Topics in films through the ages

Topics through the ages

As a task we were given two decades in which we had to research topics that were common to cover in film, the two decades we were given were the 40's and the 50's, the 40's was my main concentration because of the second world war, this stemmed a lot of propaganda films such as, Burma victory and The call for arms, there were different forms of propaganda, for example there was supportive films that gave people hope and motivation, hateful films, using Britain as an example, making films about how evil germans was occurred a lot during the early 40's, and then after the war had finished a lot of documentaries about Britain winning the war and victory.

Another subject within the 40's that we covered was the Atom bomb, USA used the first ever nuclear bomb against japan in the late 40's, a film called above and beyond was made about this.

The final subject we covered for the 40's was the masses, this was peoples constant fear of their country being invaded during the war, there were several films about this, one of the popular invasions was D-Day, this was the final battle in which Britain won the war, an example of a film is The longest day.

For the 1950's there was less content for us to use as not as many significant events occurred during the 1950's, one event that happened was the start of the korean war, which is still a pretty big subject but not as big as the second world war, there were several films made about the korean war, these included, jet attack and target zero. 

There was also an attempted assassination of the US president harry truman, but i couldn't find a strong enough source confirming any definite releases of films/documentaries covering this subject.

For a modern remake of a world war 2 film several things would have to be changed, firstly, the whole war idea that the germans are evil would not be the main concentration of the film, in modern world war 2 films the war itself is used as a background story and the main concentration is on a subject that occurred within the war, for example, secret weapons/vehicles built on either side or the story of one man or 'team', an example of this is saving private Ryan, this film didn't concentrate on the war as its main story line but merely as a background plot. 

The reason war films don't concentrate on the rivalry of different countries is because people of modern time understand that no one was in the right and both sides were in the wrong somehow. In modern time people are more interested in hidden secrets of the war that have only been revealed, the idea of mystery is what the modern era love. 

Remakes and Reboots

Today we learnt about remakes and reboots, a reboot is where an old program/film is used as foundations for a new modern version, an example of this is the dark knight, or man of steel, what makes a reboot a reboot is that it has no affliction to any past story lines or structures.
A remake is practically the opposite, an old film is remade in modern terms using the same characters, story line, location, and its just a general all round modernisation of an old movie.

We had a task of making a poster for a remake of pirates of the caribbean that a group came up with, this was my idea.

This was a photoshop that i made using several different photos from google images.

Marketing essay

Film Marketing Essay

 

Space Jam raked in $230,418,342 in box office with just an $80 million budget, but for the film the earning didn’t stop there. Space jam was heavily marketed with so much merchandise from all sectors within the film, for example, during the 90’s Michael Jordan was ‘the’ worldwide basketball star and had his own fan base separate to the film, (Chicago bulls fans), warner brothers who made space jam had their own fan base because of the loony tunes, (bugs bunny, daffy duck E.T.C.), and all of these factors combined to potential million of dollars in merchandise, some of the items included, Space jam basketballs, NIKE got involved and released a pair of shoes worn by Michael Jordan in the films, there was two video games, a pinball machine, action figures and plush toys of the characters, and this is just some of the merchandise there was endless amounts of themed products to buy. The advantage of the merchandise was that there was a vast mix of fans and warner brothers accommodated the merchandise to fit this demand.

 

In the lead up to the film warner brothers created something very new to the market in terms of advertisement for a film, the internet was only just starting to become popular in the 90’s and warner brothers took this opportunity to create a website based on the upcoming film, the website would be considered very basic now but for the time it was new and exciting for fans as it was different. The website contained links to a theatrical trailer, information about the film, a section for kids, a link to several merchandise stores and links to flash games. This new approach to marketing the film created an exciting and eager build up for the fans; as well as the merchandise the website was created to accommodate for the variation in fans, for example it was orientated just as much for child fans of Loony Toons as it was basketball fans of Michael Jordan/Chicago bulls, and this created a bigger overall fan base.

 

As well as having references from other warner brothers television shows, the film included several references or ‘intertexuality’ from other films or television shows, two of the main films referenced in there is pulp fiction and ghost busters, the reason there are so many references in films is it because it opens up a level of banter for different audiences watching the film, for example, adults taking their kids to see the film, it offers them banter that they will understand and therefore increase the market potential for the film.

 

Fan culture within space jam was split into two main groups, firstly, fans of warner brothers/ loony tunes, and secondly basketball/ Michael Jordan fans. Warner brothers had to accommodate space jam for existing fans of loony tunes/Michael Jordan, for example, a child would see the film because they love bugs bunny, or an adult would see space jam because they are a fan of Michael Jordan. The aim was to bring the current fan groups into a new fan base; this could have been through different forms of advertising. For a child who loves loony tunes they may see the trailer on the television channel, in which they watch loony tunes, but for an adult who would prefer the basketball side of things they may see a poster such as the one below that portrays a more serious look to the film and may appeal to an older audience than the children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The idea of test screening is not as popular now as it was during the 90’s, a test screening is where the company offers around 200 people to watch their film before it is released in cinema, these people were chosen at random. The companies went by the rule that if 70% of the audience didn’t like the film then there was something wrong with it, and they got feedback on what the audience didn’t like and changed it; space jam was not changed from the original cut, as the test screening was successful. The reviews of space jam on public release were different on the other hand; 35% of critics liked it and 57% of the audience liked it. The reason the rating were so low could be for several reasons, as mentioned earlier, the film had to accommodate for two existing fan groups, Michael Jordan fans and loony tunes fans, the reason for the low ratings could have been because there wasn’t enough of the film orientated on basketball/ loony tunes for the certain fans liking, or the 57% of likes could all have been loony tunes and the other 43% that disliked it could have been basketball fans or vies versa. There could also be the factor that it was a children’s film, and the basketball fans were just there for basketball only; Personally I think it was the huge opposition in fans, basketball fans and children cartoon fans aren’t generally going to have a lot in common.

 

Space jam was released internationally; it was first released in the USA on November 10^th 1996, it was also released in the UK, China, Australia, pretty much the whole of Europe, the release dates were different though, the first release date was November 10^th 1996 in the USA, and the last was 28^th July 1998 in China.

After the film had been released in all cinemas they began to release VHS copies, the first VHS copy was released in 1997, the first DVD copy in 2003, a special edition in 2008, and then a Blu-ray copy in 2011. The reason there were so many re-releases is because they tried to get every possible bit of income possible, and this could’ve been from releasing it on new formats, or an ‘extended edition’, ‘Directors cut’, and so on.

 

Assimilation is how popularity of a film is judged and where the popularity can be measured, back in the 90’s not many people had access to the internet and therefore had to go by word of mouth, reviews in magazines/papers and so on. Now we have access to the Internet in so many different forms, mobile, tablet and pc. A website such as rotten tomato’s uses a rating system for films where there is a percentage of critics that liked it and a percentage of public viewers that enjoyed it, this gives people a better understanding of peoples opinions of the film.

 

Space jam is the highest earning basketball film that has ever been made, the CGI for the time was exceptional, and the film and all merchandise made $230,418,342 in total and still a loved film of children and adults today.

 

 

 

 

Merchandise for chosen film

I am going to look at the merchandise for the film space jam, some of the items they marketed included, a play station one game, a Michael Jordan action figure from the film, T-shirts, McDonalds toys, space jam figures, a play station 2 game, a soundtrack cd, a pair of shoes, a pinball machine, cutlery and sweets, this film had such a diverse selection in merchandising. Some pictures below

After researching we were given the task to create our own piece of merchandise that hadn't been created before, for mine i went off the idea of jam, as the film is space jam and made this.

For the next part of the research we had to find out some information, what release pattern did space jam follow, how long was the theatrical window, how far apart were the release dates. 

The release pattern was stereotypical for the international release dates at that time in cinema, the film was released on the 10th of november 1996 hollywood and 21st march 1997 in the UK, this was a 5-6 month gap and this was common for cinema in the 90's. The VHS version wasn't released until 2000 in the us and it was released in 1998 in the UK, which was a three year gap for the US and one for the UK. The Latest cinema release was china, it was released in july 1997.