case, it could be to show Man against machine, or in another, to show subconcious violence.

Auteur Study and the study of Semitoics and signatures gives us the groundwork to analyse all media formats, and think about how the Audience takes it, Why cerain creators get fanbases?What ideas and idealogies are being put through to us? It helps us analyse film.

Film Analysis - Narrative

Part 2 of our film analysis involves an integral element of any Film, Narrative and it's various Structures. Narrative is the story of a piece, and so applies to all forms of media, spoken word and storytelling in general. This makes it a important element and one Film Studies students can use to apply to texts, understanding how stories develop, how to keep the audience interested and how to build character and relationships.

With this is mind we have looked at Narrative Theorsits, the people that write theories on story telling structure. There are many examples of Theorists, all with theories on both story, themes and characters as the integral element in Narrative.

The classic theory, which can pretty much be applied to any form of storytelling is Aristotle, which simply uses a Start, Middle, End, three act sequence. There is a set up, a problem and then the problem is solved. Interestingly, Aristotle and Propp created their theories before the influence of cinema, focusing on storytelling, from theatre to folk tales.

A better example of a Narrative Theorist who looked primarily at film was Field. He wrote Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, and developed his theories taking the work of predecessors such as Aristotle and Todorov, looking at how films used turning points, cause and effect and pinches to keep the audiences' attention and reinforce narrative development. His work and that of Todorov and Vogler had Start Middles and end's and used the idea there is equilibrium in the world of the characters, the world is then disturbed, the characters fight to return it to normal, and there is a return to equilibrium.

Other Theorists used elements other than Acts and key scenes to describe and create narrative structure. Propp, Levi-Strauss and Barthes focused on other things, Propp on character, Levi-Strauss on binary opposites and Barthes on 5 defining "codes" to be applied to scenes or full stories. These Theorists saw importance in the internal elements that gave drive to the story. Propp's character focus emphasises individual relationships with the main character as the way of charting story. Levi-Strauss' binary opposites of good and evil for example are clear in popular cinema like Star Wars. George Lucas. USA. 1977. Barthes' 5 codes of Narrative are listed below:

The Hermeneutic Code: Whereby there are unexplained, mysterious elements to the audience.

The Proairetic Code: Whereby the audience guesses what will happen next.

The Semantic Code: Whereby the audience can take more from the piece than just it's face value.

The Symbolic Code: Whereby the audience can take a deeper meaning than semantics and face value.

The Cultural Code: Whereby the piece is set on pre-existing ideas.

• Structures come in many form's but many of the principles in each different theories cross over. It is about applying the right theorists to the right film, based on it's structure. 
  
  Narratives can be open or closed. For example, Sit Coms like The Simpsons work using the Todorov structure where all issues raised in the episode are resolved by the end and are ready to be disturbed again next episode. Each episode has a closed narrative where all loose ends are tied up.
  
  Films are almost always closed narratives unless part of a series. Usually, all plot points are solved, however some films are ambiguous and open with their endings, letting the audience decide what the outcome will be be, for instance 2001: A Space Odyssey. Stanley Kubrick. UK/USA. 1968.
   

Film Analysis - Genre

A sub-section of the moving image studies is Film Studies. Over the next few weeks we will be studying a range of areas, this week focusing on Genre. Although we all know what genre is, a greater study of the word, it's etymology, the various sections, sub-genres and crossover genres and understanding how and why to properly categorize films.

With this in mind, we each decided on a favourite genre and got into groups with others who had chosen the same genre. I chose Sci-Fi (Science Fiction) as my favourite and in groups we further analysed the genre. In a group of 4, we tried to further analyse our favourite genres, discussing everything from codes and conventions to iconography to notable stars and more. Overall it helped us understand reading genre, and also why we enjoy certain genres, especially Sci-Fi.

To help further understand genre, we need to pick out the elements that make up Genre. Using an Infographic, we can make a visual aid to Genre theory. I have created a Sci-Fi infographic, looking at recurring themes, iconography, musical consistencies, notable cast and crew and a timeline. This shows the development and core ideas of the Genre.

With this analysis of genre in mind we were asked to create an "Ultimate Film List", listing our favourite films and trying to put them into specific genres.

My list is as follows (grouped in Genres and NOT ordered like a chart from best to worst):

2001: A Space Odyssey. Stanely Kubrick. UK/USA. 1968. Sci Fi

Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back. Ivan Kershner. USA. 1980. Sci-Fi

Inception. Christopher Nolan. USA/UK. 2010. Sci-Fi

Saving Private Ryan. Steven Spielberg. USA. 1998. War

Full Metal Jacket. Stanely Kubrick. UK/USA. 1987. War

Paranormal Activity. Oren Peli. USA. 2009. Horror

The Shining. Stanely Kubrick. UK/USA. 1980. Horror

Cool Hand Luke. Stuart Rosenburg. USA. 1967. Crime/Drama

Training Day. Antoine Fuqua. USA. 2001. Crime/Thriller

Flame and Citron. Ole Christian Madsen. Denmark/Chzech Republic/Germany. 2008. Thriller

Toy Story. John Lassiter. USA. 1995. Adventure

Ratatouille. Brad Bird. US. 2007. Adventure

Finding Nemo. Andrew Stanton. USA. 2003. Adventure

Loose Change: Final Cut. Dylan Avery. USA. 2007. Documentary

Gran Torino. Clint Eastwood. USA. 2008. Drama

Dead Poets Society. Peter Weir. USA. 1989. Drama/Coming of Age

For A Few Dollars More. Sergio Leone. Italy/USA. 1965. Western

Enter The Dragon. Robert Clouse. Hong Kong/USA. 1973. Martial Arts

The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan. UK/USA. 2008. Action

Die Hard With A Vengance. John McTiernan. USA. 1995. Action

The Social Network. David Fincher. USA. 2010. Drama/Biography
                                             
Gross Pointe Blank. George Armitage. USA. 1997. Action/Comedy

The Breakfast Club. John Huges.USA.  1985. Comedy/Coming of Age

Superbad. Greg Mottola. US. 2007. Comedy

Clerks 2. Kevin Smith. US. 2006. Comedy

Adventureland. Greg Mottola. USA. 2009. Comedy

Team America: World Police. Trey Parker. USA. 2004. Comedy

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. John Hughes. USA. 1986. Comedy/Coming of Age

BIG. Penny Marshall. USA. 1988. Comedy

Le Dinner De Cons. France. Francis Veber. 1998. Comedy