Skins is a successful but controversial teen drama following the loves and lives of a group of friends through college. They are introduced to the audience as busy teenagers all wrapped up in their own lives but each brought together by the same thing. Sex. This is typical of the ‘horny teenager’ stereotype. The use of tracking and moving shots on Tony along with the quick cuts between each character and the clever use of the multi-way phone calls reflects the chaotic life Tony and his friends lead. The phone conversation gives the chance for the audience to see a quick snippet of each character and what they portray, for instance Maxxy is gay and he is shown tap dancing in pastel coloured fashionable clothes. There’s also Jal who is the ‘boring’ one that goes by the book, this is shown by her with a classical instrument in a dull, tidy, bland brown bedroom. Chris is shown as the ‘player’ as he is shot under the covers with a pretty girl that he degrades to Tony while she is listening. Also, there is Anwar who is the religious Muslim that doesn’t take his religion as seriously as he should, this is shown by him answering his mobile whilst he is praying in the Mosque. These are all typical stereotypes but they are emphasized in order to show the programme is an emphasis on teenage life itself. The audience know these characters are emphasised but the use of verisimilitude by putting these characters in unglamorized, everyday environments including the bus and the mosque helps the audience to believe that these characters are believable and helps them to relate to and become attached to the characters.
Thursday 26 February 2009
Skins: A Structured Paragraph on The Representation of Youth
Skins is a successful but controversial teen drama following the loves and lives of a group of friends through college. They are introduced to the audience as busy teenagers all wrapped up in their own lives but each brought together by the same thing. Sex. This is typical of the ‘horny teenager’ stereotype. The use of tracking and moving shots on Tony along with the quick cuts between each character and the clever use of the multi-way phone calls reflects the chaotic life Tony and his friends lead. The phone conversation gives the chance for the audience to see a quick snippet of each character and what they portray, for instance Maxxy is gay and he is shown tap dancing in pastel coloured fashionable clothes. There’s also Jal who is the ‘boring’ one that goes by the book, this is shown by her with a classical instrument in a dull, tidy, bland brown bedroom. Chris is shown as the ‘player’ as he is shot under the covers with a pretty girl that he degrades to Tony while she is listening. Also, there is Anwar who is the religious Muslim that doesn’t take his religion as seriously as he should, this is shown by him answering his mobile whilst he is praying in the Mosque. These are all typical stereotypes but they are emphasized in order to show the programme is an emphasis on teenage life itself. The audience know these characters are emphasised but the use of verisimilitude by putting these characters in unglamorized, everyday environments including the bus and the mosque helps the audience to believe that these characters are believable and helps them to relate to and become attached to the characters.
6 Points On Movie Piracy
- Technologies that enable movie piracy
Camcorder
Disk burning
Internet
VCR
P2P websites
- The industry is losing so much money due to piracy. FACT estimates that £486m was lost to movie theft in 2007 in the UK alone. Worldwide the industry is losing an estimated $6.1bn each year.
- This is ultimately making it harder to raise money for new movies, especially smaller indie and British movies.
- The advances in technology with P2P sites and compact camcorders have made it so much harder to catch people and clamp down on the crime. It’s become so easy that people don’t even realise they are breaking the law – or they just don’t care because they don’t notice any consequences.
- The movie business is partly to blame because they aren’t advancing with the technology. They don’t want to change the technology they are using because they don’t know how much money they might make in the future. It’s a risk they don’t seem to be willing to take.
- Even with piracy being so easy and taking so much money from the industry profits are still higher than ever, so is the problem necessarily that severe?
Tuesday 24 February 2009
Research into Warp, Universal and Working Title
6 Facts About Warp
6 Facts About Universal
6 Facts About Working Title
- This is England is Warps most successful film to date.
- Warp Films works with the directors: Shane Meadows, Chris Cunningham, Richard Ayoade, David Slade and Lynne Ramsay.
- Warp Films has won numerous plaudits and awards since setting up in 2002.
- Releases: My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117 (Dir: Chris Morris - 2003)
Dead Man's Shoes (Dir: Shane Meadows - 2004)
Rubber Johnny (Dir: Chris Cunningham - 2005)
Scummy Man (Arctic Monkeys short film/music video)
This Is England (Dir: Shane Meadows - 2006)
Dog Altogether (Dir: Paddy Considine - 2007) - Warp Films is an independent film production company which aims to mirror the ethos of its partner music label Warp Records.
- Warp Films aims to create fresh and innovative feature length and short films to be viewed by a wide audience.
6 Facts About Universal
- It was one of the major distributors of the british films Hot Fuzz and Atonement.
- It's a mainstream American company.
- Over the years, Universal has made deals to distribute and/or co-finance films with various small companies, such as Imagine Entertainment, Amblin Entertainment, Morgan Creek Productions, Working Title Films (and DreamWorks), StudioCanal, Shady Acres Entertainment, Marc Platt Productions, and Beacon Communications LLC.
- It was founded in 1912 and since then has grown to become one of the six worldwide major american film studios.
- Since 2007 Universal Pictures has distributed all of Working Titles productions.
- They own 67% of Working Title.
6 Facts About Working Title
- Working title has produced British hit films including Bridget Jones' Diray, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually and Hot Fuzz.
- Working Title was founded in 1984 by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe.
- It's one of the largest British production companies and is based in London.
- It has a filmography of 109 films .
- Working Title has a second company WT2 (Working Title 2) which is a low-budget production company. This has producted films including Billy Elliot and Shaun of the Dead.
- Working Title began as an independant company but looked for financial backing after struggling to find sources of finance for each film. In a quote from a Guardian interview, Mark Bevan said "Before that we had been independent producers, but it was very hand to mouth. We would develop a script, that would take about 5% of our time; we'd find a director, that'd take about 5% of the time and then we'd spend 90% of the time trying to juggle together deals from different sources to finance those films. The films were suffering because there was no real structure and, speaking for myself, my company was always virtually bankrupt."
(A good site for finding out about Working Titles history: http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/working_title_history/ )
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Alterations to Thriller Planning
Due to the loss of a person in our thriller group alot of alterations to the planning have been made. This includes the following:
The character of 'Tag'
The character was originally going to be the third person in our group who we lost, we chose to use him because he would be reliable as he would be with the group at all times. But this had to change so we decided to cast a completely different character, Chris Nolan, my dad. We chose to cast him as he would be reliable since i would know what he was doing at all times and could easily arrange with him dates to film and give him updates to the storyline and how his character should be at any time. Because of this choice of casting the character was also changed completely. He was no longer a 16/17 year old boy but a 40 year old man. The entire outfit changed also, the new character had a black raincoat, a grey hat, dark jeans, dark brown gloves and white trainers. The dark outfit connotes evil, but the white trainers could connote that there is something about this character that is good... or that he believes he is doing good like that of the killer in Se7en.
We also decided our thriller wasn't very clear in showing the storyline and the action, so we added another key prop, the ribbon. This has become the main focus in our two minute film. It is the item Hope drops that is then used by Tag to kill her and is left on her body at the end. The red ribbon connotes danger. Although it is used to kill Hope it is not shown killing her, Tag just plays with it when he is towering over her which indicates that he is going to use it to strangle her. This technique has been used in an episode of Silent Witness with a rope.
Alot of the shots in the film now focus on close ups of the feet, this is used alot in thriller films i have studied such as in Se7en during the chase scene, also a close up of feet is used in Brick when a note is dropped out of Brendans locker and it falls to his feet, it is also used during the murder scene in Heavenly creatures when Juliet walks down the steps on the woodland path. The non-diagetic music chosen to be used over the top of the action is 'The Humming Chorus' from Madame Butterfly, this is an intertextual reference to the thriller Heavenly Creatures, which has heavily influenced our film, as the setting for the death scene is a similar forest-like setting, and the chase has its similarities.
Research into the reason for the Humming Chorus in the Madame Butterfly opera tells the story of Butterfly and her young child beginning 'the long wait' for Pinkerton (Butterflys lover and her childs father) to come home after returning from war. Night falls and Pinkerton still hasn't returned, the child falls asleep but Butterfly 'keeps her vigil'. This is a tragedy in itself as Pinkerton has not returned, this also fits in quite well with 'Tag' as 'the long wait' could connote the period of time where Hope is being stalked by Tag, and the part where the child falls asleep is the climax where Hope is murdered, this could be seen as her being sent 'to sleep'.
The character of 'Tag'
The character was originally going to be the third person in our group who we lost, we chose to use him because he would be reliable as he would be with the group at all times. But this had to change so we decided to cast a completely different character, Chris Nolan, my dad. We chose to cast him as he would be reliable since i would know what he was doing at all times and could easily arrange with him dates to film and give him updates to the storyline and how his character should be at any time. Because of this choice of casting the character was also changed completely. He was no longer a 16/17 year old boy but a 40 year old man. The entire outfit changed also, the new character had a black raincoat, a grey hat, dark jeans, dark brown gloves and white trainers. The dark outfit connotes evil, but the white trainers could connote that there is something about this character that is good... or that he believes he is doing good like that of the killer in Se7en.
We also decided our thriller wasn't very clear in showing the storyline and the action, so we added another key prop, the ribbon. This has become the main focus in our two minute film. It is the item Hope drops that is then used by Tag to kill her and is left on her body at the end. The red ribbon connotes danger. Although it is used to kill Hope it is not shown killing her, Tag just plays with it when he is towering over her which indicates that he is going to use it to strangle her. This technique has been used in an episode of Silent Witness with a rope.
Alot of the shots in the film now focus on close ups of the feet, this is used alot in thriller films i have studied such as in Se7en during the chase scene, also a close up of feet is used in Brick when a note is dropped out of Brendans locker and it falls to his feet, it is also used during the murder scene in Heavenly creatures when Juliet walks down the steps on the woodland path. The non-diagetic music chosen to be used over the top of the action is 'The Humming Chorus' from Madame Butterfly, this is an intertextual reference to the thriller Heavenly Creatures, which has heavily influenced our film, as the setting for the death scene is a similar forest-like setting, and the chase has its similarities.
Research into the reason for the Humming Chorus in the Madame Butterfly opera tells the story of Butterfly and her young child beginning 'the long wait' for Pinkerton (Butterflys lover and her childs father) to come home after returning from war. Night falls and Pinkerton still hasn't returned, the child falls asleep but Butterfly 'keeps her vigil'. This is a tragedy in itself as Pinkerton has not returned, this also fits in quite well with 'Tag' as 'the long wait' could connote the period of time where Hope is being stalked by Tag, and the part where the child falls asleep is the climax where Hope is murdered, this could be seen as her being sent 'to sleep'.
A Stereotypical Teen Soap Character
Every teen soap has the same stereotypes, the beautiful bitch, the weird outcast, the hot 'jock' guy, the tormented musician etc. I'm going to outline the stereotype of the general 'nerd'. There's always one, think Elliot in Hollyoaks, Mouth in One Tree Hill, JJ in skins.
They're always the one with the awful dress sense - the wooly jumper with excentric patterns, thick rimmed glasses, ancle swingers, shirt tucked in, a weedy body thats always completely covered up, they read comics, love astronomy, and are known to have a heart attack when they catch a glimpse of the girl they are secretly in love with. This stereotype is likely to be seen in school/college/uni in a classroom - probably a science lab - working on a wacky experiment, or doing somebody elses homework. They are often found in their bedroom painting a model aeroplane or something similar with the walls covered in posters from classic comics and sci-fi films like star wars with the single bed with the spaceship patterend duvet. If they are feeling adventurous they could be found in the café with an oj, a tuna sandwich with the crusts cut off but not without a text book and a pen close to hand.
There is not often a mass of geeks in one programme, it's always the odd one or two, so when it comes to social groups they are often a complete loner, or have 2 or 3 close friends and they end up getting themselves into the stupidest situations including getting acused of sexual harrassment when falling on top of a woman in the park at 8 o clock at night because they are running with a camcorder attatched to their head after what they think is a UFO and not looking where they're going when it turns out that all along it was a happy 21st birthday balloon that flying through the sky. Other situations include spending 20 minutes of a half hour episode arguing with each other who is most likely to be able to buy the averagely hot girl over at the bar a drink when eventually they all fail because they're too young to get served and each one in turn makes an idiot out of himself when talking to her by stumbling over their words and putting their foot in their mouth by making a comment that she interprets to be sexual innuendo and she ends up slapping them and walking off, OR it turns out after all that admiring her from afar that when they finally get up and walk towards her they realise shes a transvestite and they are in a gay bar.
Basically the nerdy character very rarely has a serious or tragic storyline, they are there for the audiences amusement, and to lighten the mood between another couple of major storylines happening with other characters.
Sunday 8 February 2009
Compare the Ways in Which ‘This Is England’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’ Were Packaged, Marketed, Distributed and Exhibited in the UK
Packaging
The way a film is packaged is crucial in raising finance for the film and attracting an audience. ‘This is England’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’ are two very different British films, therefore in order to create success they went about packaging their products in very different ways.
To begin with, the director of This Is England – Shane Meadows is heavily influenced by the ‘Kitchen Sink’ era of film with inspiration from directors such as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. But he brings a fresh new take on this style of film with his own style of direction and writing. He directs films that are personal to him and that strongly present issues in society such as the Falklands War and the struggle of living within a working class society. Therefore his films are not ‘light-hearted’ films, they are heavily loaded with meaning and can be hard to watch in places.
Edgar Wright on the other hand has not just stuck with film direction, he has also done his fair share of TV Series’ including the comedy ‘Spaced’ starring Simon Pegg and another comedy with Simon Pegg called ‘Asylum’. It is clear already that he is a different director to Shane Meadows as his résumé is packed with comedy. He directs pieces with a much lighter, less complicated meaning and that are more for the viewers’ entertainment rather than to inform or educate.
Actors are chosen very carefully in the selection process of making any new film, and these two films have gone about selecting their actors for very specific reasons. This is England’s cast is completely unknown, Meadows chose this for a reason though, it brings fresh faces to the screen so that the audience will have no presumptions about them therefore these actors can be completely free in being their character. He also doesn’t want people to be attracted to this film because of the famous faces that are in it; he wants them to see it because of the storyline and nothing else. Meadows aims to make a great film with a point whether it will sell or not, not an average film that’s going to catch like wildfire for the wrong reasons so he isn’t going to use well known actors to capture an audience.
In contrast, Hot Fuzz is a much more commercial film, and as it aims to entertain it needs a cast that will be successful in keeping the audience amused. Simon Pegg is a solid choice for Edgar Wright as he has worked closely with him from the beginning of his career, also, they wrote the story for this film together so Simon Pegg knows every aspect of the film before even beginning to shoot, and he’s the best choice for making the film as smooth as possible. Pegg works regularly with a close circle of actors and in that circle is his co-star Nick Frost who he worked with in Shaun of the Dead and Spaced. The two actors are relatively well known and Shaun of the Dead was a big hit in the UK and brought the two a large fan base along with Edgar Wright who directed the film. Other actors in Hot Fuzz include Bill Bailey who is a well known comedian in the UK, Bill Nighy who has done many successful British comedies and has a large fan base and Martin Freeman who has established a name in comedy through the likes of ‘The Office’ and ‘Love Actually’ (where he starred alongside Bill Nighy). Promoting the combination of these well known comedic actors will attract a large audience without even knowing what the film is about already giving the film a better chance at success and raising finance.
‘This is England’ is produced completely by British production companies including Warp Films, Film4, Optimum Releasing and Screen Yorkshire. Whereas although ‘Hot Fuzz’ is mainly produced by British production companies including Working Title, Studio Canal and Big Talk Productions, it is also produced by the help of the massively successful USA based company Universal Pictures. Like the choice of actors, the production companies involved in the film can attract certain people, for instance This is England is a Warp Films production, which may attract film fanatics that follow Warp productions because they enjoy the style of film they produce. Hot Fuzz being produced by Universal Pictures may show an audience that the film is a good quality film as it can be compared and linked to other Universal Films including massive international successes such as Jaws, Back to the Future, American Pie and Bruce Almighty which will attract a large audience. It will also show potential financiers that if a company as big as Universal will invest in this film then it is more likely to be a success, to the input of Universal will make financiers more confident in being a part of the film.
As soundtracks tend to be released before the films themselves they are key in promoting the film and gaining an audience and giving them a feel of what the film is about. This is England is set in the 80’s during the Falklands war and Thatcher’s position as Prime Minister therefore one of the films main audiences is the people who were the characters age during this time period so it promotes the music they would have listened to at this time including ‘Tainted Love by Soft Cell’, ‘Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners’, and ’54 46 Was My Number by Toots and The Maytals’. These classic 80’s tunes would remind the middle aged audience of their youth and attract and capture their interest in the film. This is - like everything else in This is England – chosen especially to capture as strongly as possible the sound of the time in order to make the film as real as the 80’s was and to keep the quality of the 80’s effect as high as possible ultimately aiming at only a niche audience.
Again, with Hot Fuzz in order to attract as bigger audience as possible they have a range of songs from all era’s including 60’s band ‘The Kinks’ with ‘Village Green Preservation Society’ aiming at the older generation, 80’s glam-rock band ‘Sweet’ with Blockbuster, there’s new romantics band ‘Adam and The Ants with Goody Two Shoes’, these aim at the 30 - 40 year old (middle aged) audience, whereas to appeal to the younger audience there is music from the likes of The Fratellis and Supergrass. They also use intertextual references from soundtracks of other films including Point Break and Bad Boys II hinting that this film will appeal to the same audiences those two films appeal to and that this film has similarities to them.
Packaging is crucial in attracting the proper finance needed for a film and although these two films are very different they both managed to raise enough finance to create a successful film.
Marketing
Films need to be marketed in order to attract a distributor and of course an audience. One of the most commercial forms of marketing used is trailers on both TV, the internet and in cinema before the feature film. Hot Fuzz took this route, they released a trailer on YouTube which is extremely popular and known worldwide therefore anyone who follows Simon Pegg or Edgar Wright would find the trailer easily, a bonus to using YouTube is the advertising is absolutely free. The team also released teaser trailers on the TV and before similar films in cinemas. Within the adverts they heavily push the actors that star in the film as a selling point. They also link the film to previous films including Sean of the Dead and Supercop which will attract the same audience. The fast paced trailers are packed with quick action and quirky comedy clearly showing the genre of the film. Rogue Pictures (a distribution company) also posted the trailers on their website so that anybody who follows Rogue Pictures films will find the trailers. The trailers don’t promote the director, location or particularly the storyline; they focussed heavily on the actors and genre showing that they were confident in these grabbing a big audience.
Hot Fuzz also used posters on bus shelters and billboards to promote the film, the posters mimicked that of Bad Boys II which is a strong influence to the film.
Hot Fuzz is a working title film, therefore it makes sense that the first place to look is on the Working Title website to find out how this film was promoted. Surprisingly there isn't anything on there that shows how it was promoted, although there is a clip of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost at the 'MCM Expo' comic convention promoting the film in London some time before the film was released. They mingled with fans that had seen the trailer and talked about the movie, gave away free merchandise including t-shirts, they did a signing and a Q&A session. There is also 12 video blogs of the actors on set which creates a teaser for the audience leading up to the film release. It also has an interactive website with a link saying 'Join the Fuzz' which when clicked on leads to another website with challenges that give prizes like badges.
This Is England on the other hand, didn’t use mainstream marketing like Hot Fuzz did. Due to the director not having a majorly successful film under his belt like Wright did with Seaun of the Dead, and had a completely unknown cast, and was owned by a relatively small production company, Warp Films along with the film not being released in cinemas there was no need to advertise it in cinema. Instead the film was premiered at various film festivals including London Film Festival, Bradford International Film Festival and the Rome Festival where it grew in reputation as it picked up awards. Once it had won awards including the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at the 2007 British Academy Film Awards, the Best Film category at the 2006 British Independent Film Awards, and the Most Promising Newcomer award it promoted the film for these awards using them as a selling point, they also use the director, Shane Meadows as a selling point on theatrical posters. Also, due to the film rights being owned by Channel 4 the trailers were only shown on Channel 4 and Film 4 for the TV premiere of the film which was to be aired on Film 4. This attracted approximately 1m viewers, which is the second best numbers a film 4 premiere has ever had. The trailers focussed on using the director, the awards won, the storyline and the strong 80’s skinhead beliefs and relationships as a selling point for the film which proven by ratings was an effective choice to focus on.
The only marketing that both films did the same was having their own interactive websites where people could listen to the music, find out about the actors and their characters, the production companies etc. Although they both had interactive websites they used them to promote different aspects such as This Is England’s website being more based upon showing the viewer about the background to the movie, the directors influences and the music whereas Hot Fuzz’s had interactive games and quizzes making it more about having fun and less about informing.
Distribution and Exhibition
Hot Fuzz was appealing enough to have 11 different distribution companies including Rogue Pictures and Universal Pictures distribute the film in 17 different countries ranging from the USA to Singapore. It was theatrically released in 15 of these countries and released on DVD in 8. This shows how many companies were confident enough in the film to distribute it across the world which shows that this film has the potential to appeal to a very vast audience. This Is England on the other hand, was distributed by 9 companies including IFC Films and Optimum Releasing, this is almost as many distributors as Hot Fuzz but they didn’t distribute to half as many countries, the film was only released theatrically in a total of 7 countries of which it was only followed up with a DVD release in 5. This shows that even though a wide range of distribution companies were confident in the films success they were not as confident in releasing it across the world, this shows that This Is England has a much smaller potential audience than Hot Fuzz, but for a Warp Production it is the most successful film to date which shows that being loyal to the story and not making the film solely for ratings and box office results can make a film successful.
The way a film is packaged is crucial in raising finance for the film and attracting an audience. ‘This is England’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’ are two very different British films, therefore in order to create success they went about packaging their products in very different ways.
To begin with, the director of This Is England – Shane Meadows is heavily influenced by the ‘Kitchen Sink’ era of film with inspiration from directors such as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. But he brings a fresh new take on this style of film with his own style of direction and writing. He directs films that are personal to him and that strongly present issues in society such as the Falklands War and the struggle of living within a working class society. Therefore his films are not ‘light-hearted’ films, they are heavily loaded with meaning and can be hard to watch in places.
Edgar Wright on the other hand has not just stuck with film direction, he has also done his fair share of TV Series’ including the comedy ‘Spaced’ starring Simon Pegg and another comedy with Simon Pegg called ‘Asylum’. It is clear already that he is a different director to Shane Meadows as his résumé is packed with comedy. He directs pieces with a much lighter, less complicated meaning and that are more for the viewers’ entertainment rather than to inform or educate.
Actors are chosen very carefully in the selection process of making any new film, and these two films have gone about selecting their actors for very specific reasons. This is England’s cast is completely unknown, Meadows chose this for a reason though, it brings fresh faces to the screen so that the audience will have no presumptions about them therefore these actors can be completely free in being their character. He also doesn’t want people to be attracted to this film because of the famous faces that are in it; he wants them to see it because of the storyline and nothing else. Meadows aims to make a great film with a point whether it will sell or not, not an average film that’s going to catch like wildfire for the wrong reasons so he isn’t going to use well known actors to capture an audience.
In contrast, Hot Fuzz is a much more commercial film, and as it aims to entertain it needs a cast that will be successful in keeping the audience amused. Simon Pegg is a solid choice for Edgar Wright as he has worked closely with him from the beginning of his career, also, they wrote the story for this film together so Simon Pegg knows every aspect of the film before even beginning to shoot, and he’s the best choice for making the film as smooth as possible. Pegg works regularly with a close circle of actors and in that circle is his co-star Nick Frost who he worked with in Shaun of the Dead and Spaced. The two actors are relatively well known and Shaun of the Dead was a big hit in the UK and brought the two a large fan base along with Edgar Wright who directed the film. Other actors in Hot Fuzz include Bill Bailey who is a well known comedian in the UK, Bill Nighy who has done many successful British comedies and has a large fan base and Martin Freeman who has established a name in comedy through the likes of ‘The Office’ and ‘Love Actually’ (where he starred alongside Bill Nighy). Promoting the combination of these well known comedic actors will attract a large audience without even knowing what the film is about already giving the film a better chance at success and raising finance.
‘This is England’ is produced completely by British production companies including Warp Films, Film4, Optimum Releasing and Screen Yorkshire. Whereas although ‘Hot Fuzz’ is mainly produced by British production companies including Working Title, Studio Canal and Big Talk Productions, it is also produced by the help of the massively successful USA based company Universal Pictures. Like the choice of actors, the production companies involved in the film can attract certain people, for instance This is England is a Warp Films production, which may attract film fanatics that follow Warp productions because they enjoy the style of film they produce. Hot Fuzz being produced by Universal Pictures may show an audience that the film is a good quality film as it can be compared and linked to other Universal Films including massive international successes such as Jaws, Back to the Future, American Pie and Bruce Almighty which will attract a large audience. It will also show potential financiers that if a company as big as Universal will invest in this film then it is more likely to be a success, to the input of Universal will make financiers more confident in being a part of the film.
As soundtracks tend to be released before the films themselves they are key in promoting the film and gaining an audience and giving them a feel of what the film is about. This is England is set in the 80’s during the Falklands war and Thatcher’s position as Prime Minister therefore one of the films main audiences is the people who were the characters age during this time period so it promotes the music they would have listened to at this time including ‘Tainted Love by Soft Cell’, ‘Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners’, and ’54 46 Was My Number by Toots and The Maytals’. These classic 80’s tunes would remind the middle aged audience of their youth and attract and capture their interest in the film. This is - like everything else in This is England – chosen especially to capture as strongly as possible the sound of the time in order to make the film as real as the 80’s was and to keep the quality of the 80’s effect as high as possible ultimately aiming at only a niche audience.
Again, with Hot Fuzz in order to attract as bigger audience as possible they have a range of songs from all era’s including 60’s band ‘The Kinks’ with ‘Village Green Preservation Society’ aiming at the older generation, 80’s glam-rock band ‘Sweet’ with Blockbuster, there’s new romantics band ‘Adam and The Ants with Goody Two Shoes’, these aim at the 30 - 40 year old (middle aged) audience, whereas to appeal to the younger audience there is music from the likes of The Fratellis and Supergrass. They also use intertextual references from soundtracks of other films including Point Break and Bad Boys II hinting that this film will appeal to the same audiences those two films appeal to and that this film has similarities to them.
Packaging is crucial in attracting the proper finance needed for a film and although these two films are very different they both managed to raise enough finance to create a successful film.
Marketing
Films need to be marketed in order to attract a distributor and of course an audience. One of the most commercial forms of marketing used is trailers on both TV, the internet and in cinema before the feature film. Hot Fuzz took this route, they released a trailer on YouTube which is extremely popular and known worldwide therefore anyone who follows Simon Pegg or Edgar Wright would find the trailer easily, a bonus to using YouTube is the advertising is absolutely free. The team also released teaser trailers on the TV and before similar films in cinemas. Within the adverts they heavily push the actors that star in the film as a selling point. They also link the film to previous films including Sean of the Dead and Supercop which will attract the same audience. The fast paced trailers are packed with quick action and quirky comedy clearly showing the genre of the film. Rogue Pictures (a distribution company) also posted the trailers on their website so that anybody who follows Rogue Pictures films will find the trailers. The trailers don’t promote the director, location or particularly the storyline; they focussed heavily on the actors and genre showing that they were confident in these grabbing a big audience.
Hot Fuzz also used posters on bus shelters and billboards to promote the film, the posters mimicked that of Bad Boys II which is a strong influence to the film.
Hot Fuzz is a working title film, therefore it makes sense that the first place to look is on the Working Title website to find out how this film was promoted. Surprisingly there isn't anything on there that shows how it was promoted, although there is a clip of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost at the 'MCM Expo' comic convention promoting the film in London some time before the film was released. They mingled with fans that had seen the trailer and talked about the movie, gave away free merchandise including t-shirts, they did a signing and a Q&A session. There is also 12 video blogs of the actors on set which creates a teaser for the audience leading up to the film release. It also has an interactive website with a link saying 'Join the Fuzz' which when clicked on leads to another website with challenges that give prizes like badges.
This Is England on the other hand, didn’t use mainstream marketing like Hot Fuzz did. Due to the director not having a majorly successful film under his belt like Wright did with Seaun of the Dead, and had a completely unknown cast, and was owned by a relatively small production company, Warp Films along with the film not being released in cinemas there was no need to advertise it in cinema. Instead the film was premiered at various film festivals including London Film Festival, Bradford International Film Festival and the Rome Festival where it grew in reputation as it picked up awards. Once it had won awards including the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at the 2007 British Academy Film Awards, the Best Film category at the 2006 British Independent Film Awards, and the Most Promising Newcomer award it promoted the film for these awards using them as a selling point, they also use the director, Shane Meadows as a selling point on theatrical posters. Also, due to the film rights being owned by Channel 4 the trailers were only shown on Channel 4 and Film 4 for the TV premiere of the film which was to be aired on Film 4. This attracted approximately 1m viewers, which is the second best numbers a film 4 premiere has ever had. The trailers focussed on using the director, the awards won, the storyline and the strong 80’s skinhead beliefs and relationships as a selling point for the film which proven by ratings was an effective choice to focus on.
The only marketing that both films did the same was having their own interactive websites where people could listen to the music, find out about the actors and their characters, the production companies etc. Although they both had interactive websites they used them to promote different aspects such as This Is England’s website being more based upon showing the viewer about the background to the movie, the directors influences and the music whereas Hot Fuzz’s had interactive games and quizzes making it more about having fun and less about informing.
Distribution and Exhibition
Hot Fuzz was appealing enough to have 11 different distribution companies including Rogue Pictures and Universal Pictures distribute the film in 17 different countries ranging from the USA to Singapore. It was theatrically released in 15 of these countries and released on DVD in 8. This shows how many companies were confident enough in the film to distribute it across the world which shows that this film has the potential to appeal to a very vast audience. This Is England on the other hand, was distributed by 9 companies including IFC Films and Optimum Releasing, this is almost as many distributors as Hot Fuzz but they didn’t distribute to half as many countries, the film was only released theatrically in a total of 7 countries of which it was only followed up with a DVD release in 5. This shows that even though a wide range of distribution companies were confident in the films success they were not as confident in releasing it across the world, this shows that This Is England has a much smaller potential audience than Hot Fuzz, but for a Warp Production it is the most successful film to date which shows that being loyal to the story and not making the film solely for ratings and box office results can make a film successful.
How Sexuality Is Portrayed In Torchwood
The gay character (Jack) in Torchwood is portrayed in both stereotypical and non-stereotypical ways.
The opening to the first scene has a strong Western feel; this doesn’t follow the stereotypical portrayal of an effeminate man as westerns are always about proving how much of a man someone can be. The ‘face-off’ style meeting they have gives the feel of danger and is filled with testosterone which isn’t something a gay man is usually linked with. The use of close ups on the eyes and feet entering through swinging doors along with the western influenced non-diagetic background music presents the two men within the scene as butch, manly characters. Their walks are also masculine, slow and tense which disproves the stereotypical ‘strut’ of a gay man.
The stereotype of sexuality is strongly reversed in the key scene within the episode which is the fight scene. For instance the quick cuts and exaggerated sound effects for each punch make the fight feel fast-paced and violent. Also within the mise-en-scene the two characters snigger and grimace as they throw each punch as if they are enjoying the violence. The non-diagetic ‘song 2’ combined with the wide range of quick shots and exaggerated punching sound effects keeps the pace of the scene quick and snappy in order to grasp the audiences full attention, but it also makes the scene chaotic and full of adrenaline and testosterone, it shows two savage, uncouth men having a full on intense fight over what seems to be nothing. This is the complete opposite to the stereotype.
On the other hand the stereotype unconventionally shines through during the fight due to the use of close ups and the red colour scheme which connotes the closeness and passion between the two characters. Due to the censorship issues with nudity and sex the use of close ups, red setting and passionate adrenaline filled violence could be a metaphor or a substitute for what would be a passionate sex scene if rules allowed it to be.
After the fight there is a moment of bitchy banter between the two, where they have digs at each other about physical appearance including hair loss and weight gain. This brings back the typical gay stereotype within the two characters as gays are known for being very strict about their appearance and also being very bitchy about others. At this point as the action has finished and the pace of the scene has slowed down with longer shots and less close ups, this gives the viewer a chance to notice more about the characters physical appearance. Jack is in very dark clothes, with a long sweeping black coat; it is very dark and garish and doesn’t follow the stereotype which is loud, extroverted clothing. On the other hand the other character within the scene is wearing a maroon and gold jacket with tight trousers and boots, he appears to be dressed up in fancy dress, this follows the stereotype as they are known to dress up, think ‘Village People’! This could connote that Jack is the man in the relationship. Another thing that backs up this idea is that within the scene where they are chatting by the bar in every two shot and Jack is above his love interest showing that he possibly has more power and control within the relationship.
In the cab scene the others complain about Jack being unreliable and flimsy but they also say that it’s more fun when he’s around. Within the mise-en-scene everything is black which could connote the fact that they have been ‘left in the dark’ by Jack. The fact that they say he’s more fun backs up the stereotype as they are known for being vivacious and exciting. The way they describe him as unreliable could swing both ways as women often complain about men being unreliable therefore showing Jack as a generic male, on the other hand it could confirm the stereotype as it shows him as being spontaneous and a free spirit that doesn’t follow the rules.
The opening to the first scene has a strong Western feel; this doesn’t follow the stereotypical portrayal of an effeminate man as westerns are always about proving how much of a man someone can be. The ‘face-off’ style meeting they have gives the feel of danger and is filled with testosterone which isn’t something a gay man is usually linked with. The use of close ups on the eyes and feet entering through swinging doors along with the western influenced non-diagetic background music presents the two men within the scene as butch, manly characters. Their walks are also masculine, slow and tense which disproves the stereotypical ‘strut’ of a gay man.
The stereotype of sexuality is strongly reversed in the key scene within the episode which is the fight scene. For instance the quick cuts and exaggerated sound effects for each punch make the fight feel fast-paced and violent. Also within the mise-en-scene the two characters snigger and grimace as they throw each punch as if they are enjoying the violence. The non-diagetic ‘song 2’ combined with the wide range of quick shots and exaggerated punching sound effects keeps the pace of the scene quick and snappy in order to grasp the audiences full attention, but it also makes the scene chaotic and full of adrenaline and testosterone, it shows two savage, uncouth men having a full on intense fight over what seems to be nothing. This is the complete opposite to the stereotype.
On the other hand the stereotype unconventionally shines through during the fight due to the use of close ups and the red colour scheme which connotes the closeness and passion between the two characters. Due to the censorship issues with nudity and sex the use of close ups, red setting and passionate adrenaline filled violence could be a metaphor or a substitute for what would be a passionate sex scene if rules allowed it to be.
After the fight there is a moment of bitchy banter between the two, where they have digs at each other about physical appearance including hair loss and weight gain. This brings back the typical gay stereotype within the two characters as gays are known for being very strict about their appearance and also being very bitchy about others. At this point as the action has finished and the pace of the scene has slowed down with longer shots and less close ups, this gives the viewer a chance to notice more about the characters physical appearance. Jack is in very dark clothes, with a long sweeping black coat; it is very dark and garish and doesn’t follow the stereotype which is loud, extroverted clothing. On the other hand the other character within the scene is wearing a maroon and gold jacket with tight trousers and boots, he appears to be dressed up in fancy dress, this follows the stereotype as they are known to dress up, think ‘Village People’! This could connote that Jack is the man in the relationship. Another thing that backs up this idea is that within the scene where they are chatting by the bar in every two shot and Jack is above his love interest showing that he possibly has more power and control within the relationship.
In the cab scene the others complain about Jack being unreliable and flimsy but they also say that it’s more fun when he’s around. Within the mise-en-scene everything is black which could connote the fact that they have been ‘left in the dark’ by Jack. The fact that they say he’s more fun backs up the stereotype as they are known for being vivacious and exciting. The way they describe him as unreliable could swing both ways as women often complain about men being unreliable therefore showing Jack as a generic male, on the other hand it could confirm the stereotype as it shows him as being spontaneous and a free spirit that doesn’t follow the rules.
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