Slumdog Millionaire Research Task
Task: To research the film Slumdog Millionaire focusing on the British Film Industry
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Basic info:
Release Date
9 January 2009
Director
Danny Boyle
Co-director -Loveleen Tandan (India)
Production Company
Celador films and Film4
Distributor
Pathe pictures international Fox searchlight pictures Warner Bros pictures
Production Budget
$15,ooo,ooo
Advertising Budget
Main filming locations
India, Mumbai
Genre
Crime Drama Romance
Male lead
Dev Patel
Female lead
Freida Pinto
Writer
Simon Beaufoy
Who do you think the target audience is? Why? (Mainstream or niche?)
This film was targeted at adults around the age of 24-35, working and enjoys romantic films- who are often going to the cinema. A mainstream film.
What do the budgets tell you about the film?
This film started off as a small cheap film with only $15million to spend on, however the outcome gross turn into 31.6million twice as much when they started. This can show to the audience that you don’t need a lot of money.
Slumdog is classed as a British film, why?
Slumdog is classed as a British film as the director is from England, whatever the film is it will be based on the original background of the director .
What are the criteria for classifying a film as ‘British’?
It will have to be funded by a company in the British industry.
How was the film received? (research critics reviews/awards won)
Slumdog Millionaire’, a film so upbeat and colourful that, by the time you’re relaying its infectious air of optimism to friends, you could forget that it features orphans, slaughter, organised crime, poverty, enslavement and police brutality.
How was the film advertised? (Where? How long for?)
Commercials, side of buses and newspapers/magazines for two months with the tag line “Love and money.... You have mixed them both”.
Why do you think the film was so successful?
The story was focused on most people’s dream: winning a large amount of money to make their life better. This would make the audience having gratification of being in his place.
Helpful websites:
Internet Movie Database: www.imdb.com
Sight & Sound magazine: http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/
Guardian film reviews: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film
Official Slumdog site: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/slumdogmillionaire/
Wiki info on Slumdog: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slumdog_Millionaire
Review site: http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/slumdog_millionaire/
UK Film Council: http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/
BAFTA: http://www.bafta.org/
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Who runs hollywood: Homework.
Who runs hollywood?
Question 1) How is the audiences in hollywood powerful?
Question 2) How is the institution powerful?
give evidence from the text and quote
Without the audiences in Hollywood becoming involved and spending money at the cinemas, Hollywood would not become as successful as it is today. At the end of the day Hollywood will have a product that they would like to sell, in this particular case films and the supporting merchandise. Due to the global economy there has been a slight drop in the viewing public spending money on watching movies at the box office showing that things are changing and people want "to consume good quality films at home". The power people behind the Hollywood studios make a region of $25 billion a year from moviegoers. However, if the money spending public believe that the film is not going to be any good either through the trailers or the reviews then the film will be a tremendous flop; for example, in August 2003 "Gigli" starred by Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, a romantic comedy that had flopped all around the world. As it was a massive flop, it came under fire from people reviewing the film and had won in total seven Razzies for "Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Years." Although it did have the rare comment "This isn't a good film, but, when set alongside the likes of Dumb and Dumberer and Legally Blonde 2, Jen & Ben offer less pain." A rare positive, as opposed to less negative, review came from Amy Dawes of Variety".
The audience does not have it all their own way though as Hollywood can be very manipulative, with the power and money at their disposal to promote actors to stardom and the films they are currently starring in. If the viewing public has become intrigued by a certain actor, raising their profile then Hollywood will try to obtain the services of that actor at a hugely inflated price as they know the gross profits for the films and merchandising will greatly increase. An example of this is Julia Roberts who won an Oscar for her film Erin Brockovich; “Julia Roberts has immense power because studio executives will approve almost any film she makes, knowing her presence will guarantee good box office”. However, once the actor has achieved fame and power, they then become part of the system where they able to call the shots and decide on what they will or won’t do and who they prefer to work with.
In conclusion, I think the relationship between audiences and Hollywood executives shows a symbiotic bond where they depend on each other to provide entertainment and funding to continue with entertainment. Because of the influence of Hollywood, the entertainment industry in other countries has increased in leaps and bounds such as “City of God” made in Brazil, hugely popular, and nominated for four Oscars. But it is still down to the public who will decide if the film they have seen has captured their heart and imagination and part with hard earned money to support the industry.
Question 1) How is the audiences in hollywood powerful?
Question 2) How is the institution powerful?
give evidence from the text and quote
Without the audiences in Hollywood becoming involved and spending money at the cinemas, Hollywood would not become as successful as it is today. At the end of the day Hollywood will have a product that they would like to sell, in this particular case films and the supporting merchandise. Due to the global economy there has been a slight drop in the viewing public spending money on watching movies at the box office showing that things are changing and people want "to consume good quality films at home". The power people behind the Hollywood studios make a region of $25 billion a year from moviegoers. However, if the money spending public believe that the film is not going to be any good either through the trailers or the reviews then the film will be a tremendous flop; for example, in August 2003 "Gigli" starred by Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, a romantic comedy that had flopped all around the world. As it was a massive flop, it came under fire from people reviewing the film and had won in total seven Razzies for "Worst Comedy of Our First 25 Years." Although it did have the rare comment "This isn't a good film, but, when set alongside the likes of Dumb and Dumberer and Legally Blonde 2, Jen & Ben offer less pain." A rare positive, as opposed to less negative, review came from Amy Dawes of Variety".
The audience does not have it all their own way though as Hollywood can be very manipulative, with the power and money at their disposal to promote actors to stardom and the films they are currently starring in. If the viewing public has become intrigued by a certain actor, raising their profile then Hollywood will try to obtain the services of that actor at a hugely inflated price as they know the gross profits for the films and merchandising will greatly increase. An example of this is Julia Roberts who won an Oscar for her film Erin Brockovich; “Julia Roberts has immense power because studio executives will approve almost any film she makes, knowing her presence will guarantee good box office”. However, once the actor has achieved fame and power, they then become part of the system where they able to call the shots and decide on what they will or won’t do and who they prefer to work with.
In conclusion, I think the relationship between audiences and Hollywood executives shows a symbiotic bond where they depend on each other to provide entertainment and funding to continue with entertainment. Because of the influence of Hollywood, the entertainment industry in other countries has increased in leaps and bounds such as “City of God” made in Brazil, hugely popular, and nominated for four Oscars. But it is still down to the public who will decide if the film they have seen has captured their heart and imagination and part with hard earned money to support the industry.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
We start of with a opening theme song of James Bond, where it cuts to our first opening scene with Karim as our James Bond showing a low position of Karim's hand sliding the money across the table, while doing that the camera follows with a panning shot. The camera then tilts upwards with a mid shot of James Bond drinking some water, this can indicate to the audience of the player he was facing that he might have been poisoned, and what he was drinking. It then cuts off to the bathroom scene where the camera was canted, creating a confused and disrupting atmosphere to the audience. it also indicates that something was in the drink which had lead him to being poisoned .
We then track back along a hallway which shows the short amount of time that has passed since the bathroom scene; we also shot it in canted view as James has been poisoned we then cut again to a flight of stairs where we did a simple tilt downwards and close ups to show tension and climax making the audience sit on the edge of their seats. Afterwards, we did a mid shot to show our 'Vesper', Minyee walking to our dead James Bond where we show more close ups of her struggling to fix the device and shock James Bond back to life.
We used the James Bond theme music as everyone knows the opening and end music. We decided to use a fast pace music to show an action thriller moment until Karim walks to the stairs where we cut the music and played a soundtrack where you hear a heartbeat to show a dramatic climax of his death.
Monday, 14 September 2009
Film: Lucky Number Slevin
This is the first part of "Lucky Number Slevin" the opening scene however due to problems with You Tube I could only find it with Spanish subtitles.
The genre of this film is crime thriller which has now become a cult film; the opening credits of the film shows the name of the actors on a bookkeeping accounts book which is an important prop in the film and it more interesting and interactive at the start. There is a non diegetic sound bridge of horse racing with commentary that runs across the different scenes and opening credits connecting them together. The film has notable stars such as Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and Danny Aiellos. The viewing audience of this film is 18 and over however it has been seen by people over the age of 15.
The reason why I enjoy the film is because of the creativity used to portray the plot of gangster crime and its repercussions. The action makes high tension suspense which kept me entertained and intrigued. It was also witty, fast, stylistic with a interesting modern aspect that centres around the theme of revenge. One of the messages of the film shows us that the unpredictable can always happen.
The cinematography of "Lucky Number Slevin" has the angle shot at the beginning of the film panning into a high angle where the audience sees a dead man holding a black book; this can indicate the importance and the mystery of the black book and the reason for the man’s death. The man’s death can show a point of view regarding submissive or a weak character. The shot type shows a establishing shot of a parking lot signifies to the audiences that something might be or will be happening, which is later shown when the character in question is shot in the head. This would then make the audiences question on why he was targeted.
Later on we see three people walking into a old fashion 70’s style office where the position of the camera shows a low angle view of the characters, this makes the audience curious as to why we cannot see their faces and what the connection is to the previous scene.
In the scene where we see Bruce Willis’s character shown inside a bus station where he tells about the “Kansas City Shuffle” to another character, the movement of the camera shows Bruce Willis indicate to the left and right while the camera copies and pans the same. This shows to the audience on how “Kansas City Shuffle” works; they show him disappearing and reappearing again as he proceeds to break the other character’s neck.
The genre of this film is crime thriller which has now become a cult film; the opening credits of the film shows the name of the actors on a bookkeeping accounts book which is an important prop in the film and it more interesting and interactive at the start. There is a non diegetic sound bridge of horse racing with commentary that runs across the different scenes and opening credits connecting them together. The film has notable stars such as Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and Danny Aiellos. The viewing audience of this film is 18 and over however it has been seen by people over the age of 15.
The reason why I enjoy the film is because of the creativity used to portray the plot of gangster crime and its repercussions. The action makes high tension suspense which kept me entertained and intrigued. It was also witty, fast, stylistic with a interesting modern aspect that centres around the theme of revenge. One of the messages of the film shows us that the unpredictable can always happen.
The cinematography of "Lucky Number Slevin" has the angle shot at the beginning of the film panning into a high angle where the audience sees a dead man holding a black book; this can indicate the importance and the mystery of the black book and the reason for the man’s death. The man’s death can show a point of view regarding submissive or a weak character. The shot type shows a establishing shot of a parking lot signifies to the audiences that something might be or will be happening, which is later shown when the character in question is shot in the head. This would then make the audiences question on why he was targeted.
Later on we see three people walking into a old fashion 70’s style office where the position of the camera shows a low angle view of the characters, this makes the audience curious as to why we cannot see their faces and what the connection is to the previous scene.
In the scene where we see Bruce Willis’s character shown inside a bus station where he tells about the “Kansas City Shuffle” to another character, the movement of the camera shows Bruce Willis indicate to the left and right while the camera copies and pans the same. This shows to the audience on how “Kansas City Shuffle” works; they show him disappearing and reappearing again as he proceeds to break the other character’s neck.
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