Discuss the impact of funding on media products.
Having a lot of money put into or backing a film does not mean that it will succeed. There are many movies that have a low budget that still make it big, but there are also mega budget films that flop. Yes, money means better CGI, makeup, costumes, and some higher production value, but what really sells a movie is the storytelling, plot and characters. What does it mean to "make it big"? Usually it's how much money the movie makes versus how much it cost to create it, where in this case, the amount made exceeds the cost.
One movie that immediately comes to mind when thinking about the contrast between the cost to make a movie and how much it theatrically made is El Mariachi, an action film. It cost $7,000 (estimated) to make and on the opening weekend in the USA it made $312,528 as of the 28th of February 1993. That's already two more digits, but its overall gross in the USA comes to be $2,040,920, according to IMBd. Almost 300 times returned. This is a massive output compared to the input, making this movie successful. When I looked up exactly why it was so good, the critics from rottentomatoes.com said that it was due to the seamless editing, the good story telling and plot, along with the stunts. It cut out all the "fluff" and its low budget helped make it seem more realistic and engaging.
In the end, storytelling wins. El Mariachi had done something no one else had done before. Another low budget success would be The Blair Witch Project, a thriller. The Blair Witch Project also had done something that no one else had done before; it was a "found" film. From IMBd, its budget was $60,000 (estimated) and it made $1,512,054 on its opening weekend in the USA, July 18th, 1999. Its gross in the USA was $140,539,099, which is impressive, and worldwide it made $248,639,099. Thats almost 4,150 times returned! These two low budget movies go to show that you don't need a lot to make a great movie.
A movie that can go further to prove this point is the fantasy/action movie Dark Phoenix. Dark Phoenix had a lot going for it. It had the name of the X-Men series behind it and the main character was an actress that had a large following from Game of Thrones. The creators probably thought they would get a lot out of it, so they put a lot into it. Their budget was $200,000,000. But it "flopped." The story wasn't good enough, the acting wasn't good enough, and the CGI also fell flat. That cost the movie money. It made $32,828,348 its opening weekend, June 9th, 2019 and it made $65,845,974 total in the USA. Only the worldwide gross gave them profit: $252,442,974, according to IMBd. It got 1.26 times returned. Much less impressive than the 4,150 from before, but not much can be said to compare those two numbers. as it depends on the initial budget.
Of course, there are good movies that had a large budget and still "made it big," as it were. The movie Titanic is a great example of this. It also brought something new to the table, with it being a fictional story set during a real event. It had a good story, good characters, and good story telling. From IMBd, its estimated budget was $200,000,000, its opening weekend in the USA was $28,638,131, as of the 21st of December 1997. Its gross in the USA was $659,363,944 and. its cumulative worldwide gross was a whopping $2,194,439,542. The return was almost 11 times that large cost.
The total amount of money spent doesn't guarantee the total quality of the movie. Funding impacts movies in a lot of ways, but it's not all there is to making a good - or bad film. Most, if not all the times movies are watched, enjoyed, and shared is when the movie has good characters, plot and storytelling.
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Friday, April 24, 2020
Practice Extract Essay
Practice Extract Essay - Breanna C. - Period 5
The director's purpose in the extract from ”24” was to create a tension between the characters, along with a tension between the organization some characters are working for and some sort of terrorist threat. The director wanted the audience to feel the tension. As for the genre the director is working with, it seems to be some sort of cop drama. Throughout the extract, the audience learns that there is a bomb set to go off, and a lady who was a part of setting it. This lady seems to be in an interrogation room, and she is then interrogated by a guy who doesn't seem to have his emotions under control. Whether these two characters have some sort of personal past is unclear. These two do not seem to like each other, and keep pushing each other to act out, which the guy eventually does. There are other characters watching these events from another room.
The extract starts off with the guy entering the room the lady is confined in. Inside of this room there is dramatic lighting, having the characters stand out with this contrast. At first, there isn't anything explicitly telling the audience of the tension rising, but there are a series of other things that do. There are close-up shots of the two characters, creating a claustrophobic feel. The guy is also standing, and when the camera faces him, it is from a lower angle, while the opposite is true for the lady. This shows that the guy is towering over her, trying to elicit fear. But the lady does not fear, despite her predicament. She stays calm, always watching the guy. The background music is low and sparse, but the notes heard set the mood to be serious and dangerous. Immediately, the scene is set, and the lady starts off their conversation.
Both of them are fighting each other, but the lady is the only one that keeps her cool. The camera almost looks as if it is handheld, constantly and shakily zooming in on the characters and their expressions and reactions to what the other character has said. The scene cuts to show there are people watching these two, and they are worried for what can be assumed to be their fellow employee, the guy. The guy paces and his footsteps and heavy breathing only show more of how angry he is. The guy continues to threaten the lady, flipping the table as a show of his frustration. The lady only mocks him. At this point the audience is unsure if the guy is going to act further on his anger, as he sits down. The camera is constantly going back and forth, giving no rest for the audience. The music steadily rises as the lady smiles at him in victory, putting him over the edge. He attacks her. Pushing her chair against the wall and chocking her throat. A split screen shows the observers going to try and stop the guy, all the while the music is at an all-time high that you can barely hear the threat he gives the lady on her life.
All of these things - the close-ups, the low/high angles, the zooms and shaky camera, the rising background music, the heavy breathing and quick footsteps, the constant back and forth, the dramatic lighting and threatening acting - they all serve to create what the director's purpose was: to create tension.
The director's purpose in the extract from ”24” was to create a tension between the characters, along with a tension between the organization some characters are working for and some sort of terrorist threat. The director wanted the audience to feel the tension. As for the genre the director is working with, it seems to be some sort of cop drama. Throughout the extract, the audience learns that there is a bomb set to go off, and a lady who was a part of setting it. This lady seems to be in an interrogation room, and she is then interrogated by a guy who doesn't seem to have his emotions under control. Whether these two characters have some sort of personal past is unclear. These two do not seem to like each other, and keep pushing each other to act out, which the guy eventually does. There are other characters watching these events from another room.
The extract starts off with the guy entering the room the lady is confined in. Inside of this room there is dramatic lighting, having the characters stand out with this contrast. At first, there isn't anything explicitly telling the audience of the tension rising, but there are a series of other things that do. There are close-up shots of the two characters, creating a claustrophobic feel. The guy is also standing, and when the camera faces him, it is from a lower angle, while the opposite is true for the lady. This shows that the guy is towering over her, trying to elicit fear. But the lady does not fear, despite her predicament. She stays calm, always watching the guy. The background music is low and sparse, but the notes heard set the mood to be serious and dangerous. Immediately, the scene is set, and the lady starts off their conversation.
Both of them are fighting each other, but the lady is the only one that keeps her cool. The camera almost looks as if it is handheld, constantly and shakily zooming in on the characters and their expressions and reactions to what the other character has said. The scene cuts to show there are people watching these two, and they are worried for what can be assumed to be their fellow employee, the guy. The guy paces and his footsteps and heavy breathing only show more of how angry he is. The guy continues to threaten the lady, flipping the table as a show of his frustration. The lady only mocks him. At this point the audience is unsure if the guy is going to act further on his anger, as he sits down. The camera is constantly going back and forth, giving no rest for the audience. The music steadily rises as the lady smiles at him in victory, putting him over the edge. He attacks her. Pushing her chair against the wall and chocking her throat. A split screen shows the observers going to try and stop the guy, all the while the music is at an all-time high that you can barely hear the threat he gives the lady on her life.
All of these things - the close-ups, the low/high angles, the zooms and shaky camera, the rising background music, the heavy breathing and quick footsteps, the constant back and forth, the dramatic lighting and threatening acting - they all serve to create what the director's purpose was: to create tension.
Friday, April 17, 2020
Eden CCR
This is it, the last post on my blogger! In this one I will be posting a Critical Creative Review of my project Eden. I did this entirely by myself, so there was a few bumps doing it but I got it done. (I took the camera out to record, but it didn’t have an SD card in. I then put an SD card in, but it was too full. I finally got what I need on the sixth attempt.) I tried to make it interesting, but I’m not sure how it ended up, and I’ve been staring at it too long. I used a lot of content from the creation of the project, and I used a neat little split screen to show myself interviewing myself!
We were supposed to make this video between 10-15 minutes long, and originally my script ended up being closer to thirty minutes, so I had to cut it down a lot. Final time is six seconds 12 minutes! It was interesting doing the entire process myself without any help from my group mates. I didn’t expect to learn anything new, but I did! When I was recording my two different sides, I had my Mom say the lines of the other person so I could keep time. I tried to make it two different personas, but it was really awkward just staring at the wall/backyard.
It was fun getting to talk about some of my thought process about the film, along with answering the provided questions. I even added a question about what I liked and didn’t like about the film! Unfortunately, I didn’t add much music from my film, and instead I went with a different song as background music. I did do a lot of visual editing, though. I made these little videos on my iPad and inserted them onto the CCR for the questions. I showed what I was referencing on screen, and I took some pictures on some of the items I was talking about. I also inserted some photos from the internet, although they’re low quality and I really should have done a better job on those. I also added some text and the like. And then I compressed it down so I could post it! Anyway, here you go! My CCR for Eden:
We were supposed to make this video between 10-15 minutes long, and originally my script ended up being closer to thirty minutes, so I had to cut it down a lot. Final time is six seconds 12 minutes! It was interesting doing the entire process myself without any help from my group mates. I didn’t expect to learn anything new, but I did! When I was recording my two different sides, I had my Mom say the lines of the other person so I could keep time. I tried to make it two different personas, but it was really awkward just staring at the wall/backyard.
It was fun getting to talk about some of my thought process about the film, along with answering the provided questions. I even added a question about what I liked and didn’t like about the film! Unfortunately, I didn’t add much music from my film, and instead I went with a different song as background music. I did do a lot of visual editing, though. I made these little videos on my iPad and inserted them onto the CCR for the questions. I showed what I was referencing on screen, and I took some pictures on some of the items I was talking about. I also inserted some photos from the internet, although they’re low quality and I really should have done a better job on those. I also added some text and the like. And then I compressed it down so I could post it! Anyway, here you go! My CCR for Eden:
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Our final project! Eden
This is it! This is the biggest project we did this year, and it was fun. When I heard about this project at the beginning of the year, when my teachers were going over the plan for the year, I was so excited. Throughout the year I was brainstorming ideas, although loosely since I didn’t know any of what the criteria was for the project. We were constantly preparing for the project on the horizon. My group mates and I decided we would work together the whole year, and I’m glad I got to work with them. We might have had our bumps, but we all worked together for this to be done. We learned a lot about filming and editing for our videos, and this is the final project we got to put all of our learnings into.
There are things I like about this project, and things I don’t like, but I’m glad that we got to do it. It’s sad that we couldn’t do some things, like reshoot in the park or sit together to edit because of the coronavirus. But despite the things in our way, we still completed it. This video isn’t the best, but we got to put all of our own ideas into it and basically make it from scratch, so it has a special place for me. I’m definitely saving a file of it. So here it is! Final name for the project: Eden. I’m sure you know enough about it already from my previous posts, so I won’t bother repeating myself. Please enjoy! (Unfortunately, the quality isn't the best due to me having to post this on blogger.)
There are things I like about this project, and things I don’t like, but I’m glad that we got to do it. It’s sad that we couldn’t do some things, like reshoot in the park or sit together to edit because of the coronavirus. But despite the things in our way, we still completed it. This video isn’t the best, but we got to put all of our own ideas into it and basically make it from scratch, so it has a special place for me. I’m definitely saving a file of it. So here it is! Final name for the project: Eden. I’m sure you know enough about it already from my previous posts, so I won’t bother repeating myself. Please enjoy! (Unfortunately, the quality isn't the best due to me having to post this on blogger.)
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Our Music Video!
This is our music video! It was the the second project we did. It was with the same group. Looking back at it, there are some things I'm painfully aware of, but there are other things that time had me forget. Coming back was almost like seeing it for the first time, and I really liked it. The details we were worrying so much about during the process turned out great. There were things that still irk me a tad(like some shakiness and the camera bag in a shot), but overall I am happy with how it turned out. Anyway, here you go with our music video for the song Sunkissed by Khai Dreams:
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Our commercial video!
Monday, April 6, 2020
COVID-19 Effects
The corona virus has effected this project in some ways. When school was canceled, we still had reshoots to do. Sydney, our other actor, and my group members came to do so. We made it as quick and painless as possible. When we all had to stay at home, only Madelene could come over as she lives nearby. Soon enough, I had to do the editing and we conversed over the internet. Once I had the list of things we wanted to do, I did them myself.
After that, Madelene dropped off a flash drive in the mail. I downloaded the finished product to her, along with the song file that was in our film. She came later to pick it up. Unfortunately, the quality was too high for sending it digitally, so I had to compress the video down. I sent that to both of my group mates so they would have a mobile compatible version.
Our group is lucky to have been okay with social distancing. I can imagine how this could have turned out badly. Not only has the production of my class’s film projects been stopped, but film industries across the world have also stopped production. Now all that is left for my class to do if they haven’t already, is review this final project and create a video on it. Thankfully, this is individual, so I don’t have to worry about my group mates while we can’t work together.
Here is a picture of the files on my flash drive showing the finished video:
After that, Madelene dropped off a flash drive in the mail. I downloaded the finished product to her, along with the song file that was in our film. She came later to pick it up. Unfortunately, the quality was too high for sending it digitally, so I had to compress the video down. I sent that to both of my group mates so they would have a mobile compatible version.
Our group is lucky to have been okay with social distancing. I can imagine how this could have turned out badly. Not only has the production of my class’s film projects been stopped, but film industries across the world have also stopped production. Now all that is left for my class to do if they haven’t already, is review this final project and create a video on it. Thankfully, this is individual, so I don’t have to worry about my group mates while we can’t work together.
Here is a picture of the files on my flash drive showing the finished video:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)