2001 A Space Odyssey

When we finished watching "Interstellar" at the IMAX, we went to see ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ at the British Film Institute on the South Bank. I was quite tired and shocked from "Interstellar", and I also knew that "2001: A Space Odyssey" wasn't going to be as technologically good as "Interstellar". But this is a film which depicts cinematic beauty, and expression. This film is great at its own meaning behind it and how from this film we developed into making greater space films and gaining our experience of filming them. 

This is an interesting film, not because of the technology but because of the mean got the film and its hidden secrets. During the time 1968 when the film was made, no one had reached the moon, but yet we had created a film about space and the moon. 

Many people are mystified by the slow pace of the film. The film has been criticised for being ‘boring’. I did think that the film was slightly on the dull side, as I didn't really get the gist of the movie or what it was really about. But I can't say that the movie wasn't good, because it is great in its own terms and how from this we developed into making greater movies about space. This movie requires you to watch it in a different way to other movies. In '2001' there is mainly music playing and not a lot of speaking. It lets you think about what is happening and in a way the music tells more of a story than the speaking.

I think our generation has become more closed-minded to films, as it's a film that is mainly music and not people speaking to you, which is what makes it so unique, yet people can't appreciate the beauty in this film. Instead of being incredibly over-scripted, and action packed film, there are a lot of hidden meanings, such as what it means to be human, and where are we trying to go or find out?

Some people will say that 'Interstellar' is just a modern recreation of '2001: A Space Odyssey', and in some ways I do agree with it for example, when both astronauts are travelling through different dimensions of time, and both of these films are classified as science fiction. Space Odyssey is a film which has cinematic expressions  In saying this, I think that Interstellar is too, a visually beautiful film but, it has more of an action-packed story-line, not to mention the highly known actors that are featured, which would appeal more for audiences now.

Interstellar

We went to the IMAX to watch Interstellar. My expectations of the film were already high as some of my friends who have seen the movie say it was amazing. Christopher Nolan, who also made ‘Inception’, which is one of my favorite films, made this film. In my opinion, interstellar is very similar to ‘2001: A Space Odyssey' but, with a more advanced story-line and technology. 

Watching the film in digital format with surround sound at the Imax Cinema, was a unique experience; I found that I wasn’t in a cinema anymore and I just felt a part of the movie. The techniques Nolan used to contribute to create that visual environment in a believable way. Plus this film is just easy to watch and it makes you wonder what is going to happen next.

The movie deals with concepts we have really no information on. We have no idea what a 4th or 5th dimension is like, what travelling through a wormhole or black hole would feel like.  Interstellar has raised many questions such as, are their other dimensions that we can or cannot access?  and is humanity physically limited in what we can achieve in outer space?

Finally, the cast. I have seen Matthew McConaughey in many well known films, such as "The Wolf of Wall Street", "Dallas Buyers Club", "The Lincoln Lawyer" and "True Detective"; and I think that he is a good actor that has starred in some amazing films. He is capable of making us feel many different emotions, I think that his acting was what the film needed as he is able to make us believe everything in the story, how he is a widowed man, father of a teenage boy and a young daughter, but also trying to save the world and keep his kids happy.

Working Title

Working Title Films, co-chaired by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner since 1992, is one of the world’s leading film production companies.

  

How They Started:

Founded 1983, Working Title has made 100+ films that have grossed nearly $6 billion worldwide. There films have won 10 Academy Awards (Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables, Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina, Tim Robbins’ Dead Man Walking; Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo; Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Joe Wright’s Atonement), 35 BAFTA Awards and numerous prestigious prizes at the Cannes and Berlin International Film Festivals.

Collaborations: 

  

Working Title have successful creative collaborations with filmmakers including the Coen Brothers, Richard Curtis, Stephen Daldry, Paul Greengrass, Edgar Wright, and Joe Wright and actors Rowan Atkinson, Cate Blanchett, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Gary Oldman and Emma Thompson, among others.

Films Produced:

There extensive and diverse productions have included Mike Newell’s Four Weddings and a Funeral; Richard Curtis’ Love Actually; Stephen Daldry’s Billy Elliot; Roger Michell’s Notting Hill; both Bean movies (directed by Mel Smith and Steve Bendelack, respectively); Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz; Paul and Chris Weitz’ About a Boy; Greg Mottola’s Paul; Adam Brooks’ Definitely, Maybe; Sydney Pollack’s The Interpreter; both Bridget Jones movies (directed by Sharon Maguire and Beeban Kidron, respectively); Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice and Atonement; Baltasar Kormákur’s Contraband, starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale; both Nanny McPhee movies (directed by Kirk Jones and Susanna White, respectively); both Johnny English movies (directed by Peter Howitt and Oliver Parker, respectively); Asif Kapadia’s Senna, the company’s first documentary feature, about legendary race car driver Ayrton Senna; Paul Greengrass’ United 93; and Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon.

Awards:

Success of the film Billy Elliot has continued on stage with Billy Elliot the Musical. Directed by Stephen Daldry with book and lyrics by Lee Hall and music by Elton John, the show has won 81 theatre awards internationally and has been seen around the world by over 9 million people. Billy Elliot continues its highly successful run in London’s West End while its touring production, which began in 2010, will travel to São Paulo, Brazil for a three week engagement in August, the first time Billy Elliot will have played in South America. The show ran for over three years on Broadway winning 10 Tony Awards in 2009 including Best Musical and Best Director and has also played in Sydney, Melbourne, Chicago, Toronto and Seoul, South Korea. Further international productions are planned.

Film Ideas - Rough Ideas

Rough Ideas: 


Idea 1:

A husband and a wife live together in London. The husband is a drug addict and the wife doesn’t know. They live a good happy life but then everything goes wrong…

The first shot will be a panning shot of the sky and the trees. Then the camera flows down and goes across the arm of the wife and her getting buried. The scene cuts into a black background when some dirt gets thrown onto the camera. When the screen blacks out the title comes in and then there is a shot of them in the kitchen cooking.



Idea 2:

Eye witness. My film idea is about someone of who witnesses a murder in a car park. The person committing the murder see’s the witness and then he starts chasing the witness. The rest of the film will be about the murderer hunting down the witness and trying to kill him. The twist in the story is that the murderer in the story is actually a corrupt police officer. The corrupt police office was killing a spy from a MI6 trying to terminate all the corrupt police officers in London.

Idea 3:

Girl or a boy  wakes up in a deserted place e.g forest, alley way. He/she doesn’t know where they are. Dirty confused looking, starts walking down the streer, and walking past people who don’t look at her
-ending scene is him/her walking up in the exact same place as they woke up at the beginning.

Preliminary Task - Have You Done Your Homework

The Location: The IT classroom


Characters: Bliss and Hamish


Equipment needed: Three cameras, one tripod and two shoulder stabilisers.


Storyline: Hamish asks Bliss if she has done the homework, Bliss says no she hasn't. Then Hamish asks why she hasn't. Bliss says she has forgot about it.


Dialogue:
(Hamish walks into the IT lab)
(Bliss is working on the computer)
Hamish: umm Bliss have you done the homework ?
Bliss: oh my god noooo (Bliss puts hands on forehead)
Hamish: say walahi, why not?
Bliss: I completely forgot.

The British Film Industry

For a film to be considered British it needs to pass a cultural test, be produced as part of the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-production or be produced according to one of the UK's official bilateral co-production treaties. It only has to meet one of those three points to be a British film.

The British Film Industry also rates films on their involvement in the UK or if any actors are from the UK or if the film is financed by the UK
The BFI categories:

• A - Culturally, financially British and UK personnel
• B - Majority British but foreign partners
• C - Minority UK production with non-US partners
• D - US financed, made in the UK with UK cultural content
• E - US films made outside of the UK with minority UK involvement

I know that British films can't compete with American films in terms of profit or investment per average film because the UK doesn't have as much money as the US invested in the film business, but I think that the UK does do better on the artistic and creativity scale.
Major British studios can't afford to invest tens of millions on a film and run the risk of it failing yet stay in business, therefore we can't compete with the big Hollywood budget blockbusters. It is also quite expensive in the UK to produce films in studios compared to America (do to the lack of studios and cost of the infrastructure), so this is why in the UK films are made more often in real settings not so much in studios.
Hollywood Big Six budgets are huge and the films roll out one after another, so they can afford to loose money occasionally on an unsuccessful film as they will probably earn most of the losses back in the next movie they make. The UK doesn't make as many high budget films, and it doesn't have as many people supporting the production of its average films, so the people they employ are less specialised and have much broader skill sets with greater overview of the end product.
The UK doesn't have the film making infrastructure as in the US, but it has a stronger group of independent film companies that are innovative and nimble. The US turns a much larger volume of films with larger budgets and with more CGI, but they have a whole different look and feel than indie films. As independents, one budgeted film often isn't financed by the same people and group of staff as the next film, large losses can ruin the smaller film business.

The Hollywood Studio System

The years 1927 and 1928 are generally seen as the beginning of Hollywood's Golden Age and the final major steps in establishing "studio system" control of the American film business. The studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920's through the 1950's. The term studio system refers to the practice of large motion picture studios such as

• Producing movies primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under often long-term contract 
• Pursuing vertical integration through ownership or effective control of distributors and movie theatres, guaranteeing additional sales of films through manipulating booking techniques.

During the Golden Age, eight companies constituted the so called "major studios" that promulgated the Hollywood studio system. Five of these eight were fully integrated conglomerates, combining ownership of a production studio, distribution division, and a substantial theatre chain, contracting with performers and filmmaking personnel. (Fox Film Corporation (later 20th Century-Fox), Loew's Incorporated (owner of America's largest theatre circuit and parent company to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, and Warner Bros.). Two "majors": (Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures) whom were similarly organised, though they never owned more than small theatre circuits.
The eighth of the Golden Age majors, (United Artists) owned a few theatres and had access to two production facilities owned by members of its controlling partnership group, but it functioned primarily as a backer-distrobutor, loaning money to independent producers and releasing their films. It's importance is that there were virtually no indie movies back in that era. Filmmaking was too expensive. These studios made just about everything that was put on screen from the 20's to the 50's.
Most people are not aware that the best known feature films occurred in the US in the 20's and 30's (800 films a year average), now producing 500 films a year.

Into Film Festivals - Gravity 3D

Wednesday 12th November 2014

Today our AS Media Studies class went to the Odeon cinema by Covent Garden to watch Gravity in 3D. There was some of the Into Film Festival people there and also three people whom produce the 3D effects for films.
We viewed Gravity in 3D using 3D glasses on a cinema screen. (It is better to view 3D on a large screen because we can clearly see the whole of the 3D action).
We viewed it in the Odeon cinema, which is a large chain of multiplexes. The first multiplex cinema to come to the UK was placed in Milton Keynes.
At the end of the film three people come in:

• Chris Parks, who is the founder and head stereographer at vision 3 (he worked on making the 3D for gravity).
• The second person was Richard Mills, he is the chief technology officer at Onsight Group.
• The third person was Karina Neill, she is the director of cinema at RealD Europe.

 

Chris parks was the most important out of the three speakers because he worked on Gravity.
Chris Parks spoke about 3D and his experience and how ever film he works on it helps him advance in making the 3D. He's been working in it for 20 years but with every film he develops the technology changes in ways and he can utilise them.
With this new technology, the production and post production staff work with script writers and directors.

In the last years in the uk the 3D audience has gone up by 5%, this means that the 3D movies are becoming more popular. This is very good for the movie industry as it tells them that 3D movies are becoming more popular which means more money will be spent to make a better movie but also they will get more profit from movies.

TV Drama - HOUSE

What is HOUSE ? 

HOUSE is a medical TV Drama set in a modern American teaching hospital. The star is doctor Gregory House whom is a short-tempered middle aged man with a permanently damaged leg and limp, an active overuse of painkillers and underuse of hospital  "rules", this frequently leads him into conflict with his boss Dr. Lisa, who is the hospital administrator and a past love. He often clashes with his diagnostic team, because many of his hypotheses about patients illnesses are based on subtle or controversial insights.

How is HOUSE represented? 

Gregory House is shown as a short-tempered and moody character but is the most exceptional doctor in the hospital. Even though he's always grumpy the audience still likes him because he is witty, intelligent and eccentric. Most of the episodes focus almost exclusively on a primary patient and start in that patients day to day life with their collapse, loss of memory, or what ever symptom bring them into emergency help in the hospital. confounding symptoms are then meticulously worked out by house and his team, always with house making macabre statement and being quite sarcastic about his colleagues emotional and traditional analysis and responses to the patient. often he will lie to patients or try very unorthodox methods to resolve the case, its very humorous and requires the viewers attention to keep up with house and his interns thought and reasoning patterns.

• HOUSE's country of origin is the US
• The UK can still view it by watching it on Netflix or SKY/VIRGIN 
• Most common camera angles used: Walk and Talk, over the shoulder, 180 degree shot, mid shots, close ups, birds-eye view, through the window (to give it 3D effect), 

Non-diegetic Sound

Non-diegetic sound is sound that doesn't exist in the world of the text. A musical soundtrack for example. Non-diegetic sound is really important in the media language. Representation changes according to the way in which our responses are manipulated.

I have just watched the new John Lewis advert for Christmas. #MontyThePenguin.
I watched the original advert and a horror version to it by Chris Davie.
You can really notice how sound can affect the video and feel to it. For example one scene where the kid is feeding his penguin in the original advert, it looks nice and its heart-warming. But in the horror version you suddenly feel scared in a way and it looks like the kid is about to feed a man eating animal, instead of a soft penguin.

You can really change the view of a video by changing the music, and it has a big effect on the whole story and audience.

Three Thriller Films - Film 3

The Maze Runner

Summary:
Thomas is deposited in a community of boys after his memory is erased, soon learning they're all trapped in a maze that will require him to join forces with fellow "runners" for a shot at escaping.

Three Thriller Films - Film 2

Inception

Summary:
A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a CEO.

In this movie there is way more editing than in other movies because this uses dreams and to make it look how they wanted to and make it look real they had to use transactions and cuttings.

Three Thriller Films - Film 1

Shifty:

Summary:
Shifty, a young cocaine dealer in London, sees his life quickly spiral down hill when his best friends comes to visit him from university. Stalked by a customer desperate to score at all costs, and with his family about to turn their back on him for good, Shifty must out-run/smart a rival drug dealer, intent on setting him up for a big fall. A long time friend Chris, confronts the dark part he left behind him, Shifty is forced to face up the the violent future that is coming to him.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Opening Remake

Making of To Kill A Mockingbird - REFLECTIONS

For when I come to making my film, I know now that I need to prepare properly for it and try my best to get it filmed as quick as possible.

What I did wrong this time is that I didn't prepare as well as I thought I did, which slowed me down at the end and I didn't have a lot of motivation at the end to get it finished. I should of got all the props ready the first day of filming and bought a whistle, which none of us had. When filming we got slightly distracted by people walking into and out of the room. When I shoot my film, I will need to find a room that will be quite and no one walks into, if the shot is indoors. If its outside then I will try and film when everyone has lessons, just so I don't get distracted.

What went well when filming the opening sequence is that we didn't just do one shot and move on to the next. We looked at it and made sure there was no shaking and the timing was right. For every shot we took, we shot an extra two of the same scene, just so we can choose at the end the best quality and timing.

Making of To Kill A Mockingbird - POST PRODUCTION

We filmed the last scene on the third day. The scene with the whistle.

When we came to editing the whole thing together, we first got all the clips into Final Cut Pro and then choose which clips looked the best and which clips we couldn't use, because they were too shaky or the clips filmed was too short.

After we chose the clips, we put them together and then changed the timings and cropped the clips to the right length. We added the music and made the clips in black and white. We looked through our made opening title sequence and compared it to the real thing and it was pretty much on point, apart from the little details like really steady camera angles and spot on movements. Also it was quite hard to make the marble roll where you want it to roll, because the table we filmed on seemed like it was on a slope.

Talk with Clive Owen about 'The Knick'

When we were talking with Clive Owen, he was honest and explained everything in detail. We watched a six minute introduction to "The Knick" the new series. Then asked him questions about it. 

Clive Owen also mentioned that working with Soderbergh, brought good features from the company Cinemax. Cinemax is an American premium cable and satellite television network that is owned by the Home Box Office Inc. 

With TV drama it is better to get more into the story because there are episodes. They aren't so overwhelming by time consumption and they are spread throughout a longer period of time (e.g. a year), where as in a movie lots of information is crammed into a short amount of time (e.g. 2 hours). 

Clive Owen also mentioned that in the US "The Knick" went really well because there is a large viewing audience and Cinemax spent a lot of money to publicising the series. Also Cinemax spent more money than Sky Atlantic did on the series. But the UK isn't as big as the US so there is no need to spend a lot on posters, adverts, etc. 

I found out that the funding to publicise the series is the same amount as the funding for the series. ($ 6-7million).

Making of To Kill A Mockingbird - PRODUCTION

First day of filming:

Our first day of filming went really well, we had everything we needed and got most of our shots that day. We had all our props and motivated to get started and finish filming as soon as possible. We filmed each shot three times, just to make sure they could be the best they can, plus when we edit, we would have a selection of shots to choose from.

Second day of filming:

The second day didn't go as well as we planned...
We had a couple shots left to do but one of the shots included a metal whistle. We had a whistle on the first day but we had to give it back to the PE teacher. We asked if we could borrow it again but we couldn't as he was using it at the time and we couldn't find another whistle that looked the same, we found one that had a ball at the end of it that you squeeze to make it whistle. We went all over the school to find another one but there wasn't any that looked the same.

Making of To Kill A Mockingbird - PRE PRODUCTION

We looked at the opening of To Kill A Mockingbird. We firstly watched the opening a few times just to get a good view and a clear image of what we would have to do. Then I wrote a time line from 00.00.00 - 00.03.00.

We as a group got the props list together and then decided that each of us was going to get some props from home or order them online if none of us had them.

After we got our props list sorted, we then worked out the camera angles, time of the footage in one shot and how we would have to set out the room, to make it look as close as possible to the real thing.

What is a Thriller.

Thriller is a genre of film and TV programmes that use suspense, excitement and tension as its main elements of the film or programme. Thrillers stimulate the viewers mood, giving them anticipation, expectation, anxiety, terror, surprise, and uncertainty. Films of this genre tend to be adrenaline-rushing.
It is also a film with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage. 

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD opening title sequence time line

We created a time line for the opening To Kill A Mockingbird, which we had to analyse every single detail of the beginning. We looked at the titles, times, music, camera angles, frames, props and colour of the film.

Remaking the Opening of ...

Yesterday we were looking at:

Heathers
This is England
Toy story
Withnail and I
Good Fellas
To Kill A Mockingbird

'Toy Story' was a good suggestion but it wasn't good to go forward with it because it didn't have the credits at the beginning and it would be really hard to recreate as we would have to be the toys, this is the same with 'Good Fellas', and also none of us have a car or license, plus it would be tricky to get the shots at night.
'Withnail and I' was also a great suggestion because the camera angles and the editing would be good to learn and create, but the down side was that the man was smoking and we can't have smoking or drugs in our film recreate.

I suggested 'This is England' because I thought it could work, but in the opening sequence there was a lot going on and it would be really hard to film plus it would take a very long time.

'Heathers' is a good choice that can be recreated, because it isn't too complicated and also shouldn't take a long time to film.
'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a good choice as there are a lot of close ups and great different ways to show how good we are at editing, also there are quite a lot of props involved but they are simple and not hard to get a hold of.

Auteur Theory

The word 'Auteur' is French for 'Author' in English, a film director who influences their films so much that they rank as their author. During my research into the film director Michael Bay, I've discovered that he makes films that are in the action/thriller genre. He works with screen writers and he is a hired film director. Michael Bay is a filmmaker who demonstrates technical excellence with his films, and who makes films of commercial value as opposed to artistic merit. Most of Michael Bay's films are high-budget and gross millions of profit worldwide.