Why ‘Kick-Ass’ Succeeded At the Box Office (Even If It Doesn’t Feel That Way)

Why ‘Kick-Ass’ Succeeded At the Box Office (Even If It Doesn’t Feel That Way)

This article was written by Cole Abaius and first appeared on Film School Rejects in 2010.

Updated: Deadline is reporting that Kick-Ass actually won the week by a narrow margin of $19.8 million to $19.6 million for How to Train Your Dragon.

I’m sitting in a giant echo-chamber of a movie theater complete with it’s old-style, curved panoramic screen and chairs that were ordered with gusto by someone in the 1950s. In the Century Park 16, tucked away from the rest of the bustling world in Tucson, Arizona, it’s no surprise that my afternoon screening of Kick-Ass is almost completely empty except for a trio of teens who are skipping school, a middle-aged man who’s slouched down in the back, and a couple that sneak in fifteen minutes into the action.
There’s almost never a huge crowd there (which is part of why I love it), but the bad news for Matthew Vaughn and company is that the scene I witnessed was the norm, not an outlier.
So now everybody is asking the proverbial question about how a movie with that much hype performs with such lackluster at the box office. After all, it came out with geeks screaming its praises from Butt-Numb-a-Thon, from South by Southwest, and from Austin in general. How could all of those positive reviews not lead to success?
It’s fairly simple actually, but the first thing to remember is that Kick-Ass wasn’t a failure except at playing the expectations game. Let’s look at it in context:
Kick-Ass is an indie film made for $30 million that just made $37 million world-wide by its U.S. opening weekend.
Even with the average path a film takes through the theaters, the movie has already made its budget back, will make its advertising budget back by next weekend, and will ultimately be a financial success. It won’t be the smashing success that some predicted, but it will still be a success.
Of course, those raw numbers don’t take into consideration the split between Lionsgate, the theaters, and the film’s producers, so technically the production team has not regained its original investment. However, a film (especially one with this type of budget) making an equitable number back on its opening weekend is a good sign that it will be on schedule to be a positive investment.
People are shifting in their seats about sequel possibilities seeming out of reach now, which is a fine question to ask, but we’ll get to that after taking a look at why Kick-Ass didn’t explode out of the box.

‘R’ Does Not Stand For ‘Target Audience’
The  film world does a metric ton of editorializing about the ratings system. In particularly, we talk a lot about how those secretive, old white people hurt the artistic process and the business model by slapping an R-rating on a film for seemingly arbitrary reasons. However, in the case of Kick-Ass, I think everyone can agree that it earned its R. Unfortunately, that rating doesn’t do well when your target audience is 14-year old boys. Those boys have a tough time getting into the theater without buying a ticket to How to Train Your Dragon.
Am I saying that the numbers are inflated? Not exactly. I’ve always hated that argument because it’s so absolutely unprovable, but on the common sense level, I will make the bold claim that at least one whole ticket for the family fare ended up wandering into the wrong theater for some ultra-violence.
Still, the ultimate obstacle there is creating a movie aimed at the younger set and then barring them from seeing it. It’s a simple case of conflicting goals – which is fine – especially considering that the filmmakers clearly weren’t making a film to maximize profits. Unfortunately, that’s a reality they’ll come face to face with over the course of the next few weeks.

Conservative Groups Don’t Matter, Do They?
Usually there is a boost in sales when people threaten to protest. The do-gooders and morality policemen often have the opposite effect by increasing awareness and interest in a project, so many people are confused that Kick-Ass might have been hurt by the attention instead of helped.
The only reason I can come up with is pointing out that there were no protests.
For all the screaming about controversy on the internet, there were no major parental organizations that planned or executed protests – at least not on any sort of large scale to have an effect. All of the controversy talk about violence and children saying naughty words seemed to come directly from the filmmakers. And, you know, Roger Ebert.
In this case, conservative groups don’t matter because they weren’t ever really in the equation. Perhaps attempting to drum up controversy only alerted some who were planning on seeing it to the very type of film. Without some flustered parent making a jackass of himself on national news networks, the film didn’t have that organic boost that comes from people buying a ticket just to see what has the Christian League of Conservative Christians of America all knotted up.

Then What About How to Train Your Dragon?
It’s a nice tidy picture that a kid-friendly film launched back from the pack to beat the kid-friendly film with violence in it, but there’s no conspiracy here. Yes, How to Train Your Dragon moved from being 3rd back to 1st, but it also lost money. It also lost its #1 spot to a movie that got dragged through the mud upon opening (Clash of the Titans) and dropped all the way to 5th, and a comedy that is keeping a standard course in diminished ticket sales in its second week (Date Night). A simple look at the math from the previous weekend and this weekend shows that Dragon didn’t so much soar back into 1st as it limped past other films on a faster decline.
Still, Kick-Ass failed to overtake it. It’s not a grand, conservative conspiracy, but the film earned every bit of its 2nd place finish.

No Names
The movie didn’t feature any big name talent (except for Nicolas Cage who didn’t happen to searching for any lost treasure), and that can definitely be a factor in breaking a movie beyond its built-in audience and out into the mainstream. This is a likely culprit, along with other factors, as to why the film didn’t bust right out of the gate.
However, the reverse argument is also true in this case: a film with no known stars just made $20 million in one weekend.

Accidental Marketing
One other possible hypothesis is that Lionsgate just didn’t know how to market the film. There was a lot of red band material, but it was all shown to people already interested in going. Plus, most of the television spots all high-lighted the humor and camp which, some believe, led certain possible movie goers to think of it as a spoof along the lines of Superhero Movie (which opened with less than $10 million back in March of 2008).
Yet again, another completely unprovable hypothesis. Plus, it’s one that sounds moronic considering that, yes, there was humor in the trailers but, no, it was miles away from anything in the spoof world. Even the casual television watcher could have seen a noticeable lack of Leslie Nielsen in the Kick-Ass trailer.
Still, with that conspiracy theory unprovable, it still stands to reason that there was a failure in marketing here that was augmented by the challenge outlined earlier in selling a comic book movie to kids who won’t be allowed into the theaters without an adult.

Will There Be a Sequel?
I don’t know. I don’t know because I’m not Mark Millar or Matthew Vaughn. I’m sure that there are some conversations to have, but the important thing to remember here is that the film was actually a success at the box office. It wasn’t a huge success, it wasn’t the kind of success that people preached about, but based purely on the numbers, the film is in the money.
As an indie film picked up for distribution from Lionsgate, it is in a unique position. This isn’t like Spider-Man where Sony had a target number and executives waiting to give the go-ahead based on ROI. This is a film that is in its own driver’s seat. That driver’s seat might be occupied by Lionsgate now, but all the talk about the film failing or not deserving a sequel is a bit absurd.
If there’s a fan base there, and if the production cost can be kept low, and if the artists want to see what else they can do with the material, and if Chloe Moretz thinks of something more offensive to say, then I don’t see why there wouldn’t be a sequel. And all of those seem well within the realm of the possible. Especially the part about Moretz. I hear she can curse like a sailor.
To every geek out there slapping his or her forehead, and for everyone currently wringing their hands about whether a sequel will be made, please take a deep breath. Count to ten. Take a ride on your jet pack. Kick-Ass was a success even if it doesn’t exactly feel that way.

Editor’s Note: This piece has been updated from its original format to clarify on the concept of making the budget back

Jane Goldman: Meet the screenwriter of the controversial new film Kick-Ass

Jane Goldman: Meet the screenwriter of the controversial new film Kick-Ass

Jane Goldman's new film Kick-Ass is the story of a foul-mouthed 11-year-old girl assassin. The screenwriter wife of Jonathan Ross and mother of three admits to a 'geeky' enthusiasm for comic books and violent video games.

The screenwriter Jane Goldman freely admits that her new film Kick-Ass "is not, obviously, for everyone". Perhaps she is thinking of the scene in which Hit-Girl, an 11-year-old female assassin in a luminescent purple wig, enters a roomful of evil baddies and utters the immortal line: "OK you c**ts, let's see what you can do now." Or maybe she is referring to the bit where Hit-Girl, in a conversation with her father about what she wants for her birthday, pretends to ask for a puppy before admitting with a coquettish giggle that "I'm just fucking with you Daddy. I'll have a Benchmade model 42 butterfly knife." Or she could be recalling the moments where Hit-Girl shoots a man through his cheek or slices off a drug dealer's leg with a machete.

Whatever the reason, Goldman is aware that Kick-Ass could cause something of a stir. "I wouldn't take it personally if someone didn't enjoy the film," she says when we meet. "Certainly my 86-year-old friend of the family, I'd strongly recommend she doesn't go and see it."

She laughs, a tad uneasily. Goldman, 39, a talented writer who penned the widely-acclaimed 2007 film fantasy Stardust, is clearly nervous about how Kick-Ass will be received. "You've no idea how the audience is going to react, you just hold your breath," she says, anxiously pressing her hands together, her face partially obscured by a curtain of dyed carmine red hair. Later she will admit that she hates interviews. Partly, one imagines, this is because she happens to be married to the television presenter Jonathan Ross, he of the floppy hair and the inflated salary and the lewd answerphone messages, and she is wary of saying anything that could add to the public circus that surrounds him.

But in this case the nerves are misplaced. Kick-Ass is a brilliant and inventive piece of film-making and looks set to become one of the box-office hits of the year. It tells the story of Dave Lizewski, a nerdy high school student and comic book fan who decides to become a superhero despite the fact that he has no special powers. Dave (played by Aaron Johnson, who recently starred as the young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy) proves to be a fairly unsuccessful vigilante until fate brings him into contact with Hit-Girl, who has been trained by her father in the art of self-protection and who is the master of an astonishing array of weaponry, including butterfly knives and taser guns.
Directed by Matthew Vaughn, who also co-wrote the script and with whom Goldman worked before on Stardust, Kick-Ass is based on the eponymous superhero adventure penned by the Scottish comic book writer Mark Millar. The film is shot through with Tarantino-esque action sequences but also manages to be extremely funny, despite the fact that the subject-matter – a pre-teen girl who swears like a sailor and shoots baddies dead with big guns – is somewhat problematic. Seven American film studios turned down the script before Vaughn released it through his own production company.
"We just really wanted Hit-Girl to be a character who, in a sense, simply happens to be an 11-year-old girl, in the same way that Ripley in Alien could have been a guy but the part happened to be played by Sigourney Weaver," explains Goldman. "She [Hit-Girl] is genuinely dangerous, she's genuinely mad. It's not her fault: she's been raised in this environment where she doesn't know anything different. She's unwittingly part of a folie a deux."
Does she think of Hit-Girl, who is played by the 13-year-old actress Chloe Moretz, as a sort of hardcore mini-feminist, a challenge to the usual assumption that most movie violence is carried out by adult men? "Yeah... she's a feminist hero by token of the fact that she pays no attention to gender stereotypes. I think she also doesn't want special treatment because she's a girl."
The film caused controversy in the United States because of a violent online trailer that could have been viewed by children (even though it was clearly marked as "red band", denoting adult content). In the UK, Kick-Ass will be released with a 15-certificate but there is an argument that because the film's protagonists are youngsters, it will prove more appealing to those in the same age group. "You could say the same of Fish Tank, which has swearing and extreme emotional portrayals of violence," counters Goldman. "Kick-Ass is a film for adults. It was never, ever aimed at children."
Will Goldman be allowing her own children – Betty Kitten, 18, Harvey Kirby, 16, or Honey Kinny, 13 – to see it? "The two oldest will see it. My youngest daughter… I have to think about it. I think it's a different deal if you've been on set and known the people involved and you know it's not real. Yeah, maybe.
"You very much see the consequences of violence in the film. I think that films that could be said to glamorise violence are ones where there isn't a physical or emotional consequence, where you have people fire off rounds and everyone is dying off cleanly and it doesn't matter, whereas here, people are bereaved, people are hospitalised, it's kind of unpleasant.
"I really don't think anyone having seen this film would come out of it feeling bloodthirsty… I don't think there's any reliable data proving any correlation between violence and films."
But was Goldman worried about the effects on Moretz, who, despite starring in the film, is too young to go and see it in the cinema? She thinks about this for a moment, hesitating as if to get her thoughts in order. "The fact that she's actually enacting the violence is in many ways probably less traumatic for a child actor than a lot of films where the children are victims of violence – serious films where they're the victims of violence at the hands of family members. I think actually, emotionally, that's a lot more disturbing for a child actor whereas this is comic book; it's light. I don't think it raises any difficult emotional issues for a child to process."
Still, the Daily Mail is in a predictable tizz about it all. A few days before we meet, the newspaper runs an article headlined "Jonathan Ross's wife causes outrage", as though she had been caught mugging Andrew Sachs on the street for his bus pass. Does she care about this kind of press coverage?
"People's intolerance, I find puzzling," she says, a vertical crinkle appearing between her eyes. "The fact that I was singled out, I found bizarre but it didn't upset me, I just thought it was peculiar. It's funny – it's very rare that a movie is described as a writer's movie. It was kind of ironic that it was only when people had decided there was something negative about it that it was the writer's movie… Maybe it's that it makes a good tag on to this ongoing narrative in the press involving other people in my family – it makes it part of that saga."
That is as close as Goldman gets to mentioning the Jonathan Ross-shaped elephant in the room, and it must be frustrating to be constantly pigeonholed as someone's wife when she has been quietly pursuing a successful career as a writer for the last 20 years. Goldman grew up in north London, the only child of liberal, wealthy parents. Like Hit-Girl, she was terrifyingly precocious – leaving school at 16 with eight O-Levels before being hired as a showbusiness reporter on a casual basis by the Daily Star.

A year later she met Ross at a nightclub while working for the paper, and the couple got married when she was 18. Goldman spent most of her 20s having babies but also found the time to write several books (including a novel, Dreamworld), front a television series investigating the paranormal, and cultivate a growing reputation as a screenwriter. As well as her work with Matthew Vaughn, she has just completed the script for a forthcoming film adaptation of Susan Hill's ghost story The Woman in Black. She seems to be intrigued by the supernatural and fantastical and admits to a "geeky" enthusiasm for comic books and computer games.

"I play World of Warcraft, which means I end up hanging out with teenage boys a lot," she says. "I really enjoy the company of my kids… I'm not one of those people who goes 'Yeah, my kids are my mates', that's a dreadful kind of mother, but I'm fortunate that there are times that they do want me around, and I feel lucky that they let me into their world."
There is a part of Goldman that seems to connect easily with childhood, perhaps because she missed out on so much of it herself. "Yeah, I never hung out in parks and got drunk… I never did the proper teenage stuff and maybe that's why it still holds a fascination for me but I like to think it's because I really like that unbiased outlook on life. Teenagers come to things fresh and can really teach us an awful lot.
"I've yet to meet a bitter teenager. Bitterness, jealousy and jadedness, I think, are the most unattractive qualities in a person, and unfortunately they do seem to come with age."
In person, Goldman seems to embody both this freshness and a sort of gentleness that is strangely at odds with her love of violent video games and her striking physical appearance. She has a beautiful face, fire-red engine hair (re-coloured every three to four weeks) and a figure that looks as though it has been drawn by a lascivious comic book artist. Is it a coincidence that she looks like the superheroes she has written about? "That's a huge compliment, thank you," she says. "I've always loved science fiction, fantasy, manga, comic books, so I guess to some degree those things influence my personal idea of what looks nice, which definitely isn't everyone else's."
She laughs, but it must take a certain degree of chutzpah to look so flagrantly individual. "In some way it's less courageous because it's essentially saying, 'I've opted out'; it's saying 'Please don't judge me against society's standards! I know I don't measure up, I've opted out, I'm playing a different game.'"
It is a game that she plays extremely well – but then, all that time practising on World of Warcraft must surely help.

This article was written by Elizabeth Day and first appeared in The Observer on Sunday 21st March 2010.

Flow Chart
Stage 1
Making a film takes years and involves hundreds of people but all films start with a moment of inspiration. Inspiration is all around us in newspapers, books, plays and even conversation. Wherever the idea comes from it is the producer who decides to make this great idea in to reality. A director can visualize a script and make into a reality. They know how to take a story and put it into the big screen. The writer defines and clarifies the idea. The plot and the main characters and turns it into something tangible. The writer will then write a treatment a one page description of the main story and characters of the film. A pitch contains all the information the producers need in order to sell the idea to the financers to commission a script.

Stage 2
The next step in the development of the project is to turn the rough idea of into a final script ready for production and this costs money. The producer uses the treatment and pitch plus powers of persuasion to get money to develop a script. The producer approaches film production companies for development money, but they have projects of their own. The producer can offer the future sales and broadcast rights to the film in return for money to develop the script. The producer can also apply to a public funding body such as the UK film council for a development grant. The producer can even pitch the film to private investors in hope that they will support the project.

Stage 3
With development financed secured, it is down to the writer to deliver the product that the producers and financers want. The writer produces a synopsis and then with the producer he agrees or disagrees on the key scenes and events in the film. There are as many ways as writing as there are writers, but most writers create a step outline to plan their script. Part of the writer’s fee is conditional on delivery of the first draft; this can be the hardest part of screenwriting. Once the writer and prouder are happy, the draft is sent to the financers all of whom will have their own ideas. When everybody is happy with the script it is locked off and becomes a final draft then the writers get paid. The final stage of the script development process is the creation of a sales treatment.

Stage 4

The market-  Fianciers can be anywhere in the world to secure the investment she needs to make the film. The producer must travel.

 Investment- Private induviduals. Production companies and public bodies all invest in films. The producers lawyer draws up contracts to seal the deal.

 Presales - The producer can also raise money through presales. Selling the right to the film before it has even been made.

 Banks and cap funding - There are departments of banks that specialise in film finance. They invest in commercial projects and also offer loans.

 Completion bonds - Most financiers insist that a completion bond is in place before they agree to invest. This is insurance for the production.

 Green light -  Once all the essential funding and insurance is secured the film gets the green light and the producer ends up being very happy.

  Stage 5

 What is packaging?- The director and the producer must now package the script in to a full commercial proposition ready for financing.

 The cast- One common way to make the project more commercial is by attaching well known stars to the script.

 The heads of the department- Respected commercially successful heads of departments carry considerable clout with knowledgeable financiers.

 Detailed budget and production- To turn the film into a proper busniness proposition the producer must know how much it will actually cost to make.

 Finance plan and recoupment schedule- Potential investors will want to know how the producer will raise the money and how she plans to pay them back. 

 The complete package- The producer has packaged the film into a viable commercial proposition. Now its time to see what people think of it.

 Stage 6

 The kick off meeting- Once all the heads of the departments are appointed. The shooting script is circulated and pre-production begins.

 Casting - The casting director along with other memebers of the team begin the long process of casting the actors.

 Storyboarding- Storyboards are the blueprint for the film where every shot is planned in advance by the director and the dop.

 Production design- The production designer will decide how every aspect of the film will look and hires people to design and build each part.

 Special effects planning- Effects shots are much more planned in detail than normal shots and can take months to design and build.

The production unit - The line producer and the production manager make up the logistic triangle of production            

             
Stage 7
The production office is the main contact point for production as a whole; the office is responsible for all the requirements of the shoot.
The camera department is responsible for getting all the footage that the director and edit or need to tell the story.
Once the lighting squad and sound are set up and hair and makeup have been checked, then the shot can begin.
In the midst of all this commotion, the actors must create an emotional world and draw the audience into it.
Every special effect is carefully constructed and must be filmed with minimum risk of injury to the cast and crew.
Film productions are run with military precision if they fall behind schedule the financers and insurers may step in.

Stage 8
As the processed footage comes in, the editor assembles it into scene and creates a narrative sequence for the film.
Once the picture is locked, the sound department work on the audio tracks laying creating and editing every sound.
Digital effects are added by specialist effects compositors and titles and credits are added in composting suite.
The final stage of the picture edit is to adjust the color and establish the fine aesthetic of the film.

Stage 10
 As the finishing touches are being made to the film in post, the distributors plan their strategy and begin to market it. To help to sell the film to distributors the producers secure the services of a sale agent, a specialist in film sales. Knowing the marketing team is essential the marketing team runs advanced screenings to see how the film is received. The potential audience for the films is targeted with posters, cinema trailers, TV spots and other marketing material. Television, radio, magazines and newspapers can all help spread word of mouth about the film. The birth of digital media and the internet has flooded the world with information but has also made niche marketing possible. In order to get the film to audiences the distributor must negotiate a deal with cinemas to screen it.

Stage 11
Cinema exhibition is still the primary channel for films to reach their audiences and box office success equals financial success. A high profile star studded premiere is used to launch the film to the public with an explosion of media coverage. The UK has more than 3,500 cinema screens although not all are British owned or show British films. Distributors supply exhibitors with prints off the film, the more screens the film is shown on the more prints are needed. The exhibitors take their share of the box office receipts after which the distributors recoup their marketing costs. Once the distributors have been paid, the financers can recover their investment as laid out in the recoupment schedule.

Stage 12
A successful run in cinemas makes the film a sought after product which can then be sold through other more lucrative channels. Hospitality sales for hotel channels and in flight entertainment can bring in millions of additional revenue. UK audiences spend more on DVDs than cinema tickets so success on DVD can compensate for box office failure. Television is the final source of revenue, rights are sold separately for pay TV showings and terrestrial broadcast. Rights for computer games and other product licenses can be extremely lucrative sources of additional revenue. Once the film has made a profit the producer and key creative people can reap their rewards or maybe not. The final income from a film is never known. Distribution continues in perpetuity and it may even be re- released in the future.

Attack the Block Review

Attack the Block review
I have seen this film twice now, and my first thoughts surrounding it was that I felt like it had no real grit or plot to really become enticed into. But after my second viewing of the film my negative vibe that I received off it first time round disappeared in some ways as I realised this was a very low budget film with no intention to have a difficult or complexed storyline or plot to it. So first to the good things about the film. I found myself very much interested in the main characters partly because although they all came from a similar background and lived in the same area, they were all kind of individual in a way, for example Moses who was almost known as the leader of the gang was a very unemotional guy who was not phased by much at all and generally didn’t get excited about issues, whilst others did, for instance Dennis who is very much the opposite. The fact that all the characters are very different appeals to me as it makes the entirety of the film increasingly more enjoyable. Another aspect that featured during the film that I recognised was the very good use of Camera angles and shots, I felt this really added something special to the film, for instance when Moses is being chased by the monsters in one of the late scenes in the film it is set in slow motion this gives the film a slight dramatical edge. Additionally one other reason that i enjoyed it was due to the sense of humour that was introduced throughout the film. Often sarcastic lines and witty banter was the main focus of comedy whilst the characters were in conversation. The comedy aspect to the film was enabled to be enforced in a good manor due to the fact that Jack Frost who is a well known actor who has starred in films such as ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘Paul’ was one of the main characters. He played Ron who was supposedly working for a drug dealer on the top floor of the block in Brixton where the film was set, Jack Frost whose trademark is comedy was able to really bring this aspect of the film forward to the audience and to make it recognisable. I felt that due to the comedy being introduced it made the film more light hearted and less heavy going. Some people would maybe say that the film could not be classified as being a Sci-Fi film which i agree with in some ways, as the film didn’t really focus and concentrate on the monsters as much as it could of done also the monsters who starred in the film lacked realism and the freight factor, this was largely influenced by the budget that the producer had to abide by which was only the miniscule some of 13 million dollars which may sound like a lot but in the film industry this is a very small amount and due to this Attack the Block is classified as an Art house production. This leads me on to another bad point about the film which is that the plot of the film doesn’t have seemed to be thought about well enough. I say this because the plot is very very simple in contrast to a lot of Sci-Fi movies which tend to be very complex and seem to get the brain working intensely.
So overall after a second viewing of the film I came to Attack the block for what it was more than what i wanted it to be. As you can see throughout my review of the film i feel that the good points actually outweigh the bad points that the film has attached to it. So due to this I would recommend it to anyone who would like to watch a slight humorous film which  at the same time is very light hearted.

How it was produced

 Attack the block was produced by Big Talk production,known for films such as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, produce the film with Film 4, the UK Film Council and studio canal. The Block itself was a composite of various council estates across London.

  What it was based on?

 Attack the Block was based on the director Joe Cornish getting mugged near his home in stockwell south London. He say's it was a very traumatic experience. He investigated the kind of kids who robbed him, talking to children on the street and in youth clubs. And he injected a shot of film fantasy into a world generally treated with some disdain by directors; a vision that would trump most pre-teen dreams.

 Any problems that arose in making the film?

There was a few problems that were encountered whilst in the process of creating the film. One of those problems was the fact that a lot of London slang was planned to be used throughout the film, this was a problem due to the fact that foreginers struggled to understand what the cast were saying this made it hard for the foreigners to follow what was going on in the storyline and plot. Also not only did the audiences in foreign countrys find it hard to understand so did the translators whose job it was to translate the British language into several differnt languages wherethe film was going to be distributed and shown. Another problem that occured whilst in the production of the film was that because the film was set at night which meant that the film could only be filmed in certain hours of the day when it was dark.

Directors view on the british film industry

The director, Joe Cornish was interested in 80's films such as ET, Gremlins and Predator he also liked gang films such as Streets of Fire but what he really enjoyed was when the two genres combined.

How they saved money by using the technology used

The producers saved money whilst creating the film as they didnt use the best technology available in order to create the monsters that were involved in the film instead they didnt focus much on the monsters at all this meant that they didnt have too make the creatures/monsters look affective and beacuse they didn't feature in the film as much in a visual way.


The films promotion

The film was advertised and promoted different ways such as  tv advertisements and poster which were situated on bus stops and busy areas around the UK for example in shopping centres etc. Also another way that the film was promoted was by using the official website that was dedicated to the film soley this allowed information for example release dates and age ratings to be displayed to the interested parties.

Good Cop Anaylsis

Good Cop

How is Sav represented?

In the first scene of Good Cop, Sav who is the main character is shown walking home in the pouring rain, this gives us an idea that something bad has just happened as it is bad weather which could reflect the mood of Sav himself. Also in the first scene Sav is seen with blood on his hands and also we see that he has a gun hidden in his jacket, this influences us to think that Sav is a the opposite of what the title says which is Good Cop. As i have just said Sav is introduced to the audience in a very dark and mysterious way as none of the audience know what has just happened and what he has been getting up to before he has arrived home. We get the idea that Sav is a very edgy character as he is sweating when he gets home and is also in some state of panic.

In the beach scene Sav comes across Cassie and Libby while jogging, he tries to initiate conversation acting friendly and in a good manor. This shows Sav in a very different light as what we saw him in the first scene. We begin to think that he is a caring guy but is also slightly nosy at the same time due to the fact that he seems very interested in Cassie's business and life overall, but we can see that Cassie is very blunt towards him and this then portrays the idea that there has been history between Sav and Cassie. This idea that has been brought forward by Cassie's actions towards Sav influences to think that Sav may have done something wrong and treated Cassie badly in the past, so this reverts our thoughts back to what we thought of him in the first scene.

In the next scene we see Sav with one of his colleagues but off duty in more of a social meet up at what looks like an american diner type restaurant. Sav notices that there are a group of men which are making a scene and being loud around the bar area, we can see by his actions that this is infuriating Sav while he is trying to eat his food whilst socializing with one of his friends, this shows us that Sav is a again like a said earlier quite an edgy character that always takes close notice of his surrounding wherever he may be. Sav reacts when he see's that one member of the group starts to harass and embarrass the waitress that is serving Sav and his friend. He seems to be very frustrated by what this guy has done, so he follows the waitress into the bathroom to see whats going on, he manages to put a stop to the on goings which are just about to happen in the bathroom. Our opinion as the audience very much changes again towards Sav as we can see that he is clearly looking out for the waitress and we see that his caring feelings are quite strong. Also we see that his intentions are good.

Selected Key Terms for Institutions and Audiences - The Film Industry

Selected Key Terms for Institutions and Audiences - The Film Industry

Selected Key Terms for Institutions and Audience

An institution (in the film industry)

Definition: any company or organisation that produces, distributes or exhibits films. The BBC makes films with their BBC Films arm; Channel4's Film Four produces films, Working Title also produce films, as does Vertigo Films, etc. Some institutions need to join with other institutions which distribute films. Vertigo Films is able to distribute its own films, Channel Four distributed Slumdog Millionaire through Pathe. Working Title's distribution partner is Universal, a huge US company which can make, distribute and show films. The type of owner ship within an institution matters as, for instance, Channel 4 and the BBC are able to show their own films at an earlier stage than other films made by other institutions. They are also better placed to cross-promote their in-house films within their media organisations. Use you work on Film Four as the basis for most of what you write, Moon is a good cross comparison as Duncan Jones had to create his own institution just to get the film made.


Distribution and Marketing

Definition: the business of getting films to their audiences by booking them for runs into cinemas and taking them there in vans or through digital downloads; distributors also create the marketing campaign for films producing posters, trailers, websites, organise free previews, press packs, television interviews with the "talent", sign contracts for promotions, competitions, etc. Distributors use their know-how and size to ensure that DVDs of the film end up in stores and on supermarket shelves. Distributors also obtain the BBFC certificate, and try to get films released as the most favourable times of the year for their genre, etc.


Examples:
Universal distributed Working Title's The Boat That Rocked; Pathe distributedFilm4 and Celadors' Slumdog Millionaire after the original US distributor, Warner Independent went out of business. TRON was heavily marketed across a variety of mediums, Moon struggled to get press attention and Duncan Jones had to really push the film  in obscure places like Popular Mechanics etc. The Kings Speech was distributed by Momentum (a susiduary of Aliance films) who are a major independent film distributor.


Exhibition
Definition: showing films in cinemas or on DVD. Media attention through opening nights and premieres How the audience can see the film: in cinemas, at home, on DVD, through downloads, through television, including premieres, the box office take in the opening weeks; audience reviews which includes those of the film critics, ordinary people, cinemas runs; awards in festivals, The Oscars, BAFTAS, etc.


Examples:
Slumdog Millionaire almost never got distribution. Its early US distributor, Warner Independent was a victim of the economic downturn and went out of business. The film's makers then struggled to find a distributor! Then Fox Searchlight stepped up and "the rest is history". The 8 out of 10 Oscar nomination wins ensured that the film has been the greatest British success in awards and in box office for nearly 60years.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/boyle-reveals-slumdog-millionaire-was-nearly-never-made-1331821.html

Motherhood took just £86!
Moon. Initially Sony Pictures Worldwide were due to distribute the film but they specialise in straight to DVD features. Following positive reaction following its Sundance film festival the rights were acquired by Sony Classic Pictures who gave the film a limited release in the US in Cities like New York and LA.

Exchange

Definition: The unintended use of an institution’s media text (i.e. a film) by OTHER PEOPLE who use the film or parts of it to form new texts. What happens to a film, etc. after the public get their hands on it using digital technology. 

Examples:
People unconnected to the institution/ film using WEB 2.0 applications such as YOUTUBE, Blogger, Amazon film message boards, TWITTER, Face-Book, discuss the film or edit parts of together to form a new text which the may then put a new soundtrack to and publish on YOUTUBE, etc. When you add a trailer from a site like YouTube on your blog you have been engaging with exchange. Look back to MArk Kermodes video regarding piracy and the new release strategies for films like Ken Loach's "Route Irish" (Loach has reportedly steeled himself for a frosty response from critics and anticipates an underwhelming box office, noting the difficulty he faced securing a distribution deal. Though pragmatic in his view that “people don’t make films to communicate; they make it as a commodity”,an unorthodox release strategy utilising Sky Movies Premier - which will place the film (and by extension, its subject matter) in a wider public sphere than it might otherwise have reached – suggests he hasn’t given up on pedagogy entirely.) or the Jack Ass 3 release on DVD and Sky Box Office.


Vertical and Horizontal Integration

Definition: Absorption into a single firm of several firms involved in all aspects of a product's manufacture from raw materials to distribution.


Example:
Vivendi Universal have integrated film, music, web and distribution technology into the company, including owning big stakes in cables and wires that deliver these services. Therefore they are vertically integrated because they own all the different companies involved in film, from production to distribution to exhibition. They are also horizontally integrated because they have all the expertise for producing media content under one roof – films, TV, magazines, books, music, games thus being able to produce all the related media content for one film under the same roof (see synergy). This is important for the control the institution has over their product/film.


Synergy/Synergies 

Definition: The interaction of two or more agents (institutions/companies) to ensure a larger effect than if they acted independently. This is beneficial for each company through efficiencies in expertise and costs.

 

Examples:
Working Title know how to make films and they have formed a business partnership with Universal, a massive US company, who have the experience and size in the marketplace (cinemas, stores, online, etc.) to distribute them. (They create the marketing campaign to target audiences through posters, trailers, create the film’s website, free previews, television and press interviews featuring “the talent”, drum up press reviews, word of mouth, and determine when a film is released for the best possible audience and the type of release: limited, wide, etc.) Channel Four’s Film 4 and Celador Films(Celador also produce Who Wants to Be A Millionaire and films, too) benefited by pooling their know-how, experience and expertise to jointly produce Slumdog Millionaire. These companies formed a business relationship with France’s Pathe to distribute this film. In the UK Pathe helped create the poster, trailer, website, etc. In the USA the film found another distributor after being nominated for the Oscars.


Viral Marketing

Definition: A marketing technique aiming at reproducing "word of mouth" usually on the internet and through existing social networks. YouTube Video pastiches, trailers, interviews with cast members, the director, writer, etc. You can find interviews of “the talent” trying to gain publicity for your case study films on YouTube. Find some clips from the films we have studied to help you in the exam.
Guerilla MarketingDefinition: The use of unconventional and low cost marketing strategies to raise awareness of a product. The aim is usually to create “buzz” and “word of mouth” around a film. Unusual stunts to gain publicity (P.R.) on the film’s opening weekend, etc.

Examples:
Sasha Baron Cohen created “buzz” before the release of his film “Borat” by holding fake press conferences. The studio also accessed the popularity of YouTube by releasing the first 4 minutes of the movie on YouTube, a week before it’s release, which can then be sent virally across the nation. At a special viewing of “Bruno” Cohen landed on Eminem “butt first” from the roof MTV Awards venue, dressed in as an angel outfit with rents in the rear end.


Media Convergence
Definition 1: Convergence of media occurs when multiple products come together to form one product with the advantages of all of them.

 

Examples:
More and more films are being marketed on the Internet and on mobile phones. You no longer need even to buy the DVDs or CDs as you can download films and music directly to your laptop, Mac or PC. Blue Ray DVDs can carry more features than ordinary DVDs and can be played on HD televisions and in home cinemas for enhanced/cinematic picture quality. You can save films on SKY digital, Free-box digital players, etc. You mobile phone has multiple features and applications. With media and technological convergence this is growing year on year. Play-Stations, X-Boxes and the Wii can can connect with the Internet and you can play video games with multiple players.


Technological ConvergenceDefinition 2: The growing interractive use of digital technology in the film industry and media which enables people to share, consume and produce media that was difficult or impossible just a few years earlier.

Examples:
For instance, the use of new software to add special effects in editing; the use of blue-screen; using new types of digital cameras like the one Danny Boyle used in “Slumdog Millionaire” (The Silicon Imaging Camera to shoot high quality film in tight spaces); you can use the Internet to download a film rather than go see it in the cinema; you can watch it on YouTube; you can use special editing programs like Final Cut Pro to edit bits of a film, give it new soundtrack and upload it on YouTube; you can produce illegal, pirate copies on DVDs from downloads and by converting the film’s format; you can buy Blue Ray DVDs with greater compression which allows superior viewing and more features on the DVD; distributors can use digital software to create high concept posters; cinemas can download films to their projection screens and do not have to depend on a van dropping off the film! The is also the Digital Screen Network. There are tons of ways in which technological convergence affects the production, distribution, exhibition and exchange by prosumers. ( A prosumer is someone who not only consumes (watches films) but also writes about them the Net, blogs and make films out of them, often uploading them on sites like YouTube, etc.

A Mainstream Film

Definition: A high budget film that would appeal to most segments of an audience: the young, boys, girls, teenagers, young people, the middle aged, older people, the various classes in society. Distributors often spend as much or more than the film cost to make when distributing mainstream films that are given wide or universal releases.


Example:The Boat That Rocked was a mainstream idea and was given the mainstream treatment on wide release. The film flopped at the UK box office on release ( and has not done too well since mid November 2009 on release in the USA. This was mostly because of its poor reviews, particularly from “Time-Out”. However, when young and older audiences see the DVD they generally like the film because of its uplifting storyline and the well-chosen soundtrack.


Art House Films

Definition: A low budget independent film that would mostly appeal to an educated, higher class audience who follow unusual genres or like cult directors that few people have heard of. Therefore it is usually aimed at a niche market. Foreign films often come under this category.


Examples:
The low budget film, Once (2007) which found a specialised, boutique distributor in Fox Searchlight fits this label. (FOX the mainstream company usually distributes big budget film and blockbusters); So does “Juno” from 2008 which began as a low budget film about teenage pregnancy that the big studios thought too risky to touch – but it found popularity through its touching storyline, engaging music and its Oscar nomination for best script. Like “Slumdog Millionaire” the film crossed over between art-house cinemas and audiences to mainstream ones because of the recognition it received from Canadian film festivals and award ceremonies like Britain’s BAFTAS and the Hollywood’s Oscars.


Ratings bodies BBFC - The British Board of Film ClassificationHow your institutions films are rated will affect audiences in so far as WHO can see them. Remember that sex scenes, offensive language, excessive violence, the use of profanity, etc. can affect the rating and certificate the film receives and therefore affect who is able to see the film.

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Close up of Jessica Alba

 

Long shot from Batman





Two Shot from TED



Establishing shot from inception



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POV from spiderman

Silent Witness.

Silent Witness is a British crime thriller series, produced for the BBC, focusing on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. First broadcast in 1996, and still airing as of the present day. In the early series of Silent Witness it was generally set in Cambridge. There has been many series of Silent Witness, 15 in total and it is still on going today. The plot is very much based around a forensic team who face diffuicult challenges and investigation to overcome and solve. The programmes is known to be very grusome in some episdoes and quite shocking at the same time, this is genrerally what attracts  the massive audiences that they recive through the series. Throughout the series the cast has chopped and changed in all diferent directions. One of the most recent stars to join the cast was Emilia Fox who plays Dr. Nikki Alexander who has appeared since the 8th series. Dr Nikki is now a permenant fixture in the forensic team who very often at the heart of the investigations.

Professor Leo Dalton (William Gaminara) has appeared since the start of series six. Although he started out as a doctor, Leo was promoted into the position of professor when Sam returned home to Ireland at the start of series eight. Dr Nikki comforts Leo in ann attempt to make sure that they can still work well as team to get all of the investigations overcome efficiantly. His wife and children are killed in a hit-and-run incident at the start of series nine. He lived with Janet Mander from series 13, but ended their relationship in series 15.

 The drama created by McCrery is a crime drma which is based around the ongoing of crimes being commited and then hopefully solved in one way or the other. The visual clues that we have to encourage us to think that it is a crime thriller is the fact that the episodes are very often grusome and quite horrific, also where the series is set gives us a clue as it tends to be very drak and dull during the ivestigation period. One other vital clue is given to us not visually but through sound, what im talking about is the title music which the programme begins with it is a very low toned and eary kind of tune which leads us to expect quite a dark and mysterious episode/series.

Catch Up Links

Below are the main catch up tv players available for use.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/4od