Released in 1975, Jaws was the first event movie in the history of cinema. It was also the first film to be released internationally at near enough the same time. Jaws already had an existing fanbase due to the novel of the same name published a year earlier which helped the film gain popularity and also gave advertisers a chance to extend the merchandise to wider audiences. Jaws became the largest earning movie within that time period. It was the first movie ever to go past the 100 million dollar box office and collected numerous awards due to it's massive success. To this day Jaws is still classed as one of the most revolutionary films to exist
What are the characteristics of a blockbuster?
A blockbuster is a film with great financial success
Elements of a blockbuster:
Franchise
Event movie
Blur between video game and movie experience.
Non CHN
Literature
Great advertisement
Other Sources
Wide audience appeal
Post-genre
'Stars' (However not always a guarantee).
Producer/Director (Still not always a guarantee, reputation and style can affect this).
Global Appeal
Culture Neutral
Simple Characterizations
Stereotypes followed
Save the world
Love interests
Spectacle, CGI, production and pyrotechnics.
Visual film or dialogue based.
Branding (Helps continuity).
Merchandise
Pre-existing audience
Monday 24 February 2014
Task 3: Mark Kermode
1) What are the criticisms of Big Dumb Movies?
2) What is your stand point on this - how did we get to the point where the cinema is dominated by these films?
1)
-The main criticisms of "Big Dumb Movies" is that they are hyped up and heavily reliant on CGI and special effects.
-If you spend a large amount of money your film becomes a big event movie.
-In some cases, in order for the film to not be classed as a flop the budget has to be newsworthy.
-The budget doesn't guarantee success, it depends on the quality of the film
-Not all Blockbusters have to be dumb just because they are release in the summer where all the supposedly exciting films are to be released
-The summer is usually the time when people go out to the cinema and spend money on film, causing Big Dumb Blockbusters to be hugely successful. For example, Mark Kermode reviews Pearl Harbour as a terrible film, but the fact it was released during the summer helped it make money
-The first massive summer blockbuster was Jaws
2) My stand-point on this is that the makers of Hollywood Blockbusters are so contempt in their comfort zone they keep repeating the same story-line and adding more special effects to the film, they've lost heart about actually making a decent film which is why there are a lot of "Big Dumb Movies". If writers, producers and directors put as much time and effort into the story-line of a movie as the special effects they use, there would be amazing-quality films and if more risks were taken with characters, budget and other aspects of movie making, there wouldn't be repetitive story-lines and bored audiences.
2) What is your stand point on this - how did we get to the point where the cinema is dominated by these films?
1)
-The main criticisms of "Big Dumb Movies" is that they are hyped up and heavily reliant on CGI and special effects.
-If you spend a large amount of money your film becomes a big event movie.
-In some cases, in order for the film to not be classed as a flop the budget has to be newsworthy.
-The budget doesn't guarantee success, it depends on the quality of the film
-Not all Blockbusters have to be dumb just because they are release in the summer where all the supposedly exciting films are to be released
-The summer is usually the time when people go out to the cinema and spend money on film, causing Big Dumb Blockbusters to be hugely successful. For example, Mark Kermode reviews Pearl Harbour as a terrible film, but the fact it was released during the summer helped it make money
-The first massive summer blockbuster was Jaws
2) My stand-point on this is that the makers of Hollywood Blockbusters are so contempt in their comfort zone they keep repeating the same story-line and adding more special effects to the film, they've lost heart about actually making a decent film which is why there are a lot of "Big Dumb Movies". If writers, producers and directors put as much time and effort into the story-line of a movie as the special effects they use, there would be amazing-quality films and if more risks were taken with characters, budget and other aspects of movie making, there wouldn't be repetitive story-lines and bored audiences.
Sunday 23 February 2014
Task 2: Characteristic of Blockbusters - Robocop review
Newly released Blockbuster I went to see - Robocop
-The post-genre of the 2014 remake of Robocop would br something close to a science-fiction action movie
-The reboot of the movie Robocop was heavily reliant on CGI and visual effects to emphasize the futuristic aspects of the film.
-The main target audience of this film was males aged around 15-25
-This reboot was supposed to be an "event movie" due to it's existing fan-base and the huge success of the 1987 original, but the lack of advertisement disallowed the reboot to be hyped up
-This re-make was just about classes as a big budgeted movie with the budget of an estimated $100,000,000
-Robocop 2014 was not star-driven, but did have one A-list star which was Samuel L. Jackson. Without him in the movie, the film would have been considered a "flop" because it did not conform to all the conventions in the Mark Kermode's Film Flop Formula. Another aspect of the film that contributed to it's downward spiral was the director, Jose' Padilha, who is not widely known and doesn't have a history of making widely known films (or that many films at all for that matter)
-This film was not heavily advertised, marketed or hyped up which could lead to a large decline in sales and making double the amount of money spent on the budget. The lack of well-known actors resulted in audiences being resistant to wanting to see the re-make. There was also a lack of merchandise prior to the film's release
-The Robocop reboot was heavily character-driven and followed the protagonist for the duration of the film in a way so the audience understands his motives and reasons for personal gain. Classic Hollywood Narrative was applied heavily in the story-line of this film
-Visual excess and set pieces over story-line was a trait that followed throughout the film - the heavy use of cinematography and CGI outweighed the narrative, possibly to distract the audience from the fact that there was hardly any narrative to be followed
-There was already an existing fanbase from the 1987 original so this re-make has a large expectation to live up to.
-The post-genre of the 2014 remake of Robocop would br something close to a science-fiction action movie
-The reboot of the movie Robocop was heavily reliant on CGI and visual effects to emphasize the futuristic aspects of the film.
-The main target audience of this film was males aged around 15-25
-This reboot was supposed to be an "event movie" due to it's existing fan-base and the huge success of the 1987 original, but the lack of advertisement disallowed the reboot to be hyped up
-This re-make was just about classes as a big budgeted movie with the budget of an estimated $100,000,000
-Robocop 2014 was not star-driven, but did have one A-list star which was Samuel L. Jackson. Without him in the movie, the film would have been considered a "flop" because it did not conform to all the conventions in the Mark Kermode's Film Flop Formula. Another aspect of the film that contributed to it's downward spiral was the director, Jose' Padilha, who is not widely known and doesn't have a history of making widely known films (or that many films at all for that matter)
-This film was not heavily advertised, marketed or hyped up which could lead to a large decline in sales and making double the amount of money spent on the budget. The lack of well-known actors resulted in audiences being resistant to wanting to see the re-make. There was also a lack of merchandise prior to the film's release
-The Robocop reboot was heavily character-driven and followed the protagonist for the duration of the film in a way so the audience understands his motives and reasons for personal gain. Classic Hollywood Narrative was applied heavily in the story-line of this film
-Visual excess and set pieces over story-line was a trait that followed throughout the film - the heavy use of cinematography and CGI outweighed the narrative, possibly to distract the audience from the fact that there was hardly any narrative to be followed
-There was already an existing fanbase from the 1987 original so this re-make has a large expectation to live up to.
Monday 3 February 2014
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