REPRESENTATION GENDER - Is their male gaze in my text?

Laura Mulvey coined the term Male Gaze in an article which she later expanded to a book, looking at films such as Hitchcock's psychological angst classic Vertigo.


The theory of male gaze can be applied to all media texts, from Page 3 in The Sun, video games,

The idea came from Pretty In Pink's opening where the protagonist And puts her white stocking on.

I was very careful in making sure that my actor Hannah felt comfortable with everything, and would have left if she had not felt alright with it.

The "Uses and Gratifications" Theory states that sexual arousal is one of the aspects that attracts audience. It is unavoidable that my male heterosexual and female bi/homosexual audience will be aroused and thereby participate in a Male/Female Gaze.

Straight To DVD TBC

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/straight-to-dvd/31901/the-top-25-underappreciated-straight-to-dvd-films

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls000010680/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/what-to-watch/best-dvd-vod-movies/

DISTRIBUTION - OST

WHAT I ENDED UP APPLYING:

• I created a fictional identity of the musician behind the soundtrack of my film, James Riley,  who was an Indie romantic artist, which fitted an outside teenager looking for love, similar to how Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys recorded and sung the soundtrack behind Warp's Submarine

It is not always the case, but most films will have a number of tracks.

Even if their isn't an official soundtrack made for the film, you will find playlists on the two main music streaming sites Spotify and YouTube, in the case of Baby Driver there was already a playlist on Spotify created.

For my film opening I have chosen the tracks I Want Candy and I Keep Forgetting.

While these are not mainstream songs and are also covers, they still carry with them some pop identiy.

When I played the I Want Candy track to a girl above in my year, she reacted by saying: "Of course, who doesn't know that song"

However big hit films will feature songs from the top charts, which is included in the trailer

https://www.bustle.com/articles/169688-the-song-in-bridget-joness-baby-trailer-is-absolutely-perfect-for-the-movie

It can be that the personality/image of the singer will correlate with the genre  themes of the film, like for Suicide Squad which deals with a bunch of misfits, you have artists who have all been hedonistic and/or damaged to some extent

 for Bridget Jones's Baby you have romantic Ed Sheeran. 

Film Cycle

http://www.infoplease.com/cig/movies-flicks-film/production-distribution-exhibition.html

Rachel Weisz, a star?

I first saw Rachel Weisz in the TV film Page Eight.
Roles in big hit films include The Bourne Legacy. She won't attract a mass audience but is a recognisable actor.

Rom-Com Appearances

About A Boy

Definitely, Maybe

Upcoming Appearances

WorkingTitle4 Crossword

The template is a similar one to the AMC series Breaking Bad.



The theme is a mixture of star-crossed lovers, a love triangle/square and the topic of words, highlighting the protagonist's bookishness.

Template

C
R
O
S
S
W O R D

Or fade from/into a crossword.

TEEN ROM-COM DISTRIBUTION Wild Child vs Angus

Wild Child

Nick Moore, 2008

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Genre: Teen romantic comedy (teen rom-com)

MPAA rating: PG-13         BBFC: 12 

Stars: Emma Roberts, Natasha Richardson

Production companies:  Studiocanal, Relativity Media, Working Title
Distributor:                                   Universal Pictures

Budget: $20m 

Box Office: $22m 

Rotten tomatoes: 42%

Trailer:

GENRE

Working Title have produced several adult rom-coms with huge financial success (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, the Bridget Jones films, Love Actually). However, this is their only teen rom-com. Adult rom-coms are enjoyed by adults and teenage viewers alike, however when the protagonists are teenagers older viewers don't really feel appealed to watch these movies, nostalgia for youth does not have any influence.

CASTING

The main actor, Emma Roberts, had been in a succesfull teen show, for American network, Unfabulous. so she was popular for a teen audience, with high viewing figures. The producers picked a leading actress whome they hoped that viewers would remember as part of their growing up, and she already had experience in film through Here again we can see how this would not appeal to an older audience.

Bridget Jones Films - Renee Zellweger

Notting Hill - Julia Roberts

Love Actually, an ensemble of British stars on the path to becoming internationally recognisable:

It is generally more common for the leading character in Working Title films to be male, the Bridget Jones film is an exception, The Danish Girl as a transgender woman character. Even though Julia Roberts was given premiere billing due to her international star status in Notting Hill, Thacker is the protagonist as it his unrequited love and him who makes the decisive act of love at the press conference.

DISTRIBUTION

This film did not get a release in North America, and went straight to DVD. It only made $2m more than its budget (in order to be seen as financially successful, the film needs to be three times as much as the box office)

CRITICAL SUCCESS

The average

Why did Hotel Dogs do so much better in the box office. Emma Robert's change of look in Wild Child is carried on to this film.

Angus, Thongs + Perfect Snogging

This wasn't Nickolodeon's first adaptation of a book, and neither the last, although a film

Both films
- Are American co-productions
- Were theatrically released in the UK and other locations, but not in the USA
- Wild Child went straight-to-DVD in the USA, and Angus got a US premiere on Nickolodeon's sister channels Nick at Nite and TeenNic k (all owned by Paramount's conglomerate parent, Viacom),
so all locations other than USA, the film cycle was vertically integrated this being an example of horizontal integration.
- both hint at teen sexuality but don't show it, Angus became the first Nickolodeon film to be

Differences:
- Wild Child: American protagonists and some US setting, more appeal to US audiences, RP-villain
 vs Angus: English protagonist
- Welsh villain

EDITING: Split-Screen

SOURCES:

• http://www.andsoitbeginsfilms.com/2014/05/top-10-uses-of-split-screen.html
• https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/split-screen-editing-and-composing/

Split Screen in Movies from Marco Heiter on Vimeo.


I am looking for examples of split-screen.

Examples of Split-Screens

The Rules of Attraction, black comedy 

500 Days Of Summer, adult rom-com

Time Code

Article on LGBT+ rom-coms

https://www.google.de/amp/www.indiewire.com/2014/08/the-5-best-gay-and-lesbian-romantic-comedies-on-netflix-216048/amp/

TV Spin-Offs To Film TBC

Examples:

Stargate

Taken (prequel)

It even works in children's movies:

Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave spawned Shaun The Sheep on CBBC and on CBeebeebies

Madagascar spawned The Penguins Of Madagascar, which in turn even got a film spin-off in the cinemas.

How To Train Your Dragon

Rom-Coms

10 Things I Hate About You

About A Boy

It has also worked the other way round, Sex and the City spawned two cinema spin-offs


http://mediabritishcinema.blogspot.lu/2015/04/convergence-toronto-tiff-to-add-tv.html

Audience Feedback - Artist Studio TBC

I showed Elan Yc,  the first cut of the artist studio. He is 17 years old, Indian, has lived in Luxembourg for eight years growing up in an international school, speaks English fluently.

He suggested some tranquil, instrumental Japanese music. Then something a long those lines came to my mind, Moss Garden, one of Bowie's very avant-garde tracks from his artistic Berlin periods. 

1st Rough Cut

Still a lot of cutting to be done, and my own versions of the sound, as well as the editing of the green screen.

Harddrive Full

Empty Paperbins

Exporting Libraries to External Harddrive


Final Cut

Finder.Go.Home

PRE-PRODUCTION: Music I Am Considering for Hugh's Entrance

MUSIC FROM HUSTLE, BBC Show about con artists

The second version of this opening title theme would suit better (can't find video yet).

Distribution EG2: The Lady In The Van

The Lady In The Van

Nicholas Hytner, 2015

Production companies: BBC Films,

                                           TriStar Pictures

Distributors: TriStar Pictures (worldwide) Sony Pictures Classics

Rotten Tomatoes: 92% (125 reviews)

Lead actors: Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings

Intellectual Property

 readers/viewers of Alan Bennett's work, is regarded as a refined and talented playwright, for nearly half a century now. The true story is not that well known to the wider audience.

USA Appeal

 Maggie Smith is known to US audiences for Professor MacGonagall in Harry Potter and more recently Downton Abbey, one of the most popular British TV programme in America. She is not an A-List star like Brad Pitt or Scarlett Johannson, and not a B-List British one like Helen Mirren, Judi Dench or Colin Firth, but enjoys a popular recognition, with her character here showing similiar character traits of stubbornness like Lady Crawley in Downton Abbey.

The true story the narrative is based on will not be familiar with a wider British audience let alone with a North American one.

Release

The film was previewed at the Toronto International Film Festival.

How Marketable is my film?

...

Opening Scene Cut 2

I have managed to cut the scene from 5'05 down to a length of 2'18. But the final length of this scene together with Billy being downstairs in the kitchen and passing her alcoholic and video game-obsessed father which still needs to be added must not be longer than an absolute maximum of 40-45 seconds.

I am still going to add a voiceover and the diegetic sound of Bow Wow Wow's I Want Candy after the vinyl starts playing, which will turn into non-diegetic sound when Billy is downstairs. I still need to figure out what kind of diegetic sound I will use for before the song.

For the moment I have removed the sound entirely.



Tomorrow I will film my first audience feedback. with my media course mate Evie Gibbons.

Audience Feedback - Billy's Room Cut 1

This was a chance encounter audience feedback, I was intending to show my cut to Year 13 students. But just when I nearly finished Jonathan Paris came into the room and we started talking and he gave me some editing advice, he showed a function that I didn't know about, showing that am I still getting the grips of using this sophisticated technology 

Stabilizer-Function

Opening Scene 1st Cut

The footage still needs to be considerably shortened.




This is the music I intend to use after the vinyl starts playing. This song was part of the soundtrack of cult indie Napoleon Dynamite, so would add another layer of intertextuality

Teen Distribution EG1 The Spectacular Now

The Spectacular Now goes more into the direction of romantic drama than romantic comedy,  but is still a good example for how indie teen films can get distribution.

The announcement made by A24

FOLLOWING ON FROM THIS:

• Limited theatrical release
• Critical acclaim at the festival
• Available on Netflix

TECHS2 - Mac: Exporting Files from PhotoLibrary