Wednesday 23 March 2011

Tron Legacy

How national audiences have been targeted by Disney in their promotion of TRON.

TRON legacy used several advertising techniques to draw in national audiences . A adress in the terms and conditions of a viral website led people to San Diego, California, USA near the city's convention center where the Comic Con 2009 took place and some footage and information on the sequel was released. Flynn's Arcade (The arcade from the movie) was re-opened at the same location, featuring several working arcade games as well as a full-size light cycle from the new movie was on display.

They also used rides and attractions such as the one in the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, they decorated one monorail trainwith special artwork of lightcycles with trailing beams of light as well as the film's logo. The so called "Tronorail" was unveiled in March 2010.

Disneyland Resort in California,held a night time dance party called "ElecTRONica" on October 8, 2010 and had the Winners of the hit american TV show " America's Best Dance Crew", perform. A sneak peak with scenes from the film was shown in 3D with additional in-theater effects in the MuppetVision theater as part of ElecTRONica,.
The nightime show World of Color at Disney California Adventure began using a Tron: Legacy themed encore featuring Daft Punk's piece titled "The Game Has Changed" from the movies soundtrack, they used new effects and projections on Paradise Pier attractions it officially premiered on November 1, 2010.
Disney also were involved in the construction of a special room in JukkasjÀrvi ice hotel using designers Ian Douglas-Jones and Ben Rousseau to create "The Legacy of the River", a high-tech suite inspired by "Tron: Legacy". It featured electroluminescent wire capturing the art style of the film.Screenings and premiere
On October 28, 2010, 23 minutes of the movie was screened on many IMAX theaters all over the world (except in southern Sweden) and the tickets for this event were sold out within an hour . Original merchandise from the movie was also available for sale on the day, the preview featured many of the clips from the film's trailers, but in complete form.

How international audiences have been targeted by Disney in their promotion of TRON.
To make TRON appeal to international markets Disney used several techniques to advertise it. They had TRON Tuesdays where everyTuesday leading up to the release of the movie exclusive new video content, including behind-the-scenes clips, trailers and artwork, were available via the internet.  They also had Daft Punk, a famous french house duo create the Soundtrack which was released on December 7th. They also realesed lots of tron merchandise ranging from t shirts to head phones as well as a video game based on the “TRON: Legacy” movie.

They also used something called viral marketing, where several websites are set up to discretely promote the movie. Flynnlives.com, a fictitious site maintained by activists who believe Kevin Flynn (the father of the protagonist) is alive, even though he's been missing since 1989 was set up to promote the movie. Clicking on a tiny spider in the lower section of the main page led to a countdown clock that hit zero on July 23, 2009, 9:30 pm PDT. Within the Terms of Use Section, an address was found.eventaull a 9th viral site, homeoftron.com, was found. It portrayed some of the history of Flynn's Arcade as well as a fan memoir section. 
They attached trailers to several movies that were assumed to be big in the cinemas to make the movie appeal to a much wider audience, these movies ranged from Alice in wonderland to jackass 3d. Sneak previews of the film aired on November 5 on Disney Channel during new episodes of The Suite Life on Deck and Pair of Kings.


In comparison to Duncan Jones' Moon


Well, the massive differing budget meant one thing and one thing only. TRON had the money behind it to be a blockbuster, it had things that people wanted, Daft Punk doing the soundtrack, Jeff Bridges, a younger CGI Jeff Bridges, a relatively well known cast. Moon had Kevin Spacey's voice and that guy from Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Tron had lots of trailers attached to lots of movies that were sucessfull, moon didnt. Tron had merchandise, moon didnt.

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Film Fo'

1. What is Film4's remit (its reason and purpose for being)?

It provides opportunities for up and coming directors and directors that have been in the scene for a while but maybe aren’t getting as much recognition and opportunities as they feel they deserve.

2. What types of films are green-lighted by Film4? Give examples of films and genres.

Slum dog millionaire – romance, adventure
Four lions - Comedy
In Bruges – comedy. drama
Submarine – comedy, coming of age drama
Last king of Scotland - drama

3. Why is Tessa Ross regarded as "the mother of British film-making" and therefore instrumental for Film4's success?

She turned around film four after it faced an uncertain future due to the broadcasters struggling attempts to retain its funding. She is regarded as the mother of British film making due to her involvement in the projects and the extent she goes to, as well as supporting directors who may be feeling “unloved” in the business.

4. How much is Film4's yearly budget and how much of it did "Slumdog Millionaire take up? (Be careful with this one as co-productions, UK Lottery money and deals with Pathe, etc. helps make Film4's budget stretch further!)

Film 4’s budget was last year increased by 20% from 8 to 15 million pounds, Slumdog millionaire cost $15 million to make, roughly 10 million pounds.

5. Why does Film4 form partnerships with other companies/individuals?

They do this to get the rights to certain things, for example when filming slumdog millionaire Tessa Ross had to get the rights to the game show “who wants to be a millionaire” so they could use it in the film.

6. What is the future for Film4 - budget and film-wise?

Film four is hoping to raise its budget to £50 million starting this year, this will take place by adding £15 million a year each year until they reach it, and this will take place over 5 years.

7. What problems did Film Four face in the noughties?

In 2001 the flop of charlotte gray in the cinemas having cost film 4 5.7 million to make was not received well even though it was one of the most expensive films they’ve ever made.
2006 was also troublesome because it pay to view model of business wasn’t working out due to a low level of subscribers. Although it is now doing a lot better since its launch on freeview using an advertising model.

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Sunday 5 December 2010

Skins!

Skins starts off by showing the daily ritual that Tony Stonem goes through each morning, the first scene starts with Tony lying in bed with an extreme close up of his eyes as they sharply snap open following his alarm. It zooms out showing a close up of his face. The camera zooms out to a long shot where we see his room which goes against the teenage stereotype of messy, especially for a boy because it very orderly and tidy. It also shows his duvet which he is lying smack bang in the middle of, its design is a naked man and woman this could be subtle reference to his sexuality as he may not know if hes straight or gay.

Numerous jump shots are then utilised as it shows daily routine of excericse which is extremely regimented indicating that is an often repeated task. Another alarm then goes off at this point he goes to his window and looks at his female neighbour who is getting dressed. His remains in this position even though his neighbour notices him which cements the fact he is probably straight because of how obvious it is, it also shows he is a bit perverse and voyeuristic.


Tony then helps his younger sister, Effy, sneak back into house showing that they have a strong relationship. He creates a diversion by turning his music up really loud and his dad is angered by it and says “every fucking morning” which implies Effy is often out all night.


Wednesday 1 December 2010

Avatar Notes

Avatar had some pretty big actors cast in it, these included, Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation), Zoe Saldana (Pirates of the Carribean), Michelle Rodriguez (Lost) Giovanni Ribisib (Saving Private Ryan) and Sigourney Weaver (Alien).
Avatar can be classed as an action film as well as adventure and fantasy.

The production companies who produced the movie were Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Ingenious Film Partners ,Dune Entertainment, and Lightstorm Entertainment.
The films estimated production budget was $310,000,000. Avatars gross budget was roughly $2,778,527,559. gaining  $760,505,847 from the US market.

 

The film had a few distribution companies, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, HBO and FX Network were some.

Monday 22 November 2010

Ethnicity Representation in media

Ethnicity means an ethnic quality or affiliation resulting from racial or cultural ties; "ethnicity has a strong influence on community status relations"
The media often represents different ethnicitys in a generalised way so they are more easily identifiable to a wide audience. For example, British people are often shown in the media as posh, drinking tea and very snobbish. I'd even go as far as to say we're self depricating in the sense that we don't actively deny it and play on the stereotypes in British made movies.



In scott pilgrim The character Matthew Patel plays on the stereotype of an asian character but in some aspects varys from the generalised view. For example, the fight scene he is in (above) is very reminiscant of a bollywood style movie. I say this because its very over dramatic (although that is the tone of the entire film, this scene is even more so) in the style and that at some points he ennunciates words with the syllables (1:29) and moves his head as well as dancing and singing over bollywood-esque music (3:39). This scen uses a lot of mid shots and long shots as to show the uppet body when the two opponents are talking and when hes dancing there are some long shots as to make sure that the action is in shot. The editing within the movie is a lot of two shots when they are circling each other.