UK Independent Film - Under the Skin (2013)

Under the Skin (2013) - Jonathan Glazer

Director - Jonathan Glazer (English) - Also produced Sexy Beast, a British crime film.
Produced by - James Wilson, Nick Wechsler
Based on - Under The Skin novel by Michael Faber

Budget - £8 million (low budget independent film)
Box Office - £2.5 million
Stars - Scarlett Johansson, Adam Pearson, Paul Brannigan. Relatively low budget actors aside from Johansson. One big name can attract a wider set of audience although we know this film is an Art House film. 

Issues in Production - Locations were hard come by and locations needed to be altered to fit the desired effects of portrayal. Tree tops were cut off to allow more natural daylight onto the set when the dense tree tops were were in abundance.

Misc. Info.
- Glazer tells us that the view point that the character takes on the film is from the aliens perspective and therefore tried to use the correct visual language to try and make the audience feel this alienation and distance from the world around them. 
- We understand that Art House cinema does not attract the biggest audience and therefore doesn't make it onto the big screens. These films don't attract huge audiences because they are sometimes difficult to understand and therefore wider audiences are not addressed, for example younger audiences may not understand the deeper meanings. Also dark scenes within Under the Skin can put off a younger, less mature audience. A scene which entails a couple and their dog drowning could be saddening and off putting to a young audience.
- Glazer includes long takes of the general public walking around, no extras. They do not know they are being filmed and this can add to the appeal of the alienation within the audience. People's real reactions and real conversations to add to the realism and involvement of the outside world.

Section C - Messages and Values - Badlands (1973)

Section C - Messages and Values

Badlands: Kit & Holly

Themes:

- The American dream is a recurring theme throughout the film, as it is in most lovers on the lam genre films.
- The music that plays at the beginning of the film is similar to true romane, another lovers on the lam film.

Media:

- When police are starting to look for Kit and Holly, the film cuts to an old sepia scene. This makes it look like an old wanted poster, and this style is similar to old western films. Similar settings also support the fact that the film is trying o replicate the western genre.

Entrapment and Freedom:

- The theme of being trapped and being free are frequent throughout the film.
- A cage in the scene indicates the couple are trapped. Wide open scenes of the prairie indicate the couple are free.
- Being in a vast area means that the couple are isolated from society.

Section A Practice

‘Visual effects are a main attraction for audiences.’ How far do you agree with this statement?

Visual effects are an element of film which can invite an audience solely on the fact that the audience likes the thrill of the fantasy environment. To some, visual effects can be a significant role in the film and can decipher whether the audience can get lost within the fantasy world or not. Films such as Life of Pi and Prometheus give evidence that visual effects can attract a wide audience but there are also arguments against this.

Evidence from the film Life of Pi includes the film grossing over $580 million worldwide and winning  awards such as Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects can tell us that the film was successful but doesn’t tell us that the visual effects were what made the film successful. Although the film may have astounding visual effects, this may not be the reason that the film was successful. We also know that the film was based off a well known book, therefore providing the film with an existing audience. We also know the film had a budget of around $120 million so the marketing campaign would be well done and the cinematography would also appeal to a wider audience.

Westenhofer’s quote simply tells us that visual effects are good at fooling the audience into thinking they're looking at something real when they aren’t. This doesn’t tell us that this particular film was effective on it’s release because of the visual effects. We know that Ang Lee appreciates the special effects technicians that worked on his film but we also know this is a significant part of the film. Visual effects can be seen as an attraction for the audience and can be seen as a feature that can improve a film’s overall quality. We know films can be congratulated from having outstanding visual effects as the 2014, Christopher Nolan film Interstellar won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. This is significant as it further cements the importance of VFX in modern day film’s and their success.

However, the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project is a direct counter to this argument. With a budget of only $20,000 and little visual effects. The main attraction of this cult horror film would be the sheer fear factor that the storyline produced. In my opinion I think that the fact this film is a psychological horror is important because the lack of visual effects can force the audience to produce their own idea of the monster/spirit that is killing the characters off. This is evidence that a film should not only rely on the visual effects to become successful. However this film could be countered with the argument that it is a relatively old film in terms of visual effects. Due to it being produced in the late 1990s. We know that visual effects weren’t as effective in that time compared to how advanced they are in modern films.

Although we cannot compare The Blair Witch Project and Life of Pi in this manner due to the time difference between them which causes the advancement of visual effects and how important they become to the audience. I think although visual effects can be a highly significant feature of modern films and attracting an audience but we cannot assume that this is the main reason it attracts these audiences.

Foreign Language Film - The Grandmaster (2013) - Case Study

The Grandmaster (2013) - Case Study - Foreign Language Film

Budget - $38.6 million
Stars - Zhang Ziyi, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Chang Chen
Director - Wong Kar-Wai
Genre - Drama, Martial Arts
Box Office - $6,594,959
Production Companies - Block 2 Pictures, Sil-Metropole Organisation
Distributors - The Weinstein Company
Certificate - 15 - Strong Violence
Marketing
- The trailer for this movie has just over 1 million views on youtube. Showcasing elements of the film and the most thrilling action sequences.
- Film shown in China in its longer version (130 minutes) then shown at the Berlin Film Festival as a slightly shorter version. Then shown in the UK and US as the shorter version which was cut by Weinstein.
- Audiences have said that the longer version is superior however the Western audiences wouldn't have clocked on to some of the Eastern, Chinese references within the plot. This is significant as we can see the different audiences being addressed individually and the film being altered in order to become more appealing for them.
- Kar-Wai instructed the cast to learn the martial arts instead of acting it, this could be significant when addressing the audience as he wanted to reflect the strict, professional values that the characters in the film should carry with them.
- 6 months of preparation and 3 weeks of filming for a 3 minute fight scene.
Release Date - January 8, 2013 (China)/November 29, 2013 (UK)
Reviews - Metacritic - 73%   IMDb - 6.5/10