“It was 1990. My then boyfriend and I had decided to move up to Manchester together. After a weekend's flat-hunting, I was travelling back to London on my own on a crowded train, and the idea for Harry Potter simply fell into my head. I did not have a functioning pen with me, but I do think that this was probably a good thing. I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, while all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me." >> J.K Rowling was traveling back to London when the idea of Harry Potter "fell into her head". >>
Development Finance
Script Development
“I wrote nearly every evening, then typed the whole thing out myself on an old manual typewriter, covered the first three chapters in a nice plastic folder and sent them off to an agent. They were returned so fast, they must have been sent back the same day they arrived. But at the second attempt, Christopher Little wrote back asking to see the rest of the manuscript. It was far and away the best letter I had ever received in my life – and it was only two sentences long.”
Kick-Ass
had a budget of $28 million and used special effects such as “Double
negative” which did over 835 visual effectsfor the film, using
mostly CGI through green screens and other methods. Around £8-9
millin were spent on special effects. Mark Miller and Jane Goldman
were hiered to edit and develop the scrip further, these ediors had
previously edit the film Stardust.
Miller
came up with the idea after drawing Hit Girl and Big Daddy and liked
his idea but thought the ideas were to 'out there' to be the main
character leads. He came up with the first outing of the superhero
where he got stabbed and run over by a car and realised the project
had to be made.
Director
Matthew Vaughn invested his own money into the making of the film, he
therefore took the largest revenue. Vaughn and Brad Pitt (along with
others) helped to produce the film. Above the
live costs: $7.7 million Below the line costs: $2.8 million
What
it was based on
The
film was created when Mark Miller drew the characters that are based
in the film. It was based on Batman and Robin, linking 'Hit Girl' to
Robin and 'Big Daddy' to Batman, then giving them their own unique
and unusual personality, a bit more crude and violent than the
original based characters. They started creating the comic book
version of the film at the same time as they started to shoot the
film, making it a very different way into starting the making of a
film. They chose to write the comic book first as they were faced
with the problem of not being able to afford the 'C Grade' Marvel
character. Problems
in making the film
Couldn't
find a distributor at first
If
no one liked it at Comic Con then they wouldn't have had a
distributor
'Bunch
of British people' made it, what will America think as its a British
film.
The
director’s views on the British film Industry
How
they saved money
Budget
$28 million
They
saved money by not actually filming in Manhattan, which it where the
film is set. Matthew
Vaughn’s prefers to film in London, and it wasn’t just to do with
a “budgetary
consideration”, as the film contains a large amount of gunfire and
fighting scenes within Manhattan it would become very difficult to
shoot these scenes without changing the people’s lifestyles in
Manhattan. To solve this problem of trying to create a realistic
Manhattan scene they built at set at Elstree Studios which had a
gigantic green screen. Then they got *High-resolution
plates* of
Manhattan and imported them into *Media
Composer*.
*High
Resolution Plates: A silver halide photographic plate designed for
high resolution photo mask applications. The plate develops an
optical density of 3.0+ when exposed and developed in MTI D-5
Negative Developer.*
*Media
Composer’s has an amazing motion tracking tools, so you can track
the background using the on-set tracking markers. There’s a feature
called Spectra Matte which allows you to adjust keys with such
detail, it is incredible realistic.*
The audio that was recorded
had particular attention to detail. Matthew
Vaughn wanted to get the highest quality of recording of the original
production sound. He wanted this so the actors never had to try and
re-create the emotion of the moment during a shoot a month later.
The
technology used
Special
effects: Double negative did just over 835 visual effects for the
movie, using mostly CGI through green screens and other methods.
Between $8-9 million was spent on special effects. Double
Negative is a British full-service visual
effects/computer
animation company
located in Soho,
London. The company was set up in 1998 with a team of 30 staff and
has since grown to over 1000 staff, making it Europe's largest
provider of visual effects for film.
Green
Screen is
a special
effects/post-production technique for compositing two imagesor video streams together based on colour hues.
How
the films rating affected its performance
Because
the film was rated an 'R' this then started a large amount of
questions to how are children supposed to watch it? As its a
superhero based film you are expecting it to get a large amount of
viewing from children as they are all wanting to be a superhero at
this age and they look up to them in the films. When parents came to
realise just how crude it could be, they then chose the option of
“why on earth would I let my child watch something like this, with
a disgusting young violent and offensive girl just throwing out
impressions of what to be like to my children” - or something like
this. With this view from the American's, this then dropped some
of the potential viewings as the children could not go without their
parents being there also, of which did not want there children
watching a film that contained the 'bad-est of bad words' the 'C'
word.
Controversy
surrounding the film
Here
is what those projections failedto
account for:
As
mentioned, the “audience awareness” sampling came from a
community predisposed to be aware of, and interested in, a film like
Kick
Ass –
as well as its source material. Without a recognizable name
attached, or broader brand appeal, that awareness wasn’t
representative of the general movie-going audience.
Much
of the target audience for Kick
Ass was
not old enough to take themselves to an R (hard R) rated movie, and
this film is not an easy sell to parents.
Misinterpretation
or rejection of the film’s central characters and story lines.
A
lot of people felt that the film was morally wrong due to its casting
of a young girl that is extremely violent, her violent actions and
fairly outragerous language caused an up-raw with viewer. This was
because they would not be willing to take their child to see a film
that is giving messagers to other children that this is a pretty
'cool' way to act.
“In
January 2010, an uncensored preview clip of the film was attacked by
family advocacy groups for its display of violence and use of the
line "Okay you cunts,
let's see what you can do now," delivered by Chloë
Grace Moretz,
who was eleven years old at the time of filming. Australian
Family Associationspokesman
John Morrissey claimed that "the language was offensive and the
values inappropriate; without the saving grace of the bloodless
victory of traditional superheroes" “
Promotion
Prints
and advertising costs were near enough $10.5 million, Lionsgate
distributed the film taking a large percentage of the final box
office figures.
Final
box office figures worldwide: $96,188,903
They
produced individual posters separately before the film was released,
which showed each of the individual characters within the film to
promote the film. Adding the film title and character’s name to the
posters, allowing the viewers to know who would be within the film.
They
released an enormous influx of trailers, videos and other marketing
materials, prior to the release of the film – an idea that may have
backfired, positioning the audience to rail against a film, a result
of overexposure. When the film had failed to perform, the
*Blogosphere*
jumped as the chance to write a bunch on 'snarky' articles which
described the films financial defects. They then got put in their
place when it came into interest that the film cost $25 million and
then went on to make $96 million worldwide “hahaa”.
*The
blogosphere is made up of all blogs
and
their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as
a connected community
(or
as a collection of connected communities) or as a social
network in
which everyday authors can publish their opinions. Since the term has
been coined, it has been referenced in a number of media and is also
used to refer to the Internet.*
The
soundtrack
The
soundtrack has been mainly composed of songs from previous films such
as '28 Days Later' and 'Sunshine'. They used John Murphy's as his
songs from the films are highly recognisable and have also been heard
on not just the movies for which they were written, but they also
achieved *omnipresence*
on
trailers, adverts and TV.
*Omnipresent,
ubiquitous refer to the quality of being everywhere.*
Kick
– Ass used a bit too much existing music, when really its about
creating your own music for the film and giving it its own feel, not
reminding people of what other film they'd heard it off. They also
used too long a clip of a song within the film, making it more of the
whole song playing throughout the scene rather than just a clip to
build some tension or maybe emphasis what is going on in that scene.
The
film did have a wide-ranging soundtrack which was a challenge for
them, maintaining the consistency with material ranging from Elvis to
The Prodigy.
Vaughn really likes using commercial music tracks
during the movie, and “only feather in sound design where its
needed.” One of the biggest challenges for them was mixing the
gunshot elements with the music that was playing in the background,
Pro Tools gave them the flexibility to make instant changes on the
mix stage.
Differences
between comic and film(extra information)
While
being based on the comic book, Kick-Ass had several notable
differences from its comic inspiration.
Kick-Ass
has been shown to be the only character in the film with a similar
costume to his comic book counterpart. All of the other main
characters have different costumes in the film.
Frank
D'Amico is called John Genovese in the comic book.The
name is taken from the Genovese
crime family.
In
the film, when Big Daddy quizzes Hit-Girl, they are in the armory
while Mindy plays with her new knife. In the book, he quizzes her on
a communication device whilst she is killing gangsters in a bar,
with him providing over-watch with a sniper rifle.
In
the film, Hit-Girl and Big Daddy track Kick-Ass to his home by his
IP address, which they then re-route to protect him from anyone else
doing so. In the comic, they simply follow him home.
Big
Daddy is not actually an ex-cop in the comics, as he admits to
Genovese and Dave shortly before his death. He was in fact an
accountant who, much like Dave, fantasized about being a superhero.
He made up a fake history of himself and lied that he was an ex-cop
with a personal vendetta against John Genovese (Frank D'Amico). He
also gets money for himself and Mindy by selling his rare comic
books.His
comic back story is touched in the film by his use of comic
terminology in the attempted execution scene.
With
Big Daddy's back story being a lie his wife, Hit-Girl's mother, is
still alive and married to Marcus Williams.
In
the film, Big Daddy is killed by being burned and succumbing to his
injuries. In the comic, he is shot in the nape
(in
a graphic depiction as the bullet exits through his left eye
socket), shortly after he reveals that he was never a cop.
When
Kick-Ass is being tortured, he is not just beaten up like in the
film, he has a car battery hooked up to his testicles and is shocked
extensively. The mobsters do not broadcast this torture session on
the internet, as they do in the film.
In
the comic, Dave never becomes Katie's boyfriend; after he reveals
that he was not gay, she calls him a pervert for pretending to be
gay and orders her boyfriend to beat Dave. Afterwards, they send him
a picture of Katie performing fellatio on her boyfriend. In the
film, Katie forgives Dave for pretending that he was gay, realizing
that Dave loves her, watches the video feed of his torture and
pending murder in helpless horror and she becomes his girlfriend.
At
the end of the comic when Red Mist is vowing his revenge against
Kick-Ass, he is in fact writing an e-mail which he sends to him, as
opposed to the film when he is just talking to himself.
In
the comic, Kick-Ass does not use a jetpack
outfitted
with machine guns during the climactic battle. In fact, he does not
kill anyone at all (although he does seriously wound Red Mist's
father by shooting him with a gun). Instead, he finds and pummels
Red Mist with two large pieces of wood, while Hit-Girl kills
everyone else.
How to Be a Film DirectorResearch the requirements to become a film director. Learn about the job description and duties and read the step-by-step process to start a career in film directing.A film director visualizes how a script can be brought to life and oversees the technical aspects of making a film. They tell cast and crew members in a production what to do and oversee the overall production process. These individuals must be able to manage large groups of people.Becoming a film director may include attending film school and working up from a production assistant or lower-level team member. Not all aspiring directors find success in the industry.Requirements to become a film director
The issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice
The issue with the British film industry is that we are “poorly organised” and have to get help from American film industries, such as The Weinstein Company which The Kings Speech used. Because British film companies are underfunded, they get “dominated by multinational media companies” in America, making the films we would release become under looked compared to an American film release as they can afford better publicity. The British film companies lose a lot of money when they join up with an American film company as they will take a high percentage (85-90%) share of the profit, whereas if Britain sorted out the problem themselves they would be able to keep the entire profit. For example if they hadn’t gotten help from America to help fund the Harry Potter films and instead just got a loan and took a risk, they could have made an increasingly higher profit for themselves. Another issue that was raised was when the films production company knew someone who lived 12 doors down from Rush and then posted the script through his door “Rush's management wrote the film makers a furious email for their impertinence. Despite this, Rush accepted the role of Lionel Logue, the King's speech therapist.” This shows that when using there initiative (although maybe not in the most professional way) they managed to get the actor they want.
The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing
Because the British film industries are so small they felt the need to come together with The Weinstein Company, it would produce a lot of publicity in America. Although if they risked it and just took out a loan they would have easily made enough profit to pay them back and take some for themselves. But with the help of Weinstein they managed to show the whole America just how British their film was going to be, so by joining with them it probably helps a large amount when promoting in America. By joining with other companies they are then able to cover a large range of advertising techniques, such as trailers, posters, possibly games, phone apps or wallpapers, each bringing an idea to the table and then using it in different countries and getting different responses and publicity as it leads up to the film release. Also releasing shot clips of the film will create excitement in people as they will want to know why that scene happens and what happens after it, building up the tension for the premier and then the first release date for the film. They would create many trailers to encourage the viewers to want to come and watch the film, trailers such as these:
They can even get free publicity due to peopole creating their own spoof trailer of the film, trailers such as this:
The technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange
3D films have recently been introduced into the world of cinema bringing in more money due to the people who want a real life experiences with things flying out the screen at them or people looking so close to real that they are actually standing in front of you. Although the equipment to make a 3D film would be high film producers could possibly quite easily make up the money and profit. If they simply only showed the film they were producing in 3D at cinemas then people would have no choice but to watch that screening, but due to the high amount of people who want that 3D experience they could probably make up the money by doing a 3D screening and a normal 2D screening. You can market the film in a more wide variety of ways due to all the new technology, people can watch trailers on their phones, rent films, people even make their own trailer for the film which is helping them promote and I nice and free way with no expense to them. Because technology is is increasing all the time you'll always find new ways to go about seeing something or hearing about something.
The significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences
Its good that people are now able to use their phones to find trailers or information about films they wish to see, and if the film companies make the right setting so their page is able to be viewed on phones then their publicity could rise by an increasing rate. The more and more people walking about on their phones everyday could be seen to them as walking money, the possibility that they could then watch the trailer on their phones that their mate told them about for example and then thinking yeah lets go see that, this could increase the viewing rate by a large amount. This is why its ideal for a film industry to create phone enabled page so people walking around every day searching whatever come across on their phone will be able to access their page without any problems increasing their publicity. Now online renting has become common it would also make sense for film industries to sell their film to the websites such as 'LOVEfilm' to make an easier way of watching a film without going out to buy it but paying a fair amount of money for the rental anyway. Doing this will increase the audience as people will just think when they come across it oh yeah I heard about this let’s see what its like, the amount of people that could be like that would give the film rental companies quite a high figures of money, with a percentage of that going back to the film company.
The importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences
(can you think of examples of how different technologies have come together to help the film industry?)
The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions
When the British film companies came together with The Weinstein Company in America, the company would have taken on the film because of how British it would have appeared in the script. And as America love the stereotypical British nature such as our 'posh accents' and that we always drink tea and have a King or Queen to run our country they seem to like this. With the film being very British as its about the King and the old fashioned British culture of the 1900's The Weinstein Company would have known that this would popular with America and would collect a wide audience assuring them that they would get profit out of the film. The film producers would have though the screenplay through to assure that they would get American support for a British film, so by making a film about the war in Britain and how everyone came together with the help of the King, they knew this would be something that America couldn't turn down as it lived up to their stereotypical view of Britain.
The ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour
Its good that technology is evolving because the more things we are able to get done quickly and efficiently helps us, but on the other hand many people will think that its effecting the younger generation, as it is causing them to use technology more often and not going out into the world. Technology is something everyone comes in contact with every day, due to this we are becoming more and more unable to do things without it, which I why people may be against the amount of technology used in the world as it is taking over the majority of lives that live withtechnology.
How important is the use of music? The music at the end of the scene suggests that the film will be a comedy as it has a quite cheerful and jolly song playing straight after they just finished killing someone. Playing this type of music gives the impression to the audience that the film they are about to watch might not be as serious as their first expectation would have been from the film cover. The music also puts a lightener on the fact that they just killed someone and gives the impression to the audience that it’s not bad to kill someone, it makes you laugh at the fact that the music makes the characters appear as if they are not effect from killing someone.
From the dialogue what do we learn about the narrative?It starts off quiet which makes the first scene a little suspicious as you don’t know what’s happened and what’s making the characters in the scene so tense. Also the last sentence at the end of the scene “as far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster” gave the impression to me that this was going to be a comedy type of film. That I would be preparing for a mafia type film with the comedy edge by the fact that they don’t seem to care about killing people and get influenced by the music.
How is the information structured? What would you say about the balance between image and text?The information is structured so it appears quite hard hitting, a page sized image with very few words on top shows that whoever is in that image must be of high importance in the film. With the Colin Firth poster its almost as if he’s reading out the poster to you with his eyes, his eyes being sharp and focussed on you as you read it, giving the impression that he’s there telling you what to do.
Taking both posters together, consider how elements such as colour, message, image and layout give the viewer a sense of the films subject matter, genre and style: The bold words and lack of them shows that it is getting straight to the point, it is hard hitting to the audience. The fact that the font is in the style of the "keep calm and carry on" posters from world was 2 shows the importance that the poster must be trying to et across. The images gets straight to the point of showing you that this film is serious, the lack of emotion and the concentration in the Colin Firth poster gives the impression that this film is pretty serious and you should respect it. This relates very much to the fact that the film is about the British King and it is a serious matter. Explain the role of the films synopise, posters and trailer in the overall marketing campaign for the film: They have made the film in a more formal way to fit in with the genre and the fact that the film is to do with the King, so everything is to be treated as if it is almost real. The trailer shows a very formal side with the way people talk - upper class. The posters showing how concentrated the King must be
The GHD advert could take quite a religious root as the connotations with suggest: There are 3 men in the advert poster, all of which are bowing down to the lady who is the main character in the poster. This could connotate that the 3 men are in fact the 3 wise men bowing down to the virgin mary.
Babies that look like cupids are flying over the woman while holding a halo over the woman's head, the same type of halo you can find above the virgin mary in some paintings.
The men are worshipping her like she is their religion, like her hair and the products she used to style it should be a new religion, relating back to the advert when it reads "a new religion".
The woman looks like she has just walked down from somewhere into this grotty landscape, this could connotate that she has just walked down from heaven into the depths of hell.
The 3 men praising her are possibly pleading her to take them back up to heaven with her.
Connotating that with the hair she has, she is seen as a goddess, an angel, she still looks good no matter where she goes.
You can connect the title "urban angel" back to the advert by saying how the setting is in an urban landscape with skateboarders just minding their own business when suddenly this woman comes along and they are mesmerised by her beauty.
"Made, not born" connotates that just by using this product this woman has been made into this goddess, suggesting that this product makes you into your own goddess.
The fact that the men are wearing skull and cross bones backs up the heaven and hell theory even more, connotating that they are evil,they want this product to make them into something beautiful like it has done for the woman.
The woman is standing quite confident, like this product has made her feel more superior than the men, she looks down at the men as if showing authority over them. Because they don't have this product they are weak.
The woman's dress is red which could connotate that she is dangerous, but because of this product she is still seen as a goddess and is still accepted into heaven.
Colin
Firth is the stuttering monarch and Helena Bonham Carter the future
Queen mother in a richly enjoyable drama – The Guardian
Although
it doesn't cut quite as deep as it might, Tom Hooper's films is
fraught and fascinating with some excellent performances - Telegraph
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Why have you chosen to study media? The course description interested me and i am interested in films, mainly horror, as i would like to persue in media make-up and work on film sets related to the horror genre. What other subjects are you studying? English liturature, maths and sociology. Who is your favourite band(s)/artist(s) and why (embed a YouTube video)? Kids In Glass Houses and my favourite band, i only came across them a couple of years ago and i straight away enjoyed their music just because it wouldnt always be the same, some songs would be heavier than others. The way they mix up their music and because its catchy to me is the reason why they are my favourite band.
What are your favourite tv programmes (embed pictures)? Spongebob Squarepants
What is your favourite film/who is your favourite director (embed a YouTube video)?
Iron Man would be be my favourite film but Transformers would be a very close second.
What magazines do you read? Occasionally read Kerrang. What websites do you read?
