Unit 26 Assignment 3

 

Harry Potter

Harry Potter fan fiction, stories based on the series but written and distributed by fans, is the most searched-for subject of all fan fiction on the web. The fandom not only interacts online in Internet forums, but also gathers at scholarly fan conventions, tours of iconic landmarks relevant to the books and production of the films, and parties held for the midnight release of each book and film. Harry Potter fans usually call themselves "Potterheads", though some may refer to themselves as "Witches/ Wizards" or "Pottermaniacs".

By the fourth Harry Potter book, the legions of Harry Potter fans had grown so large that considerable security measures were taken to ensure that no book was purchased before the official release date. Studies on the fandom have shown that both children and adults are fans, despite Rowling's original marketing of the books towards children aged nine to twelve.

The Harry Potter Franchise isnt aimed at any gender in particular. You could argue its more aimed at girls but just as many boys enjoy the films, of any age. 

MARKETING

Harry Potter has its own theme park kind of thing at Universal studios in orlando, https://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/. This Consists of shops and rides. Rides such as 'The Snitch Seeker'. The exact net worth of the Harry Potter franchise is unknown, but it is estimated to be around $15 billion. Author J.K. Rowling alone is worth approximately $1 billion.

Trailers for harry potter are very adrenaline rushing if that makes sense? They have you on edge and consequently make you want to watch more, this trailer is from Harry Potter 8 (The Deathly Hallows). The Marketing Success for harry potter in my opinion is behind all the trailers. Theres about 4 different trailers per movie and there all so drawing and leave us on edge and ultimately make us want to watch the film.


This is the Trailer from Harry Potter and The Philosophers stone, Which is the first ever movie. This means this film set the standards. This Trailer is amazing. and back when this film was released there were plenty of other films being released, back then films made more of a impact, Toy Story For Example, Bugs Life, Lion King and just more, the most successful films that are around today like Harry potter etc all started off in early 2000's So that says quite allot about the industry in my opinion. So the first Harry Potter Got the best reaction it possibly could of wanted. So The standards were set and they just kept rising throughout the film series

There are countless harry potter posters, rides and merch. There is the snitchseeker ride in Orlando. Harry Potter reaches out to people ages 12 onwards for most films, how ever, there are many younger fans. And having a ride at a theme park would target 'kids' very well.


There are allot of Harry Potter Promotional events, it seems it doesnt really die down. Although all the films are now released and theres nothing for the Harry Potter franchise to do now, they still pump out fresh new ideas. And this kicks up a new fresh fans and attracts attention 

The final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published in Europe and the US in July, its first American edition receiving a record-breaking print run of 12m copies.
It is to be published in Japan later this month, with a first edition print run of 2m, and a second edition already in preparation. The paperback will be published in Europe and the US on July 10 by Bloomsbury.
Rowling was also personally responsible for adding one more sale to the 400m-plus worldwide total, after she penned and sold for charity a short, 800-word prequel, raising £25,000 for Dyslexia Action and English PEN at auction last month.

 As you can see, the OPENING WEEKEND for ALL the harry potters made a crazy turn out. All making over 240 Million in ONE Weekend. The turn ups for the premiers were insane, an estimated 19,000 Turned up to Just Trafalgar square alone, for the premiering of Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban. When you think about how much 19,000 people is, thats insane. thats an awful lot of bodies in one place. 


COMPARISON TO TWILIGHT.

Both films Harry potter and twilight have their own similarity's in style and how their promotions look, theyre both based on a magical and kind of, Mythical kind of film, if that makes sense. Although Twilight made it to be a VERY successful film, developed a fandom and became a world wide known film it didnt do aswel as harry potter. Not For any reason, but Harry Potter Just changed the way things were done in my opinion. It just conquered the Industry and made the biggest impact it could. The Posters, the Trailers and the kind of theme to the two films are so similar, it really does say something about success in this industry that is currently on going. 

Look How similar they are. They're two very similar posters for two fairly similar films. The WHOLE campaign was very alike. Twilight did a competition to spend a day with the stars on the red carpet of the second film, over four hundred thousand people entered. Think, if all them people told their friends etc the word of the film would get around which only just helps towards their success, Harry potter on the other hand did more give away based prizes and competitions in comparison to more physical and exciting competitions like Twilight did.


HARRY POTTER REVIEWS

The Guardian: Sensational, satisfying, surreal ... an explosive final chapter puts the magic back into the Harry Potter franchise. WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS - 4 Stars

Rolling stone: Even my nitpicking reveals how much Rowling's characters and their cinematic avatars have worked their way into our heads and made us care. I dare you not to choke up, especially at the epilogue that takes us 19 years into Harry's future. That's the true power of the finale. These characters are ours now. What an exhilarating gift to watch Harry and Company go out in a blaze of glory and amazing grace. Note to Academy muggles: Get busy coming up with that Best Picture nomination you've denied all the other Potter films. Oscar attention must be paid. - 4 Stars

TWILIGHT REVIEWS:

Rotten Tomatoes: I watched Twilight in a cinema full of young girls who, when they weren't texting friends and guzzling soft drinks, giggled, sighed and exhaled with a passion that was not only endearing, but a measure of its emotional truth. - 3 Stars

The Guardian: Twilight really does have an infatuation with surface beauty, especially where the vampires are concerned. In fact they sum up the film pretty well. It's a façade, an appealing one to people who share the right appetites, but that's all.  - 3 Stars

See, Twilight is a film that you could class on as hated upon, as its a feminine film alot of males give it stick, kind of like Justin Bieber and One Direction if that makes sense? people give them uneccaserry hate that really makes no sense what so ever. If it was just females rating the film it would surely be a higher rating. maybe this is the wrong opinion im casting? maybe people genuinely think its a bad film, but to a extent im kind of sure im right. 

Harry potter is a family film though, Twilight is dominantly a female fanbase, Harry potter is very mixed, theres probably a few more females but its definately close, So that has support of both genders, and obviously all ages, a 14 year old girls opinion on twilight is going to be different to a 45 year old mans opinion on twilight...i'd hope so anyway, how ever them to ages and genders compared to Harry potter may be the same. Some men would easily sit and watch a Harry potter film and find it entertaining. But I feel harry potter is more of a any age any gender kind of film. Maybe im just being stereotypical, but sometimes stereotypes are right.

FANDOMS: 

Fandoms, now. Fandoms are just basically a group of maniacs. A fandom is a group of people that are MORE than fans. A fandom is a big online gathering of people CRAZY about their idols or things they like. Im in numerous fandoms. quite strange for a 16 year old boy to be in fandoms but... Fandoms are just amazing. Its essentially a mass following for someone or something. People in fandoms and normal 'fans' are different. just FANS have abit of interest in something they might like it but if you in a FANDOM for something your probably a emotional wreck left on edge by your fandom each day. 

The Harry potter fandom is called 'PotterHeads'. Yes, fandoms have cool names. The Twilight fandom i believe is the 'Twihards'. The Potterhead fandom is so much bigger because it has 6 more films than the Twihard fandom and has just got a generally bigger following. Fandoms are usually based on twitter to my experience, a main part of being in a fandom is to get recognised by your idols. I dont know any stories about the Twihard fandom but i know the Potterheads got something trending on twitter to make Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) to notice them and he followed a bunch of them on twitter, fandoms do things like that, and make fanfics which are basically stories about there idols, for example a fan could make up a prequel of harry potter and like do the story but as harrys mum and dads life when they went to Hogwarts, things like that, fan art is also very weird and wonderful. This is Some Harry potter Fan Art, Its just a fans version of the characters obviously they're similar but a fan has just kinda made them cartoony and thats the kinda things fandoms do. OBVIOUSLY all this attention spreads and causes advertisement which is obviously a great thing for Harry potter. JK Rowling, Who created harry potter is loved by fans. fact. The fans even add her into Fanfics etc, This makes the audience much greater and wider. You Have her fans that shes brought over to the Harry Potter Fandom. Now ALL of her fans are reliant on her bringing out the best Harry Potter films she can. Her track record has been very successful for Harry potter. hence why shes made 8 ridiculously successful films. Her relationship to the fandom is most definately one of the reasons why everything played out in such a successful way for her. 

Unit 26, Assignment 3 - Harry Potter

Links-

"Worlds Biggest Harry Potter Fan" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0VlIjXj9NA

There are countless harry potter posters, rides and merch. There is the snitchseeker ride in Orlando. Harry Potter reaches out to people ages 12 onwards for most films, how ever, there are many younger fans. And having a ride at a theme park would target 'kids' very well.

Unit 26, Assignment 3 - Notes

1- Pick a film with a fan following
2- Get as much information of fan made videos, merch, interviews, official websites, reviews, fan made websites, sales figures for the film, posters/billboards, trailers, competitions, tie ins with other products,
3- lord of the rings, star wars, the hunger games, twilight, star trek, batman, iron man, James bond.
4-Psychographics are the labels we give to members of an audience, a target audience for a film can have more than one of the psychographics headings. My Job, is to prove how the marketing attracts these headings.

MUST USE WORDS.
-Target audience. Decided by Rating, Genre and Gender.
-Mainstreamers, Seeks Security, tend to domestic, conformist, favour family brands
-Aspirers, Seek status, materialistic and typically younger people.
-Explorer, Seeks discovery, Likes to explore new ideas, values difference and adventure. Likes stuff that isn't just generic, little bit of excitement and abit of a twist.
-Reformers, Seek enlightenment, likes to be challenged, can form an opinion, very aware of social issues

Unit 26, Assignment 2

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6JA5LhpaCCfWjVfRzRnaTVCekU/edit?usp=sharing

Unit 26 Assignment 2 Notes

Negatives of MPAA

Kimberly Pierce: 
"The Studio Won't Release it"

This means that a NC-17 is awful thing for a Director. Its essentially not a guidance. its a label saying "don't watch this film" basically.

Jamie Babbit:

Made a film to kind of support people and give them like hope? But as it involves lesbians its rated NC-17, this makes them come across homophobic.

Kevin Smith: 
If you don't accept your rating, you can't run TV spots. 

Matt Stone: 
"They Just serve the studios, thats who pays their bills. They Just serve the studios." 

His Film called 'Orgasmo' (independant film) received no notes on what he could do to get rid of his NC-17 rating. When he released south park under Paramount studios he just got told to "cut this, this..." But he said treatment was a completely different experience. 
this shows a major advantage of having your film produced by a studio, you get better treatment and independant films don't really have a chance.

Bingham Ray: 
"The system is set up to serve the studios"

Kevin Smith: 
"if you choose not to accept your rating, you can't market it"

Ex MPAA Rater:

Jay Landers:

Each member of the MPAA has to sign an agreement saying they won't say anything about the MPAA

By Censoring, the MPAA are taking away the ability for people to have a choice on what they out in their films.

The MPAA make wrong judgements, and judgements based on their opinions. 

The MPAA are definately more temperamental, they almost fear what people might think. The MPAA come across as homophobic.

4 times as many films got a NC17 for sexuality opposed too violence.

If you appeal you get a list of things you cant say, like comparing to other films. So even if you appeal you cant even defend yourself. the appeal process is basically just there so they seem civil 

The MPAA wont give away any names. All they're doing is rating films. Its not top secret spy work. They're just film raters? 

The appeals board has most of the major distributors on it. 

Unit 26 Assignment 2 work

1) The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is an American trade association that represents the six big Hollywood studios. It was made in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America to advance the business interests of its members. In its early years it took on the role of devising guidelines for film content which resulted in the creation of the Production Code, and currently administers the MPAA film rating system.

2) -  Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
       Paramount Pictures Corporation
       Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.
       Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
       Universal City Studios LLC
       Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

3) The Motion Picture Association of America's film-rating system is used in the U.S. and its territories to rate a film's suitability for certain audiences. The MPAA rating system is a voluntary scheme not enforced by law and films can be exhibited without a rating, though many theaters refuse to exhibit non-rated or NC-17 rated films. 


4) G – General Audiences (Any age)
    PG – Parental Guidance Suggested
    PG-13 – Parents Strongly Cautioned
    R – Restricted
    NC-17 – No One 17 & Under Admitted


5)  "Muscle Shoals" Rated PG for thematic elements, language, smoking and brief partial   nudity.

"Baggage Claim" Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some language.

     "The Summit" Rated R for some language.

"American Pie" Rated NC-17 for strong exuality, crude sexual dialogue   

      and language and drinking, all involving teens.

Unit 26 Assignment 1

Pulp Fiction: 

Scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRE23YfSvc8

Cinematography:
In this scene, it starts off with a wide shot, showing everything in the room. As Samuel L Jackson Integrates the man, it shows the mans head in line with Samuel L Jacksons' waist. This camera angle tells the audience who the dominant person is in this situation. It makes Samuel L Jackson look mighty and the other man look cowardly and low. Samuel L Jackson Shoots the man. As He shoots the camera cuts to a different angle from behind the chair the man is sat on looking up at Samuel L Jackson. This makes him look even MORE in power. Quentin Tarantino uses wide shots and switches too a Close up when the man is scared. yet again, this is to show the audience who is the main and dominant person in this scene. When Samuel L Jackson is talking, everything around him is out of focus. and that makes the audience focus on him even more. Also i suppose that is to do with dominance, how everyone should focus on him etc..The Camera movement as Samuel L Jackson walks past the man and the camera follows him for a second, it kind of shows his coat and the screen goes black for a second, as the camera follows him I think its kind of saying "Follow me" kind of thing? Sort of saying Samuel L Jackson is the One to follow. He's in charge? The Colour wash is not so much dull. but quite standard and plain. this suits this clip though. It gives off a feeling of realism and therefore makes the audience feel part of the situation in a way. 

Sound: 
The Sound in this clip is mainly non diegetic. Besides the talking, its just gun shots. The Gun shots are louder than the talking. the first shot gives off allot of not so much scare but caution. he goes from talking at a normal volume, then the first gun shot is a lot louder than the voices. it's quite jumpy. This adds a very lively and kind of upbeat feel to the audiences not so much emotions, but how they feel about the situation. if that makes sense? The Tone of the sound is very dark and deep. Deep and Dark things, whether it be tones or colours etc, always are a negative thing. these things prove negative as a man dies in this scene. Its like a warning that something bad is going to happen to someone. That makes the Audience cautious, worry and slightly excited. How ever its not a positive thing, the fact we expect something but we do not know what it is triggers a natural reaction which is excitement.
There is a sound bridge in the "Butch & Marsellus" scene, where Bruce Willis is sat in the car with the radio on but we see a man crossing the road, then as bruce willis clocks onto who the man is it shows him, with the music Still playing. The song is happy but Bruce Willis' face shows worry, why is a happy song yet again playing through a worrying scene? this also happens in the Ear scene of Reservoir dogs. maybe Tarantino likes to do this tactic to make us wonder? 

Quentin Tarantino Presentation

Quentin Tarantino Presentation

Unit 26 Assignment 1

What is an auteur: 

An auteur is ab director or film maker that has a consistent theme and or style to their body of work. Usually a very identifiable look to their films.

What make him and auteur:

Tarantino has made numerous films, most if not all of the same kind of crazy and looney style of films. The self taught writer/director uses interlexulity and express his obvious love of violence quite openly. His films are easily identified and stand out. This, is in my opinion, makes him an auteur 

Tarantino films:

These clips show his similar colour wash and his similar look to all his films (play upto gun shot)

Cinematography:

In this clip we see camera techniques used by tarantino, used through out a few of his films. His camera pan in this clip sort of makes us feel like were something out and makes us feel abit confused as too whats going on. Then as we see he has cut his ear off it shocks the audience. Its basically a surprise factor.

Sound: the sound is mainly diegetic sound, the soundtrack however being non diegetic mixes well, why is a happy and lively song being played to a man getting his ear cut off. It creates confusion for the audience, also creating tension. 

Comparison of pulp fiction and reservoir dogs:

These two films, both by Quentin Tarantino, are both Torture scenes, both scenes have a low angle camera shot looking up at the dominant person. Basically, to show dominance and control. Notice how the colour washes are very similar. Things like this prove hes an auteur.

Comparison of two different films pf the same genre:

Casino royale. In these two scenes, theyre different films made in completely different times, but a similar scene. As you can are the james bond on the left is very dull. Which is what you'd want for a torture scene. It fits the scene and the situation. How ever, it just looks abit dark and sets a negative tone in my opinion anyway.. The reservoir dogs scene is just great. It uses all the right camera shots and angles to fit the scene. Where as the james bond one is just a switch between a wide shot and a close up. In my opinion this just makes reservoir dogs look more inventive.

Conclusion:

After all this, its clear that Quentin tarantino deserves the status as an Auteur. His wacky yet brilliant style, his frequently used camera shots and his very common colour wash are all just things that merge into one big thing which makes Him who he is.

Camera Practising

Practising focusing, framing and just generally using the camera