Case Studies

Under the Skin is a American-British
Budget $13.3 million
Box office $5.7 million
based on the book Under the skin by Michael Faber
directed by Jonathan Glazer
Produced by James Wilson, Nick Wechsler
Screenplay by Walter Campbell Jonathan Glazer
Released 29th August at 2013 at Telluride Film Festival 14th March 2014 UK and 4th April 2014 US
Staring Scarlett Johansen

The Wolf of Wall Street
Budget $100 million
Box office $392 Million
Bassed on the wolf of wall street by Jordan Belfort
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Produced by
Screenplay by Terence Winter
Released December 17 2013 and december 25 2013 in the US
Staring Leonardo Dicaprio, Jonah Hill

Frances Ha
Budget unknown
Box office $8,840,914
Directed by Noah Baumbach
Produced by Noah Baumbach, Scott Rudin, Lila Yacoub and Rodrigo Teixeira
Screenplay by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwifg
Released September 1st 2012 at the Telluride film festival and May 17th 2013 US

Gloria
Budget Unknown
Box office
Directed by Sebastian Leilo
Produced by
Screenplay by Gonzalo Mazo and Sebastian Leilo
Released 10 February 2013 Berlin and 9 May 2013 Chile

Whiplash

Written and directed by : Damien Chazelle

Stars:  Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist

Imbd review: 8.5/10

Box office statistics:

Budget: $3,300,000

Opening weekend: $135,388

Gross: $6,154,000
shot in 19 days

The Imitation Games

Budget $14 million
Box office $219.7 million
based on the Alan Turing: the Enigma by Andrew Hodges
directed by Morten Tyldum
Produced by Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
Screenplay by Graham Moore
Staring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley
Released 29th August at 2014 at Telluride Film Festival 14th November 2014 UK and 28th November 2014 US
Won best adapted screenplay Oscar
Google advertised film with a code cracking competition and the new york times reprinted the orginal crossword puzzle used to recruit code breakers

The Shining Analysis

The Shining Analysis

The first scene that I am going to analyse from the film is the come play with us scene. In this scene you see Danny riding his tricycle around the corridors of the hotel. Danny is riding the tricycle because after the film “The Omen” was made children riding tricycles has became a convention of the horror genre. The establishing shot if the scene is an extreme long shot of Danny on his tricycle riding from one room to another. In the room that Danny rides into the lighting is red. This signifies danger and blood because you know something is going to happen to him. During this scene you can also hear some very high pitched non diagetic music. This is a convention of the horror genre. The camera in this shot is an extreme tracking long shot from behind Danny. This is used to make you feel like something is stalking Danny and following him. In the next part of the scene you see Danny go around a corner, on his tricycle, to see the two girls. This part of the scene starts with a tracking mid shot of Danny on his tricycle. In this shot you can see that Danny is wearing a red the jumper. This is the mise en scene again showing the colour red to mean danger, death and blood. The blood aspect of this is foreshadowing later events in the film. The colour red and blood are also conventions of the horror genre.  When Danny sees the two girls the music becomes louder. This is to try to shock, scare and build suspense. Personally I felt that this was not scary because it wasn’t loud enough to shock me and i was expecting it because this is a famous scene from the film. You then see a close up of Danny’s face. You see this so you can see the shock on Danny’s face. This is to show that Danny is scared of the two girls because no one else is supposed to be in the hotel. In this scene you hear the two girls say “come and play with us Danny” when the girls say this line their voices are echoed this is done to try and build suspense and creep the viewers out. In the next part of the scene you see it jump cut between the two girls standing in front of Danny and the two girls lying dead on the floor soaked in blood with an axe next to their bodies. Each time it cuts back to the girl the camera is closer each time. It goes from an extreme long shot to a long shot and then to a mid shot. This is used to scare the viewer. Feast paced editing is also a convention of the horror genre. At the end of this scene you see another close up of Danny’s face which then cuts to the shot from behind Danny so you see that the two girls are gone. When you see these two shots the non diagetic music is very high pitched. This is used to create suspense and to shock the viewer.

The next scene I am going to analyse is the all work and no play makes jack a dull boy scene. In the beginning of this scene you see Wendy, Jacks wife, looking through jacks book that he has been writing but every single page says “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. The first shot of this scene is a low angle shot from behind the typewriter looking at Wendy’s face. Then it cuts to a close up of the typewriter with the words “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” written on it. This shot is used to show you how jack has gone crazy and lost his mind. The next shot is of a stack of paper in a box with even more of the writing on it. In this shot the camera uses a quick zoom to get closer to the paper. This zoom is used to emphasise the madness. While this is going on you can here high pitched non diagetic music. The music is very high pitched because it builds up tension and suspense. The music in this scene also picks up tempo as Wendy starts to look through the papers quicker. This is also used to create suspense. You then see Wendy going through all of the papers and they are all exactly the same. This is shot is a very long take because it makes you feel that something is going to happen. In this scene you can also see that Wendy is dressed very much like a Native American Indian. This is done because the film has a very strong underlying meaning about America and how it treats the natives, which is also why the hotel in the film is built on an ancient Native American Indian burial site. You can also see later in the scene that jack is wearing the colours of the American flag (red, white and blue) which emphasises the underlying message of the Americans killing the Native Americans. After this you see a panning shot from a wall to behind Wendy. This shot is used to make you think that someone, possibly Jack, is coming up behind her. Also on the wall you can see that the gaps in between the picture frames on the wall make a cross shape. This is a recurring motif in the mise en scene of film because of the powers that their son Danny posses. After the panning shot this is when jack appears at the entrance to the room where Wendy is. When Jack walks into the room they used a mid tracking shot until he stops and then they use eye line match editing during the conversation. This is used to show how Jack and Wendy are equals. Also in this part of the scene you can once again see the recurring motif in the mise en scene of the crosses in the window behind Jack. Jack the walks over to the stack of paper and starts flicking through it. When he does this the non diagetic music matches his actions and is in time with what he is doing. This is done to add emphasis to what he is doing. The next shot is of Jack trying to get closer to Wendy the shot switches between a forwards mid tracking shot of Wendy and a backwards mid tracking shot of Jack. This is done so that you see both characters perspectives and so that you feel intimidated and scared by Jack. While this is happening you also get parallel editing between this Wendy and Jacks conversation and Danny sitting in his room. While Danny is sitting in his room you he is having visions which foreshadow later events. You can also still hear Wendy and Jacks conversation but Jacks voice is echoed. This is done to make jack sound sinister and to make the viewer scared of him. Eventually Jack and Wendy get onto the stair case in the room. When this happens the camera is tilted so that when you are looking from Jacks perspective you are at a low angle and when you are at Wendy’s perspective you are at a high angle. This is done to show that Wendy is going to hit jack with the baseball bat because she is more dominant. This shocked me personally because Jack is supposed to be the killer so you would expect it to be the other way around. This is not following the conventions of the horror genre  

Film Analysis ~ 'Inglorious Basterds'

Film Analysis ~ 'Inglorious Basterds'



The scene begins with an establishing shot of Fredrick walking out of the movie theatre, this immediately introduces Fredrick as a main character within the scene. The shot is a mid backtracking shot this leads me to believe that Fredrick is more powerful than the viewer and is forced backwards as Fredrick approaches. In this establishing shot the rule of three is applied with the flowers on the left, Fredrick in the middle and guards on the right showing that Fredrick is important and a figure of authority, which is also supported by the mise-en-scene, because Fredrick is in a Nazi uniform with medals, clearly showing he is of high ranking. Also, within this 'Rule of Three', red flowers are placed on the right hand side. This suggests danger and tragedy, which foreshadows later occurrences. A straight cut is then used, showing a CU of a bell which is ringing proving that it is diegetic sound. This shows urgency, because both the pitch and pace of the bell is high and fast. The mise-en-scene within this shot shows a young woman dressed in a red dress, with red lipstick on. This represents her as a dangerous character, which foreshadows later events. Also, in this scene a medium close up at a low angle is being used showing her looking down into the audience of Nazis. 'The Rule of Three' is all used within this shot, showing her in the middle, suggesting the importance of her character. Parallel editing is used which alternates between the woman and the cinema screen, it shows us the cinema screen flash a cross in a circle which is signalling her to change over the reels, which is what she then goes on to do, helping the fluidity of the story/what is happening at the current time.

In the next scene, there appears to be a black man smoking a cigarette. Mid Shots are used, showing firstly his front, then his side and then to his back. This allows the audience to notice that the camera is focusing on him for a certain purpose. A bird-eye shot is used showing him overlooking a pile of tapes, whilst watching the cinema screen. On the cinema screen plays a video about Nazis, this is poignant because due to the fact that the man is black it shows his resentment towards the film currently playing because the Nazis discriminated black people and their culture. The lighting used within this scene is only focused on the man, and his surroundings are cast in shadow, this reestablishes his vulnerability because he appears to be alone, which supports the nature of the film. Also, the man on the screen is a Nazi who is alone fighting against italians, both the man in the cinema and the Nazi on the screen are standing alone against an enemy of theirs. This scene made me feel sympathetic for the man in the cinema

Within the next scene, a low-angle, LS is used and the camera tilts whilst following Fredrick up the stairs. Whilst walking up the stairs, Fredrick conceals the light that is in front of him causing him to create shadow. This implies, Fredrick has a considerable amount of power, because he is shadowing everything that walks behind him. The light is coming from the top of the stairs, and as he is ascending them, it is as if he is going towards the light (heaven), which links to the next part of the scene where he actually does get shot. Also, because the camera tilts as his ascends the stairs, the angle gets lower and lower, again showing his amount of power. The next shot shows, Fredrick walking down the hallway,  whilst doing so the camera backtracks, again showing Fredrick's power. This scene made me feel intimidated and worried due to the expression upon his face.

My Favourite Film of the Summer

My Favourite Film of the Summer

My favourite film of this summer was The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I liked this film because the character of spider-man is not like most superheroes. This is because spider-man does not have any superpowers that actually help him in his life of being a teenage college student. If anything in the amazing spider-man 2 the only thing that his super powers do is hinder his social life like not being able to see his girlfriend (Gwen Stacey) or being late for his graduation because he has had to stop some thieves from stealing plutonium.

I also enjoyed this film because of the on again off again relationship between Gwen Stacy and peter parker. One critic described the relationship between the two characters in the film as “a New York rom-com in the middle of the movie trying to escape”. I also enjoyed the awkward relationship between Peter Parker and Harry Osborn who later becomes the Green Goblin. Another good part of Peter Parker’s personality in this film was his clever, and sometimes cocky, whit. This reflects spider-mans personality in the original comics and adds a slight piece of humour into the film. An aspect of Harry Osborn’s Character I liked was his quick transition from bad to good as soon as he needed something to save his own life. In the film Osborn wants some of Spider-Mans blood to stop him from dying from a hereditary disease he got from his dad, Norman. As soon as Spider-Man tells Osborn that he cannot have any of his blood because it will most likely kill him then Osborn starts to take matters into his own hands by using Electro to get him the spider blood he needs. The blood does not work and Osborne is forced to suit up as the Green Goblin and seek revenge.

One thing I did not like about the film was one of the other films main villains ‘Electro’. I found more enjoyment from the character being a spider-man obsessed engineer than a typical Marvel Villain seeking revenge. Another reason i wasn’t a fan of the supervillain ‘electro’ was that his powers just seem to have been obtained the same way as spider-mans powers had (by getting bitten by an animal, in electros case an electric eel). I think doing this shows a lack of imagination from the writer because he hasn’t been able to come up with something more original and has had to just recycle the same idea but just changing a small element in the hope that no one will notice.

A second thing that I didn’t particularly like about the film was certain parts predictability. For example at the end of the film with the big fight scene between Spider-Man and Electro it is very obvious that Gwen Stacy is going to turn up and when spider-man has defeated Electro it is also predictable that the Green Goblin is going to turn up and kill Gwen Stacy. This is obvious because the Green Goblin knows Spider-Mans true identity and so he knows how to get to him.

The Fault In Our Stars

The Fault in our Stars

The fault in our stars is one of the most popular films to be released in 2014. This is because the film recently crossed “$100M domestically”. The film was based on a bestselling book by john green and had a more popular opening in the UK and Brazil than twilight did. In fact in Brazil the film made $18.2M in 11 days, surpassing the lifetime gross of other book adaptations such as twilight and the hunger games. You may be asking yourself ‘how did this film get so big so quick?’ well this all happened because of the power of social media. The author of the book, John Green, had his own vlog channel on YouTube with his brother Hank called Vlogbrothers which has over 2.1 million subscribers. This meant that even before the film was released John Green already had a fairly large following. Some people say that this is not the reason for the fault in our stars success as a book and as a film because John Green was famous on the internet when other of his books had came out such as “Paper Towns” and “Will Grayson, Will Grayson” so because of this it can’t be the fact that he is famous on the internet otherwise he would have had other publications into feature length films. The fact that the film used social media to target its audience was affective because the film was mainly aimed at young adult women who stereotypically use the internet a lot and the readers of John Greens books. 

Another reason why the fault in our stars was such a success was because of the filmmakers. The two filmmakers involved in the fault in our stars, Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, convinced a fox 2000 executive named Elizabeth Gabler who hired a man called Josh Boone as a director. Elizabeth Gabler also kept the script of the film very similar to the film, thanks to the writer Scott Neustadter, which kept fans of John Greens books happy.

The third reason why the fault in our stars was such a success was because of the well put together trailer for the film done by Cami Sargent. Fox used this trailer for the film for a long time because of how good it was. People also say that credit should go to the advertising team behind the film, the digital team, the publicity team and the distributing team.

Another reason why people think that the fault in our stars was so popular was because the film is about strong women. Strong women in films seem to be popular with recent films being released such as “Belle” “the other women” and the new romantic comedy “obvious child” all have strong women roles in them. These films being popular have made male orientated action and comedy films such as “Blended” or “A Million Ways to Die in The west” sizzle out or deflate after the first few weeks of the films being released.

The Horror Genre

The Horror Genre

Horror films are films designed to scare and unsettle the audience. Horror films often deal with people’s nightmares, hidden fears and terror of the unknown. The horror genre goes back 100s of years. The first horror film was only a few minutes long called ‘Le Manoir Du Diable’ the film used things such as flying bats, medieval castles, cauldrons, demon figures, skeletons, ghosts and witches. All these things are still used in modern horror films. Horror films use many different techniques to try and scare and thrill the audience. The horror genre has also changed much over the years for example, in the 1940s they had a creature that was half man half wolf that ripped people apart but later on in the 1990s people who were completely human like Hannible Lecter became popular. Now it is more popular to be making films with ghosts and zombies as the evil character.

Horror films unsettle the audience by using things like music to create suspense before a big moment happens in a film. The film ‘scream’ uses music when the head teacher Mr. Himbry is killed. In this scene suspense is first created at first by music being played which has lower notes which build up to higher notes when you think the killer is going to appear. This is used a few times until the teacher opens a cupboard and the music is playing very high pitched violin music to make you think the killer is going to appear but he doesn't. After this happens the music cuts out this makes the viewer think that the killer is not going to appear until the teacher closes the door and the killer comes out from behind the door to kill the teacher. As this happens the music suddenly kicks back in with high pitched violin music to make you jump.

Other techniques used in horror films are things like low level lighting to create a creepy and mysterious atmosphere because darkness is usually associated with evil. Darkness is also makes people feel vulnerable and threatened because they are unable to see as well and people fear the unseen and the unknown. A film that uses low level lighting is A Nightmare on Elm Street. This film uses low level lighting well because even when you are watching scenes set inside the lighting is still low and had a dark tone to them. This helps unsettle the viewers and create a creepy atmosphere. 

Many films use a technique called jump scares. A jump scare is when something occurs suddenly like a killer appearing from behind something and murdering someone. Jump scares are often used in horror films as an easy (or some might say cheap) way of scaring the audience. A famous jump scare is in the film ‘the exorcist 3’. In this scene the camera is looking down a hospital corridor and you see a woman walk into one of the rooms a few seconds later you see the woman walking out of the room with a hooded figure following her with a knife. The other thing that makes this scene effective as a jump scare is the music again. The music in the scene is effective at making you jump because it starts very suddenly and very loudly as soon as you see the hooded figure.

Another common horror film trait is a killer that doesn’t speak. This is effects the audience because the fact that a murderer isn’t speaking means that the audience doesn’t know why he is trying to kill people which leaves the audience in suspense. One film that has a killer that does not speak is Michael Myers from the 1978 film Halloween. This is affective in the film because you don’t really know what his motive is for killing the teenagers.